As we head into 2017, it’s hard not to think back on 2016 with horror and embarrassment as the year seemed to wreck everyone. From the election to endless amounts of cringe-worthy events, this year has been a bit of a mess. As 2017 comes along, we’re all trying to shed some demons and old habits that are holding us all back. The ever-popular phrase “new year, new me” is making a comeback as people ramble on and on about how everything will be different in 2017. They’ll work out more, eat better, spend less money, and make better decisions overall. New Year’s resolutions are awesome in that way, because they encourage us to be better and treat ourselves better, but do they really motivate ourselves to act better?

So we make grand resolutions about how we’re going to do amazing things and completely change who we were the year before. We set up grand dreams for ourselves, and sometimes insane expectations that cannot be accomplished unless we keep our motivation insanely high every day.

Come March most people have given up on their resolutions, and are stating that next year will be their year. “New year, new me” falls to the wayside and people totally forget about all those amazing promises they made to themselves to help them become a better person and live a better life. They say that next year will be their year, and this year will just be written off as not their year. We have one day to change ourselves, and when we fail, we decide to wait till next year to attempt to make ourselves better again.

Why are we limiting ourselves to one day a year? What is so special about January 1^st that makes it the only day a year we can try to better ourselves and decide to make better choices? We have 364 other days to decide to make ourselves better, why do we limit ourselves? Why do we live by “new year, new me”?

Stop saying “New Year, new me” and try to do something more than just decide to be better one day a year. Instead, make yourself better every day of the week, month, and year. There are so many opportunities for us to better ourselves, so please stop limiting yourself to one.

Any day of your life you can change for the better, or just change in general. Dye your hair that color you’ve always wanted to; Start meditating, doing yoga, jogging, hiking; become a vegan; dump all the toxic relationships in your life; learn how to play an instrument; or do whatever you want to do to make your life better. No one is stopping you except yourself.

There is no one set day when you can decide to change. Every day is a new opportunity to get better and be the person you want to be. Make new resolutions every day that you can meet, small resolutions that will lead to your bigger goals and will get you to where you want to be.

2017 is going to give you an opportunity to change every day, so take advantage of this gift of time, and become the person you want to be every day of the year.