What the Quiet Days Are Actually For
For those who want something different than goals this year
We’ve entered the in-between.
Christmas is over. The New Year hasn’t arrived. These days belong to neither, a pause in the calendar, a breath between chapters.
The culture doesn’t quite know what to do with them. Stores shift to clearance sales. Social media fills with “Best of 2025” lists and resolution prompts. The pressure to plan, to set goals, to know what’s next begins building before the current year has even finished.
But the Earth is doing something different right now. The ground is resting. The trees are dormant. The seeds are waiting, unhurried, for the right conditions.
What if we took our cue from that?
The Liminal Space
Liminal comes from the Latin word for threshold. These days are threshold time; we’ve left one thing and haven’t yet entered another.
Thresholds can feel uncomfortable. We want to move through them quickly to arrive at a defined destination. But as I wrote last week, transformation often happens in the waiting, not after it.
These quiet days offer something rare: time that doesn’t belong to anything yet. Time that isn’t claimed by obligation or celebration or the demands of a new beginning.
Before you fill it with plans, consider letting it be empty for a moment.
Approaching a New Year
When the New Year does arrive, there are many ways to meet it. None of them is the right way. All of them can work, depending on who you are and what you need.
Perhaps sharing these here may help some of you try out various options, allowing you to sit with them to feel into what works best for you at this time in your life.
Goals and Resolutions
The traditional approach. Specific, measurable targets. Lose weight, read more, save money. Do something by some date. For some people, this clarity helps.
The danger is setting goals that belong to who you think you should be rather than who you actually are.
If you choose this path, ask: whose goals are these? Do they come from my own knowing, or from external pressure?
A Word or Mantra
Instead of specific goals, some people choose a single word to carry through the year. Presence. Trust. Enough. Slow.
The word becomes a touchstone, a lens for decisions, a gentle redirection when you’ve drifted.
This works well for those who find rigid goals constricting but still want intention.
A Theme or Question
Broader than a word, more flexible than goals. What would it mean to prioritize rest this year? What am I learning about relationships? How do I want to feel in my body by December? What is the natural world trying to communicate and share with me?
A theme or question allows the year to unfold rather than requiring you to define it in advance.
Self-Learning Focus
Rather than achievement, focus on understanding. What do I want to learn about myself this year? What patterns am I ready to examine? What am I curious about?
This approach trusts that insight leads to change more sustainably than willpower.
No Framework at All
Sometimes, the most honest approach is to begin. To let January 1 be another day, continuous with the days before it.
To trust that you’ll know what matters when it matters, and that you don’t need to arrive at the new year with everything figured out.
Permission to Wait
You don’t have to decide now.
The New Year will arrive whether you’re ready or not. You can meet it with a detailed plan, an open question, or simply your presence. All of these are valid.
For now, in these quiet days, you have permission to rest. To reflect without concluding. To notice what’s stirring without forcing it into a framework.
The seeds underground aren’t writing their goals for spring. They’re gathering what they need, slowly, in the dark.
Maybe we can do the same.
A Simple Invitation
If you’d like a gentle practice for these in-between days:
Each morning, or whenever you have a quiet moment, ask yourself: What’s asking for my attention?
Don’t force an answer. Just notice what arises. It might be rest. It might be a relationship. It might be grief that needs tending or hope that needs acknowledgment.
Let the question sit with you through these liminal days. By the time the New Year arrives, you may find something has clarified on its own.
No resolutions required. Just attention.
How are you approaching the new year? Goals, a word, a question, or something else entirely? I’d love to hear.
If you want to read more, consider subscribing to be alerted to my weekly posts.
Walking with you through the threshold,
~ Jeffrey
Love the idea of letting a question lead me through the next year. Waiting for the answers to unfold.
Great concept Jeffrey that wherever you are during this in-between time--resolution maker or not is exactly where you're supposed to be.