The New Year, Chinese or otherwise, has now passed. The parties, and any hangovers, are long gone. Unfortunately, for many of you, your New Year’s resolutions are only memories. The gym bag sits forlorn in the corner, the bean sprouts wilt in your fridge. Your intentions were good, I know. You resolved to get into a new exercising habit, eat better, spend more time at work, spend more time with the family, or volunteer for a local charity. Or maybe all of the above (Yikes!)

To those of you who are sticking to your New Year’s resolutions I say CONGRATULATIONS! Don’t be too smug. For those of you who have not, I say CONGRATULATIONS!

Why would I congratulate people who haven’t stuck to their resolutions? Simple. They MADE resolutions. Deciding to change yourself, really committing to be a better person in some way, is not a decision arrived at easily. The fact that you decided to change yourself means that you’ve taken stock of yourself. You’ve reflected. You haven’t let the powerful forces of rationalization prevent you from committing to self-change.

“But,” you say, “I failed. That’s terrible isn’t it? It’s so depressing. Why even bother trying if it’s so hard?”

I have news for you: You are not perfect. You are not all-powerful. Self-change is hard, so it’s not terribly surprising that you didn’t get it right the first try. So, stop feeling so bad. It’s like when someone gets thrown from a horse. What do the horsie-types say? You’re supposed to get up, brush the dust off, and get back on that horse! That’s what you need to do right now.

Follow these steps:

1. Tell yourself, “It’s okay.I failed, but there’s nothing new in that.” Think of all of the other times you’ve failed. Re-read Leo’s post on how great failure can be [link to that post]. Don’t let the powers of rationalization take you further, though. Don’t give into the thought: “It’s okay. I don’t need to be better. It wasn’t all that important anyway.” Ask yourself this: If changing yourself wasn’t so important, then why did you decide to do it in the first place?

2. Congratulate yourself for wanting to be better.As a social psychologist, I know how extremely easy it is for people to excuse themselves their shortcomings. Your decision to be better takes moral courage.

3. Figure out what went wrong.Were you too ambitious? Was your plan too vague?

4. Form a plan that is informed by your failure.If you didn’t get to the gym because you slept in, plan to go to bed earlier. If you ate the wrong foods because you found preparing healthy food too time-consuming, find ways to make it less time consuming. If you stayed too late at work (again and again), schedule events with the family earlier in the evening.

5. Get going!

新年，春節或者其他什么以年度來衡量的節日都已經過去了。聚會，宿醉也早已經煙消云散。但不幸的是，對于大多數人來講，為新的一年而作的計劃也已經成為記憶里的過去式了。運動服還整齊放在衣柜的角落里，減肥餐也冰冷的陳列在冰箱里。你的愿望是美好的，我能理解。你希望在新的一年你培養自己運動的習慣，開始健康的飲食，更努力的工作，跟家人分享更多的時間，或者參加慈善義工。或者甚至你想做上面說的所有事情。

對你們中那些在新年里堅持按照你們的計劃行動的人，我要祝賀你“你做到了！”。但千萬不要太沾沾自喜。同樣對于你們中那些沒有做到的，我也要祝賀你們！

為什么我要祝賀那些沒有實踐自己計劃的人？原因很簡單。他們已經開始計劃了。已經決定作出改變，已經為了讓自己在某方面做的更好而自我承諾了，這不 是一個 很容易就能下定的決心。事實上當你決定作出改變的時候就證明你已經檢視過自己。已經自我反省了。你沒有讓那種自我安慰的力量去阻止你改變自己。

但也許你會說，“我失敗了，這很糟糕對么？這個結果非常令人沮喪。如果這個過程這么痛苦為什么我還要費力去嘗試？”

有些事情我想讓你知道：人是不完美的。你不是全能的。自我改變是個很艱難的過程，所以初次嘗試的失敗結果并不出人意料。所以，不要再雪上加霜讓自己感覺更糟糕。就像一個人從馬背上被甩下來一樣，如果是個堅強的騎手會怎么做？他會站起身來，撣撣灰塵，然后重新騎上馬背！你現在也需要做同樣的事情。

按照下面的方法：

1.告訴你自己“沒什么。我失敗了，但這很正常。” 想想以前你失敗的經驗。不要讓那種自我安慰的力量影響你。不要想著：“那沒什么，我不需要這樣折磨自己。這樣的改變也沒什么大不了的。”應該問自己：如果自己的計劃沒有那么重要，那為什么一開始的時候還要下定決心做這件事情？

2.為自己想要改變的愿望而高興。作為一個社會心理學者，我知道人們為自己的缺點開脫是一件多么容易的事情。想要讓自己變得更好本身就需要極大的勇氣。

3.了解到底是哪里出了問題.有沒有做不切實際的計劃？還是計劃的細節太模糊籠統了？

4.從失敗的基礎上修改你的計劃。如果因為睡懶覺而耽誤了去健身房，那就在新計劃里讓自己早睡一會兒。如果覺得阻止你的健康飲食計劃是因為需要太多時間準備食物，那就想辦法縮短準備的時間。如果總是工作到很晚，那就把和家人的聚會放在一個稍早的時間里。

5.繼續前進！