I can never keep my New Year's resolutions, ever.

Each New Year's day comes and goes and after about six weeks of waking up early, eating healthy and journaling I give up. I have always wondered why this was, I mean we all usually fall into the mentality of "new year, new me" at some point during this time of year, so why can't anyone ever keep up with their resolutions? Is it because we are lazy? Or maybe it's because we forget.

Whatever it is, I am sure there is not a single person out there who hasn't broken their resolution. But not this year, this time it's going to be different and here is how I am going to hold myself accountable this new year.

The most important step of keeping up with your New Year's resolution is to set a realistic goal and to only have a few of them. I always want to change everything at once, but it just isn't going to happen. If you have too many goals you will get burnt out quickly and soon you won't be able to even think about working on your resolutions. This year I have given myself three resolutions, and with hard work, will all be attainable. My three goals are: become a morning person, find a gym routine that makes me happy and is fun, and find more time for reading and writing. I don't think these goals are too lofty, and I think they are a good place to start my journey on who I want to be.

Another important aspect of choosing New Year's resolutions is to pick goals that you can build a lifestyle off of. I am someone who thrives on being busy and having things to do, but only if I have to do them. I know that if I do not have somewhere to be in the morning I can sleep until noon, but I also know that isn't how I want to live my life. I have always wanted to be a morning person because I love how peaceful the morning is. However I also love my sleep, so I knew that for this resolution I was going to have to change my lifestyle.

Now, the logistics of my resolutions are probably my favorite part, because I have found the best tools to change my lifestyle. The first tool I am using is an app called TickTick, which is a calendar and task program that keeps everything I need in one. I love my planner and have even been into bullet journaling, but I needed something more time efficient if I wanted to everything done. This app helped me plan to the minute when I would wake up, workout, journal or read, and go to sleep. It sounds like a lot of work, but I know that in the long run, I will be able to live off of this schedule and be as efficient as possible. I also found a gym guide that makes me want to go to the gym, which I never want to do. And lastly, for my reading and writing resolution, I purchased an adorable new journal and a couple of books I want to read.

Lastly, the most important part of keeping up with your resolutions is to check in with yourself. If you are following through with your resolution and you find that you hate how your lifestyle has changed, then forget about your resolution! In the end, we choose resolutions that we think will make us happy, so it is important to make sure they actually are.

Good luck with your New Year's journey, I hope 2019 is your year.