That makes it a depressing holiday.
If you really want to change something about your life, you'll just do it whenever. Because you want to.
If you only want to do it when the new year comes around, then you'll most likely fail because you're only doing it because another year has gone by... and you'll beat yourself down more when the next year comes and you see you've failed with your goals.
I set different goals for myself whenever. I look at a new year's resolution as a goal that just happens to be set on the first day of the year.
'sides, without the institution of resolutions, it would be a strictly numerological holiday, something humans don't do. We need something, anything attached to it besides a ripping good hangover on January 1st.