It happens every year: we make resolutions for the upcoming year, hoping to change something that we don't like about ourselves in the name of self-improvement.

But these resolutions inevitably fail within weeks or even days. Why does this always happen? It should be easier to maintain a few good habits.

Now, this is just a theory, but I think the reason we don't succeed at keeping our resolutions is because we always aim to reinvent ourselves from the ground up. When we give ourselves so much to do, it becomes nearly impossible to execute all of them.

Resolutions are just empty promises we make to ourselves that have no consequences, so it's easier to get over them when we fail. This is basically self-sabotage: we know we're not going to follow through with our resolutions, and nobody will ever know or care, so it just eventually goes away and we forget it ever happened. This lack of stakes is a foolproof road to failure that we keep doing every single year.

I'm not sure how qualified I am to be giving this advice, but hear me out: don't try to reinvent yourself. We all make mistakes, and we all could be better at this or that. So don't feel like you need to change something about yourself just because everyone tells you to do it. If you truly need to change something about yourself, you will find the means necessary in order to make sure you go through with your transformation.

If you sit down and think about all the things you wish you were better at or what you should be doing more often, you'll just go down a dark spiral of disappointment and regret. And that's not what a resolution is supposed to be, right?

Find something you're doing fine with, and then resolve to do it better. Once you determine what you're good at, you can see the holes that need patching and can start slowly repairing it. You can only achieve your goals when you look up close at the tiny details. Once you get an idea of that, then the big picture will make a lot more sense.

So go into 2017 not trying to change everything about yourself, but instead realize that you're doing a decent job. Then it'll seem like nothing at all.