Resolutions don’t work, but here’s mine anyway for 2022

I failed at my previous “resolution” efforts. Here’s why I think they don’t work:

• It’s common to set resolutions around some meaningful date, like the New Year. Well, it’s just another day. The feeling of symbolism and clean start is overrated.
• If you feel strongly about a goal of some kind, then you should be getting on it with it anyway. You should’ve been getting on with it yesterday. Or maybe — and that’s ok — you’ve procrastinated and will finally start in the coming weeks. There is no need to articulate it in some special way in your head, let alone announce it to the world. That process of articulating it might make you feel good about it but I think it’s actually the opposite. It’s a distraction and false comfort. The demons in your head are playing a trick on you. They trick you into thinking you’re already on your way towards your resolution, while you’ve done shit all.
• The process of self-improvement, in my experience, can have many patterns, but very often there is some graduality. The start is especially fragile. Unless, for example, you have a heart attack that forces you to immediately resolve to quit smoking or eat healthier, there doesn’t have to be a trigger event or a single day when you start your journey with a new habit (or without your old one) or towards some new goal. The start can be slow; the initial results can be so weak that it’s hard to set the light ahead; there can be setbacks. Resolutions are glamourous; executing them is not. Avoid…