If your New Year’s Resolution is to work out more or eat healthier, please stop lying to yourself. You’re really only going to work out more mid-semester when you can't walk up a flight of stairs without feeling like a whale without a lung. And really, who among us that isn’t already eating healthy wants to give up our processed microwave mac and cheese? Not me, that’s for sure.
But there are things we can all change to make ourselves a little happier on a daily basis. Little resolutions can go a long way, especially when you make them habits and start to do them without thinking.
Resolution 1: Give yourself the cool dude thumbs up in the mirror every morning.
Resolution 2: Once a month, text a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and ask them how everything is going.
Resolution 3: Once a month, text a friend you text regularly a funny gif, something so funny they do a spit take.
Resolution 4: Treat yo' self. Start a new show. Watch Westworld or Seinfeld or all six seasons plus the one good movie of Sex and the City.
Resolution 5: Take pictures of everything. Post Instagrams of everything. Document what's important to you while still staying present in every moment.
Resolution 6: Buy a little notebook and write down one good thing that happened to you every day.
Resolution 7: Write yourself little love notes at the beginning of every month, and place them in your notebooks and textbooks so you get a pleasant surprise whenever you find them.
Resolution 8: Once a month, treat yourself to something that makes you happy. Be it a walk, a pair of shoes, a peach smoothie from Kaldi’s.
Resolution 9: Take a couple naps a week if you don’t already. Find the time to just lie down and breathe. You deserve it.
Resolution 10: Go out to dinner with your friends once a month. Save up some money so that one day each month, you all get together and explore your college town/city/village. Catch up on things you don't say in day to day chatter, and try out as many new restaurants as you can.
Most importantly, set resolutions that will make you happy this year. Sure: you may not lose 30 pounds or learn to love wheat berry quinoa, but you may laugh a little bit more than you did in 2016.