Setting goals for 2023 is the next step to get out of place; see how to do

Every time December arrives, the poems “Receita de Ano Novo” and “Cortar o Tempo”, by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, are redeemed through a happy holiday card. The first reminds us that there is no point in believing “foolishly” that “by decree of hope, things will change from January.” The other, in turn, reinforces that the calendar is genius, but it is also a cunning evil, invented by humanity to take us to the limit of exhaustion before entering the so-called “miracle of renewal”.

So, why, year in and year out, do we insist on putting goals on paper – or cell phone notepads? According to psychologists, the gesture of writing goals is therapeutic and actually helps, as it gives us the chance to carry out actions and make decisions that would be left aside if they were not put on the agenda.

Deciding that one of the goals for the new year is to improve social skills, lose weight or organize your emotions, among many other possibilities, is the first step to actually achieving what you are looking for, says clinical psychologist Aline Patrícia Machado Marques, 37.

“Revisiting our plans is always a valid exercise, regardless of when we propose to do it”, says the professional.

In this way, even when they are not met, or are only partially achieved, goals allow us to take a moment to think about the life we ​​want to have, promoting awareness of problems and the search for solutions.

For psychologist Michele Cristina Nossa, 41, who works with the methodology of evidence in her clinic, it is important to keep in mind that objectives and goals are future events and are not completely under the control of the individual.

“They depend, for the most part, on the behavior of other people, external events and the control of their own subjectivity”, he points out.

The goals plan should always be focused on the values ​​of the person behind the goals – that is, on the reasons these promises are important.

“For some individuals, establishing goals and objectives for the years to come is a way of staying organized, disciplined and focused on results”, says Nossa.

The goal must have what in psychology is called a Smart matrix. The acronym, in English, brings words that the individual should be aware of. They are: specific (specific); measurable (measurable); attainable (attainable); relevant (relevant); temporal (time based).

This means that each goal must be well defined (nothing general or too broad), meaningful enough to motivate changes in the habits involved and capable of being measured and achieved within a deadline.

If the goal is to learn public speaking with less anxiety, for example, the person might write something like this: “I want to learn strategies for regulating my emotions and behaving more safely when communicating with others within a year.”

While they need to be taken seriously, plans need not (and should not) be rigid so as not to impose harmful pressure.

“It’s healthy to reflect on future periods of our life, as long as this action doesn’t happen in isolation. The question is not to stipulate the goals, but the way that this internal construction happens”, says Marques.

Organizing year-end promises, according to the professional, includes answering some questions, such as “what are my desires and interests?” and “how did these desires arise in my life?” It is also worth asking whether there is a difference between the things you would like to do, whether you want to put them into practice for pleasure or necessity, and how we behaved in relation to these aspects in the past year.

The idea is to understand which points of practical life made it difficult or easier to achieve goals and what is the possibility of breaking down a larger proposal into smaller steps.

“Meeting established goals involves first of all getting to know yourself and your way of functioning in your routine. It is better to identify something to be pursued that is shorter in duration or more demanding than idealizing unrealistic advances”, says Marques.

Creating habits under favorable conditions is also related to the success of a plan. “If I find that I always arrive too tired after a day at work, maybe I should plan the physical activities for the next year at a morning time”, she exemplifies.

Abrupt changes, in turn, can get in the way. Those who want to read more and are not used to it, for example, have a better chance of being successful if they focus on reading one book a month than one book a week.

Radiologist Juliane Alves Paron, 45, is not always able to meet the goals she sets for herself, but even so, she considers planning a positive habit, mainly to reconcile her career and the demands of her children.

“Even unfulfilled, abandoned plans are valid. Especially because we can rethink what weighed on the failure and modify the approach next year”, says Paron.

Paron uses monthly and annual spreadsheets to try to achieve financial, personal and business goals. It also puts visual reminders in the mirror to have moments of self-care, sets alarms on the cell phone to do physical activity and even has a fixed market list with healthy items always at the top and the variables at the end.

More than superstition, for her, year-end goals are good for the context in which they are. “School holidays, the rhythm of the people, the party atmosphere, everything works together. The impact of the break in the routine, of rest, already provide a state of reflection”, says Paron.