The Bull in the Rain

The calendar says we are nearing the end of January, but looking out the window, it feels more like an endurance test.  Here in the UK, the skies haven't just opened; they’ve been punishing.  It has been a deluge of grey, washing away the bright, shiny optimism we all felt when the clock struck midnight for 2026.

I know how it goes; you started this year with a fire in your belly and solid plans.  Maybe you planned to run the miles, put down the bottle, eat the greens and finally become that version of yourself you keep envisioning.

But then the rain came, the cold and life’s ever demanding routine.

If you’re sitting there today looking at a pair of dry running shoes, or a diet plan that went out the window last Tuesday, feeling a heavy knot of guilt in your chest...

STOP - I’m right there with you.

I haven’t been perfect.  I’ve looked at the driving rain and closed the blinds.  I’ve felt the resistance, but missing the mark in the first month is not failure; it is simply the "Bull" at work and the Bull doesn't care about our calendar.

The "Bull"—that force of resistance, life, and unpredictability is the exhausted evening after a long day.  It is the weather that chills you to the bone and the old habits that fight to stay alive.

When we set our goals at the end of last year, we may have framed a fantasy version of our lives, where the sun always shines and we never get tired, the car always runs and the kids are compliant.  We set our destination radically far from where we were standing and tried to leap a canyon in the first month.  We haven't had the chance to even think about building a bridge.

So many of us missed the other side and are sprawled face down in the gravel.  That isn’t a sign to quit.  It’s a sign that the Bull is real, and you are in his arena.

Pull Up Your Laces

So, we stumbled, got muddy and maybe a little bruised…

Good!  Now we know the terrain.  2026 has shown its hand.

The "glossy" version of success tells us to only accept perfection, but the "grit" in our blood tells us that success is just a refusal to stay down.  

It is time to be fair to ourselves, not by letting ourselves off the hook, but by being realistic about the climb.  I’m already reassessing.  The structure of my plan is evolving every day, but the end point doesn't need to become less.  If cutting everything out was too stark, I’m cutting the same out, but slowly over time.  I’m making the timeline kinder.  I didn't need to fix my trajectory in the first thirty-one days.  

January has advised me via the fall to give room for the bad weather and ill luck.  I’m making room for the Bull to get in the way, because I know he will.

It isn't a write-off because January was hard; it has barely begun.

I’m pulling up my laces and looking the Bull in the eye.  Even if we all get knocked down again in February, we know the drill.

Keep getting back up.

-Bones