"If January always feels hopeful and exhausting at the same time, this is why. It's a new year. New goals. New strategies. Every January in boardrooms and living rooms alike, we are culturally conditioned to view the New Year through the lens of growth. We draft strategic plans to increase revenue, launch new initiatives, or devise workout plans to run a marathon. We fetishize the new."
"By exclusively focusing on new growth, we are creating a structural deficit in maintenance. We are building mandates on our own time, allocating hours to the visible new goals while forgetting to budget time for the invisible labor required to maintain the baseline. For example, if you plan to run a marathon (growth), you must also goal-set your current workout regimen and the recovery sleep and stretching (maintenance)."
New goals attract attention in January while invisible maintenance sustains progress throughout the year. Exclusive focus on new growth creates a structural deficit in maintenance by allocating time to visible goals and neglecting baseline upkeep. Practical examples include pairing marathon ambitions with consistent workouts, recovery, and stretching, and pairing revenue targets with strengthened internal operations. Invisible work shows up as inbox upkeep, relationship care, colleague morale checks, and rest. The brain narrows attention to preserve focus on specific new goals, so planning and scheduling maintenance tasks alongside growth objectives preserves sustainability and prevents chronic busyness.
Read at Psychology Today
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