Three common New Year's resolutions are: lose weight, get a new job, and save money. These resolutions are classic examples of things that we work hard to achieve because we think that life will be great once we do. But if we actually achieve them, we already have our minds set on achieving what's next. And if we're part of the 88% that fail, we're less happy than we were in the first place because not only didn't we achieve the resolution that was supposed to make us happier, but we're also disappointed in ourselves for not achieving our resolution. Working so hard to become happy, we forget to just be happy.
New Year's resolutions still rank highly on my list of the most wonderfully important non-human nouns in the world. Like most people, I want to be as happy as possible. But, instead of choosing resolutions that I think will make me happier once I achieve them, I selected resolutions designed to be enjoyable while I'm working towards them.
- Taste 15 fruits I have never eaten before. This was originally going to be "try every fruit," but upon further research, I discovered that not all fruits are edible or available in North America, so that would have gotten dangerous and too expensive. Also, I ran into the dilemma of differentiating between varieties of fruits. For example, are concord grapes and grapes the same thing? They are both called grapes, but I am very glad that I have tried concord grapes specifically because they taste even better than Swedish Fish. These dilemmas would suck the fun out of working towards the resolution, so I altered it accordingly.
- Learn to snowboard. In high school, I made a bucket list. On it was: learn to use a pottery wheel, pole dance properly, ice skate balancing on one foot, and snowboard. I have done all of them except snowboard. 2012 is the year.
- Study survival techniques. Freshman year of college, I added "go on a bike ride to a remote natural location" to my bucket list. For the full effect, the location must have a waterfall and I would camp there alone. Hence the need to learn survival techniques. It also seems fun to read books about living in the woods.
- Be more decisive. I feel that this is an admirable quality and also will make life less stressful because I won't be thinking about silly decisions too much.
- Don't beat myself up about it if I don't accomplish my resolutions. These resolutions are designed to make me happy when they are achieved and while I'm achieving them. If they don't end up making me happy, I'm going to stop doing them and I'm not going to feel unhappy about it.
