The Narrative Advantage Episode 43

Circle Back Season: Why January Feels This Way (And What to Do About It)

You know that feeling. You sit down at your desk on the first real work day of January—coffee’s hot, notebook’s fresh, calendar’s wiped clean—and instead of momentum, you get… a 20-minute stare at your screen.

Or maybe you don’t even make it to your desk. Suddenly the floors need sweeping, the coffee maker needs descaling, and you really need to run to Staples for a new pen.

Welcome to Circle Back Season.

It’s the unspoken energy of January, where we’re expected to “circle back” on everything we left hanging in December. Old emails. Stalled projects. Sales processes that didn’t convert. Marketing plans that fizzled out. And somehow, we’re supposed to pick up exactly where we left off—but with new results.

Here’s the problem: you’re pulling forward old energy without evaluating it. You’re asking last year’s broken processes to perform in this year’s new space. And your nervous system is screaming, “This doesn’t feel right.”

If you’ve felt frozen, avoidant, or weirdly hyper-focused this week, you’re not behind. You’re in good company. And this article is for you.

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Why Does January Feel Like a Freeze Response?

January triggers nervous system responses—freeze, flight, or hyper-focus—because we’re attempting to restart old processes without clearing what didn’t work.

When you come back from a break, your body and brain know something needs to shift. The calendar flipped. Your goals (if you set them) are new. Maybe your team changed, your offers changed, or market conditions changed.

But if you’re “circling back” to the exact same sales process, the same client communication rhythm, the same posting schedule that exhausted you—your nervous system registers the mismatch. It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole while telling yourself, “This time it’ll work.”

That’s why you freeze. Or flee. Or obsessively reorganize your Notion board instead of addressing the real issue.

The real issue: You haven’t evaluated why you need to circle back in the first place.

If a process, offer, or communication strategy worked perfectly last year, you wouldn’t need to “circle back”—you’d just keep going. The fact that you’re circling back means something broke down. And until you name it, you’re just repeating the problem.

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What “Circle Back” Actually Means (And Why It’s Exhausting)

“Circling back” becomes exhausting when it means restarting old processes instead of evaluating what failed and choosing what moves forward.

Most leaders hit January saying some version of this:

• “I want more sales, so I’ll post more on LinkedIn.”
• “I need revenue, so I’ll double down on that offer I hated selling.”
• “My team communication was clunky, but we already scheduled our first meeting, so we’ll keep the same format.”

Same process. More pressure. New calendar.

But here’s what I’m inviting you to consider: What if “circle back” didn’t mean redo? What if it meant review and shed?

Instead of circling back to pick up where you left off, circle back to evaluate. Ask:

• Where did communication actually break down last year?
• Which sales process made me feel like I was pushing water uphill?
• Which client experience touchpoint left people confused?
• What marketing strategy drained my energy without results?

Then draw a line in the sand. Decide what crosses into this year—and what stays in 2025.

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How to Shed Instead of Set Goals

Shedding what doesn’t work creates space for what does, without the pressure of goal-setting or forcing more activity onto broken systems.

I don’t set goals. I never have. As soon as I set a goal, my body feels a ceiling—something defined, determined, and restrictive. I don’t like that.

So instead of goal-setting, I shed.

Here’s what that looked like for me this January:

• I rebuilt my Notion dashboard from scratch because the old one didn’t tell me where to start each Monday.
• I created an AI workflow that populates my calendar with client meetings and auto-generates agendas—because scrambling to prep 20 minutes before a call was draining me.
• I cut the performance-based workout obsession. I don’t need to work out 7 days a week. I need to feel good. So now it’s 5 days, and I’m healthier for it.

For my clients, shedding looked like:

• One client paused their HubSpot sales workflow entirely because it was leaking everywhere. Instead of forcing it to work in January, we’re spending a month doing it manually—then using AI to evaluate the human process that actually works.
• Another client overcomplicated their offer stack in 2025. Their audience was confused. So we cut offers, simplified messaging, and decided to show up less—but with more clarity.

These aren’t resolutions. They’re boundaries. They’re lines in the sand that say, “This doesn’t work anymore. It’s not coming with me.”

Your turn:

• What sales process made you feel like crap last year?
• What offer are you promoting out of obligation, not alignment?
• What communication rhythm—with your team, your audience, or yourself—broke down?

Name it. Then cut it.

Final Thought: Horse Energy, Not Snake Tails

We just left the Year of the Snake. Now we’re in the Year of the Horse.

So cut off the snake’s tail—the old processes, the exhausting offers, the communication strategies that drained you—and gallop forward.

Not with more. With better.

If you’re staring at your screen this week wondering where to start, start here:

1. Name one communication breakdown from last year (sales, marketing, team, or client experience).
2. Ask: Am I trying to restart this process without fixing what broke?
3. Draw the line. Decide if it comes forward—or if you’re shedding it.