Yes, Jan 1 is kinda magical…just stop using it like a weapon.

You know that weird burst of motivation you get on January 1st?

Or the first day of the month. Or a Monday. Or 6:00 a.m.
(because apparently we all believe we become brand-new people before sunrise).

Yeah… that’s not you being “dramatic.” That’s your brain being like:
“Ooooh, a fresh start. Here’s a dopamine hit. Don’t waste it.”

And honestly? I’m with your brain on this one.

Okay, maybe that’s overkill, but stay with me…

The part nobody wants to admit

(but we all know is true)

You’ve probably heard people say, “There’s nothing magical about January 1st.”

And what they mean is: you don’t have to wait until a new year to change your life.

Totally true.

But here’s the other truth we tend to throw out with the glittery “new year” bathwater:

Our brains love beginnings.
Beginnings feel clean.
Clean feels hopeful.
Hope feels motivating.

So no, don’t discount fresh starts. Use that energy.
Just don’t use it the way you have in the past… aka:

“I started on Jan 1, so it should be DONE by Jan 2.”

Respectfully… that’s not a goal. That’s a hostage situation.

A very real “fresh start” problem 

I’ve been sitting on things for months because I told myself, “That’s a 2026 goal.”

And that was a good thing.

It gave me space to finish what I was building in 2025 without trying to start seventeen new things at once (a personal hobby of mine).

Now I’m genuinely excited about my 2026 goals, especially these two:

• Turning this newsletter into a podcast
• Opening a Caffeinated Entrepreneur Skool community (because entrepreneurs need a place to be supported with a healthy dose of reality and sarcasm minus the soul-sucking group chat)

But here’s what I’m not doing this year that I’ve done soooo many times before:

• Acting like the podcast has to be launched by January 1st because I started planning it during the bizarre time warp between Christmas and New Year’s.
• Believing the community must have 1,000 members the day it opens.

This year, I’m treating goals like what they actually are.

A 90 day marathon. Not a 48hr sprint fueled by coffee and delusion.

(I know I’m not the only one who needs to break this habit!)

Another layer I’m working through in 2026 is to reduce my working hours to align with my husband’s work schedule, starting later and ending earlier.

Which means if I’m adding a podcast and a community… I have to build them in a way that doesn’t just add 400 new things to my plate.

So yes: systems matter, but so do realistic timelines!

I’m really good at breaking big goals down into milestones, then tasks, then due dates.

My issue isn’t the system.

My issue is that I take perfectly logical milestones and then squeeze them into a timeline so tight it should come with a chiropractor referral.

When your growth chart looks like a mountain range

But we are just getting started with my goal-setting issues.

Now, let’s talk about the part of goal-setting nobody puts on the vision board: the messy middle.

You know… the part where your planner is color-coded, your coffee is strong, and your revenue graph is like, “Surprise! We’re doing interpretive dance this month.”

I had a really great year, I almost doubled my revenue in 2025, and yes, I’d love to double it again in 2026. 

But I’m simply can’t to sell out my program and 1:1 spots every single month in a perfectly straight line… because that’s not business.

That’s a fairy tale with a sales funnel.

Real progress looks like momentum: a strong month, a slower month, a pivot, a tweak, then two strong months in a row. 

We (again, I know I’m not the only one who needs to hear this) need to accept the fact that our numbers will have peaks and valleys.

We are just aiming for the peaks to get higher and the valleys to get shallower. 

If your monthly revenue chart is wobbling upward overall, congrats because that’s not a sign of failing, it’s proof that your building!

The point I’m trying to make…

1) Use the fresh start… but stop turning it into a pressure cooker.

Fresh-start energy is real and useful. But if you attach it to unrealistic expectations, it turns into pressure, overload, disappointment… and a mid-quarter identity crisis where you dramatically declare, “I’m starting over in Q2.” 🙃

2) Goals don’t need more hustle. They need milestones AND realistic pacing.

Here’s the line I want tattooed on the collective entrepreneur forehead: Turn the goal into milestones + weekly moves.

That’s how motivation becomes follow-through. Because motivation is cute…but it’s not reliable.

Then assign dates to everything that are actually feasible given your schedule and mental bandwidth.

Weekly Challenge

This week, you’re not planning your “best life.”
You’re planning your real one.

1. Build your Q1 Reality Container

• What days are you working?
• What time do you start and end?
• How many deep work hours do you actually have each week?

2. Pick ONE “Now” goal from your Dump List
   (Yes, I said ONE. Put the other 46 goals back in the pantry.)
   
3. Write your first milestone (not the final finish line)

“By January 31, I will have [milestone that proves momentum].”

4. Choose ONE weekly move

“Every week in January, I will [one repeatable action].”

No overdrive. No “I will become a new kind of business owner by Thursday.”

Just sustainable momentum.

But then what?

So if you’re reading this thinking,“Okay, I love this, BUT…

I don’t know how to turn goals into a plan I’ll actually follow.”

Hi. Hello. That’s my home turf. I’m the systems queen for a reason. 👑

If the systems part is where you struggle, milestones, priorities, weekly execution, then the 7-Figure CEO System is literally built to help you stop guessing and start moving (without adding 900 new tasks to your plate).

Wondering if it works? 

Just this week, one of my students, Carol, shared how she loved that the program was helping her keep her “cluttered brain create structure” so she is less overwhelmed.

As she has worked through the trainings and exercises in the tracks and gotten more confident with the bots in the AI Dream team, she has started having them “talk to each other,” helping her build out a 90 Day Action Plan that she can ACTUALLY implement while still being mindful of family time and other commitments.

No more wasting time task-switching.
Just taking actions that actually grow her business.
One day at a time.

Sooooo goood!! Because THAT’s how goals are achieved and money is made! (because were are business owners, my friend, not hobbyists)

If you do the Reality Container challenge, comment and tell me your Jan 31 milestone.

I will be here, sipping coffee, cheering you on… and gently confiscating any timeline that looks like it was written by a stressed-out Olympic coach.

Then share this with a founder friend who thinks “fresh start” means “do everything immediately” and needs to slow their roll.