It's that time of the year when the all too familiar question comes around, "So how are your New Year's resolutions going?" When the shimmer and glitz of the holidays have worn off and we settle into the new year, we sometimes get the stinging reminder that maybe we haven't been keeping up with our resolutions as much as we'd hoped. These mid-January blues are so common they've even made a holiday for it!

New Year after New Year, I've been met with that same stinging feeling of regret over not keeping my tough, and sometimes truly unreasonable, New Year's resolution. After a while, that cycle of self-pity becomes a pretty dull way to start the year.

So why ring in the new year with regret? My new New Year's resolution from here on out is to stop stressing over New Year's resolutions!

I've come to realize that your new year will continue on perfectly fine if you slip up once or twice on your resolutions. Because honestly, some New Year's resolutions can be restricting, silly, and sometimes just downright depressing. Instead of stressing over hyper-strict self-promises to be better year after year, I've begun to turn my attention towards learning to be content with where I'm at now. Forcing ourselves to start the new year nit-picking every little detail of ourselves to scope out something wrong is draining after a while. If you're not genuinely happy with where you're at right now, make a change for that reason, not because the calendar page flipped over.

So go ahead and indulge in a cheat day for your diet, or let yourself splurge some cash on something for yourself. Because resolution or not, your new year will go on and bring amazing things your way!