Humans have been making a fresh start at the New Year for at least 4,000 years, when the Babylonians reportedly made resolutions like pledging to return borrowed farm equipment. (Old Farmer’s Almanac) Who among us hasn’t made at least one New Year’s resolution in our lifetime? If you’re in the “never have I ever” camp, be honest: haven’t you reflected on a plan of action at the start of the year, most likely calling them #goals?Regardless of whether you’ve called it a resolution or a goal, how many of us have broken it within a week, two weeks, a month? I know I have – and often! And I have equally always beaten myself up for breaking my New Year’s plan for change, calling myself weak or even useless. But it turns out that I am not alone in breaking my New Year’s resolve: studies show that 80 to 90 percent of New Year’s Resolutions fail within a month, by February. (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1989) Experts agree that the problem isn’t the who (ourselves) or the what (the resolution or goal) but the how (the way we set and execute our goal). The framework for success? It’s three-fold: build on a solid foundation, find your framework, and set your system.
Build on a Solid Foundation: Values
“…be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24-25
Values are the bedrock from which our basic psychological needs for competency, self-determination, and connection can be met. If we align our lived experience, our actions, our social networks to our values, our intrinsic motivation increases with positive effects on our performance as well as on our physical and mental health: “…intrinsic motivation, autonomous regulation of extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic aspirations were associated with positive affective experiences; high-quality performance, particularly on heuristic activities; maintained change of healthy behaving; and better mental health.” (Deci & Ryan, 2000) By aligning our lives with our values, we increase our likelihood of success in achieving our goals or meeting our resolutions. This is what people mean when they ask us “What’s your “why”?” which is a question first posed in a 2009 TED Talk by Simon Sinek. Values, studies have shown, are not static; they change over time for each of us. Donette Nobel and Jeni McRay, the authors of “Defining My Personal Values,” Chapter 2 of Developing Human Potential, an Open Educational Resource book published by the University of Nebraska System, offer a road map for identifying your current personal values.
“I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.”
Find Your Framework: SMART, SMARTER – or not?
“The decisions you make are a choice of values that reflect your life in every way.”
Google “setting a goal that sticks” and you will find SMART goals at the top of the list. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, (or Realistic) and Time-Bound (or Timely). Another variation is SMARTER which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant/Realistic, Time-Bound/Timely, Evaluate, Re-adjust. The SMART or SMARTER goal setting framework is touted as the gold standard not only for setting goals but for achieving them as well, with a demonstrably high success rate. However, there is some doubt as to their efficacy for all types of goals: “Essentially, when people are confronted with a task that is new and/or complex for them, a non-specific goal allows the systematic exploration and discovery of appropriate strategies while reducing one’s focus on attainment goals, whereas a specific goal increases the difficulty of finding an appropriate strategy and can increase performance anxiety around trying to achieve the set standard (Locke & Latham, 2013).” (Pietsch, et al., 2024) For less specific goals, especially learning goals, do-your-best (DYB) or open goal frameworks, which focus on personal growth, effort, and improvement, can be more effective than the rigid structure offered by the SMART/SMARTER framework. For some of us, creating a vision or mood board, writing a bucket list, making and listening to a manifestation playlist, or saying a daily affirmation may be all we need not only to set the intention but to achieve the goal. Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself how best to formulate your goals, but across all studies the key to making ones that stick is to write them down.
Set Your System(s): Daily Habits
“Every action you take is a vote for the person you want to become.”
James Clear
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, argues that it is neither the goal nor the framework you use to set it that ultimately leads to success, but what he calls the systems, the habits that you put in place and follow daily: “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.” Clear’s work builds on previous work by Stephen R. Covey (1989’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and BJ Fogg (creator of the Fogg Behavior Model, first published in 2009, and author of 2019’s Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything). BJ Fogg is the Stanford behavior scientist who encouraged people to build new habits by habit stacking, that is, by incorporating a new habit into your already-existing routine, leveraging what Clear calls the “connectedness of behavior” to make the new habit easy to assimilate into your life. Fogg created the field of behavior design back in the early 2000s with groundbreaking work that led to the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM): “The FBM asserts that for a person to perform a target behavior, he or she must (1) be sufficiently motivated, (2) have the ability to perform the behavior, and (3) be triggered to perform the behavior. These three factors must occur at the same moment, else the behavior will not happen.” I didn’t realize thirty years ago when I started doing Diane von Furstenburg’s ballet stretches and exercises while watching the morning news or my favorite TV shows in the evenings that I was habit stacking – but that is, essentially, what makes implementing a new goal much less likely to fail. Indeed, I incorporated the goal of stretching every morning before going about my day successfully into my daily routine in my early 20s and maintained it into my early 50s. Clear and Fogg encourage layering the new habit, or nesting the new habit, into your existing schedule or to-do list so that your old habits become cues for the new habit.
