No one likes to lose.

Our favorite teams lose games. Perhaps our presidential candidate lost the election.

On the personal side, sometimes we lose money. We lose our cellphones, our keys or a keepsake we had for years. We lose a relationship or a longtime friend dies.

I have lost three very good friends this year that had gone to high school with me and another who had spent many hours with me watching our sons play baseball.

And yet, I dedicate 2025 as a year for losers. Here’s my long list of resolutions:

Lose the anger when we get upset. Lose the excuses why we don’t spend more time with our loved ones. Lose the reasons why we won’t take opportunities to improve our careers.

Lose all the worries we have. They have never solved a single problem. Lose the TV news filled with nothing but despair and destruction and replace it with old TV show reruns that makes us laugh.

Lose the idea that we can control everything that happens to us and to the people we care about the most. Lose the cynicism we might have about the future of this country. America is still the greatest place to live in this world.

Lose the “know it all” attitude we might present to others in social circles because the truth is, we don’t know it all.

Here’s a good one for me: Lose the grief we continue to feel when someone close to us dies. Instead, recall the great times we had spent together that will continue to put smiles on our faces for many years to come.

Lose the fact that we’re not the only ones who might lose a lot in life, more than we even care to admit. Take this attitude. We win or we learn from our losses.

Lose the ego. Be humble and grateful that we are alive right now when so many of those who have touched our lives in significant ways are no longer with us.

Lose our fear of taking risks. Everything we do has risk, but if we give in to our fears, we might be left with regret that cannot be recovered and may burden us for the rest of our lives.

Lose the striving for perfection because none of us are perfect. Do our best, be satisfied and avoid dwelling upon disappointments.

Lose the guilt we carry from our mistakes that have hurt others. Ask forgiveness.

Lose the grudge we’ve held for far too long that ended what was once a good relationship. Even if it was a bad relationship caused by another, forgive that person so we can move on without any hatred in our hearts. This includes forgiving those who have passed away.

Lose any entitlement we may feel about what the world owes us. The world owes us nothing. We only get back from what we give. Self-pride comes from personal achievement and not from getting something that we did not earn.

Lose the negativity. Stop complaining. It does not make us feel better and it certainly does not make anyone around us feel better.

Lose the judgments. We are quick to give our opinions about another’s behavior, and unless we have been living an entirely righteous life, what gives us the right to judge others?

Here’s one you may not be thinking about? Lose the word “yes” from our vocabulary with regard to helping others beyond the limits of our time and energy. Instead, say yes to ourselves for spending some much needed time to do something only for us.

On the other hand, lose the word “no.” Stop saying no to things that we really want to do and have been putting off for far too long.

Here are a few more New Year’s resolutions for losers:

Lose ourselves in the moment. Stay in the now.

Lose ourselves in the joy of a child.

Lose our adult maturity for the time being and laugh at the silly things that little kids find funny.

Lose our obligations for a few hours and replace them with doing absolutely nothing for a few hours.

And now a few words from author Rich Karlgaard about losing our bad habits: “People who self-handicap purposely shoot themselves in the foot in order to protect themselves from having to confront their possible shortcomings. Many self-handicapping behaviors are those small, subtle bad habits like being late, gossiping, micromanaging, behaving passive-aggressively, or being a perfectionist. We may not recognize these self-defeating — and self-handicapping — traits for what they are. Or we may even wrongly perceive them as strengths. But in truth, they often get in the way of us blooming.”

How about throwing a little light humor on this subject?

Richelle E. Goodrich wrote, “If all of our sins, bad habits, and poor choices were permanently inked into our skin like tattoos, we would all dress quite modestly.”

A new year brings 365 new days, 8,760 new hours, 525,600 new minutes and 31,536,000 new seconds.

That’s plenty of time to make losers out of all of us.

Happy New Year!

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com