"How Committed Are You to Your New Year Goals?" A Quantitative Study on the Connection of Commitment and Performance with New Year Resolutions

Personal goal setting and consistent daily activities can help people reach their goals, aspirations, and dreams, resulting in a satisfying quality of life. People seeking to learn how to activate their lives in a certain direction, either professionally or personally, can set goals to attain a fulfilling quality of life. According to Locke and Latham’s (2002) goal-setting theory, complex goals motivate people to increase their performance. The goal-setting theory outlines four dynamics through which goals function:

• Goals enable the discovery of task-relevant knowledge
• Goals increase personal persistence as people are willing to work hard to achieve them
• Goals motivate people to put forth physiological and cognitive effort
• Goals enable people to direct their focus toward goal-oriented activities

Personal goals can target higher happiness levels by pursuing intrinsic goals (internal reward) such as physical health, affiliation, and a feeling of community. In contrast, the extrinsic (external reward) type of goals pursued is typically for one’s financial success, image, and popularity (Guillen-Royo & Kasser, 2015). Successful progress toward a goal, pursuit, or endeavor can then raise positive emotions for that particular moment and event, creating an enhanced feeling of self-satisfaction and personal well-being.

Studies propose that additional factors, such as goal commitment, may define the effect of goal setting (Wang et al., 2018). Höchli, Brügger, and Messner (2020) describe goal commitment as the determination to try for a goal. While the literature considers goal commitment as a determinant in goal setting, most studies focusing on internal and external rewards overlook the significance of goal commitment. This research aimed to determine the relationship between commitment to goal and goal categories.

2.1 Abandoned Goals

Personal goal setting (PGS) and consistent daily activity can help individuals reach their dreams, aspirations, and goals, resulting in a more satisfying and fulfilling quality of life experience. Locke and Latham (2002) describe goals as objectives of an action to achieve a certain degree of proficiency within a certain timeframe. Goals provide individuals with reference points that determine motivational and self-regulatory behaviours. The connection between human behaviour and goals is a critical dimension in the goal-setting theory.

For the current study, a goal is defined as the cognitive depiction of the desired outcome that an individual seeks to achieve (Milyavskaya & Werner, 2018). This definition differentiates goals from fantasies, which are the cognitive depiction of future outcomes that may or may not happen and do not rely on achievement (Oettingen et al., 2001). Goals, unlike fantasies, demand a commitment to a purposeful action with the probability that the desired outcome will be achieved (Milyavskaya & Werner, 2018). Therefore, we consider abandoned goals as mental representations of desired outcomes that people commit to achieve but are not actively pursued.

2.2 Characteristics of Abandoned Goals

This section draws from different theories of goal pursuit to determine the attributes that abandoned goals possess, including the specific plan people make to attain their goals, the motivation for pursuing goals, and the challenges of a specific goal.

2.2.1 Difficulty of a Goal

The goal-setting theory posits that the existence of difficult and specific goals results in improved individual task performance (Locke & Latham, 2002). This implies that set goals enhance individuals’ focus since it directs efforts and attention as a motivational approach to influence performance behaviour. While the literature demonstrates that challenging goals positively impact motivation and performance, some scholars have documented the adverse effects. Galinsky et al. (2002) found a reduction in satisfaction when people fail to achieve high-quality outcomes, and Bayuk (2015) found that difficult goals stifled effort and resulted in reduced commitment.

The specificity of goals can also determine the effort directed toward goal completion. Low-order goals are specific and outline how and when people will attain them (e.g., going to the gym twice a week). Abstract and high-order goals, such as being healthy, are not specific and are vaguely outlined. In the context of abandoned goals, scholars support the view that vague or too-easy goals lead to minimal directed effort toward achievement — people may ignore easy goals because they have limited satisfaction in their achievement, and challenging goals when they consider them overwhelming.

