On January 1, 2011, Patri posted this comment to his LiveJournal (and Less Wrong):

I worry that new year’s resolutions are a Schelling point for failed self-improvement that, by using a fundamentally flawed approach, tend to fail and then discourage people from future attempts at positive change.

Can we try to switch to the meme of “Annual retreat & reflect about one’s life, goals, and habits”, rather than these so frequently failed “resolutions”, whose very name implies that the solution is more “resolve”, and thus the problem is insufficient “resolve”, rather than insufficient experimentation, knowledge about habit formation, realism about achievable change, or any of the other numerous actual reasons?

I mean, it’s 2010, and we know we lose weight through hacks, not the application of more willpower – same goes for anything else.

Wise words indeed!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the success rate of New Year’s Resolutions:

Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. A separate study in 2007 by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol showed that 78% of those who set New Year resolutions fail.

Does that fit with your experience? Do you find yourself making resolutions and setting goalsat the beginning of each New Year and then not keeping them? I know I have!

What’s more, I can’t even honesty say I was all that disappointed with myself—probably because I don’t think I ever expected to keep my goals in the first place. It almost seemed likekeeping my New Year’s Resolution would be violating a social norm.

One year when in college, realizing the New Year’s Resolutions were broken, I decided (resolved???) to make a resolution I would keep. I wanted to be the sort of person who kept my resolutions. And I did it! That year my resolution was to wear nicer socks… I threw out my old socks, bought new socks, and kept my resolution.

So, it worked… kind of. I managed to keep my resolution my scaling it back to something I could do once and forget about, but I also ended up sacrificing scope and relevance on the altar of achievability—a less than ideal solution.

If you’re feeling discouraged with New Year’s resolutions, making them fully expecting to break them by February, or if you’ve given up on making resolutions entirely, join us in our not-so-passive protest of New Year’s resolutions where we walk you through completing a New Year’s Annual Review where we eschew resolutions, reflect on what really matters to us, set goals, and make detailed plans of action for achieving them.

Let’s look at what Wikipedia has to say about what you can do to keep your New Year’s Resolutions:

Those who succeed have 5 traits in common.[5] Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, a pound a week, instead of saying “lose weight”), while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.[6]

First off, if you’re female, research says it will automatically help you achieve your goals if you set them publicly in a supportive group. And if you’re a guy, we have that covered too! We’ll be breaking goals down into an action plan with concrete, measurable steps and setting a timeline for accomplishing each necessary component.

Here’s the agenda:

1. Get in touch with your Life Goals. We’ll point you towards the major areas of life and get you inspired to consider what makes life fulfilling for you.
2. Review last year. What worked and what didn’t? What surprised you? You’ll be more successful at making an action plan for next year when you keep in mind the actual context of your life.
3. Set 3-5 year goals. To get you in the mindset of strategy, not tactics, you’ll work backwards from your Life Goals and be thinking at least several years in the future before you dig in and map out this year.
4. Decide on goals for the New Year. This step is the meat of the exercise, where you pick projects to concentrate on for the next 12 months, prioritize them, break them down into steps, and give yourself deadlines.
5. Pick a statement of intention for the year. Here’s where you get to give yourself an overarching theme like, “Year of Vision and Independence” or “Year of Learning and Exploration”.

(Patri used a slightly different process, but if you want to check out his writeup of his review, look here).

Remember, you almost certainly overestimate what you can accomplish in a day and underestimate what you can accomplish in a year! In order to choose your course, you have to chart your course. Forget resolutions and do your future self a favor by reflecting on big goals and making a strategy to achieve them.

Put it on your calendar now:

When: Monday, January 8, 2012, 7:00-9:30pm

Where: 850 Williams Way, Apt 4. Mountain View, CA

Look for the garage door with the big turtle on it, go up the stairs around the corner to the left, and come right in!

Suggested donation is $25-40.