Thinking of making a resolution? Let me tell you why setting goals are better. This time of year many people make New Years’ resolutions, but over 80% of people fail to keep them. Setting a goal may have better odds of success.

3 reasons goals are better than resolutions

Goals are an intention, not a promise or a vow.

We tend to think of resolutions in all-or-nothing terms. You have either kept your resolution or you haven’t, making it easy to feel like a failure and give up as soon as you falter. If you set a goal you are more likely to recognize partial success. This can help motivate us to keep trying. Even if you don’t meet your goal perfectly you still have reason to try.

Goals offer more flexible timing.

You may expect to be perfect at your resolutions come January 1st. But if you set a goal instead you give yourself the flexibility to make slower progress. Maybe you want to go to the gym 3 times a week. If you try to do that starting the first week in January you may get overwhelmed and quit. However, if you set a goal with an intended deadline, and give yourself the flexibility to go once or twice the first week and work your way up to three times a week. You may have more success.

Goals are specific, positive, and suggest planning.

Often resolutions are vague, are stated as things we are not going to do, and have no plan behind them. For example, a resolution maybe, “I’m going to eat less junk food.” That is great, but how are going to do that? How are you going to measure your success? Studies show that people are more successful when they set an intention to do something, rather than to not do something. So, if you want to eat less junk food, you may want to set a goal to have healthy snacks 5 days of the week. This can then be separated into sub-goals. “I will prepare healthy snacks I can eat on the go,” and “I will get rid of the junk food in the house. “

Why set P.A.C.T. goals instead of S.M.A.R.T. goals

Many people are aware of the acronym S.M.A.R.T. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. S.M.A.R.T. was coined by researchers in 1981 as a way to write management goals and objectives. For organizational goals S.M.A.R.T. makes sense, but for personal goals, P.A.C.T. goals may be more useful. P.A.C.T. stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable.

As an example, let’s look at a common goal of weight loss. Stated using S.M.A.R.T. you might make your goal, “I will lose 15 pounds by February 28th.” However, this leads to several questions. How will you achieve this? What will happen come March 1st? Will losing 15 lbs. impact your life significantly?

Looking at the same goal from a P.A.C.T. perspective, you might rephrase the goal as, “I will change my diet and exercise routines so that I can reach and maintain a healthy weight.” While this broad goal meets the purposeful, continuous, and trackable criteria you have to add subgoals to make it actionable. Examples might include, “I will eat healthy dinners six days a week,” and “I will walk twenty minutes a day.”

Getting and staying motivated- the secret to reaching your goals

Pick goals that really matter

The first secret to reaching your goals is simple- set goals that matter. If you set a goal because you think you should, or because you kind of want it, your chances for success are slim. Take time to consider what will really make a difference in your life, not only short-term but long-term. Also, don’t water down your dreams, or make them too “realistic”. If your dream is to be a lawyer, but you think that is unrealistic so you set a goal of becoming a paralegal your motivation is going to be as limited as your dream. Go for the real thing! For more tips see Preparing for Goal Setting.

Focus on action

Another tip is to focus on output (or action), not the outcome (or results). There are always some things beyond our control, but we are in control of our actions. If we focus our goals on what we will do, rather than the results of our actions we will be less likely to be disappointed and quit. So, don’t make the goal to get the promotion, but to increase your skills and competence. Maybe you won’t get the promotion, but you’ll have confidence and skills that are likely to be rewarded somehow.

Strive for balance

Lastly, don’t become excessively goal-focused. While being motivated and focused is wonderful, take time to enjoy the present, too. If you are so strict with dietary changes that you forego social occasions because of the food choices, your diet is likely to be short-lived. If you spend every moment of your free time working towards that degree, you may get burnout or fall ill. Even if you reach your goal, you may find that you regret the things you denied yourself in the process. A balance of goal-focus and enjoying the moment is key to staying motivated.