12 Dating Resolutions to Make for the New Year

The anticipation of a New Year can be both exciting and unnerving. The New Year means mean new worries, new loves, and new desires. You can feel the apprehension…Here are 12 empowering resolutions to relieve that feeling and take the New Year by the horns!

1. “I’ll be proactive.”

I won’t make excuses if I ever feel dissatisfied with my dating life. We can control how we react to our current relationship statuses. And seize the opportunities that haven’t been hiding but sitting in front of us all along.

2. “Say no when I need to.”

There have been ton of good people that I have passed and a ton of not-so-good people that I have said yes to. The guy who’s a classic d, and by d, I mean derrière. The girl you feel no spark for. Or to yourself. When you know you could do better.

3. “Keep healthy.”

Healthy body, mind, and heart. Enough said.

4. “Embrace regrets.”

It’s liberating to understand that things won’t ever pan out 100%. And that’s just life. Call it timing. Genetic or environmental dispositions. Fate. Call it being stupid. Haha, but isn’t that why we love it? View regrets as Life’s nagging but well-intentioned reminders.

5. “I’ll be open.”

If you widen your periphery, you won’t believe how much you can let in. Date outside your comfort zone.

6. “Go steady with someone.”

It takes as much guts to go down a path the long way as it does to go down the unfamiliar way (Resolution #5). For we can’t predict the consequence but isn’t that the thrill? There is that pondering thought of missing out on something better…But knowing someone, truly getting them, doesn’t happen briefly. No matter how many something-betters you may run into, you’ll still be around a short-lived profile of a person rather than someone you have come to learn to love fully, steadily, and deeply.

7. “Lose 10 lbs. Volunteer. Bungee Jump. Get promoted. Visit Paris…”

Keep having goals. Keep living passionately every day. And a partner will come as a great bonus.

8. “Grieve long but grudge short.”

Heartbreak is inevitable. And if you’re not hurting, you’re not trying. It’s okay to mourn over a loss. And you can take your sweet bittersweet time with it. That’s the only way to heal. And if you want to rebound begrudgingly and go on an empowering revenge trip, you go girl! But at the end of the day, we need to sit before we walk, and walk before we run.

9. “Say yes when I want to.”

So what if you just met this girl on a connecting flight? Yeah, sure he’s 8 years your senior. It doesn’t matter if he lives in Toronto and you in Tokyo! So what if the woman who you clicked with is your late cousin’s frenemy’s sister’s best friend? She might be your next, first, and last wife.

10. “Play hard.”

I want to live life with vivacity. Youth is a mentality. While I’m young or old, up or down, I want to meet new people, learn new things, and have new experiences- both romantic and not. Nourishing the desire for human interaction and connection– what other lifeblood is there for a relationship?

11. “Remember memories.”

What’s the use of memories without remembering? They say the more we reexamine a memory, the more it changes. Alternatively, I think…the more it stays the same.

12. “Be present.”

The best gift you can give anyone is sharing the present with him or her. Give your state of being. Without the clutter of tomorrow or the past. It’s the most authentic way to see someone because it doesn’t matter how many years will pass, who are we really, but who we are now? Let’s not hesitate to be ourselves and take in others who do the same.