Turning your dreams into reality: The trouble with New Year resolutions
A young, cheerful woman plans to come up with her 2025 goals.
What you need to know:
- I once made a resolution to read the whole bible in one year.
- I really do not know any Christian who has never made that resolution in their lives.
We are 10 days into the New Year and I have a small question: Are you still on track with your resolutions for 2025?
I came across a meme on Facebook about a guy whose New Year's resolution was to work out. On January 1, the guy is pictured holding a superb full plank. On January 2, he had moved from a full plank to a weak half plank. By the third of January, he is lying down, and only the colour of his shorts tell us that he is the same guy who is supposed to be doing his daily workout commitment. By the fourth day, the guy is lying down and covered in a throw blanket. What a short-lived New Year resolution! The comments section was full of people resonating with the guy, and I chuckled while reading them because I could also relate.
Despite my usually pragmatic nature, I stopped writing New Year resolutions ages ago. Honestly, I can’t even remember when I gave them up—it feels like light-years since I last bothered. Like everyone else, I greet the new year with fresh hope, big dreams, and unwavering faith. I always believe the coming year will outshine the last, and so far, God hasn’t let me down.
Just to be clear, I do the “shiny things”: I work out (sometimes), read my Bible daily, keep a journal, attempt to eat well, devour books, spend quality time with friends, give to charity, save, and budget. But I don’t do any of it because of New Year resolutions. Why? Because I know myself well enough to admit that unless a goal is anchored in something deeper than the hype of January 1, it’ll probably slip through the cracks.
Like that planks guy on Facebook, I once made a resolution to read the whole bible in one year. I really do not know any Christian who has never made that resolution in their lives. You know the drill: The first assignment is usually to find out how many chapters are in the bible. Once you know they are about 1189, you divide that by the number of days in a year. Basic arithmetic tells you that if you just read three or four chapters of the bible daily without fail, you will become a bible scholar by the end of the year and you will know by heart who Jochebed was. Easy-peasy, right? I was excited and all set. That was until I woke up one day and it was 15 days into the New Year and I had 45 unread chapters. This resolution was not going to work, so I abandoned it. As I said, I read my bible everyday – I am insisting because my pastor reads this column.
If like me you have trouble keeping up with resolutions you set in response to excitement, here are suggestions I use to ensure the yearly goals I set are enduring. The first step for me is usually to identify what is important. For example, if I truly need to save more money, the next step becomes identifying and speaking to a financial adviser. I will book a session with this person and we will have a conversation. That helps me determine the true feasibility, clarify my goals and ensure I have an accountability partner. I find that once I can fully internalise the goal, it is easier to make an informed commitment. Of course, there will always be unforeseen issues, but my point is, I struggle to keep goals made out of excitement or guesswork alone.
The second approach that works for me is setting short-term goals and checking in on them regularly. For example, one of my goals this year is to hang out with my friends more often. Instead of thinking about it as a year-long plan, I focus on what I can do right now to make it happen. I’ve learnt that when I picture the whole year ahead, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “There’s plenty of time!”—and then, before I know it, the year’s gone, and I’m setting the same goal all over again.
Here’s a bonus tip: I keep my goals simple. By focusing on just one or two big things for the year, I find they actually get done—unlike when I try to juggle 15 goals at once and end up dropping the ball on all of them!
What’s your secret sauce for turning New Year resolutions into reality?
The writer is the Research & Impact Editor, NMG ([email protected]).
