How people are embracing winter arc without burning out

Have you ever been locked out?

No, not finding yourself locked in an elevator or bathroom.

We’re talking about locking in – a phrase you may have seen on social media or heard people say recently.

To lock in is to focus; Enduring short-term pain for long-term gain – whether it’s building your body or your business. Do it today – not tomorrow. Everything else is a distraction.

The phrase, which has been featured in motivational and satirical videos, has been searched for more online this year than ever before, according to Google. So how exactly are people locking down and is it helping or hindering them?

“My generation thrives on romantic things,” says Dani, a 20-year-old student at Manchester University.

“I think locking in is a way of being romantic in your deep work and deciding, ‘Okay, it’s time to get the job done’.” She compares it to tunnel vision.

In her case it was a marathon revision session up to 3am before 10 hours in the exam labs the next day. His phone was kept on silent; Electro-beats hum in the background; Ate digestive biscuits.

As the nights are getting longer and the days are getting colder in recent weeks, some influencers have been telling their followers to stop missing summer and consider this the perfect opportunity to indulge in the winter season.

“I think it comes from TV shows and anime where you have characters with villain arcs,” says Dani. She thinks that realizing that you are on your own transformational journey helps you stay on track with the actions you need to take to achieve your goals.

Karagi agrees. She has turned her passion for gaming into a livelihood and now works as a professional content creator in that industry – which she has since taken down.

For her, the phrase also serves as a personal rallying cry as she faces sexism “almost every other day” while playing online games.

Her streams can go on for up to 11 hours so she has to make sure she eats regularly and spends time away from the keyboard – usually watching anime, playing with her cat or reading.

The 29-year-old woman says the comments she receives range from criticisms like ‘You’re good for a girl’ to insulting remarks – ‘Go back to the kitchen’.

“I tell myself ‘I need to lock in’ so that (I remember) I can play as well as everyone else,” she tells me from her home in Surrey.

“And also, remind myself that I need to be a role model for young women who look up to me.”

That struggle for acceptance is also something Emma felt about joining the gym — but she found a way to overcome it.

He initially worked out at home and reduced calories in his diet because he felt he needed to fit into a certain image of a gym-goer.

Now 28-year-old Emma feels it was harmful and unnecessary.

After a year of training at home, she eventually joined a gym and enjoyed physical and mental growth in weight lifting.

What’s more, she started working as a personal trainer in Lancashire this year and thinks the best way to get involved is to set realistic and achievable goals.

Having an organized plan and a clear structure can help you get started, but she warns that staying locked in for too long can leave you exhausted.

“It’s completely normal and I think people should be reassured that it’s a part of the process and you won’t always feel motivated 365 days a year,” she tells me.

Emma says there are several ways to help avoid irritation. These include freshening up your workout routine, trying a new fitness class, or participating in a challenge for a short period of time — like cycling a certain number of miles in a month.

“Accountability also matters a lot when your motivation is low,” she adds. Partnering up with a friend for your workout can help motivate you to do it more regularly.

Adam Aleksik, a linguist who posts online as Etymology Nerd, says the origin of locking in is not certain, but that its use appears to have begun in the early 2000s—particularly in the African American community. An Urban Dictionary reference from 2009 exists.

But it’s only in the last year that it’s happened online, whether it’s a motivational video about gains at the gym or an ironic meme about a lazy cat.

“The more a meme is adapted and reused, the more likely it is to become part of our actual lexicon,” the 24-year-old explains.

Despite this, locking in did not make the list of the best word of the year for 2025. Collins’s word of the year was “vibe coding”, while “parasocial” was from the Cambridge Dictionary.

Along with using it to motivate themselves, Dani and her classmates often use the phrase locking in in a light-hearted manner.

Some days they all work on the same project in the same computer lab at the university. Telling a friend that they might be having a boring day often brings about a smile.

“There’s an element of it connecting us all,” says Dani. “I never really realized, seeing how much we use it, that it’s slang.”

After her 10-hour day in the labs a fortnight ago, Dani indulged in her love of art – something she does to prevent burnout.

“My friends and I were painting until 4 in the morning after exams,” she tells me. They were locked inside.