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Making Your Resolutions Stick

Summary

In this New Year’s episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cottrell provides a practical guide to making resolutions that actually stick. He explains that the new year represents a psychological reset that creates an opportunity for behavioral change, similar to how changing a student’s environment can help modify their behavior.

Cottrell outlines six key strategies for effective resolution-setting. First, he emphasizes setting specific goals with ranges rather than single numbers, citing research that shows people perform better with ranges. Second, he discusses using positive incentives to reinforce desired behaviors, creating mental connections between actions and rewards.

Third, Cottrell recommends telling someone about your goal to create social accountability, but warns against sharing too much as this can trigger premature feelings of accomplishment. Fourth, he suggests setting automatic reminders for February and March to review progress, since resolutions often fade after January.

Fifth, he advises formalizing resolutions by making them concrete events with clear starting points. Finally, Cottrell stresses the importance of breaking resolutions down to daily implementation levels, tracking progress regularly to ensure goals remain concrete rather than becoming idealistic fantasies.

Recommendations

Articles

  • Harvard Business Review article on goal ranges — Referenced in the episode as supporting research that people perform better with goal ranges rather than specific numbers, with ranges that are both challenging at the high end and attainable at the low end.

Tools

  • OneMonth.com — The episode sponsor offering practical learning resources for tech entrepreneurs, including programming for non-programmers, growth hacking, iOS development with Swift, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, content marketing, Ruby on Rails, and Python.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:47 — Introduction to New Year’s resolutions — Jonathan introduces the topic of making resolutions stick, noting that New Year’s represents a psychological reset similar to changing environments for behavioral modification. He references how teachers change students’ environments to establish new rules and behaviors.
  • 00:03:03 — Tip 1: Set specific goal ranges — Jonathan explains the first tip: set resolutions with specific goals using ranges rather than single numbers. He gives examples like losing 15-25 pounds instead of exactly 20 pounds, or working 35-45 hours per week instead of exactly 40 hours. Research shows people perform better with ranges that have both challenging and attainable endpoints.
  • 00:05:34 — Tip 2: Use positive incentives — The second tip focuses on using positive psychological reinforcement through incentives. Jonathan suggests creating reward systems, like buying yourself an Xbox game after finishing a book if your resolution is to read more. Positive incentives help create mental connections that reinforce desired behaviors.
  • 00:06:31 — Tip 3: Tell someone but not too much — Jonathan discusses the importance of social accountability by telling someone about your goal, but warns against sharing too much detail. Sharing creates pressure to follow through, but oversharing can trigger premature feelings of accomplishment that undermine motivation, similar to how buying a gym membership doesn’t actually make you fit.
  • 00:10:39 — Tip 4: Set reminders to review progress — The fourth tip involves setting automatic reminders for February and March to review resolution progress. Jonathan notes that resolutions often fade after January, so creating personal reminders helps maintain focus when cultural emphasis on resolutions diminishes.
  • 00:11:56 — Tip 5: Formalize your resolution — Jonathan advises formalizing resolutions by making them concrete events with clear starting points. This could involve calendar marking, creating videos, or other tangible methods to make the commitment visible and memorable, transforming vague ideals into concrete intentions.
  • 00:13:04 — Tip 6: Determine daily implementation — The final tip focuses on breaking resolutions down to daily implementation levels. Jonathan emphasizes tracking daily progress and doing the math to understand what needs to happen each day, using examples like reading more than one page daily to finish a 500-page book in a year.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2016-01-01T08:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:16:16

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey everyone and welcome to Developer Tea. My name is Jonathan Cottrell and today I’m

[00:00:07] going to be talking to you about how to make your resolutions stick. Thank you to today’s

[00:00:12] sponsor, OneMonth.com. We are kicking off the brand new year with OneMonth.com as our

[00:00:20] sponsor. It’s appropriate that OneMonth is the first sponsor of the year because that

[00:00:24] was true for last year as well. OneMonth was the first sponsor for Developer Tea. Thank

[00:00:30] you again to OneMonth for sponsoring the show for so long. If you are looking for a learning

[00:00:35] resource as a digital entrepreneur, definitely check out OneMonth.com. We will talk more

[00:00:40] about what OneMonth has to offer to you as an entrepreneur later on in today’s episode.

[00:00:47] But I want to jump straight into talking about making resolutions stick. Most of you probably

[00:00:52] celebrate the new year.

[00:00:54] You probably celebrate January 1st and a lot of us make resolutions around this time

[00:01:00] of year. We start thinking about the new year. Resolutions are definitely a trendy thing

[00:01:05] to do. If we decorate for Christmas with a Christmas tree or for Hanukkah with a menorah,

[00:01:11] the New Year’s is decorated with black eyed peas and resolutions. In today’s episode,

[00:01:15] we’re going to talk about resolutions. The new year is a psychological reset. We take

[00:01:20] a short sabbatical by having a few days off from work.

