4 Best New Year’s Resolutions – And They’re Free!

Today, maybe you’re asking yourself what are the best New Year’s resolutions? Let’s face it, we make resolutions at the start of each New Year and most people find them impossible to keep for more than a month. We join a gym (and pay the rest of the year, even when we no longer go). We start a diet and then find ourselves in the tub with a box of chocolates on January 21st. It’s a vicious cycle and it doesn’t seem to work for most people. So here are my suggestions for the 4 Best New Year’s Resolutions…

1. Best New Year’s Resolutions: Drink More Water

People tell me I have great skin… part genetics, for sure, but part is a little secret I picked up many years ago after making friends with my beautiful, French neighbor, Arlette. She said her best beauty secrets were to sleep well and to drink water… lots and lots of water. Her skin said everything I needed to know to adopt this habit almost immediately. Think about it: health experts recommend the 8×8 rule: drink 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day – that’s about two liters or half a gallon of water. It’s easy to do if you start your day by filling up a half-gallon container and drinking it down during the day. I try not to get out of the car, at day’s end, until I’ve done this easy thing. So how about trying it? This is one of the best New Year’s resolutions. It will not only help your skin, but it will help your gut, your joints and your blood sugar. It’s a resolution that’s worth a try, for sure…

2. Choose To Do One Thing… Every Day… That Gives You Joy… It’s One of The Best New Year’s Resolutions

I would argue that we could all use a good healthy dose of joy right now. We are being assaulted by the economy, the flu and lingering COVID. Joy won’t cure these ills, but it’s a start. It’s free and it does so much for the heart… and the soul. You can resolve to make joy your resolution this year, with simple changes like:

• Resolve to take 30 minutes with a great book, the bible, the Koran, or another bit of written spirituality or inspiration… every day.
• Have dessert, a glass of wine, or a fist full of popcorn… something small, but something you enjoy… every day.
• Dance… alone in the kitchen… with your partner in the family room… every day.
• Take some time outside… to walk… to enjoy the sky, the birds, the sounds… every day.
• Resolve to spend time, like Will Ferrell in Elf “singing loud for all to hear.” Sing with Alexa… sing in the car… sing in the shower… sing to your babies… sing…every day.

3. Be Kind… Even When It’s Hard… It’s A Best New Year’s Resolution That Will Last A Lifetime

When things don’t go your way, sometimes lashing out seems like a really good idea… for a moment. Believe me… I own a retail store. But like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail – sometimes you say just the right thing at just the right time, putting your supposed adversary in their place – getting off the zinger. You feel great…. for about a minute… but it doesn’t last… and you’re left feeling a little worse for it… a little hollower. So if you can… resist the urge… and resolve one thing in 2023… be kind, even when part of you wants to lash out. You will feel better for it… we all will.

4. Best New Year’s Resolutions: Start A Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal was a big, popular Oprah-endorsed thing when I was a young mom. They sold gratitude journals in every book store (yes, those were an actual thing). I kept one myself the year my Charlotte was born (1999). It was a tough year for me personally, Charlotte’s joyful arrival notwithstanding. The journal, in which some days the only thing I could write was “breathing” as something I was grateful for, helped me see all the good things in my life… not all at once… not like magic… but slowly, building to a crescendo… as I reviewed it at year’s end. I looked back, having survived the year, and thought, “Damn, that wasn’t half bad.” And I thanked God for the year I was surprisingly grateful for. You can make this resolution too… do it in a spiral notebook… on your iPad … or in a beautifully bound journal… but however you do it… trust me… you won’t regret recording the things that make you thankful. P.S. Here’s a Consignment Goddess Secret: Journals are readily available at most thrift and consignment stores.

And Now For A Little Music Before We Go…

For some more feel-good reading on this day off, consider: Best Graduation Speeches and A Letter To My Son on His Wedding Day. Happy New Year. Everyone! Marianne

“I believe in living life the way that you want to live it every day, and if you do that, you don’t really need to have New Year’s resolutions.”

Tom Ford