The only person you need permission from is you.

When we’re kids we have to ask permission for everything:

• We have to ask our parents for permission to ride our bikes outside.
• We have to ask for permission to watch TV.
• We have to ask for permission to have a snack.
• We have to raise our hands in class and ask for permission to speak.
• We even have to ask the teacher for permission to go to the bathroom.

Then we grow up, but we continue to think that we have to ask others for permission. Well, guess what! You’re an adult now. You no longer need anyone else’s permission. The only person you need permission from is yourself. So stop withholding permission from yourself. Instead, give it freely!

What do you need permission for? Here are 50 things you may want to give yourself permission for:

1. I give myself permission to take breaks.

2. I give myself permission to be lazy on Sundays: to sleep in and wear pajamas all day.

3. I give myself permission to take good care of myself.

4. I give myself permission to laugh.

5. I give myself permission to play.

6. I give myself permission to make mistakes.

7. I give myself permission to say “no” to demands on my time that are simply draining.

8. I give myself permission to remove toxic people from my life.

9. I give myself permission to say “yes” to what I want.

10. I give myself permission to go on adventures.

11. I give myself permission to step out of my comfort zone.

12. I give myself permission to fulfill my lifelong dreams.

13. I give myself permission to ask for what I want.

14. I give myself permission to be who I am.

15. I give myself permission to try again.

16. I give myself permission to have fun.

17. I give myself permission to give myself what I need.

18. I give myself permission to design my own life.

19. I give myself permission to ignore naysayers.

20. I give myself permission to listen to my gut when it tries to tell me that something isn’t right.

21. I give myself permission to stay focused on what’s important to me.

22. I give myself permission to let go of the expectations of others.

23. I give myself permission to have my own agenda.

24. I give myself permission to be whatever body shape I like.

25. I give myself permission to be imperfect.

26. I give myself permission to ask for help.

27. I give myself permission to stop caring what others think of me.

28. I give myself permission to write a lousy first draft.

29. I give myself permission to move on.

30. I give myself permission to pivot – if I don’t like the direction I’m moving in, I can shift direction.

31. I give myself permission to start over.

32. I give myself permission to create—paint, play an instrument, compose songs, knit, and so on.

33. I give myself permission to start a business.

34. I give myself permission to make more money.

35. I give myself permission to validate myself.

36. I give myself permission to be a beginner, and be comfortable with not knowing, when I’m learning something new.

37. I give myself permission to grow.

38. I give myself to be happy.

39. I give myself permission to smile a lot.

40. I give myself permission to succeed.

41. I give myself permission to eat anything I want, in moderation.

42. I give myself permission to start now, even if I don’t have all of my ducks in a row.

43. I give myself permission to act boldly.

44. I give myself permission to forgive myself for the times I haven’t acted in the best way I could have, for the times I’ve let opportunities slip by, and for the times I haven’t stood up for myself.

45. I give myself permission to release the past.

46. I give myself permission to be OK with where I am now.

47. I give myself permission to be a hero on a journey.

48. I give myself permission to shine and stand out.

49. I give myself permission to step into greatness.

50. I give myself permission to conquer the world.

Conclusion

The next time you feel like you have to ask someone else for permission for something that you need, look in the mirror and ask yourself. Then tell yourself: Permission granted! Give yourself permission to live your best life.

Related Posts:

• How to Prepare Yourself For Success
• 10 Ways to Have More Fun and Play More As An Adult
• 20 Ways to Make Time to Achieve Your Goals
• 10 Habits That Will Make You A Stronger, Happier, Better Person

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People who are cultured have an appreciation for beauty and the finer things in life.

The Russian writer Anton Chekhov once wrote the following: “In order to feel comfortable among educated people, to be at home and happy with them, one must be cultured to a certain extent.” But, what does it mean to be cultured? Here are some possible meanings:

• To be cultured means to be educated.
• Knowing about a variety of subjects.
• Being refined and sophisticated.
• Being curious, unprejudiced, and open-minded.
• Being tolerant and respectful of people who are different from us.
• Living a life of excellence and discernment.

Below you’ll find 20 ways to become cultured:

1. Learn How to Appreciate Art.

Cultured people know how to appreciate art. In order to fully appreciate master paintings, sculptures, prints, and so on, you need to have certain technical skills and knowledge. To be cultured, you should learn how to view art through the lenses of line, light, perspective, composition, and other crucial elements of craft. Here are three ways to do this:

• Take a course, such as How to Look At and Understand Great Art
• Read a book on art appreciation.
• Saturate yourself with art, even if just looking at postcards of great works of art.

2. Recognize the World’s 50 Greatest Paintings.

A cultured person should be able to recognize, identify the artist, and know a little about each of the world’s 50 greatest paintings. Get a book such as 50 Paintings You Should Know, or do some research online.

3. Go to Museums and Art Galleries.

Visit every important museum and art gallery in your city. If you can, expand that to the major museums in your country. Of course, if you can travel to the best museums in the world–including El Prado, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on–that would be ideal.

4. Recognize the World’s 50 Greatest Buildings.

From the Colosseum to the Chrysler Building, you should be able to recognize the world’s greatest buildings. In addition, you should know who built them, when, and the building’s intended purpose. Get started with the world’s 50 greatest buildings.

5. Recognize the World’s 25 Greatest Sculptures.

There are incredible sculptures from all around the world that every cultured person should be able to recognize, from The Winged Victory of Samothrace–also known as the Nike of Samothrace–, to the Leshan Giant Buddha.

Get started with a book such as Sculpture: From Antiquity to the Present Day, or do research online. There’s a good list of great sculptures from around the world here.

6. Read 50 Books From the Canon of Western Literature.

The canon of Western literature is a list of the books that Western scholars generally accept as the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. That is, the books by Western authors that have the greatest artistic merit.

You can find many lists of books that are included in the canon online. This one is found in the appendix to Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. Pick 50 of these books, and read them.

7. Read Authors From 25 Different Countries.

The problem with the canon of Western literature is that it leaves out great books from most of the countries in the world. You can bridge that gap by making sure that you include books from at least 25 different countries in your reading list.

You can use the list of books read by Ann Morgan as a reference. She spent a year reading books from every country in the world. The list of the books she read is here. Pick 25 of them and start going through them.

8. Try Food From 30 Different Countries.

A cultured person has sampled food from many different countries. Although it would be ideal to travel to different places to sample their food, depending on where you live, that’s not essential.

For example, Charles Biblios lives in New York City and is on a mission to try food from every country without leaving NYC. Even you don’t live in a cosmopolitan city, it’s very likely that there are at least a few ethnic restaurants in your city. Make a list of these restaurants and go try them.

9. Develop Religious Literacy.

Religious literacy—the knowledge of basic teachings, symbols, practices, founders, institutions, and values of the world’s major religious traditions—can help us to better understand the world around us.

The world’s major religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In order to find out more about these religions you can do the following:

• Talk to someone who practices the religion you want to know more about and ask them questions.
• Visit their places of worship.
• Find a book you can read which does a good job of summarizing the basic precepts of the religions you want to know more about. One such book is The World’s Religions
• Do some research online.
• Take an online course, such as Cultural Literacy for Religion.

10. Listen to Classical Music.

The music genre that is most often associated with culture is classical music. Begin by listening to, and familiarizing yourself with, the 10 pieces of classical music that everyone should know.

In addition, you can get and listen to The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music.

11. Be Familiar With the World’s 10 Most Important Operas.

Opera and culture go hand in hand. Watching and listening to opera can help us to see, hear, and experience the world more richly. You can get started with Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro).

Although it’s always better to experience opera live, watching it on your TV or laptop will do until you have the opportunity to attend the real thing. Another option is to get yourself a collection of the world’s greatest arias, such as The 50 Greatest Opera Arias.

12. Be Familiar With the World’s 10 Most Important Ballets.

Ballet, like opera, is at the core of culture. When attending a ballet performance you get to listen to some of the most iconic music ever written and watch beautiful choreography.

You can start with Swan Lake by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky. Like opera, the real thing is best, but watching from home will do.

13. Listen to Music From 35 Different Countries.

Just as you should read books from different countries in order to be cultured, you should also listen to music from different countries. YouTube is a goldmine for finding music from other countries.

