Dear Readers: In my New Year’s Day column, I shared my resolution for the new year and asked readers to do the same. Scores of readers responded.
We are now a couple of weeks into the year, when resolve typically starts to wane. I hope that reading these responses will inspire people to stick to their promises.
Dear Amy: My New Year’s resolution is to get to bed on time. On a work night, that would be right after the weather report runs on my local news show.
The trick to resolutions, I’ve found, is to not give up after breaking it once. I can always start over again tomorrow! — Carrie Bryan, Independence, Mo.
Dear Amy: I resolve that this year I’m going to see more live music and dance more! It is great for the soul and, in many cases, costs the same as, or less than, a movie.
— Amanda Nourse, Boston
Dear Amy: For years my New Year’s resolution was “to get organized.”
Last year I joined a “clutter group.” A professional organizer leads it, and it is free. I now have a support group filled with people who relate to one another without criticism. It is working for me, and I suggest to anyone who has repeatedly failed to keep their New Year’s resolutions to try it. — Clutter Reduced in Chico, Calif.
Dear Amy: I was never one for New Year’s resolutions, but for two or three years I made a list of things about myself I would change. I filed them away and never gave them another thought until a few years later when I found the file.
To my surprise, I had kept almost all of them! It seems that just writing them down helped them come true! — Better Person for It
Dear Amy: I am now 16, but when I was younger I was not very healthy. I ate lots of unhealthy foods and got virtually no exercise.
For three years in a row, I resolved to get more exercise. It never lasted a week.
Finally the year of eighth grade I confided in my mom on New Year’s Day, and she replied that she had been failing to keep the same resolution. We resolved to walk half an hour every day in a park that was on the way home from school.
A year later, I was shocked to realize I was in the habit of walking every day, and I had lost a considerable amount of weight! — Erica
Dear Amy: I made this resolution last year and am doing it again this year.
Each day I compliment someone. The lady in front of me in line with a pretty scarf, the family in a restaurant with well-behaved children, the person who holds a door for me, the person who assists me on the phone, etc.
It forces me to look for the good in people and makes someone’s day pleasant. — Cecelia Lovas
Dear Amy: Last year I decided that my resolution for 2010 would be to not have any opinions about anything.
This was done somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but in very little time I realized that I had inadvertently struck gold. It felt as though I had been relieved of a huge burden. I did still provide an opinion occasionally, but only when it was solicited.
I was somewhat apprehensive about how to follow up this success for 2011, but inspiration struck, and for the upcoming year I am resolving to not provide any unsolicited advice. — Fortuitous Philosopher
Dear Amy: I think I am a nice guy. Upon going back to work after the winter holiday, I was asked by a female co-worker if I had made any New Year’s resolutions.
“Just one,” I replied. “I am not going to be as nice this year as I have been in the past.” She commented, “That is one resolution you better break right now.” — Mr. Wonderful
Send questions via e-mail to askamy@tribune.com or by mail to Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.
