The shorter days and the cold winter darkness really get a bad wrap. 

I used to fight with this time of the year and complain a lot.

My reward for expending so much time and energy fighting against a fact? 

Energy drain, a bad attitude, weight gain, and feeling depressed. 

And then I decided to change my association with darkness and winter and now? Winter has become another season I love. 

And even though my energy is still subdued compared to other months, I welcome the rest and the moments I get to be still. 

I see winter now as a natural time to reflect, store up energy, and prep. 

Just like a seed. Have you ever thought about the parallels? 

Winter is a very important time for a seed. It needs dormancy, and often darkness, before it can germinate.

Dormancy is a protective mechanism that prevents a seed from germinating during unfavorable conditions where it would likely not survive.

Some seeds stay dormant for years waiting for the right survival conditions and in the spring, if conditions are right, it develops and grows.

As the dark days approach, what if you thought of yourself like a dormant seed?

A seed that will flourish in the spring when you prep and create the right conditions now. 

What needs your time and care now? 

Here are eight common energy-draining habits we humans do to create our most unfavorable growing conditions:

1. Worry so much about what people think of us that we never get to be authentically who we are

2. People-please and put everyone’s needs and opinions above ours so that we’re always drained

3. Over-think and what-if the future so we live with anxiety and stay stuck playing small today

4. Obsess about the past and how it was better, or that we should have done better, so that we feel depressed today

5. Never feel like we’re accomplished, smart, fit, or successful enough so that guilt and shame drag us down

6. Think we have to get everything perfect so that we can finally relax and be enough yet that day never comes

7. Judge and talk bad about ourselves to ourselves about our body, what we consume, and how much we exercise so we feel deflated

8. Lack trust in ourselves to stick with healthy habits so that we stay exactly where we don’t want to stay — the same

Anything resonate? If so, use these next several months to reflect and course-correct! Prep your seed now so that when spring emerges you’re bursting with energy to emerge! 

Just like a seed that needs darkness before it sees light, so do we. Darkness, when done right, grows the best and strongest us. 

Ever need hardcore motivation on some Mondays?

Get it here a few times a month.

Bonus!
Get the #1 tool I use every time I find myself up in my head! Get it here.