I have a New Year resolution in my head, something that I so badly want to accomplish that I am worried I will fail.

So I took a look at other people and their New Year' resolutions, and asked myself this: "Why do New Year's resolutions fail?"

Well, why do any plans fail? Poor planning.

Let's take a look at my New Year's resolution. My New Year's resolution is to focus on my physical body, in hopes that my mental body gets a little better. Now, as many of you know, I have depression. My depression this last year has been horrible, and I realized that part of the reason is because I'm not taking good care of myself. Now I'm not saying that depression can be cured by good diets and exercise- it can't. But I thought that if I looked good and at least felt healthy, it might make me feel a bit better about myself.

Getting back into New Year's resolutions, I find that people don't plan them out well enough. They don't sit down and really ask themselves what they want and look at the many paths to getting what they want. Most people want an easy fix and think that a New Year's resolution can do that. But progress takes work, and that work includes doing research and making a schedule before even starting the physical work.

In order for my New Year's resolution to work, I have to do research on calories and weight gaining diets (as I am ten pounds underweight) and look at muscle building techniques, while organizing a time and exercise schedule. This must be done first before I can begin trying new things. When I am finally ready to begin, I have to start slow so as not to hurt myself. I know that the progress I need won't appear right away, and I know that this probably won't help my depression, but it will help me feel better about my health and wellness.

It is hard to start new habits and break old ones. This is going to be extremely challenging and there is a very big possibility of me failing. But I'm not going in alone; I have a friend who is doing something similar, and together we decided we would accomplish our goals. Maybe having someone to help might make me more motivated to do things, and it could help me make myself better.

Physical exercise and a positive attitude does not fix depression. I don't care how someone's trip to Paris changed their way of thinking, no amount of "you do you" attitude will cure my mental illness. But, it might help me begin to want to seek help and feel better about myself enough to ask for help.