2.2.2 Goal Motivation

The motivation for setting goals has significant implications for goal commitment in the context of abandoned goals. Milyavskaya et al. (2015) found that pursuing goals for intrinsic motivation results in goal commitment while pursuing goals for extrinsic motivation results in goal abandonment. The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic goals is relevant in the context of abandoned goals, as it can be assumed that extrinsic goals are susceptible to abandonment due to a lack of self-regulation mechanism or personal drive to succeed.

2.2.3 Planning

Developing a plan to facilitate goal commitment is critical once a goal is set. The intent to implement a plan entails specifying how, where, and when individuals will go about goal pursuing, and the challenges they will face. Establishing a pre-defined plan implies that people will not need to waste time in decision-making or deciding on goal-incongruent alternatives (Webb & Sheeran, 2007). While the intention to implement a goal has been highlighted as an effective self-regulatory approach, studies report that individuals lack the knowledge to formulate effective plans (Milyavskaya & Nadolny, 2016). Milyavskaya and Nadolny (2016) explored health goals and found that nearly half of the participants had no plans, while only 23% had concrete plans — depicting the foundation of goal abandonment.

3.1 Research Design

A descriptive quantitative approach was adopted to explore U.S. adults’ perception of their commitment to goal and goal categories. This approach focuses on producing summary data regarding the current state of a group regarding a phenomenon (Gall et al., 2017). The current study was interested in how U.S. citizens are committed to their goals. The description of the goal categories of U.S. adults and the analysis of the relation between their commitment to goal and goal categories provided new knowledge to the characteristics of goal abandonment literature stream.

3.2 Participants

The population for the current study was 1,000 adults in the United States. The study utilised Krejcie and Morgan’s table to sample the study population, given that the type of current study was unaware of the society variance and success or failure probability of the variable. The study used convenience sampling, selecting participants based on their accessibility and proximity to the research (Bornstein et al., 2013). Participants were selected by posting on social media and local business bulletins, and were included if they were aged between 20 and 60 years.

Eligible participants were directed to an informed consent page, and once consent was obtained through SurveyMonkey®, data collection began with a self-reported questionnaire.

Q1 & Q2 — Goal Setting and Commitment

Out of 999 cases, 184 (18.4%) of the individuals reported having set at least one goal in January, while 815 (81.6%) had not. Of the 815 people who set at least one goal for themselves in January, 762 (93.5%) abandoned it through June, while only 53 (6.5%) remained committed to their January-set goals through June.

Q3 — By What Month Did You Drop the Ball?

Out of 762 cases who set at least one goal in January but abandoned it through June, most individuals (484 cases, 63.5%) committed to their January-set goals for one month before abandoning them in February. 245 (32.2%) of the individuals dropped their goals in January — the same month of setting the goal. 21 (2.8%) abandoned their goals in March, 9 (1.2%) in April, 2 (0.3%) in May, and only one individual (0.1%) abandoned the goal in June.

Q4 — Goal Categories

Of the 815 people who set at least one goal in January, 303 (37.2%) described their goals under the fitness category, 235 (28.8%) under money and finance, 98 (12%) under health, 68 (8.3%) under career & education, 48 (5.9%) under relationships, 18 (2.2%) under other, and 45 (5.5%) did not specify a category. According to the data, fitness comes first in importance, then money and finances, health, career and education, relationships, and other goals.

A non-parametric Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ²) was applied to examine whether there is a significant association between commitment to a goal (Q2) and goal category (Q4). Phi (φ), equivalent to the correlation coefficient r, was used to measure the effect size of the association. In interpreting the strength of the relationship, Hemphill’s (2003) recommendation was used: the relationship can be described as very weak if the correlation coefficient (r) ranges from 0.01 to 0.19, weak if it ranges from 0.20 to 0.39, moderate from 0.40 to 0.59, strong from 0.60 to 0.79, and very strong from 0.80 to 1.0.

The crosstabs analysis demonstrates a significant relationship between commitment to goal and goal category due to the Pearson Chi-Square p-value of 0.042 being less than the 0.05 cutoff. The Effect Size of Phi was 0.122, however, indicating only a very weak relationship between the two variables. Cross-tabulation findings showed that most goals across all categories had been abandoned through June.

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