What are New Year’s Resolutions? People are always analyzing their intentions, adjusting their behaviors, and attempting to improve their lives. Whenever a new year begins, we give ourselves permission to start over, to let go of our past failures to better ourselves. We wipe the slate, delete the logs, swab the decks, clear the clutter, and resolve to do things differently.

What do we need to keep our resolutions going?  We need inspiration. We need metaphors that help us wrap our heads around what we have resolved to do, and why. We need help stopping, starting, increasing, decreasing whatever it is that is most important to us.

My metaphorical musical inspiration this year is “learning to fly”. The dream of flight has always inspired ambition. The idea of learning is a necessary humbling of our ego – to admit that we have failed, and perhaps we don’t know why we fail, or how to succeed. Taking steps toward educating ourselves is an attempt to fly beyond our current limitations. Shinedown, in particular, has always inspired me, giving me the courage to start my own consulting business over 15 years ago, an endeavor which succeeded for a decade, until it was time to take on another opportunity.

Here are our Five Fave Inspirational New Year’s Resolution Songs.

#5 – Mr. Mister – Broken Wings

Baby, don’t understand
Why we can’t just hold on to each other’s hands?
This time might be the last if fear unless
I make it all too clear I need you so, ohh

Take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings

Baby, I think tonight
We can take what was wrong and make it right
Baby, it’s all I know that you’re half of the flesh
And blood that makes me whole, I need you so

So take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings
You’ve got to learn to fly, learn to live, love so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Yeah, yeah
Let us in
Let us in

Baby, it’s all I know that you’re half of the flesh
And blood that makes me whole
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

So take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
And when we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings
You got to learn to fly, learn to live and love so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up for us and let us in
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ooh

#4 – Pink Floyd – Learning To Fly

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reel
A fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can’t keep my eyes from the circling sky
Tongue-tied and twisted
Just an earthbound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladen, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that’s learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try

Can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted
Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
My grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There’s no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss

Can’t keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted
Just an earth-bound misfit, I

#3 – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning To Fly

Well, I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still

I’m learning to fly but I ain’t got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

Well, the good old days may not return
And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn

I’m learning to fly (Learning to fly)
But I ain’t got wings (Learning to fly)
Coming down (Learning to fly)
Is the hardest thing (Learning to fly)

Well, some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I’ve started out for God knows where
I guess I’ll know when I get there

I’m learning to fly around the clouds
But what goes up (Learning to fly)
Must come down

I’m learning to fly (Learning to fly)
But I ain’t got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing
I’m learning to fly (Learning to fly)
Around the clouds
But what goes up (Learning to fly)
Must come down
I’m learning to fly (Learning to fly, learning to fly)
I’m learning to fly (Learning to fly, learning to fly)
(Learning to fly, learning to fly)

#2 – Foo Fighters – Learn To Fly

Run and tell all of the angels
This could take all night
Think I need a devil to help me get things right
Hook me up a new revolution
‘Cause this one is a lie
We sat around laughing and watched the last one die

Now I’m looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I’m looking for a complication
Looking cause I’m tired of lying
Make my way back home when I learn to fly high

I think I’m done nursing the patience
It can wait one night
I’d give it all away if you give me one last try
We’ll live happily ever trapped if you just save my life
Run and tell the angels that everything’s alright

Now I’m looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I’m looking for a complication
Looking cause I’m tired of trying
Make my way back home when I learn to fly high
Make my way back home when I learn to…

Fly along with me, I can’t quite make it alone
Try to make this life my own
Fly along with me, I can’t quite make it alone
Try to make this life my own

I’m looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I’m looking for a complication
Looking cause I’m tired of trying
Make my way back home when I learn to
I’m looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I’m looking for a complication
Looking cause I’m tired of trying
Make my way back home when I learn to fly high
Make my way back home when I learn to fly…
Make my way back home when I learn to…

#1 – Shinedown – Fly From The Inside

Here’s the weight of the world on my shoulders
Here’s the weight of the world on my shoulders
On my shoulders

All alone I pierce the chain
And on and on the sting remains
And dying eyes consume me now
The voice inside, screams out loud

I am focused on what I am after
The key to the next open chapter

‘Cause I found a way
To steal the sun from the sky
Long live that day
That I decided to fly from the inside

Every day a new deception
Pick your scene and take direction
And on and on I search to connect
But I don’t wear a mask and I have no regrets

I am focused on what I am after
The key to the next open chapter

‘Cause I found a way
To steal the sun from the sky
Long live that day
That I decided to fly from the inside

I can’t escape the pain, I can’t control the rage
Sometimes I think that I’m gonna go insane
I’m not against what’s right, I’m not for what’s wrong
I’m just making my way and I’m gone

Here’s the weight of the world on my shoulders

‘Cause I found a way
To steal the sun from the sky
Long live that day
That I decided to fly from the inside

That I decided to fly from the inside
That I decided to fly from the inside

Five Fave: Inspirational New Year’s Resolution Songs first appeared on Game On Media.