It’s hard not to look at the month of January as a time to start something new, break an old habit or get mega organized. The phrase “new year, new you” has been commercialized to death by the diet and fitness industries. It’s also given rise to the exploding organization industry. It’s no accident that every January the reinvention landscape features an abundance of new weight loss and fitness programs, as well as solutions for organizing everything in your life, from the walk-in closet to your investment portfolio and estate planning. Smart marketers are simply tapping into a naturally occurring mindset. Not surprisingly, their solutions come knocking at just the right time. My guess is that most of them help a good many people.
In winter, when most of nature retreats, waiting and hanging on for spring to launch a new growth period, so do we. January is our time for quiet contemplation, for dreaming, innovating, researching, vetting and plotting new ideas. The fruit of all this thinking and planning blossoms with spring’s first flowers. New ideas take root in January, February and March. By April and May, the viable ones begin to sprout with the tulips, daffodils and crocuses.
The race is on! I’ve been nesting and noodling like crazy. The ideas are flowing like mad; the silent brainstorming has been nonstop. The pad of paper next to my bed is filling up. The TextEdit, Pages and Word docs are multiplying.
Creatives like me totally get this winter phenomenon. It’s a naturally occurring process that’s as predictable as the winter solstice. It’s also as essential to personal and professional happiness as eating nutritiously and exercising regularly is to overall wellbeing. But, unlike dieting and exercising, it’s never forced or despised. For me, this is an exciting time to embrace and cherish.
I’m the first to admit that a majority of my ideas will never see the light of day, but it doesn’t matter one bit because I know that dreaming is not only the engine of innovation, but also the lifeline to true happiness.
This cold weather creative energy inspired a timely New York Times article on the power of “design thinking” to help us all achieve goals, reframe problems and find solutions. If you want to use this time to change your life, get out of a personal rut or simply exercise your creativity, start by reading this article.
-Jennifer Bebon