Down to Rise Up: Your December Reset Before Playing Bigger in 2026

As we glide into the final weeks of December, there's a unique opportunity most ambitious women miss: the power of purposeful closure.

Rather than frantically crossing off the last task on your 2025 checklist before launching into "New Year, New Me" mode on January 1st, what if you used these weeks to genuinely rest, reflect, and recalibrate?

This isn't about staying busy until December 23rd and then crashing. It's about a structured reset: one that closes out the psychological loops of the past year so you can truly start fresh, not just exhausted.

Why the "Hustle to the Finish Line" Approach Backfires

If you're an ambitious woman, you've likely been conditioned to believe that more work, more output, and more hustle equals more success. December often feels like the final sprint. But here’s what the psychology of performance reveals: this approach is a primary driver of "January Burnout."

The problem isn't just the workload; it's the lack of closure. When you power through December without a clear "stop," your brain never receives the signal that the work is done. This triggers the Zeigarnik Effect, a psychological phenomenon where uncompleted tasks consume significantly more cognitive energy than completed ones. Your brain keeps these "open loops" active in your working memory, creating a low-level hum of anxiety even when you are sitting on the couch "resting."

The antidote isn't just more sleep (though you need that too). It is Cognitive Closure- the deliberate process of telling your brain: "This chapter is complete."

Phase 1: The Strategic Audit- Giving Your Brain Permission to Stop

Before your body can rest, your mind needs closure. This is the first phase of an effective wind-down: The Mental Dump and Micro-Closure Ritual.

Step 1: The Mental Dump

Grab a notebook. Brain-dump every "open loop" from your year: unfinished projects, half-formed ideas, conversations you meant to have, or emails you forgot to send.

• Why it works: Research on cognitive offloading shows that the simple act of writing down internal concerns removes them from your working memory, immediately freeing up processing power and reducing mental fatigue.

Step 2: Micro-Closure (The "Park It" Strategy)

For each item on your list, assign it a status: Do Now, Delete, Delegate, or Park Until Jan 15.

Crucial Insight: You do not need to finish a task to get closure on it. A landmark study by researchers Baumeister and Masicampo (2011) found that simply making a specific plan to complete a task later (e.g., "I will handle this on January 15th") eliminates the intrusive thoughts associated with it. Your brain stops nagging you once it knows there is a plan.

And by the way, this can be used for work tasks but also tasks on your personal list.

Step 3: Symbolic Closure

Ambitious women are action-oriented. You need a physical gesture that signals to your nervous system: "Work mode is paused."

• Try this: Write down the stressors you want to leave in 2025 on a piece of paper, then physically tear it up or throw it away.

• Why it works: Behavioral research suggests that rituals (even simple ones) help people cross psychological thresholds, reducing anxiety and increasing feelings of control during transitions.

Phase 2: The Energy Audit- Diagnosing Your Rest Deficit

Now comes the part most wind-down advice misses: not all rest is created equal.

If you've spent a year in high-intensity leadership, sleep alone won't fix what's broken. According to physician and researcher Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, there are seven distinct types of rest. High-performers often excel at "Physical Rest" (sleeping) while starving themselves of "Mental" or "Sensory" rest.

The Seven Types of Rest: Your Personal Audit

Read through each and honestly assess: Am I getting this type of rest, or am I starved for it?

1. Physical Rest

• Passive: Adequate sleep (7-9 hours), lying down with no agenda

• Active: Gentle movement like yoga, stretching, leisurely walks

For ambitious women: You likely do the active rest (a run before breakfast to "optimize your morning") but skip the passive rest (just lying still). Your nervous system is signaling: I need permission to stop moving.

2. Mental Rest

• Mindfulness, meditation, short work breaks, hobbies that let your mind wander without producing anything

• The opposite of what ambitious women do: constant learning podcasts, productivity optimization, always "on"

For ambitious women: This is often the deepest deficit. Your brain has been problem-solving, deciding, and analyzing for 12+ months. It needs input-free time.

3. Emotional Rest

• Permission to be fully honest about how you feel without performing for anyone

• Time with people who don't need you to be "the leader" or have it all together

For ambitious women: You may feel emotional rest coming into play with your best friend or partner, but do you have enough of these safe spaces? Or are you still somewhat "on" even with the people closest to you?

4. Sensory Rest

• Reducing overstimulation: fewer screens, dimmer lights, quieter spaces, less background noise

For ambitious women: You live in a constant state of sensory input- notifications, meetings, podcasts, news. Your nervous system may be screaming for silence that you're interpreting as boredom.

5. Creative Rest

• Consuming beauty and inspiration without having to produce anything (art, nature, music, design)

• The opposite: going to a museum to "expand your thinking" for work purposes

For ambitious women: You may consume content for professional development constantly but rarely pause to simply be inspired without an agenda.

