New Year's is a time of year when many individuals commit to beginning a new chapter in life. It is an opportunity to refresh and make a change personally and to make an impact in our communities or environment. For many of us, New Year's Day marks the beginning of a new experience, trend or possibly breaking an old habit. There are many common New Year's resolutions, such as weight loss, spending time with family and even saving money. This year, let's revolutionize our New Year's resolutions. As an alternative, consider these unique New Year's Resolution ideas that I found on the web or be creative and come up with your own:
1. Have Compassion
This is easy and hard at the same time. So often in our world, unfortunate things happen to unfortunate people. Natural Disasters, economic downturn, disease, war and a myriad of other things. Often times in our world we forget that we have many things that others do not have, whether through misfortunate events or simply misfortune of birth.
Either way, this new years eve, it would be great to make a resolution to be more compassionate to those who do not have what you have. Not necessarily those who have less then you do, but anyone who is in need of some compassion from another human being. Take some bread to a soup kitchen, volunteer some time this year, take some stuff you don't need to a homeless camp in your area. Give a rescued pet a forever home, tutor a child in need, offer to help your neighbors or something else you can think of. Spread the love!
2. Express Gratitude Starting this New Year's Day compile a list of people you interact with on a regular basis. Come up with one person for each week of the year! For most people, identifying 52 individuals is not very difficult to do. Consider family and friends, church members, to a local florist or even a hairdresser, begin listing all of the individuals who provide a service to you at some point during the year. From this list of 52 individuals, begin sending a card each week of the year as a way of expressing gratitude for their service and care.
3. Give of Your Time
Donate a day to Charity every month. Charities all over the country rely upon volunteers from the community to support and serve the cause. As a New Year's Resolution, pick a regular and consistent day of the month to participate in local charity volunteer service. For example, you may choose the first Saturday of each month. Find a local charitable organization in need of assistance and make a commitment to work a specified day of each month. In doing so, you will provide support to the organization and your community.
4. Invest Yourself in Others (I love this idea!)
Bake For Your Neighbor: In every neighborhood there is a senior adult living alone. As a friendly neighbor, identify one or two senior adults who reside alone and pick a day each month to share baked goods with them. Prior to doing so, inquire of any health concerns and special interests. Prepare baked items based on the senior adults health needs and prepare neat gift bags with activity based items which may strengthen memory skills such as word problems or search and find game books.
For 2011, consider revolutionizing your resolutions! Establish a New Year's resolution unique to your community and to the people who bless your life. Rather than focusing on personal goals, focus on paying forward a token of kindness. In doing so, you may find your New Year's Resolution will become a positive new habit and tradition for many years to come.
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