New Year is the time of looking back on the past year. Recounting good and times with friends and family. A time to think about the mistakes that may have happened, a time of reconciling with old buddies, and more than anything the New Year is a time of welcoming a fresh new batch of – New Year Resolutions!

A resolution is a kind of promise, but that one made to yourself. A self-promise, if you may. On every New Year, each one of us makes certain promises. A promise to write a diary, a promise to lose those extra pounds, a promise to spend more time with our family, and many more. When we make this yearly list of resolutions, we are quite confident that we are going to take up each of these challenges and complete them with full determination till the very end. However, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that at every New Year’s Eve, almost all of us, regret that we were not able to face our resolutions and tried to find loopholes in them. Well, sadly that’s the truth. However, is there a way to make our resolutions complete? Yes, there is! What your resolutions are lacking is that zing of creativity, nothing else.

Here is our list of unique New Year resolutions:

The A to Z book challenge

Reading brings calmness and stability to mind. Some have also claimed it as Yoga for the mind. Every year I make a resolution to read at least 10 books in the coming year. However, at the end of the year, I end up with not even half of them in my kitty. Instead since last year, I changed the way of my resolution. From last year, I started following the A to Z book challenge. In this, the challenge is to read 26 books, each starting with a different letter. So at this 31^st, I had read 26 books, covering almost every genre of writing. Interesting and enjoyable!

Run with Mark Zuckerberg

At the start of 2016, Mark Zuckerberg announced his resolution for this year. He has named it as, “A year of Running”. The resolution sentail that the person taking up the task must run ‘x’ number of miles every day of the year. The Facebook founder has invited everyone to join the run with him. In this way, he has created a community of running enthusiasts all over the world who encourage each other to continue with the challenge throughout the year. Check out the Facebook page here.

Photograph your memories

A very typical New Year resolution is to maintain a daily diary. While doing it has its own list of benefits, over the years it has become a bit clichéd in its own way. Many diary enthusiasts take up the resolutions with lot of pomp but ending up writing for not more than half of the year. As we say, add a zing of creativity! Why not maintain a photo diary or a photo blog for that matter? You can create your own blog in less than five minutes online, and then all you need to do is keep your camera or even your “phone-camera” at hand. Photograph your way through occasions, events, moments which you wish to remember forever.

An all alone vacation

We do know that this plan sounds a bit crazy, but wait and hear us out. In your daily fragmented 9 to 6 schedule, you hardly get any time off. While the office entails you to work for anonly specific number of hours per week, the travel to and from office takes up much more time than it used to take earlier. In a world bound so much by time, why not take a blissful vacation all by yourself in a place distant from daily city fanfare. A book, a cup of coffee and a beautiful destination is all you need to take this well-deserved time off for yourself. This vacation will help you rejuvenate and refocus your energies, well if you keep your phone off.

Be wise, socialize

While the saying goes like “Be wise, prioritize”, we took the liberty to manifest your priority as socializing. Winston Churchill said, “I think a man is lucky if he can name 10 friends on his deathbed.” And well, he had a bit too many friends a man could have at that point and time. We believe that behind each face you see every day, there is a story. A story of struggle, sacrifice, victory and loss, in short a story of life, in the real sense. While you might ponder yourself for hours together with entertainment options like TV or video games, you lose your chances to interaction. Get to know the person who sits on the next desk, or the one who smiles at you every day and you smile back, or the one who drives you to work. There’s no better knowledge than knowledge from experience.

Use Public transport, Go Green!

In this day and age, the ozone is almost out, and climate change is just around the corner. Many of us must have heard about a horde of conferences, debates, and discussions happening around the world about global warming. While our esteemed leaders decide the contribution of their respective countries to climate change, we as citizens of this world also have the responsibility to tackle this significant problem which has dawned upon us. Why not take this chance to plan out a unique New Year resolution for yourself? This year, make a promise to go green at least once in a week. That is simply ditch your car and use public transport to get where you need to. Well, to take an example, the pioneer of Indian IT sector and the founder of Infosys, Mr. Narayan Murthy takes the bus to go to the office every Saturday. Not a bad example to follow, right?

    In conclusion, we would like to revoke the spirit of the new year on everyone’s behalf, if we may. Each new year brings with it some promises, some positives, and some negatives. Each New Year brings with it a new opportunity to reinvent ourselves into a better and enlightened human being. More than anything in this world, with the dawn of each new year, there’s a chance.

A chance to make new friends. An opportunity to make our world a greener place. An opportunity to enjoy. A chance to work hard. A chance to spend time with our loved ones. A chance to say sorry to someone we may have hurt. Moreover, a chance to be true to our own spirit. A spirit full of honesty, humanity, and thought.