WHEN THE CLOCK ticks over, a new you is not magically created. It takes hard work to discipline yourself and to grow. So if you choose to jump on the goal-setting bandwagon of 2011, you may have some serious rewards coming your way. If you choose not to… well, wishful thinking never hurt anybody.
Here are 100 ideas for New Year’s resolutions.
1. Keep at least one plant alive in your bedroom
2. Start learning a language not spoken in Western Europe
3. Join a book club or writer’s group
4. Memorize all the international capital cities
5. Discover the meaning of ‘classical’ in classical art/literature/music
6. Trace your roots — discover more about your heritage
7. Teach yourself Morse Code
8. Visit the history channel more often
9. Borrow a friend’s instrument and learn to play it
10. Learn how to become lucid while dreaming
11. Drink more water everyday
12. Learn to meditate and form a routine
13. Use more sunscreen
14. Start putting away a small percentage of your income
15. Cut your hard-to-break bad habit in half
16. Record your thoughts in a journal (or any handy piece of scrap paper)
17. Eat big, healthy breakfasts
18. Bike instead of drive
19. Add 30 minutes to the beginning or end of your night’s sleep
20. Drink tea instead of coffee
21. Meet your neighbors
22. Remember your friends and family’s birthdays
23. Pay for the person behind you at toll booths / top up their parking meters
24. Pack a healthy bag lunch and give it to a homeless person
25. Write a recommendation for someone who deserves it
26. Forgive that grudge you’ve been hanging on to
27. Give ‘I love you’ gifts (gifts without a specific occasion)
28. Listen more, speak less
29. Do foreseeable favors before people ask
30. Say what you mean and mean what you say
31. Play more board games
32. Take a bath and use bubblebath
33. Re-read your favorite children’s book
34. Allow buffer time between errands/duties
35. Make your meals instead of buying them, chew longer, and eat with others
36. Start a compost pile instead of throwing scraps away
37. Take the scenic route
38. Hand write thank-you letters and cards
39. Have more picnics
40. Show up several minutes early to everything
41. Donate some of your wardrobe
42. Investigate a philosophical movement in history (transcendentalism, stoicism, phenomenology) and consider it in relation to your life
43. Go on dates that require no money
44. Eradicate noise pollution in your home
45. Free your skin of makeup for a few days
46. Unplug, in general
47. Separate your material wants from your material needs — and focus on the latter
48. Volunteer some place close to home
49. Lend someone your Xbox (or PS3/Wii) for a few weeks
50. Walk barefoot more often