Just like that, the first month of 2025 is over. Looking back at the month there are two locations where my energy was focused, working and training. Especially the last two weeks, it has felt like I’ve done nothing but go to work and then go to the gym, and yet I still fell short of my exercise goals. That is why I need to reframe my expectations.
Winter is a harder time for me to find motivation. With less sunlight and colder temperatures, it doesn’t create a welcoming environment outside. Research has shown that humans sleep patterns change with the seasons and increase in the winter (Seidler et al. 2023).
If my expectations are the same as the summer, I will fall short, as I have done the last few months. This can then lead to feelings of guilt, insufficiency, and general disappointment in myself. I’ve come to the realization that decreasing my goals in the wintertime is not a cop out, it is a necessary part of the changing of seasons.
Reframing Expectations
- Increasing the amount of rest and recovery time
- Adding in more flexibility to my goals
- Stop taking everything so seriously
January Goals
Here are how my goals for January went:
- Read 2 books: Check
- Save $3000 in my IRA: Check (Saved $3280)
- Enroll in a training for work with the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science: Check
- Write 28 daily journal entries: 24/28
- Write three blog posts: 1/3
- Exercise 16 days: 12/16
February Goals
Here are my new goals for February, taking into account my reframed expectations:
- Read 2 books
- Write 24 daily journal entries (Shortened due to February having 28 days)
- Exercise 12 days (Adding in more days for recovery)
- Write February Monthly Review
- Prepare for the Benton MacKaye Trail
While the winters can be slow and boring, I think that is a necessary process of creativity. I need the feeling of restlessness in the winter to fuel my adventurous ideas for the summer.
New Adventures on the Horizon
Due to the delayed process of writing this monthly review, I have found out that my job has a delayed start of a month. I work two seasonal jobs in forestry for the state agency. Being a seasonal, they require two weeks off, unpaid, between the two positions (probably for legal reasons so they don’t have to provide me with better benefits). In trying to save some money this year, they cut the position from 34 weeks to 31 weeks, meaning I get an additional two weeks off before the next season starts, totaling just under a month.
My first reaction was disappointment. That is quite a long time between paychecks. Over the last year I have been so focused on saving money and investing. I immediately started to do calculations on how far behind that would put me on my savings goals and thinking of ways to find some work during that time period.
Then another thought started to form. Deep in the back of my brain, the less serious part, an excitement started to emanate like a glowing light. That’s a whole month off from work. It’s a lot of free time. Yea, alright it is unpaid, but I don’t have to feel guilty about taking a vacation now.
It also happens to be one of the best times to start the Appalachian Trail. I have already done the southern half of the AT and have plans to come back to do the whole thing, but one month is not long enough for that. I happen to know a less travelled trail that almost parallels the AT where one month would be enough, however.
In following my goal to stop taking everything so serious, I plan to hike the Benton MacKaye Trail, beginning in mid-March.
This will put me behind on my savings goals by having no income for a month. It will also cut into some of the savings I already have (I hope to do it for around $2000), but I expect the experience to be well worth the lost and spent money. What’s the point in saving the money if I can’t enjoy it?
