For a long time I thought New Year’s Resolutions were a bit silly and generally a recipe for disappointment. I do still believe that you don’t need a new year to give you the permission to make a change to your life, however there is something special about the changing of the calendar that does lend some momentum. For New Year’s Resolutions, I tend to focus more on building systems to get to my resolution or goal. As James Clear points out, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” Building new habits or routines is critical to keeping your resolution, but if you’re attempting to build a brand new set of routines—maybe based on the morning of the hottest new thought leader—you must remember The Morning Routines We Idolize Are Often From People Divorced From Reality, or to paraphrase Patrick Rothfuss, be careful comparing someone’s on stage with your backstage. With this in mind, focus on being kind to yourself as you build your new habits, routines, or systems to live up to those New Year’s Resolutions. A single day failure in your system does not lead to a failed year or resolution if you pick back up again tomorrow. Put simply: be kind, keep going.

If you’re looking to add a new skill or interest in the new year, might I recommend keeping them hobbies, not side hustles. Cultivating an entirely unrelated hobby is a great way to nourish your mind, relax, and learn, but modern competition culture, it’s easy to get caught in the trap that you need to monetize your hobby or be the best at it right away.

I am often asked by friends and fans why I don’t compete in races or triathlons. My answer is that I’m not trying to “win” my hobby. If I’m being honest, I’m really not even interested in getting much better at them, my goal is mainly to just do more of them…The only purpose is the process. It’s so easy to forget that.

Having wide-ranging hobbies exposes you to new ideas and perspectives, to the adjacent possible in you interests and fields of work, which can help you in all areas of your life. Should you be resolved to make a bigger change professionally or along the lines of your vocation, I’ve been turning over lots of highlights from the essay The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius which pairs nicely with this note—from the previous cited McHale—that Good Things Are Hard and Have High Failure Rates, We Should Still Try. No matter what you’ve resolved to do in the new year I would love to talk with you about what you’re trying to accomplish and noodle on any systems that might help you get there. Best of luck!