New Year’s resolutions are stupid. There. I said it. Chain me up and take me to the unpopular opinion prison, because I stand by my statement.

Around this time, resolutions have lost their power and freshness. They lose their excitement from the initial wave of euphoria that the announcement of a resolution yields. To put it simply, they begin to fail.

I understand the attraction to the concept of resolutions at the New Year well enough — it’s the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. It makes sense to take stock and decide what went well, what didn’t and what needs to change.

There is nothing wrong with the practice I described above. It’s the next step that irks me. When “what needs to change” has been determined, a grand, sweeping promise is made. “I’m going to spend more time with the people I care about!” “Well, I’m going to lose 200 pounds by going to the gym every single day!” Not only are these resolutions almost competitive — each of us trying to one-up the next rather than support each other in our goals —  they are doomed to fail.

I don’t need to tell you the specifics of why resolutions like the ones I’ve mentioned are doomed to fail — plenty has already been written about why vague and/or overzealous resolutions rarely work.

But what isn’t talked about, and my biggest problem with the practice, is how easy it is to get out of a resolution.

On any arbitrary day where a resolution is not actively achieved — say you missed the gym or had to cancel with a friend — there is an unsaid excuse written into the very idea of a “New Year’s” resolution. It seems almost too obvious: New Year’s happens only one every 365 days. If you mess up, you get up to a whole year before you take stock again. Yay! Guilt free through New Year’s Eve.

We shouldn’t be taking stock just once a year. This needs to be a continuous process. Self-improvement is not something based on a year-to-year scale, nor should it be. It needs to be constant, continuous. It needs to be ever evolving as we look day to day inside ourselves and ask “What can I do better?”

This approach completely bypasses the once a year problem. If you screw up — and we all do — tomorrow is a new day. Forcing ourselves to look at change in the present moment and not a goal a year away allows us to live in the present moment and adapt to it.

It’s ironic that so many problems from New Year’s resolutions — the definitive date to start personal change— come from the practice’s inherent rigidity.

I admit it, I’ve tried the New Year approach — and failed every single time. This other way, the more “common sense” based way, is far more forgiving when we inevitably mess up.

I am all for personal improvement and growth. I want to see you succeed at your goals as much as I want to see myself succeed at my goals. This isn’t about doing away with the idea of resolutions or self-change/improvement, but the practice of only checking in once a year.

Watch yourself. Constantly wonder how you can grow and change for the better. Make it a moment to moment practice. Not only is it far less intimidating, but it is, I’ve found, far more effective.

And the best part? We see the change much sooner. Sure, it’s smaller — say losing one pound instead of 200, but it’s a step in the right direction. Though it is true change takes time, the effort to change is in itself a worthy goal and worthy of praise. New Year’s resolutions strip us from this effort — the day to day guts it take to stick to a new goal — and allow us an easy exit.

Kjerstine Trooien is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].