Look, I get it. January rolls around and suddenly everyone’s a different person (or wants to be). You’re going to connect with all those contacts you always say you will, finally get organized personally and professionally, and go to the gym five days a week – and this time it’s all going to stick. The problem is that by February or maybe March, if you’re stubborn, you’re right back where you started, on the same treadmill of life and nothing has really changed. The issue is that a New Year’s resolution and actual sustainable change are two completely different things.
A resolution is theater. It’s you announcing to yourself and maybe to others that you’re suddenly going to behave differently, as if the calendar flipping to January grants superpowers to you that you didn’t have in December. There is motivation that shows up when you’re excited and inspired but it seldom seems to last. Sustaining change is hard, which is why instituting change in your life any day of the year is a good but challenging step to take.
Sustainable change works differently because it acknowledges that you’re the same person with the same constraints, tendencies, and limitations you had before the new year started. Real change happens when you engineer your environment and habits to make the desired behavior easier. It’s not about wanting something more or trying harder. It’s about removing friction from what you want to do and adding friction to what you want to stop doing. This isn’t easy but nothing worthwhile is.
The difference between resolution and reality comes down to systems versus intentions. A resolution is the intention to be better, but an intention without a system is just a wish. Sustainable change means building a system that makes behavior automatic or at least significantly easier to maintain when motivation inevitably disappears.
If you’re serious about setting new goals and having the best chance to achieve the, I suggest you create SMART goals. By doing so, the behavior you want to create or avoid will become part of your day, life, routine, rather than something you have to remember to do. Structure survives when motivation fails if you commit to following through. That’s how you change, and that’s how change lasts beyond the first few weeks of the year.