You can start by listening to a Tamborito from Panama here.

14. Go to the Theater.

Live performance is an important art form which goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Ideally you would travel to New York to see a Broadway play, or to Shakespeare’s Globe in London to see one of Shakespeare’s plays.

However, you can get started in your own city by attending plays put on by your local theater company or by traveling theatrical groups.

15. Watch Foreign Films.

Foreign films allow you to get a glimpse of life in places you may never visit. It imbues you with a new understanding of foreign traditions and viewpoints. You can get started with “Red”, one of the films that make up Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy.

16. Learn Proper Manners and Etiquette.

I already mentioned Chekhov’s letter to his brother in this blog’s introduction. In said letter Chekhov indicates that cultured people are always kind, gentle, and polite. That is, cultured people are respectful of others.

One way to help ensure that you treat others respectfully is by learning proper manners and etiquette. After all, good manners make things in life smoother and more pleasant for everyone. In addition, the most elegant person in the room is not the one that is best dressed, but the one with the most beautiful manners.

17. Keep Up With Current Events.

A cultured person is aware of what’s happening in the world, economically and politically. For important stories, make sure that you know not just the who, the where, the how, and the when, but also the the why. In addition, come up with your own ideas on what should be done about the situation.

18. Travel.

Part of being cultured is being familiar with different parts of the world, and the best way to achieve this is by traveling.

In addition, as Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” The more you interact with people from other cultures through travel the more you realize that–in the ways that really matter–we’re all pretty much alike.

19. Learn a New Language.

There are many ways in which learning another language will help you to become more cultured. Here are three of them:

• First, you’ll be able to understand cultural references and nuances.
• Second, it helps you to grasp different ways of thinking and life perspectives.
• And third, it allows you to pepper your conversation with foreign words and phrases. This last one is awfully pretentious, but what’s the point of being cultured if you can’t show off once in a while. 🙂

Duolingo is one of the tools I’m using to learn French, and it’s surprisingly good. Choose a language–I would recommend French, since it’s often thought of as the language of culture–and go through all of the modules for that language on Duolingo. When you’re done you won’t be fluent in that language, but you’ll have a good grasp of it.

2o. Memorize Five Poems.

Poems can teach you to think in terms of similes and metaphors, which is one of the hallmarks of intelligence. In addition, they often make reference to history, myth, and literature, which can be useful in familiarizing yourself with these subjects. Finally, great poems are filled with rich language and emotion.

Pick five poems you like, and memorize them. A fun one to try is Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (which I memorized in the 5th grade and have never forgotten). Here’s a simple procedure for memorizing poems.

Conclusion

Become cultured and live your best life by learning to appreciate the finer things in life. You can get started with the 20 suggestions outlined above.

Related Posts:

• 29 New Year’s Resolution Ideas – Make 2016 Your Best Year Ever
• 26 Ideas for the New Year – Ideas From A to Z
• 10,000+ Bucket List Ideas For Designing Your Best Life
• 36 Prompts to Help You Plan An Awesome New Year

Stop telling yourself that you don’t have the time to achieve your goals.

Whatever your goals are–starting a YouTube channel, running a 10K, learning to code, and so on–if you’re not working toward achieving them, you probably have a long list of excuses which purportedly explain why you’re still in stand-by mode. And lack of time is very likely to be at the top of that list.

If so, you need to stop using a lack of time as an excuse and start making the time to pursue what you want. But how do you find time when you’re incredibly busy? By reading this post and applying the tips that you like best.

Below you’ll find 20 ways to make time to achieve your goals.

1. Use Your Mornings. Start getting up earlier and use that time to work on your goals — even if you have to use the first ten minutes to clear away brain fog. Mornings are a great time to work on your goals for all of the following reasons:

• It’s the time when you’re least likely to be interrupted — by your kids, your neighbors, your boss, and so on.
• You’re well-rested after a full night’s sleep.
• Since it’s the start of the day, nothing has happened yet that could get you off track.

2. Use Your Nights. Go to bed forty minutes later and work on your goals at night. If you find that you’re too tired at night to muster up the willpower to work on your goals, start taking a twenty-minute power nap in the afternoon.

3. Use Your Lunch Hour. Pass up invitations from colleagues to join them for lunch. Instead, pack your lunch, eat at your desk, and use your lunch hour to write your novel, learn to draw, take an online course, or take some step toward the achievement of your goals.

4. Use Your Commute. Work on your goals during your commute. Do the following:

• Write on the train.
• Listen to a French course as you drive to work.
• Work on your weight-loss goal by biking to your place of employment.

The possibilities are endless. Instead of thinking of your commute as wasted time, think of it as your goal achievement time.

5. Cut Out One Activity. Take a good hard look at how you’re spending your time. What activity can you cut out of your schedule in order to make time so that you can work on your goals?

The most obvious activities to cut out are watching TV, playing games online, and hanging out on the internet — watching  cat videos, scrolling through your Twitter stream, reading celebrity news, and so on.

6. Make Your Most Important Goal a Priority. Sometimes, in order to do something of high value—such as working on your most important goal—, you have to give up something of lower value. What you’re giving up may be important to you—such as your book club, or your PTA volunteering hours-, but it’s not as important as your goal, so you give it up.

After all, you can’t find the time to do it all, but you can find the time to do what’s most important to you.

7. Become a Time Warrior. In his book Time Warrior, Steve Chandler uses the image of a swordsman in order to show his readers how to make time to do what is most important to them. He explains that you have to pull out your sword ahead of you and ruthlessly carve out the time that you need to create, exercise, learn new skills, and so on.

Once you’ve carved out the time that you need, take your sword to all circumstances that try to get in your way.

8. Block Out the Time. If there’s a goal that you really want to achieve, then it’s worth blocking out the time in your day-to-day life that’s necessary to achieve it. Take out your schedule and identify when you’re going to work on your goal — for example, Monday at 10:00 a.m.

By scheduling time to work on your goal, you know exactly when you’ll be working on it, instead of just leaving it up to chance.

9. Use Scraps of Time. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to have a large chunk of time to work on your goals. If all you can carve out are fifteen minutes here and there throughout the day, use that time. Do the following:

• Try to get to meetings a few minutes early; use the time while you’re waiting for others to get there to work on your goals.
• Work on your goals during your coffee break.
• Work on your goals while you wait for your kid to finish with soccer practice.

Depending on your goal, even a minute here and there can be productive. Are you standing in line at the bank? Take out your list of the 25 most common French verbs and read through it.

10. Set a Quota. Instead of focusing on the amount of time that you need to work on your goal, focus on achieving a daily quota. Here are three examples:

• Instead of telling yourself that you need to do 45 minutes of daily cardio, tell yourself that you need to take 10,000 steps throughout the day.
• Instead of telling yourself that you need to write for an hour each day, set the quota of writing 750 words a day.
• Instead of telling yourself that you need to study French for half-an-hour a day, tell yourself that you have to learn 15 new words in French every day.

Each day make sure that you meet your quota. Some days will be easier than others. On the slow days make peace with the fact that you’re going to leave some stuff on your to do list undone.

11. Set Very Small Goals. If you’re insanely busy, make your goal quota very small — such as writing 250 words a day, or learning five new French words a day. But work on your goal every day.

12. Be a Weekend Warrior. You’ve heard of weekend warriors: people who don’t get much exercise during the week but spend their weekends jogging, hiking, hitting the gym to lift weights, and so on. If your weekdays are so hectic that you can’t possibly work on your goals from Monday to Friday, then be a weekend warrior when it comes to achieving your goals.

13. Disappear. If you’re spending a lot of your time on other people—chatting with friends on the phone, catching up with neighbors at the pharmacy, going to parties you would rather not attend, and so on–, practice the art of disappearing. And just how does one disappear?

Here are three ways:

• Before accepting a party invitation, stop and remind yourself what parties are like. Then, politely decline.
• If you run into an acquaintance while grocery shopping, politely nod and smile, and continue to move forward with your cart. Forward motion is your friend when you’re trying to disappear.
• Always have an escape route ready: “I’m so sorry I have to rush off, but I’m late for . . .”, “I’m running to. . .”, “I better get home before . . .” You get the picture.

