A few weeks ago, everyone was obsessing over what they needed to change about themselves. They’re called “New Year’s resolutions,” and everyone seems to have one.

People want to lose weight, be more assertive or start taking care of the environment. As a general consensus right now, everyone is determined that this is going to be the best year of their life, because they are going to make the change that will make everything better.

I may be the only person that feels this way, but the thought of a New Year’s resolution seems odd to me. People are so concerned with coming up with a way to better themselves.

But what it all really is, is change. Isn’t that why you come up with a resolution? To change yourself?

The only life experience I have to draw from this is my own, but from this, I’ve noticed that any change that happens in my life doesn’t come from the beginning of a new year.

It comes from within myself. From looking in the mirror and seeing something different; from spending a day in the woods marveling the world around me. From spending time with someone who seems to understand me better than I do myself.

Change in your life comes from looking deep into yourself and finding something you never knew was there, not from a different date on the calendar.

I’m not saying that New Year’s resolutions are bad. What I’m saying is that people put too much faith in the New Year to change themselves. That’s why most of you who have made a resolution have already given up on it three weeks into the year.

Everyone assumes the New Year does all the work. The truth is, the date on the calendar is arbitrary. No one realizes that they have to change themselves. There is no magic in the New Year. The magic is within yourself.

Maybe what we should all do at the beginning of a new year is look back at the year we’ve just had, forgive ourselves for all we did wrong, and realize that maybe this year wasn’t the best year of our lives, but the rest of them won’t be either.