New Year’s Resolutions Fail, Try Atomic Challenges to Make Real Progress

Don't squander the energy of a fresh start on inspirational but unrealistic goals.

Photo by Rachel on Unsplash

The avalanche of “New Year’s Resolution Ideas” headlines never stops. But in recent years, a contrarian point of view showed up. People realized resolutions are doomed to fail.

I never set New Year’s resolutions.

But it’s inevitable: the beginning of a new year feels like a fresh start. It brings time for reflection and new hopes. We feel we can finally achieve our goals, empowered by the lessons learned in the past year and filled with new energy.

But resolutions waste this excitement. I want to offer you an alternative that can increase your chances to move closer to your goals. Let me introduce you to Atomic Challenges, a realistic way to make quick progress and set you up for success in the long-term.

But first, why do resolutions fail?

You can skip this section, if you already know the answer. But I include it because it's crucial to understand why Atomic Challenges are a far better alternative.

First, most resolutions are too vague. Goals like growing an audience, publishing more, or making more money lack specificity. You need a measurable result, something that feels ambitious, but also also achievable through consistent effort.

But often even more detailed resolutions fail. Pushed by the fresh start, you shoot for the moon. It might feel motivating at first, but if it's unrealistic, it can quickly become discouraging.

Finally, even a perfectly crafted resolution is just an intention. It lacks a plan.

Thinking about resolutions is exciting. They foreshadow a successful future.

But planning is a dirty job. It makes you bump into the constraints of real life. Into all your commitments, your fears, and uncertainties.

Atomic Challenges overcome all the limitations of New Year’s Resolutions.

What is an Atomic Challenge?

I'm borrowing the term from James Clear. Everyone's doing it, so why shouldn't I? 😉

An Atomic Challenge is a challenge you set for yourself, with hard constraints that make it feasible. This way, you have higher chances to conquer it and reap the benefits.

Here are the rules:

• find an outcome you want to achieve,

• identify the recurring actions leading to that outcome,

• choose the smallest, easiest version of an action you never did consistently,

• challenge yourself to complete that action every day for 30 days,

• after 30 days, evaluate how it went, then design another challenge.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you want to grow an audience on Substack from zero. You already have your outcome.

Now, in half an hour, you can read three to five tutorials with the best tactics. Find one that resonates, feels challenging, but not totally out of reach. For example, publishing a post on Notes every day.

You already have your challenge: for the next 30 days, publish a post on Notes every day.

The outcome is clear. The action is clear. You can also clearly determine if the challenge is successful: you either do it every day, or not.

The 30 day time limit is crucial. Research shows that feeling close to a goal makes us push harder. Thirty days is long enough to be challenging, but not so far in the future to be discouraging. New Year’s resolutions never have a time limit, instead.

By the end, assess the challenge, your feelings, and the results. Maybe adjust the difficulty and repeat the challenge or find a totally different outcome.

In any case, doing something for an entire month will make it easier, or even automatic (buy making it a habit). You’ll keep keep reaping the benefits long after the challenge ended.

Helpful challenges for content creators

There is no “perfect challenge”. At any moment, there are several things you can do to improve your situation.

And this is a problem. There’s so much to learn and achieve. Analysis-paralysis is always lurking.

So, here are several ideas you can implement depending on where you’re at in your content creator journey.

Beginner level

You have no audience or a small audience. You may not have a consistent publishing schedule.

Daily content creation challenges:

• generate 10 different ideas about a specific topic,

• write for at least 15 minutes,

• publish a short post, or short video,

• work on a longer piece of content with the aim of publishing once per week.

Daily growth challenges:

• comment on one or more pieces of content by interesting creators,

• message a new creator with a compliment, thank-you, or suggestion,

• make progress on the next guest post (find guest posting opportunities, propose guest posts, create guest posts, etc.),

• improve SEO on existing content.

Intermediate level

You have an audience, but you need to improve engagement, i.e., replies to your content, email open rate, conversions from casual user to subscriber.

Daily challenges:

• DM a subscriber daily,

• promote your existing content,

• prompt your audience to engage with a question,

• make progress on a new lead magnet (brainstorm, outline, create, prepare the landing page, etc.),

• add or improve CTAs in your existing content.

Advanced level

Growth is reliable, you need to start monetizing, or to increase revenue.

There’s one daily challenge here: make progress on the next product. This involves many tasks such as, ideation, validation, product creation, landing page creation, promotion.

Learning challenges

Regardless of your level, you may use a challenge to develop some skill you need.

Daily challenges:

• spend at least 15 minutes on a course you bought, taking notes,

• consciously consume useful content for at least 15 minutes,

• do research on something you need to learn.

What’s yuor next Atomic Challenge?

Ambitious resolutions are inspiring. But the initial motivation they provide quickly fizzles out, like a fire made of only kindling.

An Atomic Challenge may seem a bit boring. But it multiplies the chances of success. You’ll probably complete it and get something in the process.

So, what Atomic Challenge are you doing this month? Tell us in the comments.

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