Season 5, Episode 11: Revisit Your New Year’s Resolutions from a Systems View
image credit | Juliette Jarvis
Season 5, Episode 11: Revisit Your New Year’s Resolutions from a Systems View
Panu and Thomas reflected on the passage of the winter season in Northern climes, lengthening daylight and earliest signs of spring. Thomas shared ways for listeners to revisit their New Year's goals and resolutions from a systems view – not just as singular actions but as ways of creating a healthy synergy in one's life. He highlighted that small changes – forgoing unhealthy food or drink, starting a new exercise plan, or doing a daily journal – can lead to broader changes in your life and relationships. Adding something demonstrably healthy will tend to beget health. Taking away something demonstrably unhealthy will tend to beget health. It’s the synergy. And further – resolutions should be seen as part of a larger system, where your personal health improvements influence and connect with broader social and environmental systems. This approach works because it reframes your resolutions as part of a larger, interconnected whole, making them feel more meaningful and impactful, which can motivate you to pursue them with greater commitment. And, it’s not too late to start.
He and Panu also validated pressures for political action in service of justice and human rights that listeners may be experiencing given threats to civil liberty in the US and other places. Can listeners imagine their individual impulses to greater health as part of their quest for societal health?
Links
J. M. Berger (26 Jan, 2026) Anatomy of Extremism: What ICE Is Revealing in Minnesota | The MIT Press Reader
Martin Niemöller, German Lutheran Pastor “First They Came…”
Transcript
Transcript edited for clarity and brevity.
Thomas Doherty: Well hello, I'm Thomas Doherty.
Panu Pihkala: I am Panu Pihkala.
Doherty: And welcome to Climate Change and Happiness. This is our podcast, a show for people around the globe who are thinking and feeling deeply about the personal side of climate change, other environmental and global issues, and particularly their emotional responses and their feelings and their coping. So we hold the space here for the inner game of this work.
I’m coming in as a clinical psychologist who's worked in this area for a number of years and Panu in Finland, an emotions researcher who's been doing a lot of the deep unpacking of a lot of these emotional concepts that's been useful for researchers and therapists so this is our podcast and we're speaking at the beginning of 2026 and coming into late January, early February, a really interesting time on the kind of seasonal calendar. Panu, how are you doing today and how's the weather in Helsinki?
Panu: Greetings from a very cold and snowy Helsinki. So with global warming, one never knows what the winter is going to be like in Helsinki. And even earlier on, because of the Baltic Sea, it was more random than in inland Finland. But now for practically a month, we've had sub-zero temperatures and snow.
Doherty: Mmm. Yeah.
Panu: And today in the morning it was minus 19 Celsius, so quite brisk, brisk weather but beautiful, high pressure, sunlight, white snow. So that gives energy to people and that's been good. How about you, Thomas? I know that you've been traveling quite intensively in relation to speaking about your book. Have you had any chance to recover from the travels yet?
Doherty: No, not really actually. You know, on another episode we'll talk in detail, but because of my new book I've got a chance to travel and do book talks and I've been in Europe. Over the last few months I've been in the US and also in Europe and also in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates for the Emirates Book Festival, which was a lovely...
Kind of, I would almost go so far as to say life-changing experience only because I got to spend time in a very different part of the world and meet people from around the world. And so I will say though, even with all the upheaval in the world right now, politically in the US, for example, and in Iran and just all the different things that we're dealing with, it proved my, my travels have proved my point that wherever I go, I run into these really gifted people that are quite dedicated and reflective about their lives and being ethical and working on climate change and helping the earth and being expressive. So I just really feel a sense of connection, you know, with people around the world. So it really counteracts my impulse to feel disillusioned about humanity and how effed up everything seems to be.
Panu: Hmm.
Doherty: So anyway, that's a short little place where I'm sitting. But you know, there's a lot of, it's an interesting time. I think right now, people start the new year with big ideas about what they want to do, or sometimes they do, and then here we are, get into, now we're into the year a little bit. Changing so I think it's just an interesting it's just an interesting time of the year to stop and reflect and check in and things like that so anyway to more formally answer your question I'm looking for some home time and to be here in my place.
Panu: Yeah, thanks for sharing sounds very understandable and looking forward some other time to get deeper into your travel experiences.
Doherty: Yeah. So we were talking about this idea of New Year's resolutions and what happens with them after a month or so. Is that something interesting to follow up on little bit?
Panu: Yeah, lots do that also. And then there's all the newspaper and social media discussions about how well or badly the following of those resolutions went.
