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Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s Resolutions

I’m often lazy with resolutions. Some years I give myself until the end of January to sort out exceptional goals for the new year. In studying what reseachers say works best, I stumbled across this list.

Apparently Woody Guthrie, one of my heroes, had a different problem. He didn’t seem to do too well with setting clear priorities. He lists 33 things for the year of 1942. Inspiring given the results, nevertheless.

 

Guthrie’s new years resolutions (from the official site), 1942:

  1. Work more and better
  2. Work by a schedule
  3. Wash teeth if any
  4. Shave
  5. Take bath
  6. Eat good – fruit – vegetables – milk
  7. Drink very scant if any
  8. Write a song a day
  9. Wear clean clothes – look good
  10. Shine shoes
  11. Change socks
  12. Change bed clothes often
  13. Read lots good books
  14. Listen to radio a lot
  15. Learn people better
  16. Keep rancho clean
  17. Don’t get lonesome
  18. Stay glad
  19. Keep hoping machine running
  20. Dream good
  21. Bank all extra money
  22. Save Dough
  23. Have company but don’t waste time
  24. Send Mary and kids money
  25. Play and sing good
  26. Dance Better
  27. Hep win war – beat fascism
  28. Love Mama
  29. Love Papa
  30. Love Pete
  31. Love Everybody
  32. Make up your mind
  33. Wake up and Fight

Also see: New years resolutions that work