5 Things You Should Do Differently in the New Year

As we approach a New Year, most of us have goals and resolutions on our minds. I don’t have to give you the stats, but most resolutions won’t make it past the first few months of the year. This year can be one of the greatest of your life or the same as every other year.

Life is short; we know this in our minds.

However, too often we don’t live life this way. We have goals and big dreams that we put off for “later” and later usually never comes. You only get one life to live, which is why this New Year should be the start of a revolution in your life.

This should be the year you chase every dream that you have in your heart and do all the things you’ve always wanted to do.

Here are five things you should do differently to radically change your life.

1. Stop wasting time

Time is the only thing we’ll never get back, which is why it’s one of your most valuable resources. Life goes by in the blink of an eye and too often we spend a bulk of our time on things that we don’t want to do, or that aren’t beneficial to what we want from our life.

Stop wasting time on things that aren’t really important to you. Spend time working on your dreams. Spend time with those you love because we won’t have those people forever. Learn to live each moment fully present so you don’t miss the little moments. Those moments are what you’ll remember at the end of your life.

2. Live a healthy lifestyle

I’ve struggled with my weight for 12 years, but after a year of focusing on living a healthy lifestyle, I lost 170 pounds and changed the way I think about food. I feel so much better, I have more energy, and I can be there (physically) for my children.

Living a healthy lifestyle goes beyond dieting and exercising. It means making choices that are beneficial to your body and lifestyle. It’s too easy to cheat on a diet, but if a healthy lifestyle is a part of your life, making the right choices will be second nature. Your body can be a well-oiled machine if you treat it that way.

3. Get a better work situation

Gallup tells us that we now spend 47 hours of our week working. That time could be spent doing something you love or hate.

Too many of us are in jobs we hate, which affects every other area of our life. You can’t spend 47 hours being miserable and expect to turn that off once you leave work. It will add stress and anxiety that stays with you beyond the working hours.

We live in an amazing time where the Internet and technology have created opportunities to earn a living in ways that were never possible before. It may take some time, but you can find or create work you love. Use this New Year as the jumping off point into spending those 47 hours fulfilled in your work.

4. End toxic relationships

Love can be a funny thing. It can make you feel like you’re flying over the clouds or like you just got punched in the stomach. Here’s the thing to understand about love, it’s not a feeling, it’s a decision.

You choose to love and you can choose whether to stay in the relationships in your life. It can be a significant other or friends, but if the relationship is toxic without the possibility of improvement, it’s healthier for you to part ways. You have to determine if the relationship is salvageable, but trying to fix something that’s broken is a waste of time and affecting your state of mind.

5. Step outside of your comfort zone

You can live a comfortable life without stepping outside of your comfort zone and probably end up just fine. However, when you live life this way, you miss so many amazing opportunities.

Sometimes it’s smart to play it safe, but too often we don’t do all the things we want to do in life because it’s outside of our comfort zone. It can be leaving a job you hate or moving to a cool dream designation, but whatever it is, those dream are in your mind and heart for a reason. It’s time to stop putting off what you really want to do because before you know it, life will pass you by.

The stats about New Years resolutions don’t have to apply to you. You don’t even have to call them that. You don’t even have to hit those resolutions this year. Making big changes and chasing dreams might take you more time than even this year. But you can use this year to get started.

The point is, as much as possible, to live life without regrets. At the end of your life you’re not going to remember all the stuff you accumulated, you’ll remember your experiences. Choose your dreams over stuff. Choose the life you want over what’s comfortable.

Make this the year you say, “Screw it” by chasing your dreams and making them your reality.

“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” – Melody Beattie

What changes will you make for the Year 2015?