How to Make New Year's Plans Without Messing Up: 10 Tips from Psychologists

“New Year, New Me” doesn't work. So what does?

Before the new year, it's easy to succumb to motivational euphoria and take on impossible tasks. Fortunately, psychologists have compiled a guide so that your megalomaniacal plans don't turn into a reminder of past frivolity, like a whole centner of uneaten olivier salad in the fridge.

Don't dismiss the “new life starting Monday”. Yes, the phrase has long been a synonym for procrastination, but research by behavioral scientists Katherine Milkman and Hengchen Dai shows that the “fresh start effect” (the term for the unexpected surge of motivation at the beginning of a new life period) is actually useful. They counted Google searches for the word “diet” at the beginning of the year and after national holidays, analyzed how often students visited fitness clubs, and also collected data from the motivational app stickK. They found that markers like a new year, a new week or even another birthday help people attribute their failures to the previous period of time and thus see their own life in perspective. This, in turn, motivates more ambitious behavior. So the more periods of “mental bookkeeping” there are in your year, the better.

Start small. A survey conducted in December 2018 showed that only 4% of Americans accomplished all the plans they had set a year earlier. 8% of respondents completed most of their tasks, 16% completed some of them, and 13% of those surveyed did nothing they had planned. The remaining 58% are dinosaurs who either don't take part in the New Year's motivation mania or don't keep track of what they've done.

It is obvious that the successful minority are not superhumans, but people who simply set realistic goals. Bettina Höchli, who studies consumer behavior at the University of Bern, suggests setting goals that are within your reach, not those of your “new self”. “It's impossible to acquire a new personality with new ambitions and interests overnight,” she says. “You need to start with gradual changes to see a long-term result.” Perhaps not daily but weekly runs are your path to success.

Make the year a theme. Yes, almost like that office party after which you swear to start with a clean slate. Health psychology expert Kelly McGonigal suggests not imposing on yourself habits you subconsciously resist (owls, there's no need to heroically cultivate a lark in yourself if you'd rather peck out the liver of those around you). Instead, she advises coming up with a theme for the coming year, for example, “reducing stress in life.” Meditation fits here, and so do cutting ties with toxic acquaintances and downshifting.

Bettina Höchli shares the same view: “starting to exercise” in the most abstract sense is easier than “going to the gym on Saturday”. Unlike popular SMART goals (short-term and extremely specific), thematic goals are not tied to a specific time, which means you won't drop out if you do miss the fitness session on that unlucky Saturday. In addition, such broad goals (“becoming financially literate” instead of “giving up lattes and saving UAH 800 a month”) are more closely connected to a person's ideal self, which means they are more pleasant to strive for.

Combine far-reaching plans with short-term ones, and more complex ones with specific and immediate ones. Psychologists call long-term and complex plans “superordinate” goals, and near-term and concrete ones “subordinate” goals. A study from 2019 showed that combining abstract and concrete goals is more effective than carrying out a series of specific tasks. The point is that different superordinate goals (for example, “becoming healthier” and “becoming more attractive”) can motivate you to the same efforts in the form of subordinate goals, say, taking up swimming. Still, we do not rule out that the subjects were more motivated by regular emails from annoying scientists.

Know your carrot and stick. Instead of getting rid of unwanted habits, transform them into desired ones through “triggers” that prompt you to act and the rewards you receive for it. In 2016, psychologist Allison Phillips published a study of two groups of people attending sports training: beginners and regulars. Beginners did not quit when the activity gave them pleasure and was perceived as an intangible value. Triggers alone, in the form of determination and a set alarm clock, were not enough.

To develop a desired habit, you need to determine not only what will spur you on, but also what moral reward you will receive. Dr. Kelly McGonigal emphasizes the word “moral”: pride in quitting smoking is a stronger motivator than the money saved on cigarettes.

Visualize the worst-case scenario. Doesn't sound very inspiring, does it? Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, studies affective forecasting, the ability of people to predict their own emotions. As a rule, we greatly exaggerate the upcoming stress of failure, but this not only helps us psychologically prepare for failure, it also motivates us to avoid it. But you shouldn't paint only gloomy scenes. We also tend to exaggerate pictures of future success, but these expectations themselves make the path to the goal more pleasant.

Believe in yourself. This is not just a self-affirmation slogan, but an effective strategy, confirmed by research by behavioral psychologists John Norcross and Dorothy Payne. They surveyed people before and after the new year about their goals and the strategies for achieving them. A total of 14 such strategies were included, including “stimulus control,” “self-flagellation” (moral, of course) and even “substance use.” Of 213 people, the most successful with their New Year's goals were those who were more positive and did not berate themselves for interim failures.

Get rid of the illusion of “Point B”. Seemingly, what do metaphors have to do with achieving goals? Numerous coaches urge us not to dream but to act, but an article by Stanford psychologists from October 2019 demonstrated the effectiveness of the “journey to a goal” metaphor for personal growth. The study involved managers, people on diets and participants in a 14-day running program, more than 1,600 people in total.

As it turned out, those who perceived the path to a goal as moving from point A to point B (for example, not eating sweets for a week) quickly abandoned the habits they had acquired. Those who thought in terms of a journey, that is, who were focused on the process rather than the result, kept working on themselves even after the specific result had been achieved.

Celebrate. Dr. McGonigal says that the small pleasures you allow yourself after new achievements signal to the brain that your behavior is right, and therefore it's worth pursuing again and again. To mark a victory, you don't have to throw a feast: sometimes it's enough to brag about what you've done (a vain selfie on Instagram works too). Psychologists claim that such a small celebration will later change your  memories of the difficulties on the way to the goal. For example, preparing for a marathon will no longer seem like endless hell in retrospect.

Don't set New Year's goals. No, seriously. You can start implementing plans without any calendar magic. If your odyssey of change starts on December 31, you'll even have a day's head start on those who wake up on January 1 with a head splitting from “new me.”

Based on the text “The Problem with “Smart” New Years” Goals” by Alice Fleerackers for Nautilus