finishing the year strong, hell no

the art of wintering: embracing rest over the race

Hello love,

Everywhere you look, someone’s telling us to finish the year strong. Soon, it’ll be all about starting the year bold, and I’m honestly fed up with these messages that do more harm than good.

Like we need more of that, in a period that is already super busy while at the same time, we feel in our bones the call for slowing down and hibernating.

If you feel the same, this is your invitation for more softness this winter… and way less guilt!

I get it, the concept of finishing the year strong is a well-intentioned motivational nudge. But for many of us, the reality is that this repeated message alongside the accumulated exhaustion of the previous months is becoming a heavy burden.

Most women in business already know that they must work hard in order to have results.

More than that, we have this inner voice repeatedly hammering on our heads that without constant work, we’ll lose that famous momentum and then we might never be able to resuscitate it.

Success comes at the price of pushing through, rising above and showing grit and discipline.

In your headphones, Britney on repeat: “You better work, bitch”

Pressure in a pretty box, now with a dash of anxiety and a pinch of self-depreciation. Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

All my life, I’ve always had a tendency to question things. Why is the sun called “sun”? Why is my name my identity? Who would I be if I wasn’t called that? Why are there rules we must follow as children but that adults ignore, that sort of things…

I haven’t done the Four Tendencies Quiz yet, but I’m pretty sure I’m a Questioner. So naturally I’m going to question this “finish the year strong” thing too.

Bear with me.

• If we considered that time isn’t linear, that there’s no hard stop between 2024 and 2025, would that change the way we push ourselves to perform until the last minute?

• What if instead of complying to the rules of constant productivity and performance, we honoured more our cyclical nature? Would that make us “weaker”?

• What if we trusted that once fully rested, we naturally will be called to more creation? What if wintering was a valid strategy for a sustainable business and life?

• What other choice is there than to finish the year strong? What does that imply and what would that look like?

Don’t borrow from your future self

Our linear way of thinking the world has disconnected us from the real nature of time: a calendar is just a tool.

We use it to get organised and to communicate about when things are going to take place. They’re squares and boxes helping us make more sense of what otherwise is just planets turning around a star at a certain angle.

Yet, this vision of the year starting and ending is so ingrained that we tend to forget that there isn’t a wall between December 31st and January 1st. We forget that we don’t wake up in the new year with a magic reset that erases everything that’s been happening before. And it’s limiting.

Because when we don’t account for the continuity and the ongoing nature of life and work, it becomes easy to borrow time and energy from our future self. We see that future version of ourselves as being separate and distant.

And it’s easy to steal from someone you think doesn’t exist.

So it’s easy to sacrifice sleep, physical well-being and mental rest in order to fulfil your self-imposed obligations before the deadline.

And what happens after that line is dead?

Honour your cyclical nature

Just like time isn’t linear, your energy isn’t supposed to be constant.

As living creatures on planet earth, we are wired to follow different cycles : we have daily energy cycles, monthly feminine cycles, the cycles of seasons and different stages of life, etc.

As we put so much emphasis on what our mind is capable of doing, and how it should be the one in charge, we let our decisions control our bodies, often pushing ourselves to go against the stream of life, against our very own nature.

• We want to thrive on sleeping 6 hours a night even our bodies demand 9.

• We want to feel energised and ready for action from the moment the alarm clock goes off till we decide it’s time to go to bed.

• We want to be as creative, as pragmatic, as confident throughout the month.

• We want to be constantly productive, week after week.

• We want to feel the same whether it’s March or December, hence the pressure to “finish the year strong” and pretend this is spring.

But trying to bloom right now is as futile as expecting a cherry tree to bear fruit in winter.

Nature rests, and so should we.

This season is meant for us to slow down, withdraw a bit from the world, stop creating and working so much so we can pause, reflect, introvert ourselves - as in explore our inner world with more attention.

