Get Better at Setting Goals: Our Favorite Reads

Throwback to a bright winter afternoon in December 2020. I sat outside on my balcony, thinking about the year gone by. I opened my notes and stared at my resolutions. My 2020 Resolutions Read 20 books Learn a new language Build more exercise into my day Stop being so stressed Learn to be happier Eat fewer calories Travel to two new countries Enroll for two online courses Spend more time with people that matter Lean to play an instrument Come January 1, 2020, I was raring to go. I had my list. I had my drive. It was going to be one helluva year. By February, I’d only read half a book and enrolled myself in a course about wellbeing. By July, half the year was over and the pandemic had taken over our lives. Stress became a byproduct, and traveling… well, who remembers what that was like? There was a lot on my list I wouldn’t be able to get done, but I still had hope for the goals that were achievable. Come October… still nothing. I usually end up achieving very few of my resolutions. Yet, every year in December, a spark of motivation hits and I convince myself that, this time around, I will follow through and commit to making life-altering changes. More than half of all New Year’s resolutions fail. But why do they always have to be mine? Am I setting unrealistic expectations? Or am I just not serious about creating a change? Our experts have some sound advice about the science behind goal-setting and how we can all get a little better at it. Recommended Reads Why We Set Unattainable Goals by Haiyang Yang, Antonios Stamatogiannakis, Amitava Chattopadhyay, and Dipankar Chakravarti There are many reasons why we fail to accomplish our goals. One big reason is that they are unattainable to begin with. Why do we do this to ourselves, and can we do any better? Turns out, we can. How to Reset Your Goals During a Crisis by Dorie Clark and Patricia Carl Few of us could have predicted that a pandemic would interrupt our plans these past 18 months. In the face of uncertainty, we may be forced to rethink our goals. Use these four questions to help you reimagine your objectives in the face of economic disruption. 5 Ways to Read More Books Now by Rakshitha Arni Ravishankar As you think about your goals for 2022, is reading more books on your list? Me too. There are many benefits to reading more — it opens up the parts of our brains responsible for developing empathy, compassion, and understanding. The first step towards accomplish this resolution? Doing away with distractions. What Does It Really Take to Build a New Habit? by Kristi DePaul Habit and routines are not interchangeable. A habit is a behavior done with little or no thought, whereas a routine is a series of behaviors frequently, and intentionally, repeated. To turn a behavior into a habit, it first needs to become a routine. How do you start? To Achieve Big Goals, Start with Small Habits by Sabina Nawaz When presented with a problem that requires behavior change, we pounce on it with big goals. We’re programmed to “go big or go home,” but big goals are more burdensome than they are motivational. They require daunting effort to accomplish and sustain. Instead, the way to achieve big is to start small, through micro habits. What Separates Goals We Achieve from Goals We Don’t by Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach Lots of us struggle to follow through on our long-term goals. We pursue goals that are important, but we tend to achieve the goals that are most fun to work towards. What could help us stick to the plan? Like what you see? This article is adapted from our weekly newsletter.

Get Better at Setting Goals: Our Favorite Reads

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