Ep. 6 - Resolutions, Rest, and Rhythm: Why January Isn't Failing You
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[00:00:00] Hey there friends. Welcome back to the Household CEO podcast. It's Calista Anderson here. . Happy 2026. . I am glad you're here today. And you pressed play. Because you are gonna wanna hear this. No one else that I know of is talking about this on this first week of 2026, and I think more people need to, this episode is about something that sits quietly in the background, and there is quite a snowball of guilt ~by the end of this first month.~
By the end of the first month of the new year, and it's related to the initially exciting feeling of New Year's resolutions that quickly fizzles and kills motivation.
The promises we make to ourselves in January that feel heavy by February. You know the feelings that whisper, [00:01:00] why can't I stick with it like everyone else? The truth is you and I are a lot like everyone else. It is really hard to stick to our chosen resolutions ~for the same reasons. ~For the reasons I'm gonna be sharing with you today.
Today, I wanna say something that might feel like a warm blanket for your nervous system.
You are not failing your resolutions.
And I think it's pretty lucky you're hearing this the first week of January so that you can maybe do a little course correction. Because January just is not the best season for radical reinvention, and once you understand the history, the biology, and the natural rhythm behind that truth, it becomes so much easier to release the pressure and choose a gentler way forward.
~So here's what we're gonna, ~so here's where we're going in this episode, A little history behind January [00:02:00] one, ~and that might feel a little bit like you need to put your, uh.~
And it might feel like you have to put your backpack on and go to school, but I'm gonna try to keep it short and succinct. But knowing the history behind the new year and January one, I think it's gonna be very helpful to give a background to this episode. Then we're gonna talk about why winter is such a natural downshift and how guilt sneaks into resolutions.
And what to do instead. Think permission, think relief, think There is nothing wrong with me.
~So let's get into it. ~So let's get into it.
Okay, so let's talk about the pressure cooker that January is Everywhere we turn in December and January, we hear New Year, new you crush your goals. [00:03:00] Gold digger, you know, transform your body. This is the year everything changes. Meanwhile, the lights are still twinkling from Christmas. The kids are barely back into routines.
The house feels like gift wrap and crumbs and laundry had a meeting. ~Meanwhile, we're supposed to be,~
~meanwhile, we're supposed to glide into new. ~We're supposed to glide into strict new habits, new routines, .
Et cetera. And when that doesn't stick, the story becomes, you know, and we don't say this out loud, but ~we, ~we say, see, I just don't have enough willpower, or I always fall off, or this is my fault. You know, we just get so hard on ourselves. But before we jump to self-diagnosis, ~let's. ~Let's pause and ask a more interesting question, which will bring us into a topic that is very rarely discussed.
So let's put on our thinking caps and ask some questions. Who decided the new year should start in the darkest, coldest time [00:04:00] of the year? Anyway.
And so to understand where we are today, we gotta do a little bit of a history lesson here.
I mean like a real history.
So let's go back into the early Roman times, and when I say early Rome, I'm talking 700 bc. So during those times, the year or the new year began in March, and that is why some of our months still have the old calendar names like September, which means the seventh month, October, which means the eighth month, November the ninth month, and December the 10th month.
And all of that only makes sense if the year originally began in March. So 700 BC there was a king PMA pomp that helped shape this Roman calendar, which started in March, [00:05:00] and that aligned with spring and new growth. I'm sure that worked well for people, but then in around 5 0 9 BC, ~the Roman ug. ~The Roman Republic started, and so this is kind of where like ~a, ~a more formal government ish body was, you know, starting to take place.
And at this time, March is still treated as the beginning of the year for their festivals, for their military campaigns. And just like seasonal life
so I mentioned the whole Roman Republic because when we fast forward to 1 53 BC and just reminder BC you know, ~the, ~the years go backwards, right? Highest numbers to lowest. So around 1 53 bc ~Romans Lee. ~Roman leaders realized it was easier for whatever reason, to run the government and military if the officials took office at the beginning [00:06:00] of January instead of March.
For some reason, that was practical to them and it was convenient. I don't know the details behind that, but that is how the year slowly began , aligning with their year because it was their official work year that began in January. So culturally, people started treating January like the beginning of things.
