Some years ago I stopped making new years’ resolutions. After all most of them tumbled like dominoes the day after New Years’ day dawned. Like the one where I promised myself that I would not chastise my husband for not picking up his socks where they lay kissing the hamper, but not quite making it inside, and his walking away and leaving them like that.

Others lasted a nanosecond longer. The ‘I will not nag my spouse about leaving every cabinet door open that he has opened in his search for a glass or a plate’ one. Why should this bother me you ask? They have only been in the same place the thirteen years that we lived in this house. This resolution lasted until I bumped my head on one of the open cabinets. Once I quit seeing stars and the ringing in my ears ceased, I let him have it.

However instead of making resolutions that are doomed to fail, I am striving to follow what I call tips on living life to the fullest: These are not new, but perhaps need reminding.

Read something every day, for reading stimulates the mind. And encourage your children to read a book, a magazine or a newspaper instead of paying video games or yakking on the phone. You say there is never anything in the newspapers but bad news. Then read a book of poems, the bible, or some other book that will comfort you or affirm you.

Volunteer or help someone in need. Peace on earth and goodwill to all men should be an attitude, not just mere words in a song that you sing once a year. For example, simply adding a couple of extra dollars to your utility bill each month will help someone else to have heat during the winter.

Prioritize. Pick one project at a time and complete it, instead of starting two or three and never finishing any of them. 

Indulge yourself occasionally without feeling guilty for taking a few minutes just for yourself.  Meditate or walk on a treadmill. Take a hot bath instead of a quick shower. And don’t be afraid that your family will clear the table, or sweep the floor, while you are soaking in a tub. That will never happen. Believe me those minutes that you spent calming your spirit will be worth it

Be a mentor. If you have lived longer than 10 minutes, you will have learned or done something that will benefit someone else. Share that knowledge with a child or young adult. 

Remember the good times and try to let go of the bad. Many of us wear old hurts like underwear everywhere we go; and we can recite every slight, real or imagined, verbatim. But until we let go of the past, we will never heal.

Lastly, learn to laugh at life’s absurdities instead of stressing out over them. For I am a witness that a person can find success laughing, and writing about that one hair that persists in growing under her chin, even after repeating plucking with industrial-strength tweezers, about husbands behaving badly, and other tales of women’s woe. So instead of questioning the road not taken, let us strive in the New Year and always, to find some joy in our journey.