New Year, No Goals (Yet)
Doubling Down:
One year ago, I wrote a blog post making the case for starting New Year’s Resolutions on February 1 and using January for experimentation. I think it holds up pretty well, and given what this year’s transition felt like, I’m doubling down.
Year-end reflection means a lot to me. But in December 2025, I just couldn’t get to it! Thanks to some preductable and some unpredictable drains on my time, energy, and focus, I kept shifting my year-end reflection block on my calendar later and later, until it nestled into a cozy spot on the morning of January 8th.
As I kept shifting it further into the future, I found myself stressing about not having enough time to complete the reflection and shift into visioning/goal setting before the Work Year started (IMO the Work Year begins the first Monday after New Year’s Day.) But I also knew that rushing my 2025 reflection would not be in service of whatever goals I want to achieve in 2026, so I (eventually) surrendered to the truth that I’d be reflecting on 2025 from January 2026.
And I gotta say, it feels nice!
Because I haven’t fully turned my attention to the year ahead, I have started this year with a refreshing one-day-at-a-time focus. This presence has been fertile ground for some January wellbeing experiments (e.g., taking two 25m afternoon naps per week). Naturally, sometimes ideas and visions for the new year ahead pop up, and I feel a sense of ease getting to notice them, record them, and file them among the things I’ll consider once I’m ready to dive into designing my 2026 goals.
But for now, I’ve just finished my reflection on the year past, and I have some sweet wins I’m (re)celebrating:
I finished building and launched this new website!
I coached 238 hours (38%) more than in 2024, despite taking on a part-time job).
I earned my PCC credential from ICF.
I co-led my first course at the Academy for Coaching Excellence.
I completed my first cohort of the Quarter Life Coaching Group.
I maintained an 18-week streak (and counting!) of opening and closing every workday with a small ceremony.
I designed and led an Opening/Closing Ceremonies workshop for the Soulful Climate Leadership Circle.
I led 2 workshops for my brilliant peers at Coachmate Collective.
I joined George Kao’s Joyful Productivity club and leveled up my practices as a solopreneur.
As I’m always telling my clients, celebration is a crucial success skill; however, we do ourselves a disservice when we rush through celebrations, treating them as a preamble or a disclaimer for whatever we really want to focus our attention on.
Let your celebrations breathe.
The Gregorian New Year can be a useful point of reference for reflection and visioning, but we don’t need to force these practices to fit neatly into that container.
I’m proud of what I accomplished in 2025 and grateful for the generous support an affirmation that so many of you continue to provide. And next week, I’m excited to fully envision what I want for the year ahead.