Mike Tyson has that quote, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

We make a big deal out of New Year’s Resolutions because we have yet to be punched in the face. It’s fun to dream, to idealize, to think of who you can become in comparison to who you are. It’s not fun to do the work necessary to make improvements, to put in extra effort when improvement isn’t as easy as you idealized it to be, to keep having to get up after being punched in the face again and again. Resolutions are notorious not because they are likely to work out but because they will probably fall apart. How many of us can actually say we follow up on our resolutions of December 31st? Not many, probably. We’re already making new resolutions.

The problem is that we celebrate the planning so much so that it distracts from the process or, even worse, makes us believe the process is unnecessary. We take so much pleasure in making resolutions that we become disappointed when actually following through our promises involves is more pain than pleasure, if there is pleasure in it at all. New Year’s Resolutions are a testament to the cliche, “Easier said than done.” We often don’t follow through with our resolutions and the very few that do seem above the mere mortals.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have ambitions for the new year, that any goal we make on January 1st is doomed. I’m saying that we shouldn’t rely so heavily on the gratification of only declaring our resolutions. The one thing necessary to achieving anything is accountability. When we announce our resolutions, others might congratulate us for making goals but we almost certainly won’t be constantly coerced by others to meet those goals. If we can’t rely on others for accountability, then why tell anybody your goals? And if we can’t rely on others for accountability, then we must be accountable to ourselves.

Instead of declaring your resolutions, keep them private. That way you’ll actually have to work towards your resolutions to feel good about them.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be ambitious. The only way we grow is by believing that we can push our limits, but we need to remember that progress is a process. Resolutions are the reason why cliches like, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” are absolutely necessary. There is no limit to the change that we can achieve, just as long as we have the patience for it. As much as we would all love to, we can’t lose 10 pounds in a day, we can’t write the next Pulitzer-Prize winning novel in a week.

Don’t be discouraged just because results are not apparent right away. Have a grand vision but also have realistic checkpoints that both increment yourself toward progress and are actually attainable.

We all would like to hit the ground running on January 1st, but sometimes New Year’s Day feels more being body-slammed into the ground by the prospects of tackling new challenges. Progress is a process and sometimes that process throws a few punches in our faces. We can’t prevent all of the obstacles we may face, we can only make sure that we get up and dust ourselves when we need to. Stand up tall and don't turn your back to progress just because it's hard.

Progress is a process.