14. Negotiate for Time. Look for ways to negotiate for time:

• Can you negotiate with your employer that you’ll work longer hours Monday to Thursday, and then take Fridays off ?
• Can you negotiate with your spouse that you’ll be in charge of morning chores—such as getting the kids ready for school–, and they’ll be in charge of evening chores—such as clearing the table and washing the dishes?
• Can you make a carpooling agreement with other parents in your neighborhood?

Make time by negotiating for it.

15. Don’t Let Your Emotions Get In the Way. A lot of people waste tons of time dealing with their moods and emotions. If your emotions get in the way when you’re trying to work on your goals, force yourself to work on them anyway. Once you start working on your goal, it will get rid of all those moods you’re having.

16. Shoot Ducks. Vickie Taylor recommends that you make time to write by shooting ducks. Of course, the process of shooting ducks works for any goal, not just writing. Here’s what to do:

• Print a picture of a duck and make several copies.
• On each duck, write an excuse that you use explaining why you don’t have time to work on your goals.
• Put your ducks up on your refrigerator.
• Look at each excuse and find a way to shoot each one down.

Look at the following example:

• Excuse: I don’t have time to write because I have too many errands to run.
• Shoot it down: I can buy in bulk, patronize merchants that are closer to where I live (the five-mile radius rule), and find a supermarket that delivers.

Once you’ve shot down one excuse, start looking for ways to shoot down the next one.

17. Work On Your Psychological Discipline. Keep in mind that making time to work on your goals is, to a large extent, about psychological discipline. A lot of the reasons that we use to explain why we don’t have time to work on our goals are just excuses that we’re using to avoid the hard work of writing, exercising, learning a new skill, and so on.

After all, cleaning the fridge is easy; creating an eBook that others will want to buy is hard.

You need to develop the psychological discipline to work on your goals, even if your inner critic is screaming at the top of its lungs that the laundry needs to be done, the carpet needs cleaning, or the cat’s litter box needs to be scooped, right this minute.

18. Repeat a Mantra. Make the following your new mantra: “Winners work on their goals; everyone else makes excuses.”

19. Focus. It’s not so much about how much time you have to work on your goals, as it is about the quality of your goal-achievement time. That is, when you’re working on your goals, are you completely focused on the task, or are you trying to answer emails and catch up on Twitter as you write?

Work on your goals with laser-like focus.

20. Give Yourself Permission to Work on Your Goals. When the world around us is swirling in chaos, we often feel that taking the time to work on our goals is a luxury that we can’t indulge in at the moment. However, working on your dreams isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.

Write yourself a permission slip if you need to; but get to work on your goals.

Conclusion

If there’s a goal that’s really important to you, don’t use lack of time as an excuse not to get to work on it. Live your best life by making time to work on your goals. The 20 tips above are a great place to start.

Related Posts:

• 29 New Year’s Resolution Ideas – Make 2016 Your Best Year Ever
• 26 Ideas for the New Year – Ideas From A to Z
• 10,000+ Bucket List Ideas For Designing Your Best Life
• 36 Prompts to Help You Plan An Awesome New Year

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New Year’s resolutions aren’t for everybody.

Maybe you feel like you want to do something for the New Year, but you don’t really want to set resolutions. Fortunately, New Year’s resolutions aren’t your only option. As with almost everything else in life, you have alternatives.

Below you’ll find 10 alternatives to New Year’s resolutions.

10 Alternatives to New Year’s Resolutions

If you don’t feel like making New Year’s resolutions this year, here’s what to do instead:

1. Create a Bucket List For the New Year. Back in May–which is my birth month–I wrote a post on creating a bucket list each year for your birthday filled with all the things you want to be, do, and experience before turning a year older. In much the same way, for the new year you can create a bucket list for the year. Here are some ideas:

• Attend the Rio 2016 Olympics
• Try Ceviche
• Finish a Book In One Sitting
• Get a Professional Photo Shoot Done
• Vote in a Presidential Election

Need more ideas? Here are 10,000 bucket list ideas for you to pick and choose from.

2. Follow a Monthly 30-Day Challenge. Come up with a list of twelve 30-day challenges, and complete one for each month of the year. What’s a 30-day challenge? A 30-day challenge consists of setting a small goal that can be achieved in 30 days, along with the specific action that you’ll be taking each day to achieve the goal.

For example, for January you could create a 30-day decluttering challenge. What action will you be taking each and every day in January in order to declutter? You could do the following: Every day during the month of January, choose five items to donate, throw out, sell, or give away.

That way, by the end of January you’ll have decluttered 155 items. Not bad. Set another 30-day challenge for February, another one for March, and so on. By the end of the year you’ll have achieved 12 small goals.

For 30-day challenge ideas, head on over to my post, Thirty 30-Day Challenges to Jump-Start the Best Version of Your Life.

3. Take a Yearly Challenge. Every year Mark Zuckerberg–the founder of Facebook–gives himself a personal challenge for the year. One year his challenge was to learn Mandarin. Another year he set the challenge of not eating any meat he hadn’t killed himself.

This year he wants to build a robot. Here’s Zuckerberg’s announcement:

“My personal challenge for 2016 is to build a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work. You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man.”

Follow in Zuckerberg’s footsteps and set a personal challenge for yourself this year. One idea is to give yourself a reading challenge. Another idea is to challenge yourself to save $1000–or the amount of your choice–by the end of the year. Or, you could try to build your own robot. 🙂

4. Create a List of Things to Look Forward To. What are you looking forward to this year? Maybe you have a great vacation planned, or a friend is getting married, or there’s a writing workshop that you’re really looking forward to attending.

You can also include small things, such as the following:

• A novel that’s coming out this year by your favorite author.
• An exhibit that will be on view at a nearby museum.
• A new restaurant that’s opening downtown.
• The new season of your favorite TV show.
• A new technological gadget that will be coming out this year.

Creating a list of things that you’re looking forward to will make you hopeful for the new year.

5. Decide What to Track or Measure. This year, come up with a list of things that you’re going to track or measure. Here are some examples:

• I will keep a time log.
• I will keep a food log.
• I will keep track of how I spend my money.
• I will keep track of my weight.

You don’t need to decide what you’ll be doing with the information you’ll be gathering at this point. Instead, you’ll probably come up with ideas as you go along.

For example, keeping a time log may help you to realize that you’re spending way too much on social media. This could lead you to set a limit such as the following: limit time on social media to fifteen minutes a day. Just start measuring and see what comes out of it.

6. Decide on One-Word for the Year. Pick a word to guide you throughout the year. Why just one word? Because one word gives you clarity and focus.

If you were to sit down and write down everything that you want for the new year, and then read over your list, you’d see certain patterns and themes emerging. Once you have these patterns and themes, boil it all down to the one word that encapsulates what you want for the year.

Here are some ideas for your one-word:

• Flourish
• Discipline
• Simplify
• Joy
• Serenity
• Fun
• Excitement
• Action

When you have your word for the year you can choose to share it on oneword365.com.

7. Reboot an Area of Your Life. Maybe there’s one area of your life that has gone completely off course and you wish you could just hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and start all over again. You may have gained weight, gone into debt, or become disillusioned with your work. If this is you, use the new year to get a fresh start.

As an illustration, if you’re unhappy with the way you’ve been eating, reboot by going on a detox diet. These are focused, short term diets that allow you to jump-start a weight loss program or help you to alter your eating habits. Keep in mind that the detox diets that are worthwhile are those that limit processed, high-fat, and sugary foods, and replace them with more fruits and vegetables.

If you want more ideas on how to get a fresh start in different areas of your life, here are ten rebooting strategies for you to consider.

8. Take a Life Audit. One option for the new year is to take a life audit. How are you doing in life? If you were to grade yourself in each of your life areas–relationships, work, finances, health, and so on–how would you do? What areas need improvement? What do you need to do to “raise your grade”?

Start the year by giving yourself a life audit. Once you know where you are now, you can decide where you want to be by the end of the year. Then, at the end of the year, audit yourself again to see if you improved. Here’s how to give yourself a life audit.

9. Take On a 365-Day Project. For a 365-day project, you pick something that you’re going to do every single day of the new year. Like what? Here are some examples:

• Take a photograph every single day of the year and post it on Instagram.
• Write 750 words every day of the year.
• Wake up at the same time every day of the year.
• Read a short story every day of the year.