~Then around 1 53, oh, no, that wasn't it. Um. ~Then came the moment that cemented this culture. Julius Caesar enters the chat in 46 bc.
Rome's calendar was a mess.
I think a lot of people started treating January like the new year, and then there were people treating March like the new year. So ~Ju ~Julius Caesar worked with astronomers to reform it into what we now call the Julian Calendar. So during this reform, Caesar declared that January 1st ~is the official new, ~is the official start of the new [00:07:00] year.
Why January? Partly because of Janus. Janus was the Roman God of beginnings and transitions pictured with two faces, one looking backward and one forward.
So none of this was about biology. None of it was seasonal, it was administrative.
So. Fast forward more than a thousand years later. In 1582, there was this Gregorian boost. The calendar was again, corrected this time under Pope Gregory VIII to fix small timing error. It all has to do with the way we do leap year every four years, ~except for certain num ~except for certain years.
It's a little complicated, but Pope Gregory fixed it again because, , before the fix there was like an extra, there was like a shift of 11 minutes every year and ~it, it affected, um.~
It affected certain [00:08:00] festivities and all this other stuff,
so the correction was made ~to line more. ~To line up with the Earth's orbit and to be more precise, ~and it was more complicated. ~But anyhow, they're very similar. The Julian and the Gregorian calendar, they both start January 1st. So currently we are using the Gregorian calendar.
But nothing about this was meant to align with how our bodies rest, restore, and naturally begin again.
So knowing that alone is very liberating. You and I are not broken. The calendar simply landed in a place that does not speak the same language as our biology, which will bring us to this next layer here about winter and what winter is naturally supposed to be like
when we zoom out to nature. Winter is naturally a downshift season. ~And it tells a, ~and it [00:09:00] tells a very different story than self-improvement culture. There are shorter days, longer nights, everything whispers to you to rest, conserve, prepare, and humans evolved inside that rhythm. Even today, our bodies respond to winter without asking.
Our permission, for instance, the shorter daylight can affect our moods, our hormones, sleep patterns. Many people experience lower motivation, slower thinking, a desire to cozy up and just stay inside more. And that's not depression necessarily, although we can sometimes interpret it in that way.
It is just the body saying Let's keep things gentle and that's okay.
Historically, it's been a season of survival mode long before Costco. Winter meant rationing, food and preserving [00:10:00] energy. ~This is the whole reason why there is the wholes. Uh, ~this is the whole reason. There's the harvest celebration time at the end of October, beginning of November, right? So that was the idea.
The idea was to retreat inwards. After the Harvest ~It retreat, ~we retreat inwards physically in homes, which would coincide ~with the pulling of. ~With the pulling inwards of everything else, our energy, our time to reflect and not so much action, action, action. We can ~save that big push for when the eyes thaws.~
~We ~save that big push for when the ice thaws.
Here's another example in nature trees shed leaves in autumn, not because they're lazy or dying. They can serve energy so they can survive the cold and come back stronger in the spring. Bears. Don't apologize for hibernating. ~Hi. Hi babe. Hi. I'm recording. Oh, it's fine. I can edit.~
~Are we leaving at six 30? Should probably leave at like six to 25. Okay. Okay.~
Soil rests. So future crops have nutrients. Much of winter growth happens [00:11:00] underground and unseen. So when we ask ourselves to dramatically transform, overhaul habits, wake up earlier, exercise harder, declutter everything, and change our entire lifestyles in the coldest weeks of the year. Our bodies are confused.
It's like trying to plant seeds in frozen earth. You can dig and push and insist, but the ground and the weather is not ready yet. And this leads us straight into why resolutions can feel painful.
Resolutions become a guilt trap. We create big ambitious January goals. We get excited, determined, motivated, and then winter does what? Winter does. We get tired. ~We ~the kids get sick. Mornings are darker. Our bodies crave warm carbs. The blanket wins and soon the narrative turns inward. [00:12:00] I failed. I always do this.
