Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

We live according to a hierarchy of values we hold dear. Is honoring our resolutions high on the list of personal values? This question is tested each new year as we complete another rotation around the sun. According to Strava, a fitness app used by millions worldwide, most people abandon their well-intentioned new year’s commitments to improve their physical fitness by the second Friday in January, appropriately called ‘quitter’s day.’ 

Humans are motivated by rewards and goals. If the rewards are immediate, there is no incentive to set goals. If the goals are too distant, we lose the motivation to wait for the rewards. For example, we find it very hard to follow a diet because the rewards of eating food that appeals to our taste buds are immediate. It is hard to trade those immediate rewards for distant goals of good health. Likewise, we find it hard to follow a strict fitness regime as the rewards are in the distant future. Along the way, we will have to endure sore muscles and aching joints as we put the body through the motions. Such discomfort is hardly a reward, and we lose sight of the big-picture benefits of exercising. 

The same principles apply to the goals of saving money and reducing debt. Spending money and indulging in our guilty pleasures has immediate rewards. The release of dopamine and endorphins, the ‘pleasure hormones,’ are responsible for the momentary satisfaction of shopping. On the contrary, saving money implies sacrificing the dopamine-fueled pleasurable sensations linked to spending. 

To make our resolutions last, we must create a new goal-reward paradigm. One where we trick the mind into thinking that the reward is a low-hanging fruit, the goal is not too distant, and we will not be sacrificing anything as we bridge the gap between the present and the future goal. 

If the goal is weight loss, it is rational that a calorie-dense, low-nutritional-value meal like pizza is counterproductive. We can make intellectually sound arguments to eliminate such foods from our diet. Yet we persist because a well-made pizza has the right combination of fats and sugar and is rich in glutamate. Found in cheese, tomatoes, and other toppings, glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that makes us crave more.

Unless our resolutions can trigger our emotions like a slice of pizza can, we will likely join the majority on quitter’s day and let our new year’s resolution fall by the wayside. Linking one or more of the five senses with our new year’s resolutions triggers our emotions. Positive emotions are potent hooks and work as a surrogate reward until our hard work pays off, and we experience the real one. 

A successful resolution has three parts, like the three essential elements of a pizza—crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings. First, goals such as better physical and financial well-being are the foundation of a resolution. Second, the self-belief that we can achieve those goals. Finally, the most important is our emotional investment. Once three come together, the goal, the self-belief, and emotions, success is almost guaranteed. 

Setting a goal is like the crust of a pizza. Without an objective, there is nothing to support our self-belief and emotions. Starting with simple goals and overachieving with them is better than failing with more challenging ones because it builds confidence. It lays the groundwork for tackling more difficult targets in the future. Life transformation is a marathon, not a sprint, and there are plenty of opportunities to improve ourselves. 

The self-belief that we can stick to our resolutions is like the sauce we spread on a pizza crust. We can use the same sauce recipe repeatedly to create various varieties of pizza. Similarly, once we believe in our ability to succeed, we can translate that belief into every facet of our lives. Self-belief must lurk in the background while it fuels our actions. 

Next comes the challenging part, triggering our emotions, so we can overcome inertia and laziness to put in the hard miles to realize our goals. Unlike a meal that we can taste in real-time or shopping where we can touch and feel objects of our desire, we cannot, in the present, touch, taste, or smell the rewards that come with working towards our physical and financial fitness goals. These rewards lie in the future and are intangible.

Imagination makes the distant rewards immediate and tangible. The richer the vision, the more compelling will be the influence of the subtle senses. Just as we remember previous sights, smells, and sounds as memories, we can inject new sensory attributes into our thoughts related to our goals. 

For example, if you resolve to get into better shape on the first of the year, you can turn that goal into a visualization. Rather than setting a target weight, visualize rewarding yourself with a challenging hike in a hilly forest. Imagine tackling steep inclines without getting out of breath while enjoying a gentle breeze grazing the skin, the earthy smell of the moist soil, and the sight of colorful wildflowers. Visualizing the rewards by incorporating the senses helps us push through mental self-talk that dissuades us from working hard in the present. 

As the new year approaches, set a new goal, however small or big. Failure isn’t a fatal flaw. Giving up before trying is. Fail once; try again. Fail twice; try again. Fail thrice; try again. Keep trying until you find the perfect recipe sweetened by self-belief and flavored by emotions.