I knew it would happen.  The landslide of awesome and inspirational 2011 resolutions posts from last week were, of course, followed up this week with posts about how “resolutions don’t work”.

Who cares?

Yes, for the most part, many people forget about their resolutions/goals/dreams by the end of January.  The new hope that rolled in with the New Year is easily forgotten with the monotony of the daily grind.  Many people will sign up for gym memberships (I know because I saw them all at my gym tonight) and many will stop going to the gym in just a few short weeks.

But, guess what?  Some won’t forget their resolutions.

There will always be a few who emerge from the year victorious (and buff?).  Some will meet their resolutions and maybe even make permanent changes in their life.

Goals give us hope and motivation.  They encourage us when we don’t have anything to look forward to.  They give us something to work towards.  While it’s true that we’ll never meet many of the goals that we set for ourselves (like that goal I set for myself to be on the 3rd season of Jersey Shore … dang it), we WILL meet some of our goals.  And if we never made those goals because someone told us that we wouldn’t reach them, well, we would never have reached them!

Take my friend, Matt, for example.  Matt was overweight until he was twenty years old.  One year, Matt made a New Year’s resolution to get in shape.  That was about 8 years ago.  Since then, Matt has already ran 2 marathons and is now a total gym rat and health freak.  (I didn’t even make that story up, I swear.  Matt is a real person and that story is totally real. )

I made 9 goals last year.  I succeeded at 7 of them.

Dream about being the next president.  Dream about being the next new model in the Victoria’s Secret runway show (anyone else do that?  Just me?).  Dream about being the next blog that Time magazine will name in their 25 Best Blogs of the year (Just me, again?).

Make goals for yourself. In fact, make outlandish, ridiculous goals for yourselves.  Who cares if you don’t meet all of them?  At least you tried.

Did you make New Year’s resolutions or goals this year?