How a Shift in Perspective Could Help You Meet Your Goals

It’s about that time to check in with your New Year’s resolutions. While not everyone makes resolutions, many do; out of 1,000 people surveyed in the United States, 37 percent said they planned to make resolutions for 2024. Perhaps not surprisingly, most surveys found that the younger the person, the more likely they are to make resolutions.

We have passed the one-month mark—which means it's likely that only about 8 percent of people have kept to their resolutions, according to past data. These people are likely to have made extremely structured resolutions. Structure means specific goals, defined outcomes, measurable benchmarks, and time-limited. Resolutions that lack these qualities tend to be harder to keep and are often framed in a zero-sum way, which can lead to feelings of failure and abandonment of the resolution.

Resolutions typically focus either on reducing negative behaviors or incorporating positive behaviors. Researchers Höchli, Brügger, and Messner (2020) found that the nature of New Year's resolutions was too absolute and based on wanting to "fix" deep-seated or complex problems. The 2024 Forbes Health/One Poll Survey found that the top three resolutions people made were to improve their fitness (48 percent), improve their finances (38 percent), or improve their mental health (36 percent). All of these are large undertakings.

However, humans are actually not hard-wired to make big changes. Researchers Prochaska et al. (2013) argued that most people change not in a linear way but in a more spiral fashion, often because behavioral changes are so difficult. This makes sense; after all, who wants to go through hard things?

A Shift in Perspective

Can a shift in perspective from making resolutions to having intentions help us meet our goals, both this year and beyond? You might be thinking that intention is not enough; after all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

While this might be true, Sam Mistrano at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work argues that the function of “intention” setting is exactly where we should start. “After all,” Mistrano states, “You’ll note the road was at least paved. In other words—intentions prepare you.” This sounds good to me.

This is why setting an intention, rather than a set of New Year’s resolutions, could be a better move. Unlike resolutions—which, ideally, should be straightforward and goal-oriented—intentions are more vision-oriented. Dorothy Chin of the UCLA Center for Culture, Trauma, and Mental Health Disparities, posits that intentions are healthier because they incorporate emotions and spirituality in a holistic way that resolutions do not address. In this way, intentions are more about facing and going in the right direction, as opposed to detailing each action item.

Additional research by Di Malta et al. (2019) has found that setting an intention can help people feel more optimistic and hopeful about achieving their goals because they can give themselves more compassion in the process and time to reflect on their actions. Thus, if you are on the brink of giving up on your New Year’s resolutions, maybe you should just let go, start over, and begin with intention.

3 Roads to Successful Intentions

There may be many different roads to take, but here are three tried-and-true ways that will give you a good starting point:

1. Understand your “why” and what motivates you. For example, the most common resolution is to improve fitness. For most people, this includes gym memberships and nutrition plans that usually fail. Instead, ask yourself why you want to improve your fitness and what is keeping you from being fit. Your answer might be that you don’t have enough energy. Thus, your intention is not to work out three times are week but perhaps to be rested and restored to have enough energy to do the things you want to do (including improving your fitness).
2. Select a “word of the year” to focus on. Intention setting is about getting in touch with things that inspire and motivate you, and some experts recommend choosing just one word to help clarify your goals this year. Psychologist Holly Connors notes that this word can be something that you want to cultivate (such as “balance”), a strength (such as “persistence”), or even something to help you maintain a desired mindset (such as “grace”). The practice of selecting a word for the year can provide you with a type of touchstone to refer back to and reflect on throughout the year. It can also help you with your more concrete activities by being a type of guide or decision-making factor. For instance, if your word is “connectedness,” then you might be more aware of how much an added work project might pull time from your important relationships.
3. Make your intentions known. Don’t be afraid to let others know about the things you intend to do without feeling the pressure of “when” and “how” you need to do them. Let others know how they can support your intentions. Alternatively, you don’t have to voice your intentions out loud if you don't want to; you can also write them down or otherwise display them where you're likely to see them. Di Malta, Oddi, and Cooper (2019) further suggest that making your intentions known makes it easier to track them—and that type of tracking helps to ensure success.

Ordinary Magic in Action

It doesn’t matter if you are in the 8 percent who might still be holding on to their resolutions or the 92 percent who have already let some of them go; it’s never too late to reset your intentions. Try all or one of these acts of ordinary magic:

1. If you haven’t already, select a word for 2024. This word will be a touchstone for an intention you have, a direction you want to go, or a vision you want to work toward.
2. Go for a walk and think about your intention(s). Research shows that walking can be a time when people reflect on their intentions, work out what they mean, and commit to a clearer vision of them.
3. Connect your intention to a habit. For example, if your intention is to practice gratitude and you already have a journaling habit, add five more minutes to note things you are grateful for at the beginning or end of your journal entry.