If you are like many American adults, you may have spent time at the top of the year looking at your finances and setting your sights on your 2026 goals. While it can be tempting to set New Year’s resolutions, especially those inundating you on social media, by February we will also see articles about well-intended goals falling by the wayside before they have a chance to come to life. The chasm between imagining a goal and actually achieving the goal can seem daunting, even if you are committed to the tough work of changing your behavior. We encourage you instead to consider one or more of these three proven strategies.
Resolutions are all about changing behavior – I want to exercise more, eat less, read more, drink less, save more, spend less. It’s easy to believe that a change that heralds a resolution requires will power – the sheer force of our minds over the matter in front of us. Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, disagrees. Duckworth instead encourages us to lean in to situational agency, which is organizing our surroundings to our advantage, which minimizes the need for willpower. The classic “stop buying $5 lattes and invest that money instead” is a good lesson for young adults. However, it is no match for the financial goals of the individuals and families we work with, who are commonly balancing financial decisions that have both deep significance and substantial consequences to them.
In a recent article, Duckworth wrote, “…situational agency empowers you to navigate what might be called an ultraprocessed world — an environment saturated with temptations engineered to be irresistible.” Nearly all of our new clients come to us feeling out of touch with how they are spending their money. Yes, they went on the spring break trip with other families, but is that how they wanted to spend their money? (Or better yet, their most precious asset, their time?) Instead of relying on inner fortitude to resist the urge to spend, successful people arrange their lives to prioritize the longer term goals first. An example is a business owner who decides to reinvest profits in the business for growth, as opposed to taking a huge salary for personal spending. Or it can be as simple and intentional as talking to, observing and spending time with financially successful friends and family to learn how they have achieved their financial goals.
Building on this, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, encourages people to focus less on a particular action. Instead, he encourages you to think like the person you want to become. Clear has this to say about change:
"Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.
- The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
- The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.
- The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.
This year, focus on the identity you want to build."
Decide how you want to feel by achieving your resolution, then imagine how that type of person would behave in your situation, and execute accordingly. If your resolution is to save money so you can become more financially confident, ask yourself: How would a financially confident person behave? What choice would a financially independent person make? How would a person with a goal to accumulate wealth or save for college decide to spend money? Or – if we’re being honest that some people are more focused on spending – how would a person hoping to buy expensive things act? One answer is that they may simply choose to spend more than they save. The other answer is that they may find a way to make more money so they can spend and save.
Situational agency makes it easier for you to succeed. This strategy forces you to think like you have already succeeded. Returning to the previous example, a business owner hoping to sell her business in the next two years would outline a plan to get her business ready for sale, thinking through her plan as if she is the owner who successfully sold her business at the price she wants.
And last, pick one goal to achieve and really achieve it. This is the tried and true last step in the BFS Advisory Group financial planning process. Our financial plans include a list of interwoven recommendations that – when taken together – will yield a comprehensive, aligned journey to using your money to live the life you want. Based on 25+ years of experience, we know that a plan is useless without action. So we encourage our clients to pick one item, and only one, from the list as the place to get started. Maybe it’s the one that is easiest to accomplish. Maybe it’s the one that scares you the most. We start with one, and accomplish the list one step at a time.
If you know you need to improve your financial life this year and need a jump start on ideas, Fidelity has a list of nine resolution ideas to consider. The challenge for most people is finding the time and commitment to work on big long-term goals, which is why our financial planning process is designed to provide specific action steps and a plan to start immediate implementation. As you think about your plan for 2026, we encourage you to create situational agency, think like the person you want to become, and pick one goal at a time to achieve. We’d love to hear about your success at hello@bfsadvisorygroup.com.