You already know the statistics.: Many people set New Year's resolutions on January 1st. By February 1st, nearly all of those resolutions have been broken for good. With odds like that, you would think that we would have given up on New Year’s resolutions by now, and yet it is a tradition that lives on like a zombie year after year.

There are always going to be people who jump on whatever bandwagon because of advertising or “it’s what everyone does,” but I believe that most people who set about to change their lives on January 1st do so with a great deal of thought.

That thought is actually part of the problem.

The reason we can't seem to get off this wagon of suffering is because we actually jump on way earlier in the year than we think. By the time January 1st rolls around, we’ve been riding the wagon for so long, it is almost inevitable that many of us will set resolutions again.

If you’ve been thinking about your New Year’s resolution for months, you are not alone. If I had to guess, most people who set New Year's resolutions that they really care about were pretty sure what they wanted to do by the end of November, by Christmas at the absolute latest.

The reason for this is that the boom bust cycle of New Year's resolutions corresponds with a stage in a cycle we go through every year. Understand the cycle, and you are one step closer to knowing how to work with New Year’s resolutions like a champ.

Time Moves in a Circle: The Wheel of the Year

Just like the official calendar has 12 months, the astrological calendar has 12 months. In astrology, we call these months sun seasons because they follow the sun's movement through each of the signs of the zodiac. If you know your sun sign, you know the season you were born in.

Astrologers believe that sun seasons say something about the people who were born in them, but they also influence the collective. Just like the physical sun signs a light that illuminates the world, sun seasons shine a light on one area of each of our lives and tell us what the collective is focused on at the moment.

The way the collective focus shifts over the course of the year can be seen in the mundane calendar. Weddings are popular in May when the sun is in Taurus, a sign ruled by Venus, the goddess of love. In the northern hemisphere, the collective has a back to work/school attitude at the end of the summer when the sun is in practical, to-do list-making Virgo. Halloween and Day of the Dead happen during Scorpio season, the sign of death and resurrection.

How New Year’s Resolutions Fit Into the Yearly Cycle

Remember how I guessed that you probably knew what your New Year's resolution would be in November or December? I made that guess because Sagittarius season spans the time roughly from American Thanksgiving to Christmas. Sagittarius season is a season of fire and optimism. That's why so many people love to like candles during this time. It is also a time when we find it easy to believe that we are capable of undertaking a difficult quest and succeeding.

After Sagittarius, the sun moves into in achievement oriented sign of Capricorn. Capricorn wants nothing more than to take on a tough challenge and succeed. For many of us, that desire to succeed is pushed to the background for the first week or so of Capricorn season because Capricorn season starts four days before Christmas.

While we open presents and visit with family and friend and eat way too many Christmas cookies, that energy slowly builds to a boil. On January 1st, we’re practically bursting with energy to go after our goals.

That energy carries us forward for awhile, but, toward the end of January, The sun changes signs again. It enters freedom loving Aquarius. Like a drunk waking up with a hangover, all of the people who listened to dieting commercials and set their goals according to values that don't really belong to them find that they cannot force themselves to go after those goals anymore.

Aquarius is a future oriented sign. Its purpose is to make sure that you have minimal regrets on your deathbed. If you have been sleepwalking through life, just doing the things you're supposed to do and not doing the things that are actually meaningful and authentic for you, Aquarius season arrives like a bucket of cold water poured over your head, reminding you that there's more to life than your budget and your waistline.

If your New Year's resolution survives Aquarius season, congratulations! You are either more self-aware or more determined than most people. But there is still one more problematic season to go.

Toward the end of February, we enter Pisces season. After you have thought about the future, and you have decided that your resolution aligns with your very long-term goals, Pisces comes in and brings the great cosmic question: Will this matter in 500 years?

Unless you are Augustus Caesar or Aphrodite herself, it will probably be very hard to convince yourself that anyone will care how you look or how much money you had in 500 years, even if you think that the work you're doing now will make your life much better in the long run.

Pisces is the final boss that gets nearly everyone.

This is sad because after Pisces comes Aries season, and Aries is the sign of the Warrior. Remember that determination you had back in December? The month after the spring equinox is the time when you will actually find the energy you need to go after those goals you wanted so badly.

Ironically, if people tried to get back on the New Year’s resolution wagon in the spring, they would probably find a lot more success. Instead, the story goes that a resolution broken can't be returned to until January.

And the cycle repeats.

Working With the Yearly Cycle to Set Resolutions You’ll Keep

Now that you know what the cycle is, you have two options: You can choose to wait until the spring to start working on your New Year’s resolutions, or you can dive straight into your resolutions, knowing that there will be challenges ahead.

There are pros and cons to each approach.

