Well, it’s about that time again. With the start of another year comes the plethora of “New Year, New Me” tweets and statuses that will soon be plaguing social media. It seems like every year people are saying the same thing, every year they want to start over and become a new person. Getting a fresh start is great, and a new year feels like the perfect time to do it, but maybe the way we’re going about it is the problem.

There's a reason very few people stick to their new years resolutions for more than a month or two: extreme resolutions are made and, let’s face it, they just aren’t practical. We fantasize about this brand new person we want to become by losing weight, quitting smoking or getting a better job, but we never put a plan in place. Instead of trying to become a new person, maybe we should focus on staying exactly who we are.

The time it takes to achieve any goal for the new year is exactly why our focus needs to shift from becoming a new person to staying true to who we are and improving ourselves in the areas that we can. Rather than saying we want to do something by next year, we should be making smaller goals, and once we reach those, setting more to continue our progress. It’s easy to give up when it looks like there's a mountain ahead, but breaking it apart could be the very thing to save your resolution.

We put so much pressure on the new year to make us into the person we really want to become when all we need to do is narrow our focus and take the year one day at a time. Make a plan and put it into action, find a support system to push you, look at it as a short-term goal rather than a long-term resolution. Because let's face it, Rome wasn’t built in one day and your new bod won’t be either.