The Secret to Keeping New Year’s Resolutions: Goals vs. Objectives

It’s that time of year again, when we commit ourselves to personal growth for our next journey ’round the sun. According to Statistic Brain Institute, 45% of Americans typically make New Year’s Resolutions. However, only 8% report achieving them successfully. Yikes! At first glance, those are not good odds. But there is some hope: the Institute also reports that “People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.”

So whatever your ambitions for 2017, step 1 is to WRITE THEM DOWN!

Start with goals

At Taylor Studios, every exhibit design process begins with goal setting. This provides guidance and structure to our brainstorming, and ensures that all of the ideas we pursue align with the client’s needs and purpose.

The thing we love most about goals is that they can be BIG – dare to dream! The sky’s the limit!

However, we also know that a big, bright, shiny goal doesn’t mean much alone; we need tools to evaluate our progress toward it.

In other words, what does success actually look like?

When it comes to abiding by our New Year’s Resolutions, this is where many of us lose steam. We pledge to be healthier, happier, more organized, more frugal – but what exactly does that mean? How do we know if/when we’ve achieved it? Without the positive feedback from incremental progress, it can be difficult to stay motivated.

Measure with objectives

This is where objectives come in.

Think of objectives as measurable steps toward your ultimate, pie-in-the-sky goal. Objectives take the ideal of success and break it down into tangibles, giving you the tools to hold yourself accountable.

It’s a subtle but important distinction – one that can make the difference between progress and puttering out circa February…

To see how this can apply to our 2017 personal growth agendas, let’s take a look at some of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions and break them down into actionable objectives:

According to Statistic Brain, the three most popular categories are Weight-related (38%), Money-related (34%) and Relationships-related (31%). With that in mind, we’ve drafted the below goals as a starting point. Fill in your own numbers (aka objectives) and voila! You now have measurable benchmarks to track your progress throughout the new year (and beyond!).

Take action

Here are some examples to help get you started:

1. Improve Health/Fitness

Objective: Eat at least serving(s) of fresh vegetables at lunch days a week.

Objective: Go for a 20-minute walk after dinner at least ___night(s) per week.

1. Spend Less, Save More

Objective: Only go out to dinner time(s) per month, for a total bill not to exceed $.

Objective: Put $___ from every paycheck into savings.

1. Spend More Time with Family

Objective: Eat at least ___ meal(s) together per week.

Objective: Spend at least ___ hours per week together (outside of meal time) with all electronic media off (TV, phones, video games, etc)