Making New Year's Resolutions

There’s a joke that says the most successful business in the world would be one that is a gym the first two weeks in January and a donut shop the rest of the year.

That’s the trouble with New Year’s resolutions: we all start out with good intentions, but quickly lose our interest and ability to keep up.

The Problem with Resolutions

Too often, the problem with resolutions is that we try to take on the world. “I’m going to lose twenty pounds, keep my finances in complete order, and learn to speak Portuguese by summer.” Does that sound familiar? Then we try to start, and life gets in the way, and we fail.

In order to succeed, we have to change how we begin. Like all goal-setting, resolutions need to be specific and actionable. They need to be chunked in bite-sized pieces that allow us to achieve them and have proof of that forward motion.

How to Start Making Resolutions

Goal Setting from Daily Living Skills series offers detailed information on how to set and keep goals. But, you can help your students begin the process of goal setting by keying in on the goals that motivate them.

Here’s how to use this free lesson.

Talk to students about resolutions. Define what they are. Let students relate stories about past successes and failures with resolutions.
Introduce the page “Motivation.” Guide students to discuss times when they were very motivated by a goal. How did that feel? How did it help them achieve that goal? Then discuss times when they weren’t motivated or tried to do something because someone else wanted them to. How did that turn out?
Provide “Motivation Worksheet.” Allow students to brainstorm ideas about goals they would like to achieve. Have them rate their passion for the goal on the 1-5 scale.
Choose a goal. We know it’s best to have one new goal at a time. Help students to choose the goal that will best move their lives forward by asking—how does this goal move you forward? Is there something (some goal) you must accomplish first in order to achieve this goal?