My only caveat: see to it you choose rules thatactuallyimprove your life.

What is the Winter Arc?

Think of the arc here in the sense of a story arc.

The Winter Arc is a self-improvement journey that unfolds over the last few months of the calendar year.

You may, of course, begin the Winter Arc anytime youre ready for it.

Its the week before Halloween?

Its not too late to start.

Learn about it mid-November?

Sure, hop on board.

You get to choose your own terms for the Winter Arc.

Why stash your gym routine for New Years when youll have the place to yourself all December?

The Winter Arc is also a great follow-on fromdeveloping a running routine in the fall.

Were evengifted with an extra hourin the mornings to fill with something productive.

I really love the mindset shift here.

Youll do the crash diet or the unsustainable workout challenge.

Lord help us,75Hardmight start to look appealing.

But when you start a routine during a busy time of year, youll be forced to make itsustainable.

Youre already training yourself to work around obstacles as they come up, a key component ofself-efficacy.

And when the chaos clears on Jan. 1, your routine will becomeeasierto stick to.

Whats bad about the Winter Arc?

Of course, there are ways to lean intoohard.

Choose unsustainable habits, fall for bad diet advice, mistakenot masturbatingfor some kind of health hack.

Youre not putting in the work!

while motivational music plays in the background.

I really dont love this.

Self improvement is not a competition.

I also dont love how gendered the Winter Arc TikToks are.

But theyre only a slight exaggeration of the advice in the more serious videos.

Come on, guys!

Social interaction is good for you!

What is the best set of Winter Arc rules?

Choosing 10 overly ambitious goals and setting yourself up for failure isnota healthy way to approach this, OK?

Its OK to go for 7:30, make that a habit, then 7:00, and so on.

With that in mind, here are some ideas for ways to use the Winter Arc to your advantage.

Great, especially if youtake advantage of the time changeto make this easier on your body.

Get to bed on time.

Never a bad idea.Cultivating good sleep habits in generalis always worthwhile.

Exercise X times per week.

Pick a number that works for you, and get into it.

This is a great goal, with the major caveat thatthere are a lot of ways to eat healthy.

You dont need to cut out sugar or pretend that theres something evil about seed oils.Doget moreproteinandveggies.

Be more thoughtful about social media.

Journaling can be great for working through your feelings or cultivating a creative habit.

Reading can be entertainment or learning.

Choose what you need most.

Learn a new skill.

Ive mostly seen this one in the mens TikToks, and I love it.

Practice a language, get better at cooking, make some art.

Skills are, as Ive noted, amulti-layered exercise for your brain.

And they may come in handy someday.

(Moresocial interaction, imagine that!)

That said, I would have done this with or without the “Winter Arc” label.

You choose what works for you.