Denying ourselves this time off is a habit that must stop now if we ever want to feel abundant in the lives and businesses we lead.

Wintering as a strategy for a sustainable business

Let’s imagine for a moment that your business is a beautiful backyard, with both an orchard and a vegetable garden.

In order for your garden to produce delicious and juicy fruits, you need first to understand the nature of what you want and how it is best cultivated.

Just like in gardening, winter is the perfect time to do that.

This when the gardeners reflect: What thrived? What withered? What needs nurturing next season? What would I like to try in the future as a challenge or as an experiment?

Just like you would treat your garden, then…

• Take your time before rushing into anything: deciding too fast what your next steps are without having taken the time to tune in with yourself might lead you to misaligned choices. If you move forward without taking into consideration the lessons and gems of what life has brought you this past year, you’re missing beautiful opportunities for improvement and growth.

• Let your soil regenerate: Nothing can be year-round, and we don’t ask our gardens to be flourishing in all seasons. Our soils need to regenerate before they’re able to get productive again.

• Cultivate patience and learn to trust the invisible: There’s no point in becoming frustrated with the lack of result, or in developing doubts whether or not your seeds will bloom: it won’t make the fruits and veggies grow faster.

Pushing our bodies to perform year-long is harmful on the long term : it can lead us to being sick more often, having more frequent migraines, back-pains, burn out and depression, and other health issues that don’t seem directly connected to how we work, yet don’t lie.

I know that we live in a society that sees rest as something we have to deserve, but my invitation here is to question and reframe that narrative.

What if we could consider resting phases as a normal part of our yearly rhythms? As a preventive treatment for our physical and mental health, as well as a business strategy?

Finish the Year Soft

Instead of a countdown to the year's end, let’s see December as a bridge.

A quiet pause to gather strength for the journey ahead.

I know it’s easier said than done because loose ends can give us some anxiety, but more often than not it’s only because we stay attached to that story that after December 31 everything will be different.

Once we remove the image that life is linear and that certain things must be achieved by a certain time, I find it already much easier to reconnect to our softness.

• So what if you send that invoice on January 2nd instead of today?

• Who is going to die if you don’t write a “year in review” newsletter before the year ends?

• What if a project is still “in process” and gets finished mid-January?

There isn’t any catastrophic scenario except the ones your mind is skilfully creating. Unless you’re the president of a country and there are aliens in the sky (hi Donald!), the world will be fine, and so will you.

Choosing softness over strength isn’t weakness, it’s wisdom.

Slow down

• Look through the window and observe. Let the stillness of life remind you to pause.

• Take a walk in nature and observe its colours.

• Listen to soft music that helps you slow down your breath and your cardiac rhythm.

• Enjoy that hot cocoa whilst doing nothing else.

• Journal your year snuggling in a huge blanket.

• Read that amazing novel you’ve been eyeing for weeks.

• Watch that childhood favourite movie again.

• Paint a Christmas cookie.

• Or better yet, bake it and eat it!

• Read longer stories to your kids and fall asleep with them at 8pm.

• Indulge in longer showers and deep stretching sessions to give your body that release it’s been craving.

• Tell your life partner all the good you think of them.

• Have more sex.

• Start writing poetry again.

• Play!

Most importantly, start paying attention to the parts of yourself that you’ve been putting aside in order to perform and produce and follow the joy : what would this winter look like, if instead of doing, you really allow yourself to be.

Celebrate Plan Manifest 2025

If this resonates with you, I’ve created a gift to help you transition into 2025 with intention and ease. My free 'Celebrate Plan Manifest 2025 Journal' is designed to guide you gently through reflection, planning, and celebration.

All at your own pace.

Download your copy here and embrace a softer, more aligned start to the new year.

PS: Naturally, my ADHD-brain couldn’t resist taking that Four Tendencies Quiz mid-article. Turns out, I was right, 100% a Questioner! Here’s the link if you want to do it too.

Power and light,

Jessica