If you're like me, you like the idea of New Year's Resolutions more than the execution. Within a month, those resolutions have been guiltily forgotten and set aside for reality. I've done this more years than I care to admit. And yet I still try and make them. Why is that? I think it's because I really do want to try and change things in my life for the better. I want the coming year to turn out better than the last one, so I make resolutions to try and make that happen. And when they don't happen, I feel bad about it.

See, there's this stigma around New Year's Resolutions where they are expected to be forgotten, where no one actually expects to follow through with them. Because of this, the word "resolutions" has kind of lost its meaning. Instead of being something you will do, it now means something you might do. The connotations behind the word now seem hollow, even negative. And I think that's the main problem. Making New Year's Resolutions is fun, but if you keep calling them resolutions, the fact of the matter is that you will never fulfill them. It has been ingrained into society that no one actually follows through on them.

But I still think it's important to make them. I think it's important to acknowledge that there are things in your life you want to change, especially for the better. And if you really do want to change your life, you need to change your perception a little. Essentially, you need to trick yourself into following through.

Words can be very powerful, and the words you use to describe things can have a big impact on how you view them. This year, instead of writing resolutions, I've made two different lists. One list is a list of promises for this year, things I will put sincere effort toward. These are smaller, more specific goals, things that I know I have the capability to achieve if I just try. And calling them "promises" instead of "resolutions" tricks myself into thinking I have to follow through, as I always do my best to keep a promise. The fact that it's a promise to myself helps, too, though it doesn't hurt to tell a friend about these promises so they can help keep me accountable.

The second list is a little different. This is a list of hopes for the new year. Back in November, I wrote an article about how important it is to have hope, how important it is to fight for the things you want. That's what this list represents. This list of hopes is full of larger goals. They're big, long term changes I want to make in my life. While the list of promises is a list of quantifiable goals and things I can work on every day, the list of hopes is a list of abstract goals. The smaller goals in the promises list work together to build toward the hopes list.

I'm hoping that these two lists will work out better than resolutions. I'm hoping that by changing the language I use to talk about my goals will motivate me into following through. I'm hoping that this year will be better than the last. Maybe, just maybe, this year will be different.