Posted By songrytr on January 1, 2009

New Year’s Day, 2009. The diet schemes are already pumping up the marketing blitz; the fitness centers are racing to keep up. Even in these depressed times the deprivation and self-punishment themes will most likely drive a nice post-holiday sales bump for overpriced ‘good-for-you’ food and gym memberships. More than a few of those sales will be to repeat customers who tried the same old January routine last year, or some year before that.

I say it’s time for a different kind of resolution: a resolution to ADD to your life instead of an attempt to do without.

Look into starting a hobby that’s always captured your curiosity – or return to one that you might have put down because ‘you just didn’t have time.’ Try some yoga. Take the cooking class. Outline that idea for a fiction or non-fiction book you’ve been mulling over for years. Schedule not one but three or four get-togethers this year with that old friend who lives a few towns away (or finally take that trip to visit the best friend who is states away).

Listen: we don’t get a lot of time here. The more years we accumulate, the stronger the wind in our face as we race through the seasons; the steeper the hill down which we careen with no drag or brake or reverse gear. Don’t wait for the bottom of the grade. Reach out and grab a chunk of time that is your own – even a few hours a week. Indulge that dream you set aside in lieu of paying the bills. Write, build, cook, CREATE and feed the part of your soul that is so often the first neglected when obligation runs the show.

A selfish resolution? Hardly. Happiness is not a selfish notion, nor is self-actualization. Anyone who tells you different is most likely a miserable fool.

This blog is one of two resolutions I’ve made to “add” to my journey. If I’m good at keeping the second I’ll tell you more about it soon.

Here’s 2009. Make it yours.

Categories: motivations
Tags: friends, happiness, hobbys, new year, resolutions