wisdom

A Few Meaningful New Year’s Resolutions Anyone Can Work Toward.

 

New Year’s resolutions are a great way to turn your life in a new direction. It’s a special time of the year, when many people are thinking about the goals they want to achieve.

Take a moment to sit and reflect on what you want your life to become.

The best way to achieve New Year’s resolutions is to start one step at a time. People who need to lose weight, for example, need to lose it slowly, sensibly, and steadily. You want goals that can be achieved realistically and in a healthy way. Here are some simple but impactful New Year’s resolutions to add to your list.

  1. Eat Healthier

If there’s one New Year’s resolution on nearly everyone’s list, it’s probably this one. Why? Well, nearly everyone can stand to eat healthier. The best way to stay on this bandwagon is to choose the specific elements that matter to you in developing a healthier lifestyle. More fruits and vegetables? Less red meat? More Vitamin C? Fewer fats? All of the above?

If it’s all of the above, first add either one fruit or vegetable per day. Try small carrots as a snack on Day One. Maybe commit to having one full vegetarian day, where your protein comes from cheeses or nuts rather than red meat. Add an orange to your diet for Vitamin C. Cut down on the butter you add to morning toast. See? All simple steps individually, but collectively, you’ll be eating much healthier.

  1. Start Meditating

Meditation is a wonderful way to open your life up to more contemplation and more spirituality. It’s also a great way to reduce stress and increase your ability to focus. So often in contemporary life, we are pulled toward constant checking of social media, smartphone apps and so on that it becomes impossible to have quiet moments of reflection. Meditation has positive benefits for you, your relationships and your work.

Here, too, start slow. The world is full of meditation aids. Pick up some guides that you can listen to via your earphones. Set aside a particular time and place to meditate. If you don’t, it’s very easy to forget.

Pick a time that will be relatively easy to achieve for you. For some people, that’s the first thing in the morning. But if your roommates or family are running around in the morning and making it impossible to concentrate, during the day or at night is fine too. You can even listen to the meditation guide on your commute to work if that’s what works for you.

It’s also fine to start slow. 10 minutes can be your goal for January. Then, you can reassess whether you stay there or add a few minutes each month.

  1. Reach Out to Old Friends

An old song begins “Make new friends/But keep the old.” It’s a vital reminder of how important old friendships can be.

But it’s easy to lose touch with old friends. Perhaps they’ve moved away from where you once knew each other, or maybe you have. We are a mobile society constantly drawn toward the new.

As a result, people who don’t make an active commitment to reaching out to old friends can lose sight of them completely, to the point of not knowing where they are anymore. Enter the upside of social media and online searching. If you have lost touch with people, you’d be surprised at how easily many people can be found just by entering their names in Google or Facebook.

And if you can’t find a specific person, search for someone who used to know you both. Lots of people keep in touch via Facebook. Alumni groups are also great sources of information.

Then, set aside some time to get in touch with old friends. Maybe every Sunday afternoon, you spend one hour writing an email catching them up with your life and inquiring about theirs. You’d be surprised at how many people are thrilled to hear from their old buds. It can be a really fun resolution for the New Year.

  1. Volunteer for a Good Cause

Volunteering for a good cause is a great way to forge links between your beliefs and your activities. Helping people in countries less developed than yours, for example, can introduce you to people who will become the old friends you stay in touch with as time goes by. You contribute necessary services and learn about yourself.

There are so many opportunities to serve in many parts of the world, ranging from teaching sports to serving as a guesthouse host to helping develop a ministry.

The New Year is a wonderful time to take stock of the direction you want your life to go in the future. Take some time to establish New Year’s resolutions. Remember to aim for achievable objectives. Good luck in 2018, Rebelle friends!

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Kate Harveston

Kate Harveston

Kate Harveston is a freelance writer and blogger. Her work focuses on health and culture. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found curled up in her hammock with a book or exploring the city for trendy coffee shops. You can visit her blog, So Well, So Woman to read more of her work and receive a free subscriber gift!
Kate Harveston