Here’s a resolution that could help you achieve more in 2025: No more resolutions.
Whether you want to get into better shape, learn a new skill, pursue mastery of your favorite hobby, or spend less and save more, resolutions almost always end up, well, unresolved. According to one widely cited study, over 80% of folks give up on their resolutions before the end of January. Others have pegged
resolution failure rates above 90%.
Here are three reasons to ditch resolutions and focus on building better habits in 2025.
1. Habits are specific.
So, you want to “be healthier” in 2025? Well, sorry. You can’t. In fact, no one can.”Be healthier” is exactly the kind of well-meaning resolution that folks tend to abandon because it’s not SMART enough: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Challenging a resolution with questions can lead you to a SMART goal and the habits that will help you achieve it. So, how are you going to get healthier? By exercising more. How? By running. When? Every day. When? Every morning before work. For how long? 15 minutes. Where? In the park by my house.
With a little planning, your unobtainable “get healthy” resolution has become a plan to run for 15 minutes every morning at your local park that will help you achieve your original goal.
2. Habits create consistency.
“Get healthy” and “save more money” also aren’t things that you can pencil into your weekly calendar. But you can use that morning run as the cornerstone of a new morning routine. You might build on that routine by moving next to a healthy pre-planned meal, writing your daily to-do list, and taking a moment for silent reflection before you head out the door. The best habits often snowball like this into other habits that help us keep making progress, little by little, every single day, in multiple areas of our lives.
In other words, you might say good habits “compound.”
That’s a key concept to keep in mind if you want to build better financial habits. Very few people can “buy a house” on the spur of the moment. For many folks, even smaller luxuries like going on vacation or upgrading a home theater require careful planning and budgeting. And the ultimate aim of most financial plans – securing retirement — is a long-term goal that takes consistent saving and investing over decades.
Start small. If you don’t have a monthly budget, make one that covers both the essentials (mortgage, utilities) and some fun (taking your family to the movies, dinner with your spouse). “Pay yourself first” by making automatic monthly contributions to your savings, investment, and retirement accounts as soon as your paycheck deposits. Identify major near-term spending goals, like buying a house, and create a dedicated, automated savings plan for those goals as well. Stick to your plan and, month by month, those investments in your future will compound and grow.
3. Habits can change negative behaviors.
While we tend to think of habits as enforcing good behavior, we can also build habits that steer us away from the triggers that impede our progress.
If you snack too much when you watch TV at night, clean up the kitchen and turn off the lights before you settle in for your favorite show. If you’re a sucker for emails or social media posts from your favorite retailers, unfollow and unsubscribe.
Instead of letting bad weather keep you from exercising, find a YouTube channel you can pop on if it’s too rainy for a run. If you want to cut down on screen time, keep magazines and newspapers on your nightstand.
Our suite of interactive, Life-Centered Planning tools can help you identify areas in your life and finances that you might want to put more of your resources into next year.
Picture of the Month
The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he
feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.“
— Marcus Aurelius
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC. This article was prepared for Paul Peeler’s use.