You can find more ideas for 365-day projects here.

10. Use New Year Prompts. Decide what you want for the New Year by using prompts. Here are five prompts taken from my post, 36 Prompts to Help You Plan an Awesome New Year:

• One habit I’m going to build this year:
• One habit I’m going to break this year:
• One person I’m going to spend more time with this year:
• One thing I’m going to create this year:
• One adventure I’m going on this year:

New Year’s Kit

Download my free New Year’s Kit below. It contains the following worksheets:

• New Year’s Resolutions Worksheet for you to write down your resolutions for 2020.
• 36 Prompts to Plan An Awesome Year – use these prompts to plan your best year ever.
• 50 Questions to Review Your Year — use these questions to review how 2019 went.

Conclusion

I hope you were inspired by at least one of the ten alternatives to New Year’s resolutions which I list in this post. Have a great year by either setting New Year’s resolutions, or choosing one of the alternatives above.

Related Posts:

• 29 New Year’s Resolution Ideas – Make 2016 Your Best Year Ever
• 26 Ideas for the New Year – Ideas From A to Z
• 10,000+ Bucket List Ideas For Designing Your Best Life
• 36 Prompts to Help You Plan An Awesome New Year

Take a reading challenge in 2016.

Is “read more” one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2016? If so, you can accomplish this resolution by taking a reading challenge. There are many ways to do this. One way is to choose 52 books that you want to read and then read one per week until the end of 2016. Another way is to follow the reading challenge below.

This reading challenge contains 12 tasks; complete one per month. For each task I’ve recommended books for you to consider, but it’s entirely up to you which books you read. Here are the 12 tasks:

1. Read a Memoir. While the words “autobiography” and “memoir” are often used interchangeably, there are some differences between the two. For one, memoirs are more literary and don’t place the same importance on meticulous fact-checking as autobiographies do. Second, anyone can write a memoir, while autobiographies are–for the most part–written by famous people.

Here are two popular memoirs:

• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
• Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

2. Read a Horror Book. A lot of people don’t read the horror genre. However, many consider horror to be one of the basic elements of fiction. Horror books include everything from literary classics, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to novels like Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

3. Read a Collection of Short Stories. One of the benefits of reading a collection of short stories is that you can read one story a day. A good option for a short story collection to read is A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by American author Flannery O’Connor.

Another collection of short stories to consider is Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury.

4. Read a Play. Have you read all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays? No? Then reading one of Shakespeare’s plays is an option for this task. After all, 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.

Other options include the following:

• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
• Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca

5. Read a Book on Philosophy. Why read philosophy? Because it can help us to find meaning in life and–as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in “The Brothers Karamazov”–“pull ourselves up out of the maelstrom of daily circumstance”. Here are two philosophy books you should consider reading:

• The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers by Will Durant
• A History of Western Philosophy by Bertand Russell

6. Read a Book With More than 750 Pages. Long books can be a joy to read since they allow the author to develop the characters fully, so that they become your friends and you care deeply about them and their fate.

Welsh author Ken Follett writes sweeping novels that span decades and chronicle important events in history. Two of his lengthy novels that are definitely worth the effort that it takes to read them are The Pillars of the Earth and Fall of Giants.

7. Read a Short Book. After reading a book with more than 750 pages, reward yourself by reading a short book, which we’ll define as a book that has about 100 pages. Here are two popular short books to choose from:

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

8. Read A Book by a Literature Nobel Laureate. The Nobel Prize in literature is one of the world’s most important benchmarks of literary excellence. The prize has been awarded since 1901 to the present. However, it wasn’t awarded in seven occasions, and it’s been shared four times. This means that you have 112 authors to choose from.

Here are three of those authors, along with their most important work:

• Tony Morrison: Her most important work is Beloved.
• Pearl S. Buck: Her most important work is The Good Earth.
• William Faulkner: His most important work is The Sound and the Fury.

9. Read a Book Set in Asia. Fortunately, there are many great books set in Asia. One of these is Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel which is set in Japan, before and after WWII. Another one is The Kite Runner. Although part of the novel takes place in California, Afghanistan is at the center of the story.

A third must-read novel set in Asia is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami. It’s set in Tokyo, Japan.

10. Read a Dystopian Novel. While a “utopia” is an ideal society, a dystopia is the exact opposite. In dystopian novels, something terrible of epic proportions has happened—for example, a devastating world war, a disease that has wiped out a large percentage of the world’s population, or an environmental disaster with dire repercussions.

In an effort to rebuild itself and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, society puts governmental, religious, and/or technological controls and restrictions in place which, in effect, wipe out individuality and freedom of expression.

Three dystopian novels that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat are the following:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

11. Read a Science Book. When was the last time you read a science book? About a million years ago? Yeah, me too. Let 2016 be the year that changes. Here are three science books to choose from:

• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Cosmos by Carl Sagan

12. Read a Travelogue. A travelogue, as the name suggests, is an account of a person’s trip or journey. Popular examples of travelogues include Jack Kerouac’s On the Road; The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto “Che” Guevara; and Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.

Bonus Tasks

If you finish the challenge early, here are some bonus tasks:

• Read a Bildungsroman — A Coming of Age Story.
• Read a Novel by An African Writer.
• Read a Novel by A Latin American Writer.
• Read a Book That Was Made Into a Film.
• Read a Mystery.
• Read a Book That Was Turned Into a TV Series.
• Read a Book by the Ancient Greeks.
• Read a Poetry Collection.
• Read a Sci-Fi or Fantasy Novel.
• Read a 19th Century Classic.
• Read an 18th Century Classic.
• Read a Book With a Female Protagonist.
• Read a Book Published in 2015 or 2016.

Conclusion

You may have noticed that there are ways to cross off more than one task by reading just one book. For example, “The Good Earth” was written by a Nobel Laureate in Literature, and it’s set in Asia. If you find ways to cross off more than one task at once, go right ahead and do so. After all, it’s efficient, and I value efficiency. 🙂

Have a great 2016 by giving yourself a reading challenge.

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Those who succeed in life are mentally tough.

The Navy Seals, for those who have never heard of them, are the U.S. Navy’s principal special operations force. Their job is physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding. Most of the people who try out for the Seals don’t make it. What separates the successful candidates from those who are sent home is mental toughness.

As it turns out, mental toughness isn’t just important for success if you’re interested in becoming a Navy Seal. Instead, it’s important for everyone. Whatever goal it is that you want to achieve, it will take mental toughness to do all of the following:

• Take action on a regular basis;
• Overcome failure, obstacles, and setbacks;
• Ignore your critics; and
• Stay motivated, even when things get tough.

The question then becomes, how can you develop mental toughness? And the answer is, by learning from the Navy Seals. Below you’ll find five Navy Seal mind-tricks that will make you mentally tough, so that you can get to work on your goals and keep going until you achieve them.

1. Up the Ante. Navy Seal Chad Williams explains that when you’re striving to achieve a goal, you should up the ante in order to make sure that you persist until you succeed. That is, ask yourself the following:

“What’s at stake?”

The more that’s at stake, the more likely you are to persevere. That is, the higher the ante, the more mental toughness you’ll be able to conjure up.

For example, let’s say that your goal is to run a 10K. Now suppose that you gave your sister $50 and told her not to give it back to you unless you completed a 10K. It’s very likely that you’ll quit before achieving your goal.

Why? Because training to run a 10K takes a lot of hard work, and $50 is a small stake. But what if you tell yourself that what’s at stake is the following:

• By training to run a 10K, I’ll lose 25 pounds. I’ll be healthier, it will be easier to move around, and I’ll look better.
• If I succeed in running a 10K, I’ll be setting a great example for my kids.
• Developing the self-discipline necessary to run a 10K will help me to achieve my other goals.

Now that’s there’s more at stake, it’s a lot more likely that you’ll persevere, right? In fact, what Williams does is trick himself into believing that everything is on the line. He tells himself that if he doesn’t succeed in achieving his goal, his family will be executed.

