Resolutions are a good concept, but suffer from mostly poor follow-through on the behalf of the majority. I don't consider myself a cynic, but I think we all can agree that resolutions are pretty tricky to stick to . . . especially for an entire 365 days and beyond. We shoot for lofty goals that are nearly impossible to reach, and upon failure, we feel discouraged to try again when the next January rolls around.

Which is why Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert's revised resolution idea [1] of a happiness jar is so damn brilliant.

The best part? It's incredibly easy. Write down the day's happiest moment on a slip of paper and put it in a jar (or any sort of container, really). It literally takes 60 seconds or less, and you're pretty much guaranteed not to fail.

"There is no simpler or less-demanding spiritual practice in my life than this one — when I literally take note of my gratitude [2] for a moment in my day when things felt good, or I felt lucky, or I merely remembered that I was alive. It's incredible how consistently tiny and insignificant these happy moments usually are. There don't tend to be rock star moments — moments of glory or huge success. They seem to be moments of tiny human connection, or an unexpected bit of humor, or the glimpse of a cardinal out of the corner of my eye, or moment of peace during a busy day. My happiest moments are infinitesimally small, but over the years, they have caused this jar to overflow many times over."

Well said, Elizabeth [3]. We can't wait to get started.