Happy New Year! again.

Happy Feb. 24! Have you made your resolutions?

What?

I’m almost two months late?

Whatever.

For those of you who got around to resolving something starting Jan. 1, more than one-third of you gave up before the calendar flipped to February. And most of the rest of you won’t make it much longer. In fact, less than one-quarter will make it at all.

What an upper, right?

I think one of the problems with New Year’s Resolutions is the timing. What if I don’t want to start on the first day of a new year? What if I’m not ready? What if I was ready a month ago? What if I’m still so full of holiday goodies that I haven’t quite emerged from my food coma?

There are certainly strategies for keeping your annual promises to yourself.

But I’m much more of a fan of making resolutions on the fly. I can’t stick to them for a year. Things change. Priorities change. What if I have way bigger problems than a stubborn 5 or 10 pounds by July? So I’m a constant re-evaluator, and so what if it took me ‘til February to get started. If I had gone for it half-a***d on Jan. 1, it would be over by now anyway.

The common piece of expert advice I do take to heart is setting specific goals. “Lose weight” means nothing to me. Even “Lose 10 pounds” is pushing it. But “Work out six days a week: two days swimming, two days lifting and two days running” just might work.

I challenge you to go back to your resolutions – for most people, the ones that probably aren’t happening at the moment – and rework them into something doable. And think about what you actually want to do or change right now. New Year's is arbitrary. A new semester is just as good. Or a new week. Or a new day.

Now that I'm about one-third of the way into a killer semester of grad school, I'm in need of some motivation, goals...aaand probably an attitude adjustment some days. So I'm resolving now because I feel like it, and while I'll leave all the messy details to the imagination, I will be doing my best to do a marathon (or half?) and/or triathlon, get some more of my stories in the paper, not fail my classes (*cough* biostats II *cough*) and preferably reduce the total number of meltdowns caused by aforementioned items.

Are you trading in your New Year's resolutions for some new ones? What are they? And do you think you'll be better able to hang onto them if you make them whenever you feel like it?