During a life transition, your resolution is about stability, not growth.

When a major life transition hits—divorce, job loss, moving—your resolution isn’t broken; it just needs to change its job.

Routines are scaffolding. They hold you up so you can build other things. When the scaffolding gets yanked away (new city, new schedule, emotional chaos), you can’t just keep building like nothing happened. Trying to maintain an ambitious resolution—say, gym five days a week or writing daily—while you’re also packing boxes or filing for divorce is a recipe for shame and burnout. Don’t do that to yourself.

The smart play is to scale way, way back. If your resolution was “learn Spanish,” drop it to “open Duolingo once a week.” If it was “eat clean,” drop it to “eat anything that doesn’t make me feel worse.” The goal isn’t progress; it’s preservation. You’re in survival mode. Treat it with respect. Let the resolution become about maintaining your baseline: sleeping, eating, not blowing up at your ex.

This is temporary. When the dust settles, you can ramp back up. Right now, you just need to not fall apart. That