Of the 40% of Americans who made a New Year’s Resolution 2 months ago, 33% have already bagged it for the year, and another 21% will join them over the next 4 months. But there is something wrong with the way Americans make resolutions that is reflected in these statistics. We think of New Year’s Resolutions as a make-or-break deal. Either we will or we won’t. We will succeed of fail.

But this make-or-break mindset goes contrary to the idea of changing oneself and making a resolution in the first place. Any person who has broken an addiction, wether that be smoking, alcohol, internet or the dozens upon dozens of other addictive things in this world, knows that it is not done overnight. The same is true with a New Year’s Resolution. There is not something magical about the first morning of the New Year that changes us, so why do we think we can change overnight.

A real New Year’s Resolution is not a make-or-break deal. If I forget to exercise 5 days a week (like I have for the past 2 weeks) then I shouldn’t just give up and go back to watching YouTube every afternoon. As I see it, there are 52 chances in every year to renew you New Year’s Resolution, and we’ve only used 8! Success should not be measured on a scale or failure or success, but on a scale of progress.

If I only exercised 3 times last week, rather than throwing in the towel, I should renew my resolution and try harder the next week. Today I took the first step to get back on track with my resolution by running for 30 minutes. I may not have made progress last week, but I sure will this week.