New Year's Resolution? Try a New Life Resolution

Every January people all over the country sit down with pen and paper at hand to write their New Year's Resolutions for the upcoming year. But why just focus on one year? I've found that when I focus on just one year, I end up with resolutions that are pretty weak. I come up with goals like have a beach body by May or read 100 books. These are some pretty lame goals. This year, I decided to do a New Life Resolution, and I came up with much better goals. Here's how to create your own New Life Resolution.

Sit down and come up with all of the things you want to do in your life, give yourself a goal of how many resolutions to come up with. Mine was 50, but yours can be 10 or 20. Regardless, you need to really put some thought into it. I sat down and came up with things like write a memoir, learn to rock climb, scuba dive somewhere exotic, and learn French. My full list ended up being around 50 things, so I split everything up. I listed about six things per year and paired a few hard goals with a few easy goals. So this year, I'm going to march for a cause I believe in, volunteer, learn to rock climb, learn French, publish 200 articles, and help save an endangered species.

Once you come up with what you will do this year, go ahead and decide when this year you're going to accomplish it (that way you don't procrastinate until December). I'm going to buy a French learning kit in February, rock climb during Spring Break, volunteer and march during the summer, save an endangered species during the fall and write articles throughout the entire year. Just repeat the same process for the next 5 years and every January 1st look back at what you wanted to accomplish when you created your New Life Resolution.

I've found that usually, when people are making their resolutions, they come up with cliché goals. This way, you can write down everything that you want to do in your life and accomplish it all in just a few years. It's funny how people just go through life wanting trivial things like washboard abs. Those things don't matter, and there's no need to be perfect. I understand wanting to lose 100 pounds if you're overweight, but next time you write down your goals, really think about what's going to make you happy, not everyone else.