COMMENT: Now is the time to follow your dream

For me the past year has brought about huge changes. I’ve moved from college to university, for a start, and trust me, that’s no small change.

I’ve pushed myself to be more independent as a result and passed my driving test the second time round. Sure, my accomplishments aren’t as spectacular as flying to the moon, but they are accomplishments none the less.

What have you achieved in this past year? What would you like to change? I’m sure everyone has perfectly unique answers to these questions, which is quite amazing, really, but it’s not too late. There’s always next year, after all.

The week before New Year’s Eve always sees my Facebook timeline flooded with ‘New Year, new me’ posts. I always find these posts kind of clichéd, as they are a yearly occurrence, and so these statements of intent cannot be having much influence on your goals.

Instead, I encourage you to act on your New Year resolutions, not state them and forget about them.

For example, if you’re wanting to lose weight, go for it!

Don’t type a huge paragraph on Facebook, get 20-plus likes and then think ‘oh, it’s March now, I’ll try next year’. Make the New Year yours!

We are on this earth for a very finite amount of time, and I’d personally suggest not wasting a second.

If there’s something you want to do this coming year, make it possible. Or start now, why do we need to wait for a number to change on our calendars for something to be possible? The answer is simple – we don’t.

A friend of mine follows this logic. She has always wanted to write a book, and she did. She didn’t wait for any societally deemed ‘perfect’ time, she just wrote.

Now her book is published and she has ticked it off her bucket list, and is interested in writing her second book in 2018.

I personally believe that life is about learning. We all make mistakes, thus, we can all make improvements.

If you’re not too interested on the ‘starting straight away’ idea, and are wanting to wait for the New Year to make a change, then that’s obviously fine – you do what suits you.

But I believe that if you can look to your past year, and find something that you wish you’d done differently, or wish you’d have done in the first place, make time for it in the upcoming year. Regret is way worse than having tried, right?

Make your New Year resolutions and stick to them, and this time next year, you should be a lot happier as a result.

I know it’s an old saying that you’re probably sick of having heard, but ‘actions speak louder than words’, and in the case of New Year resolutions, that’s definitely true.