James Van Der Beek is ditching his “impossible” New Year’s resolutions.
The actor asked his Instagram followers if they had ever struggled to stick to their goals, insisting that they were “not at fault” because the struggle “makes sense.”
“Why do we celebrate the New Year in the middle of winter?” asked the “Dawson’s Creek” alum, 48. “Why are we celebrating new beginnings at a time when nature is at rest? Animals hibernate and birds fly south for winter.”
Instead, van der Beek wants to set resolutions for the spring equinox, when “flowers bloom, the weather gets warmer and birds return.”
“That’s nature’s way. Why do we fight nature? I mean, with all due respect to Pope Gregory VIII who imposed this Gregorian calendar on us, it makes absolutely no sense.”
The Varsity Blues star, who has been battling cancer since 2023, said he will use this winter to “rest” and “recover” and reevaluate his goals in the spring.
“Who is with me?” asked Mr. Van der Beek. Many of his A-list followers agreed.
“I’m with you, I love this,” exclaimed Alyssa Milano, and Odette Annable agreed, “Yeah! Yeah, we’ll finish it off with some soup!”
One fan raved about how “strong” and “healthy” the “Pose” alum looked in the video.
Van der Beek was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in August 2023 and waited until November of the following year to share the news publicly.
“There is reason for optimism and I feel good,” he reassured People in 2024.
The “Rules of Attraction” star skipped the 2025 “Dawson’s Creek” reunion in New York City in September 2025, sparking concerns after he appeared thin in a video message recorded in his absence.
But in an interview on the Today show last month, Van Der Beek blamed his weight loss on a stomach virus and insisted his weight loss was “not cancer-related.”
“In the case of cancer, it’s like, ‘What if we made the stomach virus supersized?'” he pointed out.
The Texas resident has been married to Kimberly Van Der Beek since August 2010 and they have six children.
