There is a little known secret to making 2016 be the best year of your life:

Let go.

That's it. Just let go.

Let go of the people who no longer bring positivity into your life.

Let go of the people who make you doubt yourself, who make you insecure or who make you feel small.

You will never be able to surround yourself with all the right people if you can't let go of all the wrong ones.

If someone cares for you, they will show it. Stop waiting with bated breath for a phone call, a confession, a text, an apology that will never come. If someone doesn't want to be in your life, don't fight their decision. Instead, realize that you deserve better. Realize that you deserve to be loved and respected, you deserve to be texted back, you deserve to feel happiness.

Delete the text messages you secretly reread over and over at two in the morning when you couldn't sleep. You aren't deleting the memories of the person who hurt you from your life, you are simply letting them go and making room for the better memories that are yet to be made. You are learning to find the "good" in goodbye.

Let go of feelings that don't better you as a person, like feelings of anger or regret.

They may have served their purpose in 2015, but they can't do anything for you in the upcoming year.

Let go of the pain you have been holding onto. For some crazy reason, it's hardest to let go of the things that hurt. But you can't begin to imagine the relief you will feel when you let go at last.

Don't think of 2015 as a waste of time. Think of it as the year you learned important lessons.

If 2015 felt like the year you fell down, let 2016 be the year you got back up.

Sometimes we try too hard to be happy. We stress over situations we can't possibly control, we stress over the future or the past. Sometimes all you need to be happy is to live in the moment. Let your life be what it is, instead of worrying about what it isn't.

Let go of what you can't change.

This past year, mistakes may have been made. Forgive yourself. Forgive those who have wronged you. We are all flawed human beings. We will make mistakes again. You can let these mistakes hold you back, or you can learn from them and go forward knowing more than you ever did before.

Let it be a year of acceptance and growth. Let it be the year you learn to forgive yourself and others.

If pain and bitterness loomed over you like a shadow in 2015, stop it in it's tracks and let 2016 be the year you finally step into the light.

If 2015 was the year you stood still, let 2016 be the year you finally move forward.

Here is a secret: Letting go isn't easy. In fact, It will hurt. But you will survive this, the same way you have survived everything else that hurt you before. Let 2016 be the year you emerge from the cocoon you have been desperately holding onto, the year you transform into something even greater. 2016 could be the greatest year of your life, as long as you let it be.

2015 was the year you breathed it all in. Let 2016 be the year you learn to exhale.