Why I'm Embracing Boring

None of this is sexy. None of it is flashy. And none of it performs well in a world obsessed with hacks, extremes, and dramatic reinventions. We’ve been taught that if it doesn’t feel intense, edgy, or at least a little miserable, it can’t possibly be doing much.

Somehow, sustainable habits got branded as boring. And once that label stuck, we decided they weren’t powerful, impressive, or worth our full attention. We started chasing excitement instead of results, novelty instead of longevity and joy.

But here’s what living in a real body for a few decades will teach you: the shiny stuff fades fast. What actually works is far less dramatic and way more consistent.

Boring works.

Boring is what keeps joints moving, energy steadier, moods less chaotic, and bodies functioning for the long haul. Boring builds health quietly, without burnout, injury, or the constant emotional rollercoaster of starting over. No extremes. No punishment. No gold stars required. Actually, give yourself as many gold stars as you want for opting into boring, sustainable behaviors. 

And once I really understood that, the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions, short-term extreme challenges, and rigid goal-setting lost its shine. Because if the goal is to last, not just impress, then opting into “boring” suddenly feels like the smartest move in the room.

I used to pride myself on being very A-type. Once I set a goal, I was all in. Push through. Check the box. Finish what I started, no matter what. Even when the goal stopped making sense. Even when it stopped serving me. That mindset earned me a lot of gold stars, awards, accolades, and trophies over the years, but it also taught me to ignore myself.

These days? I won’t even finish a season of a show if it gets stupid, even if I’m only two episodes away. I’m out. No loyalty. No guilt. And I have to tell you, it feels so good.

That shift taught me something important. Setting goals isn’t the problem. Blindly clinging to them is. Real freedom and real joy come from giving yourself permission to abandon goals when they lose their meaning or no longer serve the person you are now.

And that’s exactly why I’ve been opting out of New Year’s resolutions for a long time.

Not because I don’t care about growth, or structure, or intention. I do. But because most New Year’s resolutions are built on pressure, not trust. They ask us to override our own wisdom in the name of discipline. They reward rigidity, even when our bodies, lives, and priorities are asking for something different.

So instead of setting another resolution, I choose something else. I choose listening. I choose adjusting. I choose movement, habits, and goals that can evolve as I do.

Let me tell you why. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll resonate with you too.

Why Opting Out Wasn’t Quitting, It Was Finally Listening to Myself

For a long time, I thought opting out meant I was giving up. That if I didn’t commit to a big, shiny resolution, I must be losing my edge. Getting soft. Lowering my standards. But what I’ve learned is that opting out wasn’t a step backward. It was a step into trusting myself instead of others.

New Year’s resolutions often assume one thing: that January You knows better than December You. That with enough motivation, pressure, and willpower, you can override everything you learned the year before. Your patterns. Your limits. Your preferences. Your reality.

And that’s the part that no longer works for me.

Because I know myself better now. I know how I respond to rigidity. I know how quickly “I should” turns into resentment. I know that extreme plans might light me up for a few weeks, but they rarely stick. And I know that when something requires me to ignore my body, my energy, or my actual life to succeed, it’s not the right goal, no matter how impressive it looks.

Opting out of New Year’s resolutions gave me something far more valuable than a checklist. It gave me permission to listen. To adjust. To trust that I don’t need a calendar date to change, and I don’t need a rigid rulebook to grow. What I choose instead is intention without punishment. Goals that can evolve as my body, my hormones, and my life evolve. That’s the difference between control and trust.

And once you experience that shift, it’s very hard to go back to setting goals that require you to abandon yourself in order to achieve them.

Calling in the Real Expert

At some point, I realized I didn’t need another plan telling me what to do. I needed to stop ignoring the information I already had.

You live in your body every single day. You feel the difference between when movement energizes you and when it drains you. You know when structure supports you and when it starts to feel like a cage. No app, program, or expert has access to that kind of data.

That doesn’t mean guidance isn’t helpful. It is. Science matters. Coaching matters. But good guidance should help you hear your own voice more clearly, not drown it out. It should feel like collaboration, not compliance.

Opting out of New Year’s resolutions was really about opting into trust. Trusting my body. Trusting my experience. Trusting that simple, “boring” habits done consistently are far more powerful than extreme plans I can’t sustain.

So as this year comes to a close, here’s my invitation to you.

Instead of asking what you should do next year, ask yourself what you already know. What habits actually support you? What are you forcing that no longer fits? What would it look like to choose consistency over excitement and trust over control?

If this resonates, I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email to [email protected] and tell me what you’re opting out of this year, and what you’re choosing instead. No perfect answers required. Just honesty.

January doesn’t need a reinvention.
It needs a reconnection.

And it’s about time we let the real expert lead.

You