Fun, Fulfilling, and Intentional: 26 New Year’s Resolutions That Don’t Have Anything to Do With Weight
I fear we’ve lost the plot when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. What started as a sentiment for personal improvement has gotten way too entangled with the concepts of weight loss and health. And frankly, I’m bored with it.
I’m not entirely sure if I buy into the whole concept of “New Year, New Me,” but I do believe in starting the New Year with intention. Several New Years have passed since I’ve made any resolutions related to my physical health, and I’ve found that it’s way more fun to pursue the idea of a resolution with creativity and zest.
I start by disentangling what I should do from what I actually want to do. Practical resolutions can be helpful, but more often they set us up to start our year in the pressure cooker of expectation.
If you’re looking to ditch that weight-loss resolution, here are 26 ideas to make your 2026 more fun, fulfilling, and intentional.
Go on more unplanned adventures.
Learn to trust your intuition.
Dedicate time to an artistic hobby (even if you’re not good at it).
Learn about a new topic (or many new topics).
Go to a restaurant in your area that you’ve been meaning to try.
Disconnect from your phone at meal times.
Raise money for a cause you’re passionate about.
Get more comfortable with discomfort.
Make fewer impulse purchases.
Let yourself screw up sometimes.
Embrace an abundance mindset.
Stop saying no when you really want to say yes.
Stop saying yes when you really want to say no.
Accept help from others.
Give more freely to those in need.
Start investing in quality items that are designed to last.
Try some new foods.
Start attending more local events in your community.
Set aside time to volunteer.
Cast some spells and see what happens.
Set up a life organization system that works for you (for my fellow ADHDers).
Plan a Staycation.
Do one random act of kindness per week.
Start doing that hobby you’ve been thinking about.
Read more books.
Learn to embrace routines and slowness.
The only thing I know for sure about the upcoming year is that it won’t go to plan. And still, I remain connected to the inherent feelings of hope that come with a new year.
There’s an essay from John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed that I come back to at the end of each year. It reminds me of what it truly means to celebrate the completion of another year, and how our hardships are an important part of that.
“When I sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve, I forget the words like everyone does, until I get to the fourth verse, which I do have memorized: ‘We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine, but seas between us broad have roared since Auld Lang Syne.’ And I think about the many broad seas that have roared between me and the past—seas of neglect, seas of time, seas of death. I’ll never speak again to many of the people who loved me into this moment, just as you will never speak to many of the people who loved you into your now. And so we raise a glass to them—and hope that perhaps somewhere, they are raising a glass to us.”
Happy New Year!
