December does something strange to business owners.
Work slows down, the calendar softens, people start talking about “wrapping things up”… and suddenly the whole month becomes a waiting room for January.
But here’s the truth: the biggest cost in your business isn’t what you do. It’s what you continue to tolerate.
And December is where toleration habits get exposed.
If you’re honest, there are things in your business right now that you already know shouldn’t make it into 2026:
- A role you’ve outgrown (but keep doing)
- A team member you’ve been “meaning to deal with”
- A product or service that hasn’t pulled its weight all year
- A client who drains energy faster than they generate value
- A process you’ve promised yourself you’d fix “when things quieten down”
These aren’t small annoyances.
They’re structural drags – the business equivalent of trying to run a marathon wearing ankle weights.
And most owners don’t lose momentum because of lack of ambition.
They lose momentum because they let these drags quietly hitch a ride into the next year.
**Growth doesn’t happen because you add more.
Growth happens because you remove what no longer belongs.**
If you look back at your biggest step-changes – the moments your business genuinely accelerated – they weren’t caused by adding another 10 tasks to your to-do list.
They usually came from:
- Stopping doing something that no longer made sense
- Ending a relationship that wasn’t serving the business
- Delegating the work you should never have been doing
- Closing the gap between knowing and doing
When your business feels “heavy”, it’s not because you’re not working hard enough.
It’s because you’re carrying too much.
And December is the perfect moment to put some of that down.
Three questions to ask yourself before the year ends:
If you only picked up a notebook and answered these honestly, you’d enter January ahead of 90% of business owners:
- What do I refuse to take into 2026?
Write the first three things that come to mind.
Your gut already knows.
- Where has my tolerance created stagnation?
If something has frustrated you for more than three months, you’ve normalised it.
Time to de-normalise it.
- What decision, if made this month, would create the biggest shift next quarter?
Not next year.
Not “when things settle down.”
Now.
Big moves often start as small acts of courage.
**January doesn’t give you a fresh start.
You create one.**
While most business owners will roll gently into the new year – same habits, same bottlenecks, same story – you have an opportunity to do something different:
Enter January lighter, clearer, and already moving.
Because momentum isn’t created in January.
Momentum is created now, when the world slows down and you have the space to think like an MD rather than react like a firefighter.
If you want 2026 to look different, the shift doesn’t start with another goal-setting session.
It starts by looking your business in the eye and saying:
“Enough. This is not coming with me.”
And once you decide that, everything else becomes easier.
BOOK a Free Growth Strategy with me. P.S. Don’t forget: our Growthclub 90-Day Planning Event is happening this January. Lock in your spot now so you start Q1 with a clear, powerful plan. Register Here
