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.)
