Abandoned your New Year’s resolution already? Maybe it’s time we reconsider a more realistic place to put our resolutions for the rest of the year, writes ABEL’s Strategic Partner Rachael Fraser.
More than 15 million Australians set resolutions for 2025 (according to Finder), yet on average, 80 per cent will have given up by mid-February. The usual culprits. Unrealistic ambition, vague goals, and lack of accountability. A growing number of people even suggest scrapping resolutions altogether.
But I believe there’s power in this annual practice of hope and vision-setting. The problem isn’t what our resolutions are, it’s where we place them.
We spend a third of our lives at work, yet our top resolutions: better fitness, healthier eating, more sleep and travel, exist almost entirely outside the 9-5. No wonder we fail; when we set such big goals but give ourselves so little time to achieve them!?
Not only do we spend all our time there but we also inadvertently make work the enemy of betterment – featuring only on resolution lists as something to do less of, or change entirely! But what if we didn’t have to work less to gain more? What if our resolutions could be achieved in the 9-5 not just 5-9?
Could we find balance within the walls of the office? Create play during the day, not just after hours. Meditating, risk-taking and volunteering all feature on our top resolutions and are certainly not mutually exclusive within a workplace.
If any industry should embrace this shift, it’s ours. The advertising and marketing industry is among the worst as far as burnout goes yet requires the most in terms of fuelling fresh thinking, original ideas and creative output.
The 2024 Mentally Healthy Survey found that 7 in 10 professionals in media, marketing, and creative sectors experienced burnout last year. Gen Z, in particular, has been reported (Gallup, Cigna Healthcare International) as experiencing the highest levels of stress and disengagement at work. Interestingly they’re also the cohort most likely to set resolutions, with 91 per cent of Gen Z Aussies making a resolution for 2025.
So, how do we create hope for ourselves but more importantly for those following in our footsteps? How do we ensure our workplaces support, rather than hinder, our resolutions?
Jean-Michel Basquiat once said, “I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.” I think so much of the answer for us in advertising and marketing, lies in this idea. As creative professionals, our work and product are so intrinsically intertwined with our own personal world, that in order to be sustainable we need to find work-life balance in work, not just life.
Since leaving big global agencies for a nimble indie setup, I’ve seen firsthand what’s possible with a new way of working. ABEL was built in contrast to an agency model, based on the belief there was a better way for talent to grow. That’s why we’ve replaced KPIs with Key Personal Indicators instead. Inviting our people to bring all of their weird and wonderful resolutions for life and work together and holding ourselves collectively accountable for achieving them.
So if you’ve fallen off the wagon and you’re wondering why, maybe take another look at your resolutions from 2025 and try welcoming them into the 9-5.
