January 1, 2024.
Welcome to the new year. This is the day when we outline plans for our next trip around the sun, resolving to lose weight, exercise more, quit a bad habit, get organized (starting with a resolution list), ask for a raise, earn more money, make new friends, be kinder, recycle, lower one’s carbon footprint (or not), read more books, spend more time with family and friends, spend less time on social media, and, for the truly ambitious, be polite on X for at least a week.
On a recent clear and beautiful day here in Santa Barbara, my colleague Alexander Reiman and I drove to the top of La Cumbre Peak—the highest point in the Santa Ynez Mountains overlooking the city and the Channel Islands—and recorded some short video commentaries on a variety of subjects, one of which was on the meaning of life, which we posted on X during the Christmas holidays (or as some of us call it, Newtonmas, celebrating the birth of Sir Isaac Newton on December 25, 1642, on the Old Style Julian Calendar). Here is my two minute soliloquy on the meaning of life, as the sun was setting on the Pacific Ocean:
In a Skeptic column earlier this year I presented the notes from my final lecture of my course Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist, which I taught at Chapman University for a dozen years, most of which were more like deep life lessons rather than New Year’s Resolutions. So allow me here to offer some resolutions that you may or may not find helpful in constructing your own list, with the caveat that I am generally disinclined to give advice, and under the awareness that not everyone likes or makes resolution lists.
Almost all resolutions fail to some degree so treat them like goals at which to aim rather than firm commitments that must be met or else.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the First Law of Life: to expend energy and carve out pockets of order that lead to survival and flourishing. The universe doesn’t care about you so when things go bad don’t take it personally. Shit happens. Deal with it.
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the Bard presents his rendition of the the Law of Identity: A is A. “And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Thine own self is your A, which cannot also be non-A. Be true to yourself and know your limitations and adjust your goals accordingly, erring on the side of aiming a bit higher than expectations therein.
Be antifragile. More than being resilient, or standing strong against adversity, grow even stronger from tough times and stressful situations, and learn how to improve yourself as a result.
Be self-disciplined. Everyone is looking for a hack. There is no hack and no way around being self-disciplined. External motivations, like motivating yourself with rewards for changing your habits, will not last. The motivation must eventually come from within through discipline—do it even when you don’t want to.
Action is character. What you do is who you are. Be and act that person. Your habits reflect your discipline, and that builds your character.
Be your own therapist, life coach, self-help guru. As entropy takes it’s course bad things happen for no particular reason, so don’t blame others or yourself. Just regroup and try again. As the Buddha counseled: “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much.”
Don’t be Homer Simpson and don’t eat the marshmallow. (Would you rather have one marshmallow now or two in 15 minutes, in the famous experiment?) Delay gratification. Plan ahead. Extend your time horizon. Don’t discount the future too much. Remember what Homer Simpson said when Marge warned that he might regret the drinking binge he was about to go on: “That’s a problem for future Homer. Man, I don’t envy that guy.”
Don’t forget to live in the present moment. Marshmallows aside, planning for the greatest 100th birthday party anyone ever had may not be the wisest advice, given the demographics of lifespan. As you plan for the future remember to enjoy the now—the psychological state of being from one moment to the next that lasts around three seconds, moments that add up into minutes, hours, days, and weeks, all of which count in the here-and-now.
Be your own choice architect. If you’re on a diet and trying to lose weight, don’t agree to go out to a big dinner with friends thinking that you will be able to resist the temptation to eat and drink too much. Don’t go shopping during a big sale thinking you’ll just look around “for fun”, knowing that you’ll likely end up with something you don’t really need. Be your own far-sighted Planner, not the myopic Doer that lurks inside us all.
Diet and nutrition, food and drink: all things in moderation. Michael Pollan’s advice in The Omnivore’s Dilemma is good: “Eat a variety of food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Work out every day. Move your body, work the big muscles, get your heart rate up and blood circulating, breathing and sweating. Something. Anything—walk, hike, run, swim, cycle, lift weights, play a sport, whatever, but get out and do it as many days a week as you can, for any amount of time—some is better than none, more is better than some. As I say (and post on Strava), if you can’t go long, go short, but go! Don’t worry about time or distance or reps or whatever, just do something every day that you can.
Invest money to make it work for you. Slow but steady wins the day. Einstein understood the principle: “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it.” Invest $500 a month in a brokerage account for 20 years = $120,000. At a modest 8% rate of return, your account you will be worth $275,000, a net profit of $155,000. Despite inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment issues of the past year, in 2023 the S&P 500 was up 24% and Nasdaq climbed 43%, one of its best performances in two decades. Don’t bail during the down times or else you will miss the up turns.
Build strong social networks of family, friends, and community. Data from longevity studies reveals that they are worth more than exercise and diet for health, happiness, and a long life. Exercise lowers mortality risk by 33%; a happy marriage lowers it by 49%. Eating 6 or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables lowers mortality risk by 26%; having a large social network lowers it by 45%. Eating a Mediterranean diet lowers mortality risk by 21%; living with someone lowers it by 32%.
Be the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. William Ernest Henley’s 1920 poem Invictus was written when he was terminally ill, so it is all the more inspiring:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Michael Shermer is the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, and the host of The Michael Shermer Show. His many books include Why People Believe Weird Things, The Science of Good and Evil, The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on Earth. His latest book is Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational. His next book is: Truth: What it is, How to Find it, Why it Matters, to be published in 2025.
Glad to see other writers providing perspective on new years resolutions. Excellent poem.
Gotta love Mike Shermer! Skeptic and freethinker