If you’ve decided not to make any New Year’s resolutions this year, you aren’t alone. In fact, you’re in the majority. Americans under age 30 are most likely to make resolutions, but even then, only 46 percent do. This continues the downward trend of fewer and fewer people deciding to take the plunge and commit themselves to some sort of personal change come the arrival of the new year.

Almost as infamous as resolutions themselves are stories about people failing them. You’ve probably heard the one about the guy who joins a gym and then quits going after a week, because everyone seems to know him.

And then there are the battles over whether resolutions are even worth it. Some people like the idea of starting in the new year because it offers that fresh start many find so appealing, but others are of the idea that if you see something that’s worth changing, there’s no point in waiting around. After all, life is short, and if you want to get into shape or improve a relationship – two of the most common resolutions out there – there’s really no point in delaying.

But for those still interested in making resolutions, it’s a good idea to look at why resolutions often fail. The good news is it’s not because there’s anything wrong with you. It could just be that you’re not setting your goals quite right, and possibly that you’re being a little too hard on yourself.

Amy Cuddy, social psychologist and associate professor at Harvard Business School, explained some of the common mistakes people make when making and keeping to resolutions.

As one example, many resolution makers focus on absolutes, which sets them up for failure. If you tell yourself that you are going to exercise four days a week, then end up missing a day somewhere along the way, you’ll already be failing.

Others focus on things that aren’t entirely under their control, such as going for a promotion at work. You can certainly resolve to work harder, but the decision over your promotion is up to your boss, not you.

When mistakes inevitably occur – participants in a study averaged 14 slip-ups over a two year period – many simply give up. Instead of seeing mistakes as failures, try to view them as lessons. It sounds cliché, but it works, especially if you try not to be so hard on yourself. The study, conducted by John Norcross of the University of Scranton, found that:

The use of self-liberation (e.g., willpower) and stimulus control (e.g., kept things around to remind you not to give in to the problem) strategies was related to positive outcome. Conversely, self-blame (e.g., criticize, lecture, or blame myself) and wishful thinking (e.g., wish the problem would go away) were inversely related to outcome; nonsuccessful resolvers reported employing significantly more of these processes.

Remarkably, one factor that doesn’t matter towards successfully meeting your resolution was sharing it with others. It can be tempting to share your resolutions with friends and family, thinking that it might add some pressure for you to succeed lest you look bad in front of everyone you shared your aspirations with, but it may not be effective at all.

If there’s one argument in favor of making changes as necessary rather than waiting for an arbitrary date, it’s the fact that waiting until New Year’s relies on a lot of assumptions – namely, that you’ll feel like working towards your resolutions once the new year hits, even if you don’t particularly feel like it now. Timothy A. Pychyl, associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, explained:

In addition, there’s nothing like a good intention for later to make us feel good now. We have made an important, perhaps even noble, intention for change, but we don’t have to do anything until later. We feel great, and with the presentism bias, we also predict that we’ll feel like engaging in that task in the future too.

Whatever you choose to do this coming year, consider it a time of growth and learning, not of success and failure. And if you choose not to make any resolutions, that’s fine too. Break out your special glasses, call some friends and celebrate the coming of 2015.