01/01/2026
KPA wish a very Happy New Year to all members and the community .
“In the culture of New Year’s resolutions, there’s a really heavy dose of perfectionism—a sense in which it’s all about starting completely afresh and being completely perfect in some area of life from this day forward. I don’t think fresh starts like that are actually possible,” Oliver Burkeman told Caroline Mimbs Nyce in 2023.
https://theatln.tc/BpgDjdSi
Burkeman is a writer who focuses on the nexus of mortality and productivity. “I do think that probably one of the pitfalls of New Year’s–resolution culture is that it encourages us all to buy into the idea that you need to make some big change in order to be a minimally acceptable, worthwhile person,” he added “And that doesn’t leave any room for the thought that maybe you’re more okay than you thought. Maybe you don’t need to change in some particular way. Maybe reconciling yourself to certain ways that you are is a more powerful thing.”
So how should you go about making New Year’s resolutions if you want to? “It’s helpful for resolutions to be resilient—ones that you’re going to be able to stick with even when life doesn’t run as perfectly as you planned,” Burkeman says. “There’s something appealing about the idea of just postponing New Year’s resolutions until the first week or two of January,” he recommends. “It’s also important not to let the idea of changing your personality get in the way of just actually doing things differently … This notion of changing our habits can be an obstacle to just right now, today, once doing a thing. If you’re daunted by becoming a runner or becoming a meditator, just go for a run; just sit down and meditate.”
🎨: Geraint Lewis / Eyevine / Redux
“The difference between not doing anything at all and doing 10 minutes a few times a week is absolute.”
