The finest list of New Year’s Resolutions to be had – or New Years Rulins’ as he called them – penned by Woody Guthrie in 1942 at the age of 30. A few of these are far beyond me, writing a song a day for example, but I think I could benefit by staying glad and dancing better.
1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
3. Wash teeth if any
4. Shave
5. Take bath
6. Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk
7. Drink very scant if any
8. Write a song a day
9. Wear clean clothes — look good
10. Shine shoes
11. Change socks
12. Change bed cloths often
13. Read lots good books
14. Listen to radio a lot
15. Learn people better
16. Keep rancho clean
17. Dont get lonesome
18. Stay glad
19. Keep hoping machine running
20. Dream good
21. Bank all extra money
22. Save dough
23. Have company but dont waste time
24. Send Mary and kids money
25. Play and sing good
26. Dance better
27. Help win war — beat fascism
28. Love mama
29. Love papa
30. Love Pete
31. Love everybody
32. Make up your mind
33. Wake up and fight
Jean Zimmerman 
And note that Lose Weight is not among them. Instead, Love Everybody. That’s the way to go.
This is an amazing list. I love how he moves back and forth between the professional and the personal.
Good one.
Don’t ever let a smiling cop fool you. (Bound for Glory)
#33
In 2014 I will do as Woody did. WWWD (what would Woody Do?)
Sent from my iPad
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Anonymous likes #11, and #30, of course.
Yes indeed. And what interesting choices he made. You can learn a lot about a person from a list like this, I think.
And a handwritten list surviving so long is cool too.
Makes it seem almost simple to be a genius.
Now there are lots of resolutions I can keep on this list! I do change my socks often. He had very nice writing.
Elephant
Wow, so cool.
Reblogged this on The Writing Catalog and commented:
This is priceless. I wonder how many of them he kept.