Instead of writing personal resolutions for myself this year I decided to write resolutions for you. Here are eight impersonal resolutions guaranteed to make you a better person and the world a better place.
- Acknowledge that goodness is already your nature and that the world’s nature is goodness as well. There is no need to strive, to resolve, to make better.
- Nurture someone/something else. With all the care-giving you already do, accept another object under your care. A person. A pet. A plant. A highway median. In this way you will learn that your care is boundless.
- Disappear from yourself and your obligations/preferences/habits. This might be tricky if you haven’t done it before. Start out disappearing for an hour. Work up to disappearing for a day. Or two. And never ever tell another soul where you went and what you did. This is your most precious gift to yourself. Treasure it.
- Cultivate unconditional forgiveness and love. In that order. Especially for yourself.
- Challenge yourself, your thinking, your talents. Push yourself. Not to be better but to stretch beyond your comfort. There’s plenty of other opportunities to be comfortable.
- Practice seeing every cherished object broken and every cherished person gone. Feel what that feels like without feeling it. Hold those things and people more dear than you did before. Repeat. Forever.
- Divest from evil corporations. All corporations are evil, but some are more evil than others. Stop spending money at at least five corporations that harm the goodness of your world. There are a few apps and web sites that can show you where corporations spend money and which politicians and policies they support.
- Spend money and time on a political campaign. Spend money and time on a nonprofit organization. Share your goodness and the goodness of the world with others.
And a bonus resolution, because people like bonuses: Notice when resistance arises and then resist it.
Happy 2022.