I’ve noticed there’s a lot of talk about finances in the comments, so I thought I’d round up some of our Tales from the Wallet posts in case those are helpful.  Then I thought, heck, why not just round up a few of our other posts that might be helpful on your resolutions. Whether your goal for 2016 is to save more, pay down debt, work out more, eat better, appreciate life more, organize your life, or grow your mind, we’ve talked about it. Any big topic we haven’t talked about that you’d like to see an open thread on, or would you like to revisit any one of these topics for a more updated discussion?  

(Oh, and here’s a link to a more general discussion that will probably help with all of the below resolutions: how to get up early.)

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Happy New Year, guys! As we’re all slowly getting back into the swing of things, I thought we’d have a discussion about resolutions. I’ve recently read a few different posts about how they now recommend you choose a “one-word theme” for the year. Gretchen Rubin chose the theme “lighten up” for 2016, and over at Apartment Therapy a blogger wrote about how the phrase “use it” was very helpful for her to use stuff around her apartment that had begun to clutter the space.  Do you have a theme for 2016? Do you like the idea of a simple phrase to encapsulate all of your goals for the year?

I actually did a version of this many moons ago — while in college I was intrigued that looking at some artwork made me uncomfortable, so I made that my goal for the next year — my only resolution was “to be uncomfortable.”  I wanted to challenge myself when I said no to something because I was going to be uncomfortable, or understand when ideas made me uncomfortable.  Throughout the year, the word would pop up in my head, both as a reaction to events (you’re uncomfortable! good job!) as well as a driving force (hmmn, have you been uncomfortable in a while? what would make you uncomfortable?).  It actually turned into a great year of growth for me, mentally, and I’ve always looked back on that resolution fondly.

Then, for some reason, I returned to the typical “list” form of resolutions.  And promptly fell off the wagon within a few weeks, every year.

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