Entropy

No one wakes up intending to decay. But decay does not require intention.

It’s a New Year, and if you’re seeing this, I’m proud of you for making it this far.

In the usual spirit of a New Year, we all take out to write out plans, create vision boards, turn new leaves and all the other things we tend to do.

But then there’s Entropy…

Entropy is like someone in the corner of the room, arms crossed, watching you write your New Year’s resolutions. It doesn’t interrupt. It waits for you to leave, takes a picture and waits for you when all that New Year ginger dies down. Entropy is a seasoned hater. It has seen this movie before. By March, it knows you’ll be “really busy” and “getting back to it next week.” Entropy is a quiet saboteur. It doesn’t ruin your life dramatically. It just loosens screws, knowing that the eventual breakdown is on the way. Entropy keeps receipts — skipped habits, neglected responsibilities, every “it’s not that deep”.

Entropy isn’t the villain though. It’s a universal law, so it runs in the background whether you pay attention or not.

In simple terms, Entropy just means that if you leave things alone, they slowly fall apart. Rooms get messy. Phones get cluttered. Bread goes stale. The universe is basically allergic to maintenance. And unfortunately, your life is not exempt from this rule.

You are never “static.” Every part of your existence—your body, your mind, your relationships—is either improving or deteriorating at every moment. If you do nothing this year, your fitness won’t stay “okay.” It’ll quietly downgrade. Your bank account won’t behave out of respect. It’ll leak in small, forgettable transactions. Your skills won’t patiently wait for you to return. They’ll rust. Not because you’re lazy or broken—just because entropy is doing what it does best.

Most New Year’s resolutions are very optimistic. “I’m going to start waking up at 5am”. “I’m going to read 52 books”. “This is my year”. Which is cute. But it assumes the world is neutral and all you need is motivation. Motivation has a short attention span. Entropy has time.

So what that means is that effort isn’t optional. You’re going to spend energy this year whether you like it or not. Time will also move along as it is also a constant. The only question is whether you spend it intentionally, or spend it cleaning up messes you ignored for too long.

That’s why motivation is unreliable. Motivation wants fireworks. Entropy plays the long game. What actually works is showing up in boring ways. Doing the same helpful thing again. And again. And again. Long after the excitement has packed its bags.

So the right posture for the new year isn’t hype. It’s mild seriousness (as your baseline at least). A calm awareness that things fall apart if you don’t tend to them, and a quiet decision to tend to them anyway.

The question you should have this year shouldn’t be: “How do I reinvent my life?”But rather: “What will quietly fall apart if I stop paying attention?” “What will I lose if I do nothing?”

Life requires deliberate energy. You must push against the natural tendency towards disorder. Because if you neglect the action required, you’re in fact making your life worse.

Two things to have in mind is: Consistent Execution and Having a Vision.

Small actions, repeated daily, act like maintenance. They don’t have to be dramatic. They just have to be reliable. Execution is less about motivation and more about showing up often enough that decay never gets the upper hand. But execution alone isn’t enough. Without a vision, effort scatters.

Vision gives your actions a direction. It tells you what matters and what doesn’t. When you have a clear picture of where you’re going, your daily actions naturally organize themselves. Decisions become easier. Distractions lose their pull. You stop wasting energy on things that don’t move you forward.

The year ahead won’t fall apart all at once. It will drift, slowly, in the direction you reinforce. So pick a direction worth drifting toward.

Then take one small step in that direction every day.