[00:01:24] And then we have some time to reflect. Budgets are reset. Even the small change of writing 2016

[00:01:31] instead of 2015 forces our minds into a new context for the new year. And when we change

[00:01:39] contexts, we’re more likely to adopt behavioral change as well. A colleague of mine mentioned

[00:01:44] this recently. His wife is a teacher and her entire focus is on creating systems for education

[00:01:50] for elementary aged students.

[00:01:54] This is one of the reasons why she told us one of the reasons why when a student is found

[00:02:04] to have behavioral issues in a classroom, the student is often removed from that classroom

[00:02:10] and placed in a different environment. And at that moment, they are given new rules.

[00:02:15] They are given new behaviors to follow. And this is shown to be an effective solution

[00:02:22] to changing that child’s behavior.

[00:02:24] And in many ways, that’s exactly what a resolution is for yourself. You’re kind of creating a

[00:02:29] new rule or a new norm for yourself. So with that said, making resolution stick is still

[00:02:35] kind of difficult because change, change is very hard to accomplish. Change is very difficult

[00:02:41] to bring into your life. People tend to stay the same most of the time. In this episode,

[00:02:47] we’ll discuss ways to adopt your resolutions and to stick to them.

[00:02:52] I’m going to jump straight in.

[00:02:53] I’ve got six different ways.

[00:02:54] We’re going to go through three. We’re going to talk about one month, the sponsor,

[00:02:57] and then we’re going to go through the other three. The first one is set a resolution with

[00:03:03] a specific goal. Set a resolution with a specific goal. You want to make the goal you set a variant

[00:03:10] of a range rather than a static solitary figure or a specific number. If your goal is, for example,

[00:03:17] to lose weight, then you want to set a target weight and create a range for yourself that

[00:03:22] starts below that target weight and goes above that target weight. The reason for this is because

[00:03:27] quite simply, research has shown that people are better at hitting ranges than they are at

[00:03:33] hitting specific goals. It is much easier for you, for example, to think about working between 35 and

[00:03:39] 45 hours a week than to think about hitting an exact 40 hours per week. The idea here is that

[00:03:45] you have a range that is both challenging and attainable. In fact, that’s an exact quote from

[00:03:52] a Harvard Business Review article that I will include in the show notes. The idea is to create

[00:03:58] a range that is both challenging at the high end of that range and attainable at the low end of that

[00:04:04] range. If you hit the middle of the range, then all you’re doing is creating a compromised value

[00:04:10] between the challenging, overachieving goal point at the high end and the minimum viable

[00:04:18] at the bottom end of that range. If your goal is to lose

[00:04:22] 20 pounds, then you may want to set a goal of losing between 15 and 25 pounds. The most important

[00:04:29] part of setting this range is number one, making sure that the low end of the range is the minimum

[00:04:35] attainable and the minimum viable number or minimum viable goal point, and then the maximum

[00:04:41] side of that range being actually possible. You don’t want to set a maximum so high that it’s

[00:04:47] actually impossible to achieve. The reason you want to make your goal specific,

[00:04:52] rather than general, for example, you wouldn’t want to create a goal like lose some weight.

[00:04:58] Instead, having a very specific determining factor of whether or not you have met that goal,

[00:05:04] that is absolutely essential to goal setting. If you don’t have a specific goal to shoot for,

[00:05:11] then you don’t have a way of understanding when you have succeeded and perhaps more importantly,

[00:05:16] when you have failed. A goal without specificity is actually just an ideal.

[00:05:23] And if you want your resolutions to be about progress and about change,

[00:05:26] then you will turn your ideals into specific goals. Okay, so number two, use the most proven

[00:05:34] psychological reinforcement, positive incentive to help you achieve your goal. We won’t spend a

[00:05:40] lot of time on this, but the most important thing to understand here is that positive incentives

[00:05:45] are incredibly important when you want to change behavior, whether that is your own behavior or the

[00:05:50] behavior of others. If you want to change your behavior, you need to change your behavior. If you

[00:05:52] want to change your behavior, you need to change your behavior. And there’s many different types of

[00:05:53] positive incentives. For example, if you have a resolution to read more books, then perhaps every

[00:05:59] book you read, once you’ve finished it, you give yourself the permission to go and buy an Xbox game

[00:06:06] by giving yourself the reward system. And by establishing it without any flexibility,

[00:06:11] you’re creating a mental connection. Even if you are completely cognizant of that connection,

[00:06:18] it still has been shown to work.

