Finally -- the New Year is Here
Friends!
Happy New Year!
Never in my life have I put more weight into wishing humanity a Happier New Year. And never have I wanted an existing year to leave us sooner.
There is obviously nothing MAGIC about January 1st. It’s just another day. It doesn’t transform us. You’re no different on your birthday than you were the day before. But these events do symbolize something important. Dates and times are like mile markers on our journey of life.
New Year's to me has always been my favorite time of the year. The holiday season is like a season of new beginnings. It affords us an opportunity— a respite — to reflect and pause. To consider where we are right now. What we like. What we are grateful for. And what we don’t like. And therefore, what we’d like to improve on. We make commitments and resolutions, and we turn the page.
History doesn’t repeat itself. But it does rhyme. So does life. There are waves, rhythms, and melodies that shape the year. Seasons add to it. The earth around the sun and the moon around the earth. We are in constant movement, but we always arrive where we started. Some call it the circle of life, and it's all a representation of the infinite nature of energy. Which leads me to one of my favorite poems:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
— T.S. ELIOT
So, there is both hope and comfort in the New Year. Roots AND wings. It’s liberating, yet not without some strings attached. It’s perfect. We love the new, but not without the old that got us here. And we like the old, but not without the promise of the new.
This New Year’s, I want to wish humanity a better future. During 2020, we all got punched in the face. Very hard. I do hope it was the wake-up call we all needed, because the pandemic revealed the underlying problems of our current culture. A tiny little virus almost brought the world to a halt. It exposed underlying structural weaknesses in all societies. From divisive and sclerotic political systems to underlying inequities and unhealthfulness in our broader population.
We can do better than this. We must do better than this. And I believe we will do better than this.
My own commitment for 2021, which I hope many of you can share, is to focus on my diet. And I don’t mean just food. I believe there are 3 consumption patterns we all must better curate, better balance, and better digest: Food, Folks, and Facts.
Food - you are what you eat (eats)
We are just one piece of a food chain. What we eat depends on what we eat eats. If you spray a vegetable with nasty chemicals, it’s bad! If an animal eats a poor diet, you eat a poor diet. You get the point. That’s obvious. But what is less obvious is that we have a metabolic epidemic that makes people radically more susceptible to all kinds of diseases, including COVID. Our current food system and eating behaviors MUST be changed. Every year in America 3-5 times (depending on which research you believe) MORE people die prematurely from entirely preventable diseases than from COVID this year. It is estimated that a whopping 5.8% of the overall GDP relates to chronic diseases, most of which could be avoided by lifestyle choices primarily food, stress, sleep, and exercise. But, we have no stimulus packages, no debates, and hardly any protest around it. But it’s also larger than us. There are other benefits. A better food system will also help to counteract the negative effects of soil erosion, fight climate change, and create jobs. Plus, it might save about 5-10% of GDP in healthcare spending. That’s significantly more than we spend on our entire defense budget (in the U.S.).
Folks - you are who you are with
It’s a well-known (but under-appreciated) fact that we are NOT that different from the average of the five to ten people we spend the most time with. Balancing your food diet must be supplemented with balancing your social diet. If you want to be happy, spend more time with happy people. If you want to laugh more, spend more time with funny people. (Thanks, Larry!) If you want to learn more, spend more time with curious people. Take stock. Inspire the people you are currently spending time with to do what you want more of. If you make New Year’s Resolutions that involve some changes in your own behavior, make sure that the people you spend most time with are aware, committed to similar changes, and will support you. Otherwise, changes won’t stick. Social reinforcement is everything.
Facts - you believe what you are told
If your media consumption is monotonous and only gives you a very narrow set of ideas, you will, too, be narrow-minded. You will ultimately be repeating what that channel tells you. It’s a dangerous echo chamber. Make sure you consume a balanced diet of information. Read papers, listen to podcasts, and watch TV shows that tell you something you don’t know. If you aren’t listening to or reading something that makes you a bit uncomfortable every day, then you probably aren’t on a good diet. It’s like food. You can’t just eat what you love. You need broccoli, too! Your perspective should be broad and diverse. It doesn’t mean you need to agree. But, at least you will know what other people are thinking. Which makes you more human.
I am committing myself to these three diets for 2021. I can do better on all three. But, I am lucky and incredibly grateful that I have a fantastic family, an unbelievable group of close friends, and increasingly, this community of “elevation supporters.” Writing this blog weekly has been therapeutic for me. I do hope it has provided an occasional value to you, too.
Here are a few things to go deeper on that I’ve found along the way:
This podcast with my friend Dr. Mark Hyman and Nina Teicholz is very informative. There are two main points to consider with our dietary guidelines. First, they work. And they matter. Since they were introduced, they have changed how America eats. Secondly, they are wrong. They are designed for metabolically healthy individuals. But only 20-40% (depending on who you ask) are metabolically healthy. So why design a food pyramid for less than half of the population? Not good. Also, if you want to read more facts on the scope of our poor food choices read chapter 1 in Dr. Hyman’s great book Food Fix (or, of course the entire book!)
This is a case for optimism for 2021 from the ever so thoughtful Andrew Sullivan. Hope you can access it. If you want to subscribe to a well-balanced media diet, it is a good recommendation. He provides a weekly Friday read that is almost always CENTER OF THE ROAD, where he criticizes both sides thoughtfully and passionately.
If you are interested in the science behind Social Contagion, please watch Professor Nicholas Christakis’ TED talk here
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff have written a book partly about the importance of being challenged. Here is their book, and here is a good Atlantic article about the book. And this is a short media interview that talks about this, and why we have to be more tolerant, more inconvenienced, and why there is great value to be had from engaging with differing points of view.
I have mentioned the media initiative Persuasion before, which is a very helpful newsletter that writes stories from "both sides." Here is their recent blog on cancel culture and here is a summary of their purpose and how to sign up. It’s an easy way to sign up for their newsletters. They are a fast and convenient way to “eat” a more diverse media diet.
And last, but NOT least: For those who want to read long-form journalism about a broader perspective on both social problems and opportunities, as well as just beautiful writing, please see this useful opinion piece on this year's Sydney Awards by David Brooks.
I wish you and your families the best year of your lives in 2021. Let’s make it so. Together.
With love, gratitude, and humility.
Happy New Year!
Ps. For my Swedish audience, I made a podcast interview with PenserPodden which was released Friday. For convenience, I am posting it here.