#160 - What the hell is a 'Winter Arc'?

Productivity content has been invading my feeds lately.

In part, I'm sure, because of my saving/sharing the Stanley accessories and ice ASMR, YouTube has now decided that I am very interested in getting my life together.

(To be fair–I do also have a productivity playlist but that's like work ambiance not "here's how to work out and eat and wake up at 5am because that means you're being more productive" videos.)

But now that I've gotten the excuses for my consumption of them out of the way, get ready for the critique!

Okay so half of them are thinly veiled eating disorder content. Straight up giving advice like going to sleep when you get hungry after dinner type shit. Lots of shots of their toned abs in two-piece sets and body checks in the thumbnail to demonstrate what the viewer can aspire to achieve some day.

The thumbnails, in the great tradition of YouTube, are copies of a copy of a copy. Alarm clock time screenshots layered over shots of smoothies//workouts//colorful salad//gym shots//and we can't leave out the ~inspirational quote.

'Winter Arc' is not a real thing. It's a made up phrase because we're addicted to making everything into A Thing instead of just focusing on the tasks of what it means to attempt to live life in a way that doesn't destroy ourselves and instead, nourish our bodies and minds.

The people who create these videos have to be part of some play-within-a-play version of reality that so many people are now living because they choose to turn the camera around and film themselves to get through the tasks/routines and the mundanity of the everyday.

(And if you as a creator can create a niche within a banal task that everyone has to do, you can ride that gravy train for years. If people think of you every time they mop their floors, oh baby those ad-payouts are big!)

And I get it, by making everyday Special and holding ourselves accountable to anonymous folks on the internet, we really can motivate ourselves.

But there's something sinister lurking in the promise of "disappear and become unrecognizable". In order for aspirational content to work, people have to aspire to the lifestyle being presented. The easiest way to do that is to poke at the insecurities that people routinely find difficult to shed.

The idea that we are undisciplined and that's why we're the cause of our own unhappiness. But don't worry! Quick fix! Just 'lock in' for 90 days and 'prove to yourself' that your 'worthy' of 'investment'!

And like, I get it. We're all in various "eras" now because personal brands became hyper-niche spaces to make money on the internet and all of these people are just hopping on the keyword search trend because it's what gets them views.

The thing I find funniest about these kinds of YouTubers is the illusion that they have to keep maintaining. Like ostensibly, if they're teaching me how to get my life together–they have their lives together. Their offering advice because it's what worked for them.

So they either:

>> burnout because it's exhausting to maintain a constant facade of perfection in order for their audience to believe the aspirational dream their selling

>> fake burnout in order to become "relatable" and create the idea with their audience that we're all in this together!

And community is important and I'm genuinely glad people have access to it, wherever they find it!

But motivational content makes promises it cannot possibly keep.

In 90 days, if you set your iPhone to "Abundance & Growth" mode, start using your iPad, and meditate – maybe you can be hotter + richer + happier and own a shiny watch that you wear driving around.

In three months?? Where does taking morning walks factor into me being "richer"? I mean I would love to be paid to work out don't get me wrong, but this whole "lock in" thing really eeks me out. Because focusing solely on your own "growth" for 90 days feels like a path to self-obsession.

These videos will constantly reassure their audience that it's okay to not make plans or want to go out with friends – you have a commitment to be at the gym at 5am so you can't be going out for drinks the night before.

Sure, fine, but also...you could always go get coffee or dinner (or even a drink or two!) earlier in the evening. You don't have to be in a constant workout/recovery loop or spending all of your time alone. That's actually uh, bad for us. We're a social species. Hermetic tendencies don't usually lead to healthy outcomes and I think it's weird that productivity isn't focused on balance at all anymore.

Max effort all the time or it's not worth it. If you're not giving it 1000% don't bother.

As if that's ever been helpful or sustainable long-term.

(It doesn't help that we're at the internet marketing stage where a lot of the women/girls making this content don't have real jobs. Some of them are literal teens who make "study with me for high school" videos where they drag diagrams into their iPad notetaking platforms and do tutorials (that I have watched and used) about how to make cute widgets. But a lot of them are grown women who's job is marketing their personal brand of productivity life hack tips. And that's fine but it's a perspective that brings a weird level of samey-ness to their advice. They aren't talking about how to fit in friendships because they have super flexible schedules and don't know about things like going out for drinks with coworkers because they've literally never done it.)

"Lock in" is my other favorite term. Like just being relentlessly into yourself is a challenge that must be taken so. seriously.

They're just talking about working out and like making vegetable-forward foods. It's not revolutionary. They're going to maybe have a preference in how they prefer to "set the mood" for meditation, a process they will show in macro detail because how else are they going to link to the palo santo in their amazon storefront?

I'm no stranger to the set-goals-get-going mentality. I've written about my numerous cycles of Getting My Life Together. I get who this is for – I'm a prime audience besides the fact that half of this is thinspo so I'm like a target but in reverse. Some of it is just providing body doubles for folks who live alone.

I'm still worried though. We already "normalized selfishness" and it went way too far. We don't need any more encouragement to forsake other people or our friends for our own personal gain. What society needs, tout suite, is a sense of pride in caring about each other.

Like yes we must put on our masks before assisting those around us, but people are acting as if we're not supposed to not assist the other people because they'll take oxygen away from us.

My friends are some of my biggest inspirations and motivators. I don't think disappearing from social circles in order to have enough time to workout for the second time in one day is a great way to move through life.

Transformations feel like a wish fulfillment from 90s teen movies. The idea of "shocking" everyone with your new appearance hammers in that none of this is spiritual, regardless of how it's sold. The end goal is right there in the thumbnail: hotter, thinner, glow-ups.

Self-improvement, but to what end? For what purpose? What does it mean to live a fulfilling life outside of the arc?

What's waiting for people at the end?

Come 2025, these same creators will continue the shtick but it will have slightly altered branding. Their audience will either be brand new folks looking for guidance, or their loyal audience who would watch them basically do anything at this point because they're into the voice/apartment/way information is presented. Some people are magnetic on camera, I get it!

The 'Winter Arc' sets itself apart by happening before New Years. It's spoken about like "getting ahead" as if the tasks involved are assignments for everyone come January 1st and they want to already be in motion in order to score an A+ and, much more importantly, beat everyone else.

Self-improvement has been re-framed as a competition.

Unfortunately, that means everyone loses.