There’s lots of people giving you advice about New Year’s resolutions to improve your life. Some of those are difficult. These ones are easy. Enjoy 2018!
- Use your seat belt and ask tell the passengers in your car to get out if they
don’t put theirs on. I know, I know a few people whine: “it binds on me.” Well, there is a ongoing slaughter of U. S. citizens occurring every day. in 2016 there were 3174 deaths. In the United States, there were 37,461 deaths. Don’t let you, your friends or family be one of the dead. - Check your credit report. It’s easy and you get a free credit report each year courtesy of the United States laws and Consumer Protection Bureau of the United States. Find out about it from the U. S. Federal Trade Commission.
- Get REAL insurance. Automobile insurance pays you for an automobile crash. DO NOT that “cheapest kind out there.” You are being ripped off by the insurance salesman if you do. In Florida, the legislature has seen fit to let people drive around weapons of death with no insurance to protect people around them. This is not a joke; it is a travesty by our suppose “representatives.” Everybody has to drive a car because of our poor infrastructure in Florida (another gift from the lazy Florida Legislature). Here’s the scoop: insurance is the business of taking the risk away from you and transferring it to somebody else who will pay if something goes wrong.
What’s that smell? Bad insurance!
Life insurance pays a family one of member dies. Flood insurance protects you when the water rises (which officially is going to happen). So, a rule of thumb in buying insurance is buy the amount which will protect your property or life. If you drive a car and you own $50,000 in property or have a $50,000 a year job, someone you injure in a crash could take that unless you have $50,000 insurance. If you have a spouse and two kids, you need to have life insurance equal to the amount that will protect them until your widowed spouse can replace your income. So, do a little research and talk to a good insurance company. Consumer Report has good tips on that. The time to discover you don’t have enough insurance is not at your funeral, after a crash or after the hurricane.
- Get off the stupid cellphone for multiple reasons. A). Distracted driving is killing more and more
people. At present I have for lawsuits where I am going after every penny the defendants have because they do injured my clients while driving. It’s JUST NOT WORTH IT. Put the damn thing in the glove compartment! B). Your mental health. There’s a host of studies published since the advent of the iPhone which tell dire consequences with too much phone use. In teenagers, the signs of loneliness, depression, isolation and anxiety are linked to smart phone use. C). You are being used to make money. Verizon sold it’s land line business because cell phone use is so lucrative. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr are scam artists as much as buy-here-pay-here, pay-day loan companies, slum lords and the NFL are. They are designed to “exploit human vulnerability” and tearing societies apart according to two former Facebook executives. Cellphone companies are sticking these predatory programs into your face 24/7 every where you go. The cellphone companies are tracking you, categorizing you, packaging you and selling you, your contacts and your information about your life and what you share with your friends family acquaintances to business, hucksters, marketing companies (also hucksters), the Russian mob or any other crass business or criminal enterprise that has the money to the pay the company. D). You’re missing out on human eye-contact which creates a feeling of connection to the people in your life and releases endorphins and feel good hormones in you. You are missing meeting that special someone while you’re looking at that cell phone. 
Go see a friend or family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. Take them to lunch even or bring them a coffee. I am not talking about messaging the, emailing them, I mean the sound of your voice, 
the sight of your smiling face. Share that with them. DO IT RIGHT NOW. Finish this post later. See their smiling face and hear their voices. Catch up on what they are doing. By “a while” I mean months, weeks, or even decades; yes, even decades. Those years will melt away. Those 
people who loved you, liked you, befriended you still felt that way when you got to busy with your current crop of friends, new spouse, kids, or job. You have a connection no one can replace. Remake that connection, feel the joy you did with. Remove the worry about them. Find out what’s going on with them. Tell them what you are up to. Reduce your shame that you haven’t seen in them a long time.- Do ONE, just ONE thing to save money all year. Do this one little thing and see how it affects how you
view and save money. There are some amazing programs out there which can invest your miscellaneous money, Acorns.com for instance. Whatever, you do just do ONE thing this year and see how things start looking up financially. 
Read. That’s right, read. Get a book of any kind from your local library (OMG! They are free and your personal information isn’t sold to some slick salesperson). Then sit down at a desk (in the library, also FREE!) or at home with someone you like and just enjoy the quiet time.- Take a 45 minute walk every day. The one and only muscle you have to keep fit is your heart. A 45
minute brisk walk is the conventional exercise to keep it working. You can push yourself so as to get the maximum benefit, but just get walking. Additionally, there’s a scary new study about exercise and cancer. The New York Times reported on it. You want to avoid cancer killing you? Exercise.
- Get away from the screens. it is bad when everything that we want has to come from a glowing screen. yet, the sun is still shining, stars are still twinkling, the breeze is blowing, water is lapping, trees are tall, dogs and
Lots of stuff to do besides looking at video screens
cats love to be petted, kids love attention from adults, spouses appreciate good listening skills. These are all things that do not involve a glowing screen. They make you grow as an individual unlike that which generally comes from a glowing screen. O, by the way, unless you have a blue screen on your glowing screen, that sucker inhibits your brain from creating melatonin which is necessary for sleep. Have you been wondering why you haven’t been sleeping well lately? You need an hour and a half before going to bed of no screen time.
- Do some volunteer work. There is always someone worse off than you in some way or another. it could be in your neighborhood, your community, your city or your county. Doesn’t have to be an organized activity to be something that you choose to do. You live in a house? Some elderly person in a mobile home may need some help fixing their stairs so they can get in and out of their house. You have food? Take it to Metropolitan ministries, the local food bank, a local church. If you’re a member of a church, you can call your pastor and get
recommendations about what you can do. Call the local community center and see if any elderly people are known to them that could benefit from whatever skills you have. Call the County resource Center and say “I want to do some volunteer work.” I guarantee you they will find you something. And when you do this YOU will find something. I’m not going to tell you what it is. I will guarantee three things: 1. It’s a deep, thorough feeling; 2. It’s something money can’t buy; and 3. It’s very valuable. - Realize you are capable of many things, but you haven’t found them yet. THIS means you have something to live for. we are not in a video game. This is the only one life that you have. There is no reset. You have to do whatever you’re going to do to make your life better and do it now. So that’s the resolution: Accept you are not finished doing good work in this world. Now, resolve to do good.
Happy 2018.