New Year’s resolutions have a little bit of a bad reputation. There is the thought that everyone sticks with their resolutions for just a few weeks, if at all. Now if the first day of the year helps you to get a handle on whatever is happening in your life, then, by all means, give yourself things to work on in the New Year. But for a lot of us, New Year’s resolutions can be an afterthought and end up just petering out. In this article, I want to provide some solutions to your resolution woes.

First off, let’s say you get to the end of your year with 75% of your goal completed. Your initial thought is to be disappointed in not fully realizing the potential of what you have set out to accomplish. In reality, you got 75% closer to your goal than you would have if you hadn’t set the goal in the first place. Progress is something to be proud of no matter what. It is better to have done something rather than nothing.

Second, and this advice could prove to be useful for the majority of resolution-makers, don’t let failure to complete your goal prevent you from continuing to work towards it. For example, let’s say you want to go to the gym every day this year. You want to focus on your health and you think it’s important to continue to go to the gym regularly to stay healthy. Now let’s say it’s mid-February and work is piling up and you miss a day at the gym. You think it isn’t a big deal and keep working towards your goal.

Then the next week you miss another day, then another day. Soon you stop going altogether because you have drifted so far from your original goal. Despite the negative appearance on the surface, there are two positives to take out of this situation. The first is that you went to the gym for two months longer than you would have if you hadn’t set the goal in the first place and that is something to be proud of. The second positive is that you don’t need to use the New Year as a reason to work on yourself. Any time is a good time to set a goal and any goal is a good goal to set. Improvements to oneself come in small steps, not huge leaps. No one can change overnight.

So the next time you feel upset about not achieving exactly the goal that you set out to achieve, just know that some progress is better than none at all. And to everyone who feels like they have failed themselves by not finishing their New Year’s resolution, know that it’s okay to adjust your goals to make them more attainable.