I was bike riding this morning and found myself thinking about New Year’s resolutions.
Actually, that’s not quite accurate—I was thinking about how I don’t make them. Never have.
I began to wonder why the word “resolution” bothers me so much.
Then it hit me: resolute.
Do you know what that word really means? Unwavering. Indomitable. Undefeatable. It’s the kind of word they name battleships after.
When you wake up on January 1 and tell yourself you’ll be an unstoppable force—that you’ll do X perfectly for the next 365 days—you’re already setting yourself up to fail.
That’s not how humans change. We don’t transform by sheer force of will on a single day. We change through repetition, adjustments, and by falling down and getting back up.
As I pedaled, I started thinking about what I actually do at the start of each year. It’s nothing like the dramatic resolutions most people imagine.
I Start by Looking Backwards, Not Forwards
Before I decide what to change, I look at what I managed to keep last year.
For me that meant simple habits: mouth taping at night, taking magnesium daily, walking 10,000+ steps, keeping a consistent bedtime.
I write those down, acknowledge them, and give myself credit.
Starting by recognizing what you did right builds momentum instead of shame. Most people do the opposite—they fixate on failures and try to overhaul everything at once.
That’s why most resolutions die by February.
Then I Pick One Thing—And I Chip Away at It
Last year my bloodwork showed a low omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.
I remember staring at the number and feeling overwhelmed. Omega-3s matter, but how important? What should I actually do?
I started with Google and got bombarded by conflicting advice—fish oil, krill oil, more salmon, worries about mercury, rancid oils, capsules or liquid, EPA vs. DHA.
I bought a bottle of fish oil capsules and took them for two weeks, then forgot for a month. I started again, stopped, and was confused about when to take them.
Then I read about C15:0—an odd-chain saturated fat that many people don’t get from modern diets. The research looked promising, so I added that.
The fish oil capsules remained in the cabinet, so I combined approaches. I also read that liquid fish oil can be more bioavailable and bought that too. Suddenly I had three different things to remember.
Some mornings I took the liquid, some the capsules, sometimes I forgot, or I’d travel without them.
It took about six months to find a system that worked: liquid fish oil with my soft-boiled eggs in the morning and gel caps when I travel.
And that’s okay.
The goal was never perfection. The goal was to nudge the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio in the right direction. Slowly, through trial and error, forgetting and adjusting, I made progress.
When I repeated the bloodwork eight months later, the ratio had improved.
Not because I executed a flawless plan from day one, but because I kept coming back to it even when I messed up.
What I Call These
I don’t call them resolutions.
I call them soft promises, or sometimes behavioral modifications.
They’re small, achievable changes I can stick with—even imperfectly.
If I accomplish one, great—I move on to the next. If I don’t, I don’t give up. I simply return to it.
Progress isn’t about being resolute. It’s about showing up imperfectly, over and over, until one day a habit finally sticks.
This is the small, messy, unglamorous work no one talks about, but it’s the only thing that actually works.
So Here’s What I’d Ask You
Forget the battleship mentality.
Instead, ask: What did you actually keep doing last year? Write it down and give yourself credit.
Choose one thing you want to change this year—just one, not ten.
What small tweak can you make, knowing you’ll probably mess it up sometimes? No grand declarations, no all-or-nothing approach.
Make small changes that compound over time, even when you forget or fall off the wagon, even if it takes months to find a routine that works.
Real transformation doesn’t happen on January 1. It happens every day after, when you keep showing up—even after you’ve fallen off the wagon many times.
All my best for a great 2026,
Mark
P.S. If you missed my post on the psychology of flossing, it’s worth reading. It explains why habit-building beats willpower every time.