With the New Year upon us, there is a collective spirit of change and motivation to set the intentions we’ve been putting off. The ‘New Year, New Me’ vibes that seem to be contagious and can help increase our motivation for change. It’s a great time to harness the change mindset of peers and perhaps even teaming up on joint resolutions to emphasise commitment. After the holiday experiences that many of us share, such as eating too much, drinking too much, generally not doing much (and rightly so, actively not doing something is productive at times), we begin to feel that change is welcome and needed.

We might want to break a habit, develop healthier habits, overhaul our entire lifestyle, or make positive changes of any sort. We can start small or plan for bigger efforts, and writing our ideas down is a great place to start. There seems to be some magic in writing, almost as though once it is written it becomes real. We can take our list of intentions and put them somewhere in our space that we will frequently see.

In this article, we will look at ways we can improve our motivation/commitment to our goals, so that we can bolster our motivation, and raise it at New Year’s or during any time of year that we want to make change. Generally, behaviour change follows certain principles, but we can get more specific.

Any behaviour change starts with attitude. Making an initial resolution is a declaration that we hold a negative attitude towards the behaviour we are choosing to change. We can set this goal by writing it out in a notebook and/or on a piece of paper and stick it up where we can see. We can take this further by writing out how this behaviour no longer serves us, or perhaps even hinders us, and what we are to gain in the long term through our behaviour change. It is good to keep this handy for us to remind ourselves of the reasons we are choosing to make a change.

Now that we have explored our motivations for change, we can start to plan and prepare for change and work to ensure our success the best we can. One way we can do this is by thinking of potential obstacles might we see, and how we can best respond/manage these. What things might make us trip up on our goals, how can we prepare for them and how can we buffer their impact? Having a prepared plan for times of potential swaying or weakness can help us stay on track.

Some other tips below can help us in our goals:

SMART Goal setting

The SMART approach to goal setting is a strategy for breaking down goals into strategic parts to help us plan for them more effectively. We can break them down to help us achieve what we are hoping to achieve using the acronym. SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/relevant, and Timed. Many might groan hearing the acronym S.M.A.R.T. but there is a reason it has held strength and volume for over 20 years in educational settings, businesses and charities: it is a simple and effective approach to target setting and achievement. There are many different approaches to goal setting, but this is definitely a helpful strategy for achievement.

Getting in the circles of like minded people

Being around others with similar goals and mindsets can give us a boost in motivation and help to keep us on track. There is strength in numbers and studies have shown that peer support and being surrounded by others with the same mindset can help it be easier to achieve our goals. In recognising this, we can harness this power to increase our desire of success. We can seek out individuals in our social networks already achieving the goals we hope to, and learn from them, or finding a community group or an online community. Surrounding ourselves with people of the mindset we desire can help to boost us on our journey to self-improvement.

Replacing for better alternatives/incompatible behaviours 

This one might not apply to all, or might be less obvious depending on the behaviour change. But for someone hoping to quit smoking for example, or to eat a healthier diet, in addition to this, that person might decide to increase daily exercise to help increase motivation for change. In the instance of quitting or reducing smoking, even just a brisk walk can show our minds that smoking is affecting our fitness and breathing. In the instance of wanting to eat healthier, if we exercise for an hour and feel good, would we want to ruin our efforts by eating high calorie junk food we know is bad for us?

Rewarding ourselves for behaviour change

Sometimes known as contingency management, this principle can be very useful especially when enacting change that is a bit more difficult, for example with addictions, e.g. smoking, over-eating but can be done to affirm any commitment to positive behaviour change. For example, the money that is saved from not smoking cigarettes or saving by cutting back on takeouts can be spent on some other form of healthy self-care. Or successfully engaging in the exercise we hope further than a month means we can invest in some good but expensive equipment that we have been eyeing up/

Maintenance 

Recognising that any behaviour change requires our effort to maintain our motivations and intentions. Revisiting our list of reasons for change and continual honest self reflection about our progress and feelings can help us stay on track.

Accountable partners

Telling EVERYONE we can of our behaviour change and making a big deal of it can make it more difficult to go back on our word, especially if we ask friends in advance to encourage us and to call us out if we begin to slack!

Most importantly. If we fold on our resolution, we don’t beat ourselves up. We take one step back and ten steps forward. January 1st might’ve been the springboard, but our first real step was recognising we wanted to change this particular aspect of our life. Change comes through making things habit, this can take time, practise and planning. We cannot expect miracles because of January 1st but it does provide a great opportunity for what we want to leave behind and what we would like to carry forwards or to become. Developing self-awareness and desire are the first steps, with further exploration, some planning, like-minded support, looking at opposite behaviours we can adopt, we can get closer to where we want to be.

New Year’s resolutions can be great, but we don’t have to wait until the 1st January to make resolutions. Of course, we can make them anytime, but New Year’s Day seems to be a significant motivator, a fresh start, a clean slate and it can definitely give us another layer of motivation to get those things done that we know we should. 

Good luck to everyone setting positive intentions for 2022!

References

Bovend’Eerdt, T. J., Botell, R. E., & Wade, D. T. (2009). Writing SMART rehabilitation goals and achieving goal attainment scaling: a practical guide. Clinical rehabilitation, 23(4), 352-361.

Lehto, T., & Oinas-Kukkonen, H. (2015). Explaining and predicting perceived effectiveness and use continuance intention of a behaviour change support system for weight loss. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(2), 176-189.

Petry, N. M. (2000). A comprehensive guide to the application of contingency management procedures in clinical settings. Drug and alcohol dependence, 58(1-2), 9-25.

Povey, R., Conner, M., Sparks, P., James, R., & Shepherd, R. (2000). The theory of planned behaviour and healthy eating: Examining additive and moderating effects of social influence variables. Psychology & Health, 14(6), 991-1006.

Prochaska, J. O., Redding, C. A., & Evers, K. E. (2015). The transtheoretical model and stages of change. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice, 97.