On the 3rd day of yet another new year, I sat down to write this piece for my newsletter. A sense of hope that comes with a (perceived) blank slate as one year folds over into the next washed over me – paired with the stubborn insistence that every day can be the one that sparks the first day of the rest of your life.
Photo: Myself & dear friend Griffin Coombs climbing around in Tangier, Morocco.
As last year has folded over into this year, the conversation around resolutions is abundant. The strategies for those resolutions to finally stick? Not so abundant.
Whether you’re reading this at the start of the year or the middle, the message remains relevant. At this point of hitting published (a few weeks after sending out the newsletter), most people have quit their resolutions. Where do you stand?
Here’s your invitation to introspection: how are your intentions unfolding?
Each year, it seems like the same conversation: a pendulum swings between the mainstream media pushing gym memberships and encouraging superficial resolutions; on the other side are those who are adamantly against anything to do with January 1st.
I sit somewhere in the middle, as with most things. I find the middle is often the best vantage point to see from multiple perspectives.
If you’re living life on the fringes, January 1st was just another Sunday.
Those of us living life outside the constructs of mainstream society – we don’t wait around to make radical changes in our life. Every single day is a chance to spark a fire that invites transformation into our lives.
Each year I watch this tug-o-war from the sidelines and this year, I can’t help but feel it’s all a joke. It feels like the world is a stage and so many are caught like insects in a spiderweb of puppet strings. The cycle continues, and it will be the same next year. And the year after. Celebrations, systems, peer pressures, and social conditioning to keep people in their place – harboring symptoms of burnout, unfulfilling jobs, depression and anxiety, sick, tired, out of shape… well, I could go on.
Year after year, the calendar comes to an end with an overindulgence in unhealthy food, bad habits, and shopping sprees. From November through December – a time when we our bodies and minds are meant to reflect the seasons with slowness, grounding, and hibernation – modern life speeds up.
The earth tilts so the skies darken and the temperatures drop; if we’re lucky, snow blankets the ground. And yet, the world of consumerism screams MORE MORE MORE, in a quickening pace until WHAM!
Face, meet floor. Crash. Boom. Splat.
The masses hang empty hopes on strings, waiting for life to magically change on the 1st – supported by a number of resolutions that don’t have much hope of succeeding beyond February.
Why? Because they are backed by guilt, shame, and “should”. People are lacking supportive networks that encourage change. Motivation is often extrinsic and lacking intrinsic discipline and drive. Most goals around health revolve around the newest trends.
Because, let’s face it – being in the best shape of your life is mind-numbingly simple, and as the adorable humans we are, we like to complicate things.
Only 9% of resolutions come to fruition. So why do people keep falling for the marketing? Well, I guess the answer lies in the question. Because: marketing.
As for myself, I’m a bit on the fence when it comes to this time of year.
As a coach, I’m not a fan of superficial resolutions. Simply because they don’t work.
I am, however, a fan of new beginnings fueled with powerful language, measurable micro-goals, and intrinsic intentions.
I solidly believe that every day is a chance for a new beginning, AND, I believe that the planet is lit up by a special vibration of possibility and hope this time of year. The air is teeming with some kind of magic.
But for magic to work, you’ve go to take action.
This year as the days led up to the new year, I couldn’t tap into that hope. 2022 pulled the rug from beneath my feet in so many ways (well, let’s be real – I pulled the rug out myself), and I’ve struggled to see where all of this is leading. My future has been obscured in fog and I’ve struggled to find a feeling of purpose while lost in the haze.
Plus, November to December has felt like so much has been crammed on top of something else. Every year is the same – Christmas is the 25th and the New Year follows a week later. But this year, it felt like there just wasn’t enough time to fully reflect on the year that was, release lessons learned, and create a plan for next year. I still haven’t done it.
But I’ve made steps. For my second year, I took my dear friend Traver’s “Name Your Year” workshop, and I have the foundation of intent to weave together an eloquent title for this next chapter. It’s coming.
And, one of the words to guide me this way is:
Consistency.
It’s a word that is almost completely alien to me. It requires me to grow into someone I am not, in order to show up stronger, louder, more powerful. Ooph.
Intimidating, but it’s time to Amplify.
That newsletter was that first start. A fresh new opt-in where I share what it’s like behind the scenes of living life on the fringes. And that life is open to you – the one in which the next 1st of January can be just another Sunday (or Monday) to you, too.
In theme with Amplification, I’m writing an ebook that will be delivered exclusively to my newsletter community – all about the different tools that I have used with myself – and clients – to love yourself a little deeper. The kind of self care and compassion that facilitates growth, self-acceptance, and healthy relationships.
So – keep your eye out for an e-book coming your way, and some updates on what I’m doing different this year.
