With 2017 coming to a close, most of us are fervently pinning down what our New Year's resolution for 2018 is going to be. We dream of altering our day-to-day decisions in such a profound way, with the hopes of transforming ourselves into someone new and unrecognizable in comparison to who we were in the previous year.

But why do we tell ourselves that we have to wait until the commencement of a new year before we are capable of enacting such a change?

For so many of us, if we failed our 2017 resolutions in March, then we feel as though we have to wait another nine months–until 2018 begins–before we are able to give it another try or embark on a new resolution completely.

The thing is, though, we are never promised tomorrow. We only have today. Some of us may not make it to 2018, and our last day on this Earth will be December 31st, 2017. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be morbid, but I do think it's important to understand the urgency that we should all have going into each and every day.

If you knew with absolute certainty that you only had seven days left in this world, would you live your final seven days the exact same way that you lived your previous seven days? My guess would be no.

The first thing that I would encourage anyone to do, in light of the fact that we are all only promised today, is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and believe in His name. Everything else is secondary to that and is the perfect primer to carry out my second suggestion:

Live each day as if it is your last.

As cliché as that may sound, I truly believe that it helps put everything else into perspective. If we can imagine that tomorrow may not come, then perhaps we can find the strength to make the necessary changes we need to make in our lives today, rather than waiting for a new year to arrive.

When it comes down to it, the only person that has the ability to help you become the person that you wish you could be is you.

So, this New Year's Day, if we remember that this day is the only day that we are promised, then I would encourage all of us to live each day as if it is New Year's Day and understand that if we fail on our current resolutions, we don't have to wait another year before we have the ability to change.

If we can welcome 2018 with this attitude, then I'm confident that this next year will be a great one for each and every one of us.

Happy New Year, y'all!