5 New Year Resolution Ideas for 2021

You did it! You made through another year. Now, after you eat too many cookies and enjoy your share of egg nog, let’s figure out how next year will be even better with healthy lifestyle changes, partaking in more outdoor activities and reconnecting with loved ones. Here are five ideas for your new year resolution list!

1. Spend More Time with the Family

2020 has been challenging for a number of reasons but chiefly among them, for many, has been the lack of time spent with loved ones. As you consider your new year resolution ideas for 2021, make a plan to spend quality time doing family outdoor activities like boating, fishing, birdwatching, gardening or hiking with those you’ve missed the most this year.

2. Learn Something New each day

Maybe you want to start taking better photographs, become conversational in a second language, get your boating license, learn to fish or teach your kid to fish (or at least, to finally bait their own hook!) — put learning new things on your new year resolution list for a exciting and entertaining new year!

3. Live a Healthier Life

It might be cliché as far as new year resolution ideas go, but making healthy lifestyle changes is never a bad idea and there’s no bad time to start. If you need the calendar to flip to begin anew, so be it! Whether you need to alter your relationship with food or start exercising more, swapping a stressful, sedentary 2020 for an active lifestyle 2021 — a year in which you’ll also enjoy activities that highlight the many benefits of nature — is a great idea for your new year resolution list.

4. Support Your Local Community

If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that the places and people in our local community are essential. One of the new years resolution ideas that may help to strengthen your community and your bond with it, is to look for ways of supporting and exploring it more in the new year. This can mean ordering takeout from the new independent restau-rant you’ve been meaning to try, shopping more at mom & pop stores, volunteering time at or donating goods to a local charity, or even spending a few hours each month fishing in a neighborhood fishing hole. Share your local faves with friends and family on social media to encourage others to get out and explore what’s waiting for them in their own backyards.

5. Explore Your Own Creativity

Far too many people believe that they lack creativity. Let’s make this new year the year we each explore our own cre-ative sides — the health and emotional benefits of which are immeasurable! Take photos, doodle, write poems, tell jokes, paint, dance, start that YouTube channel, carve wood, do whatever you’ve always wanted to try! You might just discover that you do indeed possess some creativity, and the world will be better off for having your voice, point of view, and talent in it.

Revel in the many benefits of nature with these 10 wildlife conservation resolutions for the new year!


Jeff Bogle

Jeff Bogle

Jeff is a dad of teen daughters, avid traveler, photographer, and freelance writer. He’s penned stories on family travel, outdoor recreation, the environment, parenting, and more for Fodor’s, Reader’s Digest, Parents Magazine, Good Housekeeping, PBS, and Esquire, among other publications. Find him on his blog, OWTK.com and on Instagram @OWTK. Jeff is also the publisher of the quarterly literary zine, Stanchion