Of course, most people won’t want to go that far. However, you could tell yourself things like the following:

• If I don’t run the 10K, I’ll be overweight and unhealthy for the rest of my life.
• If I don’t run the 10K, my kids will never respect me again.
• If I don’t run the 10K , I’ll never have the discipline to achieve any of my other life goals.

It may seem a bit drastic, but by tricking your mind into believing that there’s a lot at stake you’re more likely to persevere until you achieve your goal.

2. Bounce Back Quickly From the Unexpected. Several Navy Seals have written books about their training and how they learned to be mentally tough so that they could survive the life threatening situations that they’re thrown into on a regular basis.

A while back I was perusing one of these books and I came across several useful nuggets. One of the things the book stated was that a vital component of mental toughness is bouncing back quickly from the unexpected.

When Navy Seals are preparing to go on a mission, they’re briefed on the situation that they’ll be going into. That is, they’re told what they’ll be facing and what to expect. For example, if they have to rescue someone from a ship they’ll be given information such as the following:

• They’ll be given the ship’s layout;
• They’ll be told how many people are on board:
• They’ll be briefed on the weapons those on board might be carrying;
• They’ll be shown how to move around the ship without being detected;
• They’ll be told where their target is located: and so on.

However, almost 100% of the time, things won’t go as planned. For example, once aboard the ship the Navy Seals may come across a wall where there isn’t supposed to be one. What does a Navy Seal do at this point? Well, they certainly don’t do the following:

• Stop to analyze who’s to blame for not knowing that there was going to be a wall there.
• Stop to complain: “Oh, that’s typical. They miss a wall!” or “How are we supposed to get this done now?”
• Give up and go back.

If the Navy Seals were to do any of these things, they would almost certainly be killed. Therefore, what they do instead is to automatically include the wall in their calculations. More specifically, they do the following:

• Immediately acknowledge and accept that there’s a wall there.
• Adapt with composure.
• Keep going.

If you want to be mentally tough, you have to learn how to bounce back quickly from the unexpected. Trick your mind into overriding it’s tendency to argue with what’s happening by telling yourself the following: “Acknowledge; Accept; Adapt; Act.”

3. Train For Mental Toughness by Visualizing. One of the things that the Navy Seals are taught during their training is to visualize themselves successfully completing any task that they’re assigned over and over again. By using visualization they’re training their mind for what is to come. They’re winning in their mind in order to win in the battlefield.

Whatever goal you’re trying to achieve, visualize yourself persevering, getting over obstacles, shutting out your inner critic, and ignoring naysayers.

If you “see” yourself overcoming these hurdles beforehand, when you actually come across them in real life your mind won’t have to decide at that moment what to do. It will already know to keep going, regardless of circumstances, because that’s what it’s been trained to do.

To increase your mental toughness once you’re working to achieve your goal, train your mind beforehand by visualizing.

4. Recite a Mantra. A while back I read a book  called Unleash the Warrior Within by former Navy Seal Richard Machowicz (Mack). When Mack was training to become a Navy Seal he was sent a photograph of a friend’s brother who was a Navy Seal. In the photograph, the friend’s brother and several other Navy Seals were getting ready to skydive out of a plane.

On the back of the photograph it said the following: “A man can only be beaten in two ways: if he gives up or he dies.” Mack turned that quote into the following mantra: “Not dead, can’t quit.”

He recited this mantra continuously during what remained of his training, and he credits it with helping him to succeed in becoming a Navy Seal. After all, it’s much easier to be mentally tough when your mind chatter is conducive to mental toughness.

Adopt the mental chatter of the mentally tough by constantly repeating Mack’s mantra or coming up with your own. Here are some ideas for mental toughness mantras:

• I’ll do this or die trying.
• Only I can get me to quit, and I won’t let me.
• Quitting is not an option.

When someone tries to get you to quit, or the voice in your head turns negative, recite your mantra. Trick your brain into thinking that the only option is to keep going by reciting your mental toughness mantra, over and over again.

5. Focus On What’s Right In Front of You. Most of us have very large goals. This may include goals such as the following:

• Starting a successful business;
• Traveling around the world;
• Completing an Iron Man; and so on.

When a goal is very large, it’s often difficult to stay motivated and mentally tough from the time in which you take the first step to achieve the goal, until you cross the finish line.

As Navy Seal combat veteran Brent Gleeson explains, the way you trick your mind to keep going when the finish line is far off in the distance is to divide your goal into tiny tasks. Then, just focus on the task that’s right in front of you.

For a Navy Seal this could mean just focusing on running until they cross the bridge a couple of miles away; then running until they get to the top of the hill; then running until they cross the river; and so on.

For you it could mean the following:

• Writing the next post that you’re going to publish on your blog;
• Creating one five-minute video for your online course;
• Making five cold calls to sale prospects; or
• Completing a 10K bike ride.

Trick your mind into staying mentally tough by breaking your big goals into tiny tasks, and then focusing on the task that’s right in front of you. After all, it’s hard to get your mind to accept that it has to stay mentally tough for a year, but you can trick it into thinking that it only has to stay mentally tough for the next hour.

Conclusion

One of the key ingredients to getting what you want from life is mental toughness. Apply the five mind-tricks above and you’ll develop the mental toughness that you’ll need to achieve your goals. Live your best life by making yourself mentally tough.

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Being kind has a strong positive impact on people’s happiness.

In “The Healing Power of Doing Good”, Allan Luks reports that there’s a phenomenon called the helper’s high, which is described as a feeling of warmth and increased energy, as well as a feeling of euphoria, that people feel when they’re being kind to others.

In addition, a 2005 study from Hebrew University in Israel found a link between kindness and the release of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain.

Dr. Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., is a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and co-author of the book, “Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving”. He has the following to say about helping others:

“All the great spiritual traditions and the field of positive psychology are emphatic on this point — that the best way to get rid of bitterness, anger, rage, jealousy [and so on] is to do unto others in a positive way.”

He adds that there are studies that show that when people act with generosity and compassion, there’s a positive effect on their health and well-being. Post explains that evolution may have primed us to feel good from giving because groups that had a large number of people who were altruistic toward others were more likely to survive than groups that did not.

There are several other studies that show that being kind to others makes us happier. One such study was conducted a couple of years ago by the University of British Columbia. Students at the university were given an amount of money ranging from $5.00 to $20.00. They were given the following instructions:

• Some of the students were told to spend the money on themselves.
• Some of the students were told to spend the money on others.

At the end of the day, the students who had spent the money on others–whether giving the money to a charity or buying a gift for someone else–were subjectively happier than those who had spent the money on themselves.

In yet another study, researchers scanned the brains of volunteers as they were asked to think about a scenario involving either donating a sum of money to charity or keeping it for themselves. The results showed that when the volunteers placed the interests of others before their own, this activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex.

All of the above suggests that altruism is not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges, but rather is basic to the brain, hard-wired, and pleasurable.

So, since doing good for others is conducive to happiness, how can you do more of it? Perform random acts of kindness.

Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is one of the leaders in the field of positive psychology and the author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. In her book she incorporates strategies and exercises to help the reader increase their levels of happiness.

One of these strategies is to take the challenge to perform five acts of kindness, one day a week. I recommend that you take her up on the challenge. If you do so, below you’ll find 42 random acts of kindness ideas to help you get started.

42 Random Acts of Kindness Ideas

1. Plant flowers in a public, neglected corner.

2. Help someone going through difficult financial times to go home for the holidays. Investigate the rules of your airline’s frequent flyer programs –some programs allow a ticket that you purchase with your miles to be used by anyone.

3. Leave some treats for your garbage collectors. Collecting garbage is a difficult and important job, but garbage collectors are often taken for granted. If someone deserves a random act of kindness, I think it’s them.

4. Fill a basket with everything a new-born baby needs and drop it off at a nearby hospital for a woman of low income who just gave birth.

5. Leave the exact change for a soda in the change slot of a vending machine.

6. Take a box of donuts to your local firehouse or police station.

7. Put money in someone else’s parking meter if their time is about to expire.

8. Forgive someone a debt that they owe you if it becomes obvious that they can’t pay it.

9. Pay it forward with books. When you’re done reading a great book, leave it in a public place for someone else to find. Add a note saying something like the following: “This book belongs to whoever finds it. When you’re done reading it, pass it on.”

