I Didn’t Know I’d Been Practising Misogi for Ten Years

I only recently came across the Japanese idea of:

Misogi.

Roughly speaking, it’s a once-a-year challenge. Something deliberately uncomfortable, slightly intimidating, and meaningful enough to change how you see yourself. Not a habit. Not a resolution. A line drawn through the year.

When I first read about it, I had that strange feeling of recognition.
Because without knowing the word, I’d been doing something very similar for years. It was only when I told a friend about this years project did  they then say “MISOGI. YOU’RE DOING A MISOGE” 

Long before I could have named it, I’d been choosing one thing each year that would shape how I used my time and energy. Cycling long distances. Walking thousands of miles. Wild camping. Cold-water swimming through winter in Amsterdam’s canals. Travelling with intention. Committing to learning. Making time for family in a way that actually showed up on a calendar, not just in good intentions.

None of it started as a philosophy. It came from a quiet dissatisfaction with the idea of “New Year’s resolutions”.

They always felt vague to me. Easy to postpone. Easy to abandon by February. And too focused on outcomes rather than who you become while working towards them.

What I wanted was something else.
A commitment big enough to organise a year around.

Not all challenges are physical

Some of the most meaningful years I’ve had weren’t the most extreme.

Yes, there were physically demanding ones. Long rides. Cold water. Weeks of wild camping. I still remember quietly crying at the end of a long cycle as I slowly realised I’d reached Land’s End in England. This wasn’t because it was hard point in the ride, but because finishing it proved something to me that I hadn’t been able to articulate beforehand.

But other years were different.

Learning. Repairing relationships. Choosing to be more present with family as we all got older. Taking responsibility instead of chasing novelty. These required less spectacle and more honesty, and in many ways, they were harder.

That’s the part I think often gets missed when people talk about doing hard things.
Difficulty isn’t always measured in distance, weight, or temperature.

Time is equal. Energy isn’t.

We all hear the phrase that we have the same 24 hours in a day.
That’s true, and also misleading.

What really matters is energy.

Energy changes with fitness, focus, confidence, health, and momentum. Use it well and it compounds. Waste it and time feels like it disappears. I’ve come to see these yearly commitments as a way of training energy. Physical, mental, emotional. So there’s more of it to use.

Not to become superhuman. Just more deliberate.

The older I get, the more this feels like the real benefit. Not ticking off achievements, but learning how to direct effort toward something that actually matters.

So I’ve started calling it Misogi

We don’t really have a clean word for this in English.
“Resolution” doesn’t quite work. “Challenge” feels too narrow.

Misogi comes closest, even if I’m adapting it, and even if my version is quieter and less ceremonial. For me, it simply means:

One meaningful commitment per year.
Chosen deliberately.
Big enough to shape how you live.

That commitment can be physical, intellectual, relational, or something else entirely. What matters is that it asks something of you, and that you don’t pretend the year will somehow change on its own.

Making the year visible

For years, I’ve printed an A0 wall calendar for myself. The entire year on one sheet. I started using it to track these yearly commitments, and it became one of the most useful tools I’ve ever had.

When the whole year is visible, it’s harder to lie to yourself. You see the empty weeks. You see the effort. You see the pattern forming.

I’ve decided to make that calendar available to others.

If you’d like one, I’ll send you a personalised version for free. Your name on it, ready to print and put on a wall. All I ask is that you tell me what you’re choosing to focus on this year.

You don’t need to be extreme.
You don’t need to be certain.
You just need to choose something worth organising a year around.

 Get the calendar →