A couple years ago I returned to work after Christmas vacation. Half-dazed, I said to a colleague, “It feels like I’ve just woken up from the deepest sleep of my life.” She looked at me with the eyes of a zombie and said, “Yeah… that’s exactly what it feels like.”
I always long for a slow, quiet Christmas. Putting my feet up by the fireplace and cozying into a book while something sweet bakes in the oven, the lights of the tree twinkling in the corner. In reality, Christmas flies by amidst last minute shopping, visiting family and friends, running errands, and prepping meals. All of these things add to the excitement of the season, but leave us feeling a little dull once it’s all over.
Just when we’re ready to relax after the holidays (for real this time), we have to get back to work, back to the gym, and make a long list of goals for the year. We get woken by the cold-water splash of New Year’s resolutions and external expectations.
What if, instead, we take a cue from our holiday hangovers and start the year slow? The New Year naturally marks a new beginning and we often use the restart to the calendar as a time to restart ourselves. But, what if we allowed a slow ramp-up to our goals instead of getting whiplash from hitting the gas full throttle?