A lot of us are going into the New Year with our heads hung low, but we don’t have to expect the worst. It’s a new year, so just because you think the previous one was terrible, doesn’t mean the next one has to be. 2017 is a clean slate, fresh with a new semester at school. You have the chance to change your life for the better.

How are you going to change your life in just 365 days? Simple. Stop complaining. All we millennials do anymore is complain: about how tired we are, how much work we have, politics, how our parents treat us, who our friends are dating and anything else we hear about. We compare our lives and boast about who is more miserable. We’re constantly looking for ways to prove that our lives suck more than someone else: “I had to work 18 hours this weekend! I didn’t even get to finish my essay! I stayed up until three last night writing it.” Someone else almost always respond with, “Yeah, I worked 20 hours and was up until four finishing mine.” Why do we measure our success in pitfalls?

Once you stop finding things to complain about, you can start finding things to praise, like good grades, getting to see friends or family and the fact that you have a job to begin with. Everyone is so afraid of being deemed as smug, pompous, or snobby. If you achieved something great and tell people how proud you are, that is not a bad thing, and should never be a bad thing. What is bad is when you compare it to someone else’s success. You are your own person. Your success cannot be measured by others. When you pay more attention to the good things in your life, the bad things cease to exist. Seriously.

Think about that notorious New Year’s Resolution everyone makes, but rarely keeps: a healthier life. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, workout more, or just eat healthier, remember that it won’t happen at once. It probably won’t happen in the first three months. If you break your new good habits, it’s not the end of the world; just pick them back up again. If you keep complaining about how you haven’t lost anything since Christmas, or how hard it is to find carrots at the store, you’ll never reach your goal. Complaining makes you stressed out. In case you forgot, stress is not good for your body. Focus on the positive, like the fact that you even made it to the gym in the first place or you skipped bacon at breakfast.

If you approach 2017 with not only a positive attitude, but also determination to be the best you can be, all those resolutions might just fall into place. 2017 is your year. Now go out there and slay.