Skip the overused, underachieved New Year's resolutions this year. Advice for making major change in your life this time around.
Skip the overused, underachieved New Year's resolutions this year (losing 10 pounds, organizing your life, keeping your house clean). Consider one of these 10 New Year's resolutions; you may actually keep on of your resolutions this year.
1. Listen to a new song. This may sound ridiculous, but it can broaden your horizons. If you listen strictly to classic rock, turn the radio dial to the jazz station for half an hour. If you usually listen to classical music, try a country song or two, even if it hurts your ears. You've probably forgotten there are other kinds of music out there, and the world will become a bigger, more exciting place for having changed the radio station for a few minutes.
2. Spend more time outside. You need ten to twenty minutes of sunshine every day to get your full Vitamin D intake. For you people living in Seattle, I don't know what to tell you on this one. Maybe you could close your eyes and pretend you're in Hawaii or something. Anyway, spending a few more minutes outside each day will do more than get you some Vitamin D. It will make you feel less stressed and remind you that you don't live in a box. You live in an enormous, breath-taking, beautiful world""created especially for you.
3. Use a pencil. Remember when you were a kid and you'd get a package of brand new, school-bus yellow pencils for the first day of school? Remember that smell by the pencil sharpener in your classroom? Remember your carefully written name at the tops of your papers. Using a pencil every now and then will remind you of those days, and the eraser will remind you that you're not perfect.
4. Put an empty glass jar on your kitchen counter. Huh? Here's how it works. On a sticky note or piece of paper you can tape to the jar, write a goal, something you want to do. It can be as small as a trip to Dairy Queen or as large as buying a boat. When you come home with change in your purse or pocket, put the change in the jar. If you chose a goal like the boat, it will be a long, long time until you reach the goal. But whatever the goal is, you'll come to appreciate the satisfaction involved in saving money for what you want.
5. Plant a seed. Not only are houseplants aesthetically pleasing, they also provide fresh oxygen in your house. But maybe the best benefit of planting a seed is watching it grow. One small action, putting a tiny seed in conditions in which it can flourish, can actually nourish your soul. As your plant grows and as you water it, you will be reminded that great things begin with a tiny seed. Save seeds from the fruits and vegetables you eat. Seeds from avocados, oranges, apples, grapefruit, and pomegranates work well indoor.
6. Draw a picture. When is the last time you sat down to draw a picture just for the sake of drawing? Unless you're a professed artist, I bet it's been some time. So pick up one of those yellow pencils, sit down at a table, and draw. If you have a hard time thinking of something to draw, just look around. Draw the microwave, draw an apple, draw your mailbox. If your drawing of a mailbox looks like a Popsicle, don't worry about it. Picasso's paintings weren't always true to life either.
7. Read a dust-collecting book. You know which ones they are. They're the books you've bought but never read. Think of them as treasures of knowledge decaying in their pirate's chests. All you have to do is open them and read, and the treasure becomes a part of you.
8. Buy 100% whole wheat bread. Even though it costs slightly more than white or "wheat" bread (we call "wheat" bread "light brown bread"), the extra nutrition in 100% whole wheat bread is worth the .30 or so. It tastes better, it's more filling, and your body will use it more efficiently""that means it will help you keep your weight down.
9. Walk in the rain once this year. There's something irrepressibly fun about walking in the rain. You may actually burst into refrains of "I'm singing in the rain" and go skipping up and down the sidewalk like Gene Kelly. Before long, neighborhood kids will join you in your puddle-splashing endeavors, and you'll be the favorite adult on the block.
10. Spend more time with those you love. This ought to be an easy New Year's resolution, but often it's not. Our lives are so busy that we sometimes forget how to spend time together when those rare times happen upon us. So make time. The long grass that needs to be mowed will still be there tomorrow. But children grow up and friends move away. When you do catch those fleeting moments, don't spend them in front of the TV. Spend them talking, playing games, looking through old photo albums together, eating food you prepared together. Because it will seem like tomorrow that you're making New Year's resolutions for yet another year.
So that's it. Those are easy resolutions, but if you genuinely follow them, they'll improve your life. And when your friends stop going to the gym the second week of February and feel like failures, you can say, "Hey, I'm keeping my resolutions and you can, too. Let's go take a walk in the rain together. You'll feel better soon."
