This article was originally published by Fast Company.
It’s that time of year when we come up with resolutions to eat less, exercise more, and finally finish that project we’ve been putting off. But for many of us, New Year’s resolutions have become slang for the things we say we’ll do but don’t follow through on. Ironically, they’re the opposite of what they claim to be.
“Resolve” has two common connotations. Resolving an issue means finding a solution to a technical or relational problem. “They resolved the issue.” Resolve also denotes making a firm decision—placing a stake in the ground or drawing a line in the sand. “She resolved to never do that again.”
A resolution, then, is a firm decision to do or not do something to solve a problem or dispute. It is the absolute commitment to a solution that will fix or avoid something painful.
It is not saying you are going to work out every morning and then quitting after three weeks.
WHY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS DON’T WORK
I would argue that it isn’t merely a lack of discipline that causes us to so easily give up on our resolutions. We are all capable of making and fulfilling a commitment. The issue is that the problem we are resolving isn’t important enough.
It’s one thing to want to clean up your diet. It’s another to have your doctor tell you that the next heart attack could kill you. Suddenly, you’re committed to clean eating.
URGENCY VERSUS IMPORTANCE
The Eisenhower Matrix is a well-known decision-making model that maps activities against a scale of “urgent” and “important.” The idea is that we tend to spend time doing things that are urgent, rather than prioritize what’s important.
I believe there is value in this model, but the premise that we do unimportant things just because they are urgent is flawed. If something is unimportant to us, we won’t do it—no matter how urgent it is.
We only do things that have value to us. Even things that seem like wasting time give us some reward or we wouldn’t do them. We check email instead of starting the project because we get a sense of accomplishment from cleaning out our inbox. It feels good.
The problem isn’t that we don’t follow through on things that are important to us. The problem is that the wrong things are important to us.
And what is true for people is true for businesses.
ESCAPE THE WHIRLWIND
We are all familiar with the whirlwind of business. Business models require systems and processes that show up as nonstop tasks, meetings, and emails. It never ends, until the model becomes obsolete.
Therein lies the challenge for leaders. To compete in an ever-changing market, we must understand emerging problems and innovate new solutions. We must create tomorrow’s business model while today’s is still working.
What makes this hard is that the pain of not innovating won’t be felt until the future. Activities related to today’s model feel good because they work. We check things off the list and feel the psychological and maybe even the financial reward. Like the man who ignored his diet until he had the heart attack, it’s not until the business starts declining that we realize we should have done something different.
3 PRACTICES TO DO IN 2026:
As leaders, we must redefine what is important for our teams. Yes, we must keep the current processes working and deliver for our customers today. But we must also do the hard things now that will create the models of tomorrow—the things that our future selves will be glad we did.
Here are three practices to ensure our teams resolutely do important things this year:
1. Allocate time to determining what is important
Leaders must set aside time to think about the business. We need the space and mental bandwidth to consider the big questions about the problems our customers are facing now and will in the future. This won’t happen while we are consumed with the whirlwind of day-to-day business. Schedule uninterrupted time for structured thinking and protect it. We must determine what is important if we are to ensure that our actions align with it.
2. Focus on disciplines, not habits
Years ago, a friend studying the habits of high-performance athletes told me, “I discovered that I don’t believe in good habits, only bad habits. The hard things you must do repeatedly to be successful never become habitual. They always require discipline.”
Figure out the regular disciplines that you and your business must adhere to so that important things get done.
3. Create accountability for important things
We’ve all heard the adage that “what gets measured gets done.” I would say measuring isn’t enough; there must be consequences too. Doing the hard things that are important is, well, hard. We often need others to help encourage us to persevere with difficult tasks. Make the important things that you and your team must do public. Leverage each other for accountability. On the days when the pull of the whirlwind feels too great, knowing you will have to face your colleagues might just be the motivation you need to do what is important.
Our teams depend on us to ensure that we aren’t only doing what is necessary for today, but also what will help us succeed later. As leaders, we must determine what is important and then put structure and accountability in place to ensure it happens. In the future, we will look back on this moment and be grateful that we were truly resolute.
