New Year's Resolutions & Learning
Learning to be better in 2024
One of my resolutions for my own new year’s resolutions is to believe that I will actually stick to them past the end of saying them out loud.
But I thought I would share some of my new thinking that I hope will support me to do this in 2024.
A Learning-Centred Learning Mindset
I want to adopt a learning or growth mindset (Dweck, 2006) to all of the goals I am setting. Thinking simply about the options of a fixed mindset, where abilities, talents and intelligence are largely fixed vs. the learning or growth mindset where skills and knowledge can be developed, challenges can be embraced and setbacks are accepted as part of the process. Dweck’s book (2006) suggests that our thinking and mindset about our abilities and potential to grow and improve will impact our chances of success.
Allowing myself to think I am someone who is “learning” to be a runner, or learning to build healthy lifestyle habits, rather than someone who either “has it” or “doesn’t have it”, or someone who has “got it” or “doesn’t get it” I am hoping helps with my mindset shift. If I am teaching someone to read, dance, act or play a sport - I don’t immediately cut them off when they first fumble a word or make a mistake and tell them: “Sorry Billy, you just don’t have it…give up now, you’re not going to make it!”
But I think it is something that I do a lot with myself. So when I think of adopting a learning mindset, it is also partly about being more forgiving and accepting of the mistakes and mis-steps along the way. Thinking of them as part of the learning process, and part of how people learn from mistakes and failures to overcome obstacles and persist to achieve success and positive outcomes.
A Focus on Learning and Outcomes
Setting goals is a powerful way to focus your energy and achieve personal growth. When writing learning outcomes, I aim to define the knowledge, skill and attitudes I want to observe or see demonstrated by learners at different stages during the process. I also aim to define the standards, conditions or quality level that the performance of the learner will be assessed, or preferably, the authentic environment in which the future real-world action is required (Herrington et al, 2010).
Examples of Possible Health and Fitness Outcomes
“By the end of January, I will gain knowledge about ten effective cardio and strength-training exercises so that I can complete 20 and 30 minutes of exercise, suitable for my current levels of fitness without needing to do lots of planning, or buy special clothes or equipment."
“By the end of February, I will be able to go to a range of group exercise classes without feeling I do not belong there, or shouldn’t be there. Each week, I will try to write a reflection on anything positive I can think of related to my exercise experiences, noting improvements in my mood and energy levels. Each week, I will share one positive thing about my experiences with a friend.”
"By the end of April, I will be walking my dog for 30 minutes every morning, and will develop and enhance my cardiovascular and muscular endurance skills so that I can continuously play a 30-minute game of touch football or soccer with children and complete a 5km bike ride with friends without excessive fatigue."
“I will lose an average of 1kg each month, tracking my progress through weekly weigh ins and monthly body measurements, and adjusting my diet and adapting my exercise plans as needed, so that by the end of the year I can fit into my old favourite shirts, jackets and jumpers.”
I am not going to suggest they all have to be fully formed SMART goals, because that usually makes me roll my eyes, but being more specific in your goal setting does actually help. Despite my cynicism, the more vague a goal is - it does make it harder to achieve, or know when you’re making progress, or know when you’ve hit the target.
Aligning My Thinking with My Goals
I would align myself with learning theories aligned with social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978; Vygotsky 1986). So I think part of what I am trying to do is also factor in the social and cultural constructs in which the learning and the real world application of the learning will take place.
Being able to do exercise by myself, in isolation, as an individual goal - isn’t really what I am about - it doesn’t align with my thinking about learning or how the world works. So in my goal setting, I’ve tried to include this personal element to improve my own chances of success - I’ve also decided to share my thinking and some of my goals because of the belief that the articulation and sharing of thinking and learning with others is an important part of any learning process.
I also just want to take the same amount of care in thinking about my own goals, as I do when I am planning learning interventions for other people. I want to write plain, clear, attainable objectives so in my own mind I am clear about what I want, when I want and why I want it.
Breaking down larger goals into smaller, manageable steps is something I have never really done, as the over-promise of the vague New Year’s Resolution is all part of the fun. But to avoid being overwhelmed and not being able to track progress might be part of why I have never done them.
Embracing flexibility, as circumstances may change, requiring goal adjustments - and acknowledging that when writing New Year’s resolutions might support the mindset shift, and might make them easier to persist with and achieve.
Things we know help learner progress and motivation:
ensuring regular reviews and celebrations of progress,
linking learning to a learners intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as needed when starting and finishing chunks of learning.
Authentic and social constructivist learning approaches also acknowledge that learning and progress towards learning goals are not always linear, creating opportunities for interaction and engagement, appreciating the role of play are highly valued. I am hopeful that applying this thinking to New Year’s Resolutions might be helpful to those who are always learning learning.
Happy New Year to all who read this - whatever your goals: be happy.
Reference List:
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., & Oliver, R. (2010). A guide to authentic e-learning. Routledge.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. (A. Kozulin, Ed. & Trans.). The MIT Press. (Original work published 1934)
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Harvard University Press.