Culture on My Mind
Resolutions
February 3, 2025

The new year is a time for resolutions. It’s a season of birth, life, and rededication across most of humanity’s faiths and traditions. Every year, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, promising to continue good practices, changes behaviors, and set goals for improvement.

Sadly, about 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail before the end of January. In fact, most of those failures will happen about two weeks into January, resulting in a “holiday” called Quitter’s Day on the second Friday of the month. Failed resolutions come from many places, including being too large, too abstract, and too demanding.

If you’ve failed your New Year’s resolution, you can start it over today with a few modifications. The beauty of self-improvement is that it doesn’t require a special day to start it. I encourage you to do so.

Putting on my manager’s hat, one of the best ways to make a goal is to make it a smart one. That’s right, it’s acronym time!

• S – Specific: Clearly outline exactly what you want to achieve, and leave no room for ambiguity. If you want to walk 500 miles in a year, don’t settle for about or around that number. Pick a bullseye and aim for it.
• M – Measurable: Figure out how to track your progress using a defined metric. If you want to lose 50 pounds, download an app or build a chart to track your weekly weigh-ins. Even better, find a way to put that measurement where you can see it as a reminder.
• A – Achievable: Ensure that your goal is attainable with your available resources and skills. Back to weight loss, a healthy and realistic target is 50-100 pounds in a year. Setting a goal of 200 pounds would be unhealthy and unrealistic. 
• R – Relevant: Pick a goal that aligns with your priorities. If you set a goal to become certified in a field that you don’t work in, that may not be meaningful or impactful on your life.
• T – Time-Bound: Your goal should have a time limit. You can’t measure success if you don’t have a defined finish line.

Setting goals for self-improvement is difficult by nature, and achieving them can be more challenging because you’re making changes to your life despite your own inertia. You’re comfortable doing what you’ve been doing, and change upsets that status quo.

Find a support structure to help you get there, whether it be a group on social media or a circle in meat space. Do everything you can to find success because you deserve it. If you stumble, take a few minutes to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get recombobulated before getting back to it. Failure is not the end. It’s merely a new beginning.

I believe in you. You can do this. Go conquer the world.

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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

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