New Year's Resolutions

We all make New Year's Resolutions.

Oh, darn. I just broke one of my New Year's Resolutions. I resolved not to make broad generalizations about people.

Okay, here goes again. At this time of year, some people make New Year's Resolutions. There, that's better.

I saw a list somewhere recently of what some people have resolved. I noticed that (some) young children don't always grasp the concept and put things like "Eat more candy," or "Have more toys." They're kids, what can you expect?

I think the idea of a New Year's Resolution is to do things that make us better individuals. I have my own ideas, but I also went looking for lists of Popular New Year's Resolutions. I did find a list for dogs, but again, that was more humor that reality, with such things as sleep on the bed and not to be intimidated by the cat.

I did find this list over at USA.gov and it does seem to include the usual items. There's even links to resources to help people accomplish these lofty goals.

Here is the list if you don't have time to click on the USA.gov link:

Drink Less Alcohol
Eat Healthy Food
Get a Better Education
Get a Better Job
Get Fit
Lose Weight
Manage Debt
Manage Stress
Quit Smoking
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Save Money
Take a Trip
Volunteer to Help Others

That's a good sampling of typical New Year's Resolutions. If one or more of those is also on your list, you now have a place to look for helpful suggestions and resources.

Of course, some of those on the list kind of go together. For example, Drink Less Alcohol, Eat Healthy Food, Get Fit, and Lose Weight are related to each other. If you drink less, you will lose some weight. If you eat healthy food, it will help you get fit. Or getting a better education can probably help you to get a better job.

Some on the list are obviously altruistic. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle will help you save money in your family, but it also helps lots of other people, and yes even helps animals and planets. Volunteer to Help Others is a really nice thing to do. It does have advantages for you also, such as learning new job skills, socializing with others, and maybe even getting some exercise.

And then there's the items on the list that seem to clash with each other. Managing Debt and Quitting Smoking usually means you also have to Manage Stress. Taking a Trip might make it hard to Save Money. Unless, and here's something I didn't think of at first glance, maybe you save the money so that you can take a trip. Well, that would take care of two of your resolutions right there.

Whatever you try to accomplish this year, good luck. Keep trying, don't give up, remember there will be setbacks so just keep in mind that tomorrow is a new day and you can start over again with a clean slate each day. Look for the end result and hopefully by this time next year you will have accomplished at least some of your goals.

And now that brings me to Stephen Colbert. What are his New Year's Resolutions? I'm hoping he will share them with us tonight. One that I would offer for him to consider is to try to be more popular. Yes the audience members always shout his name at the beginning of the show, but couldn't they shout louder, or throw money (just bills, no coins please) or join his SuperPac? He is popular, but more is better, so I hope he tries to win over even more Americans this year.