1. Make a list of 10 things your heart longs for and expect that they will happen.

2. Go away for two three-day weekends. One with friends and one with significant other, even if it means pulling out a credit card and regretfully agreeing to trading kids with friends.

3. Make yourself call a family member once a month that you really don't speak to that often and at the end of the year, acknowledge that it has made a difference.

4. Do NOT vow to lose weight or exercise. Instead, think of three ways you can make your body and mind stronger and kinder.

5. Have lunch with a friend, an old friend, a new friend, a mediocre friend and a forgotten friend and listen more than you talk.

6. Spend a night or a day with your parents, if they're still around, and treat them like they are the most important people in the world.

7. Make a point, no matter how hard, to take each of your children to do something special, just the two of you.

8. Have a family sleepover in the den and if you're a grandparent, invite your little people to spend the night and know, that memory will stay with them.

9. Cry in front of your children so that they will see the world can be hard but that tears don't mean you're defeated.

10. Make sure to start a few days here and there empty of plans and goals so that you can experience the joy in the nothing and the unexpected.