This new year, 2023, may go down for us as the year without resolutions. This post is being published on January 4, 2023, and in most average years, most average resolutions have already been broken. We sort of addressed considering non-resolutions in last Monday’s (1/2/2023) Moment of Motivation. The caption read, “Get rich quick! This year resolve to be a better you by working on the things you can’t buy and become even richer.” We suggested as resolutions, one may consider to:
· Be courteous
· Be respectful
· Trust more
· Be patient
· Act with class
· Be honest
· Love my neighbors
They seem to be a reasonable set of attainable attributes that everyone can make better with a little awareness, diligence, and consideration. They cost nothing yet they return so much. They also follow a pattern of sorts that by working on one attribute you enhance others. For example, when you act with class you are courteous exhibiting good manners and being polite, you are respectful of others, you are honest in all your actions, and you exhibit patience and self-control. Honesty is a form of respectfulness. When you love your neighbors you are going to respect them and their decisions. It’s a cascade of good intentions!
This then got us thinking, how else can we enrich our lives simply by paying attention to how we act with ourselves and others, and we came up with several others that require no memberships, need no subscriptions, and in fact cost nothing but some introspection and a desire to do good. There are things we can do every day to make a more mindful version of us that others would like to have as a friend, colleague, neighbor, or even part of the family.
· Quiet your mind to find peace for restful sleep at night
· Be a better friend to your friends than you were last year, last month, yesterday!
· Listen attentively
· Spread love and kindness everywhere
· Make thoughtful, healthy food choices to fuel the new and improved you
We are willing to admit that these don’t sound like the typical resolutions announced every New Year’s Eve. There is no, “Go to the gym more!” or “No more happy hours!” but instead a variety of ways to “Be a good person and be good with other persons.” Isn’t that what a resolution is supposed to do anyway?
Maybe this year won’t go down as the year without resolutions. Maybe instead it will be the year of the non-resolution, of self-reminders that we can enrich our lives without spending a dollar and strengthen ourselves without lifting a weight.
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