Jump off the merry-go-round of binge and purge and don't try so hard in 2010

For most people, 1 January represents a time of potential change and renewal. New Year's resolutions make the promise of a new you – a non-smoking you, a thin you, a good you, a sober you.

The promise is a lie. One statistic puts the number of failed resolutions at 92 per cent. I would say that was optimistic. But we keep on trying, because we can't think of what else to do in order to change ourselves. And clearly, we're not good enough as we are.

It's a real double bind. If willpower doesn't work, what does? I've tried to work out the answer to that question for many years – since like everyone else I subscribe to the fantasy of a "better me" – and finally came up with an answer. Stop trying.
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This is not the same as saying "give up". It's simply about approaching the problem from a different angle. "Trying" is a concept that is intimately tied up with the idea of "willpower", and that idea of willpower is so deeply entrenched in our consciousness, that we can't see anymore that it's just an idea – not a concrete reality.