Debra Chantry-Taylor: The January Reality Check – Why Momentum Dies & How to Rebuild It Fast

SPEAKERS 

Debra Chantry-Taylor 

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:00 

Momentum is not speed, it's direction plus consistency. So you'll know you're rebuilding properly when you're making decisions faster, but not perfectly, when you're doing less, but doing it better. You're not broken, you're not behind, you're not failing, you're human. You've had a big, emotional month. January is a warm up month. It's not a sprint, it's not a rebirth, it's just a month where everyone remembers how computers work and stop expecting peak performance from a team experiencing seasonal whiplash. 

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:34 

Welcome back to another episode of Better Business, Better Life. I'm your host, Debra Chantry-Taylor, and I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurs lead a better life by creating a better business. I work with teams to implement Eos, the Entrepreneurial Operating system, into their business, which gives them a an operating system for the business that manages the human energy and enables them to get more of what they want. So radio, it's mid January, already. The decorations are down the quality Street, tenors in full of the sad flavours no one likes, and everyone is wandering around the office looking slightly traumatised, but trying to look really productive, which means it's time for the annual phenomenon that I like to call the Great January momentum collapse. Every year, entrepreneurs walk into January convinced they're going to blitz it. New year, new me, they say. And by week two, they're already googling flights to Fiji and considering witness protection as an alternative form of business planning. So today we're going to get really honest about why January feels so bloody hard, why your momentum disappears quicker than leftover pavlova, and what you can actually do to rebuild it without pretending you've suddenly become perfect if you're ready for loving truths with the subtlety of a German grandmother, then this one's for you in your mind, January you is amazing. January you drinks green smoothies. January you plans the whole year by the fifth of January. January you meditate, sets goals, runs meetings brilliantly and goes to the gym before sunrise. January, you floats into the office like a productivity Angel. But the real January you still hasn't remembered your login password, got up late because you forgot to set an alarm, ate a leftover mince pie for breakfast, stared at your inbox like it personally betrayed you. Spent 40 minutes rearranging your desk to ease yourself into the new year, which we all know is code for I'm not emotionally ready to open that spreadsheet yet. So entrepreneurs create this myth that the calendar turning over magically wipes out all of their old habits, but the only thing that resets on the first of January is your diary, everything else, the workload, the people, the email backlog, the unresolved family tension, the person on your team who still isn't performing all of it walked back into January with you, sat next to you, and they brought snacks. So why is your brain useless in January? Let's talk about biology. Most entrepreneurs expect their brains to be firing at full capacity on the third of January. But here's the reality. You've just spent two weeks doing emotional labour disguised as holiday. Christmas is not usually restful. Christmas is a full time job with sequins. You've had family politics. You've had banter that turn slightly passive aggressive. You've got children hopped up on sugar, aimless meals, sleepless nights, maybe a few too many glasses of wine or alcohol. You've been hosting. They've been negotiations about who sits next to whom, and the annual conversation about who forgot to buy the batteries. So by the time January rolls around, your brain is basically lying on the floor asking for electrolytes and a nap. Add to that the family business dynamic. Because if you're in a family business, Christmas isn't a holiday, it's a board meeting in disguise. Someone always says something like so what's happening with the company next year? And suddenly you're explaining strategy over baked ham. No wonder January feels heavy. You've not really had a break. You've just relocated the stress to someone else's dining table. So let's break this down. Why does momentum die by week three? Momentum dies for predictable, boring, completely human reasons. Here are the five reasons. Reason number one, you set ridiculous expectation January. You thinks you can do in 30 days. What last year's you couldn't manage in 12 months. If someone showed you your January to do list and asked which six people will help you complete it, you'd realise it's laughable. Number two, you've built your goals on optimism, not structure. You wrote goals in a burst of New Year enthusiasm, great, but enthusiasm evaporates the moment reality taps you on the shoulder. It's like joining a gym in January. Day one, I'm ready. Day two, I'm sore, but I'm strong. Day seven, where do my membership card go? Day 10, oh, look chocolate. If you're anything like me, maybe you're a bit more disciplined, but that is definitely me. I have lots of great intentions at the beginning of the year. They don't always go well, but I'm going to share a bit later on. How I've got past that and how I've managed to stick to