[00:06:22] It also helps to have an accountability partner or somebody who knows what your goal is. And that’s

[00:06:31] exactly what number three talks about. Tell someone about your goal, but don’t tell them

[00:06:36] too much. Tell someone about your goal, but don’t tell them too much. The reason that you want to

[00:06:41] tell someone about your goal is because that creates social accountability, which is basically

[00:06:47] the pressure to follow through with the things that you say you’re going to do to your friends.

[00:06:52] The reason that we want to do this is because we don’t want to look like we are weak. We don’t

[00:06:57] want to look like we are inconsistent or that we lie. This is very important in a social setting.

[00:07:04] When we say we want to do something or we say we are something to another person, we are much more

[00:07:09] likely to achieve that particular goal. Now, the reason you don’t want to tell them too much is

[00:07:16] because telling someone about your goal, telling someone about the thing that you have realized

[00:07:21] that you want to do to your friends, that you want to do to your friends, that you want to do to your

[00:07:22] friends, that you want to do to yourself, that can also psychologically trigger some of the same

[00:07:26] releases that accomplishment triggers, that accomplishing your actual goal would trigger.

[00:07:32] This is also visible when you see a lot of people at the beginning of the new year who want to be

[00:07:38] more physically active and they go and they buy a gym membership. And even though buying that gym

[00:07:44] membership didn’t necessarily make them more active, that simple action, that step towards

[00:07:50] their goal gave them a chance to be more physically active. And that simple action gave them a chance to

[00:07:51] that sense of release, that sense of accomplishment that they actually really haven’t earned. So you

[00:07:58] have to be careful about doing things that give you a sense of accomplishment before you’ve actually

[00:08:03] taken steps towards your goal. And this goes back to the number one tip that I gave you today, which

[00:08:09] is set a resolution with a specific goal within a given range. And this will show you, hey, you know,

[00:08:16] just because you bought that gym membership or just because you told your friend that you want

[00:08:20] to read more books, you’re not going to be able to accomplish that goal. And so you have to be

[00:08:21] That doesn’t mean that you’ve actually taken any steps towards making that happen. Instead, you actually

[00:08:27] have to go to the gym to be more active. You can’t just buy the membership. You also have to follow

[00:08:32] through and get up and go to the gym. So a quick recap. Number one, set a resolution with a specific

[00:08:39] goal. That goal should be a range rather than a solitary figure. Number two, use the most proven

[00:08:46] psychological reinforcement, positive incentives to help you achieve your goal. And number three,

[00:08:51] tell someone about your goal, but don’t tell them too much. Now, I want to take a quick break to talk about

[00:08:58] today’s sponsor, OneMonth.com. I already mentioned that OneMonth was the very first sponsor for

[00:09:04] Developer T at the beginning of the year last year, and they are the first sponsor for this year as

[00:09:10] well. OneMonth.com can help you become a tech entrepreneur. It’s not about getting a degree.

[00:09:17] It’s about applied learning. Fifteen minutes a day from the comfort of your home.

[00:09:21] You can learn skills like programming for non-programmers, growth hacking,

[00:09:27] iOS development with Swift, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, content marketing, Ruby on Rails or Python,

[00:09:34] and plenty more. If you have an idea for an app or a product and you’ve been trying to find a place

[00:09:41] to gain the practical skills to make that product a reality, then enroll now at OneMonth.com

[00:09:47] slash Developer T, and you will get 25% off your first month.

[00:09:51] Just for being a Developer T listener. Again, it’s OneMonth, 15 minutes a day from the comfort

[00:09:57] of your own home. OneMonth.com slash Developer T, and as always, you can find that link in the

[00:10:03] show notes at spec.fm. Thank you again to OneMonth.com. So let’s get right back into talking

[00:10:09] about setting your resolutions and making them stick. We’ve already talked about setting specific

[00:10:16] goals, not talking too much about those goals, being sure that you don’t create that cycle,

[00:10:21] before you’ve actually done anything to accomplish those goals, and of course,

[00:10:27] providing yourself with positive incentives. Now I want to talk to you about how you follow up

[00:10:32] with your resolutions. So the fourth tip I have for you today is to set an automatic reminder

[00:10:39] for the beginning of February and March to review your progress on your resolutions. Because the

[00:10:45] truth is, resolutions often stay strong throughout January, but by February and March, people tend

[00:10:51] to fall off. So if you’re in a situation where you’re in a situation where you’re in a situation

[00:10:51] because we aren’t thinking about the word resolution, except around the beginning of

[00:10:56] January. This is why you see a ton of people at the gym at the beginning of January, but as

[00:11:01] the spring rolls through, you’re going to see fewer people. So when you have that reminder set

[00:11:07] to review your resolutions in February and March, now you have that reminder that isn’t necessarily

[00:11:14] coming from the culture around you, but rather it’s coming from yourself. You’re reminding yourself

[00:11:19] to go back and review your resolutions. So if you’re in a situation where you’re in a situation

