Slow Starts Still Count

The start of a new year usually comes with plans, lists, and a sudden urge to get everything right straight away. I had every intention of attacking this year with focus and discipline. Then my body stepped in and said absolutely not.

Just before the year even began, I had one of the worst flare ups I have ever experienced. All my keloids became reactive over Christmas. Nothing life threatening, but painful, unpredictable, and exhausting. Christmas Day included good food, drinks, laughter, and eruptions after champagne and prosecco. I am convinced my keloids could not cope with rich food, trifle, and antibiotics all at once. At one point it felt less like festive cheer and more like a scene from a medical drama I did not sign up for.

Weeks later, it is still ongoing. I am managing symptoms as best I can while waiting for a surgery date. Not how I pictured starting the year, but here we are.

I know this feeling won’t be unfamiliar to many of you. You start the year with good intentions and a sense of hope, then your health steps in and changes the plan. It’s frustrating, and at times it feels unfair, especially when it looks like everyone else is flying into January without a second thought.

At the same time, Christmas and New Year were a reminder of how lucky I am. Being around friends and family grounded me in a way I really needed. It echoed something I mentioned in my end of year newsletter about counting what went right. My sister put it simply. We spend so much time focusing on what went wrong that we forget to notice what we actually got through and achieved.

I read recently that around 23 percent of people quit their New Year resolutions in the first week, and almost half by the end of January. I know I’ve definitely contributed to that statistic. Some years I have given up by the afternoon of January 1st. No judgement please.

There are plenty of reasons this happens. Goals that are too big, trying to change everything at once, or not building habits that fit real life. When your health is unpredictable, those plans become even harder to stick to.

If you miss a day or even a week, it does not mean you have failed. It just means life happened. Restart when you can. Take smaller steps. Slow motion is better than no motion, as the younger generation would say.

This year will have hard moments, like every year does. For some of us, they have already arrived. Cancelled appointments, long waits, pain that refuses to ease, and silence from doctors who you are relying on. I have had all of that already, and it is only January.

But I am still here. I am still planning. I am still showing up in the ways I can.

Something I have noticed is how quick we are to give up on ourselves, but how stubborn we become when it comes to work. Think about the recent snow and ice that brought the country to a standstill. Roads frozen, trains cancelled, pavements like ice rinks. And yet many of us still went to work. I am sure some of you were out there slipping around while the world looked like a low budget version of Disney on Ice on VHS.

That same determination rarely gets applied to our personal goals or wellbeing. We tell ourselves we will start again later, when things are easier, when our health improves, when the timing feels right. But later has a habit of drifting further away.

If your year has started in a way you did not expect, you are not alone. If your body has forced you to slow down, that does not mean you have stopped moving forward.

I am learning that starting slowly does not cancel ambition. It just means adjusting to reality. Some years begin with momentum, others begin with patience. If this one is asking you to pause, listen, or take things one step at a time, that is still a start. We do not need to rush our way into becoming better versions of ourselves. Sometimes staying present, staying honest, and staying kind to our bodies is more than enough.