things this year. Number three, yes, I should say last year. Actually, I'm going to share with you how I've managed to stick to things last year by changing the way that I approach things. Number three. The reason number three is you avoided the uncomfortable review of last year. Let's be honest, most people would rather tackle a bin fire than review what actually went wrong last year. So you skip the analysis, but those issues don't disappear. They simply put on a party hat and stroll into New Year like, miss me, I'm back. And so it's time to actually have a look and do a review of the previous year and see what really was working and what wasn't working. Number four, your team come back in wildly different conditions. Some return bright eyed bushy tailed, energised, ready to take on the year. Some return in existential crisis mode, and some return with the unmistakable vibe of, don't ask, please, just don't ask. It's absolute chaos. And so you're trying to build momentum while half the team are still mentally on the beach. And number five, you still try to do everything yourself. Every single year, you proclaim, this year, I'll stop carrying everything, and then proceed to carry everything. And old habits are clingy, right? Then they grab on like a wetsuit that's one size too small. So here's some real examples of January madness. If you're sitting here thinking, I'm sure it's only me, let me offer some real client examples with the names taken out for legal reasons and also Christmas dinner safety reasons. So example number one, the over enthusiastic planner, one of my clients scheduled their entire year in the first week of January last year, every project, every milestone, every deliverable, personal, professional, all the things that we're going to do, it looked absolutely stunning. It looked like a piece of art, but by week three, it was so far off reality. It could have been fiction. And this is what tends to happen, is that we forget that actually, this enthusiasm means that we have all these things we want to do, and we think we can plan every single thing out. But that's not the way that life works. Example number two the delegation delusion. So another client promised their partner this year I'll actually delegate on the ninth of January. They said, I just need to fix one more thing myself, then that one thing became 12 things, three late nights, one mild existential crisis, and suddenly their partner has no belief in them and the ability to actually delegate. And example number three, the family business pressure cooker. Her family business client, came back from Christmas and determined to start fresh. The trouble is that during Christmas dinner, Uncle Bob declared, we're not spending another year with that accountant while holding a sausage roll. And by their time they got back to the office, half the leadership team were in silent rebellion, and nobody knew why. Now I'm not saying this happens to all of us, but hopefully one of those things will ring true to you. You'll sit there and go, yeah, actually, I've promised that. I remember years and years and years ago. I promised I'd delegate. I did absolutely nothing. I became a bigger bottleneck, and really didn't let go. I've certainly had that the talking about business over Christmas dinner, not a great idea. And you know, it really should be, the time you're spending time with your family, not thinking about business, it can have a massive impact. And the over enthusiastic planner, yes, I plan out my year. I definitely have that behind me. And on my office in Melbourne, I have a planner of my year. But it's not down to minute detail, because things change, life changes, business changes. It's really important that we have got a big understanding of what we want to do without getting down to minute detail. So we're into week three of January. How do we rebuild momentum without the delusion that comes with our new year's resolutions? So let's talk about real solutions, real ones not manifest your goals stuff, but actual stuff that will make a difference. So here are my top tips. Number one is accept that January is a warm up month. It's not a sprint, it's not a rebirth. It's just a month where everyone remembers how computers work and stop expecting peak performance from a team experiencing seasonal whiplash. They've just spent two weeks at home with their family or longer, they've had a whole lot of mixture of rest and also some tension that usually comes around Christmas time. So just let people come in and use it as a warm up. Let's start having the conversations about what worked last year, what didn't work last year. Let's start talking about what this year might look like, and let's just ease ourselves into a little bit more gently. Number two, start with truth, not excitement. So before you try to move forward, ask these questions of yourself, what didn't work last year, what drained me, what still needs fixing, what am I carrying? That's actually somebody else's job, and where am i Pretending? And if you wince while answering these questions, then that's bloody good, because the truth caused the wince, but truth also creates the path forward, if you can be honest. About what really is working, what isn't working, what needs to be fixed, what's the things I'm avoiding, what's the person issue that I need to deal with? You can start to think about how you can actually deal with it, and that's important.  

