- 01 Jan, 2026 *
One of the best things I ever did was ditch New Year’s resolutions. For a long time I just played along, giving some generic answer if anyone asked. Now I just wave it off. If pressed my new year’s resolution is "Do more good stuff."
An easy way to do more good stuff is get into a virtuous cycle. The opposite of the more well-known vicious cycle, or circle.
For instance.
The more I write the the more progress I make and the more I improve. Progress and improvement is motivating, makes me feel good, I’m getting somewhere, so the more…
- 01 Jan, 2026 *
One of the best things I ever did was ditch New Year’s resolutions. For a long time I just played along, giving some generic answer if anyone asked. Now I just wave it off. If pressed my new year’s resolution is "Do more good stuff."
An easy way to do more good stuff is get into a virtuous cycle. The opposite of the more well-known vicious cycle, or circle.
For instance.
The more I write the the more progress I make and the more I improve. Progress and improvement is motivating, makes me feel good, I’m getting somewhere, so the more I am motivated to write and the more progress I make, and so on.
My wife has been going to personal trainer sessions. She feels strong, good. Because she feels good and has been working hard she makes good choices about food and getting more exercise. This makes her feel strong and good. The cycle goes up and up.
Because it’s winter and also I knew I’d be giving a lot of lifts I made a real effort to sort out my old banger of a car. New tyres, new windscreen wipers, replaced a cracked wing mirror, cleaned in and out. Because it looks and feels good I take all the rubbish out immediately and clean the windows properly and such. (It was not, in the grand scheme of things, ever that bad, but enough to bother me.) Yes, entropy will occur but I can remind myself how nice it felt and kickstart another virtuous cycle sooner.
It works on larger scales too, like getting more people cycling.
The better I do the more motivated I feel, the more I want to do it, the better I get because I’m doing it more. It’s an easy feedback loop. Like I said in my washing machine creativity post, I just have to insert myself and let it take me away.