It’s a new year!  Tradition tells us the new year is the time for a fresh start. A time to reflect on the past and create resolutions to improve and change our lives. Resolutions like joining a gym, cutting back on social media, and substituting kale smoothies for the caramel macchiatos you drink several times a week.

But statistics tell us most people give up on their resolutions by the second Friday in January, which has been dubbed Quitter’s Day.

If you’ve made it past Quitter’s Day and you’re sticking to some worthy resolutions you’ve set, keep at if they’re making you happy. 

But if you’ve already broken your resolutions or haven’t started them yet, just forget about them. Heck, in the second half of life, who needs all that drama and stress.   

Resolutions You’ll Want to Keep

If you’re 55 and older, the best to give yourself a fresh start this year (or any time, for that matter!) is to embrace the quirks and perks of getting older. Focus on resolutions that will entertain, enrich, refresh, and bring joy to your life and the lives of others.

If you’re game and ready to rock this new year with a new outlook and a smile on your face, consider some of these humorous and heartwarming resolutions.

Resolution 1: Embrace the Gray

Ladies: Embracing your natural gray hair, silver or white hair is a powerful resolution for 2025! Instead of hiding those beautiful silver strands, rock them with style and confidence. Experiment with trendy hairstyles, vibrant hair accessories, or even add a streak of a bold color that complement your gray.

Remember, your hair tells a story of wisdom and experience, so wear it proudly!  Besides, natural looks so much better than the tell-tale line of gray roots that starts showing a couple of weeks after each dye job.

Men: If you’re losing your hair, look around you. Comb-overs are out. Bald is in. Some of the richest most powerful and most popular men – men a lot younger than you – shave their heads. 

Resolution 2: Master the Art of Napping

No one wants to be caught napping on the job at work. (Unless, of course, your company offers nap pods.)

But did you know that napping is good for you? Especially as you age? Research has shown that a 30 to 90 minute nap improves cognition, so it’s beneficial for your brain. But don’t nap longer. Longer-than-90 minutes naps have been associated with reduced cognition and thinking ability.

So, from now on, make it your mission to perfect the art of napping. Create a cozy nap space, set a regular schedule, and experiment with nap length that works best for you. Set an alarm on your smart phone or watch to wake you up at the optimal time.

 Whether it’s a quick 15-minute power nap or a leisurely 90-minute afternoon snooze, mastering this delightful practice will help you recharge and stay sharp.

Resolution 3: Dig out and Digitize Those Old Photos

Dust off those old photo albums, pull out the boxes of loose printed photos, and drive down memory lane with your smart phone in hand. Your goal: turn the hodge podge collections of old photos into one or more digital “This is Your Life” collections that you can save and share with friends and family.

Use your smart phone  and a photo digitizing app to take pictures of the printed photos, capturing your adventures and milestones. Snap the best and the funniest photos, the pictures of the family trips, your old high school friends, and all the important events you cherish. Or, scan them if you have a scanner. The apps (or a photo program like Photoshop) let  you alter the digitized images to improve the color.

Tip: when you photograph old photos, do it in a well-lit room, on a surface with no glare and turn off the flash function on your smartphone.  

Organize the digitized photos by year, or into collections based on the people in them.  (Google Photos, Microsoft One Drive and Apple all have face recognition features that can help.)   Turn them into videos, add some music, and display them at a party. Save individual photos or collections to cloud services and share them with friends and family. Photo collections make great gifts for older members in your family, too.

Resolution 4: Exercise Your Brain

Ok, so your brain isn’t a muscle, and you can’t wrap a resistance band around it or improve its range of motion.

But you can exercise and enrich your brain by playing brain games and by doing activities that challenge you or require you to learn new information or learn to do new tasks.  Doing so can enhance brain function and cognition and possibly help safeguard against memory loss mental decline. Plus, challenging your brain and learning new skills is fun, too. And there’s lots you can do for free. There are any number of activities you can pursue. Here are a few suggestions:

Play Puzzles and Word Games

• Do crossword puzzles. Find them in your favorite newspaper, or search for free crossword puzzles online.
• Do Sudoku. Sudoku, if you’re not familiar with it, is a logic-based, numbers puzzle that requires you to fill in a grid and sections in the grid with the numbers 1 to 9. Each number can only appear once in each row or column.
• Play Wordle. Wordle is a web-based game in which you have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. You start by typing in any five-letter word.  If any of the letters in the word you type are a match for the correct word, they turn either green or yellow. Green means the letter is in the right place. Yellow means the letter is in the word, but not in the right position.  Wordle fans often share their results on Facebook. Wordle is now owned The New York Times. There is no charge to play.
• Challenge Your Brain with Connections. Connections is another free game offered by The New York Times. The game shows you sixteen different words. You have to choose four groups of four words each that are connected in some way.  Some of the connections are relatively easy to determine (ie., chair, sofa, bed, and desk would be connected because they are all furniture.) But other connections aren’t so evident.
• Play Jumble.  Jumble is another word game. In this game, you are shown words with scrambled letters. You have to unscramble each word. Then you can use letters in the unscrambled words as clues to solve a pictorial puzzle. Look for it in your daily newspaper or play it free on the USA Today website.
• Discover More Brain Games. There’s a plethora of places to find and play brain games. AARP Games Center offers a variety of games. Some are free for anyone. Others are for members only.