Doherty: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, I thought, you know, I thought it would be a good thing to think about because I'm sure many of the listeners, you folks out there have, well, I will make a broad generalization that people that listen to this podcast are conscious of their health and conscious of being a healthy person, both physically and mentally, socially, spiritually, all those dimensions, and are trying to be a part of the solution, trying to be their best self. I think that's, like, you and I share that, and I think our listeners share that, too. So I'm just imagining a lot of listeners either had goals in their life already or started the new year with a sense of wanting to take on a health behavior or let go of something or add something, which is totally natural and healthy. And it does support, as you say, culturally. This is kind of a meme in the news cycle about resolutions. And I think the shadow side of that, think, is that it's easy to make fun of people when they're trying to change, make fun of people when they're trying to be healthier, and kind of almost cut them down and say, we'll see these resolutions don't work.
And it's superficial and it's fake. But I think it's important to get underneath the superficiality of it and really understand it, because it is an impulse to being healthy. And people like a fresh start and an ability to cut through some of the old habits to start a new one. So I think we have to be really compassionate to ourselves. But I've seen in my work with people as a psychologist and a therapist, we talk about this a lot. But can I share a little bit about what I've learned about this?
Panu: Yeah, that would be very interesting.
Doherty: Teah, yeah. I mean, my latest thinking about it is that, you know, when you're thinking about New Year's resolutions, it's not only about the action, like the singular action, like, I'm gonna do, in the US, there's a thing about,or actually internationally doing like a dry January where people like for, know, take a break from it using any alcohol.
Panu: Tipaton tammikuu in Finnish. Tipaton tammikuu which means dropless January, literally translated.
Doherty: I like it. That's better. A dropless January. You know, and apparently that started from a woman who was training for a marathon or something and it became a meme. But it's actually remarkably common and it speaks to people's, well, speaks to the amount of alcohol people have, but it also, people are realizing there's a lot of impacts to alcohol and oddly enough, younger generations are using much less alcohol and people are much more conscious about alcohols, negative effects, cancer, and things like that. But that's just one example of a New Year's resolution. It could be to exercise more, to be more physically fit, or to find a new relationship, or to change your job, or to fix up your home.
And those are all healthy, I think the problem in society is that people take it linearly and focus on the action. And so the success is predicated on whether you do the resolution or not, how long, so-called give up on it or surrender and so there's this impulse like to say “I'll just just surrender to society” that's not the right way to think about it. it's about the synergy you know, it's this it's a synergy because your life is a system so like when you change one thing, one small change can spark systemic change and I think that's the way to think about it. So listeners if you did have a resolution then think about what you were trying to do and how it affected your larger life because that's where the change is really.
Like for example if someone did try to do a dry january and not drink alcohol, then if you don't drink alcohol, then you have to do something else. You have to have something else to drink. You have to experiment with other enjoyable beverages. But if you don't drink, then it changes your body, and your body's not processing the alcohol and all the sugar and all the effects there in your brain. So it'll often change how people sleep, change their sleep patterns. They'll have more or less energy. They might need less other drugs. Like if someone's drinking a lot, then they don't sleep well. Then in the morning they have to drink a lot of coffee or tea to caffeinate themselves. And so that changes that. And then you might be more inspired to exercise because you're feeling healthier and then you exercise more.
It's that synergy that's really the key. And it could be keeping a journal all as your resolution or going to a yoga class You know or fitness class or playing an instrument doesn't really matter, but it changes your life. So adding something. I mean my general rule of thumb I think is that just like with cooking if you add a good ingredient to the recipe It will make the recipe better, a good healthy, you know fresh ingredient or if you take away something that's not good, then it will make the recipe better. you know, that's the goal. health is really this combination of things. So, you know, it's the synergy. So it's not too late to come back to this.
Panu: Mmm.
Doherty: You know, even now in late January, early February, this is actually the time where whatever information you gain from your life change, then you can actually act on it. So like the resolution January is like the test run. So anyway.
Panu: Yeah, it can be a return to resolutions February. And anyway, making the resolutions reflects your values and there may be very valuable commitments there.
So that's also something. And when we go into environmental and climate behavior, that commitment is highly important. And there will be ups and downs anyway in the practical choices we make, even though we make the commitments. But if we stay true to those values and commitments, that's a lot.
Doherty: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And in fact, I think each season brings its own health invitations too, because when it's certainly when it's the least in the Northern Hemisphere, when it's the spring and the weather warms and, you know, I just saw a video yesterday from an outdoor therapist in the UK and was talking about the green man archetype, know, the green man story in Celtic countries. But, you know, you start to see the green man pop out when the leaves are starting to, are starting to, you know, the little buds and things like that. But anyway, spring warm, warm weather that just sparks people to be more active and outdoorsy.
So that's an invitation. The summer is an invitation to yet another thing. The fall is an invitation to another, you know, another kind of set of behaviors and then the winter. So each season, each season has its invitations to health. But the key is like, don't give up. You can still start and it's not about the resolution only. It's about how it changes your life. If anything, it just makes you more conscious of autopilot behaviors, you know,
Panu: Mm-hmm.
