Your ultimate guide to making, keeping, or re-imagining your New Year’s resolutions

Nothing really changes on New Year’s day. Still, January always feels like the opportunity for a fresh start. In fact, humans have been making New Year’s resolutions for more than 4,000 years. While surveys suggest that around 40% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, less than 10% of us stick with them. There are a lot of reasons for this. For instance, many of us make the mistake of viewing change as an outcome rather than a process. We want to have changed, but don’t plan for the work that goes into making it happen. So, what are the secrets of that small group of individuals who manage to stick to their resolutions all year? Turns out, there’s a few things that go into being successful at accomplishing your goals. The first is to reframe how you approach resolutions. It can be helpful to think of them as forming new habits. So, when approaching a goal like “get in better shape,” the first step is to be clear on what “better shape” actually means to you: Is it running a half-marathon? Building core strength so your back doesn’t hurt? When you’re clear on exactly what success looks like, you can then break it down into small manageable steps that will then become a habit you are more likely to stick to. Once you start a habit that you can maintain, it’s much easier to build on it—i.e., a 15-minute walk at lunch could turn into a 30-minute jog over the course of several weeks; but two overly ambitious sessions at the gym the first week in January will likely end there. People who stick with their resolutions tend to have a few other things in common with their approach, including having an accountability partner to keep them on track, having visual reminders of their goals, having a compelling reason for change, and making failure more difficult. Before you set those 2024 goals, however, author and wellness expert Zee Clarke suggests ​using a “top five” framework to first reflect what you accomplished in the past year, so you can be more intentional in setting personal and professional goals for the year ahead. Clarke suggests asking yourself these questions: What are the top five things you are most proud of from this year?What were your top five biggest teachings this year? (You can learn from what worked but also from what didn’t.) From there, you can make your list of the top five things that would make the next year a success for you, both personally and professionally. Clarke’s approach is similar to a practice I’ve been doing every December 31 for the past several years: Writing a letter to myself one year in the future about what the year has been like. I always start the letter optimistically with, “This was the best year of your life.” (Why not put some positivity out into the cold darkness of January, right?)Author Scott Simon also endorses the practice of writing a letter to yourself, but suggests a little more focused approach. He says the letter should answer five questions:1. What are the fears you plan to tackle—those things you believe are holding you back?2. What are the adventures you will embrace in the year to come?3. How will you connect or reconnect with others in your life?4. How will you plan to grow?5. What can you do to serve others?Answer all these questions and maybe you really will have the best year of your life. Or, it all else fails, you can always make a list of anti-resolutions.