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It's the time of year when we feel hopeful, make plans, and set goals. In the spirit of the season, I offer you my list of things I want to focus on and encourage you to start your own. Remember, a list too long could set you up for failure as you struggle to keep up with everything. A list too short makes you look lame and lazy. Find the middle ground, said the Buddha. Be like the Buddha.

Here, I present to you my silly but very important New Year's resolutions, in no particular order.

1)     I will only eat awesome desserts. Goodbye, unfulfilling, empty calories. Hello, exquisite patisserie creations! Life is hard enough with treats. Imagine how awful it would be without them.

2)     I will pay attention to the little things. For example, look at the keyboard. It has U and I together. Right below it, JK. Just saying... If you don't pay attention, you'll miss cool stuff.

3)     I will make time for friends. Call, not text. Connecting in person is even better. Because friends are like stars, they lighten up the world during the darkest hour.

4)     I will ask Lulu (my dog) more questions. She loves it. And I always get the answer I am looking for, plus a cute face staring back at me with a slight tilt of the head, making one ear hang slightly lower and wiggle a little as she considers the answer.

5)     As a life coach, I'll be careful who I say "Follow your dreams" to because some people will just go right back to bed.

6)     I will pay occasional compliments to random strangers and try not to be weird about it. It's just a small way to make the world more livable and make people feel more visible.

7)     I'll take more baths, or floats, or go soak in the mineral springs. My body loves warm water as much as it loves cream puffs.

8)     This year I will write down new passwords when I set them and stop saying, "nah, I'll definitely remember this one."

9)     Since I've managed to survive a two-year pandemic despite all of the confusion and division, I will remember to remember that everything is possible, even twins born in different years. What if I do win the lottery in 2022?

10)  I'll not buy clothes without trying them on. I got a little tired of making double trips to the same store, losing the receipt, and getting store-credit cards and promptly losing them too.

11)  I will read all of the books piled up on my nightstand. All of them. Before I buy another book.

12)  I will never miss an opportunity to kiss my dog when she looks at me this one particular way that's just begging for a kiss. You've never lived until you kiss a dog on the face, and it melts in your arms. Just make sure it's your own dog, and it likes you.

13)  I'll organize the pictures on my phone, the files on my computer, and file all the paperwork from last year. I promise! Again.

14)  I will read more poetry and go to more gallery shows. Only humans concern themselves with art, create it, and enjoy it. I'll be more human this year. And I will support local artists.

15)  I will not read anything that doesn't somehow make me be better, feel better, improve my life, or help me. No more gossip columns, random factoids, and lame content with too much advertising.

Sorry, folks. No losing weight and exercising resolutions because I am at my ideal weight and exercise more than half the people in town put together. But if that's something you need, it should be on your list.

Financial stuff? Put it on your list. For my part, I'll keep saving, investing, and growing my business like I always do. And I'll play around with NFT's as the millennials do. It may make me feel younger. FOMO is a thing, and apparently, I've got it. Let's see where it takes me.

Finally, and most importantly, I'll try not to do anything stupid that could seriously set me back. Sometimes, it takes years to recover from a stupid move that took 10 minutes. Yeah, I'll watch out for those NFT's. It could be a stupid move. I know. I have a stop-loss plan in place. I am not a gambler. I am a planner, organizer, analyzer, and frugal. Don't worry about me.

What are your resolutions?

• Do 75 pushups by the end of the year?

• Fund your retirement accounts to the max?

• Find the love of your life?

• Train your dog not to pee on the carpet?

• Empty the dryer as soon as it is done? And fold the laundry?

Important: Small improvements of little things can make life a lot better than just a single big thing. Find some little things to improve. Make your life better.

Unrelated but also important – Betty White died. Here's a funny from The Golden Girls where she's totally going off the cuff, and the other two ladies can hardly contain themselves busting at the seams.

Ketamine therapy is going mainstream; read about it in The New Yorker. This is relevant for people with anxiety and depression. How you feel about it may vary, just like the results you get from it.

Two other thoughts.

• The goal of sharing ideas isn't for all to agree with you. It's for some to learn from you—and for you to learn from them.

• Don't mistake popularity for impact. Popularity is how many likes you collect. Impact is how many lives you enrich.

Thank you for reading. Let me know what you want to want to know about. I'll write about it. Ask me a question by filling out THIS FORM. To the person who wrote to me in Portuguese, that's nice. Hahaha. I wish I could understand. Google Translate helped, though. Thank you for sharing your story and your connection with art.

PS. One more "lifetime" resolution – learn Portuguese!

Blessings to all for 2022. May everything on your vision boards come true!

If you want to stay in touch and communicate with me, comment or reply to this email. Also, come hang out on Facebook or Twitter.

Find me on Facebook in the Life Intelligence private group.
Or on Twitter @CoachValentina

Yours truly,

V.