50 New Year Resolutions For A Better You

The New Year is upon us and it’s time to draft this year’s New Year’s Resolutions. New Year’s Resolutions are all about change and improving things for the better. They are also a time for reinvention. Do you know what your plan is for reinvention for 2019? If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry about overthinking it.

50 New Year Resolutions For Reinvention

1| Lose Weight

It’s time to take stock in what your scale is telling you. Whether you need to lose a few pounds or 100 pounds, the New Year is a beautiful time to jumpstart your weight loss efforts.

2| Eat Better

How is your diet? Is it loaded with fat? Too many calories? Too much sugar? Feel free to hit the restart button and change your meal plans and preparation practices. The New Year offers a brand new start and opportunity to fine tune your eating habits. If your current dietary habits seem overwhelming and impossible, start changing one meal at a time.

3| Be a Good Friend

How good of a friend were you during 2018? Do you listen well? Are you there when your friends reach out? Do you make yourself available to them? Do you give constructive feedback? Is your friendship conditional? 

There are lots of questions to consider here. No matter your answer to these questions, you have a brand new opportunity to assess the role you play in your friends’ lives and make necessary adjustments to become a better friend.

4| Be a Better Son or Daughter

In the new year, look for ways to be a better son or daughter. Call home more often. Visit more often. Don’t just use them as your sounding board for everything that is wrong in the world, but contact them even when things are wonderful to hear about how they are feeling and what’s happening in their world. Don’t reject their well-meaning advice. Listen and acknowledge that you hear them and keep things moving. 

Don’t just use them as your sounding board for everything that is wrong with the world. Contact them when things are wonderful, or to see how they are feeling, or just to talk about what’s new. Show Mom and Dad that you do care.

5| Be a Better Parent

How were you as a parent last year? Were you supportive? Make a list of all the thing you did well, or not so well, and think of ways to improve. Make sure you are carving out time to be a parent. Practice showing your kids how to be a better human being. Deliver constructive feedback but also, look for ways to be encouraging so that your communication is not always deemed to be critical or negative.

6| Learn to Say Yes

Learn to say yes. You have undoubtedly heard about the year of yes in which people force themselves to step outside of their comfort zone and rather than say “no” to opportunities that come their way, they challenge themselves to embrace the unfamiliar and say “yes.”  Make this year your year of “yes” to opportunities that land on your proverbial front doorstep.

7| Learn to Say No

Permit yourself to say “no.”  If you spent the previous year giving in to the demands of others when your gut told you that you should say “no.”  You must use the New Year to practice saying no. Practice making yourself and personal needs a priority in 2019.

8| Read More Books

Expand your mind in 2019 with a relaxing book. Read one new book every month. Setting aside time to read books should not be too difficult for you. 

Aim to read a few pages in the morning before rising, during lunch or at bedtime. You don’t have to read thick books to achieve this resolution. There is plenty of good reading material on the market that are under 300 pages. Start small then slowly progress towards something big.

9| Travel More

Travel more in 2019. It will amaze you how good it feels to get away from your daily grind. Your trips can be short weekend trips, or you can take a week and travel to another country. Either way, make time to get out and about to see the world.

10| Take Risks

Don’t get stuck in your head when an opportunity to presents itself, or you are thinking about doing something new. Take a risk. You only get one life and erring on the side of caution may cause you to miss out on something GREAT.

11| Meditate

Schedule time for meditation in the New Year. Meditation teaches our mind concentration, focus, and awareness. Meditation is hugely beneficial for your health and helps to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, induce relaxation and improves our sense of well-being.

12| Learn Something New

In the New Year, learn something new. Take a dancing class, learn a new language, or take a course that benefits your career. Set aside time to gain new knowledge or a new skill.

13| Volunteer

Volunteer your time or donate to a charity. Volunteer work not only benefits those you are trying to help, but there are some physical and mental benefits for you as well. Benefits such as stress reduction, calming, and anxiety level improvement. Giving your time can have a significantly positive effect on your psychological well-being.

