New Year's resolutions are often considered one of the most important things you can do when starting a new year. The big problem with resolutions? Most people cannot stick to them. How long do you usually last? A Week? Two, maybe?

The real problem is that you tell yourself every day how important it is to stick to these new ways of life, and then you start to overthink everything. Sometimes people even begin to question why they ever thought they needed a certain resolution at all.

So what is the best thing for you to be doing to ensure that 2018 is your best year yet? Well, first you are going to have to reflect back on 2017, figure out when you succeeded at something and then determine how and why. Do the same thing for any failures you may have had. I recommend making a list of all the good and bad things that happened to you; then, next to each item on your list, jot down some reasons things worked out the way they did.

When your list is complete, find the traits or aspects of the year that made you incredibly successful or led to your failures. Typically, you will find that there were only a couple of things, but usually you did them multiple times. Maybe it was snoozing your alarm clock which led you to be late to work or miss class. Or maybe you were too lazy to go grocery shopping, so you ate ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whatever it was, write it somewhere you will never forget it because you officially can't do it for the entirety of 2018.

On the contrary, if you found you were more successful, take whatever tool made you succeed and use it to achieve in otheraspects of your life. If it was showing up early to every class, day at work or special event, keep doing that. Maybe you started a new hobby or took a couple of yoga classes. So often, people try to argue that they are too busy to incorporate these types of things into their daily lives.

Let's all be honest with ourselves here. Sometimes what you think is important isn't exactly important to you as an individual. Flipping through that fashion magazine may be fun, but not knowing whose baby bump was spotted at the beach isn't going to kill you.

When you find yourself doing something mindless or falling into useless habits, replace such activities with something good for your body and mind.

So, how do you kick your new year off right? You need to determine what worked for you last year and what didn't. Also remember that every person is different. That cleanse your best friend is on may not be your thing--that's fine.

As a final thought, don't let the whole "new year, new me" saying get you wondering if you need to change. If you are proud of what you accomplished last year, keep doing what you know. If the "new you" is going to be a worse you, forget it.