Architect Cliff Tan on resolutions:
These tasks are so unnatural to you, they are extra difficult to do and you’ll probably give up […] So, the trick is to understand your own tendencies and, instead of changing yourself, you change the systems around you.
My secret sentence for 2023 is: “Your life would not be better if you were different.” I’m wary of how self-improvement gets fetishized, especially at this time of year. (Not that I’m anti-resolution — you’re reading mine right now.) You can do whatever you want, but I think watching other people’s lives swamps us in habits we wish were ours. Even if those habits are totally counter to the natural grain of your life. Maybe you’re not going to the gym, in other words, because you don’t like the gym.
The second part of Tan’s message reflects another deeper fact about our habits. For instance, I bought my Traveler’s Notebook because I thought it would actualize me as a writer if I always had paper and a pen with me. I just never brought it with me, so I got a little sleeve and started using it to store my debit card and ID. Now I take it everywhere. Having a lifelong ambition for writing did nothing to motivate me, but changing my wallet out for a notebook did. It’s without question my favorite thing I own. Habits shape to our environment as much our ego. Probably more.
I’ll return to Mr. Tan if I ever get around to talking about feng shui. It’s one of my favorite examples of the explanative power of pseudoscience.