Once the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, the ball dropped, champagne glasses clinked and the world cheered. The start of a new calendar year can bring new beginnings and a strong sense of optimism for the future.

A time honored tradition for many is to create New Year’s resolutions: Promises to do something differently than the year before according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. But will these resolutions hold up through December?

It’s unlikely.

Market research company website, DriveResearch reports that 80% of resolutions are forgotten by mid-winter. These life-improving ideas can lose their luster amid everyday responsibilities pretty early on, and once they’re forgotten, it will be even harder to start them back up again. In order to effectively form a habit, the National Library of Medicine states that a person has to consistently do it for at least ten weeks.

Success is also more achievable when the action is performed at a consistent point in your routine. Over time this can allow the change to become “second nature” and require less concentration to complete.

Now what resolutions are people creating, and in turn abandoning?

When asked by Statista Consumer Insights in October 2023, hundreds of respondents ages 18-64 had similar resolutions planned for the coming year. 59% have resolved to save more money, surpassing previous top-runners exercising more (50%) and eating healthier (47%) on the chart.

This follows the skyrocketing inflation rates in the last three years, with all items being increased in prices by 9.1% in June 2022 according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even though rates only increased 3.0% ending in June 2023, any increase can affect the wallet.

Other popular resolutions include spending more time with family and friends (40%), losing weight (35%), reducing spending on living expenses such as food and gas (26%), spending less time on social media (19%), and to reduce stress on the job (19%).

So how can you be a part of the 9% of adults that keep their resolutions all year long? Almost all sources will advise to keep them small, and more manageable. The National Library of Medicine reminds that “simpler actions become habitual more quickly.”

Going from spending twelve hours on the couch everyday to deciding that in the New Year you will run five miles is setting yourself up for failure. Licensed clinical psychologist Terri Bly of Ellie Mental Health in Minnesota reports that “as humans we’re not wired to make big, sweeping changes.”

To help avoid discouragement, choose something you can do every day that doesn’t cause too much mental strife. If the idea of starting to walk an hour a day is daunting, aim for ten minutes each day. Cutting out all junk food cold turkey may not seem manageable, but instead try limiting just your sugar intake.

Next, add your goal into your routine. If you cannot easily make time for something everyday, it probably isn’t the right resolution for you. Just “skipping a day” breaks that habit you were trying to form and sets back your future progress.

Ensure that your new activity can be done on both your slowest and busiest days. Making sure your goal is achievable both in your schedule and your budget is another key to success. If your resolution is to be healthier, a gym membership or a subscription to a meal-kit company isn’t necessary. In the age of the internet, anything is within your reach including at-home workout videos or healthy dinner recipes.

Finally, accept that this change will make you uncomfortable. Jennifer Kowalski, a licensed professional counselor at Thriveworks in Connecticut shares that “In order to change a behavior, you have to be uncomfortable and nobody wants to be uncomfortable. So in order to see a lasting change, you have to be in a state of discomfort for a really long period of time.” If these goals were so easy, they would’ve already been achieved.

They’re going to take effort, and it won’t come naturally. But that doesn’t mean you should give up. For those who have already given up on their New Year’s resolution, or perhaps didn’t even start, it’s OK. When it comes down to it, the idea that you can only improve your life at the beginning of the year is a fallacy.

Start in the middle of the month, on a Wednesday, at 7:42 p.m. With dedication and grit, timing won’t matter.