The Winter Arc Is Approaching: Gen Z’s Obsession with Locking In

By Kerryann White

Imagine this. It’s New Years circa 2020 and you are genuinely convinced this is your year. You tell everyone your new and improved lifestyle choices and who you are about to become and you feel absolutely amazing about it. Fast forward to New Year’s 2021 and (ouch) it didn’t happen. 2021 will be my year. Nope, it will be 2022. 2023. 2024. 2025… the transformation never quite sticks. Your entire TikTok feed and Instagram reels are saturated with “motivational” content, demanding that you lock in and embark on your winter arc to unlock your true potential, the superior version of yourself.

What Does Locking In Mean?

At its core, locking in can be understood as a hyper-disciplined state of focus, an intense commitment to self-improvement, structure and grind time. This idea is central to the gen Z’s idea of success, becoming an almost spiritual pursuit to regain complete control over your life in a world that feels very chaotic and fragile.

Locking in often takes the form of waking up extremely early, deleting social media, gaining financial stability, exercising daily, journaling, studying, meditating, meal prepping, cold plunging, and setting (impossible) productivity targets. Of course, on the surface level, these habits sound completely positive, but the culture surrounding them is much more complex and dark. Not to mention, the distinctly modern contradiction of showing off our withdrawal from distractions on the very platforms that distract us the most.

The Myth of the Short Sprint

Part of the problem is that most of us treat self-improvement like it’s a quick sprint rather than the true marathon that it is. We expect instantaneous results, it doesn’t matter if it’s a six-pack in two weeks, mental clarity after 10 minutes of meditation or a whole new identity after a cold plunge, it is not going to happen. Genuine transformation doesn’t announce itself through aesthetics or morning routines, it happens slowly and quietly, with no real results showing for weeks, months, potentially even years.

Locking in, as it is shown online, trades the substance of discipline for the spectacle of it. The hand-crafted, dimly-lit content that is being fed to you is an utterly inaccurate representation. Bettering oneself requires boredom, repetition and extreme patience, and it tends to be a continuous uphill battle before you can reap the rewards. Unfortunately, the truth doesn’t quite excite the algorithm in the same way David Goggins and the Andrew Tate imitators do, so “locking in” becomes just another form of worthless consumption.

Motivation As a Performance

The entire concept of locking in that exists today depends on external validation, with countless individuals craving the relay of motivational speeches to anyone who will listen and providing daily countdowns of their 75 hard journey on their stories.

Neuroscience shows that our brains don’t just reward the moment of victory, they respond to the anticipation surrounding it. Dopamine neurons fire rapidly in response to the announcement of your goals to another person (gloating) and setting impossible standards for yourself, tricking us into feeling like we have achieved something for merely declaring it. This preview of reward can often undermine the level of sustained motivation necessary to follow through with major lifestyle changes.

Over time, the boundary between what we genuinely want and what we’ve been told to want begins to blur. We lock in not out of conviction, but because it feels like the thing to do, a demand from the online world. Most people can’t even articulate what their version of success is, they just try to keep up with an apparent standard that we should all upkeep.

The cycle of proclaiming our discipline, receiving validation and losing all momentum, is what makes the “lock in” mindset so seductive but so hollow, and the tendency to follow the structure without understanding the reason why is a straight, miserable road to failure.

Locking Out

As the dreaded “winter arc” approaches and you feel inclined to fill your schedule with promises of reinvention, take a step back from the noise to understand what it is that you expect from yourself. Instead of forcing unfeasible standards, set some challenging but realistic targets for yourself that will help you disengage from the performative culture that breeds failure and begin genuinely improving.

Perhaps discipline doesn’t need to be loud and attractive, just lived and personal to you.

References

Bromberg-Martin, Ethan S., Okihide Hikosaka, and Masayuki Matsumoto. 2010. “Dopamine in Motivational Control.” Neuron 68 (5): 815–834.