Gyms everywhere are greedily looking forward to their increase in memberships as those making their New Year's resolutions pour through the doors for the first few days of January then fade away again until next year. Every year people make pledges to do better, to be better, to make changes in their lives that they feel will make them better, but every year they fall flat. We all pledge to eat a healthier diet, to work out more, to read more, to do better in classes, then when the hardships hit we drop them like they were never desired. So how do we stick to the resolutions that we make? Instead of trying to be better with our resolutions, our resolutions themselves need to be better.

I am not and will never be a fitness guru. I cannot run for long periods of time or some extreme distance. I am not going to be the first pick for the sports team. That quite simply is not me, but I am good at writing. I am good at reading and obtaining information. I am not useless just because I am not good with sports. Too often in resolutions we focus on the negatives. We look to what we are bad at and try to improve on that instead of what we are actually skilled in. I could make the resolution that I am going to exercise more, but realistically that goal will not be met. No matter the amount of time I put in, I quite simply will never be geared towards athletics. Instead I can make a resolution that I care about and will keep. I could make the resolution of running a mile a day, but after one day of that I will lose my will. Instead I should make a resolution that not only I can keep, but that will benefit me.

Now at first glance this can appear that I am saying to make easier resolutions, but that is not the case. Your resolutions should challenge you and make you better, but they should do so in an area that you actually care about. I may become slightly better at athletics with practice, but I will never be some athletic superstar, so there is not any point in me wasting my valuable time at that. Instead I should focus on the things I love, the things I enjoy, and the things I am actively pursuing as a career. Running each day will not help me in my journalistic endeavor. Joining a gym then quitting after the first week will not make my writing stronger. Starting anything new then not continuing it after a week will not improve my skills; it will not benefit me in any way. Writing a specific amount of words each day might do so, though. The new year gives you the chance to change, to start the year positive and to improve, to be better than you were the year before. It is easy to find something to improve on in an area that you do not use often. It is easy for me to say I should be able to run more, to lift more, to push my body more, but it is harder for me to examine what I feel confident in and find fault. We often think ourselves perfect at the things we enjoy and are good at. It is more difficult to criticize ourselves on the things we believe ourselves to be good at.

If you want to have a New Year's resolution that you will stick with, examine the things in your life that you have stuck with so far. When I was younger I participated in a broad array of sports teams, but I am not an athlete today. I simply did not stick with sports, but I also wrote a great deal when I was younger as well. I wrote the stories that I wanted to read, the stories that I felt needed to be on the bookshelf, but were not. I have stuck with writing from the beginning, and so I will continue to stick with it. For me, the best resolution would center on that. So what have you stuck with? What is your passion and your "thing" in life? I can not answer those questions for you, but I can say that those are the areas you will want to improve on if you want to ever become a better person in your life. I will never be the next Jordan, or the next Manning, but that's OK because with proper practice and good resolutions, I can possibly become the next Rowling or Tolkien.