Learn a New Language

Learning a new language is another great way to stimulate your brain. A recent study found that being bilingual delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years compared to people who only speak one language.

Besides delaying decline, learning a new language is useful if you plan to travel to a foreign country and want to be able to read signs, understand what you’re ordering on a menu, or just communicate with the people you meet. Similarly, if you work with people who speak a foreign language, or live in a neighborhood with many people who speak a different language than you, learning their language can be equally helpful and rewarding.

You don’t have to spend a penny to learn another language, either. Duolingo is a free app that helps you learn foreign languages. It’s available for Apple and Android operating systems.

Rediscover a Hobby or Take Up a New One

Tap into your creative streak or maybe the secret nerd within. Discover or rediscover activities that you enjoy doing but didn’t have much time to pursue in the past. Set aside time to devote yourself to painting, woodworking, genealogy, bird watching, jewelry making, writing a novel, or any other activity you find relaxing and rewarding.  

Hobbies engage your mind and keep you doing things that make you happy and active.

Learn to Play an Instrument

Have you always wanted to play the piano or guitar, or maybe some other instrument? With fewer other responsibilities, now is the time to do it.  You’ll have fun, and be training your mind to lean new things.

You don’t need to spend a boatload of money to learn, either. If you just want to noodle around, you can get a beginner’s acoustic guitar or an electronic keyboard for around $100. And you can find “teach yourself” musical instrument books for $30 and under.

Resolution 5: Indulge Your Desire to Travel  

Travel the world or travel to somewhere in your own country you’ve never been before. Research and plan trips on your own, or book trips through well-known travel companies. (If you don’t have a passport, or need to get a new one, plan ahead. It can take 4 to 6 weeks to get a passport in the U.S. (It took even longer when I got my passport, because a clerk in the Post Office filled out a form wrong, and the paperwork had to be resubmitted.)

If you live in the United States, there are many amazing National Park sites that are free or low-cost to visit. (Some require you to make a reservation for a specific time of day to keep crowds down.) If you’ll be visiting sites that do have an entrance fee look into purchasing an America the Beautiful—the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass. An annual pass is available to anyone for $80. U.S. citizens who are 62 and older can get the annual pass for $20, or get a lifetime pass for $80.

Don’t let being single or alone stop you from traveling, either. There are companies such as Road Scholar  and Trafalgar that offer solo travel tours.  If you’re an artist, travel, meet other artists, and build your skills all at the same time by signing up for an Uptrek retreat in a foreign country.   

Resolution 6: Find Out How Smart Your Smart Phone Is

If you’re like me, many of the things you do with your smart phone have nothing to do with making phone calls. You may use it as a calculator, to send and get texts and videos, for social media, email, and more. But if you have a fairly recent model smartphone, it may do a lot of things you didn’t know about.

For instance, you can set up the camera in some Samsung phones to snap a picture when you speak the words, “Smile” or “Say Cheese” instead of pushing a button.  Similarly, you can use Voice Control or Siri to verbally command some iPhones to take a snapshot. 

You can use the camera on many smartphones to scan documents and convert them to text format. Or to scan QR codes and go to a product’s website for more information.

Need a mirror? Open the camera app on your phone and set it to selfie to see how you look.

Can’t find your kitchen timer? Open the watch function on your smartphone and choose timer. 

Need directions? Open the map function on your phone. Want to find an email address while you’re talking to someone on your phone? Learn to switch apps without hanging up,

To find out more ways to use your smartphone, search the web for terms like “how to use a [smartphone name]. Or, “getting started with [smartphone name]. Or “What can you do with a smartphone.”

Resolution 7: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

One of the best things you can do to improve yourself at any point in the year or your life, is to step out of your comfort zone. Dare yourself to do something different. Go out and meet new people in safe spaces such as through classes or groups sponsored by your town, through adult education programs, at a local YMCA, through a religious organization, or even your local library. Or volunteer with a local nonprofit organization.

You’ll meet new acquaintances, discover new interests, and learn new things. Doing so will also help you stay mentally sharp and socially connected as you age.