Restarts are not failures

I can’t remember if I read it in a book or heard it on a podcast, but the author or speaker said that January 12 is the day most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions.

That may or may not be you. And it doesn’t have to be.

You don’t need to abandon the goals you set. If you miss a day, just start again. I earned my master’s degree on the third try. It took me three attempts to pass my first teacher licensing exam. I abandoned novels and screenplays before finally publishing my first two books. My desire for a doctorate started at 22, and I didn’t earn one until I was 53.

As the old Aaliyah song goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.” So keep working on your resolutions, your goals, or whatever you choose to call them.

Or, remember Dory from Finding Nemo: just keep swimming.

What goal would change if you stopped treating restarts as failure and saw them as part of the process?