Why Defining Moments Of Your Past Will Help Bring In A Better New Year

Throughout our lives, we find that we've fallen upon moments in time, unexpected moments, in which we begin to admit have defined our lives in one way or another.

Moments, both monumental and inconsequential that have led us to where we are today.

More often than not, these moments become bundled up into interpretations of time.

Our most defining moments, both for better and for worse, become a numeric happenstance, defined by nothing but merely numbers to make up a year.

Each December 31, as the new year rolls around, we plan ahead for a future.

We think of what will come of the new year, adding up our resolutions with our wishes, dreams and hopes. We plan for change and for newness, but in these mere moments of planning and dreaming, we seemingly forget, or purposively forget, about our past.

The celebration of the new year is a time so consumed by the excitement of what is new, that we tend not to reflect on what is old.

The new year is a time for us to open our hearts to a world of fresh possibilities, and the very best way to open these opportunities as soon as the clock strikes midnight, is to assure the past exit has closed.

And while in the midst of champagne popping and music blaring, our goal is never to dwell on our past, or cultivate nostalgia, we must never forget that the new year is not just about entering a new door, but about closing an old one too.

When entering 2016, I had thought of the new year as a chance for me to make changes in my life.

I looked at it as a year to forget my troubles; put my toxic relationships to rest, let go of my exes and everyone bad for me, and focus on myself.

As I sit to reflect on this year that's passed, I begin to realize that despite my prosperity, accomplishments and happiness throughout the year, I was still forgetting one thing: my resolutions.

In 2016, my ex was still a part of my life, and even as a better me, I knew more maturity and a better confidence didn't justify our relationship still existing.

I still allowed myself to fall into the traps of my past love, knowing good and well our relationship had no room in my life to flourish.

I had not fully put and end to the things I had promised myself I would, and it wasn't because I couldn't follow a new year's resolution.

I couldn't accept the ending of the past year as a true end. Instead of finding the strength to close an old door to open a new one, I tried to leave both rooms open, leaving no room for what I truly wanted out of my resolutions.

When counting down to midnight, we must count backwards in time to, letting ourselves reflect on what we had gotten out of the past year, how it will help us become better for the year approaching, and how to put it behind.

We must remember the fun times as much as the boring, and the happy as much as the sad.

Although everything that happens in one year's time is seemingly immense, we will begin to realize its importance, and just how much can happen -- change -- and not change within a year.

As we find every calendar year different, we see some moments the same.

While new people walk into our lives, we find old people have walked out, and some people have never left.

We see as new passions build, old interests fade, and some things simply never change.

But most importantly of all, we reflect on ourselves.

Who we were 365 days ago, and who are we now.

As the New Year comes around this week, while we begin to celebrate the embrace of new changes of 2017, don't forget to remember the lessons 2016 had brought us.

Allow yourself to reflect on the past, knowing the moments that did you right and those that did you wrong, and let the knowledge of the past year sprout your wisdom of the new one.

While moments will pass, time will slip away, and as old doors will close, new ones will open. The true beauty of life will come in all of the moments in between, and one year from now, no matter what happens, we will look back on these very moments as what helped to define our lives.