Happy New Year
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I hope everybody had a happy New Year. That means also getting all the traveling you intended done, fulfilling the New Year´s resolutions and basically having a good time. Otherwise, it´s a brand new year which deserves a brand new set of resolutions.

I´ve been criticized for not having enough variety in my blogs. I got a comment from someone in Thailand who said that I only dealt with sci-fi, action and drama films. I will explore several films from different genres such as comedies, independent, documentaries, romance and even old classic films and books.

All these people have a point and I would love to deal with all genres of films and more literature, such as the classics. So it looks like I have my resolutions for the year all cut out for me without even having to give it any thought.

As far as new year’s resolutions for everybody is concerned, the best advice I can offer is to make the changes in your life that need to be made and not the ones other people want you to make. New year’s resolutions are about personal improvement and lifestyle change.

For example, a resolution to cut down on your screen watching would be a good one. Whether it’s a TV, smart phone or computer screen makes no difference.

My favorite type of resolutions are the ones that have us adopt new projects, such as learning a new language, writing a book or traveling to a remote culture.

There are also the resolutions where we can devote our time and resources to a good cause, such as volunteering, joining a podcast or creating a blog.

I´ve given this New Year´s resolution thing some thought and have come up with the mother of all resolutions. This resolution is so simple anyone can adopt it and it will change your life. It doesn´t take a Phd or years of experience at a highly specialized job to adopt. It doesn´t take any money, fame or good looks to adopt either. As a matter of fact most people won´t even know what the resolution is or what you´re up to while you´re fulfilling this resolution until you tell them. This resolution can only be noticed by the effects it has on your life, effects that others will surely notice and inquire about.

This resolution is inspired by expressions such as “You reap what you sow” or “You must plant before you harvest”. Another one I saw online that I really liked for its positivity was “What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.”

A brief description of this resolution would be for someone to evaluate how much of their time they spend on leisure versus time spent on productive, life enriching projects such as reading, traveling, meditating, research, relationships, starting a business or blog or podcast.

This ratio is very important because it reveals how much of our time we are investing in ourselves. People who spend too much time in leisure activities like watching TV or the internet, shopping, eating etc. are not happy people. Society encourages us to be over-consumers while the happier people who get things done spend most of their time as producers. Many people say that happiness comes with a balanced life and that is what I think they mean. Someone who watches TV 4 to 6 hours a day cannot be as happy as someone who has accomplished something with their day. Be it fixing their house, writing a book or spending time with family or friends.

So in conclusion, the mother of all New Year´s resolutions would be to only spend a certain amount of each day as a consumer. Make a resolution to watch the screen for no longer than a few hours every day when at home and to cut down on shopping time etc. In short, become a producer and not over-consumer. Spend all of that over-consumption time improving yourself and the results will astound you. You will breeze through your other New Year´s resolutions and feel your days are full and your time is well spent.

I´m going to try this and so should you. Let me know how it works out for you.

Bonne chance!

John Ink2Quill

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