If you're from the UK, chances are December 31st never really feels like the start of a new year...
The reality is we're still in the depths of the winter cold & spring is still a fair way off.
We have always lived as cyclical beings here, our lives and patterns mirroring nature because we were bound by her conditions.
Nowadays the modern world allows us to move past this, living disconnected from the natural flow of the earth & to be in a state of productive summer whilst the depths of winter outside are ignored...
But we cannot get away from the fact that we are nature, and our inner being remembers our link to the seasons.
So if you don’t feel aligned with the January push, that's completely natural.
In the traditional wheel of the year, Imbolc on February 1st marks the start of spring and Ostara around March 21st is the date of the spring equinox and this holds much more of the start of a 'New Year' feeling.
These Sabbats (seasonal festivals) are aligned closely with nature's new year, when animals come out of hibernation and plants begin to grow again.
This is the time of the year when we personally start to properly plan and ramp work, training and life up ready for the summer months.
That said, in the modern world, late December / early January is probably the quietest time of the year for most. Lots of businesses shut down and generally people get to switch off and spend time with loved ones.
So this makes it a good time to reflect and plan. The way we usually approach this, is to do more of a gentle re-set.
This year this involved four different things for us:
- Schedule review and refresh; looking at work days and thinking through how these could be more efficient and how can they be adapted based on shifting priorities. For example I've moved going to the gym earlier in the day so I have more energy to get after training goals.
- Creating a tick list of every day tasks to help us stay consistent. Some examples include; morning red light and meditation, supplements and evening foam roller / stretching. We literally right them down the left hand side of a piece of paper with each task on a separate line and then write the days of the week across the top, drawing lines down to create a table. I then put this on my desk and tick them off as I do them each day.
- Create a weekly shopping list; make a list of all the staples you need to keep you on track every week and write them in the notes on your phone. Then you'll never miss picking them up when you're at the farmers market / shops.
- Vision boards; Iz picked up a couple of canvases and we're going to sit down tonight to talk through what we want to bring to life in our personal lives and in business next year, pinning on pictures and words to represent these goals. These will then live in the rooms we work in at home so they remain a constant focus throughout next year.
We really hope this helps you to navigate the new year to create the best 2026 possible. And we also wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for being here with us... APE wouldn't be possible without you; our incredible community. And we're excited to start giving back more and more next year. After a year of adjusting to becoming parents and purposefully moving more slowly with APE as a result, we now feel really excited and motivated to bring to life a lot of the plans we've had waiting in the wings.
- Josh, Izzi & The APE Team