Even if you’re not much of a New Year’s resolution person, it only makes sense to spend the early months of the year reflecting a little on your life and considering where you’d like to go next. Because if you’re not happy with something, there’s no time like the present to work on making some changes.

But knowing you’re ready for a life upgrade in one or more areas is one thing. Actually understanding where to start is another. Here’s what every sugar baby needs to know to make sure every year from here on out is officially “her year.”

Figure out what you want

Before you start a journey, you need to know where you’re going. How else will you be able to make a solid plan for getting there as efficiently as possible? So think seriously about what you really want out of life, whether that’s an exciting new career path to embark on or a sweet sugar daddy who spoils you to the extent you know you deserve.

Consider whether what you have in mind is realistic and beneficial. Then visualize it in detail. Activities like making lists, writing about your goals in a journal, or creating vision boards can be really useful for this purpose.

Come up with a game plan

In addition to actually being realistic and attainable, goals also need to be measurable and specific. So think about how you plan to reach your goal and by when. Then think about how you’d like to quantify your progress so that you know whether you’re making as much as you’d hoped.

It’s also important to set reachable milestones to work toward. Where do you need to be at the end of each week, month, and year moving forward in order to succeed? Successful sugar babies also make it a point to do something that pushes them forward toward their goals every single day.

Add more positive energy to your life

There’s a reason why your mother and grandmother always told you to stay positive when it comes to everything you do in life. The energy a sugar baby surrounds herself with has a greater effect on her future successes than she might think. Contributors to that energy include her social contacts, self-care routine, and thought processes.

So work on ridding your lives of negative people and salt daddies who don’t support you the way that they should. Replace them with wise, loving, positive people who proudly cheer when their friends win. Organize your living space, and make it a pleasant place to be. Take good care of yourself, too, always treating yourself the way you would a best friend. Become a more empowered sugar baby.

Identify any obstacles

Once you’ve figured out what kind of life you’re actually working toward, as well as how to get there, you need to determine what (or who) might be standing in your way and preventing you from getting there. List-making can be helpful for figuring this sort of thing out, so don’t be afraid to sit down and try it.

Do your finances need to be better before you can reach your goals? Is what you want something you know your current wealthy sugar daddy doesn’t support because of personal beliefs or differing life values? Or perhaps you’ll need to work on relocating or overcoming personal fears before you’ll be able to move forward. Identify all the roadblocks standing in your way, and then figure out what you need to do to move past each.

Commit yourself to succeeding

Most people want to live better lives, be better people, and become happier, in general. However, few even make tangible progress toward their goals, let alone actually succeed. It’s not that they don’t really want what they say they want. Rather, it’s a lack of commitment and follow-through that eventually stops them from crossing the finish line.

So decide right from the get-go that you’re going to do whatever it takes to become the sugar baby you aspire to be and live the life you really want for yourself. Understand that you’ll have off days when you’re really frustrated and feel like quitting. Just push through, confident in the knowledge that the going will become easy and fun again soon enough.

Rid your life of bad habits

Remember, a sugar baby’s approach to self-talk and self-care can drastically affect any progress she might make toward a goal. So make sure you’re loving yourself and cultivating positive personal habits. Exercise daily, eat right, and make sure you’re getting enough sleep each night. And work on ridding yourself of any bad habits you might have, as well – like smoking, procrastinating, or gossiping.

Good habits and success are contagious, so succeeding in little ways and making positive changes wherever you can often helps power a persistent sugar baby all the way to the finish line when it comes to what she wants to achieve. Try it and see!