The Long View

Begin With Direction, Not Resolutions

• Dr Sunil Kumar • Season 1 • Episode 1

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New year, new you is a catchy slogan that rarely survives real life. We open the door to a calmer, sturdier approach: choose direction over resolutions and build systems that fit the week you actually live. Drawing on years of lifestyle medicine and coaching, we unpack why change so often collapses under stress, deadlines, illness, and family demands—and how small, well-chosen shifts compound when they align with your environment.

We talk through the pillars of sustainable health: movement you can maintain, nutrition that nourishes, sleep you protect, stress you regulate, and relationships that buffer the load. Then we widen the lens to work. Burnout doesn’t stem from weak willpower; it stems from misaligned systems that push output and starve recovery while tying identity to performance. By asking how you want to feel about your work ten years from now, you start designing rhythms, boundaries, and recovery that support long-term creativity and excellence.

You’ll leave with three fast prompts that create immediate clarity without pressure: identify one unsustainable “success,” pick one small shift that makes life easier to live, and picture five years of the status quo to test your trajectory. We also share what’s ahead for The Long View—solo reflections and grounded conversations on health, work, burnout, leadership, identity, and modern life—always focused on perspective over hype. If the annual sprint has left you tired and second-guessing, this is your invitation to a truer direction and patterns kind enough to repeat.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs a gentler start, and leave a review with the one small shift you’re choosing today.

Thank you for listening to The Long View with Dr Sunil Kumar.

If this episode resonated, take a moment to follow the podcast, leave a review, or share it with someone who might benefit from a longer perspective.

New episodes are released regularly.
Until next time — take the long view.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to the Long View. If you are listening to this on the first day of 2026, I want to begin by saying this. I am not here to talk to you about resolutions. I am here to talk to you about direction. Because most people don't fail at change, they fail at perspective. So every January we repeat the same ritual. New goals, new promises, new pressure. Eat better, exercise more, be more productive, fix everything now. And yet by February, many people feel tired, guilty, and quietly disappointed. Not because they lack discipline, but because they're trying to sprint through a marathon. So why resolutions fail? Without blaming anybody, as a lifestyle medicine physician and health coach, I have worked with people at every stage, be it a patient, clinicians, leaders, or high performers. What I see again and again is this. People try to change behavior without changing the system around it. They focus on outcomes instead of foundations, on urgency instead of sustainability. And when life inevitably intervenes, like stress, illness, workload, or the family, the plan collapses. Not because they were weak, but because it wasn't built for real life. So I am introducing this long view podcast as my first episode today. This podcast exists for one reason. To help you zoom out, to step back from noise, trends, and quick fixes and ask better questions. Questions like what actually sustains health over decades? What does meaningful work look like over a lifetime? How do we prevent burnout rather than recover from it again and again? And how do we build lives that don't need escaping from? That's what I mean by the long view. So day one of 2026, a different starting point. So today I would like to offer a different starting point. Instead of asking what do I want to achieve this year, I invite you to ask what direction am I moving in? And does it still serve me? Because direction compounds, habits compound, systems compound, and small, well-chosen shifts sustained outperformed dramatic resets every time. So from a health perspective, the evidence is clear, long-term health is not built on extremes, it's built on consistency. Movement you can maintain, nutrition that nourishes rather than punishes, sleep that's protected, not sacrificed, stress that's regulated, not ignored, relationships that buffer life, not drain it. Lifestyle medicine isn't about perfection, it's about patterns. And patterns only work when they fit real lives. The same applies to work. Burnout isn't caused by lack of resilience. It's caused by misaligned systems. Too much output, too little recovery. Too much identity tied to performance, too little space to be human. Taking the long view means asking how do I want to feel about my work? Not just this year, but in 10. That question changes everything. So here's a simple reflection you can do today. No journal required. Take a moment and consider these three prompts. Number one, what am I currently doing that is unsustainable, even if it looks like successful? Number two, what is one small shift that would make my life easier to live, not harder to manage? Number three, if I kept living like this for five more years, how would I feel? Again, no judgment, no pressure to act immediately, just awareness. Because clarity always comes before change. Now, what this podcast will be, in the weeks ahead, the long view will explore health, work, burnout, leadership, identity, and modern life. Not through hype, but through perspective. Some episodes will be solo reflections like this one, some will be conversations, all will be grounded, evidence in fond, and human. This is not a podcast about doing more, it's about seeing more clearly. So as 2026 begins, you don't need a new version of yourself. You need a truer direction. And thank you for starting this journey with me. Welcome to the Longview.