When the new year comes around, no one is more excited than your local gym owner. They know you’re tired of not being in shape. They know you want to make a change for yourself. And they know that on January 1, you probably walked in there and handed them your money for a shiny new membership.

Only, you’ll probably stop using it within a few weeks, and you’ll decide to try again next year.

If you’re not at the gym, you might be trying to save money, or perhaps get a new job. Chances are, your resolution is one of the 10 most common out there. Here’s a fancy graphic to show you what those are:

There’s nothing inherently wrong with setting new year's resolutions. The start of a new year can bring a new start for your life. You can drop the baggage of what's behind you and just look forward. What better time to try and make some strides?

Except, that’s the problem. You can make strides any time.

New year’s resolutions aren't inherently bad, but most of the time, they just don’t work. According to U.S. News, 80 percent of new year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. We’re not quite there yet, so you still have some time. But 80 percent of people who made a resolution will feel a weight on their shoulders that they didn’t feel before. And that’s certainly not how anyone wants to start 2018.

Take a look at that fancy graphic again, and pay attention to the bottom number: 32% of people didn’t plan on making new year’s resolutions. I happen to be one of those people. In fact, this year, I was adamant not to have a new year’s resolution. Does that mean I’m completely content with my life? Absolutely not. I, like many others, have so many areas for growth. And now is a great time to be thinking about them. But I knew that if I set a new year’s resolution, I was setting myself up for failure.

Instead, I tried something else.

First, I wrote a letter to myself that I would open next January 1 (which I highly recommend--it’s super fun to write to your future self, and next time you read it, you’ll have forgotten everything you said. It’s a surreal experience.) That got me thinking about the person that I wanted to be in 2018. Who will I be when I open that letter? What will I have accomplished?

Once I did that, I started to set some new goals for myself. Not huge, vague goals that are hard to measure, but small, simple goals. Ones that wouldn’t take me an entire year to complete.

You might be one of the many people who did make a new year’s resolution. If you’ve stuck with it and you intend to do so for the long run, congratulations. If you made one and already broke it, then really, don’t worry about it. But don’t wait until next year for your next resolution.

And if you’re like me, someone who didn’t make one at all, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about what else you’d like to see happen this year, without the weight of the world on your shoulders. Don’t you feel lighter already? (It’s like you never even needed that gym membership. Kidding.)

Whatever the case, you might enjoy this great list of 10 alternatives to new year’s resolutions. And since we’re a few days into 2018, it’s your first big opportunity to start getting out of that strict new-years-or-nothing mindset. I know I'll be trying some of these out.

So even though it’s a new year, it’s also a new day, a new week, a new month. If you stumble, that's okay, just don’t give up altogether. You can always try again.

Let’s make 2018 a great year, one step at a time.