Now Is The Time For 1961 Resolutions

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29398, 28 December 1960, Page 2

Now Is The Time For 1961 Resolutions

Every year nearly everyone makes at least one New Year resolution. And nearly every year it is broken before the month of January is up. This time do not make any that are too rash like giving up smoking or getting up half an hour earlier every morning. Make them simple, thoughtful resolutions that you know you can keep.

Many New Year resolutions are selfish. The best are those that will make 1961 happier for people around you. Think first of the faults that you know irritate your families and try to eliminate them this January. First, you could resolve to write your thank you letters earlier this year. Kind aunts and friends often get a little tired of receiving thanks in July for presents given at Christmas. In the same breath, you could resolve to follow up your Christmas card sending with one or two letters during the year to friends in other towns and to recognise friends’ engagements and anniversaries with a card instead of letting them slip by. Gardening t Why not make plans to spepd more time on your gardening in 1961? So many once-pretty gardens go to rack and ruin for the want of a few shrubs and plants. This next resolution may mean a great deal of effort for some people but will pay dividends. It is: Try to be more sociable before breakfast. Too many early meals are eaten in anger or stony silence. At this time of the year many tired housewives are resolving to have Christmas dinner away from home next year. Others have decided firmly to do their Christmas shopping two or three months ahead in 1961.

More personal New Year resolutions could include to go on a diet, to save more money, to take more care with make-up and grooming and countless others. But there are some you would prefer to keep to yourself like making a special effort to befriend those elderly and lonely next-door neighbours.

Making a resolution to keep business, dental and personal appointments, and to arrive on time is a hardy annual on this list but is worth repeating. The same applies to buying several pairs of matching nylons at one time and returning books borrowed from friends and from libraries. Welfare Work Older women whose families are grown up, or nearly, could occupy spare afternoons by doing social work in the city. Worth-while organisations such as the Red Cross Society and others will always welcbme more helpers. This can apply also to retired men who can help their communities in numerous ways, whether small or large. Be more tolerant with members of your family. Mothers with difficult young daughters and sons, and daughters and sons with their parents and younger children. If you followed all these resolutions to .their limits, your year would no doubt be a happy one. But failings are human and even if you end up by keeping only half your resolutions, it will be worth your while.