OMG, please, please don’t do this to yourself! Making a list of New Year’s Resolutions is like making a list of potential happiness saboteurs. For years I started my resolution list with: lose weight. The second item was always: get healthy. Then there was the resolution to be happy, followed by whatever other unrealistic, ill-defined, vague but hopeful goal I wanted to achieve in the unrealistically short time-span of a year. I’m not saying don’t strive to lose weight, become healthy and learn to be happy. Those are great life goals. The problem starts when we put pressure on ourselves to achieve these goals and deep down, we aren’t ready to tackle them. When you are ready to pursue being happy, you’ll catch that elusive happy feeling. When you’re ready to make lifestyle changes that cause weight loss and make you fitter and healthier, it will happen easily.. New Year’s Resolutions are the best shortcut to feelings of guilt and failure. Instead of making them, be kind and gentle with yourself this year. Remember: stress worsens MS.