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
James Clear
The 21-Days Myth
How long does it take to form a habit? Pop psychology claims it takes 21 days to form a habit but a 2009 study (published in 2011) found that though habit formation is highly individualized, it takes an average of 66 days for new behaviors (like eating a piece of fruit with lunch every day, drinking a bottle of water with lunch every day, or running for 15 minutes before dinner) to become habits. Of course, in order for this to happen, the behavior must be repeatedly sustained; daily repetition becomes automaticity: “Results showed that behaviour change was initially experienced as cognitively effortful but as automaticity increased, enactment became easier.” (Lally, et al., 2011) Over the two years of their longitudinal study, Deci and Ryan found that people who successfully incorporated and achieved their goals for the entire two years had an average of 14 slips before actual maintenance of the goal(s) set in. It’s best to remember, too, that the more complex a new behavior is, the longer it will take to master and to make it a habit.
Rewards: Immediate, Positive, and Small
Most people set a goal with a reward at the end of it, such as giving themselves a Saturday shopping trip or a movie if they make their goal of going to the gym three times in one week. However, the author of the aforementioned 2009 study on habit formation, Phillippa Lally, found that a reward is much more effective if you receive it during the task you’re trying to form into a habit. So that Netflix movie you promised yourself you could watch on the weekend if you were “good” all week? Watch it while you work out instead! This gives your brain positive reinforcement (similar to a dopamine hit) while linking it to the habit. The hard part is deciding on a reward that will deepen your habit (eating an ice cream after working out is counterproductive for weight loss goals, for example). A 2018 study found that a reward must also be perceived to be pleasurable, where “[p]leasure is defined as a positive and immediate sensory outcome, similar to the food or drug rewards commonly used in the animal literature. Physical pleasure may thus serve as a reward in human habit formation.” (Judah, et al., 2018) The key, then, is to give yourself rewards that deepen your pleasure in the behavior in order to create a habit that sticks.
Motivation: Intrinsic Is the Only Way To Go!
“Intrinsic motivation (being motivated to act due to the anticipated inherent enjoyment of doing so) is more likely to lead to stronger intentions and sustain changes in behaviour than extrinsic motivation (being motivated to act to achieve a desired outcome of the behaviour, e.g. pleasing others). Observational studies of existing fruit consumption and exercise habits found that greater intrinsic motivation was associated with stronger habits, and reinforced the relationship between behavioural repetition and habit.” (Judah, et al., 2018)
The importance of intrinsic motivation, motivation that comes purely from the satisfaction of doing something, the pleasure and joy from the activity or task, is the biggest key to making your resolution or goal stick for the long term. Every study has shown this, and, honestly, it’s just common sense, isn’t it?
I tell my students to aim for the quality of their work, to measure their work against each strand of the rubric, and to complete their work on time and turn it in (you’d be surprised how many students of all ages, from 12 to 18, forget to click Turn In on Google Classroom!) and the grade takes care of itself. The same holds true for absolutely everything and James Clear says it, too, in two quotes: “Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.” and “Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”
2026: Universal Year 1, A Fresh Start for the Collective and for You!
New Year, New You? Maybe. Perhaps. 2026 is a Universal Year 1, and the first Fire Horse in 60 years, which means its energy calls for a fresh start, bold leadership, the courage to act for the good of the collective, the greater good, as well as for yourself on an individual level. Start that new project or launch that side hustle that you’ve been thinking or dreaming about! Begin planting the seeds for the future you dream of! Manifestation is all about energy, and energy flows to where you direct it. Even James Clear says words to this effect in Atomic Habits: “Time will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.” (Clear, J., 2025, 3-2-1 Newsletter)
Just remember not to get hung up on slips. Slips are always part of the process. The trick is to acknowledge them, learn from them what you can, and start fresh again. As no doubt you have heard many times, showing up is the win, everything that follows is truly a blessing: problems give us the opportunity to discover flaws in our process, in our systems, and to make improvements; easy days make us grateful that we have built the systems that made “easy” possible.
New Year, Same Me – But with New Habits
My New Year’s resolutions for 2026? I have so many things to conquer, the top among them being my analysis paralysis, thanks to my ADHD but also to my fear of failure. My environment has become so cluttered, it’s exhausting. So that is the first thing I am conquering in 2026. I value peace, curiosity, learning, exploration – which I haven’t felt much of in 2025. January is the winter of Universal Year 1, and my personal tarot card is the Devil, which according to tarot.com “represents the chains we place on ourselves” and “…the illusions that keep us feeling stuck” (see the connection to my analysis paralysis?!), so I am planting the seeds for 2026 and beyond. If not actually decluttering (that will still take some work: 2025 has been a grieving year for me, grieving and letting go of some more of the past) at the very least I will organize and make physical space for the intangible blessings I would like to manifest. I’m starting small (but it feels very big!) and chunking new small habits into my existing ones in order to make sure that these changes stick, to set the stage for my last act. I am writing and researching (others call it running down rabbit holes, but I love the journeys!), getting out and about even if on small excursions, and generally living in my happy place, which is the intrinsic motivation I need to keep up!
What are you doing to kick off this Year 1? What are you adding to the collective and to your own personal happiness? How do you envision your 2026?
“Whenever you are stuck searching for the optimal plan, remember:Getting started changes everything.”
– James Clear
July 17, 2025 3-2-1 Newsletter
References
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