7 Things I Learned this Winter

I absolutely love how Emily Freeman always shares some things she learned each season and gives others the opportunity to do the same. When I was writing my list, a lot of the things that came to mind felt trivial or elementary. I also questioned why on earth I should share with the general public. Would they get anything out of it? Would anyone want to read? It’s silly, because I love reading posts like this. And then I thought about how writing down a list of things I learned could be beneficial in the long term. Not only could others learn along with me, but I could look back at these lists as a reference for the things God taught me and the particular challenges of each season. My overthinking made me miss the party, but I’m sharing 7 things I learned this winter anyway.

7 Things I learned this Winter

I can change the narrative I have about myself.

This isn’t a new idea, but I was most struck by the possibility of changing our narratives about ourselves when reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. Each time we do an activity or complete a task, we’re either reinforcing an existing identity box or creating a new one. Which means we can change the way we see ourselves. For me, this meant giving up the identity of being lazy and out of shape and slowly building up the identity of being a runner. I’ve already been on 32 runs this year and have run further distances than I expected I could. How’s that for changing my self-identity?

Small progress really does add up

Not to keep tooting my own horn about running, but it shocked me how much progress I made just by consistently showing up. When I first started running a mile, anything further than 1.5 miles sounded impossible. I seriously didn’t think I’d ever get there. And while each run felt difficult, it didn’t feel like it was that much harder than the one before. But because I stayed so consistent with it, I worked myself up to running 4 miles. I know I could definitely keep building on that now. It was good to prove to myself that showing up really does count for something.

Action isn’t always exhausting as it sounds. Sometimes it’s energizing.

I’ve been wanting to paint our apartment for about a year but completely dreaded the task. It sounded like such a big job and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to work up the energy. One day I just made a plan. I assigned days to pick the color, buy the paint, and get started. It was exhausting. But I was also surprised to discover that freshening up our home is something that I really love. So it was also totally energizing. Next time I’ll be careful not to put too much weight on the cost of the energy I think it’ll take to do something, especially if it’s something I really want to do.

There can be just as much pride + sin in not buying the thing as there is in buying the thing

This year I decided to do Nancy Ray’s 3-month contentment challenge. The first step is to buy any necessary things you’ll need before you begin the challenge. This is when I realized that I had SO MANY THINGS I was planning on buying that I was putting off for a future time. I really struggled with buying those things. After much soul-searching, I realized that it was largely because I thought I was a better person for constantly saying no to myself.

But here’s the thing, while God has instructed us to be wise and generous with our money and to remember that it all belongs to Him, He never said that we should never buy the things we want but don’t strictly need. If that were the case, we could never support our dear friends and neighbors in their businesses and livelihoods! I’m learning to confess my pride in this area and find a healthier balance of spending and saving.

Your life isn’t as boring as you think

This is one of my favorite things I learned this weekend. As an Enneagram 5, I admittedly have a difficult time sharing personal things. My default belief is that people will find it at best uninteresting and at worst offensive and obnoxious. But this year I’ve made it a point to share more about our daily life on Instagram if for nothing else than to keep memories for ourselves. Here’s what I learned: People are more interested in your life than you realize. I’ve been surprised and delighted by the level of engagement I’ve received on posts about ordinary ol’ me.

All the research in the world doesn’t always yield to a desired outcome

This was a somewhat bitter lesson to learn, partially because I love to research and partially because it meant we had a tough outcome that we didn’t love. I carefully scoured the internet for the perfect kitten for us to adopt. We found her and for the first few days, everything was wonderful. She was EVERYTHING we wanted and it seemed like all my research had paid off. And then she became ill, resulting in several very stressful weeks followed by the heartbreaking decision of taking her back to the amazing rescue we adopted her from. Even my careful planning and research didn’t guarantee we’d get the perfect kitten. It’s impossible to 100% guarantee a desired outcome.