Doherty: When I was traveling, I got into a, and when I went to Europe and Italy, they have a lovely, many lovely traditions of drinking, drinking a aperitif or all these kinds of really nice things. And then you get, you get totally used to it very quickly. You know, your body habituates to these things and then, you know, can you, can you shake up your, your nervous system? Essentially you become more conscious, you know, cause we, we try and you try something new and it's addicting and we're conscious of it for a while. And then suddenly it just becomes autopilot behavior.
Panu: Yeah. that can easily happen. Health and ethics are quite closely connected here. I know many people whose New Year resolutions are ethical decisions, trying to do something more or better for the world. If we take these concepts such as one health, for example, which pays attention to how the health of the planet and people and other creatures are all connected.
This connection between health and ethics and resolutions becomes ever more prominent. So hopefully that can also be sparked different times of the year. And I know that we both follow the old rhythms of nature and the festivals associated with them. So there's very interesting content in them also in relation to what kind of ethical questions and basically themes about life tend to arise in a given season.
Doherty: Mm-hmm. Yeah, what kind of what are some of the ethical things you've experienced people working on?
Panu: Yeah, some people might commit to giving more to charity, for example, or trying to commit to doing voluntary work for the greater good more regularly. And that, course, is often powerful if you can form a habit towards the target of the resolution. So if it becomes part of the daily or weekly rhythm, it's much more probable that one keeps on doing it. But as we have been talking here, it's always, of course, also possible to return them if we fail to follow them. So those kinds of ethical things. in Finland, the Christian tradition is much present in culture.
And this traditional half-day between winter solstice and spring equinox. It's called Laskiainen. So it's been taken over by the idea of Christian time of fasting and Shrove Tuesday.
Doherty: Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.
Panu: Is the most common name. It also has an element of going downhill on snow with sleds and different kinds of nice things we've developed in the Nordic countries that you can go downhill with. So it's like going down, descending traditionally to the fasting period, but also celebrating that it's like a carnival in its literal meaning. Saying goodbye to eating meat. That's the etymological root of the Carnival and Shrove Tuesday is an example of that. So people's resolutions to do good, sometimes in Finland, are also linked with this fasting period. And for example, the Protestant Lutheran Church in Finland has been trying to advocate for an ecological time of fasting. So that it would have a pro-environmental behaviour dimension. That's not a very popular or widespread thing in Finnish culture, but some people do it.
Doherty: Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, that's that's what's lovely about all these holidays could you get the Mardi Gras Carnival holiday here and the yeah the Ash Wednesday and in the Catholic faith and lent Yeah, yeah, I think all of these speak to a really human tendency and need to repent, to recover, to, well, to celebrate, but also to duty, you know, what is our duty? In my book I talk about, your duty is literally like you know what is due? like what is due from you to the world? And so this conversation does move you know rather quickly to the social and political realm and justice.
Panu: Hmm. Mmm.
Doherty: And which in a natural way actually because I think then systemically people move from changes in their own body and their own small circle of health to like what is my ethical duty to the larger world. that's, you know, listeners, that's perfectly normal too, because again, from a systems perspective, these are all nested, linked up systems. My physical health is part of the larger system of nature and my family and community is part of larger social systems and political systems, national systems.
Panu: Mm-hmm.
Doherty: It is all connected. It can seem really confusing. But if you have that, you know, in my book, I talk about, know, people have this scale vertigo where there's, you know, there's so many scales of things, they're just dizzy with, with the news and different levels of things. And so that's, that's, that's like level two, that's more advanced New Year's resolution work, right? Because you realize, okay, how can you understand your small change, like whether it be something as mundane as writing in a journal each morning or walking more or exercising more or taking a break from alcohol or sugar or something like that. How does that, how can that possibly link to the state of the world? But it does because we're part of the world, we're part of nature and so when we become healthier, the world around us becomes healthier and then it, practically it gives us energy, more energy to be out in the world doing things. So it is all linked together. So it's not selfish, it's not selfish or egotistical to work on your personal health.
But you know for some people, know, the drive is to do more social work. In my book, you know, in the action section, you know, I'm trying to help people do, you know, as I say in my book, know, unburdening your conscience frees up mental energy for taking action. But what then? One of the most common barriers to environmental action is lack of clarity about what actions can have a true impact. Right. So then we then then we start to question, does it matter? You know, is it worth it? You know, my actions. But that's where this idea of ceremonial behaviors comes in, which I talk about, which is that, you know, some of these actions are ceremonial. They don't they're not going to change world by themselves. Like if you recycle, know, or exercise or recycle, or plant a garden, or go to a march, you know, or do any any of these things. But they're ceremonial in the sense that they do stand for your values. They're a way for you to broadcast your values publicly and stand up for yourself. So the metaphor is like if someone's doing martial arts, they might go into their dojo where they do their training and there's a ritual to bow before you go into the dojo or to the practice space or someone goes into a church, might, like a Christian church or a Catholic church, they might kneel or in the Catholic face, they might have the holy water and cross themselves or take their hat off in a church, all these kinds of things. Those are just ceremonial behaviors, but they stand for respect and value. So that actually means a lot.
