Ah, it's a new year. Where did the time go? The years are flying by faster than I ever expected, but it's time for a change.

All the events and situations that happened last year are merely just a memory that we can dwell on through social media, photos, and conversations with our friends and peers.

As the majority, I think of the New Year as a 'new beginning.' The New Year is a way to change your life for the better - physically, mentally or emotionally. A way to forget about the past and move on. We do this by making "A New Years Resolution,' which can be eating healthy, working out, to quit smoking or even changing your state of mind.

Here are some things I'm working on for 2018 in order to grow, make myself stronger and strive to become a better person.

1. Stay true to your resolutions.

As we approach a new year, we make ‘resolutions’ which are basically goals to help improve your lifestyle. As the year goes on, the resolutions start to fade away; we become bored, think we can’t do them anymore, or we just forget. It’s important to stay true to our resolutions and remember why we decided to do them in the first place.

2. Focus on what’s important.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in things and situations that DO NOT matter. In order to grow and learn, we have to take the time to focus on what’s important in our life. Ask yourself this: “Is this really going to matter tomorrow?” If it’s not, then drop it. If yes, focus on why it’s important.

3. Pick up a hobby.

Sometimes we get distracted by situations and things that we don’t need to be so involved in. We need to learn to keep ourselves busy and a great way to do that is by picking up a hobby. This can be something such as reading more books, exercise classes, meditation, or knitting. Hobbies should be things that relax us, something we can enjoy on the daily and that relaxes us.

4. Take rejection and criticism constructively.

As we grow and face more challenging situations, we also receive rejection and criticism. While we think it’s a bad thing at the moment, we need to think of it as something good. Rejection and criticism can help us grow in the things we need to improve on. If we take these things and turn it into helping construct ourselves, we will grow in the long run.

5. Take time for yourself.

I can never stress enough how crucial it is to take time for yourself. If we don’t focus on ourselves sometimes, this can lead to crazy stress. Taking time for yourself is something as simple as sleeping in a little longer than usual for a day, or running yourself a bath. Every single day we face situations that can make or break us and we have to be able to take time for ourselves.

So, I hope that each and every one of you has made resolutions or goals for this new year. I hope that you stay true to them and are trying to better yourself every day.