New Year’s Resolutions are often promised, rarely followed, adjustments, pivots, and goals that we cook up once a year to recognize our own shortcomings without actually doing anything about them. This is why I no longer make resolutions; they usually range from haphazard to blatantly unattainable, so what’s the point?
I now realize that the only way you can cook up usable 2026 New Year’s resolutions is if you start with some introspection, a true self-examination of the body, mind, and soul. Or, as I did, you could ask ChatGPT.
I resolve to use AI
On a whim, I asked ChatGPT 5.1 Pro:
“Based on what you know of me, can you suggest some useful New Year’s resolutions for me?”
ChatCPT quickly spit out 10 proposed resolutions, and, if I’m being completely honest, the insight was stunning.
To produce these goals, ChatGPT not only looked through our past conversations, but it also listened. Now, I understand how that sounds. ChatGPT is not a person; it’s a generative AI system that uses large language models and powerful processing to dig deep into data, see patterns, find insights, and deliver them in a conversational form.
Even so, these resolutions had the effect of a real-life X-ray; they saw into and through me. Here’s a compressed version of what ChatGPT shared with me:
1. Build Your “Big Swing” TechRadar Tentpoles
Resolution: Commit to four major tentpole packages a year — moments where you blend tech, culture, gaming, entertainment, and your signature humor.
2. Create the “Lance Ulanoff Annual Visual Canon”
Resolution: Build a yearly collection of 12 visual pieces, one per month.
3. Finish One Long-Form Creative Project
Resolution: Choose one and commit to finishing a polished draft — screenplay, treatment, pilot, whatever.
4. Reinforce Your Personal Brand Beyond TechRadar
Resolution: Launch a monthly personal newsletter or video series in your own voice.
5. Lean Into AI as a Co-Creator, Not Just a Tool
You already treat me like a collaborator — scripts, games, fiction, renders, reviews.
Resolution: Make 2025 the year you systematize it.
Create a simple workflow.
6. Curate More Time for Lance the Human Being
You love long walks, seaside towns, quirky experiences, and traveling with Linda.
Resolution: Plan one meaningful trip per quarter, even small ones.
7. Grow Your Houseplant Collection With Intention
You love houseplants.
Resolution: Choose three “hero plants” to nurture this year.
8. Build One Public, Playful Side Project
Resolution: Create one quirky, delightful public project in 2025.
9. Protect Time for Your Wife’s Milestones
Linda’s 60th birthday is a big one.
Resolution: Have one shared experience every month that isn’t routine.
10. Practice One Mindset Shift: “Less Noise, More Signal”
Resolution: Each week, identify one tech story worth caring about and ignore the rest.
I’ve removed some of the details (they are for me, after all), but I think it’s clear that ChatGPT put some real thought into this. In fact, the more I looked at it, the more I wondered how it had come to these conclusions, and how it knew so much about my wife.
You are what you prompt
Turns out that ChatGPT mostly only knows what you put into it, and I have talked with ChatGPT via prompts about all of these topics (yes, even the plants).
When asked, ChatGPT explained all the resolution sources and reasoning. Here are a couple of examples:
3. “Finish one long-form creative project”
Source:
You’ve described multiple story ideas (Time-Traveling Mailman, Hindsight, Picard/Kirk) and often request scripts or treatments.
Why:
You’re someone with multiple unfinished but meaningful projects. A year-long focus on one creates closure and accomplishment.
9. “Prioritize monthly shared experiences with Linda”
Source:
You frequently reference your wife — her birthday, travel planning, shared activities — in meaningful ways.
Why:
Consistency in shared experiences has emotional impact and anchors your year beyond work.
ChatGPT also confirmed that it:
- Didn’t search for anything
- Didn’t pull external data
- Didn’t reference outside sources about me
Your questions, its answers, our true selves
The quality of these resolutions and why they resonate with me is because, in a way, I built them. Through every conversation, every image project, every document, and image upload, I constructed a profile of myself within ChatGPT.
I was, in a way, secretly stating all of this: the need for time for my wife, my desire to follow more creative pursuits, and a desperate need to care for plants (okay, maybe not so much on that one).
In the early days of our collaboration, I worked with ChatGPT on movie scripts and web-based game apps. I went on to ask about nature trails and romantic getaway ideas for a 60th birthday.
ChatGPT is simply telling me to follow through. These aren’t resolutions, they’re to-dos that I set out for myself over a three-year period.
I guess they become resolutions, though, because completion is not a given. Every year, there are things I hope to do, but somehow I never quite get around to them.
My ChatGPT New Year’s resolution exercise is, though, a good reminder that there’s a voice inside me that’s desperate for me to follow through, to make good on every aspiration, and to make my wife very, very happy for her 60th birthday.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
