Solstice

 New Years Resolutions. It sneaks up after Christmas. You realize it is New Years Eve, and you have to come up with some goal(s). You make an obligatory social media post about it (so everyone can see how committed you are). And then what? You do the thing for a few days and go back to life as usual (do you even remember your goal at the end of year... if you don't revisit your goal to evaluate your success, what was the point?). 

Changing habits can be hard. But I feel like the pressure to declare to yourself some noteworthy goal makes New Years resolutions very short lived. 

A while ago I listened to a podcast in which the guest speaker noted (I'm paraphrasing) that blasting into some great endeavor at the start of January is inconsistent with the rest of nature. 

And it makes sense. Here we are, ten days into winter, and a lot of animals are hibernating. Plants have wilted and frozen, and their seeds lie dormant. Crops have been harvested, and the fields are bare. Trees are empty of leaves. Animals are just trying to hunker down and survive. Many parts of nature are taking a break, slowly resting until spring comes and all will wake again. 

And here are the humans: Feeling pressure to correct our recent holiday overindulgence, we face the realization that another year has gone by without all the changes we hoped to make. And we choose this time - because of the heightened awareness of our shortcomings - to declare that we are going to step up THIS YEAR. Starting NOW...in the DEAD OF WINTER. 

We set ourselves up for failure. 

It is common to set an enthusiastic exercise goal - something like getting up early and going to the gym. But really, who wants to begin a habit by traipsing out into the snow and ice before sunrise, scraping the car, and freezing in the dark all the way to the gym. That is, if the roads are clear and it's not snowing. If it is snowing, you'll just stay home anyway. These sudden exercise bursts are incongruent with what our natures would have us do in the winter: rest. 

If someone is having a habit of exercise in the winter already, carry on! I think it's great! But how often do people commit to going from zero days to five days, starting January 1? It's super common, but quite a challenge to work against our nature. 

I have been inconsistent in exercise recently. And yes, I would like to get back in that habit. But the idea of energetic January goals is now seeming like a pointless exercise. 

Don't get me wrong - goal setting is important. But I think we should consider setting a goal for a time when we can realistically approach the challenge. When our body and mind will work with us. 

I want to approach goal setting differently this time. Winter solstice is coming up, and I have been considering some winter-specific goals. I'm considering ways to prioritize rest, meditation, writing, reading, and generally slowing down. I'm not saying that it's pointless to incorporate physical body movement. That is a good thing. But my ultimate aim is to keep my goals in line with a balanced approach. There are some seasons when its okay not to be a powerhouse. And my intent is to keep my winter goals simple and serene. I want to spend some time reflecting and then if I decide so set some more energetic goals, we can start that up in the spring.     

UPDATE: I started writing this post shortly before Winter Solstice. The goal I decided to run with was to focus on rest from Winter Solstice through Spring Equinox. I planned to go to bed by 10 PM each day. It was a great goal. A great idea. And it made sense at the time because our children are great sleepers. But I made an exception to do some late night preparations we needed to accomplish while the kids were in bed leading up to Christmas. So after around 3 super late nights in a row, the baby got sick, waking several times in the night for comfort. This has gone on for a couple of weeks now, and it feels like a joke. 

Sleep has been hard to come by, and it truly takes its toll. I'm hoping to get back into my restful winter goal. I also have implemented a physical goal: hydrate. I'm filling up a 2-liter bottle of water to drink daily as a minimum.  

I think it will be a good winter. It is good to start a goal when accomplishing it is realistic.