As we start 2022, how many of you have made a new year’s resolution? Resolutions are like a plan which very personal to us. Resolutions keep us excited on the first day of the year, so these must be very important. Unfortunately, these resolutions don’t last for too long in most cases. Have you ever wondered why? 

A common mistake is for people to think about resolutions as “something they will not enjoy doing,” says Fishbach, a behavioural science and marketing professor at Chicago Booth business school. The mindset, she says, is: “I’m going to do what’s good for me and not what I enjoy doing.” However, this mindset is a problem because it creates an “empathy gap.”

If you plan to have a resolution for 2022, what can you do to achieve these?

First of all, you need to find a way to pursue an intrinsically motivating resolution. People who do that can stick with their resolutions longer. Not that we should only pursue goals that are immediately gratifying. It is not always going to be fun. And for many of the things that are important in our lives, most likely, it will take some time before it’s fun. 

Goals are enormously motivating, yet articulating them requires delicacy. They should be sufficiently abstract that they inspire while also conveying action. So, for example, “doing assignments 20 minutes, five times a week” is more motivating than “getting 90%+ results in all assignments”.

We celebrate the start of something — a job or a degree course, for example — and then the end, such as graduation or a project’s completion, but never the middle. Enthusiasm and motivation are the hardest to maintain during these ordinary times. You may celebrate your mini-success more often. For example, get a DQ ice cream when you achieve your weekly goal. These mini-celebrations are extremely helpful.

Researchers and scientists recommend a simple process that you can use to achieve your resolutions.

1. Develop Tiny Habits:  Motivation is essential to develop tiny habits, but it’s unpredictable and inconsistent. Hence, you can focus on the other two factors — ability and prompt — and more specifically, on making easily executed efforts toward change within the capabilities we already have. Tiny Habits makes a case for the opposite approach: Pick something extremely specific and then make it as easy as possible for yourself. Always begin small, do not try to achieve everything at once. 
2. It’s just four words: The best option is to pick habits you actually want, not the habits that feel like you ‘should have.’ The next option is to help yourself feel successful with your new habit. The feeling of success causes a behavior to make habits automatic. We need four words: Help yourself feel successful. When you feel successful, even on a tiny habit, you are motivated to do more.
3. Approach for achieving goals: We also suggest joining forces with friends, family members, or colleagues and working together toward a mutual goal — better known as “accountability buddies.” But ultimately, you have to own your goals. It would help if you focused on changes you really want to make. We often pledge to change for other people’s sake or because we would be ashamed if we didn’t. Such resolutions are often difficult to sustain long-term and seldom give us the same sense of accomplishment as those we truly believe in. It’s easy to dismiss the things we want and instead force ourselves to try and follow a grander, transformational agenda. But in general, the little things can add up to more significant shifts. Remember, “change leads to change.”

It is a virtuous cycle. The more successful you are, the more motivated you become, and you can make more complex changes and build stronger habits. Your identity changes when you feel successful, leading to more significant changes, “even if you don’t deliberately set goals or plan for it.”