The New Year is here. Some people already had their first days at work while others finally got over their first hangover this year, and they either already announced or they are just putting together their New Year’s Resolution List. And even though I admire people who make the Big Plans, I can’t help but wonder how many of them will stick to it (according to scientists over two thirds won’t make it) and how many of them will have the courage to revisit their list in December 2014 to honestly announce how much they accomplished. Or, letting the statistics giggle cruelly for a moment, how spectacularly they failed.

There is something in the human nature that forces us to make big plans, announce them even bigger and then, most often, abandon them quietly just to make more plans and announcements. And although I’ve had my share of plans made, I try to be reasonable… and never-ever intend to start them on New Year’s Day. Or on Mondays. And I don’t announce them in any special way, because in the end what matters is not how we start, but how we end. I prefer set my goals quietly, usually one or two at the time for easy adjusting “on the go” whenever circumstances necessitate it. One might call it “cheating”, I call it “being realistic”. As years pass life proves that it still has ways to surprise us with some unexpected events, demanding our attention and forcing us to abandon whatever plans we had before.

That’s also why I think that the best moment to start a new goal is a not a fixed date in a calendar, but when the previous one was reached (or deemed unreachable which might happen every once a while). In the end it is better to write a novel in three years and actually finish it than to start a new novel each year and never finish any of them, isn’t it?

I don’t know about you, but I tossed those New Year’s Resolutions away a long time ago and now I’m doing as much I can whenever I can. And trying to go forward no matter what.