The Year Begins in Real Time

by Jana N. Yost, M.A., APCC | Coach & Consulant

I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s goals, especially for women already living with chronic stress, burnout, and emotional overload. I’ve never understood pressure to declare a new journey on January 1st, as if one can magically reset a nervous system that’s been running on overdrive for months or years. Most people wake up on January 1st, overstimulated, and emotionally full, quieltly bracing for everything waiting on the otherside of the calendar. And yet, we’re expeected to start fresh, to be motivated, to announce a plan as if readiness can be scheduled.

Over the last several years,”word of the year” culture has become another version of that pressure. Pick one word-growth, discipline, peace-and let it guide everything you do. For some, that feels grounding. For me, it feels like another commitment, another invisible standard waiting to measure me when life inevitably gets messy. It also feels limiting. Life isn’t linear. Growth does not fit neatly in a single word.

For women who carry a lot-emotionally, mentally, relationally-these traditions can quietly add weight instead of relief. Caregivers, educators, military spouses, athletes, and helping professionals often begin the year depleted. These rituals assume extra bandwidth, a rested starting point and control over the pace of the year ahead. Many women are starting from survival, not abundance.

So this year, I am not forcing a reset. I am letting January be a contiuation and not a correction. Not a word to live up to, a deadline to reinvent myself or failure to improve. You are allowed to move at the pace you nervous system can acturally sustain. And sometimes, the most supportive thing you can at the start of the year is nothing at all.