10. Over-tip a waiter or give the pizza delivery guy a really large tip.

11. Drop coins on the sidewalk for someone else to find.

12. Leave a tip in a street musician’s jar.

13. Visit a nursing home and help brighten the day of an elderly person who doesn’t get many visitors.

14. Send a soldier a care package.

15. Help an elderly neighbor with their yard, whether it’s raking the leaves or mowing their lawn.

16. When you’re done shoveling the snow off of your driveway, shovel your neighbor’s driveway. Here’s a sweet story that came out in the news this year of six teenagers who did this for their whole neighborhood.

17. Buy a prepaid phone card and give it to someone who needs it.

18. Prepare a meal for a friend, co-worker, or neighbor who’s sick.

19. Let someone who appears to be in a hurry cut ahead of you in line.

20. Buy a pack of Girl Scout cookies.

21. Help out at a soup kitchen.

22. Offer busy parents to babysit their kids so they can have some alone time.

23. Buy five extra cans of soup or vegetables at the store and drop them off at a local food bank.

24. Donate craft supplies for second graders at a school in need.

25. Purchase a few umbrellas and ponchos and keep them in your car. On a rainy day, find someone who needs them.

26. Send someone who’s feeling down a box of sunshine: fill it with yellow things. This can be yellow candy, lemon cake mix, a yellow mug with a smiley face on it, smiley face stickers, yellow slippers, a great book wrapped in yellow, and so on.

27. Send a friend an old photo of the two of you together and include a note recalling that time.

28. Cheer up a friend who needs it. Take them out to lunch and listen to them. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to lend a sympathetic ear.

29. Give your spare laptop or desktop computer to an elderly person who you know is home-bound. Teach them to use the Internet.

30. Drop kindness bombs: leave small scraps of paper with positive messages on them in library books.

31. Purchase a couple of extra bags of dog food and drop them off at a local animal shelter — because dogs are also in need of some random kindness.

32. Do a chore for someone else in your family — take out the garbage, make dinner, wash the car, and so on.

33. Help victim’s of domestic violence — go to the women’s shelter closest to your home and drop off hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, razors, deodorant, toothbrushes and paste, tampons and pads, diapers, and wipes.

34. Bake cookies for your postman/postwoman.

35. Invite someone who’s alone to have dinner with your family for the holidays.

36. Let another car merge in front of you, or stop to let a pedestrian cross the street.

37. Give a kid a sincere compliment and encourage them to be the best that they can be.

38. If someone close to you is going through a hard time, ask them: “What do you need?” or “How can I help?”

39. If you’re fortunate enough to have at least one grandparent who’s still alive, call them. Having grandparents is a gift.

40. Write a letter to each of your siblings letting them know how much they mean to you and all the reasons why you appreciate them.

41. If someone new moves to your neighborhood, stop by and welcome them.

42. If a friend is going on vacation, offer to feed their pets and water their plants.

Conclusion

Will you take the challenge to perform 5 random acts of kindness a day, one day a week? If so, I hope that you found the42 ideas above helpful for your challenge. Live your best life by being kind to others.

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The New Year stands before us like a fresh chapter in a book.

Once you’re done with your year-end reflection for the year that’s ending, it’s time to look forward to the year that’s about to start. What will you write for the next chapter of your life? It’s entirely up to you. Take the first step to make sure that it’s a good great chapter by setting New Year’s resolutions.

You’ll find 29 ideas for your New Year’s resolutions, below.

1. Start a Meditation Practice.

There are scientific studies that show the many benefits of meditating. To name just a few, meditating helps to improve your mood, it reduces stress, it lessens anxiety, and it even increases your brain’s grey matter — which is involved in muscle control, sensory perception, decision making, and self-control. In addition, once you get the hang of it, meditating is easy to do.

2. Learn Something New Each Day.

Set the resolution to learn something new every day in order to have a better understanding of the world and how it works. Fortunately, the internet makes it incredibly easy to learn new things. Here are three sites you can try:

• Subscribe to Wikipedia’s Featured Article mailing list – you’ll receive an email each morning containing Wikipedia’s featured article for that day.
• Watch a CrashCourse video on YouTube. CrashCourse is an educational YouTube channel started by the Green brothers, Hank Green and John Green. Each video is about 15 minutes long and they cover subjects such as literature, biology, history, economics, and so on.  The cherry on top is that the videos are fun to watch.
• Watch a TED Talk every morning while you eat breakfast. Here are the 20 Best Ted Talks to get you started.

3. Pick Up a Hobby.

Did you know that having a hobby is good for you? Hobbies can lower your stress levels, boost your brain power, improve your ability to focus, and more. Therefore, in 2020, start a new hobby. If you’re looking for ideas for hobbies to try, here are 16 Hobbies That Will Improve Your Quality of Life.

4. Play More.

Play is an important source of relaxation and stimulation for adults. In addition, it can make you more creative and productive. Bring more play into your life by making it a New Year’s resolution.

In case it’s been so long since you allowed yourself to play that you’ve forgotten how, here are 10 Ways to Play More and Have More Fun As an Adult.

5. Eat Fewer Calories.

There are many reasons why most of us should set a resolution of eating fewer calories. The most obvious reason is to lose weight. After all, carrying excess weight puts us at a greater risk of a whole range of serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

With all of the contradictory information out there on what to eat, sometimes it’s hard to decide what to do when you want to lose weight. I try to keep things simple. When I want to lose weight, I just eat less. I recommend you do the same. If you gained weight in 2019, resolve to eat smaller portions in 2020.

In addition, as I wrote in my post 17 Ways to Slow Down Aging and Live Longer, people eating a restricted diet live longer and endure fewer age-related diseases. Try eating until you’re satisfied, instead of full. Also, eat more slowly to allow your body to send you cues about fullness.

Other reasons for eating less are ethical–that is, social justice, animal rights issues, and environmental concerns–but we won’t go into those here.

6. Write a Business Plan.

Make 2020 the year you stop thinking about starting a business and you start taking action –it’s OK if it’s a small business on the side. The first step to take is to write a business plan. Once you get your ideas down on paper, you’ll be that much more motivated to turn those ideas into reality.

7. Move More.

It doesn’t matter what you choose to do: join a sports team; get a pedometer and take at least 10,000 steps a day; get up every 20 minutes and stretch; or join a dance class. Just move! Living a sedentary life dumbs you down, it makes it more likely that you’ll be overweight, and it puts you at a higher risk of depression.

Think of the following quote from the movie “Madagascar“: “Move it nice and sweet and sassy, alright!”

8. Read More Books.

I’ll definitely be reading lots of books in 2018, and I encourage you to do the same. If you need some convincing on this one, here are 13 Ways Reading Will Improve Your Life. This year, I’m reading the 12 most important books of Russian literature.

In fact, I created a 365-Day project for reading Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”–which is a book of prodigious length (roughly 1300 pages long).

9. Be  More Grateful.

If you haven’t climbed aboard the gratitude bandwagon yet, this is the year to do it. There are studies that show that gratitude can make you 25% happier. Think about that for a second: you can be 25% happier simply by taking the time to count your blessings and think of all the good things in you life!

Being grateful will also help you to overcome adversity, improve the quality of your sleep, and allow you to get along better with others. For next year, resolve to be more grateful. Here are some gratitude exercises to get you started.

10. Stop Procrastinating.

If you didn’t achieve your goals this year, procrastination was the likely culprit. Make 2018 the year you stop procrastinating and start getting things done. This will help you to ensure that you won’t be sitting there at the end of next year wondering why you never got around to working on your goals.

11. Set Aside On-Hour-A-Day to Achieve Your Dreams.

Stop telling yourself that you simply don’t have the time to work on your dreams. Whatever your dreams are–whether it’s to make more money so you can redecorate your home, learn to play an instrument, have a positive impact on the world, and so on–you can accomplish those dreams in just one-hour-a-day.

If you devote one-hour-a-day to achieving your most important dream in 2020, by the end of the year you’ll have devoted 365 hours to that dream. Not bad!

12. Spend More Time In Nature.

Humans were not made to be cooped up inside all day. Spending time in nature makes you happier, it boosts your immune system, and it even makes you more creative. Resolve that next year you’ll be spending more time outside (and just opening the windows more often doesn’t count).