6. Social Rest

• Surrounding yourself with "energy fillers" (people who energize you) and creating distance from "energy drainers" (people who exhaust you)

• Being honest about which relationships are reciprocal and which are one-directional

For ambitious women: You often say yes to social obligations because you "should," creating surface-level connections while starving for deeper ones.

7. Spiritual Rest

• Connecting to something larger than yourself: purpose, community, meaning

• Practices: meditation, volunteering, time in nature, involvement in causes you believe in

For ambitious women: You may have professional purpose but lack the deeper sense of "belonging to something bigger."

Your Personal Rest Prescription

Identify your top 2 deficits. Be honest. Then, pick one specific action for each in the weeks leading up to January 1st.

Phase 3: The Vision- From Resolutions to Intentions

By now, you've given your brain closure and diagnosed your rest needs. You're clearer. This is when you introduce the vision- but not how traditional New Year's resolutions do it.

Research into Identity-Based Motivation shows that goals are far more sustainable when they are linked to who you are (identity) rather than just what you do (outcomes). Traditional resolutions ("I will go to the gym 5x a week") often fail because they are rigid rules. Identity-based intentions ("I am a person who prioritizes movement") are flexible and enduring.

The "Word of the Year" Method

Instead of a to-do list, choose one word that will act as a compass for your decisions in 2026.

• Old Way: "Get promoted." (External, binary, high-pressure)

• New Way: "Visibility." (Internal theme. Guides daily micro-decisions: Did I speak up in that meeting? Did I share my win?)

Examples for Ambitious Women:

• Ease: (Focusing on flow and removing friction)

• Bold: (Taking up more space in the room)

• Boundaries: (Protecting your energy as a non-negotiable asset)

• Build: (Focusing on long-term assets rather than short-term wins)

In the example of "get promoted", the likelihood is this will occur once, maybe twice in the year which sets you up for being in "waiting" mode and getting frustrated and takes away your power and influence over the situation. Versus focusing on the word "visibility" allows you to be in that energy every single day and making intentional daily choices that fuel your progress (and guess what, it then actually makes you more likely to get promoted in the end!).

If you're a very "outcome driven" person start associating what outcomes or goals are linked to this "word of the year" once you have chosen it to help you visualise it more vividly.

Your Personal Strategy Day: A 3-Hour Reset

Here's a specific 3-hour agenda you can do alone or with a trusted friend/partner.

Location: Somewhere outside your normal workspace- a café, a park bench, a cozy corner at home.

Make it fun, use stickers, colourful pens, a vision board, whatever works for you to get your creativity and positive energy flowing!

Hour 1: The Review (The Past)

• Spend some time reviewing 2025 in photos or calendar entries

• List 3 genuine wins (career, personal, relational)

• List 3 lessons (what didn't work, what you learned

• List 3 things you're really looking forward to in 2026

• The Mental Dump → Micro-Closure ritual that we looked at in Phase 1

• Physical closure ritual (tear up the paper, clear your desk, change your clothes)

  
  

Hour 2: The Energy Audit (The Present)

• Review the 7 Types of Rest

• Identify your top 2 deficits

• Plan one specific restoration activity for each

• Schedule these activities on your calendar in the lead up to the new year and for the first two weeks of January

• Take 20 minutes to sit with your body and notice: where do you feel tension? Where do you feel ease? What does your nervous system need?

  
  

Hour 3: The Vision (The Future)

• Brainstorm potential "Words of the Year"- write down any words that resonate

• Sit with each word. Say it aloud. How does it feel?

• Choose your word and write it down somewhere that you can come back to regularly

• Spend some time daydreaming and writing about what you're looking forward to in 2026. Write your "What I'm Looking Forward To" list

• Reflect on 3 things to focus on for 2026:

  • Something to learn: what is something you would like to learn or expand into in 2026? Think about your word and what intention is important to you for the new year. This will be your growth focus for 2026.

  • Something to love: What matters most for your well-being? What is something you want to invest your energy into loving a little extra in 2026? Is it family, a new home, your friends, a new hobby? Think about what you want to give extra love and attention to in 2026.

  • Something to launch: What is something you want to put new fresh driving energy into in 2026? This should be something that will call on your creativity and something that evokes drive and motivation in you.

    Schedule your next quarterly personal check-in (treat yourself like a business and review your "strategy" every 90 days)

Close off your session by scheduling your next quarterly personal check-in in 3 months that you can check in with yourself.

Final Thought

The most successful women don't just work harder; they rest smarter. Your ability to play bigger in 2026 depends entirely on how well you close the door on 2025.

Wind down. Park the tasks. Restore your energy. We'll see you in the New Year, ready to rise.

And if you're wondering what you can do to Play Bigger in 2026, take The impowr Quiz and find out!