It’s the beginning of a new year! Our hearts fill with hope as we see the calendar change, and the prospective of a new life involuntarily enters our thoughts.

It’s time for New Year’s resolutions! Lose weight (the most promised one), stop smoking, pay debts, smile more often, learn something new…the list can go on forever or may have only two items.

Resolutions are extremely personal and free. No one is going to care if you don’t accomplish some goal, and I don’t remember any fine for “resolution not fulfilled.” That’s why it’s extremely hard to maintain such promises because normally they are only thought of, and no one else knows about it besides the person who promised them.

And, unfortunately, before we know it, we are stuck again in our same unchangeable routine, and our hopes and determination fade away more quickly than the year that just finished.

At the beginning of each year, I decide to make a list of resolutions. I write them down —sometimes with a friend — in order to keep track of the changes I want for my life.

A friend can help you remember the things you promised, and encourage you to develop as a person or achieve the tasks. Sincerity is really important at this stage because the resolutions are for yourself and no one else, so impossible or unrealistic tasks cannot be made. But if the tasks are met, the feeling of accomplishment can be the ultimate reward.

I found this out personally back in 2007 when I decided to make a variation of my regular list. I wrote down the things that changed or were accomplished in my life and gave thanks for them as the countdown for the New Year began. Despite the inebriated people that filled the streets of Sao Paulo around me, I felt that I could continue developing with or without the list.

Thankfully in 2010, the Internet came to help. A friend of mine suggested a website called www.dayzeroproject.com. The challenge proposed in this site reads as follows: “Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.”

A little bit of a time stretch from my casual list, but I believe it’s a good way to keep me on track and to have a set number of tasks. Anyone can join, and you don’t need to start the countdown for the 1001 days as the day changes to the first of January; it can be started at any time.

It’s a fun way to achieve personal progress, or even to set up tasks that you always wanted to do, but never had the motivation or chance to do so. Some things in my project read as follows:

2 – Sleep under the stars
17 – Learn how to play the piano
24 – Become an official organ donor
26 – Lose 10kg minimum (cliché resolution; déjà-vu?)
45- Buy leather boots
94 – Drink 2 liters of water everyday

As you can see, the list can be about pretty much everything. For a good and fun way to have a life change, I recommend The Day Zero Project. It can give you a change of heart about self-improvement, but not just when the calendar changes.

With The Day Zero Project, “new life” is not just a New Year’s cliché; it can actually become a reality.