Stop Treating December 31st Like a Deadline from the Universe

test reads We wish you a happy new year 2026

It’s that time of year when the internet turns into one big performance review.

Your feed fills with posts urging you to finish strong, start smart, reset for success, or, my personal favorite, upgrade your mindset before midnight. It's as if Cinderella’s carriage now comes with KPIs.

It’s exhausting. And honestly? A bit overwhelming.

I’ve been running SkyeTeam for 19 years, long enough to see that leadership trends come and go, but December’s annual pressure cooker remains a classic. I used to fall for it myself, believing that everything magically “reset to zero” on January 1st and that I needed to sprint through a heroic run to earn my place in the new year.

And then, as he often does, Eric Spencer (our philosopher-and-pragmatist-in-chief) said something maddeningly simple:

“December 31st is just a date, Morag. An arbitrary square on a calendar.”

Infuriatingly… he’s right.

Tax filings may be based on the calendar year. Your CPA cares about year-end.

Your team? Your strategy? Your relationships?

They do not.

Work doesn’t transform into a pumpkin at midnight!

You don’t become a new you just because fireworks go off.

And whatever wasn’t working on December 31st will follow you faithfully into January, no matter how many resolutions you wrote in your nicest pen.

So instead of getting caught up in the year-end productivity Olympics, let’s rethink how we view this moment.

The Myth of the Magical Reset

One of the biggest traps leaders fall into is assuming January offers a clean slate. I’ve coached enough executives to know this:

Organisational tensions do not follow the Gregorian calendar.

If your team is misaligned on December 15, it’ll still be misaligned on January 4… even if everyone buys matching planners.

If people are burned out, unfocused, or quietly retreating behind “I’m fine,” a resolution won’t solve it. Leaders often treat the new year like a fresh notebook. In reality, it’s page 247 of the same story.

Real Reset Moments Aren't on a Calendar

The meaningful turning points, the ones that actually shift performance, trust, or engagement, rarely coincide with the dates we've circled in red marker. No matter how convinced we are that this New Year will be different.

They happen when:

A leader finally has the difficult conversation
A team realigns around shared priorities
Relationships deepen rather than fracture
Someone admits they’re struggling instead of hiding behind “fine.”

These moments of honesty, reflection, and connection are what move organisations forward.

January 1st plays no role in them whatsoever.

A Little Grace Goes a Very Long Way

Here’s the quiet truth that gets drowned out by all the “crush your goals before the ball drops” noise:

Rest is a leadership strategy.

Not indulgence. Not weakness. Strategy.

Leaders who give themselves breathing room, who genuinely take the time to unplug, make better decisions. They show up more clearly for their teams. They engage instead of react. They connect instead of retreat.

The alternative? Dragging yourself across the year-end finish line and calling it momentum.

If you’ve ever watched a leader hit January already exhausted, you know how ineffective that approach is.

A More Useful Question for the New Year

Instead of asking, “How will you start strong?” try something more revealing:

“What do you want to carry forward… and what deserves to stay in 2025?”

This question forces clarity. It surfaces the habits, relationships, behaviours, and priorities that matter. It reduces noise and increases intentionality.

And, crucially, it sidesteps the guilt baked into traditional resolutions.