Resolutions You Can Keep
Hoping to provide some early empowerment tips from our multicultural camp, here’s some early borrowed advice for 2013! As 2013 begins, many folks want to make resolutions that they can keep. But that’s a hard one since they so often fail. Sociologist Christine Carter offers some useful advice on her website on how to make resolutions that will stick.
- pick just one resolution that research shows will make you happier
Some good options to choose from…
- Spend more time with friends. Study after study shows that we tend to be happier when we feel connected to our nearest and dearest, when we feel like we are a part of a group or a clan. Even introverts don’t like to feel lonely; this may seem like the science of the blazingly obvious, but it bears repeating. Do you frequently feel isolated or lonely? Make a resolution to routinely reach out to others. Not sure how, or feel too busy? Join or start a group that meets regularly—maybe on the first Monday of the month, or every Friday at lunch. When we routinize our friendships, we remove the hassle of scheduling, and increase the odds that we’ll actually spend time with people we love or want to get to know better.
- Everyday, find a way to give something to somebody. Check out this story about a kindness chain from Kevin’s hometown Winnipeg, where for three full hours and 228 orders, a generous chain of Tim Hortons customers in Winnipeg picked up the tab for the people behind them.
- Get more sleep and exercise. As Carter emphasizes, the science around these physical happiness boosters is pretty compelling. Studies are clear: You’ll be less stressed, less sick, and less grouchy in the New Year if you get more shut-eye. Try increasing your sleep 10 minutes a night for a week, and then another 10 the next week, and so on until you are regularly getting your eight hours.
Happy New Year to everyone in the extended Kupugani family!