New Year, New Cycle
Relishing life’s rhythms for a more intentional year
I'm a checklist person. Whether it's tapping a virtual checkbox on my phone, erasing a line on my deskside whiteboard, or crossing off a legal pad with my favorite gel pen, my brain delights not just in completing a task, but also in noting its completion. Science confirms that the post-check burst of dopamine in our brain's reward center reinforces the feeling of satisfaction and inspires us to move on to the next checklist task. If you have ever written down a completed item just for the sake of marking it done (Wake up? Check!), you understand what I mean.
From square checkboxes to circular cycles
Projects are great, but home life often moves not in discardable lists, but in cycles. Fill the gas tank, drive the car, refuel. Prepare a meal, eat the meal, clean it up, and—especially in this house of small people with big appetites—do it again in a few hours. Lather, rinse, repeat. (Side note: Following that advice will double your shampoo costs. Best to save the repeat lather for another day.) A daily checklist would read more like a preschool chore chart: a list of things we do, and once the effects have worn off, we do them again. And again.
The endlessness of household chores, meal preparation, and personal care—multiplied by the number of toenails we're responsible for clipping—can feel overwhelming. Yet in the midst of these rhythms, I have realized that I find joy in the cycles. In my mind, an empty dishwasher or hamper is full of possibilities; all the clothes and dishes are clean. I run the dishwasher every night so that I know I will have clean dishes in the morning, plus room to fit all the day's plates and bowls without excessive rearranging, which frees me to use any plate I choose for my nighttime snack. I anticipate Thursday's trash pickup, when we can part ways with the worst-smelling garbage and the most oversized recyclables (read: 17 Christmas-related Amazon boxes). At bedtime, I look forward to waking up to a new day and a hot breakfast. I love using up the last of the leftovers and fresh produce just in time for our weekly grocery run. And when my toddler's pants are covered in a mix of mud and lunch leftovers, I'm happy to swap them out for a fresh pair, as long as I know tomorrow is laundry day. There is something satisfying, even mildly invigorating, in the renewal stage of the routine.
Relish, refresh, and reignite
Maybe this is why January 1 is one of my favorite holidays. Whatever the past year held, the new year is a clean slate, a literally open calendar, ready to be filled with good things. Leave the disappointments, the messes, the failures, and the bad news behind. The year ahead beckons with dreams of grand adventures, vocational victories, deepened relationships, community contributions, and organized closets. There are parks to explore, books to read, work projects to accomplish—and yes, checklists to make and mark as we go.
Sure, the calendar year is arbitrary. We can mark time and break out the new resolutions by our birthdays or the Church year (which starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas) or by the anniversary of our marriage/graduation/house purchase/first day of work. But anywhere we start it, a new year is an opportunity to be more intentional; to sort out the trash from the treasure, the sources of exhausting friction from those of empowering fulfillment.
A new year is an opportunity to be more intentional, to refresh our checklists, and to discover joy in the rhythms of life.
As we roll into this year ahead, I invite you to relish the rhythms of life, and to thoughtfully use this time to refresh, revise, and reignite the flames of inspiration that may have suffocated in the past. What habits can we change or start to become the people we want to be? What can we toss into our metaphorical trash can to make room for better things? What relationships, causes, or projects will we pour ourselves into to create meaning in the next 365 days?
New year resolutions don't have to be cliche failed attempts to improve our diet and exercise habits. Maybe we just update our checklists to include what matters most. And for the uninspiring but necessary (I'm looking at you, dishwashing), maybe we resolve to savor those moments, however rare and fleeting, when we feel caught up and ready to start again. (Or maybe we just make ourselves a daily list and enjoy the thrill of checking off "get dressed" and "eat dinner" every day purely for the predictable dopamine hits.)
A new year’s wish for you
May your year ahead be full of all the joy of a completed checklist, the peace of a home where every surface is clean and every sock has a mate, and the hope that renews with each cycle of possibility.
- MJ
Life of You
What intentions are driving your new year's checklist? Where can you find more joy this year in the cycles and rhythms of life?