It's the New Year and we've got to ask you: does that mean a new you?

Well, that depends entirely on you, but sadly, every year people set New Year's resolutions in the hopes of improving their lives, and then don't follow through on them.

We think you can follow through on your resolutions this year. We believe in you.

Now, you just need to believe in yourself.

There are plenty of life-hack tricks to making this year's New Year's resolutions a reality. Like, you can start doing your resolution at the same time every day. Or, you can start setting smaller, actually achievable goals than huge, daunting ones.

There are other tips, and we've written about them below. Read on to find out how to actually achieve your New Year's resolutions this year.

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1. Don't tell anyone your resolutions

We're guessing the ship has probably already sailed on this one. You were probably forced to stand in a circle on New Year's Eve and tell everyone what your resolutions were.

Still, you can refrain from talking about your resolutions. According to 80 years' worth of research, people who talk a lot about what goal they're going to achieve wind up being less likely to achieve that goal.

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Why? The answer is easy. Talking about doing something can be confused with actually doing it, especially because you'll receive the validation from telling someone you're going to do something that you would for actually doing it.

So if you resolved to eat healthy, don't go telling everyone you're going to eat healthy. Just do it, and stop talking so much about it. 

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2. Form habits

Aristotle said "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."

It's also true that it's much easier to maintain a habit than it is to gather up all the willpower you'll need to accomplish hard tasks at different times every day.

The way to make your New Year's resolution into a dream but a goal you actually plan on following through with is to do it at the same time every day.

Think about it. If you had to muster up the willpower to brush your teeth at different times every day, it'd be much harder to get yourself to brush your teeth, wouldn't it?

If you resolved to go to the gym more, then start going to the gym at the same time every day. If you resolved to pack your lunch for work, do it before you go to sleep, every day.

After about 21 days (this is mass society's number, your number might be more or much less) you'll be so used to doing that thing, you won't even have to think about it anymore.

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3. Set big goals and small goals

It's good to have really big goals. Goals like "run a marathon," "write a book," and "lose thirty pounds," are well and good, because they give you something to work toward.

Can you do any of those things in one single week, though? We'll just answer that one. You can't. The only way you can accomplish those goals is with a little bit of work every day over a long period of time.

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That's why it's important to set yourself smaller, more manageable goals for every week. Instead of "run a marathon," your goal for the week could be to run for twenty minutes, or a half hour.

It's cheesy, but all you have is the current day. So instead of setting yourself up for failure with grandiose, lofty goals, set a goal you can accomplish today.

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4. Learn to say no

It's easy to promise yourself you'll eat only vegetables for the month of January, but that can get tossed to hell once your friends ask you to go out for nachos.

If you've promised yourself you'll go to the gym after work, you have to stop just canceling on yourself because one of your friends asked if you wanted to drink beers at happy hour.

In order to start saying no to people, you have to start respecting the plans you made with yourself. You wouldn't cancel on a friend you loved with the readiness you'd cancel on yourself, would you?

We thought not. So start regarding the plans you made with respect, and don't cancel them just because someone asked you to do something else. Try and imagine you're a friend you love who you wouldn't want to disappoint.

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5. Imagine the right things

Imagination is a key part of achieving any goal. You have to imagine yourself achieving that goal for any actual achieving to ever happen.

However, don't imagine yourself being skinny after losing a ton of weight, or having written a star TV show, or being rich and famous for doing something.

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Instead, actually imagine yourself doing the thing. Imagine yourself working out at the gym, or actually sitting down alone in a room to learn the new language you've wanted to learn, or putting in the hours practicing playing the piano, or whatever your goal is.

The point is to actually love doing the thing, not just loving the aftereffects of having done it.

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6. Let yourself mess up

Lots of New Year's resolutions don't stick because lots of people say, oh, whoops, my New Year's resolution was to not eat French fries, and I ate French fries today, so I guess that's over.

It's easy to feel extremely symbolic and important when you haven't broken the resolution once, but let's be real. If you're used to eating French fries every day for lunch, it's pretty unrealistic to expect that you'd just completely drop that habit and never do it again.

Like we said earlier, you need new habits. You also need to forgive your mistakes. Just because you slipped up and bought French fries today doesn't mean you have to eat them again tomorrow.

Instead of saying "I messed up yesterday," to yourself, focus instead on the nine days you didn't mess up, which far outweigh that one.

In fact, allowing yourself the chance to fall of the horse and then get back on, if you will, will be key to achieving any goal.

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7. Set yourself up for success

If you're facing that panicky moment when you're deciding whether to follow through on your goal or not, why not actually analyze what's keeping your from accomplishing the goal.

If your goal is, say, to start bringing your lunch, ask yourself why you just can't make this happen. Is it because you're rushed in the morning, and making your lunch takes too long?

There's a solution to that. You could get in the habit of making lunch before bed. 

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Is it too difficult to get up in the cold and shiver to your closet to pick out clothes before work? Easy. Start laying out your gym clothes before you go to sleep. 

You'll be much more likely to go to the gym if you actually have to put your clothes back away after not accomplishing your goal.

Find out what your trick is. Odds are, there's a way for you to make it more difficult for you to not accomplish your goal than for you to accomplish it.

Check out 8 New Year's Resolutions Every New Yorker Makes... Then Breaks. 

[via Anthony Quintano]