We live in a very goal oriented culture and it’s natural as the old year fades away and we enter the New Year full of optimism for us to set goals in hopes that they will move us forward in big and small ways. E.J. Masicampo an assistant psychology professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who studies goals and goal planning says “Goals can be extremely effective, depending on how people set and approach them,” he says. “They can inspire you and help you keep the bigger picture in mind.”

So why do so many goals (or resolutions) go by the wayside? Well, there are a couple of main reasons that tends to happen. Either people decide their goal is not worth the trouble or we never really felt emotionally attached to the goal in the first place.  That doesn’t mean your resolutions are doomed to fail. What it does mean is that if you want to achieve them, you’ll need to approach them differently. Here’s what we mean.

Say your goal is to move into management this year. That’s awesome! But, it’s also very vague. Your brain will probably have trouble deciding what behaviors you need to get you there and the road to get there seems so long that you eventually get frustrated and little by little you start to give up.

But instead, if you set smaller, more quickly attainable goals that help you work towards your main goal such as networking with 2 more people each week or asking your boss for a weekly mentoring session now you have a specific behavior that is helping you move forward.  Be sure to reward yourself regularly (about every month) when you do achieve these goals.  Don’t be tempted to skip this step, as silly as it may sound it really helps keep you on track.

The other reason we give up on our resolutions is that we are not emotionally invested in them. We tend to think reaching our goals is all about bending our brain power to our will. The truth is, it is our emotions that motivate us to take action, so it is vital that you align your ambitions with your life values if you want to be happy long-term in your career.  In order to do that, you need to understand yourself. For instance, if you are motivated by power it may be difficult for you to become a team player (which almost everyone who wants to go into management claims to be, but it isn’t often true.)  Instead a good goal for you might be to become a top performer in your department which will help you stand out as a leader.

So take these last few days of the year to examine who you are and where you want to be…then go ahead and set those goals!