[00:11:21] review your progress to that range goal that you’ve already set. Of course, you can set a

[00:11:27] reminder in just about any to-do app these days. iOS has the built-in reminders. I assume Android

[00:11:34] has something similar as well. So just set a reminder in one of the many systems that you

[00:11:39] probably already use to review your resolutions. Of course, that requires that you have your

[00:11:44] resolutions taken down. So when you set your resolution, make sure you write it down. Make

[00:11:49] sure you have some sort of way of writing it down. So if you’re in a situation where you’re in a situation

[00:11:51] of knowing exactly what that resolution was, and that goes along with tip number five, and that is

[00:11:56] formalize your resolution. Formalize your resolution. Make it an event. Start with some

[00:12:03] kind of kickoff where the changing moment was that you committed to your resolve, that that moment is

[00:12:09] marked, that you remember that moment, whether it’s on a calendar somewhere, or maybe you just

[00:12:14] create a video of yourself talking about the resolution for you to watch at the beginning

[00:12:19] of February or at the beginning of March.

[00:12:21] There are many ways that you can formalize your resolution. Some of it kind of depends on what

[00:12:25] your resolution is. But the most important piece of formalizing is making it concrete,

[00:12:31] making it tangible. Knowing that you have created a resolution, not just that you have some lofty

[00:12:38] goal that you’re not really sure what it is, making it concrete, making it visible, verbalizing or

[00:12:45] writing it down in some way, that is kind of the definition of formalizing it. Making it

[00:12:51] a true commitment that you can see in front of you. Now my final tip for the day to making your

[00:12:56] resolution stick is to determine in some way how your resolution actually plays out day to day.

[00:13:04] It is easy to make a resolution and feel accomplished without actually doing anything.

[00:13:09] Like we talked about going to the gym and getting a membership doesn’t actually make you more fit.

[00:13:16] But for progress to be made, it is important that on a given day,

[00:13:20] you know whether you’re going to be able to make a resolution or not. And if you’re not, then you’re not.

[00:13:21] Whether or not you have taken a step towards your resolution, or if you have failed to take a step

[00:13:27] towards your resolution. Track your progress towards your goals, or else your goals will

[00:13:32] change from concrete and measurable to idealistic and impossible. Determine how your resolution

[00:13:38] actually plays out day to day. If you want to lose 20 pounds in one month,

[00:13:44] you can do the math to determine about how much you need to lose each day for 30 days.

[00:13:50] And if you’re not, then you’re not. And if you’re not, then you’re not. And if you’re not, then you’re not.

[00:13:51] And that is how you make your idealistic resolutions more concrete. You start looking at them

[00:13:58] at a day-to-day level. If you want to read a 500-page book in 365 days, you have to read more

[00:14:04] than one page per day on average. Or else you have to have a bunch of binge reading sessions.

[00:14:09] If you go a few days without reading, you have to catch up. And the only way to actually

[00:14:14] accomplish large resolutions is one piece at a time. You only have one day at a time

[00:14:20] to be able to accomplish these things. So make sure you start looking at them

[00:14:24] at that day-to-day level, not just at that large idealistic level.

[00:14:30] So let’s recap the six tips for making your resolution stick in 2016. Number one,

[00:14:36] set a resolution with a specific goal that has a range from the minimum viable all the way up

[00:14:43] to the ultra overachiever. Number two, use the most proven psychological reinforcement,

[00:14:49] positive incentives, to help you achieve your goal. Number three, tell someone about your goal,

[00:14:56] but don’t tell them too much. Otherwise, you may feel that same psychological trigger as

[00:15:01] actually accomplishing that goal. Number four, set an automatic reminder for the beginning of

[00:15:07] February and March, and perhaps beyond that, to review your progress on your resolutions.

[00:15:13] Number five, formalize your resolution, make it concrete, create an event out of the beginning of

[00:15:18] that resolution. Number six, set an automatic reminder for the beginning of that resolution,

[00:15:19] and number six, determine how your resolution actually plays out on a day-to-day level.

[00:15:26] I hope for each of my listeners that you create some daring and exciting resolutions this year,

[00:15:31] that the work and the play that you do this year is the best that you’ve ever had.

[00:15:36] I’m excited for the year, and I hope you are too. Thank you so much for listening to this show,

[00:15:41] and thank you to today’s sponsor, OneMonth.com. Of course, if you are a tech entrepreneur and

[00:15:46] you’re looking for a practical learning resource, you’re going to want to check out OneMonth.com.

[00:15:49] that you can consume from your couch. Go to OneMonth.com slash developer tea. Of course,

[00:15:55] you get 25% off. That link and every other link from today’s episode will be in the show notes

[00:16:01] at spec.fm. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Happy New Year, and until next

[00:16:08] time, enjoy your tea.

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