Panu: Yeah, they work on people, that's true. Yeah, so they might not cause very much visible change in the world, but they may be linked with who you are and how you are in the world. So there may be sort of hidden power in them, even though they may seem purely ceremonial. This could lead into discussions about various things. In life and also religion including rituals and ceremonies and so on but perhaps we'll go there one day. We have been touching upon that in some of the previous episodes also.
Doherty: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, to tackle that for in my book for people, I, you know, I differentiate between ceremonial behaviors, which are things that we do that might not necessarily change the world, but do stand for our values, and we shouldn't dismiss them or belittle them. And then low-hanging-through, which is sort of behaviors that are fairly easy to do right around us that we can do those things that are just, you know, right there. And you know, and then real change is where we really have to dedicate ourselves to making change. you know, low hanging fruit might be just saying, my friend goes walking every morning, so I'll join them on their walk, or I'll join a club, or I'll do something that's fairly easy and easy to get into. But then the real change is like, okay, I'm really pushing myself, whether it be an exercise routine or really going through a detox from some substance like sugar or alcohol or really making a life change, letting go of things that are painful to let go of.
I see a clear a clear analogy to what's happening around politics in the US, particularly around the crisis in Minnesota with the really heavy-handed federal paramilitaries, know, rounding up people in Minnesota and the protests and then the deaths and the shootings. You know, it's really awoken a lot of a lot of questions and crises in the United States a lot of a lot of ongoing crises are reaching different boiling points. And for some people, the ceremonial behavior is looking at the news, talking about it, potentially going to a march, or joining things that are easy to join. And then the real change is where people really will put themselves in a place of danger or try to obstruct violence and things like that, or change the government. And that's a personal choice. That's a personal choice level, going from the ceremonial things to the actual easy things to the hard things. But that can happen when we devote ourselves and take time. I think the danger is to avoid what I call theater, or in the book I call it climate theater, because it's about climate change, was basically pretending, acting as if you're making a change when you're really staying in your comfort zone. So that's one of the hard personal questions is that, how do I judge my actions? Am I being more theatrical about it or am I really devoting myself and putting myself into a change zone?
Panu: Yeah, and there might be of course different levels between the low hanging fruits and the hard stuff. And then requiring various levels of commitment and courage. And people in Europe, including Finland, have also been following closely what's going on in Minnesota and Minneapolis. And that takes a lot of courage to go to the streets and try to work for the greater goods. there also the dynamic is present that if everybody thinks that why would I be needed, then there is no group power. But then this old question of the interconnectedness between individual action and collective action, it requires the individuals to get out there and then you have collective action, which can be very, very, very powerful.
Doherty: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so, you know, we'll wrap it up for today, but this, just to realize that your personal resolutions, you can recover these and they're systemic and they do lead, they do link to your larger conditions in the world. And if you have questions about this, feel free to reach out. can find us at climate, hello at climatechangeandhappiness.com,
I'll put a link in the show notes to a really interesting story about in-groups and out-groups around extremists, because we have a lot of extremism in the US right now, violence. you can be in the in-group of the extremists in the sense of being like a white person in relation to like a white supremacist, but you can also, as a white person, resist the white supremacist and the violence that they're doing. But then that puts you in danger. And so it's kind of interesting to think about all that. But you had a poem that you were thinking about earlier. Maybe we can remind ourselves of that poem as we finish up, Panu
Panu: Yeah, I've been thinking about it in relation to what's going on in the States. So that's the poem by Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran pastor. He was thinking about the events in Germany in the 1930s. And I know that this is written in places in public in the US also. So this is how it goes.
First, they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
So with gratitude to all the courageous ones.
Doherty: Yeah. Thanks, Panu. Yeah, I haven't heard that poem in a while and it is unfortunately highly relevant right now in the world. So can you stand up for yourself in various ways? know, the message is if you stand up, people in power need to stand up for people that are powerless, I guess you could say. And if we keep giving away our power, then eventually someone will have power over us.
So these are huge questions. These are big world-changing questions, but we focused personally today listeners on your own life and realizing it's not too late for you to recover your impulse to health and lessons you've learned from any resolutions and remember is the system. So again, even certainly with the politics as well small actions small healthy actions can grow and have systemic effects. And so it's your freedom to decide what level you want to work on, but encouraging everyone to try to be their best self and to do it in connection with other people that can recognize it, just like and I recognize our efforts together.
So Panu, I'll let you go into your evening and taking care of your boys. And I'm going to get into my day and everyone be well.
Panu: Take care.