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:16 

That will create the way forward for the new year. Number three is pick fewer priorities, not 10, not 12, not all the things, because, as you hear me say over and over again, if everything is important, nothing is important less. But obsess. Pick three. Pick three priorities you can actually deliver on. Because if you pick more, you're basically self sabotaging through ambition. It's the same for your business and your personal life. Don't try and do everything, pick just three things in each of those areas and make sure you can actually deliver on those priorities. Number four, reset the team's rhythm. Your team need more clarity than they do inspiration. So give them a weekly focus. Give them clear accountability. Make sure you're measuring their priorities, and they've got measurables that can actually help them with that, make sure they're clear about what those priorities are, and give them a way to escalate issues. Early structure will beat excitement every single time. And number five, sort the family business elephants. If something was said or silently fumed over Christmas, address the elephant in the room, because ignoring it is like ignoring us slowly, eventually the floorboards warp, and then it's a really, really big issue. So I like to use the physical elephant and just bring it up. Use a bit of humour. Look, I think we need to address this. This is something that happened over Christmas. Let's have a talk about it and get out on the table and deal with it as an issue. And number six, last but not least, allow yourself to be human. You're not restarting a machine. It's not like coming in and starting your computer up after the holiday period. You're re engaging a brain and a heart after an intense period. So give yourself some grace and allow just like your computer takes a little while to actually get started, allow yourself some time to get start. Get your your brain, your body, everything functioning, your heart functioning in a way that will actually really set yourself up for success in the new year. There's a few more relatable January scenarios for you, because we all need the good laugh, right? So you know, the diet starts Monday. Entrepreneur suddenly convinced that kale will solve all problems by Wednesday, buys a cost on because carbs help with strategic thinking. Don't be the diet starts Monday. Entrepreneur, the organiser, buys new whiteboards, markers, colour coded folders. Spends three days setting up systems, forgets to use and by February, that has me to a T the inbox warrior delegates 3000 emails out of frustration, feels powerful, realises they needed two of them, and so they have let go of everything. The energy imposter I tells everyone I'm pumped for the year spends evenings lying face down on the floor in a silent, emotional blackout. So that was just me working with my little d2 chat GPT to come up with some other things. But if you're anything like me, you've probably seen those behaviours in yourself. So let's try and get ourselves focused and make sure that we're really rebuilding momentum properly. So let's be honest, momentum is not speed, it's direction plus consistency. So you'll know you're rebuilding properly when you're making decisions faster, but not perfectly. When you're doing less but doing it better. I talk about less but upset, but obsess. Or vanega aber besser is a German phrase which means less but better. Your team are taking on more without flapping. You're not in panic mode, and you're more honest than performative. So you actually start to review things and talking about what's working, what's not working. What can we do more of when your January feels less like a sprint and more like putting one solid foot in front of the other? That's where the real momentum lies. So here's your January truth. You're not broken, you're not behind, you're not failing, you're human. You've had a big, emotional month, your team's energy is probably pretty mixed. Your brain needs rebooting, and the business didn't magically change just because the tinsel calendar flipped. So January is the month of honesty. It's time to reconnect. It's time to get your heart engaged. And honesty is uncomfortable, but it's also what gives you your power back. So build slowly, build simply, and build with clarity, because clarity creates confidence momentum will return, not because you shout for it, because you create the conditions for it. So let's go out there. Let's take February by the throat, and let's get that momentum back on track. Thank you for joining me on better business, better life. If you've got any questions about the podcast today, there's a full transcript. I've also got a bucket load of notes in behind it. This is the kind of the condensed version for the podcast. There's so much more I could go into. I've got a suite of tools that can help you with any of these things. So please, if you need some help, just send me an email. Debra@business.com.au, and I will help you as much as I possibly can. Have a great February. Thank you.