You know the drill. Every January 1st, you make your New Year’s resolutions with the best of intentions, and every January 6th, you’ve already broken most of them. Is it even possible to keep New Year’s resolutions? I think so. You just have to make the right ones.
We make resolutions to quit smoking, lose ten pounds, drink less alcohol, eat less sugar. We resolve to go to the gym more often or use the exercise equipment that’s been gathering dust in our basement.
We make these resolutions with the best of intentions, but often, by the middle of January, we realize that nothing much has changed.
It’s hard to keep these resolutions. We want to do better but our will-power is weak. We feel ambivalent about making these changes: part of us wants to lose weight, drink less, etc. but part of us likes things just as they are.
I propose that we rethink the kinds of New Year’s resolutions that we make. It’s not that I disagree with making plans to improve our health and establish better habits, but maybe we don’t have to put ourselves on the spot about making such major changes in our lives.
Maybe we can approach these lifestyle changes more gradually, over the course of the year.
I think that we can use New Year’s as a time to think about different types of changes. For example, the type of person we want to be.
I propose that this New Year’s, we all resolve to be more loving and kind. We can resolve to open our hearts to others and be more compassionate and empathetic.
These aren’t difficult resolutions to keep. Being more loving and compassionate will instantly make us happier, so there’s an immediate pay-off to keeping this resolution.
Giving up smoking or foregoing sugar involve a lot of restriction and deprivation, but opening your heart makes you feel really good. The sense of connection and belonging you’ll experience is deeply fulfilling.
The easiest resolution to keep this year is to open your heart to others, and the nicest thing about this is that it will come back to you, multiplied many times. When you’re more loving toward others, they’ll respond to you with more love.
The ripples of kindness and caring will spread outward, and people will be paying it forward, everywhere.
Why don’t we leave the lifestyle changes for later and focus right now on love. After all, the great sages, John, Paul, George and Ringo once said. “All you need is love.”
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