One of my friends is a regular visitor to my blog. She left me an offline message couple of days ago stating she was disappointed that I am not writing regularly and that she expected at least a post on my new year resolutions. How can I turn down my dear friend's request. So here you go - You asked for it, you got it :-)
Every year at the stroke of 12.00am on December 31st I become all what ever you call it, and tell my husband a list of things I am going to do this year. Yeah yeah a list of my so called resolutions which I hardly stick to :-) And most of them would be around weight loss, being more responsible etc etc...
But this year, I did not have any of those usual things in my list. I did give him my list of resolutions this year before 12.05am but the list was soooooooooo different. I wanted to share that with you all.
The over all concept was to make efforts to save the planet and its people. Here are my thoughts on how I/We can achieve that. Remember that every drop counts. It is the attitude that matters and makes a huge difference. I had an idea. Instead of me following some rules I thought I would go an extra mile and try to increase the awareness among my friends and the readers of my post.
Saving the planet - I will list three very simple things that one can easily do, and still make a lot of difference. Here is the list:
1. Go Green: Try to use less of plastic, Styrofoam kind of stuff. It is very easy to go green and do our part. I keep a ceramic mug and water bottle at my desk. I do not use plastic or foam cups to drink water/tea/coffee. I am planning to buy cloth bags and use them when I go to buy groceries. (reducing usage of plastic bags). Also ask for paper bags instead of plastic at stores.
2. Use less water: There is water scarcity every where. I use "Water miser" cycle in dishwasher and smaller cycles in my washing machine. We program our sprinklers for alternate nights instead of everyday. Water plants at night so that the plants get all the water. During day time some of the water gets evaporated. Don't run washing machines and dish washers unless they are full.
3. Recycle as much as possible instead of throwing your stuff. Try to ask friends and family if they would like to use the stuff lying in your closets, attic, garage from ages. Clean up the clutter and give them way. If you cannot find anybody to give with in your network call up charities or some organizations which are waiting to come pick your stuff for free and reuse them and give them to the less privileged. Couple of them are Freecyle.org and Hope
Saving/helping people: Once again three simple things that we can do to save people in need.
1. Support any organization from any country: There are many organizations coming up these days that strive for educating the people, providing food, shelter, better health facilities to the less privileges. Take up one organization from your home town or any other place and support them. If you cannot help them physically, send some financial help. These days you can make tax deductible donations to many charities. Another option is to help them improve their web site by offering your ideas and services (if you are a S/W Engr, be their site's web master) some thing anything you can do.
2. Volunteer at least one day in a year: Most of the companies volunteer to help many organizations during holiday season here in US. A week before Christmas I volunteered for Salvation Army. Helped them toy sorting for half a day. So if your company encourages such things sign up for them. If not, find some activity going on in your neighbourhood and help them. Trust me, such things give immense satisfaction.
3. Help people in general: It can be done in several ways. If your friends or family are in crisis help them. Financially, morally, how ever possible. Do not just sit and watch the show. There are many ways we can help each other in today's world. Every person has got his or her own set of strengths and weaknesses. Let us use our strengths in helping other who have that as a weakness. Help people improve their relationships, counsel family or friends to study more and find better opportunities - in one word counsel people to make better choices if you can.
These are my new year resolutions. I feel good about making these choices. I am positive I can implement most of them. I don't want to worry about silly things and be selfish worrying about silly issues of my life. There are big and better things to do :-)
Once again Happy New Year and lets hope to make this planet a better place by the end of 2009!
Every year at the stroke of 12.00am on December 31st I become all what ever you call it, and tell my husband a list of things I am going to do this year. Yeah yeah a list of my so called resolutions which I hardly stick to :-) And most of them would be around weight loss, being more responsible etc etc...
But this year, I did not have any of those usual things in my list. I did give him my list of resolutions this year before 12.05am but the list was soooooooooo different. I wanted to share that with you all.
The over all concept was to make efforts to save the planet and its people. Here are my thoughts on how I/We can achieve that. Remember that every drop counts. It is the attitude that matters and makes a huge difference. I had an idea. Instead of me following some rules I thought I would go an extra mile and try to increase the awareness among my friends and the readers of my post.
Saving the planet - I will list three very simple things that one can easily do, and still make a lot of difference. Here is the list:
1. Go Green: Try to use less of plastic, Styrofoam kind of stuff. It is very easy to go green and do our part. I keep a ceramic mug and water bottle at my desk. I do not use plastic or foam cups to drink water/tea/coffee. I am planning to buy cloth bags and use them when I go to buy groceries. (reducing usage of plastic bags). Also ask for paper bags instead of plastic at stores.
2. Use less water: There is water scarcity every where. I use "Water miser" cycle in dishwasher and smaller cycles in my washing machine. We program our sprinklers for alternate nights instead of everyday. Water plants at night so that the plants get all the water. During day time some of the water gets evaporated. Don't run washing machines and dish washers unless they are full.
3. Recycle as much as possible instead of throwing your stuff. Try to ask friends and family if they would like to use the stuff lying in your closets, attic, garage from ages. Clean up the clutter and give them way. If you cannot find anybody to give with in your network call up charities or some organizations which are waiting to come pick your stuff for free and reuse them and give them to the less privileged. Couple of them are Freecyle.org and Hope
Saving/helping people: Once again three simple things that we can do to save people in need.
1. Support any organization from any country: There are many organizations coming up these days that strive for educating the people, providing food, shelter, better health facilities to the less privileges. Take up one organization from your home town or any other place and support them. If you cannot help them physically, send some financial help. These days you can make tax deductible donations to many charities. Another option is to help them improve their web site by offering your ideas and services (if you are a S/W Engr, be their site's web master) some thing anything you can do.
2. Volunteer at least one day in a year: Most of the companies volunteer to help many organizations during holiday season here in US. A week before Christmas I volunteered for Salvation Army. Helped them toy sorting for half a day. So if your company encourages such things sign up for them. If not, find some activity going on in your neighbourhood and help them. Trust me, such things give immense satisfaction.
3. Help people in general: It can be done in several ways. If your friends or family are in crisis help them. Financially, morally, how ever possible. Do not just sit and watch the show. There are many ways we can help each other in today's world. Every person has got his or her own set of strengths and weaknesses. Let us use our strengths in helping other who have that as a weakness. Help people improve their relationships, counsel family or friends to study more and find better opportunities - in one word counsel people to make better choices if you can.
These are my new year resolutions. I feel good about making these choices. I am positive I can implement most of them. I don't want to worry about silly things and be selfish worrying about silly issues of my life. There are big and better things to do :-)
Once again Happy New Year and lets hope to make this planet a better place by the end of 2009!
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