"Do New Years resolutions even work? I've made a thousand and none of them stick. What's the point?"

- 30, F, NY

First, I'd like to validate the difficulty of setting and sustaining New Years goals, especially given there are often many social pressures that accompany this time of year. Some important questions to reflect on are: How are you going about setting these goals? Have you written them down? Have you chunked them into short term and long term goals and created objectives to guide you in achieving them?

One approach is to use the S.M.A.R.T. approach to goal setting. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. Instead of saying, "I am going to improve my health in 2023," the S.M.A.R.T. approach would be, "In 2023, I am going to move my body 3 days a week for 30 minutes, and I will schedule this into my calendar." The latter will help you break down your goals into steps that are more actionable, making it easier to stick to your goals.