Just yesterday, my 8-year-old and I were doing our GLOW10 strength session together (yes, he’s still joining me, yes, I love it, and yes, he is now my favourite child… joking. Obviously my favourite child changes daily).
Ok, so there were were, mid dumbbell front squats (he’s graduated from 8kg to 10kg 💪), when he asked me:
“Mum, how long do we do this for?”
At first, I thought he meant how long is the workout?
But then he clarified…
“No, I mean… how many weeks do we do this for?”
Oof. Honestly, it’s the one question I don’t think gets asked enough.
And my answer to him: Forever, babe.
But I totally get that this answer can feel like a tough pill to swallow, especially right now.
Because this time of year tends to bring out two types of people:
Camp One: The Deadline-Driven Doers.
These are the “I’m all in until Christmas” types. They sign up for challenges, love a finish line, and feel motivated by the pressure. There’s a drive to “earn the break.”
Camp Two: The Mentally Maxed-Out.
These are the people staring down school concerts, end-of-year deadlines, emotional load, and gift lists, wondering how on earth they’re meant to add anything else.
And honestly, you can be both.
You might thrive with structure in one season… and drop all the balls in the next.
That’s not a personality flaw. That’s just being human.
One of the most common obstacles I hear when it comes to exercise is:
“I don’t have time.”
But often, what we really mean is:
“I don’t have capacity.”
It’s not just your schedule that determines if you can exercise (I run a 10-min-a-day strength program, and even that can feel hard some days). It’s your mental load.
That invisible backpack we all carry around.
The one filled with logistics, emotions, responsibilities, to-dos, expectations… and right now, holiday overwhelm on top of it all. 🎄🙃 At this time of year, that backpack is heavy.
So if setting another big goal doesn’t appeal to you right now, but you’re also not ready to quit altogether…here’s my invitation:
What if your only goal right now was simply…
To keep the wheels in motion.
Even slowly.
Not to sprint. Not to smash it.
Just to not stop.
To keep moving, because movement doesn’t add to your load, it helps you carry it.
That’s what I’m doing. And I talk through a simple way to approach this in this week’s podcast episode (you can listen here – it’s <10 mins!).
Because if we want to be the kind of people who keep doing the thing forever (like I told my 8-year-old)…
Then we have to keep doing the thing.
Even if it looks slower. Even if it looks different.