4 min readJust now

–

Leadership through acceptance + teaching history before TikTok does (Issue #410)

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Physical health resolutions may make you wince, but they’re a fact of life every January. Medium writers share their unique perspectives every day that can be inspiring to whatever your individual goals may be. A theme we’ve been seeing: To make those goals attainable, make the “distance” from your current habits to the new ones as small as you possibly can.

For readers looking to ground fitness goals in medical reality,

shares findings from a year spent personally testing the research-backed health tweaks he offers patients, from diet to daily movement. He concluded that habits stick when they are simple rules rather than ongoing discussions: “If the healthy option requires prep, it becomes a weekend fantasy. If it requires a tin opener, it becomes lunch.”

For a practical take,

writes about how buying a used exercise bike reshaped his fitness routine. When driving to the gym in the winter felt impossible, he put the bike in the basement, where he already spent his evenings watching football, and rode during games. “The hardest part of discipline is distance,” Gresham writes. “Distance is where habits go to die. Distance is where good intentions get mugged.” Moving the bike closer became a broader mantra: move the better choices closer, and make the healthy decisions easier to reach.

Family doctor

reached a similar conclusion after her own fitness routine fell to the wayside, finding that getting back on track works best through gradual restarts, joint-friendly movement, and changes that fit the body you have now. She also draws on studies showing that diet and physical activity in midlife are strongly linked to healthier aging and lower dementia risk.

Marathon runner

likewise stresses the importance of making exercise emotionally manageable. During his first marathon training cycle, long, hot runs drained his excitement and led him to skip workouts out of dread and guilt. He finished the marathon and went on to complete two more, but only after easing his runs and loosening his expectations so training no longer destroyed his desire to keep running. Having just signed up for his fourth marathon, he now knows that finishing depends on adjusting the work so it doesn’t push him away from running.

And a quick guide to some of the many fitness publications on the platform: In Fitness And In Health is Medium’s largest collection of science-based health and fitness advice. Wise & Well and Health Management offer stories on mental health, wellness, and exercise, while Body Wisdom is all about the mind-body connection. Interested in more movement through sports? There are a host of options, such as Runner’s Life and the Fighter’s Thread. If chronic pain makes exercise challenging, check out ChronicallyOverit and Chronically Ridiculous for support and advice.

What’s worked for you when it comes to making new habits stick? Respond and let us know, and we’ll highlight the best insights next week.

—

Other great Medium reads:

• A reading list often doubles as a personal essay. Author logged every book she read in 2025, documenting a year spent offline more than usual, feeling isolated, rewatching favorite films, contracting COVID, and selling a book she was still in the middle of writing.
• Catfishers are getting better at mimicking trusted systems. nearly lost his entire digital life afterscammers used real Apple security alerts, automated calls, and a legitimate Apple Support case to convince him his account was under attack. His advice? “Stay skeptical, verify independently, and protect those 2FA codes like your digital life depends on it… because it does.”
• Security leaders face endless pressure to fix problems they don’t control, from shifting threats to vendor failures and organizational culture. urges cybersecurity leaders to follow the logic of the Serenity Prayer: accept what cannot be changed, act on what can be influenced, and learn to tell the difference, then focus resources accordingly — peace of mind comes from drawing clear boundaries around responsibility, then standing by the choices that follow.
• The internet doesn’t wait for lesson plans. High school teacher argues that after reports that the U.S. captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, classrooms had to address the event immediately or risk letting TikTok frame it for students. He stresses grounding discussion in credible reporting, constitutional authority, and historical precedent, showing students how to interrogate power while events are still unfolding.

Your weekly dose of inspiration to just chill a bit more:

“Let change happen.”

A simple mantra

picked up from his meditation teacher to help quell spiraling anxiety during a period of major life upheaval.