Yes, I said it. STOP making New Year's resolutions. Why, you ask?

New Year's resolutions come around once at the very beginning of the year. You have a new outlook on who you want to become in the next 365 days. You make a list and give yourself pep talks every morning to stick to your goals. But within a few weeks, that list gets shoved in a drawer or the trash can and you kind of forget they even existed. "Next year, I'll try again."

Instead, make lifestyle changes. Don't resolve to be someone new. DO IT. Make positive life changes any day of the year for the sake of making yourself better. Don't think that just because the calendar changes you'll suddenly want to become a new person. Personal changes don't happen over night.

There is a sense of disappointment when the resolutions on your list never get checked off. You feel like a failure and your confidence is hit by unnecessary discouragement. Stop doing that to yourself. Instead, find small, positive changes that you can make over time to improve yourself. Simple things that you are capable of doing. You deserve to better yourself and feel encouraged while doing so.

There are no time limits on self-improvement. Just because the ball drops at midnight does not mean you've wasted a year you could have devoted to yourself. It simply means there are 12 months until that ball drops again. Don't feel pressured to get a gym membership. Don't feel pressured to put your smart phone down and go take a walk with nature. Don't feel unaccomplished for being yourself for another year. Some things don't need to change.

New Year's resolutions are destined for failure if you make them out of obligation. Make positive lifestyle changes whenever you want. Whenever you are ready. There is no right time for personal change. There is no schedule for self-improvement. There is no stopwatch timing you to see how long after midnight on January 1st you stop checking off that list. There's just life.

So, start taking the new year day by day, not task by task. Stop trying to make this your year and start trying to make this your lifetime.