14| Schedule Time for Loved Ones

In 2019, make an effort to schedule time for loved ones. We are great at scheduling time for everything else, but we sometimes suck at setting aside time for our loved ones. Map out your schedule for 2019 and avoid sacrificing that time for others –including your job.

15| Start a New Business

You know the business you are on the fence about launching? Do it this year! Stop hedging your bets and questioning your abilities and push forward with starting your business. Not sure where to start, hire consultants to help you build your business plan.

16| Get a New Hobby

Get a new hobby. A new hobby for the New Year can help to change the pace of everyday life. A new hobby can challenge you to use a different part of your brain and build new skills. If your new hobby looks profitable, you might even be able to use it as a second form of income.

17| Get Active

Get physical! Put on your sneakers and take a walk, or better yet set up a gym membership at your nearest fitness center –and use it. Even if you only go once a week, any improvement will motivate you. And that just might become the extra day per week that you become more active than you were during 2018. The gym may seem cliché, but it is a great way to hold yourself accountable.

18| Be Grateful for Each New Day

Give thanks for living to see another day. Do not take life for granted and don’t spend every waking hour complaining about everything that doesn’t go your way.

19| Get Out and About in Nature

Become one with Mother Nature once in a while. Take a walk in the park or go for a hike in the woods. You will be amazed by how beneficial your time with the great outdoors can be for your health. According to Science Daily, spending time in nature has a powerful effect on your cardiovascular health and may help to improve chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and may improve stress levels.

20| Act Now!

Stop procrastinating in 2019. If you are a consistent delay-tactic being, use 2019 to break bad habits. Stop procrastinating and teach yourself to tackle small tasks, one at a time. Reward yourself each time you are successful in being proactive.

21| Network and Make New Friends

Use 2019 to grow your network and friend circle. Work on building genuine relationships and stay in touch with your new found friends.

22| Build Confidence and Self-Esteem

During 2019, work on building your confidence and self-esteem. Learn to be an assertive being who values themselves as a person with great things to offer the world. Stay away from negative talk and cut the negative people out of your life.

23| Manage Stress Better

Don’t give up minimizing your stress levels in 2019. Try new exercises that contribute to decreasing stress levels including getting adequate rest, incorporating relaxation techniques into your day, talking to a professional and better organizing your day and life.

24| Get More Sleep

How are your current sleep habits? Could they be better? If your answer is ‘yes,’ use 2019 to increase the amount of sleep you get. This action may mean investing in a new mattress, setting a new sleep schedule, changing your bedroom around so that it becomes a more attractive sleep zone, or ditching daytime naps.

25| Learn to Be a Better Cook

Learn to be a better cook in 2019. Reorganize your kitchen, clean up that baker’s rack, and shop like a professional. Become a better cook by preparing all of your meals. Remember, practice makes perfect.

26| Save Money

Save money. Put a little money away for a rainy day. Experts say you should have at last six to eight months of your salary in a savings account in case you lose your job. Take steps now to ensure you check the box on this requirement. Try to save $10,000 this year. If your rainy day fund is full, sock a bit of cash away for your children’s college fund. If you are good in those areas as well, start saving for your next car, or your retirement.

27| Reduce Debt

Pay down your debt. There’s nothing worse than realizing that more than half of your income goes towards paying the debt (i.e., credit card, mortgage, student loan) each month. Start your debt payoff plan by eliminating your smallest debt, then shift to the next lowest amount.

28| Get a New Job

Feeling miserable in your current job. Apply yourself to finding a new job. Go to job interviews and do not be afraid to put yourself out there.

29| Create a Wellness Lifestyle

Do your research to create a wellness lifestyle. Change the foods you eat, the environment which you live, and the foods you consume. Tackle one part of your life at a time. Making sweeping changes can seem a bit daunting. 

