The end of the calendar year represents the completion of one cycle and the start of another. It’s a time to let go of the past and to free ourselves from that which no longer serves our highest good. To do this, we need to first change our energy, because when we change our energy, we change our lives.

As one cycle draws to a close and another begins, here are three simple steps you can take to change your energy and your life.

Forgive the past. When beginning a new cycle, forgiveness is especially important. When we forgive, we let go of all the self-limiting emotions that are associated with various people (ourselves included) and conditions in our lives—negative emotions that cause us to feel a certain way, hold our attention, give away our power to everyone and everything outside of us, and consume unnecessary amounts of our energy.

If where we place our attention is where we place our energy, when we are no longer beholden to these negative emotions such as anger, fear, resentment, or disappointment, we take back our power. This is liberated energy that’s available to create new things in our life. Now, not only have you taken back your energy, but in the process you’ve freed yourself from these negative emotions, as well freed the person you’ve been unconsciously giving away your power to. By breaking the energetic bonds with everyone and everything in your past-present reality that no longer serves you, you can use that once frozen energy to create a new future. At the same time, that person you just freed just might show up differently in your future as well.

Take an inventory. The year’s end is also an opportunity for each of us to pause, take inventory, and observe all the things that have unfolded for us in the previous year. What have you achieved, accomplished, and created? Take time to celebrate those aspects of your life. What has been left unfinished or incomplete? Are there elements of your personality that you don’t want to take with you into 2018? If so, get clear on them and on what you need to change about yourself. When done correctly, this process of self-reflection and contemplation allows us to see the abundance in our lives, as well as any personal limitations that keep our dreams from manifesting. Now we should have a better understanding of what we want to do next, create, and become.

Give. If the divine within us is the epitome of abundance—a giver and provider of all of life—if we want to emulate the divine, then we too should give back from our year’s abundance, whether it’s our wealth, joy, spirit, attention, presence, service, and so on. It makes sense then that if we have excess of any ‘thing’ in our lives, it means we know how to create it well enough that we have more than we need. Therefore, when you give some of it away, your action is a statement to the universe that you know how to create more of it—and that you are abundant. This is a way to celebrate and acknowledge not only ourselves as the divine creators of our lives, but the divine within us.

To give creates flow in our lives, even if it’s something so small as buying a homeless person a meal or offering your ear to someone who needs to be heard. You just never know how big of an impact that act of giving can be for the receiver. By giving, by serving, by taking care of others, by being selfless—this act both liberates energy and creates elevated emotions in our life, because when we start giving, we start generating emotions such as abundance, love, and freedom. The side effects are that you experience more joyful feelings that touch and expand your heart—and you wake up more of the divine within you. It’s this very act of giving and selflessness that sometimes creates new movement, flow, and expansion in our life.

So what are you waiting for? As 2017 draws to a close, take some time to find stillness, set your intentions for the new year, get clear on your new vision, and learn from your mistakes. It’s this type of self-reflection and contemplation that sets us up for new beginnings. It’s time to evolve from the old to the new, and in order to do this you need to change your energy.

Every journey or change in our life begins with a first step, and when enough steps add up, we find ourselves in a whole new territory and environment. The next thing we know, the conditions we’ve engendered by stepping into these new territories creates a cascade of positive change in our lives beyond which we could have ever imagined.

So go ahead—start changing your life today by changing your energy. Start by forgiving the past, taking inventory of the present, and giving into the future.