What If Your New Year’s Resolution Didn’t Hate You?
A Revolutionary Alternative: The “Try Again” Resolution
Before we begin, please take a moment to think about the New Year’s resolutions you have made in the past.
Now take a second moment to think about where those resolutions are currently living.
If your answer is:
“In the graveyard”
“In my Notes app, untouched since January 3rd”
“In a version of myself that does not exist”
Perfect. You are exactly who this post is for.
The Annual January Delusion
Every January, we briefly believe we are:
Morning people
Highly motivated
Emotionally regulated at all times
Going to fundamentally change our habits while keeping the same life
It’s a bold season.
And while hope is lovely, most resolutions quietly collapse the moment real life resumes: work stress, illness, kids, winter, emotions, fatigue, the general audacity of existence.
So instead of promising to never mess up this year, we’d like to offer something far less glamorous and far more effective.
A Revolutionary Alternative: The “Try Again” Resolution
Instead of vowing to never fall off track, lose momentum, get distracted, get tired, forget entirely, or decide at 9:47pm on a random Tuesday that you have ruined everything, try this:
“When I fall off track, I will simply… try again.”
No punishment.
No shame spiral.
No dramatic internal monologue about how “this is why I never change.”
simply… try again
That’s it.
That’s the whole resolution.
No vows. No spreadsheets. No personal rebrand.
Trying again does not mean starting over tomorrow.
It means continuing from right where you are.
Eating dessert for breakfast (yum!) does not cancel the rest of the day.
Waking up late does not erase the good choices you still make.
Having a hard moment does not undo your progress.
Nothing is ruined. You can just keep going.
What This Resolution Does Not Require
Let’s be clear:
It does not require motivation
It does not require discipline
It does not require consistency
It does not require you to feel confident or “ready”
It still works if you:
Start strong and disappear for weeks
Forget you even had a resolution
Restart quietly without telling anyone
Have a full internal monologue and then continue anyway
There are:
No gold stars
No streaks
No “Day One” energy
No public declarations designed to haunt you later
Just restarting. Again. And again. And again.
Why This Works (Yes, Even Though It Sounds Too Simple)
Here’s the part no one puts on a vision board:
Change does not happen because you finally get it together.
Change happens because you stop quitting on yourself every time you don’t.
From a therapeutic standpoint:
The nervous system learns through repair, not punishment
Shame shuts change down
Calm, immediate restarts build trust with yourself
Restarting without drama isn’t failure.
It’s the skill.
Final Thoughts From Your Friendly Neighborhood Therapists
You do not need to reinvent yourself this year.
You are not behind.
You are not broken.
And you do not need a perfectly optimized morning routine, supplement stack, or personality overhaul to be worthy of care.
If the New Year brings up pressure, self-criticism, or the sense that you should be doing more, better, or faster, therapy can help you unpack that without turning your life into a self-improvement project.
At Clear Mind Counseling, we’re here for:
The restarts
The false starts
The “I was doing great and then…” moments
The quiet decision to keep going instead of giving up
Which, honestly, is most of being human.
If your only resolution this year is to try again without punishment and without waiting, you are wildly ahead of schedule.
