I like New Year’s resolutions. I don’t know why. There is something about the smell of a new calendar that stirs up the sediment at the bottom of my soul and makes me think that things are possible again.
Still, it’s hard to find resolutions that actually work. Some goals are too ambitious, some seem too small. Some resolutions feel like a reward (ie. “travel more”) whereas some are a punishment ("I will quit smoking”).
A couple of years ago, I found a framework for New Year’s resolutions that I really liked, through a US entrepreneur/influencer called Jesse Itzler (original reel here). Normally, listening to American men wearing baseball caps on a podcast is a really bad idea, but I quite liked his way of structuring the next 12 months:
1. Misogi Challenge (One Big Thing): Do one hard or ambitious thing. A tentpole idea, maybe something that scares you, that you’ll always be able to associate with this particular year. Start a business, record an song, create something, build something.
2. Kevin’s Rule: Plan six mini-adventures every year (one every other month) - something you’d never have done before. Go rock-climbing or scuba diving. Go to a Michelin star restaurant. Sign up for a pottery class. Finally climb that mountain or go on that hike with your siblings or kids.
3. Winning Habits: Add one new habit every three months. I adjust this rule a bit - more below.
So - One Year Later, Does It Work?
I looked back on my 2024, which featured a fair few peaks and troughs, to see how my resolutions held up.
The Misogi/One Big Thing: Make (Some) Money Outside My Day Job ✅
This might seem like a pretty humble ‘big’ goal, but I thought that the principle was the important thing, rather than a specific monetary target. It’s easy to get sucked into the hurly-burly of a full-time job and allow it to become your only focus from week to week. I was interested in seeing if I could earn money doing something else on the side, and I did! I did a small consulting project that actually opened a couple of other doors. It was fun, but more than anything, it gave me self-confidence in a new area.
A lot of my day job consists of talking to ambitious people that want to start a new business that will grow to a global scale. Most of them have never sold anything. I often tell them to try selling something first, to see how they like it. In 2024, I decided to practice what I preach.
2. Kevin’s Rule (Bi-Monthly New Experience) ✅
I don’t know who the original Kevin is, but it’s kind of fun to have a rule that isn’t named after a Greek philosopher or whatever, so Kevin’s Rule it is. Picking six things:
I went back to music lessons
I headed over to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
I attended the 2024 Olympics
I had my first seaweed bath (cheating a bit here as I went just on the cusp of 2025, but planned since 2024)
I ran a night race around a lake in Switzerland at midnight
I completed a triathlon in Barcelona
Not all of these have to be hard, they just have to be an adventure. I went on a couple of great trips, to the world’s most famous comedy festival then seeing Paris in full bloom for the Olympics. I finally had a seaweed bath three miles from my house, after years of saying I would. Then I trained for a triathlon, which was probably the most stressful experience I’ve ever endured voluntarily.
I had to get open water swimming lessons for the triathlon and then I also went back to some in-class music lessons. It has been ages since I learned something in a 1-1 tutelage scenario and I forgot how immensely satisfying it was to feel progress while not having the pressure of self-directed learning.
I’m planning to sign up for more experiences in 2025. I also think that at least two of the six things should be something you don’t come up with yourself. It’s good to say yes to suggestions that other people make and allow yourself to be surprised.
Even though I love trying new things, it is easy to get sucked into a routine with work, exercising, eating well, and sleeping well. All of that stuff takes time. But it’s important to make time for new experiences that jolt you out of your comfort zone, and this rule is great for that.
Adopt Four New Habits: ✅ ❌ (sort of)
Habits are overrated. They have been fetishised to the point that there is now a cottage industry of strong bald internet men that tell us how to form new habits, how to make them stick, rewire your brain, etc. etc.
A lot of the habits that influencers tell us to adopt look suspiciously similar. There are morning routines, mobility routines, and meal prepping. There are products nearly linked in the bio, complete with an affiliate link. Habits seem to follow the #ad hashtag.
So I take a slightly different approach to this one. I try to either adopt a habit or drop one every 3 months or so, rather than constantly adding guardrails to my daily routine. Mine looked like this:
Start weight training 3-4x per week
Start a skincare routine (other than just splashing water on my face)
Stop food shopping when I’m hungry
Stop putting things down (put them away)
Overall, a mixed bag. I averaged about two gym sessions a week over the course of the year, which was below my target, but I took a couple of months off the gym to prep for a big race, so I didn’t self-flagellate too much. The skincare thing seems easy but has been hit-and-miss in the evenings. It’s an intimidating field. There’s a hell of a lot of information out there thanks to the dermatology-industrial complex.
I still make the occasional insane food purchase while on the cusp of hypoglycaemic collapse, but I have improved significantly. Point #4 was an effort to have a tidier space, where I can actually locate my belongings rather than frantically searching right before I have to leave. Progress here has been slow. I still have the obligatory bedroom chair piled with clothes.
Still though, the graph is moving upwards and to the right in all four categories, roughly speaking. And this is what resolutions are, really. They aren’t green boxes in a habit tracking app promoted by some Whoop wearer. They’re a recommitment to becoming a slightly better version of yourself, one blob of hyaluronic acid or folded jumper at a time.
What’s the plan?
There is obviously no reason to wait until a specific date to change anything about yourself, and no imperative to change at all, if you don’t want to. There is likely a lengthy queue of people who love you just the way you are. But I guess this approach breaks the year ahead into manageable goal-shaped chunks, and the end result is kind of cool.
At the very minimum, you will have had six fun experiences, doing something you’ve never tried before. You will have strived towards an ambitious goal that scares you, and either achieved it or learned something about yourself in the process. And of course, you will have looked in the mirror and considered what four small daily changes will have a compounding effect on your wellbeing, leaving you in a better place by next year. Or even by next week.
If some of your resolutions don’t work out, you can always start again in February, or recalibrate to find ones that suit your life a little bit better. I’d love to hear what works for you. But if you’ll excuse me for the moment, I’ve got to head off to my 4am cold plunge.
Reading Recs
100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Life Without Really Trying
by the Saturday Team in The Guardian
If you’re looking for some inspiration, I enjoyed a few of these. I don’t know are they “not really trying”, but they’re worth a browse. The ones I liked:
10 Always bring ice to house parties (there’s never enough).
24 Start a Saturday morning with some classical music – it sets the tone for a calm weekend.
42 Don’t have Twitter on your phone.
100 For instant cheer, wear yellow.
100 Tiny Changes to Transform Your Life, From the One-Minute Rule to Pyjama Yoga
Also in The Guardian
Okay, not only have I given you a framework, but also 200 new ideas for resolutions?? Some of these are flat-out insane (“learning to ride a horse and joust'“ doesn’t count as a “tiny change” in my book) but again, the ones I liked:
11. Following the “one-minute rule”
13. Walking outdoors every day
48. Carving out more hours than I think I need for sleep
88. Using a soap that reminds me of a vacation
I Knew One Day I’d Have To Watch Powerful Men Burn The World Down - I Just Didn’t Expect Them To Be Such Losers
by Rebecca Shaw in The Guardian
A fun read here for inauguration day. It is completely normal for business leaders to pander to an incoming president - but has it always looked this pathetic?
I’d love to hear about your New Year’s Resolutions (and how you make them stick) - feel free to reply to this mail or comment below!
And as always, please like/share this with a friend if you enjoyed :)
The grip the dermatology-industrial complex has on society needs to be studied