Every time a new year arises, most people become overwhelmed with excitement of the possibility of a better future. When a new year comes, it is a great time to try to make some changes to yourself. However, I still find it interesting how from December 31st to January 1st, peoples mindset change from recovering from Christmas to wanting to change their whole life, just because of one day. This drastic change isn't always bad though. Sometimes, for people who want to make changes, something in their life has to end, like a year. Wanting to make some lifestyle changes is good for the most part, but trying to completely change everything about you in one day probably isn't going to end well.

Every time a new year comes, there is always a lot of hype around it; everyone is so excited to get a fresh start. However, every day is a fresh start and a person can begin to make changes at any time, not just on New Year's Day.

In previous "New Year's," I would make a list of resolutions that I wanted to accomplish. Like most people, after about a week, I started to forget to look at the list I had made and only did some minor changes to myself and my lifestyle. With this new year, however, I didn't make a list. I really didn't even think about any resolutions I wanted to make for myself.

In the sea of social media posts I saw/read about the new year, many of them contained that person's resolutions or even their motto going into this new year. I didn't make any posts on social media about the new year either, nothing. You're probably wondering what's wrong with me and if I am even excited about the new year, and the truth is, I am excited, just in a different way.

As I mentioned before, I didn't make any emotional social media posts about the new year and that is because of a few different reasons. The first one being, the new year snuck up on me. After the Christmas craziness began to end, my hectic schedule didn't and before I knew it, I was watching TV, counting down to 2019. Not only did time get away from me, but I also just decided I wasn't going to make any specific resolutions this year. I decided to just try to better myself every day this year like how I did in 2018. To be honest, I am always trying to be a better version of myself, so my goal for this new year is to just continue to do that. I want to take what I learned in 2018 (which was a lot) and use that knowledge to my advantage in 2019.

So, I guess if I had to choose a motto for what I hope to accomplish in 2019, it would be 'new year, better me' instead of 'new year, new me'. I switched my motto to 'better me' because I don't want to totally reinvent myself and become a new person. As I have gotten older, I have already changed and matured and will continue to do so in my own natural course of life, no need to rush it. I just want to keep bettering myself in the new year, rather than changing myself.

That all being said, if you're like me and the new year snuck up on you and you're still in shock, just try to better yourself and not change yourself. Trying to make drastic changes overnight or even in a span of a week can be really difficult to do and most people become frustrated and give up. Try your best to avoid this. Instead, just take one day at a time and focus on small changes or just being more aware of things. With the new year comes optimism about the future, so make it a good outcome and take it one step a time.