Psychology Archipelago
How To Make Long-Lasting Goals
Every new year, nearly half (38%) of adult Americans and the majority (59%) of young adults, from 18 to 34 years old, make New Year’s resolutions. But considering that most fail within the first month and only 12% succeed, we need to ask: how can we make our goals more long-lasting?
First, we need to make sure that we are making goals that we truly want.
A study from 2020 found that people who made goals that are consistent with their “superordinate goals” put more effort into achieving their goals. In layman's terms, we are more likely to succeed if our goal of “losing 5 pounds” is in line with our beliefs of self-image, health, or other more fundamental desires. We need to dive deep into what we truly want in order to stick to our goals. However, it is also the case that we often need to start the journey first before we find what we truly want. Even if we do not know exactly what we want, we do not want to make broad goals with no clear path toward success.
We need to set specific, challenging goals.
A review of the research has shown that specific and challenging goals result in higher performance in 90% of studies. This means instead of making a goal of “eating healthier,” we might want to make a goal of “eating 1 salad a day” or “measuring macronutrients for every meal.”
While a recent study from 2021 found that failure to succeed in high and specific goals led to detrimental effects on self-esteem and motivation, we need to define the parameters of failure in order to keep ourselves accountable. In addition, we should look at most “failures” as really just attempts where we've hit an obstacle, leading to the next point.
We need to brace ourselves for incoming obstacles.
No matter how driven we are or how well we make our goals, there will inevitably be road bumps. Whether just preparing for the feeling in the morning of not wanting to get out of bed or for failures along the way, if we are prepared for those obstacles, we are less likely to make a heat-of-the-moment decision. In addition, if we view failures as simply obstacles to overcome, we do not have to be as emotionally affected by them.
Fourth, use mental resets.
Studies show that people often start to cut corners in the middle, but not at the beginning and end of something. In a study, researchers found that people who were asked to cut 5 identical shapes, would cut the shapes most neatly at the beginning and at the end. The shapes were often the least neat for the 3rd shape. People often start off with a lot of motivation as they start their journey, and towards the end when they see the finish line. But when we are in the middle, we cannot access either of these sources of motivation.
According to a study from 2014, we can solve this issue by placing temporal landmarks as reset points. For example, we can take each week or month as a new start for achieving our goals. By dividing the whole year into smaller parts, we reduce the time that we are in the “middle” period. In addition, these serve as points to find a new perspective and make sure that we are on the right path toward achieving our goals.
Finally, learn to embrace discomfort.
We can actually increase motivation by appraising discomfort in the right way. If we think that discomfort is a sign of growth instead of an obstacle to overcome, we can start to enjoy the process, which is the key to sustainability. This shift in mentality has been shown in recent papers to increase motivation and the feeling of progress toward our goals.
In the end, we must understand that goals are difficult to achieve, but that’s also what makes them worthwhile. Using all of these tactics can make achieving goals easier, but we must never expect it to be easy. We must all remember in times of difficulty that the more difficult the challenge, the more rewarding the achievement.