Your "new year" hasn't even started
Why you shouldn't be stressing about goals while there's still snow on the ground
This is the official newsletter for For The Firsts, a weekly dose of perspective & encouragement for those building a legacy without a blueprint. This is where I’ll share with you my longer thoughts on all things work, money, family and everything else that I don’t share anywhere else. This is a special place, and I’m glad you’re here.
Spring cleaning
My new year starts with a bang. I’ve gone viral each time I’ve shared my yearly goal planning process, and in general, I start each year charging towards the vision of my life I’m trying to create. If you follow me, you’re probably the same.
But if I can confess something to you, this year has felt different.
It’s now early March, and when my wife and I were looking back at the goals and intentions we set in late December, I was a little embarrassed at how little progress I’ve made. My book proposal looks like the beginning of SpongeBob’s essay for his driving class, I’m not anywhere near as consistent with my content as I’d like to be, and I’m just not making the progress in some areas of my life that I’d like to be making. And I don’t think I’m alone:
Up to 91% of people fail to achieve their New Year’s goals
23% quit in the first week, and that number rises to 64% by the end of January
The fitness app Strava calls the second Friday in January “Quitters’ Day” as it’s when they see most people abandon their running and fitness goals
Though I had a conversation with a friend and business partner the other day, and she shared with me that the reason I may feel like my new year hasn’t quite gone to plan, is that the ‘New Year’ actually hasn’t even started yet.
The origin of the new New Year
The word December comes from the Latin root ‘decem’, which quite literally translates to ten. So if we applied that logic across our 12-month-long year, the true “first” month of each year would be March. And for the Romans, Mesopotamians and Persians, it was. March signaled the start of spring, as well as the vernal equinox, and the beginning of the agricultural cycle.
It wasn’t until, for administrative reasons, the Romans shifted the beginning of their year to the first of January (a month they also made up), and soon others followed suit.
So what does this have to do with your New Year’s Resolution?
Our calendar year begins in the dead of winter. In many parts of the US, there’s still a heavy blanket of snow on the ground, which has made literal progress slower. Not to mention the psychological winter you may be experiencing with a job market that’s in a stalemate, and the literal war currently going on.
If that’s made progress on your job search a little slow, or prevented you from getting to the gym 4x a week, you’re not alone.
Re-assess, recalibrate (and relax)
So while I don’t think we’ll be getting a new calendar anytime soon, if 2026 hasn’t looked like you’d like it to just yet, know that Spring is coming. And here are a few things you can do to best take advantage
Pull up those 2026 goals. I am guilty of putting so much energy into setting my goals for the year, and then promptly forgetting about them until Spotify Wrapped drops. Find the goals you set for this year, and then be honest with yourself about where you’ve made progress.
Pivot if you need to. What goals are no longer relevant to where you are now? Don’t be afraid to intentionally shift away from a goal you thought was a good idea in December, but now you realize it just isn’t the right priority for your time right now.
Embrace spring when it comes. Quite literally, touch grass. The sun is good for you. The grass is good for you. As we shift into this new Spring season, find the time to take advantage of it. Could you walk to work as the weather improves? Is there an outside cafe you could enjoy for lunch or a quick coffee?
Your life’s work and mission can’t always be measured in clean business quarters. So don’t beat yourself up just because you may not have as much to show as you’d like to in “Q1”. You’re not a publicly-traded commodity, and your season for growth doesn’t have to align with a calendar.
ICYMI:
Content is officially career advice. Or rather, improving your visibility is the best thing you can do for your career. A few weeks ago, I was at LinkedIn’s offices in NYC, and they shared with me that there’s been a 90% increase in creator titles and a 70% increase in founder titles.
Which means that people are realizing that in an AI-induced stalemate of a hiring market, the best way to find your next job is to create it.
Watch this to learn more:
Did you catch that?
If you noticed, I changed the name of this newsletter (again) from First Things First to the name of my IRL event series For The Firsts.
Since we’re email buddies, I’ll let you in on a pretty big secret: I’m currently in the middle of a major visual rebrand with For The Firsts that I am SO excited to share more about in a few weeks. But part of that process has me thinking of where my brand(s) could use some consolidating, and this was part of it.
Plus, people already call this newsletter For The Firsts by accident anyway, so it just made sense.
In the theme of fresh starts and the promise of new life that Spring brings, I’m taking it to heart with how I show up here. And I hope you do too.
read previous notes here
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So excited to get a glimpse of your journey! Wishing you and yours all of the best. 👏🏼