Can’t get no satisfaction? Try, for a happier New Year

The older I get, the less inclined I am to make New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps I’ve developed an unconscious superstition that turning a personal goal into a New Year’s resolution means I’m less likely to achieve it. After all, we joke about breaking them even as we’re making them.

The classic health goals, for example, are usually either too vague—to eat healthier and exercise more—or too prescriptive—to cut out carbs and exercise for two hours a day. There’s a disconnect between that kind of life and the one we are actually living—with time restraints that make menu planning and grocery shopping haphazard and rushed; with social occasions that practically necessitate the consumption of alcohol,…