Whether your new year has gone swimmingly or disastrously, 2018 is on its way and will stop for no one.

Maybe you decided to be a little healthier this year. Maybe you decided to just live your best life in 2018. Maybe you set the same resolution that you set every year, promising yourself that this would finally be the year that it is fully accomplished. Maybe this will be your year.

I, for one, have set several smaller resolutions for myself and they are all geared toward a common goal: failure.

Don't worry, I don't have some deeply sadistic desire to see myself fail. Quite on the contrary, I have a deep desire to see myself succeed in being the happiest and most successful that I can be. This year, I have decided to acknowledge the fact that achieving this goal will require me to fail, potentially multiple times. This year I resolve to accept my failures as an inevitable occurrence on my path to success and happiness.

I want to be more positive in my everyday life. I have been known to be a pessimist and I have slowly realized that a healthy dose of doubt and preparation can be okay, but the amount that I sometimes exercise can impede my happiness.

I want to spend more time in my writing, re-immersing myself in the hobby that I have loved throughout my entire life. I want to do more of what makes me happy, and that means I want to write more in the New Year.

While these have tended to be the annual "resolutions you make but never really try for after a week or so," this year I want to make them a reality. I want to move forward with my education, my hobbies, and my life. I want to start becoming the woman that God intended me to be.

As cliche as it sounds, I also want to do one thing every day that scares me. No, I don't necessarily mean going base jumping or getting (another) tattoo. I mean attempting more things that I am not sure about, more things that are not guaranteed to be successful ventures. I resolve to subject myself to a little healthy burst of impulsiveness every day, challenging the fears that may be holding me back from new degrees of happiness and success.

I am taking on this approach in every aspect of my life. In my writing, I aim to look for ways to practice every day and send my work out for editing and publication, even if it means running the risk of criticism and rejection (two of my biggest fears.)

In my powerlifting, I aim to really dial in on all aspects of my training, even if it means taking the risk of failing in front of a crowd of people at my next USPA meet in March. In my social life, I aim to be a little more social, to talk to more people that I don't know and grow my social circles, even if it means I have to feel slightly awkward and uncomfortable for a little while.

I aim to grow my comfort zones so that I can become a more well-rounded, productive Christian woman, even if it means dealing with disappointment and rejection.

After all, all humans are fearfully and wonderfully made, so why can't we be wonderful in our fear of failure? Why can't I be happy knowing that, sometimes, I give it my all and it's still not enough...and that's okay?

In 2018, I am striving to live my happiest life, grinning at my own failures, and I strongly encourage all of my readers to do the exact same, however you define happiness in your own life.