I’m not doing it this year.
It’s January 6 and every time I hop online i’m inundated with new year new you, the resolution you NEED this year, goals goals goals…
Every year for as long as I can remember, I have spent the days up to new years brainstorming all the things i want to DO in the upcoming year. Setting goal after lofty goal. On the surface it looks like me, aspiring to be my best self. But underneath it’s always been about something else.
Achieve.
Prove your worth.
Accomplish or you are a failure.
The pressure to be endlessly more productive has always felt like it came from within. But did it start that way? Was I born this way?
This fall, on a distinctly summery day in early october I attended a wellness retreat with one of my favorite facilitators, Heather Fraelick. It was called Radiant Transitions and over the course of the day we practiced healing movement modalities and processed ways to embrace the upcoming seasons.
This is not in my usual nature of go-go-go-do-do-do regardless of time of year, time of my cycle, or time of day.
But by the end of the day I was ready to try something different.
I decided to spend the winter slowing down.
It’s kind of wild that in a season when the earth turns inward and rests, when the daylight is in short supply, and the temperature demands snuggling under blankets seeking comfort that it’s basically counter-cultural to do the same. To resist the demands of endless productivity. To not set goals. To seek an entirely different experience of transformation.
And so (just typing this has my heart squeezing tight and my tear ducts at the ready):
I am not setting goals this January.
And the more I think about it, the more I wonder how any of us can.
Autumn is bursting with holidays and family time and celebrations. Personally I went from Thanksgiving travel to Christmas preparations to an untimely stomach bug (are those ever timely?) to full on family time. The new year arrived in a wave of gratitude and exhaustion and complete lack of routine.
Who can set goals in that state of being?
How is it possible to be in tune with my actual desires for the future in the wake of so much dysregulation?
Don’t get me wrong. I felt the pull.
I’ve seen people making crafty goal oriented punch cards and designing gorgeous bullet journal pages and it is tempting!
When I couldn’t shake the drive to MAKE A PLAN for 2026, I opened my journal and started writing down all the goal-ish ideas. Let them wash over me. And decided that January 1 was not a starting line.
As a person who always desires progress while simultaneously attempting to recover from perfectionism, I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. But more and more I want my accomplishments to be for myself instead of the respect or admiration or praise I might receive from others. And rushing into a checklist for 2026 isn’t it.
Instead I’d like to spend the next few months testing out new ideas, minus the pressure of success.
I want to rest and create and share on my own timelines.
I want to reflect on some cool things I’ve seen over the last months and consider how I could incorporate them into my own life in a way that suits me. And if they don’t, I want to toss those ideas out the window, trusting they aren’t for me.
Most importantly, I want to enter this new year gently.