As the new year is approaching, there is talk everywhere about New Year’s resolutions. Every year around this time everyone has these big plans for the new year on how we can all change and improve ourselves and better our lives overnight. Suddenly, everyone decides on the same day to eat healthier, go to the gym more, wash your face more often, drink more water and read more books. Then most people last a few weeks maintaining these resolutions, some may even last to middle of February. Many others, on the other hand, wake up January 1^st after that long night out and head to McDonald’s to cure that hangover and, poof, that resolution has already been ruined.

I’m getting really tired about hearing how everyone is so excited for 2017 because “2016 was so terrible”. Personally, 2016 was my favorite year so far. Nevertheless, every year I always hear people talking about how they “can’t wait for the year to be over”. What is that going to do for you? Your life is still going to be the same on New Year’s Day as it was December 31^st. The clock turning from 11:59 to 12:00 is not some kind of magic trick that is going to solve all of your problems. If you are unhappy with your life, it is up to you to change it at any time. Yeah, that’s right, you don’t have to wait for a new year to make positive improvements to your lifestyle. Crazy, right? Instead of talking about how we can’t wait for the year to be over and hope the next year is better, we should all look back and appreciate the good things that have happened to us over the past 365 days and get excited for more good things to come.

I say we stop wasting our time with “New Year’s resolutions” and get rid of them altogether. I understand the intent with resolutions and I appreciate what they are trying to do, but they are just not realistic. No one is going to change overnight just because now when we write the date on our papers, it ends in “2017” instead of “2016”. Instead, let’s consciously think daily about how we can better ourselves and do something small every day to make those big improvements over time. Also, let’s all be a little more optimistic. We don’t want to rush our lives away, so stop saying you “can’t wait for the year to end”. Bad things happen to everyone every year, but a lot of good things happen as well. Let’s spend a little more time focusing on those things instead.

So here’s to the new year. I hope you don’t waste your time making empty promises to yourself with these silly New Year’s resolutions and don’t even waste your money on that gym membership that probably won’t even last until Valentine’s Day. I hope instead in the New Year, that you make the changes in your life that you want to make slowly over time and whenever you are ready. I hope you’re a little more optimistic and see things a little bit differently. But most importantly, I hope that 2017 is an awesome year for everyone. 2016 was pretty amazing if you ask me, so let’s see if 2017 can top it.