New Year's resolutions by their nature are typically impossible to reach, completely over the top life-altering goals. In the States, our most popular objectives for the new year include “lose weight” and “quit smoking.” While these health-related goals are great, they often require major lifestyle changes, the motivation for which usually dies out by mid-February to early-March.
Of course, there's also the abstract resolutions like “be less stressed” and “volunteer.” Volunteer for who/what and how often? Are we volunteering for a weekend at Habitat for Humanity? Help build one home, and you're good for the year! Or are we volunteering overseas in one of those two-week programs where we work with orphans in India and the homeless in Ecuador, which don't really help anyone in the long run other than ourselves?
Then, there are those of us who resolve to “travel more” and “save money” in the new year. Unfortunately, the reality of a college budget can often destroy such hopes and dreams. Thus, we are all left with terribly unresolved New Year's resolutions and feel like miserable failures once again.
So, this year, rather than set an outlandish, impossible goal, my resolution is to not make a resolution. Instead, I'm going to focus on being an overall happier person.
Shawn Achor, the hilarious CEO of Good Think Inc., a consulting firm all about finding the secret to happiness, author of The Happiness Advantage, and, oh, you know, a licensed psychologist, gave his key to being a healthier, happier person in his 2011 TEDxtalk, “The Happy Secret to Better Work.”
According to Achor, the secret to being happier is that there isn't a single secret to being happier. Being an overall more adjusted, happier person takes a combination of journaling, exercising, meditating, and performing random acts of kindness. These four activities coupled with what Achor calls the “Three Gratitudes” can make anyone a happier human being.
The “Three Gratitudes” are simple: every day, for 30 days, write down three things that you are grateful for. You must write three new things every day, and the idea is to reflect on your life at the end of the day and realize just how much you have to be thankful for.
When I tried the “Three Gratitudes” challenge last month, my lists began easy enough. Day One: I'm grateful for my mom, my sister, and my friends. Day Two: I'm grateful for my job, being able to pursue an education, and health care. But as my days progressed, I began writing things like “I'm grateful that there wasn't much traffic this morning, and I was able to get to work on time,” and “I'm grateful that my eight-year-old niece loves to read.”
So join me in 2016 by abstaining from a resolution in favor of the “Three Gratitudes” challenge and find out why you deserve to be happy in the new year.
