New Year, New Resolutions by Hannah

Each year, I find myself listing many of the same resolution.  They’re the usual suspects--eating better, exercising etc.  But since I've rarely kept up with them as well or as long as I should in the past, this year, I've decided to enlist some help from the busy shelves of our lovely, glorious library. While I've never been one for self-help books, here are a few that caught my interest, and conveniently pair up with some of my resolutions.

Resolution #1: Organize My Apartment (and keep it organized for longer than a week)

“Unstuff Your Life!: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life For Good” by Andrew J Mellen

Known as the "Most Organized Man in America," Mellen offers ways to fix both your organization issues and face the chaos in your everyday life that leads to it. With a humorous but simple approach to de-cluttering your life and living space, Unstuff Your Life! Could be a major game-changer for those of us who swear we can find anything- if you just give us a minute to remember where we put it.

Resolution #2: Be Happier, More Grateful, and Generally a More Pleasant Person

“The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying To Sing In the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun” by Gretchen Craft Rubin

This well-researched mix of philosophical evidence, scientific evidence, and personal anecdote about finding happiness may not cause readers to have a brilliant epiphany worthy of the history books, but it'll make you laugh, give you some insight on how the world looks on happiness, and give you some ideas on how to evoke more happiness in your own life- especially through the little things.

Resolution #3: Take Risks

“

A Place

of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out Of Life” by Bethenny Frankel

This one ties into Resolution #2 a lot as well, but the title alone was something for me to remember for this one: to stop saying no so often and to start saying "yes," even when I'm not entirely certain what sort of outcome I'll get afterwards. Bethenny Frankel has an incredibly inspiring personal story, and here she shares her straightforward, hilarious, and witty insights into living well, and not getting in the way of your own happiness and success.

Resolution #4: Work-Out Weekly and More Often

“Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” by Christopher McDougall

I've never been one for working out, and while the first half of Born To Run loaded me with excuses for why I shouldn't (did you know the majority of us aren't actually built for running?), reading the tale of the Tarahumara tribe and other super-runners has inspired me to give running another try- and to maybe learn to love it after all.

Come by the library to find more books that will help your resolutions become last habits!

Stillwater, OK