Much like the rest of the world, I’m pretty terrible at keeping my New Year’s resolutions. I can’t tell you how many times I vowed to give up sweets, exercise more and watch TV less, only to find myself laying in bed and munching on chocolate chip cookies while binge-watching my favorite show on Netflix come mid-February.

But this resolution hasn’t been like the rest.

For no clear reason, 2013 wasn’t exactly my best year. There was nothing specifically bad about that year for me – no crushing defeats or relationships gone horribly awry—so by the end of December I was genuinely befuddled by how little I had enjoyed the year that was soon coming to a close. Not until a late night epiphany just days before the ball dropped in Times Square did I finally put my finger on what was wrong: my attitude.

People have always told me that I have a bubbly personality, but I’d be stretching the truth if I tried to claim that anyone has ever called me an optimist. Though I’ve never been an optimist, I never considered myself to be a pessimist either, but last year was the year that I learned how quickly one negative thought can lead to another and the speed with which those thoughts can pile up and have detrimental effects on personal happiness.

With that in mind, I made my New Year’s resolution: to be a more positive person. So far I’ve stuck to that resolution pretty well, though I will admit to falling off the wagon more than once, and I want to share on this blog the little tricks I’ve learned to stay positive when going through the ups and downs of life. So stick with me as every two weeks I try to make the world a little more positive.