Here’s Why It’s Okay to Fail at Your New Year’s Resolutions

It's the second day of the new year—have you failed your resolutions yet?

We'd like to say we're kidding, but we're not. While it's nice to start the year with lots of high hopes and solid plans for how you can improve your life, you'll more than likely end up failing most things on your list. But you know what? That's perfectly alright.

Keep scrolling to see why it's okay to fail your New Year's resolutions.

You've Reflected on Your Year

Creating New Year's resolutions is an important exercise primarily because it gives you a chance to reflect on the year behind you. Since life often moves forward at an alarming rate, it's hard to take a minute and think about where you've been, where you're going and what you need to change along the way. Sitting down and writing a list of New Year's resolutions allows you a crucial moment to think on the good and bad elements of your year, and to acknowledge your own progress and failure along the way. It's not the perfect recipe for massive life changes, but it's a chance to take a deep and look at everything you've accomplished, and everything you would still like to improve.

 

You've Determined What You Need to Improve

While writing a list of resolutions gives you a chance to reflect on the year behind you, it's also a crucial opportunity to determine what you would still like to change. No one's perfect, which means we all have elements of our life we'd like to improve. Sitting down and writing a list of the changes you'd like to make allows you to acknowledge your less-amazing qualities and create an action plan to develop what you ideally want to see in yourself. You might fail every task you put in front of yourself, but you've still gained some crucial insight into what needs to be improved, even if that change doesn't happen instantaneously. 

 

You Don't Have to Change All at Once

Speaking of non-instantaneous change, it's important to remember that no big adjustment happens overnight. Even though New Year's resolutions are meant to be a year-long process, in reality they demand quite a lot from you in a very short amount of time. Jan. 1 is supposed to be the moment you change your life—with that kind of pressure, it's no surprise that most New Year's resolutions fail.

Instead of beating yourself up about it, you can accept that change is an ongoing process that doesn't have a final destination. Chances are, you'll make the same resolutions for years to come without ever achieving the huge leap forward that you'd like, but each year will bring you a little closer to improvement until you'll wonder why it was ever so difficult to make the alteration in the first place.

 

You Can Learn a Lot From Failure

Even though failing your New Year's resolutions can be frustrating and disheartening, it's important to remember that failure provides a lesson in itself. Once you've failed something, you know what you shouldn't do in the future if you want to achieve the goals you've set for yourself. More important than worrying about your failure is remembering to try again, this time using a different method. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't—either way you'll still be utilizing what you've learned from your failure and moving yourself towards a better solution in the future.

 

You Can Change at Any Time

While the new year can feel overwhelmingly hopeful and encouraging, in reality it's a pretty arbitrary time for change. At the end of the day, the only thing that's really different is the last two digits of the calendar date, so demanding a whole life adjustment over that tiny switch doesn't make a lot of sense. Instead of forcing yourself to make adjustments that you might not be ready for, remember that you can make any change you want, any day of the year.

Don't stress yourself out too much, and don't allow the burden of tradition to convince you that you must improve right this second. If you fail your New Year's resolutions on Jan. 2, try again in March or Nov., or any other day of the year when inspiration strikes. Change and self-improvement aren't only reserved for the first month of the year.

 

 

Need another dose of reality about your NY goals? Click HERE for the hard truth about New Year's resolutions.