Our voices are the instruments that orchestrate our lives, and our thoughts are trailers for all that's to come. We are so lucky to have the free will to make any moment into whatever we want, simply by our thoughts and how we choose to act on them. We can make commitments, define ourselves, and comment on the world around us and all the things we encounter on our journey.

Having a thought that brings me back into perspective has given me the power to keep actively creating more amazing moments in my life. "Find the fun and welcome change" is my mantra for 2018.

Thinking about a situation determines its outcome — it fuels the way we react, and thus our story continues to be written and rewritten. I needed a perspective change, something to make me fall in love instead of a life filled with routine (something I'm really not too fond of). Repetitive days tend to get me in the mindset of seeing each day as a repeat of the last — routine isn't lethal, but a perspective like this is.

I miss out on all the lessons, beauty, opportunity, and all the hidden messages every single day brings when I refuse to open my eyes up to what life has to offer. I want to find the fun in every moment, because odds are it's happening for a reason. The sooner I can breathe into the moment and accept it, the sooner I can see what I'm supposed to be learning from it. We get older and think we aren't supposed to laugh or love ourselves when a bad day rolls around and we can't get anything right.

These aren't moments for self-criticism and a strong resistance to happiness — these are the times to not only feel it, but spread it. Spread it on bad days to let others know that they happen to everyone, and it's still possible to laugh your way through a funk. We get one life as exactly who we are, so why waste one second rejecting the set we've been given? It's OURS!

No one in this world looks like you, speaks like you, or has the special light inside them — only YOU can radiate. And when we are loving ourselves, we are having fun — and when we're having fun, our light is shining for the world to see.

Welcoming change is just a roll-off of having fun — it's removing the limitation we put on our openness to life's beauty when we expect a certain outcome or expect ourselves to make the same mistakes over and over again. I'd expect to see a gray sky and feel gray on the inside, to choose vegging out over studying, and to dim my light when I wasn't feeling my best. Wake up and expect the best! If you normally snooze, stop expecting to snooze by welcoming the change of doing what you KNOW you want to do.

If you want to study more, break the stigma you've got about yourself and just SIT DOWN AND STUDY! Bam — you're welcoming in change, you're welcoming a new and brighter you to create this life. I want to welcome the idea of waking up happy, speaking up when I'd normally be quiet, and waking up and believing today might just turn out to be the best day ever.

Every day is brand new, just like every moment. Mantras set us up to approach each new moment with a heart open to it being better than you imagined. Use your instrument to tell the truth, make someone's day better, and show someone your real, unedited self. Use your thoughts to direct a movie starring none other than you, and let every plot twist change into a happy ending. Do you want to be kinder? To laugh more? To let things go? Repeat after me — I am whatever I want to be, no exceptions.