As many people are wont to do when the pages fall off the calendar to reveal a new year, I do a reexamination of certain areas of my life.

It seems like social media wants to bombard us with the message of “new year, new you,” or some variation thereof. And it’s tempting to fall into that trap. I think it can also be problematic.

Typically, gyms report their largest surge of new memberships being in January, as people get on the “new year, new me” track. But, as we all know by this point, most new year’s resolutions are abandoned by the end of February.

While browsing Facebook, I could see why.

There was a meme that appeared to be designed as an ad for a gym. It had a photo of the actor Chris Hemsworth (the guy who plays Thor in Avengers movies) shirtless and showing off a chiseled muscular physique. The ad said “Chris Hemsworth is 42. What’s your excuse?”

Obviously, the ad is meant to nudge people into the gym, but it ignores some common sense reality. Hemsworth is an A-list Hollywood actor, and much of his success is built on how he looks.

He pays for a personal trainer, personal chefs, and has all kinds of access to medical services that can help tailor specific plans for specific goals. When he needs to prepare for an Avengers movie, he can take as much time as he needs to go to the gym and achieve his goals.

I don’t begrudge that fact, it just simply is what it is.

The problem stems from the fact that we are constantly bombarded by different forms of media that constantly suggest we aren’t good enough. It implies there is some standard in place, without having a strictly defined standard out in the open for all to see. So, we’re all left grasping at what we see on the big screen as setting the standard.

To be sure, there have been attempts to counteract this fact. The body positivity movement gained a lot of steam in recent years past, as numerous overweight celebrities openly embraced the way they looked and encouraged everyone else to do the same.

But then Ozempic came out, along with other semaglutide medicines. Suddenly the body positivity moment got really quiet and some of those same celebrities were sporting new physiques within a few months.

It kind of leaves the average person feeling helpless. We find ourselves listing our missing resources by springtime. “I didn’t have the money, the time, the equipment, etc.”

I just want to say that you don’t need to explain yourself to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you break your resolution, because that isn’t failure. True failure only occurs when you give up. When you stop trying and throw in the towel, only then have you failed. But when you try and don’t succeed, you are simply learning what is/isn’t effective.

If I could offer any encouragement to anyone out there, it would be this: We have a tendency to overestimate what we can do in a year; but we also tend to drastically underestimate what we can do in a decade.

You’ve got time. Take a breath, step back and relax. You’ve got this.