13. Start Doing Planks Every Day.

Doing plank exercises every day is a great way to strengthen your core. This article on Lifehack will show you how to do a plank, and it also includes an easy five-minute plank routine you can try. (Doing planks every day is on my list of resolutions for 2020, by the way.)

14. Enjoy the Little Things.

Living life to the fullest doesn’t just mean setting big goals like going bungee jumping or learning to scuba dive. It also includes learning to enjoy the little things. That is, learning to appreciate life’s simple pleasures, such as the following:

• Going outside at night to look at the stars.
• Going to a pet shop to “ooh” and “aah” at the puppies and kittens.
• Walking barefoot in the grass.

If you want more ideas, here are 50 Simple Ways to Celebrate and Enjoy Life. Include as many of these as you can in your 2018 to-do list.

15. Learn a New Skill.

What have you always wanted to learn to do? Do you want to learn to play an instrument, code, knit, whittle? The possibilities are endless. Take advantage of all of the information that exists out there on how to learn new skills quickly and reach the end of 2020 with a couple of new skills under your belt.

16. Become More Confident.

Confidence can be defined as your belief in your own abilities and in your capacity to get what you want.  In turn, the importance of confidence cannot be overstated. Confident people are happier, more relaxed, more likely to take chances, and more likely to succeed.

Fortunately, there are ways to become more confident. These include giving yourself credit for what you do, cultivating your inner advocate, and taking consistent action toward the achievement of your goals. Make 2020 the year your confidence soars (but don’t get too cocky, because nobody likes that).

17. Be More Conscientious.

In addition to being confident, you need to be conscientious. In fact, research shows that conscientiousness is the personality trait that is most often linked to success. You can start by being more punctual, becoming more organized, and being more thoughtful of others. Become more conscientious in the year that is to come.

18. Increase Your Charisma.

Charisma isn’t just important in the political arena, but in all aspects of life. After all, let’s face it: charismatic people are more likely to get what they want. This includes everything from dates, to job promotions. Because charisma is a skill, and not a character trait, it can be learned. Make 2020 the year your charisma skyrockets.

19. Increase Your IQ.

As I wrote in my post, How to Make Yourself Smarter In One-Hour-A-Day, new studies show that, contrary to popular belief, you can make yourself smarter. So, for 2020, why not set the resolution to raise your IQ? Enhancing your brain’s capacity to plan, reason, and solve problems is always a good thing.

20. Increase Your Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

Daniel Goleman coined the term emotional intelligence in his 1996 bestselling book ,”Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”. In a nutshell, emotional intelligence is a set of skills, including control of one’s impulses, self-motivation, empathy and social competence in interpersonal relationships.

Set the resolution to increase your EQ, along with your IQ, and in 2020 you’ll be unstoppable.

21. Bring More Peace Into Your Life.

I think I can safely say that we all want more peace in our lives. And by this I mean more inner peace, contentment, and serenity. Resolve to bring more peace into your life in the year that’s about to begin by accepting what is, practicing non-judgement, and teaching your mind to become still.

22. Be Kinder to Yourself.

You may not be able to control how kind other people are to you, but you can always control how kind you are to yourself.  This upcoming year, set the resolution to believe in yourself, respect yourself, and treat yourself well.  As I wrote in my post, 17 Ways to Be Kind to Yourself, be a good companion to yourself.

In fact, take it even further. Make 2018 the year you fall in love with yourself.

23. Create a Positive Attitude.

Having a positive attitude opens your mind to new possibilities, it makes you more resilient, and it can even help you to live longer. Greet the New Year with a smile and resolve to stay positive, no matter what happens. Here are some tips and techniques that will help you.

24. Strengthen Your Personal Relationship.

Don’t make all of your resolutions career or fitness oriented. Include that special someone in your life in your resolutions. In addition, let them know what you’ll be doing: “Hey, honey, guess what? We’re strengthening our relationship this year!” Here are 18 ideas on what to do.

25. Tame Your Monkey Mind

Life isn’t easy when there’s a monkey in your head. Specially if that monkey won’t stop screeching and jumping uncontrollably from one branch to another (and eating all those bananas).

Make this the year you finally lasso that monkey and get it to sit still. How? Here are 10 Ways to Tame Your Monkey Mind and Stop Mental Chatter.

26. Keep a Journal

Journaling is a powerful life tool. It can help you to organize your thoughts, plan how to achieve your goals, and get in touch with your true feelings and wants. If you choose to add “Keep a Journal” to your New Year’s resolutions, here are two journaling techniques you can try.

27. Get Your Documents In Order.

There are certain documents that every adult should have. This includes things such as a will, a durable power of attorney, and a letter of instruction. If your documents aren’t in order, make it a New Year’s Resolution to get them ready in the coming year.

28. Travel.

Plan a vacation. The world is a beautiful place, and there are many things to see. Next year, visit a country you’ve always wanted to see. If you’re not sure how you would achieve a goal to travel in 2018, here’s what to do.

29. Volunteer.

Set the resolution to do good for others in the upcoming year. After all, you won’t just be benefiting those you help; you’ll also be benefiting yourself. Volunteering can give you a sense of purpose, make your life more meaningful, increase your self-esteem, and make you happier. In 2020, get a helper’s high by volunteering.

New Year’s Kit

Download my free New Year’s Kit below. It contains the following worksheets:

• New Year’s Resolutions Worksheet for you to write down your resolutions for 2020.
• 36 Prompts to Plan An Awesome Year – use these prompts to plan your best year ever.
• 50 Questions to Review Your Year — use these questions to review how 2019 went.

Conclusion

A New Year is like a blank notebook. You get to write anything you want in it. Fill the first page of your notebook with your New Year’s resolutions. Use the 29 ideas above for inspiration. Live your best life by setting resolutions to make 2020 your best year ever.

Read Next: 10 Alternatives to New Year’s Resolutions

Related Posts:

• 26 Ideas for the New Year – Ideas From A to Z
• 30 Ways to Get Out Of The Waiting Place
• 36 Prompts to Help You Plan An Awesome New Year
• 10,000+ Bucket List Ideas For Designing Your Best Life

Have a literary Christmas!

Many famous poets and writers have written Christmas stories and poems, and I’ve rounded up 19 of the best of them. In addition, I’ve provided a link for each one so that you can read them online. Lastly, there’s a YouTube video for most of them so you can watch and listen, if you prefer.

1. Papa Panov’s Special Christmas by Leo Tolstoy

Papa Panov’s Special Christmas was written by the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Papa Panov is an elderly cobbler living in a small village in Russia. His Christmas wish is to give the Christ child the finest pair of shoes he’s ever made. On Christmas Eve Jesus comes to him in a dream and tells him that he will come to visit Papa Panov on Christmas day. What follows is Papa Panov’s most joyful Christmas as he learns that the best way to celebrate the Savior’s birth is by doing good for others. You can read the story online here (and there’s an analysis of the story here).

2. The Beggar Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Tolstoy wasn’t the only famous Russian author to write Christmas stories. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov did as well.

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a story called The Beggar Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree. It starts in a dark, freezing, miserable hovel in Petersburg. A six year-old boy dressed in rags sits alone next to his mother who has just died. He’s nearly starving, so he goes out in search of food.

As he walks through the empty streets he looks into the houses and sees that they are filled with happy children celebrating Christmas. He knocks on several doors, but no one lets him in. Frightened by some older boys, the little boy takes refuge in a yard behind a pile of wood. There, he freezes to death.

However, before dying the little boy dreams of the party of Christ’s Christmas tree, a party for all the child-victims of social injustice.  There, he’s reunited with this mother, and they both join the festivities and are filled with joy. You can read The Beggar Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree online here.

3. At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov’s At Christmas Time was published in 1900 and is recognized today as a Christmas classic. Just like Dostoevsky’s short story above, it’s a departure from the typical tale of Christmas sweetness.

The story begins with an illiterate Russian peasant woman hiring a man to write a letter to her daughter whom she has not heard from in four years. While it’s a sad story, it reminds us to be grateful for what we have. You can read At Christmas Time online here.

You can find more Russian Christmas stories in “A Very Russian Christmas: The Greatest Russian Holiday Stories of All Time“.

