It's that time again, that time when a lot of us embark on various "self-improvement projects" for the coming year. There is a lot in our culture that pushes us in the direction of abrupt, radical change, of taking an all-or-nothing approach to remodeling our lives, of continually trying to "fix" ourselves. And I'm as prone to that as the next person. As a culture, we're heavily into working on ourselves. We tend to think that we'd be happier, better looking, financially better off, more popular, if only ... If only we would "get it in gear" and make some dramatic change in ourselves ... However, it also seems that time and time again, we discover that this approach doesn't work. For most people, most of the time, it's a set-up for burnout and failure.