The Christmas season is here, and we are all left to make plans, buy gifts and try to remember the holiday instead of the commercial aspect of the season. Final exams are upon us, but that does not stop us from feeling the weight of stress involved with them.

With these two events seeming to have a lot of importance, you would think that those would be on my mind. Instead what I’ve been thinking about are “New Year’s Resolutions.”

Around this time, everyone is thinking of what they wanted to do in 2014, and if anyone else is like me, how they didn’t accomplish what they wanted to.

At the beginning of this year, I made a list of everything I wanted to do throughout the year ahead of me. Looking back, I accomplished about half of that list. The things I did accomplish were not out of intentionality, but rather they just happened to occur.

If I am being completely honest with myself, this past year has not been anything like what I expected it to be. I accomplished things that I had no idea I would even attempt.

However, instead of being proud of those things, I look back at my “New Year’s Resolution” list and feel guilty. The list seemed like a good idea at the time, and it seemed like I could make things work out exactly how I wanted them to.

The reality is that other people affect our actions, and whether it was expected or not we do change and grow as individuals. That is not a bad thing at all. It is simply something we have to account for when making our long-term plans.

I am not the same person as I was a year ago, but I am glad for that. It means that I have taken risks to challenge myself, and that those experiences have made an impact on me. I no longer want the same things that I wanted to accomplish a year ago.

Every year, it seems like I hear the cliché anticipation of the New Year, which is “This next year is going to be my year, I can feel it.” Why do people need a whole year to determine whether they are accomplishing what they want?

As a culture, we make these long-term goals when we are not sure if they are actually attainable. If we don’t accomplish them, it leaves us feeling guilty at the end of the year.

Since we are constantly changing due to life experience, our goals should be changing with us. I hear stories all the time about how people did well on their goals for the first month, but then things got harder and they lost their focus. If they truly wanted to accomplish this goal, why do they need the mark of a new year to make their commitment?  It might be convenient for some people to have that marker, while for other people it is simply because they feel less of a person if they don’t have a goal for the New Year when society encourages them to make one.

I have decided that I am not going to make a “New Year’s Resolution” for 2015. I refuse to be caught up in the moment of making goals to better myself for 2015, when I should be doing that year-round anyways.

I would encourage everyone around me to put the pressure of making these seemingly unattainable goals behind them. If you want to accomplish something, then make short-term goals when you want to. This will not only enable you a better chance of feeling accomplished, but it also takes you away from a societal pressure.

If you truly want to accomplish something across the year, then those short-term goals will mesh together into long-term goals. You don’t need a new year to start working towards a goal. Then, if you don’t happen to accomplish it, at the end of the year you won’t feel bad for not sticking to a list of goals and events.

Don’t wait aound for a “New Year” just to make the goals you want to accomplish as a person. And don’t let the “New Year” pressure you to make commitments that you won’t keep up.