If you wait, you will feel like you are wasting the burst of energy that becomes available to you in January. You won’t actually be wasting that energy, if you do things right. You will be dreaming, planning, and building a solid foundation that will carry you forward for a long time, but you might feel frustrated, anyway. It’ll be especially difficult if everyone around you is working busily on meeting their new goals.

If you decide to dive into meeting your goals immediately, there’s a chance that you will put in a lot of work in January only to discover that the dreams that felt so real in November were a mirage. Sometimes, though, changes need to be made. Your health is dangerously bad, for example, and you need the energy that comes with the first of the year to make potentially life-saving lifestyle changes.

You are the only one who knows which of these options is best, so I will give advice for both approaches as I explore the New Year’s resolution cycle in depth.

Sagittarius Season

Sagittarius season is the natural time for hope and optimism. It’s the time in the year when it’s appropriate to get over-enthusiastic and excessive and dream about going on a big quest.

When you find yourself starting to dream about those things in November or December, don't squash it. Pay attention. The dreams that you have during this time are important. Later, you will get practical and refine your goals and meet difficulty. For now, allow yourself to get pumped up with the belief that you can do anything. If you are a person who makes vision boards, this is a good time to make them. Allow yourself to get lost in the dream of how things will look when you make the changes you want to make.

Capricorn Season

When Capricorn season rolls around on December 21st, you have a choice. This is either a time for strategizing how exactly you are going to get up the mountain that you want to climb, or it is the time to actually start climbing that mountain.

If you have decided to wait and strategize, spend this time thinking about how you are going to surmount the obstacles that are coming your way as you meet your challenge. You may find yourself drawn to spend a lot of time brooding alone. As long as that brooding doesn't fall into depression, allow yourself some brooding time.

If you have decided to dive in, realize that the motivation and drive that you have now is not going to last forever. Pace yourself. Don't overdo it. Treat it like a marathon, not a sprint. You are likely to run into blocks in January. Things you thought would be possible prove to be impossible. The results you were promised don’t materialize. Your friends and family aren’t supporting your change, and you feel isolated or, at least, like you’re working alone. This is not your fault. It is a natural stage in the cycle, and it will pass. If you have the motivation to keep striving, don’t feel bad if you don’t start seeing results until the spring equinox in late March.

Aquarius Season

When Aquarius season rolls around in late January, this is a time to get authentic. If you have committed to a practice that isn't really working for you, you will know it at this time. This is a time to break your routine and change things up. The annoyances that you have with your new routine are trying to point to the places where you need to make that routine your own. Unless you really have been riding on the New Year’s resolution band wagon the whole time, the challenges you're facing now aren't meant to make you give up. They are here to remind you to be an individual and a human being, not a machine.

If you decided to wait to pursue your goals in January, Aquarius season is for strategizing long-term. Spend time thinking about where you want to be decades from now. How will the changes that you are going to make now going to cause ripple effects in the future? How will your life change because of the changes that you're making? What structures do you need to support you in this change? Start setting those support structures up now.

Pisces Season

When Pisces season comes in late February, it's time to meditate.

If you decided to start working on your goal in January, now is the time to really connect with the work that you're doing on a deeper level. Any routine is likely to get boring after a couple of months, even if you adjusted your routine during Aquarius season.

Don't run from the boredom. Lean into it.

The boredom that you were feeling is a signal that you are on the verge of potentially experiencing an altered state of consciousness. Runners talk about runners high. Athletes talk about getting a second wind. Before you reach that place, you think that you're not going to be able to make it. You think that you don't have what it takes to manifest your dreams. There is energy waiting for you on the other side. Just keep going.

If you decided to wait to pursue your goal. Pisces season is the time to return to dreaming. If you recorded your dreams in November, you will find that you have come a long way since then. You may find that your Sagittarius dreams were only hints of your real priorities. Now that you have spent time meditating on the difficulties, planning for the future, and making sure that your plans are authentic, things may look very different. Now is a time to return to vision boarding or dreaming or journaling or whatever your practice is with all of the knowledge and experience and planning you've done. Returning to the beginning at this stage will probably feel tedious. Lean into your boredom and frustration. When Aries season begins, you will need every ounce of energy you can save.

Aries Season

If you have been waiting to start your New Year’s resolution journey since January, the beginning of Aries season at the spring equinox in late March is the time to start. By now, you might be bursting to start finally working to achieve your goals. Go to it! Use that energy now to fight for your place in the sun.

You might also find that the motivation just isn’t there, or you may have found by going through the process of dreaming and planning that you don’t actually want the things you thought you did. That’s okay. Some of the dreams of Sagittarius season end up being a mirage, and not everything survives the winter. It’s okay to let those things go.

If you have been working on your New Year’s resolutions since January, now is the time when you can start looking for results. Depending on the size of your project, you might not see them right away. This is the time of year when new sprouting plants are tiny and fragile, but results are coming.

Keep fighting, you New Year’s warrior!

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