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January 15, 2025

Forget Resolutions—I’m Starting a Season Instead.

As I begin this new year, I promise to not put any undue pressure or expectations on myself.

I’m not making resolutions. Instead, I’m stealing an idea from someone I admire, Wil Wheaton, and starting a season. As he explains it:

“A Season is, according to whoever suggested it to me a million years ago, a broadly-defined choice to make some changes without the pressure and overwhelm of big and specific goals. The common example comes out of New Year’s Resolutions: ‘I want to lose X pounds’ can be daunting, and when we inevitably stumble, demoralizing, and we give up.

Rather than that, choose a Season instead: ‘This is my Season of Healthy Habits.’ What are those healthy habits? Maybe walking more, maybe going to the gym regularly, maybe it’s about food choices. The thing is, I am now doing what I would be doing to lose the weight, but it isn’t about losing the weight. It’s about being focused on these other things that will support losing X pounds all on their own, and I’m not obsessed with the scale. I’m not going to get frustrated and demoralized, and ultimately give up, because it’s about the journey instead of the destination.

So I constantly ask myself, ‘How does this support my Season?’ And I make my choices without judgment, doing my best to choose wisely.”

As I read this, it occurred to me that choosing a season is about being kind to ourselves.

We would never be frustrated or annoyed at a friend who stumbled on their way to a goal. We would be kind, understanding, and supportive. But we don’t do that for ourselves, which is insane! If we can’t be kind to ourselves, how do we expect to maintain our kindness and compassion for anyone else?

Therefore, I have decided that this will be my Season of Being Kind, both to myself and others, as well as making an effort to note when I am happy or smiling. For example, I was watching the new season of “Queer Eye,” and I had the biggest smile on my face.  I felt myself smiling and laughing, and made a note about it in my journal so I could remember why I was feeling happy and work it into my Season of Being Kind.

The world right now is not a kind place for many of us. It is hostile and negative and angry and scary. We need to protect ourselves, and provide ourselves with peace and comfort so that we will have the energy to do it for others—because boy do we need caretakers and kindness right now.

As I begin my Season of Being Kind in 2025, I encourage you to find what you need to be kind to yourself (and others). I encourage to you discover the things that make you happy, even for brief moments, and recreate them as much as possible. I encourage you to share them—the kindness and the happiness—with others, because the universe knows we can use so much more of both.

Enjoy your season!

~

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