It’s early January, meaning Earth has completed yet another lap around the sun, and the time of resolution is upon us.
Or . . . is it?
By now, most of us have heard about “Quitter’s Day:” the second Friday in January where the already-weary masses shrug off their goals. The name has stuck, presumably, because we can relate to it - the fizzling resolve, our second chances degenerating rapidly into our first chances. But, maybe the problem isn’t willpower; it’s in the way we structure (and think about) resolutions.
There’s nothing really special about January 1st, other than it’s the collectively agreed-upon beginning of the year. But a circle (or, technically, an ellipse) can begin at any point. Cheesy as it is to say, any day could be worthy of a new beginning.
Every revolution could be a revolution.
Part of what makes “Quitter’s Friday” psychologically crushing is the 355 days until the slate wipes clean in the following year. 365 days, moreover, is far too long a timeframe for ideal measurement. Research suggests that motivation increases with proximity to a goal’s desired outcome (Hall et al., 2024). Intuition confirms this. Consider how much more motivation it takes to begin a jigsaw puzzle (or any creative project) than to complete it.
But every goal - fitness, career, educational, or otherwise - will have its ups and downs, its booms and busts. A slackening of resolve should not lead to quitting, but reevaluating the goal and how to get there.
How important is the goal to you? Current research on anhedonia posits that having too many goals, contrary to the cultural expectation of always accomplishing everything, decreases reward sensitivity and, therefore, decreases motivation (Hall et al., 2024). If the goal isn’t central to your life’s journey, it could be time to reevaluate it, or shift its place in the goal queue.
Moreover, it helps to differentiate the overall goal - like becoming a doctor - from the steps needed to get there, just like a star will tell you a direction but not the means of travel.
The overall goal animates the boring steps and renders them meaningful, while the boring steps convert a goal into actual reality. Success becomes possible when we identify tangible, accomplishable steps.
If you know these “boring steps,” then the task is to organize them, focus on the step at hand, and mentally frame them with the overall goal. If the steps aren’t known, paralysis may occur, but can be remedied by mentors who can help clarify and guide you.
As you can tell, this process simply can’t be relegated to once a year. It’s a constant charge to the self. A constant reevaluation and reconfiguration.
So this year, instead of joining the quitters on Quitter’s Day, we should determine what we really value, chart the steps we need to take, and as the year progresses, continue working towards it.
References
Hall, A., Browning, M., & Huys, Q. (2024). The computational structure of consummatory anhedonia. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 28 (6), 541-553. https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S1364661324000068
