Every September, my classes fill up. People come back from summer looking for something to anchor to as the weather turns and the school year starts and the year stops feeling endless. There’s a reason for this. September is the secret New Year for a lot of us — even if we left school decades ago, the body remembers the rhythm.

New Year's resolutions: about 80% of Americans make them, but only about 8% actually achieve them. That's not because we lack willpower or commitment—it's because we're setting ourselves up for failure from the start.

After 40 years of teaching movement and working as a behavioral change specialist, I've seen this pattern play out hundreds of times.

Here's something I notice almost every week in class: a student tries a movement, I offer a gentle tip to help them refine it, and they immediately apologize. "Sorry!" As if learning something new were a failure.

It breaks my heart a little, every time.