This is the second in a series of two posts on New Year's resolutions and achieving your goals. Read the previous post to determine whether a resolution is right for you in the first place. If it is, this post will help you set an achievable one and actually get it done.

So you have a goal you want to achieve, and you also want to do the work ↗ required to succeed. These are the building blocks that enable you to set an effective resolution.

Unfortunately, many of the resolutions we set are not effective. Consider this example:

I will lose 15 pounds by the end of the year.

A common enough goal. But this resolution is all but guaranteed to fail, since it's missing a plan for taking consistent action and logging it.

Any resolution that fails to set up structures in your life to make sure you actually achieve your goal is susceptible to delaying the act of actually changing you behavior until some poorly-defined "later" time... which often never comes.

Here's a better approach, which I call consistency and logging. I've used it to successfully complete several resolutions, such as journaling every day (I started in late 2024 and am still going!) and talking to a new stranger each day for a month.

Consistency

Begin by seeing your resolution for what it actually is: a desired outcome. Instead of thinking "I will" lose 15 pounds, think "I want to" lose 15 pounds.

Then, think about the steps you need to take to get there, such as going to the gym. Then, figure out how much of that activity that you can reliably achieve every single day — even the bad days when it feels like you have no time to work on your resolution. (Hint: It's probably less than you think.)

Some ideas:

• If you want to write more: "I will write for 15 minutes every day"

• If you want to meet more new people: "I will have a conversation with 1 stranger every day"

• If you want to become fit: "I will put on my exercise clothes and go to the gym every day, even if I don't do any exercise while I'm there"

These amounts may seem small and insignificant, but they add up over 365 days. For example, 15 minutes of writing every day amounts to more than 90 hours over the course of a year. (This is far more than, say, if you decided to write for an hour daily and burned out after two weeks.)

Logging

The second key component of the plan is keeping a log of your progress every day. Logging makes you much more likely to be consistent in your action, because knowing that you'll have to log what you've done teaches your brain that this resolution is a thing you actually have to do.

The act of logging itself can take many forms, though the most important thing is that you feel compelled to write in it each day — e.g. by the knowledge there'll be an empty space in your log if you don't complete your daily action.

Personally, I keep a long-running [Obsidian note] ==link== for each of my active resolutions, and I add a short bullet point summary of my progress to the note each day. I also set an intention for the following day's action, so that I always have a direction for my action when I pick it up again.

Do it!

By applying consistency and logging, you've now transformed your resolution from something like

I will read 20 books this year.

to

I want to read 20 books this year, so I will read for 30 minutes every night before bed and keep a reading log of my progress.

This is much more actionable. All that's left is to execute on your plan, consistently, starting today.

Assuming you stay consistent for an entire year, one of two things will happen:

1. You might fall short of your original goal. Maybe you only read 10 books instead of 20. But in that case, you'll have achieved way more than you would have if you hadn't taken consistent action, and you'll have a framework already in place to help you keep improving if you choose to extend your habit into the following year.

2. The other (much more exciting) possibility is that you'll meet or exceed your original goal, sometimes even by a wild margin. You might read 30 or even 50 books!

The best part: in either case, you'll have transformed your New Year's resolution from a vague intention to a tangible improvement in your life. And won't that have been worth your while?