You might choose to start by practicing mindful meditation for five minutes each day for a few weeks. Next, you may elect to begin eating clean foods. Again, start by changing one meal at a time. Finally, examine your current relationships and their impact on your mental well-being.

30| Write a Book

Are you dreaming of being a writer? Use 2019 to write that book you have been dreaming about creating. Carve out 15 to 60 minutes a day to draft those chapters.

31| Go Back to School

Go back to school to get an advanced degree or change your profession and get a new degree, or to advance your career

32| Learn to Smile

Turn that frown upside down and smile more often. 

33| Argue Less

You don’t have to be right all of the time –or at least, you don’t have to tell everyone all of the time you are right.

34| Drink Less

Drink less alcohol. Decrease your alcohol consumption by one or two drinks per week.

35| Quit Smoking

Smoking places you at risk for multiple chronic conditions ranging from heart disease to high blood pressure. Use 2019 to kick the habit.

36| Find Positivity

Practice positivity in 2019. Find the path to optimism to lead a more productive and happier life. Positivity can improve your energy and promote a high level of connectivity.

37| Keep Your New Year Resolutions

Resolve to commit to your New Years’ resolutions. How often do you make resolutions only see them fall apart within a matter of weeks? Do not be discouraged if things veer off track. Hit the reset button and try again.

38| Clean Out the Closets

Clean out your closets in 2019! If your wardrobe has the look of someone who might be hoarding one outfit too many, take a little time to clean out your closets and donate them to a charity. If you haven’t worn something in a year, might as well donate it.

39| Keep a Cleaner House

Your home environment plays a vital role in your health. Set a schedule to maintain a cleaner house. Hire some help if you cannot keep up with those basic chores like mopping and vacuuming that help rid your environment of dust mites, viruses, bacteria, etc…

40| Set Goals and See Your Goals Through to the End

Create SMART goals that enable you to achieve your New Years’ Resolution. The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. When drafting your goals, ensure that they each meet this criterion.

41| Get Organized

Become more organized in 2019. When we hear the term organization, we often think about our workstations, our closets, and even our drawers. However, the organization is a transferable event within multiple areas of our life. Organization promotes balance and increases productivity.

42| Be Present

Challenge yourself to be present or live in the moment during 2019. Many of us are spending our days worrying about the next minute or waiting for the shoe to drop. Learn to be grateful for what you have at the moment, keep distractions at bay, and look for the beauty in life.

43| Laugh More

Find the humor in your life and learn to laugh. Laughter stimulates so many parts of our mind and body. It helps to boost endorphins, giving us feelings of happiness. Laughter is a natural way to decrease stress in your life.

44| Change Your Life

Appoint 2019 as the year of change for your life. Changing your life does not mean you have to plan for significant production. Instead, it means you might start by changing your exercise ritual. Another change may entail incorporating modifications that allow you to be a kinder person. Also, you might take steps that will enable you to pursue your passions.

45| Be a Mentor

Be a mentor to someone. You have some degree of knowledge, skills, and ability that you can share with others. Look for ways to share your talent with someone else seeking to get to where you are in their life –whether professionally or personally.

46| Attend More Plays and Concerts

Cultivate your mind with several nights out on the town in 2019.

47| Don’t Get Wrapped Around the Axle

Find a way not to get wrapped around the Axle in 2019. Keep your head above the water and keep your eyes on coming up with tangible solutions for problems. Avoid finger-pointing and blaming others for everything that is wrong.

48| Become Your Best You

Become your best self. Try something new, chase your dreams, and focus on self-care in the new year.

49| Drink More Water

Here’s a simple resolution to adopt for your health. Drink more water. Water is one of nature’s greatest gifts. Water gives us energy, keeps our body hydrated, rids us of unwanted toxins, helps to balance our systems.

50| Watch Less Television

Between Hulu, Netflix, and Prime, your access to new television shows or movies is boundless. During 2019 however, challenge yourself to cut your television time down by a couple of hours per day. Swap that time out for reading, networking, travel, spending time with your family, or engaging in a creative hobby.