New Year’s resolutions are notorious. “New year, new me” has become a joke, transforming via Twitter into “new year, new memes,” “new year, same me (because I’m already fabulous)” and any other other catchy spin that can earn someone favorites. It seems that no one truly takes their resolutions seriously, or if they do, they drop them shortly after January. But if your New Year’s resolution is something that you have never been inclined to do before late December (or if you don’t make resolutions at all), you’re cheating yourself of real improvement. The way to make a resolution that will make you proud at the end of the year is to start small.

I, too, have fallen victim to being overly ambitious. “This year I’m going to work out more!” I’ve said. However, as a girl who had been pegged in the head with a ball too many times to truly enjoy sports, I was setting a rather far-fetched goal to reach. There were several things wrong with my resolution.

I should’ve made my goal specific. For example, I could have said, “I am going to go to the gym three times a week after school.” By having a specific plan, you will at least be sure to have a place to start improving. Second, I had to take smaller steps. Starting off with a transition from no days at the gym to perhaps five would’ve been completely disorientating. Don’t feel like small improvement isn’t valuable; it truly is. By starting small, it’s easier to avoid being overwhelmed, making you more likely to stay on top of the ball with your New Year’s resolution. You can either hurdle or walk but what happens most of the time is you’ll go the same distance.

However, there is still possibly one remaining problem with saying “I’m going to go to the gym three times a week after school.” The gym may not be your ideal method of getting fit. Why would anyone sign up for something they hate? There are plenty of other ways to improve fitness that would be more fitting. In the end, you know yourself, and you can choose something that you can accomplish. By doing that, you can be able to say you made a positive change in your life. And that’s a fantastic feeling.

If you’re actually trying to create a “new you” this year (as I see 2016 has been rough for most all of us), this is the time. No, not because it’s New Year’s, but because it is now. Holding off for a holiday to improve yourself is, quite frankly, stupid. If you see something that you want to do or accomplish, don’t look for the world to give you a reason. Start now. Start small. And don’t start something your ambition says you’ll finish, but your reality checker says you won’t. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by making goals you can’t complete.

For me, this year, my big goal is simply to be a better version of myself. I had too many ideas of improvements that I could make, so I decided to make several little improvements my tick marks to check along the way. If I go out more with friends and socialize, that’s a victory. If I improve my grades, that’s a victory as well. If I voice my compliments to people more, gold star. If I take the initiative to text people first, that’s a mini accomplishment, too. I know these things are all things that I can achieve. They’re simple, and I’ll enjoy doing them. And when I accomplish these steps, I can move on to bigger ones, no matter what time of year.