New Year, New You? Not quite.

January has a particular energy. It's full of intentions and resolve, reflections and renewed drive.

New year, new habits.  New year, new body.  New year, new you.

For me… I’m not quite feeling it.  Here’s what I’m really thinking when I get another email telling me I should start a new exercise program or subscribe to some incredible thing that will change my life - New year, new bollocks.  

I do get it.  The new year always feels like the perfect time to reset - clean slate, a fresh psychological marker and a sense of moving towards something better and brighter.  If resolutions actually worked, I might have stuck with them. But they never did. Not for me, and not for many others it seems - apparently most NY resolutions are abandoned by the 18th of January.  Why the epic fail before the first month of the year is already over? 

Is the problem us?  Or is it the way we’re framing what we need to change?

Quote Collector

Last year, I leaned into a different approach to setting an intention for the New Year.  It felt good, and paradoxically more productive than ever, so I’m repeating it this year…

Instead of a resolution, I chose a QUOTE.

If you know me at all, you’ll know I love a good quote.  I tuck them into my newsletters and blogs at any opportunity.  Sometimes, I’ll share one in class.   I think it’s safe to say I collect them and pour over them.  I sometimes go back to them to feel motivated, inspired and less lonely by being held in a succulent pocket of timeless wisdom.

Quotes speak to us because they sweetly distil something we already know.  If you’ve ever read a quote that resonated with you, you might’ve had that moment where you think - YES, that’s IT.  That’s true. That matters.  I need to do more of THAT THING.

From Loving to Living

Before I started my sabbatical year in January 2025, I landed upon a quote - I felt a strong urge not to let this one be read and forgotten in time.  Here it is from John O’Donohue:

“I would love to live like a river flows,

carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”

It seemed to capture perfectly how I felt my upcoming pause from routine - a year where I didn’t want any more projects, targets or outcomes to define any ‘success’ or failure’.   

So instead of admiring it and moving on, I decided to do this weird thing - to try to LIVE the quote. From loving it to living it.

During the year I kept coming back to these words; the sentence became a kind of companion for the year.  Alongside it, I chose a few words for the year to return to: unfolding, slow, soft.  

When I felt myself rushing —  slow.

When I felt myself gripping — soft.

When I wanted to force an outcome — unfolding.

Actions Speak Louder

A quote is all very well to trigger recognition.  But conceptual wisdom that stays in the head doesn’t reshape a life, nor does it get us closer to that wisdom.  

How does a quote become REAL?

Well, I’ve always been a very practically minded person.  So the answer to me is fairly simple - action.  And I’ve always thought how incredibly practical yoga is.  The mat is not only a place to change body and mind, but a laboratory to practice many of the universal wisdoms and qualities I value. 

Paying close attention.

Responding instead of reacting.

Beginning again.

Meeting challenge without panic.

Offering ourselves a little compassion.

Letting go. 

And so much more.

These aren’t abstract ideas only to be understood intellectually, to be kept on a page.  They’re felt experiences lived and enacted in the body, rehearsed in physical time and space.  And truly, doesn’t Action Speak Louder Than Words?  (Now there’s a good quote - who came up with that one?) 

This Year’s Resolution Quote

I’d love to share my personal quote I’m running with for this year.  It’s from Alex Hormosi, an entrepreneur, speaking of success.  When I heard it on a podcast months back, it stopped me it my tracks: 

“If we make who we become the goal rather than the thing we achieve, instead of winning once a decade, we win every day.”

This speaks to me more than any goal ever could for this year.  From this position, any goals I make do not necessarily need to be achieved - rather, the way I approach them matters more.  So whether or not I achieve them, so long as I am practicing what I value, I feel victorious. 

Less Reinvention, More Remembrance

And maybe that’s why January, for me, is less reinvention, more remembrance.  

I think many of us already know how we want to feel.   More balanced, assured, healthy, content.  [Insert your words of choice here].  But we need to remember what that actually feels like to live those words. Because, you know what? Without practice, it’s easy to forget. 

Maybe you’ve already done an end-year reflection for yourself, and have thoughts, plans and aspirations for 2026.  

🤔 Here are some reflection prompts to add to the mix if this approach feels like it could be supportive for you: 

• Is there a particular quote that’s stayed with you?  One that speaks to you strongly now or that keeps circling back to you?

• What quality or truth does it contain that you wish you could sit with and integrate fully into your life? 

• If a particular quote doesn’t come to mind, which words (two or three) feel most relevant for you right now?

• When might you have the opportunities in daily life to take action (physical action beyond thinking alone) and practice these words this year? 

I hope to see you on the yoga mat this year. From recognition to practice - let it be a place to rehearse your becoming...making it real in 2026. 

Wishing you a very Happy New Year. 

Let’s practice.