It's that time of year again — New Year's. The time everyone overestimates just how good they can be next year and how much they can change and better themselves. Or the time that people actually work on themselves and set goals that they manage to achieve through the year. I've always loved New Year's and have always celebrated by staying up to watch the ball drop and by making a list of resolutions I was always hopeful to fulfill.

Every year, I'm super enthusiastic to make a well thought out list of everything I want to achieve the coming year. Granted, I never follow through with the whole list. At most, I accomplish a few of the goals and give up on the rest partially through the year. Either way, it was something I looked forward to at the end of every year. It was what made me motivated and kept me positive for the next year.

However, this year was different. I'm not too sure why, but it didn't feel the same this year. Winter this year didn't quite feel like winter, Christmas didn't feel like Christmas, and I didn't feel like celebrating New Year's. I didn't even stay up till midnight this time.

I guess it has something to do with how I felt in general this year. I've had my ups and downs this year and at some points felt much more negative than I usually did. And I guess that negativity continued into 2019. So instead of setting out goals and motivating myself, I let myself stay unmotivated and never ended up coming up with any resolutions for 2019. And so far, that's what my 2019 has been — unmotivated.

After thinking about it, I realized that I shouldn't have just let myself go into the new year like that. One of the most important things is to stay positive and inspired to do great things and make the best out of the time you have. The worst thing I could do to myself is letting myself not care about it being a new year. Because it really is important.

As ridiculous as everyone makes the new year seem with resolutions everyone knows they won't keep, in my opinion, it's not completely crazy. From what I see, resolutions do more good than anything, right? For me, they aren't made to be accomplished. The point of resolutions is to keep us trying, to keep our spirits up and keep us working on ourselves. We don't have to always accomplish things, but we should always try to be better.

So for those who believe that New Year's resolutions are ineffective and a waste of time, I can understand why you would think so. But honestly, they're helpful.

This is the first year I've gone in without any, and it already feels like I've been so unproductive. So instead, I'm making my new resolution to be more happy and positive for the year to come and to strive to do the best I can do. I believe any resolution can help improve our lives in the smallest ways, and it should be something I always keep. They keep us excited and give us a reason to do what we do. If nothing else, the satisfaction that we get from accomplishing even a little task makes us proud and motivated to do more and accomplish more in our lives.