WTF, January

Pardon my language but what the actual frick, January?! I thought it was just me who felt like this month dragged on and on and on but given the number of memes popping up about how January lasted for 5 months, "30 days has September, April --- all the rest have 31 except January which has 95", companies offering promotions for "surviving January" --it's not just me!! Also, man, 30 Rock was a great show.

 

So why did January feel so awful and long? Yes, it has a bonus day, a few actually if you compare it to February. And yes it's dark and cold but we're past the shortest day of the year and on the up and up! January had New Year's, returns from the holiday and therefore short work weeks. It had routines and ambitions and resolutions. And it also had over-estimation, over-commitment and over-work written all over it.

Maybe we get so focused on improving ourselves and changing ourselves, doing all these new things, we get lost along the way. In trying to start the year off well, we actually start it off overwhelming ourselves. And even if we're past the shortest day of the year, it's still dark most of the time and when it's not, we're stuck at work. And it's still cold and rainy in London or the US (well, dark and snowy and cold af). We didn't have to fix it all in 31 days but it certainly felt like it sometimes. 

 

So as we enter February where we have a groundhog tell us whether winter will be longer than usual, another set-expectations-too-high-holiday (Valentine's Day), and loads of chocolate to comfort us as a result, just remember that in a short bit we'll be in March (#birthdaymonth) and that much closer to spring (and a holiday devoted to drinking which is far better than devoted to cheesy romance). So what did we learn from January? Be kind to yourself, don't over-commit (I say this as I currently have 0 free nights for two weeks), and remember you've got people to lift you up who also feel like January lasted forever.

Of course there were moments of joy last month but if I were to Marie Kondo it and pick up the month of January and ask myself "do you spark joy?" it would be a hard pass from me. Thank you for your service, bring on February.