New year, new me. Let’s hear it again, a little louder, for the people in the back. Every year we make this promise to ourselves but, how many of us really keep it and what does it really mean?

Every resolution I’ve ever made has quickly fallen by the wayside and I’ve failed to make any real changes in my life like I was so determined to do at the beginning. I want this year to be different, I want to be different. Every new year is really a new opportunity to make a change to the way we’ve been living, a change that will make us better versions of ourselves.

Here’s why your new year, new me resolution is so important and why you should do everything you can to stick with it.

When we make a resolution, we think back on the parts of the previous year that were less than ideal. Things that may or may not have happened due to something about ourselves we wish to change or something we often do that we don’t want to do anymore.

Take myself, for example, I have always been a careful, thoughtful person. I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad aspect of my character but I think that I have become more paranoid than careful and have been overthinking many things in my life. I know this has happened because of things I’ve experienced but lately, I’ve been feeling like I’ve put myself in this gigantic bubble and I’m too scared to let anyone in and even to let myself out.

My bubble is certainly protecting me from the things that I fear but it’s also causing me to miss out on life, the good with the bad, and I don’t want to live that way anymore. Naturally, my resolution is to get out of my bubble and it’s terrifying but I know that life is much too short to live constantly scared that something bad is going to happen.

Living in fear of the “what could be” takes your focus away from the “what is” and you become so attentive to the things you fear that you miss out on all the wonderful moments happening right now.

This is my goal for the new year, what is yours? To be healthier? Wiser? Richer? Whatever your resolution, make sure it’s something that will make you a better you. Make it something attainable and that you will be determined to stick to.

Take the new year as an opportunity to become even more awesome than you already are and to take another step toward a fulfilling life. You can't change anything until you’re willing to actively work to make those necessary adjustments, every day, that will add up to a big change. So, this year, make a resolution that is important enough to you that you will keep it. This year make yourself even better than you were last year.

Put yourself out there, love more, laugh more, open your eyes, mind and heart to the world around you and most importantly, don’t hold yourself back. Be who you are, always, but be the best you that you can be. Happy New Year, now get ‘er done.