Objectively speaking if we step away from human-made calendars then every day is New Year’s Day. Which is to say, on any given day a whole year of days stretch out in front of you, just waiting for you to make choices about how you live in those moments. I deliberately didn’t write how you use those moments or spend those moments; I wrote how you live them. Time isn’t something you can keep in a bank. A moment may pass, yes, and here you are right smack dab in the middle of another one. And another one! What a gift.
And yet there’s something about a physical calendar, the clean, empty pages waiting to be filled with a word that captures that day in memory, a special date, an appointment that matters a lot. So okay, let’s treat January 1 as a reset and spend some time thinking about how we’re going to move through the year ahead.
Are you going to walk more? I recently read the book Do Walk: Navigate Earth, Mind and Body. Step by Step.* Author Libby DeLana went for a walk one day. And the next. And the next. She’s continued her MorningWalk practice for years now, walking every single day whether it’s a short walk around the block or a walk of several miles that serves as centering, grounding, thinking, creating, moving time.
Maybe you can’t walk. She does note at one point that the choice of route may have barriers for someone who’s using a wheelchair so she’s really talking about moving your body through space outside, however you do that. I definitely walk a lot more now that I live in a genuinely walkable/rollable neighborhood, and walking gives me many gifts.
Will you start or expand use of transit for transportation? If you’re not living near a transit stop this may be more of a bike + transit equation, which expands the reach and usefulness of both modes. One of my coworkers hops on a bus to take her down to the end of a nice long trail, then bikes home. You could plan that the other way, too: Ride your bike as far as you feel like going, with a stopping point somewhere in the vicinity of a transit route, then let you and your bike both catch a ride back.
If you’re not familiar with transit in your area (or at all), I can’t help but advise you to get good at using it. You can’t assume that if you drive now you’ll always be able to drive. Having multiple modes available that you know how to use to get where you’re going is the ultimate in transportation freedom. Otherwise when age or disability or both remove you from behind that steering wheel, you’re trapped by auto-dependency.
Are you going to ride your bike more? That can apply no matter what “more” means for you. Years ago guest blogger Betz set the resolution to ride her bike at least once a month year round, whereas she’d been more of a fair-weather rider up until that point.
Are you going to change up your riding in some way? The realm of riding isn’t a spectrum from fewer miles to more miles. It’s more like a big fun fizzy fuzzy ball of possibilities radiating in every direction and dimension. Ride a different bike? A different route? A different time of day? A different time of year? With other people if you usually ride alone, alone if you usually ride with others? To work if you’ve only been riding weekends? For a midday brain break and ‘splore, as Pooh would say, or for errands if you’ve mostly been commuting? As your primary transportation for a bike travel vacation whether that’s a weekend getaway or a multi-day tour?
If you made a list of the things you do in your life how might you add a bike ride to any of them? Map out your usual destinations and how long it would take you to ride there, and you may find new ways to work more bike into your life. Maybe you stop or start tracking your mileage or time on the bike. Or use that time to muse on how riding adjusts your perception of speed, your sense of time itself and whether being “productive” is all it’s cracked up to be. Make a life list of things you want to try that involve riding and work your way through a few of them this year. Design your own version of a triathlon. Or, y’know, ride your bike to ride your bike.
Related Reading
- #BikeIt: What’s On Your List?: Lots and lots of things related to riding, some of which you may want to try.
- Independence and Freedom, Courtesy of the Bike: So many ways it sets me free!
- Commitment, Bite-Sized and Tasty: Introducing the idea of “joy snacks” on my personal blog, and a bike ride makes a perfect snack!
- Surgeon General Warning: Bicycling Can Be Habit-Forming: A celebration of my shift from occasional riding to a steady habit, along with some of the advantages bicycling gives me
- 5 Behavior and Culture Hacks to Get More People to Bike and Walk: Trying to form those habits? A few research-based suggestions.
- Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? What are you doing today (or thinking you might start/stop doing) that shapes the person you’ll be 10 years from now?
- Setting My Own Pace: How time passes and the quality of that time are different mode to mode.
- It’s All in the Attitude: More on the way that riding changes my perception of time.
- Biking as Downtime and other Musings on Overproductivity: Why you need the meditative space a bike ride provides.
- Zen and the Art of Bicycling: Not original to me, too good not to capture.
- One Word for 2014 Bicycling: Maybe what works for you is setting an intention you can capture in a word or a phrase. (Yes, it’s an old post, but the premise holds up.)
- An Easy New Year’s Resolution: Write It Down: I still write an old-fashioned actual pen-and-paper journal and record my riding.
- Keep that Streak Going: #30DaysOf Something that Matters to You: On my personal blog I dig into the nature of commitment.
- Why a Cyclist Needs a Pedometer: An older post but I’m still tracking my steps and I still need the reminder to move.
- Hassle Factor: Biking vs. Driving: Think driving is easy? Easy is what you make it.
- When I Get Older: Why I’m Counting on a Multimodal System: Trying new things or forming new habits isn’t just about bicycling.
- How Am I Going to Get There? Why We Need Each Other: Some thoughts on aging, transportation policy, and the importance of community and collaboration.
*You should support, cherish and thank your local bookstore if you have one. Same goes for your local library. If you don’t have easy access, you can use the Bookshop affiliate link to order DeLana’s book. If I ever get any commission through such links I’ll donate the proceeds to organizations that support equity and accessible active transportation.
A note on the typeface in the “2025 Ahead!” image: Designed by Dulce Salazar, the Bicycle typeface shapes are intended to suggest the shape of a penny farthing bicycle.