Rethink Your Resolutions This Year | HBR Ascend

0:28Good sleep is everything. dress. Now in new fun summer colors, Flow Y brings a racerback shape to streamline styles you can wear anywhere. Our buttery soft Nulu fabric feels nearly weightless with sweat wicking four-way stretch for comfort you'll want to keep on after practice. Flow freely on and off the mat with light support and refined design. Shop Flow Y now at lululemon.com. We are talking about New Year's resolutions. And there's so much stuff out there about resolutions. Like too much. If I hear the phrase new year, new you again, just let it go guys. I've never had it work. What about you Eleni?

1:09I don't do them. They add a lot of pressure. Like it's like I have to do them, set them on new years and I have to complete them afterwards. But yeah, every year it's like start a gratitude practice. Work less. Tip one, write it down. Cry less. Tip two, do it. And that's not, that's not advice. What am I supposed to do with that? Forget everything you know about New Year's resolutions and how to take them on. We sifted through all the noise so you don't have to. Here's everything you need to know to make this annual rigmarole much easier.

1:50So this is actually something I tried in both 2019 and 2020. These are the journals I use to keep track of it. Actual journals that I use to do this with. So instead of setting a goal for the whole year, I set monthly resolutions for myself. So here's why this works. When we typically set resolutions at the beginning of the year, there's really no end in sight.

2:16So when you set monthly goals instead, you're creating these sort of fresh start moments for yourself at the beginning of every month instead of just the beginning of the year. And that keeps you motivated for a longer period of time. You just want to like adopt better habits or make a change, whatever. There's one thing that you can do to substantially increase the chance of it sticking. You actually want to have fun. So that means you actually enjoy the thing in the moment, not just waiting for that magical day months later that you're going to be like, oh yeah, I feel better about myself. Let's say I want to resolve to eat more vegetables.

2:54So the worst thing I could do is be like, I'm going to eat more vegetables because of health benefits. Because, you know, that's pretty boring and I'm not going to like choke down this like salad just because I know it's good for me. I mean, most salads out there are boring. Instead of boring salads, I'll be like, oh, I really love the act of researching what ingredients are in season. Even if something is important or meaningful, I want this goal to be freaking fun. So as somebody who's set some pretty lofty goals for themselves over the years, I absolutely love this tip. Basically, it's all about taking those big, intimidating, lofty goals and slashing them into micro habits.

3:37When a resolution is too big or too vague, it makes it easier for you to make up excuses why you're not going to do it. So, for example, say your resolution is to read more. That's a very scary, intimidating, and vague...

4:07on that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

4:21Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready. Because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition, 100 % whole grain oats, and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious. Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26. I, oh, let's go! Goal. So to break it down into a micro habit, maybe you would say, okay, I'll read for 45 minutes a day. That's still too big. All right, I'll read a chapter every night. That's still too big. Your goal should be something like, I'm going to read a paragraph before bed every single night.

5:09Now that is a micro habit. I know that sounds really small, but it's called a micro habit for a reason. It's supposed to be something that's so small that it almost feels ridiculous to do. But that's the point. It's supposed to feel achievable. It's supposed to feel like something that you are intimidated to do on a daily basis. So I actually don't like New Year's resolutions because I feel like they add more pressure to my already pressure-filled life. But I thought about it and I realized that the reason why I don't like New Year's resolutions is because I do too many of them at the same time.

5:54Evaluate your goal list. Ask yourself a few questions. Does this goal align with my values? Should I put this goal off for another time? Or should I just get rid of it altogether? If you're in your office or a group of friends and you're hearing all of them talk about their New Year's resolutions, don't panic. You don't have to have a New Year's resolution. It's actually okay. No one really talks about maybe the risks or the side effects of having goals. Harvard Business School published this research paper that has the title, I'm dying here. It's called Goals Gone Wild. What's really interesting here is that setting goals, especially around work, can wreak havoc if not applied appropriately.

6:43So unreasonable goals or ones that are too narrow or too ambitious, like that can cause damage because there's psychological costs, you get to tunnel vision, and in the effort to hit those capital G goals, a lot of things may cost you in the long run. So these are the tactics that we found useful. We hope that you found them useful as well. Let us know in the comments how you feel about New Year's resolutions, how you feel about this advice, and any resolutions that you have in the works for 2022. Thanks for watching. Happy New Year! Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify.

7:22They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, And Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal uh so there goes my big idea for the commercial give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch up front payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12-month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms