Welcome to 2023! The start of a new year is a perfect opportunity to set goals, plan for personal and professional growth, and challenge yourself to try something new (or give up something old). But while it’s easy to make big resolutions, how you set your goals is the true key to life-changing results and long-term success.

The reality is, of the 41% of US adults that set New Year's resolutions every year, a whopping 91% don’t follow through on their goals! And if you’ve ever come up with your own list of well-intentioned resolutions for January, there’s a good chance you can probably relate. 

Setting effective resolutions and actually sticking with them can be a challenge – but there are ways you can maximize your chance of accomplishing these changes. In this article, we'll explore the most popular New Year's resolutions, the common reasons why they fail, and offer 4 easy tips to successfully stick to your 2023 goals.

The problem with New Year's resolutions

Everyone’s talking about them this time of year, but what exactly are resolutions? New Year's resolutions are personal and/or professional goals that you aim to achieve in the year ahead. Unfortunately, a study by fitness app Stava found that most people actually throw in the towel on their New Year's resolutions by January 19th – somberly coining the date ‘quitters day’. 

Goals for the new year can include virtually anything, but statistics reveal consistently popular resolutions with adults every year. 

10 most common New Year's resolutions

1. Exercise more/lose weight.
2. Get organized and be more productive.
3. Learn a new skill or hobby.
4. Live life to the fullest.
5. Save more money/spend less money.
6. Get more sleep.
7. Reduce stress.
8. Spend more time with family and friends.
9. Travel more.
10. Read more.

Any of these sound familiar? It’s likely a few have popped up in your own new year planning. But while they all sound great on paper, why do only 9% of people manage to stick to their big goals for the year beyond the first month? There are a few major pitfalls to New Year's resolutions that make them more likely to fall apart.

3 top reasons New Year's resolutions don’t work

• You’re not setting SMART goals: Setting goals that are too vague, broad, or downright unrealistic can set you up for failure before you even begin.
• You haven’t prepared an action plan: Goals require continuous commitment to be achieved. Without a clear plan, your daily efforts won’t be aligned with your goals. 
• You don’t have clear motivation: Achieving resolutions is hard enough, but basically impossible when you don’t have a solid ‘why’ to fuel sustainable motivation to pursue your goals long-term.

We’ve all heard the expression – 'A goal without a plan is just a wish’. So how exactly do you go about turning your New Year's resolutions into actually achievable goals? Whether you’re trying to start 2023 with some healthy habits, or setting a new goal for yourself at any other time of the year – here are 4 steps to help you see your goals through January and beyond!

4 tips for success with New Year's resolutions in 2023

1. Visualize your end goal

If you’ve written out New Year's resolutions in the past, you might recall saying something along the lines of, ‘new year, new me!’. But what exactly does the ‘new you’ look like? The first step is getting crystal clear on exactly what you want out of 2023 – focusing not only on how you’re going to start the year, but more importantly on how you want to end the year. 

A great way to do this is by writing up a vision statement for where you’d like to be by the end of 2023. It might sound a little woo-y, but visualization can be an effective way to establish an end goal in your mind and help fuel motivation to actually accomplish that outcome through day-to-day commitments. 

Be specific, writing about your personal and/or professional end-goals in the present tense, as if you have already achieved them. So instead of a vague resolution to ‘be more healthy’, write out what a healthier version you does every day – for example, ‘I go for a morning run every day, and start my day with a nutritious smoothie’. 

Here are a couple prompts to help you get started with your 2023 visualization:

• What has “2023 you” achieved by December? (For example: saved and purchased a new car, received a promotion at work, successfully completed a marathon, etc.)
• What does your daily goal look like from beginning to end? Write out a detailed itinerary from when you wake up to when you go to bed. 

2. Set smaller, SMARTer goals

Many people get swept away in grand goals with the excitement of a fresh start in the new year, but unfortunately, this can be exactly what trips up your long-term success. Once you have a clear idea of your ideal 2023, it’s time to create SMART goals for the new year that will help you realize it. 

If you aren’t familiar, SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. Setting these parameters helps you create more realistic and actionable resolutions that you can actually follow through on. If you have really big goals for 2023, work backwards on a goal-ladder to make tinier New Year's resolutions that will serve as stepping stone achievements. And instead of writing a laundry list of resolutions, try to focus on a few important objectives that will support you in creating your best year. Now it’s time to turn them into SMART goals. 

For example, if your goal is to ‘reduce stress’ in 2023, a SMARTer version could be: 

• Specific: I will reduce stress by starting a 30-minute healthy morning routine with meditation.
• Measurable: I will complete my morning routine every workday, and track my new habit weekly. 
• Achievable: I previously spent the first 30 minutes of my day scrolling through social media,  but am replacing this negative habit with a morning routine and meditation.
• Realistic: 30-minutes is less than 3% of my day. I will reprioritize this time to my important goal of reducing stress.
• Time-bound: At the end of every month, I will review how often I made time for my morning routine. It will take time to start a new habit and this gives me an opportunity to review any blockers and make adjustments to my plan.

3. Schedule time for your resolutions

Finding spare hours for goals can be especially hard for busy professionals. When your schedule books up and the week gets hectic, new habits can quickly get pushed to the backburner - and even fall off the map entirely. 

Defending actual time for your goals is the only way to make them happen – so make sure they are true priorities. You can set yourself up for success by automating this process with an app like Reclaim.ai, which makes blocking time in your calendar for your routines super easy. The Habits feature allows you to create new habits and set details like how long you need and when you want to complete it. Reclaim then automatically finds the best time to schedule it in your busy weeks, around your preferences and other commitments, so you have a daily action plan that supports your success. Scheduling personal priorities on your calendar also prevents that time getting booked over by a last minute work meeting for example, so you can better protect your work-life balance.

Whether your goal is to make time to read, take a daily walk, create more focus time to work on important tasks every day, or start the day with positive affirmations – actually putting it on your calendar ensures you always have the time set aside for your resolutions. 

4. Review your progress regularly

While you might have the energy and dedication for your 2023 goals in the first week of January – most big goals are achieved over a long period of time, not overnight (unfortunately).

Regularly tracking your habits is an effective way to identify what’s working for you, and what isn’t. Time blocking not only improves success by giving you a concrete action plan to achieve your goals, but also offers great retrospective insight on exactly where your time is going every day. Try setting aside time at the end of the week, or each month, to complete a time audit against your resolutions. How many times did you actually go to the gym, or make time for productive deep work on important tasks? If you missed a habit, what took priority instead? 

You can do this manually, or take advantage of automations that make calendar audits easier. Reclaim users get an automatic weekly report at the end of the week with awesome stats on how much time you spent in meetings, working across tasks, and how many habit goals you completed. This is a great way to stay motivated and celebrate your wins, and also allows you to make any adjustments to your plan for the following week. 

New year, new you - with smarter resolutions 🎆

Doing a 180° on your 2022 routines might not be realistic, but you do have 365 days this year to make some awesome sustainable progress towards your big goals! And by automating the process, you can hack your New Year's resolutions by taking the work out of the planning and instead focusing on the follow-through.

Remember, change takes time. Be patient with yourself through the progress, and don’t get discouraged if you’ve fallen off a little by mid-January. By starting small, and creating an actionable plan around SMART New Year's resolutions – you can set yourself up for a successful year around your priorities. Consistency is key and a little success is always better than giving up. Here’s to a great year in 2023!