I'm just going to straight up say it:

New Years Resolutions are stupid. And they don't work.

Before you get all up in arms, just keep on reading and I promise, you'll get where I am coming from.

It's January 1, 2017 and your goals are just like the rest of us:

 - get fit
 - eat healthy
 - de-clutter
 - make more money
 - spend more quality time with your family

And don't get me wrong...those are all fantastic goals in my eyes. But what makes 2017 so different than 2016? Just because someone started this thing called "a calendar" and randomly assigned things called "days" and "weeks" and "months" and "years" means that all of the sudden you suddenly have the will power to reach your goals because the last number in that thing we call "a year" has now changed?

If you think that a new year is going to bring you the motivation to help you reach your life goals then you are terribly wrong. I'm not trying to be a downer but think about this:

January and February are months that are miserable to be in a gym because you can't find any machine or any weights available and all of the classes are full to their maximum capacity.

And then March rolls around and suddenly your gym trips are that much better. The gyms are empty and everyone has already called it quits on that New Years resolution to "get healthy." Clearly something must be wrong if that many people are failing at their 2017 resolutions, don't you think?

So here's my take:

If January 1, 2017 just happened to be the day when you told yourself you would make a change in your life then that's great. But if you ate all of the chocolate in site through the holidays, knowing that you were going to set a resolution on January 1st to eat healthy then I would bet that 10 times out of 10, you're going to fail.

Goals happen when you want to reach them. Goals happen when you set a specific number that can be achieved. -- How do you know that you "got healthier" without assigning any specifics? (ie I will work out three times every single week for at least 20 minutes)

Goals don't happen because the world tells you that there is a certain date you are supposed to set them.

So if you are ready to get healthy or ready to spend more quality time with your family and put that phone away in the evenings, then January 10th is just as good (or even better) than January 1st. Heck, if that date you decide to make a change is November 17th then I would bet that you are far more likely to achieve your goals than those who have set a January 1st resolutio.

January 10th is the day that you decided you would strive for a goal. January 10th is the day that you really wanted to make a change in your life. January 10th is the day that you set an actual goal for yourself and didn't follow along like a little lemur, knowing that you would probably fail before March.

Make the change you want to make and make it now because you want to, not because someone assigned last week the title of 2017. Goals are never achieved because society told you that you are supposed to make a goal. Goals are achieved when you really want them, when you start them today and not tomorrow.