Set Your Calendar to Fail

Time is a concept that humans built. Why is January the beginning of the year?  Who chose the most depressing month, statistically speaking, to be the “fresh start”? Nobody really knows why it is that the first day of the year is when people tend to make goals that are so often forgotten within two weeks. If you feel like you want to become a new person in the middle of the summer, what’s stopping you?  Any day can be the day that you decide to become the new you, it doesn’t have to be the day when everybody else is doing it too.

According to Days of the Year, National Ditch New Year’s Resolution day is January 17th.  Not an actually celebrated holiday, this marks the day when the majority of people who make New Year’s resolutions have forgotten their goals.

Statistic Brain has reported that around 41% of people actually make New Year’s resolutions.  Of those 41%, only about 9% actually felt that they accomplished their resolutions by the end of last year.  That is not very many people who feel like they have accomplished the resolutions.  From the same group of statistics we find that the most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight/ eat healthier.  This is followed by a tie between drinking less alcohol and quitting smoking.

You should never feel bad for not accomplishing your new year’s resolutions because most people don’t.  By the end of the first week of the year, 37% of people have already given up on their new year’s resolutions.  However, January 17th is recognized as the day when the majority of people who actually set New Year’s resolutions have given up or have forgotten about their goals.

The new year marks a fresh start for many people around the world.  We set goals at the New Year so that we can, in essence, become a new person.  However, it’s important to remember that time, and the New Year, is something thing that people long ago decided upon.  They could have picked any day to reset the calendar, but they picked the 365th day.  If you set your goals on January 1st and you realize in mid-July that you have forgotten about them or that you are not accomplishing them… just set new goals.  A lot can happen in a year.  Chances are that the goals you set at the beginning of the year may not even be important to your life by October.

Don’t focus on a time line to accomplish your goals.  Don’t think that by the first day of next year you need to have accomplished everything.  You can take as long as you want.  If you finally accomplish your goal in 15 months instead of a year, don’t consider yourself a failure.  Most people don’t accomplish their goals, so it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to accomplish your goals because if you do… you’ll be among few.