4. The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

The Tailor of Gloucester is a children’s book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It’s about a tailor in Gloucester who gets sick and is unable to complete a waistcoat commissioned by the mayor for his wedding on Christmas Day.

However, on Christmas morning the tailor enters his shop to discover that the waistcoat was finished by the grateful mice he saved from his cat. You can purchase the fully illustrated book here. In addition, you can listen to the story being read on YouTube:

5. A Christmas Inspiration by Lucy Maud Montgomery

A Christmas Inspiration is by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables. It’s a story about five girls who have to spend Christmas at the boarding-house they’re staying at.

The girls happily discuss all of the presents they received for Christmas. However, it’s when they decide to buy gifts for someone who doesn’t seem to have a friend in the world that they discover that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. You can read it here or listen to it below:

“A Christmas Inspiration” is one of the short stories collected in “Christmas With Anne and Other Holiday Stories“.

6.  A Letter From Santa Claus by Mark Twain

In 1875 Mark Twain wrote a letter to his three-year-old daughter, Susie Clemens, which he sent as Santa Claus. You can read Twain’s charming letter here. You can also listen to it below:

7. A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

A Country Christmas was written by Louisa May Alcott. She is, of course, the author of the beloved novel  Little Women (incidentally, the first two chapters of Little Women are set at Christmas time).

However, a lot of people don’t know that she also wrote several short stories and poems about Christmas. One of May Alcott’s Christmas stories is titled A Country Christmas.

Sophie is the protagonist of A Country Christmas. She lives in a big city with her guardian, but decides to visit her Aunt Plumy and Aunt Plumy’s two grown children–Saul and Ruth–around Christmastime. They live on a modest farm in Vermont and life is much slower there.

Sophie gets Aunt Plumy’s permission to invite two friends to visit for Christmas. She shows them “a real old-fashioned frolic” as it’s done in the country. You can read A Country Christmas online here.

8. Tilly’s Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

Another lovely Christmas story by May Alcott is Tilly’s Christmas, which is very short and can be read in just a few minutes. It’s about an impoverished girl and her mother who are facing a bleak Christmas.

However, they’re both good people who always try to do kind things for others, and their goodness is repaid when a stranger leaves gifts at their doorstep for them to find on Christmas Eve. You can read Tilly’s Christmas online here. In addition, most of May Alcott’s Christmas writings have been collected in the book Louisa May Alcott’s Christmas Treasury.

9. On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity by John Milton

The English poet John Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity was written in 1629, while Milton was still a student at the University of Cambridge. It’s one of the four poems by Milton that are to be read on Day 2 of The Harvard Classics.

You can listen to it being read below:

10. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

The Gift of the Magi is a beautiful Christmas story written by O. Henry–a well known American short story writer. I’ve been hearing this story since I was a little girl.

It’s about a young married couple who love each other very much but can barely make ends meet. They each sacrifice their most treasured possession to be able to buy the other one a gift for Christmas. The story has a surprise ending, which is something that O. Henry was known for.

You can read The Gift of the Magi online here. You can also listen to it below:

11. Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Christmas Bells is an inspiring poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote it on Christmas Day in 1863, during the American Civil War.

The poem tells of the narrator’s despair, upon hearing Christmas bells, that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. Nonetheless, the poem concludes on a hopeful note. The bells ring even more loudly with their message of peace on earth.

You can read Christmas Bells online here.

12. The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wadsworth Longfellow wrote another beautiful Christmas poem titled The Three Kings which you can read online here. It’s a classic telling of the three wise men’s visit to the baby Jesus shortly after he’s born. You can listen to it being read below:

13. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore is the quintessential Christmas poem. The poem is largely responsible for a lot of the concepts that we have about Santa Claus today. You can read it online here. In addition, listen to it below.

14. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

A Christmas Memory is a semi-autobiographical short story written by Truman Capote, author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

In A Christmas Memory, an orphaned seven year-old boy, referred to as “Buddy”, lives in rural Alabama with his elderly cousin who is eccentric and childlike (and was thought to be retarded by many people). They also live with other relatives who “often make them cry”.

Every year in November, when the weather gets cold, the elderly lady announces:

“It’s fruitcake weather.”

Then, she and buddy gather all of the ingredients necessary for making fruitcakes. They gather wild pecans and finance everything else they need with money they carefully save throughout the year. After four days of baking, their fruitcakes are ready for delivery to friends—“persons we’ve met maybe once, perhaps not at all”.

Buddy and his cousin undertake other adventures together. Unfortunately, the special relationship Buddy shares with his cousin comes to end when he’s sent away to military school, and then to a different home. Although they initially write to each other, the cousin gets dementia a few years later and dies shortly after that.

You can read the story online here. A Christmas Memory was adapted for television by Truman Capote and Eleanor Perry. The production starred Geraldine Page and Truman Capote was the narrator. You can watch it below:

15. The Dead by James Joyce

The Dead is from Dubliners, a collection of short stories written by James Joyce. Joyce’s most important work, Ulysses, is a difficult read. Therefore, most people will want to become acquainted with Joyce by reading The Dead, which is much more accessible.

The setting of the story is the annual dance and dinner party held by Kate and Julia Morkan and their young niece, Mary Jane Morkan. It’s at or just before the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ’s divinity to the Magi. The party draws together a variety of relatives and friends.

The central themes of the story are mortality and isolation. However, there is also much joy in The Dead, as the financially comfortable characters celebrate the holiday season. You can read it online here. In addition, you can watch a movie based on the story below.

16. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen is a Danish author best remembered for his fairy tales, such as The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid. He also wrote several Christmas stories, the most beloved of which is titled, The Little Match Girl. It’s about a little girl sent out into the cold by her abusive father to sell matches.

Although she tries her best, everyone in the street rushes by and ignores her and she’s unable to sell any matches. When it gets dark, she’s afraid to go home since her father will beat her for not having earned any money. Therefore, she sits in a corner of an imposing stone building.

She lights a match to get some warmth, and a glorious vision of a Christmas tree appears. The vision fades away when the match burns out. The little girl lights a second match and a Christmas feast appears before her. This feast dies too, with the match. The third time she lights a match, her beloved, deceased grandmother appears and the little girl runs into her arms.

The next morning, the little girl’s body is found. She had frozen to death.

You can read it online here. In addition, watch the adaptation of The Little Match Girl, below (and if you don’t cry when you see this, I’m afraid that your heart is made of stone):

17. The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen

The Fir Tree is another Christmas story by Hans Christian Andersen. It’s a tale about a fir tree that is so anxious to grow up, and so eager for greater things, that he cannot appreciate living in the moment. He doesn’t understand how good he has it until it’s too late.

You can read The Fir Tree online here. Or, you can watch a sweet little comic based on The Fir Tree below.

18. Is There a Santa Claus? by Frank Church

Francis Pharcellus Church was an American publisher and editor. He was a lead editorial writer in his brother’s newspaper, the New York Sun, a prominent New York newspaper at the time. It was in that capacity that in 1897 he wrote an editorial answering the question of an eight year-old girl named Virginia.

The girl asked, “Is there a Santa Claus?” Church’s answer is now a part of Christmas history. Here’s part of Church’s response:

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.”

You can read the entire editorial online here. In addition, you can listen to it below. Finally, the editorial was turned into a made-for-TV movie, which you can watch here (it’s definitely worth watching).

19. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a prose work by Dylan Thomas, one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. It’s a nostalgic retelling of Christmases past. Although nothing dramatic happens in this story, it’s a lovely read. Here’s a quote from the end of the story:

“Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steadily falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and I then slept.”

You can read it here. A Child’s Christmas in Wales was turned into a TV movie which you can watch below (I highly recommend you watch this):

Conclusion

I hope these Christmas stories and poems by famous authors made you feel joy, love for friends and family, compassion, and nostalgia. That is, the emotions of Christmas. In addition, by reading these stories and poems you’ll be a little more well-read by the end of the year.

Live your best life by having a literary Christmas.

Read Next; Christmas Books: 14 Books to Read this Holiday Season

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• 50 Christmas Traditions For Having Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Eight Ways to Beat the Holiday Blues
• 48 Joyous Christmas Quotes to Brighten the Season
• 25 Activities Filled With Christmas Cheer