Everyone wants to do something great in 2019 — get married, lose weight, get a new job, graduate from college, etc. And a lot of times these resolutions start great and then fail. Why?

We lose motivation. We realize it's harder than we thought, or we just lost interest.

New Year's resolutions should be an excuse for you to reflect on 2018. What was good about 2018? What wasn't so good? What do you have the power to change, and what do you want to focus on for 2019? New Year's resolutions should be a form of self-improvement. They should give us the opportunity to make personal changes for growth in 2019.

My first resolution that I'm sure I share with a lot of other people is to be more healthy. I have committed to going to the gym at least five times a week for 30 minutes, eating more fruit and veggies and cutting out sugar/junk food. I want to better myself, and going to the gym helps me immensely both mentally and physically. I realized that I want to get back into the gym and feeling better about myself.

My second goal for 2019 is to learn how to say no to people. I need a better balance between school and free time, and as I reflected on fall semester I came to the conclusion that I try to be too involved and therefore am not really involved in anything. Therefore, I will be dropping a few student organizations and focusing on the ones that help me to succeed or that I personally enjoy.

Additionally, I want to step out of my comfort zone and be more social in 2019. Normally, I'm not extremely outgoing, and it takes me a while to warm up to new people, but I want to get out of this mindset and go out of my way to talk to people and learn more about others. Along with this, I want to go out of my way to do nice things for other people, as I can get very wrapped up in my own personal problems and not pay attention to the needs of others.

My last resolution is to sleep more. I am always exhausted, and resting is good. It doesn't mean that I should be finding more things to do with my time. Instead, it means that I should take those breaks and take care of my body more. I want to focus on taking care of myself more in 2019 and putting myself at the top of my priority list instead of always running around doing things for classes or going to 5-6 meetings a week.

What are some of your resolutions, and how can you implement them in 2019 so that you'll actually stick to them?