By Barbara Glass
Have you ever wanted to make a wish come true? With a little imagination and effort, anyone can make magic happen. Each year is a new beginning – a sparkling opportunity to try new things and be adventurous with your resolutions. Let’s see what happens when you reach for a spectacular new year. Here are a few ideas:
01 | Feed your creative spirit: Start your new year with finding your artistic expression. Check out community colleges and other resources for courses in music, calligraphy, painting, pottery or creative writing. There are art studios galore where you can learn pressed glass techniques, jewelry making and mosaic design. Find your artistic passion by sampling a variety. You might surprise yourself.
02 | Color your life: Pick a room in your home and transform it with color. You would be surprised by the difference a coat of paint and new fabric can make. Out with the beige and in with the teal in just a day! Make it a party. Your friends will be willing to help redecorate for wine and pizza and a fun time.
03 | Color your wardrobe: Resolve to add bright colors to the black or navy blue closet collection. How about hot pink? Lime green? Multi-colored patterns? Be a little daring with your choices! Need some inspiration?
04 | Adventure awaits: Choose a place you have dreamed of visiting. Make it exotic or close to home. Have you ever been to Marfa, Texas? Santa Fe? New York? Thailand? Costa Rica? Barcelona? How about a Road Scholar hiking adventure? For something truly special, check out the Travel section beginning on page 33 for inspiring ideas. Reservations are sometimes required well in advance, so we suggest booking your adventure as soon as possible.
05 | Go “outside the box”: How about a dramatic new hairstyle? Take up archery? Go skydiving? Try cross-country skiing? Public speaking? How about improv comedy? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to run for public office and need to develop skills and connections to achieve this? This resolution should take you outside your comfort zone into an experience that is wholly new and just a little frightening. 2022 is your year to give it a try. So many choices!
06 | Dare to be social: It’s time to break out of that humdrum life and make some new friends. Perhaps you would like to learn to cook exotic foods? Contact some friends, learn together and prepare dinner for each other. Everyone invites a friend to dinner – presto! – a whole new way to make new friends.
07 | Experience the differences: Step outside your world and choose an unfamiliar place or group that you would like to learn about. To better empathize with the homeless, volunteer at a local shelter. To better understand the life of foster children, be a CASA volunteer. Mission trips through local churches are great ways to go abroad and become immersed in a foreign culture while helping the locals. Expand your understanding of other peoples – the language, the food, the history. It isn’t even necessary to travel – it’s all right here in Dallas. All you need to do is look around and go.
We hope to inspire you to imagine personal growth beyond the usual resolutions. The challenge is to dare to expand your life in 2022. Make one or two choices. A sparkly journal with your selections written inside will seal the deal. Make time to immerse yourself in new experiences and, most of all, make it fun.
