At the end of every year, it seems like more people spend time focusing on all the reasons they are excited to start a new year rather than reminisce on everything that happened in the past. However, I think it is way more beneficial to take the New Year as an opportunity to remember and be thankful for all of the great things!

Sure, bad things happened, but maybe we are too focused on those bad things and, in perspective, it is more like Carrie Underwood said, “sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbin’ is just a grain of sand”.

While there are a lot of funny memes out there about “watching 2016 die at midnight”, we should be thankful for the amazing 12 months we were blessed with. So, instead of sharing on social media about how ready you are to be done with 2016, try posting about how great of a year it was because you did some traveling, passed another year of school, ran a marathon, got a raise, made a friend, ate a lot of good cake, or one of the many other things that happened, big or small, because spreading a little positivity will do a whole lot of good in the world, and it may even encourage someone else to see their 2016 in a new light.

Don’t forget, New Years is not just the beginning of a potentially great chapter in your life, it is the end of an amazing journey that you will never get to relive, so be grateful that you lived it.