52 Small Things to Change Your Life

It doesn't take much to change your life. Mostly, it is just doing new, that opens a new way of looking at your life and your possibilities. Here is a list of 52 little things that can change your life. That's one for each week of the year. Some will just take a few minutes, some you'll want to work on for more than a week, but any one of them can open new doors and new possibilities.

• Plant an acorn.
• Adopt an elderly pet.
• Volunteer at the hospice.
• Assume the next person you disagree with has good reasons to disagree and try to figure those reasons out.
• Pretend you are a character in a book and ask why anyone other than a fool would do the things you've done.
• Write a poem each day, then after two months print up your own little book.
• Take 100 pictures of the same thing, then force yourself delete 99 of them, keeping only the very best.
• Give yourself a new nickname based on what you want to be, then try to live up to it.
• Give a hamburger, not money, to a homeless person.

• Pretend that your usual routes home from work are blocked and find a new way to get home.
• Set a measurable goal, any goal, and write it on a white board in a visible part of your home. Each day, put the number you measure big and bold on the board.
• When you go out to eat, package half of your meal in a to-go container before you start eating.
• Force yourself to write with your off-hand for a week.
• Prepare for bedtime blindfolded.
• Imagine that you are on the run from the cops and figure out your escape route.
• Write a handwritten letter to a distant cousin who has no idea who you are.

• Turn off the TV, computer, and smartphone for a week.
• Buy whatever fruit is cheapest and make jam.

• Find a food at the supermarket that you've never eaten before and eat it.
• Take 100 pennies and separate out the heads and tails. Criticize the tails for being bad pennies and praise the heads for being good pennies. Reflip the bad pennies and good pennies and see how much good your criticism and praise did. This explains why bad bosses are bad.
• Look up the price of bread today and 20 years ago. Look up the average wages today and 20 years ago. See how many minutes a person had to work then and now to pay for a loaf of bread.
• Keep a jar filled with slips of paper listing the things you are thankful for.
• Take the TV/laptop/smartphone out of the bedroom.
• Wake up an hour early for a month. Stay up and don't take a nap, even if you are tired, but feel free to go to bed early.

• Take EVERYTHING out of your bedroom and put it in the yard, including the mattress and bed frame. After you clean the floor, decide what to carry back in and what to take to the trash.
• Re-read that stash of birthday cards and love letters.
• Look up how much money the CEO of your favorite charity makes each year.
• Visit a historical cemetery and note how old everyone was when they died.
• Find a product with Chinese writing on the packaging and try to translate it into English.
• You can't see your problems from the inside. Ask a trusted friend and most importantly, believe what they say.
• Make a list of people who you would die to protect. Then make a list of those who would do the same for you. Compare the lists.
• Resentments come from unfulfilled expectations. Make a list and forgive those people while they are still alive.
• Write an inspirational note to whoever owns your house in the future and stuff it in some crevice or gap to be found some distant day when the house is remodeled.

• In a small box, put a can of beans, a bag of rice, a roll of toilet paper, and a couple bottles of water, and stash it away "just in case".
• Read the book 1984.
• Go to the dog park, even if you don't have a dog, and see what it is like for someone to just have fun, without worries about tomorrow.
• Look up the term "Geocaching" and go find one.
• Eat at least one completely vegetarian meal each week.
• Figure out why Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka, Glenda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz, and Forrest Gump's girlfriend were not really good people, then ask yourself who you know is like them.
• Make a list of everyone you know who served in the military.
• Visit a Veteran's Cemetery.
• Keep a diary or journal.
• Wake up before dawn. Watch the sunrise, then treat yourself to breakfast.

• Go to church. If you're already a church-goer, visit a church of a different demonization.
• Carry weather-resistant Christmas decorations to a public place and decorate a random tree.
• Track down an old friend from your school days.
• Bring a pizza or a plate of cookies to the firehouse.
• Bring snacks to the next meeting you attend.
• Pay attention to how your boss's boss treats him.
• Update your resume and send it out to 10 businesses.
• Put all of our credit cards in a paper cup. Fill it with water and freeze it. You'll have them if you need them, but defrosting them will give you time to think about it.
• Make a list with two columns. In the left column write your activities, like "sweeping the floor" or "driving to work". In the right column, write what each of those things achieve, like "keeps my family healthy" or "pays for retirement".
• Replace the last hour of TV before bedtime with an hour of reading.

That was 52 little things. Choose one. Do it.

Change your life.