Every year, the countdown begins. The clock strikes 12, and everyone swears this new year is going to be different.

It’s always “Oh, well I’m going to lose weight” or “I’m going to start eating better,” but let’s be real, why wait for the new year to change your old ways? New Year’s resolutions are the most over-hyped traditions that we all think still work. The superstitions and celebrations for the upcoming year don’t really help either. Some eat grapes at midnight for good luck, and others wake up the next morning convinced that everything will be different just because the calendar changed by one day. The morning of, social media floods with posts about “new year, new me.”

They share about what they are leaving behind, and what they aren’t planning to do for the following year. Suddenly, everyone has a new personality they plan to keep for the entire year. However, in reality, life doesn’t reset just because the year does.

For me, New Year’s resolutions are not good ideas because no one ever follows through with them. They often set huge, sometimes unrealistic goals with no plan, but get disappointed when their resolution doesn’t come through. According to a U.S. News and World Report article about why New Year’s resolutions fail, 80% of New Year’s resolutions are not completed, with most people losing their resolve and motivation just three to four weeks into the year. After doing the math, that’s about 250-270 million Americans who don’t complete their New Year’s resolutions.

By February, most gyms are empty again, diets are gone, and people are stuck in their old ways. I feel like New Year’s resolutions are made to convince yourself that you are changing. You see everyone else making goals for themselves, so you decide to join in as well, but it never gets completed because it wasn’t made for the right reasons in the first place. So, instead of adding and adjusting amendments to the original resolution in order to finish your goal, most people give up and never finish.

You can’t change overnight because real change requires consistency and motivation. Waiting until Jan. 1 and setting these high standards and expectations for yourself means nothing if you aren’t actually going to do it. So instead of “new year, new me,” it should be “new day, improving me,” allowing yourself room for everyday improvement. Even with everyday improvement, it still comes with repeated efforts. Thinking about it this way will allow you to actually focus on achieving these goals rather than them just being talked about.