New Year’s Eve has always been my favorite day of the year since I was a little kid. While Christmas certainly is a close second for me, the New Year simply holds so much opportunity. There is just something about celebrating the survival of yet another year and getting to look forward to a new one that I think is so beautiful. On New Year’s Eve we always reflect on the past year and make plans to start fresh and begin anew during the next. Like most people, come March-ish I realize that I have completely jumped ship in terms of my resolutions. This year my resolution was pretty simple: to love myself. I read a beautiful blog post that talked about how much loving ourselves can lead to a positive outlook on life and all around make us a better person. Reflecting now, I realize that I have completely failed my resolution and possibly even come to dislike myself even more in 2016.

Most years when I am neglecting my resolutions I think “Well, Lent is coming up, I’ll make changes then” or “I’ll diet and exercise in the summer when I have more time” or, my personal favorite “Whelp, I’ll just try again next year.” Where did the motivation go? Where went the beautiful inner-peace of a fresh start? Why don’t I love myself?

So here we are, almost halfway through the year and I am sure that most of you are struggling just as much as I am. I think that the beauty of New Year’s is something that we all share and we all yearn for, but is it enough? The answer is no. We need to start reevaluating and readdressing our resolutions all year. Every day can be a fresh start if we let it. Since May, I have been making great strides to start loving myself again and getting a grasp on the genuinely good person that I used to be when I respected myself fully. At first, I really wanted to beat myself up for having taken almost five months to begin the journey of loving myself again, but then I remembered that beating myself up is certainly not loving myself. Every day is a new day to be brand new, and change takes time. We can’t all be super human on January 1^st and suddenly put our past sins and lifestyles behind us instantly. It’s a year-long process which is why they are New YEAR resolutions.

So take this time to readdress your New Year’s resolutions. If you haven’t started yet or you were faithful for a couple of months and lost sight of it all, that’s okay! We are only human and we make mistakes. Now is the time to reflect. It doesn’t happen overnight. Readdressing our resolutions and why we picked them is the motivation that we need to be successful. Don’t wait until December 31, 2016, to do all of the reflecting. Reflect now and make a change for your past 2015 self. You owe them one. Above everything, love yourself and forgive yourself so that you can once again set yourself on the journey to your beautiful fresh start.