Every year I try to make a New Year’s resolution. But you know what happens? Nothing. I never seem to accomplish the goal I set. This seems to be the case for many others as well, especially millennials. I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s so hard for a while now, and I think I’ve finally come up with a solution. Just don’t make a New Year’s resolution.

I don’t mean this in a way of “never set a goal for yourself”–I mean it in a way that gets rid of holding out for the new year to make a change. If you see something in your life that you don’t like, fix it right then and there, don’t make an excuse to push it off. Many people will do this and think, “I’ll just wait until the new year to start working out.” This is bad. This begins the habit of pushing things you think you should do off until a convenient time for you. What happens if the new year starts and you get lazy and stop going to the gym? The same thing will happen again–“aw man I guess this whole working out thing isn’t working…I’ll just start again in the new year.” A cycle like this is not a good one to get into. I see posts on twitter all the time that talk about 2017 being the year to finish those New Year’s resolutions we made back in 2013. I’ll admit that I do find that funny because it’s true, but it’s also really sad that this is happening with so many people.

Same thing with the "new year, new me" quote that everyone tends to use. Why wait for a new year to change the things you don't like about yourself? Start to gradually change them as soon as you realize they are making you unhappy. I guarantee you it will be so much easier to gradually make yourself a better person as you see fit instead of making a vow to change everything all at once when the year is done.

I think all of these habits might be because we are young adults and we believe we have our whole life ahead of us to make changes. That may be true, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start making those changes now. Pushing off the resolutions we make is not helping to make our lives better, it’s just keeping them stagnant. I don’t know about you, but I want my entire life to be happy and exciting.

Instead of waiting for the New Year to set a goal for myself, I’m going to start doing so whenever I find something I don’t like in my life. I will start being more assertive, I will eat healthier, I will work out more, I will not limit myself–but I will not wait until the clock strikes twelve to do all of these things. I will do them now, and you really should too.