This year, instead of making resolutions, I decided to think about who has inspired me in 2014. I have a bad tendency to compare myself to others, and it usually makes me feel horrible, lacking in some way. But it doesn’t have to! When I slow down and think about the people I love, and the traits I admire in them, I don’t feel lacking. I feel lucky. Lucky to know them. Lucky to learn from them.

Here are just a few people who inspired me in 2014. Every year, I resolve to be braver, to be kinder. This year, I want to be brave, kind, compassionate, ambitious, creative, and to see the sparkles that light up every day.

Sara, for her loyalty and integrity. For her willingness to examine herself, to look deep into her heart, to find a moral compass and to steer her ship by it. For her passionate embrace of all she loves. For her readiness to fight for them.

Cortney, for her unabashed love of life. Her sheer joy in existence, joy in her body, joy in the world. Her happiness creates a warm pool of light, and everyone near her just bathes in it.

Sophie, for her compassion and kindness, for her ability to consider the other side of every tricky situation, for her willingness to work at empathy and love.

Emma, for her humor and her perseverance, for her tendency to shake it off, her ability to take it in stride. For her bravery and her ability to ask for what she wants. For her fast wit and hilarious self-deprecation. For her laugh.

Rebecca, for her self-assurance and her badass attitude. She can walk into a room, take stock of the people standing around, and think, “They should be intimidated of me.” And she’s right. They should.

Alina, for her ambition and her drive. She believes in the power of creativity, in the act of creating. She will boldly go where no girl has gone before. People will follow.

Jen, for her sharp-as-a-knife vision and smarts. For her quickness and her knowledge. For her confidence and her decisiveness.

Brooke, for her insatiable appetite for new experiences, and her ability to make it happen, whatever it is. She has traveled around the world and views life as one big adventure. She has a strong will, she always finds a way.

These are just a few of the people who have inspired me, but there are so, so many more. My mom, my sister, my boyfriend, my brothers, my guy friends, my coworkers—not to mention the people I admire from afar. (I only included lady-friends in this list, but I could have easily made this list about family, or male friends, or colleagues.)

In 2015, here’s to being inspired by others, to seeing their best traits and then attempting to steal them. Or, you know, just celebrating them. (No, really, I probably will try and steal them.)

Picture: Alphonse Mucha – The Arts (Dance, Music, Painting, and Poetry) 1898. See more Mucha.