Okay, we’ve all been there: you start the new year all fired up about your resolutions, but by mid-January you find yourself on the couch with a bag of potato chips and the remote control, thinking, “Oh well, I’ll meet that goal next year.”

Here at the Solutions office, we’ve been through the resolution make-and-break cycle a time or two (or ten!), and we’re here with some advice. No, not advice on how to keep your resolutions; if we knew the secret to that, we’d all be millionaires. Instead, we polled our whole team and gathered a list of great excuses for breaking your resolutions. Each of these tried-and-true justifications has been used by a member of our team with rousing success. So if you find yourself at the end of January surrounded by broken resolutions, just pull out one of these for an instant excuse!

1. “The dog ate my motivation.” Oh, those pesky pets, always gobbling up something: your homework, your gym suit, your motivation for working out! When the lazy strikes, blame it on the dog—he won’t mind.
2. “I’m practicing the zen art of detachment.” Slipped off your diet? That’s okay. Threw in the towel on organizing the garage? No problem. You’re living in the moment; everything that happens is but a drop in time. Each broken resolution is just another step toward enlightenment. Ommmmmm.
3. “I’m too busy helping everyone else meet their resolutions.” How can you focus on finally getting your closets cleaned out when you’ve got to help your son set up a budget, encourage your husband to get to the gym, show your sister-in-law how to cook low-fat? When you’re the person everyone turns to, making time for your own goals feels impossible.
4. “My resolution this year was not to make any resolutions.” This classic is a one-size-fits-all excuse that banishes broken-resolution guilt in one fell swoop. Who cares if you fall down on resolutions you didn’t want anyway!
5. “Ya know, life is pretty good as it is.” Sure, there’s lots we’d like to accomplish over the coming year, but when we really take stock, we find ourselves amazed by just how many blessings we can count. Resolutions should never get in the way of appreciating what we have.

Here’s hoping you have a wonderful new year full of accomplishments or great excuses—whichever makes you happy!

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