New Year, New You?

It’s a new year, and with it comes that familiar urge to reset. To draw a line under what’s gone before and declare, with the best of intentions, that this will be the year things change.

I imagine many of you have already made a few New Year’s resolutions. Getting fitter. Looking after your health. Making more time for family and friends. Stepping up in your career, finally claiming the role, recognition, or influence you know you’re capable of. There’s something hopeful about this time of year — a sense that possibility is wide open and that reinvention is just a decision away.

And yet, if I’m honest, I’ve long felt that January is one of the worst times of year to ask ourselves to do more, be more, or push harder.

Here in the northern hemisphere, we’re in the depths of winter. The days are short, the light is scarce, and nature itself is resting. Trees aren’t straining to grow; seeds aren’t forcing their way through frozen ground. Everything is turned inward, conserving energy, waiting. There is wisdom in that.

This season isn’t designed for bold new beginnings. It’s a time for drawing in, for reflection, for replenishing what has been depleted. A time to notice what the past year has taken from you. And what it has taught you. Yet we often ignore this rhythm and demand immediate transformation from ourselves, just when our reserves are at their lowest.

Perhaps that’s why so many New Year’s resolutions quietly fade by February.

It’s not simply a lack of discipline or commitment. It’s that we tend to set too many resolutions at once. We aim for sweeping change. We choose goals that require sustained effort, constant self-control, or a complete overhaul of how we live and work. And somewhere deep down, they feel heavy. Like chores. Like another set of expectations to live up to in already overfull lives.

For the senior executives I work with, this pattern shows up all the time. Highly capable, deeply committed people, already carrying enormous responsibility, adding yet more pressure to themselves in the name of ‘self-improvement.’ More doing. More striving. More change,  when what’s really needed is clarity, focus, and energy.

So what if we approached this year differently?

Instead of a long list of resolutions, what if you set a single intention? Not for your whole life, but for this season. One area you’d like to gently improve. One small shift that would make a meaningful difference.

And instead of asking, “What should I do?”, you asked a different question: “What would feel good to do?”

Choose one simple action — something light, even enjoyable — that moves you in the direction you want to go. Something that brings a sense of pleasure, curiosity, or ease rather than effort and resistance. That might be creating ten minutes of quiet space at the start of your day. Taking a short walk at lunchtime to clear your head. Blocking out protected time each week for strategic thinking, before the demands of others take over.

Change that lasts rarely comes from force. It comes from alignment. From choosing actions that work with your energy rather than against it.

January doesn’t need to be the month where everything changes. It can be the month where you listen more closely. Where you plant one small seed, knowing that when spring arrives, in nature and in you, growth will follow, almost effortlessly.

And that, in my experience, is how real, lasting change begins.

Almira

Ready to stop striving and start making change that actually sticks? Book a conversation and let’s explore what matters most for you now.