It happens every year. The constant complaining of how the past year was horrible and how the next year should be better. I never understood why it takes a change in a particular number for people to decide that they want to get their lives together and want to change aspects about their lives. Sure, New Years is symbolic for a clean slate and new beginnings, but, it doesn't mean that just because you mess up sometime throughout the year that it's okay to just "take the L" and wait for next year to be better.

We, as a society, have to stop waiting for the clock to strike twelve for us to realize that we can start fresh. We can start change in the middle of the day, week, or year, it doesn't have to be midnight on January 1st. New Year's resolutions are definitely a great way to stay motivated, but realistically, those fly out the door two weeks into the year. It's important to set realistic goals for ourselves in order to stay happy.

The harsh reality of being human is that your life is not automatically going to change or became better with the change of a new year. The only way for your life to improve is if you work for it, live for it, and make it happen.

Yes, luck is sometimes a factor in life, but wouldn't you much rather know that something positive is happening because you worked for it and not because you got "lucky?" The year as a whole is going to come with ups and downs, but one small setback shouldn't set the pace for the year as a whole. If you sit back and dwell on a minor thing that took a wrong turn throughout the year, it'll become extremely difficult to change your outlook on life and make things better. In order to progress and learn in life we must accept that mistakes, and bad things will happen to us.

It's never too late to change the year around a decide you want to pick up a new hobby, or start treating people better. You can wake up on December 30th and decide that you want to start making this year better and that's completely okay. What's important about change is the way that you achieve it. It's better to realize that you want to change something and do it in that very moment, than waiting for a box on a calendar to be checked off, or the clock to change to a certain time.

We should start to treat everyday like it's own New Year's in itself because from the minute we wake up in the morning we are given the opportunity to make something of ourselves and change our lives for the better depending on how we make our choices.