A Different Kind of Beginning

At the beginning of every new year, there’s often an unspoken pressure to start fast.
To be clear - To be motivated - To have a plan

What if the most important question at the beginning of the year isn’t what you want to achieve - instead it’s how you want to feel when the year comes to an end?

Calm or constantly rushed?
Grounded or depleted?
Connected to yourself - or further away from who you are wanting to become?

The way you begin the year has a quiet way of shaping how you live the rest of it.

Often my conversations with the executives and managers I work with share a similar thing at this time of year. They want this year to be different - not necessarily bigger or busier - but better. More intentional and more sustainable. More aligned with who they are, not just what’s expected of them.

And yet, January often pulls us in the opposite direction. Setting more goals with more urgency and more noise.

This year, I would like to offer you a different starting point.

Not one that asks you to push harder - but one that invites you to pause and choose how you want to show up.

The start of the new year - (for some it's January - for me it's February) but always arriving with noise and big energy for a fresh start.

This year, I decided to do it differently.

Not with urgency - but with presence. Not with performance - but with courage.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the most meaningful change doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from listening more closely.

2026, for me, is not about becoming someone new. It’s about coming home to who I already am -  and having the courage to lead from there.

The truth is the start to my year has been busy and interrupted. Plans shifted. The rhythm I imagined didn’t quite arrive. And instead of fighting it, I made a conscious decision to meet it differently.
No trying to “catch up.” No self-criticism about how the year should have started. Instead, I paid attention to what was being asked of me, where I was holding tension and what was going on beneath the surface - and in doing that, something began to shift.

So often, we treat interruption as a problem - something to manage, fix, or move past as quickly as possible. But what if interruption is information? An invitation to slow down, to reassess or to come back to yourself.

This is a pattern I see repeatedly in capable, committed people. They are excellent at managing others, delivering outcomes, and holding responsibility - yet rarely give themselves the space to lead themselves with the same care to lead by example.

The start of a new year can amplify this. The pressure to reset quickly, to appear confident, to know exactly where you are headed. But true leadership doesn’t begin with certainty. It begins with awareness and the courage to pause and ask:
How do I really want to live and lead this year? How do I want to feel by December 2026?

For me, courage this year isn’t about doing more. It’s about staying present when things are unclear. Trusting the pace and allowing clarity to emerge rather than chasing it.

And presence - true presence asks something more from us. It asks that we listen. That we notice what we’re feeling, what we’re avoiding, and what we are ready to become.

This is the work of leading from the inside out.

So - if your year hasn’t started the way you expected…
If it feels full, disrupted, or slightly off rhythm…
You’re not behind.

You are simply being invited to begin the year in the same way you’d like to end it - with more awareness, more courage, and a deeper connection to yourself.

Try this quiet reflection

You might like to sit with these questions as the year unfolds:

• How do I want to feel at the end of this year?
• What would it look like to begin now from that place?
• Where could presence - not pressure - guide my next steps?

There’s no urgency in answering them.
Sometimes, the most powerful beginnings are the quiet ones.

 Ondina xx