Good morning everyone, welcome back to the Breakroom and our first post for 2026. While this might be pretty unoriginal, I wanted to use this chance to talk about New Year’s Resolutions. Historically many people fail to keep them, but I still find that they are important because it gives us a goal to strive for. I recall mine for 2025 was to get more active including doing yoga. I never did any yoga but we did get back to working out and I actually lost about 20 pounds. Since returning from vacation we went right into the holidays so I have had some trouble getting back into that routine.
Reading an article from NPR (which you can find here) evidently resolutions could technically be traced back thousands of years back to festivities in Rome. Prayers to old gods done at this time was meant to symbolize making a promise to them for the year to bless them in their endeavors. So while we now simply make a pledge on what we wish to strive for, it would have once been made with an offering to a god in exchange for helping this come true. Another cool piece of history was the “Vow of the Peacock.” This medieval tradition had knights reaffirm their pledge to chivalry going into the new year by placing their hand on a peacock. So this goes to show that resolutions are not a brand new phenomenon. The closing of one year into another represents a sense of renewal in us, hoping to help reinvent ourselves or strive to accomplish a goal1. And for those who follow it, I have been advised by a friend that astrology dictates January is meant to be a powerful month for those hoping to start a new project or make change.
You might recall that they have also done resolutions in Dunder Mifflin (just once, and it only lasted a day). Those resolutions were:
| Pam | Drink less caffeine |
| Jim | Bike more |
| Andy | Learn to cook for one |
| Angela | Make time for romance |
| Dwight | Meet a loose woman |
| Kevin | Eat more vegetables |
| Creed | Do a cartwheel |
| Michael | Floss |
| Oscar | Finish my living room |
| Gabe | Be less squeamish around people’s dogs and babies |
| Holly | Cross-Train |
| Ryan | Treat the world like art |
| Erin | Learn a new word everyday |
| Phyllis | Yoga lessons with Bob |
| Meredith | 2 cigarettes a day |
| Kelly | Get more attention by any means necessary |
| Darryl | Read more |
| Stanley | Be a better husband and boyfriend |
Most of these are really good resolutions and likely have been chosen by yourself or people you know! This year I decided I want to do multiple resolutions, and I do that for a few reasons. I want ones of various difficulty so that even if I am feeling unmotivated, there is likely something I can strive for to accomplish. I also like the idea of having resolutions for different parts of my life so I can work on different areas and feel like I am trying to better myself overall. And finally, I like the concept that the more resolutions you have the more likely you will close the year out having worked on at least one.
So what are my resolutions this year?
- Get back into working out routinely and focusing on my health, including finally starting yoga.
- Read more, I used to love reading a lot and I’ve gotten several new books so I want to read more this year.
- Advance my career, I hope to finally find a new job so I can take that next step.
- Take this blog to the next step, between the podcast and these posts I have options, I just need to devote more time to expanding upon them.
- Finally, expand my writing to work on other projects. I have several projects and concepts I have thought about and fleshed out all in my head, but have not attempted to put pen to paper. My goal is start working on them to actually see if they pan out.
I think 5 resolutions are a good number, and I hope to report back on how I have worked on them this year. What about you all? I would love to hear about how past resolutions have gone and what you have chosen to focus on going into 2026.
Share here or on Facebook, besides your resolution let us share tips on what we can do to stick to trying to work on these resolutions. Remember that it isn’t about accomplishing perfectly, but getting out there and trying our hardest.
I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy New Year. Until next week, I’ll be seeing you around the Breakroom!
- Treisman, R. (2025, December 31). Why do we make New Year’s resolutions? A brief history of a long tradition. NPR. Retrieved January 1, 2026, from https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5649767/new-years-resolutions-history ↩︎
