"Happy" List

This article was on the front page of one of the sections of the newspaper on New Year's Day.  I LOVE it!  Like, really REALLY love it.  So much so that I've decided that one of my New Year's Resolutions should be to do all of the things on this list (well MOST of them anyway, 'cause let's be honest, I'm probably not going to adopt a dog or cat from a shelter, or buy a turntable when I don't own any vinyl records).
Let the New Year begin...

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No-guilt New Year's resolutions
by Diane Porter - 1.1.2012
The Arizona Republic

ENOUGH ALREADY WITH the guilt-ridden, I'm-so-fat, I'm-so-lazy, I-must-fix-my-life NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS.  We're over it.  They don't help.  Get a grip!  THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU.  You're fine.  Sure, pick a goal.  Do it.  You're capable.  But NO MORE BEATING YOURSELF UP.  The phrase is not "Have a Guilty New Year."  Take a breath.  SEE THE GOOD IN YOURSELF.  If you must make a resolution, start with one of these.  Because the biggest word in "Happy New Year" should be HAPPY.

• Leave your change in the vending machine for someone else to find.
• Send a handwritten letter to a child.  With a stamp.  Write their name on the envelope.  They should know the thrill.
• Kiss someone as if you mean it.
• Get 10 things out of your closet that make you feel bad.  Take them to Goodwill.
• Frame a piece of art.
• Thank someone in uniform.
• Adopt a dog or cat from a rescue organization.
• Go 24 hours without the Internet.
• Dissect the junk drawer.
• Find a new recipe.  No, a new one.
• When a friend or co-worker loses a loved one, mark it on the calendar.  Ask how he or she is doing in six months.
• See a late movie.
• Wear your seat belt, and make others do it, too.
• Do one thing you keep putting off.
• Laugh out loud in real life.
• Download music in another language.
• Get to know the benefit of the doubt.
• Take your child out of school one day and go play.
• Leave a wildly inappropriate tip.
• Take a leap of faith.
• Put a plant on your desk.  Something else should be alive in your cubicle.
• Change the radio station.
• Stop feeling guilty unless you really are.
• Get a physical
• Buy something in a new color.
• Eat somewhere across town.
• Notice someone.
• Come up with a new, satisfying cuss word.
• Sign your organ-donation card.
• Write a manifesto.
• Watch an old movie.
• Pay anonymously for the person behind you in the drive-through lane at the coffee shop.
• Buy flowers for no reason.
• Eat on the patio in January.  Call a friend in the Northeast as you do.
• Find an old friend.
• Pick up a rock that catches your eye.  Carry it around in your pocket.
• Make a CD or playlist of the music you loved in high school.  Play it to distraction.
• Spend one day by yourself.
• Deal with you photos. (You know you want to.)
• Make an appointment with yourself at 3 each day to walk around the block.  Yes, while you're at work.
• Get a library card.
• Who was your teenage pop crush?  Find a photo and print it.
• Put the Christmas lights away right.
• Pick one thing you don't understand and learn about it.
• Throw out the old ketchup packets in your desk drawer.
• Stop texting while driving.
• Buy new music.  And not just the top-selling hit on iTunes.
• Pick one negative thing your brain tells you and set it straight.
• Talk to the person in the corner.
• Put folded-up dollar bills in a spot in your car so you can easily give one to someone on the corner.
• Learn the art of deep breathing.
• Watch cartoons on Saturday morning.
• Stop using made-up words.
• Take old towels to a vet or pet shelter.
• Write a fan letter.
• Vow to stop dressing up your pets.
• Register to vote.
• Actually vote.
• Make a list of you 10 favorite books and re-read them.
• Pay attention to a child who isn't yours.
• Vow to look at the cellphone bill and figure out why it costs that much.
• Walk up one flight of stairs a day.  When you can do that, make it two.
• Mute the commercials.
• Are you a birthday slacker? Vow not to miss one all year.
• Ask doctors hard questions.  They work for you.
• Deal with what holds you back.
• Buy a turntable at a garage sale and play your vinyl records.
• Smile at someone cute in a car.
• Put an old leash in your car in case you see a lost dog.
• If you never apologize, learn to do it well.  If you apologize too often, learn to stop.
• Buy ribbon.
• If you're in a rut, get out.
• Send a thank-you note to a teacher who made a difference in your life.
• Take a different way to work.
• Remember that dream? Take a baby step.  Just one.
• Stop for a doughnut.  Just one.
• Write a love letter.
• And OK, sure: Eat well, exercise more, quit smoking. (No lecture.  We just like having you around.)

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