Something is wrong with me, but here is the truth. I want you to know you did not fail your resolution. Your nervous system was asking for rest while the calendar and modern tradition was shouting for performance. January was never meant to carry this much pressure. We turned it into a test of worth when it is really just a page on a planner made by humans.
Thousands of years ago, ~learning you guys ~learning this was so incredibly freeing for me, and I hope you can find that same freedom. You are allowed to opt out of that pressure.
I now like to think of winter, not as a launch season, but more like a listening season, especially after the holidays. ~I, ~instead of resolutions, try observations. Ask yourself, what feels heavy right now? Where do I keep hitting friction? [00:13:00] What would life feel like if this one area became easier? And then just notice without judging curiosity instead of critique, then you can choose gentle practices rather than demanding goals.
10 minute walks, ~lights out a little, ~lights out a little earlier, ~a weekly, ~a weekly Sunday reset, which I have a whole episode devoted to.
But you can make it gentle. You can label finances slowly clean one drawer at a time and not the, ~uh, ~entire house. Have a tech break after dinner.
Now this is the household CEO podcast, and our homes still need us to be the CEO of it ~so regularly. ~, Regularly scheduled things and routines are still happening, of course, but what I'm seeing is that now is not the best time to overhaul things in a major way. So I'll continue to talk about things that will help [00:14:00] households ~and use CEOs ~and you CEOs listening, ~but it doesn't have to be.~
But it doesn't all have to be done in a big way right now in the dead of winter. You can start with baby steps. ~Do maybe 20% of~
~do maybe 20% of a big thing. ~Do maybe 10 to 20% of a big thing and slowly work your way through them without pushing yourself so harshly, think scaffolding, not skyscrapers. You're building support for your future habits. You know, now's a great time for journaling and reflection.
Practicing a gratitude ritual.
I like to brain dump during this season ~and get ready for when I'm gonna put them all into action.~
~And get them ready for when I wanna put them and get ready for that. But, ~and get ready for that big push when I wanna fully put it into action. And some of 'em, I do start, but I start slowly.
It's okay to invite peace into your home without requiring perfection.
~So having said all that,~
~and if you're on,~
~oh shit.~
Now having said all that, and if I have convinced you to join me and [00:15:00] this old calendar of treating March or spring, like the new year.
~Now, having said all that, if you want to,~
Spring then becomes your true launch.
Imagine shifting your mindset like this. January and February are for preparing the soil. March and April are for planting. So gently observe, rest, simplify your systems. And when the world wakes up, your energy rises with it. So don't think you're starting late. If you don't do your resolutions, you're actually gonna be starting in season.
You know how when you go to a restaurant, certain things aren't available because they're not in season? I believe ~those, ~those are resolutions in January. They're not truly in season. We're trying to force it, in my opinion. And in biology's opinion, I think so instead of new year, new me try, [00:16:00] I am preparing the ground.
My start line is spring. ~Everything co ~everything becomes easier when timing and biology work together.
And you better believe when the real new year starts in spring, I'm gonna have an episode dedicated to doing all that. Now is just not the time, at least not for me, and I hope listening to all this gives you the permission to let yourself off the hook.
So if you've already fallen off your New Year's resolution, I want you to shake it off. ~Because what you heard, ~because didn't you just learn a life changing thing here, you are not behind. You are not weak. You are just living in winter, and winter is not laziness. Winter is wisdom. When the days get longer and warmer, your body will be ready to grow.
And when that time comes, I'm sure you'll feel it. Not as pressure, but its natural momentum. So my [00:17:00] friend, my fellow household CEOs, I wanna thank you for being here with me today. I hope this episode was like an aha moment wrapped in permission and possibility, and.
If this encouraged you, please share it with a friend who is being hard on herself about resolutions. Let's help more women remember it. They are not broken. The New Year calendar is, and tell this silly Julian slash Gregorian calendar, it's not me, it's you.
~And if you haven't given the household CEO podcast, a follow or a rating. ~And if you haven't yet given the household CEO Podcast a follow or a rating,
we would be so grateful if you did, because it will help the podcast grow and reach more people like you, and we need that in this world. Until next time, protect your peace, trust your rhythm, and keep leading your beautiful homes.
Thanks for [00:18:00] listening.
