Culture Holidays Woody Guthrie's Wonderful List of New Year's Resolutions for 1942 By Shea Gunther Writer University of New Hampshire Rochester Institute of Technology University of Southern Maine Shea Gunther is a writer, entrepreneur, and podcaster living in Portland, Maine. He covers topics such as renewable energy, climate change, and nature. our editorial process Shea Gunther Updated December 30, 2019 Woody Guthrie's list of New Year's resolutions for 1942, which range from commonsense to philosophical, is a fascinating piece of history. (Photo: Getty Images) Share Twitter Pinterest Email Culture History Travel Sustainable Fashion Art & Media Holidays Community Woody Guthrie, the legendary singer-songwriter best known for his song "This Land Is Your Land," drafted a delightful list of New Year's resolutions for 1942 that Boing Boing turned up. His list is a great mix of aspirations that range from commonsense goals like "work more and better" and "wear clean clothes — look good" to the more philosophical in "keep hoping machine running," "dream good" and "wake up and fight." You can never go wrong with "read lots good books," "stay glad" and "love everybody." A feeling of joyful playfulness is evident throughout the list, though his goal to "help win war — beat fascism" is a stark sign of the times — at the end of 1941, the U.S. was dragged into World War II by the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. The list is a fascinating piece of history. Check out his entire two-page, side-by-side list here in this video: It's good fodder for this resolution-making time of year, and a lot of people are thinking about their own lists. What about you? No matter what you decide to change, here's a handy list of ways to help make those new habits stick.