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In 2008, I am going to: get healthy, stop smoking, stop drinking, stop gambling, stop eating chocolate, study more, do all my homework, pay more attention in class, be nicer, save money, join an exercise program, chew with my mouth closed, try to stop cursing… and the list goes on and on.

We have all declared at least one of these as our New Year’s resolution at some point in our lives and most of us have failed miserably at those same resolutions by Valentines Day.

How do we feel when we fail at them? I have never been successful at any of my resolutions, and look forward to when Jan. 1 rolls around again screaming at me for my new set of resolutions and reminding me of last years botched attempts.

But, as I sit here, contemplating which will be the resolution I fail at this year, I have to wonder, why do I keep doing this?

I have come to a conclusion: No more yearly resolutions for me.

First, let me say that being a college student is hard. No matter what your age or stage in life, college is challenging enough without adding guilt or stressing over broken resolutions. We already worry about getting to class on time, finding time to eat, study and do homework while working and possibly taking care of family.

For many of us, it took some time to get where we are today: smoking, drinking, gambling, being overweight, skipping class, work or whatever it is we do and wish we didn’t.

It is overwhelming to think that I must never smoke another cigarette, eat a bite of chocolate, drink a beer, make a bet or eat a double Whopper with cheese, starting at exactly 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1. Of course I am going to fail, just thinking about those things right now makes me want to do all of them, and do them a lot.

Because, if you think about it, for a person who is trying to stop smoking, drinking, gambling, or over eating, every minute they are not partaking in that activity is a successful minute. Add to it 59 more minutes without a cigarette, a beer, a burger or losing on a bet. After 24 hours, those people just saved themselves four bucks for that pack of cigarettes, a couple of bucks for a beer (even though, it would probably be more than one beer), and who knows how much on that bet they did not make and lose. Wow, now we are actually fulfilling another resolution: saving money. But do not think that out loud, because once we become too aware of saving money, we will find other ways of spending it. We are, after all, only human.

The same thing goes for losing weight, exercising more or getting healthy. If I tell myself that I will only eat healthy, no fried foods, chocolate or anything salty again, that is one sure fire way my body will take over, and running on pure self preservation, panic and imagined starvation, I will eat everything I get my hands on.

And exercising? Okay, first of all, the skinny people who make the billions off the rest of us trying to “hip hop” our way to perfect abs suggest we do these programs at least five days per week. Do the math, five days per week for 52 weeks, means 260 days of exercising to look forward to in 2008. Get real, I am already worn out and swear I’ve pulled a muscle just thinking about all that exercising and I haven’t even gotten out of my chair yet.

How do we make things different? Take it day by day. Do I feel like taking a walk today? I just might, heck I may even feel like calling someone to see if they want to join me for a walk around campus, who knows? Don’t get excited but I just might get to class in time to take the stairs instead of the elevator, but no commitments or promises here. So, if we stop worrying about making changes in our lives for a whole year, 365 days, and worry just about right now, today or even the next hour, perhaps we will feel success more and like failures less. It might work.

And, so what if we slip here and there? No one will know but us and we still have many chances for potentially successful hours and days ahead.