Everywhere you look, you see evidence of the power of New Year’s Resolutions. The gym is busier than ever this time of year, retail stores have workout gear at the front of the stores, and bloggers are blogging ferociously about Resolutions – how to keep them, how not to beat yourself up if you slip, and how to get back on the resolution train after you’ve crashed and burned.

As I mentioned in my New Year’s Eve Blog, I have always been skeptical of the resolution as a motivator for life-change. But an article shared by a fellow blogger and friend convinced me to try it anyway. So, for the first time ever, I made a New Year’s Resolution for 2015. Though I wouldn’t say I’ve crashed and burned, I have been seriously struggling with my resolution and I realized today why that is. But first, I suppose it only makes sense if I share with you what my resolution was. Bear with me, it requires a little explanation.

For Christmas, my Mom got me this hilarious and awesomely perfect t-shirt of a tyrannosaurus rex trying to do push-ups. I’m sure it seems weird, but dinosaurs are kind of my thing. And push-ups? With his tiny T-Rex arms? Well, it cracks ME up, anyway.

So, I try on my awesome new t-shirt only to find that the fit MUCH smaller than it was labeled. Grr…I know my size and this shirt wasn’t it. It’s a common problem for ladies’ t-shirts, especially online. (Back me up here, ladies. We all know this is an issue.) So, anyway, instead of going through the arduous exchange process, I decide to KEEP the shirt and make it my New Year’s Resolution. Or more specifically, fitting into the shirt by summer-time.

So, back to the reason for my failure-to-launch said Resolution…

I do not like to be told what to do. Even if it’s me doing the telling. I know this about myself. I even wrote about it (under an assumed name) a little over a year ago. Here’s the blog: Meet Kate. I’m Kate, by the way, in case that was any way unclear. Well, the “Kate-Me” from a year and a half ago writes about this EXACT struggle, and how I overcame it, with the help of brilliant dietitian Monica Lebre, to lose nearly 30 lbs. in 2013. So, today, I re-read my own words and discovered that I need to take my own advice…again.

“In the end, the only thing preventing me from (in this case, fitting into my awesome shirt) was me. Don’t beat yourself up. Just don’t give up. The only way I can actually fail is to quit.”

So here I am, only three weeks into the year, and I already needed to kick myself in the butt and get back on the horse. Or the dinosaur. But I’m doing it. And will keep doing it because I love that silly shirt.

How are you doing with YOUR resolutions?