How Hard Is It to Get Back on Track After the Holidays?

If you are feeling a little off after the holidays, you are not broken, lazy or unmotivated. You are human.

Every year, this happens to so many high achieving women. December rolls in with celebrations, summer energy, social events, family time, travel, late nights and relaxed routines. It is joyful, connective and often deeply nourishing. And then January arrives.

Suddenly, the structure that once held everything together feels shaky. Your routines feel foreign. Your focus feels scattered. Motivation dips. Clarity feels distant. You might even start questioning what you are doing and why you are doing it.

This is not a personal failure. This is neuroscience.

Our brains love routines. They are designed to conserve energy, seek familiarity and prioritise safety. Routines give the brain a sense of predictability. Predictability equals safety.

Safety creates clarity.

When your routine disappears or dramatically changes, even for positive reasons like holidays and celebrations, your nervous system has to recalibrate. That recalibration can feel like discomfort, uncertainty, lack of direction and mental fog.

In this blog, we are going to explore why getting back on track can feel so hard after the holidays, what is really happening in your brain and nervous system, and how to gently and effectively reconnect with clarity and momentum. We will also explore two very common scenarios I see with my clients and how tools like mindset work and hypnosis can support both.

This is not about forcing yourself back into discipline. It is about working with your brain instead of against it.

Why the Brain Loves Routine

Your brain is an efficiency machine.

Every habit you repeat creates a neural pathway. The more you repeat it, the stronger and faster that pathway becomes. This is why routines eventually feel effortless. You do not need to think about them. Your brain runs them automatically.

When you wake up at the same time, eat similar meals, work in familiar blocks and move your body regularly, your brain knows what to expect. This reduces cognitive load and frees up mental energy for creativity, decision making and emotional regulation.

During the holidays, many of these patterns change. Sleep schedules shift. Eating patterns change. Work slows down or stops. Social time increases. Alcohol, sugar and late nights often increase too. None of this is wrong. It is part of living a full life.

However, from a neurological perspective, your brain is suddenly navigating unfamiliar territory. Familiar cues disappear. Old habits are paused. New temporary ones take over.

When January arrives and you attempt to jump straight back into your old routine, your brain does not automatically know how to switch gears. The neural pathways that supported your previous structure have gone a bit quiet. They are not gone, but they need reactivation.

This is why willpower alone rarely works.

The Emotional Side of Getting Back on Track

Beyond habits and routines, the end of the year often brings reflection. Big questions surface.

What am I doing with my life?

Is this still what I want?

Why does everything feel different now?

When life slows down, even briefly, we create space to feel things we may have been avoiding. Holidays can amplify this. Time off can shine a light on dissatisfaction, misalignment or dreams that have been parked for too long.

So when you return to your normal life, it is not just about productivity. It is about identity.

You might feel disconnected from your work. Unclear about your goals. Restless in your routine. This discomfort is often mislabelled as lack of motivation, when in reality it is a signal asking for attention.

This is where compassion and curiosity matter far more than pushing harder.

Scenario One: You Know What You Want, But You Feel Stuck

This is one of the most common scenarios I see.

You have a big picture vision. You know what you want to achieve. Maybe it is career growth, financial freedom, better health, confidence, balance or expansion in your business.

You can see the destination.

But you do not know how to restart the engine.

You sit down to plan and feel overwhelmed. You know what you should be doing, but you cannot seem to access the motivation, consistency or clarity to take action. Old habits feel hard to restart. New ones feel impossible to maintain.

From a psychological perspective, this often happens when the conscious mind is clear, but the subconscious is not aligned.

Your subconscious mind is responsible for habits, emotional responses and automatic behaviours. If it associates your goals with pressure, fear, failure or past burnout, it will resist change, even if you consciously want it.

This creates internal friction.

How to Gently Get Back on Track in This Scenario

1. Shrink the entry pointYour brain needs evidence of safety and success. Instead of restarting everything at once, choose one tiny habit that signals structure. A morning walk. Writing three priorities. Drinking water before coffee. Small actions rebuild neural pathways.

2. Re-anchor to identity, not outcomesInstead of focusing on the end goal, focus on who you are becoming. Ask yourself, how would the version of me I am stepping into move today. Identity based habits feel safer to the brain than outcome based pressure.

3. Use hypnosis to reduce resistanceHypnosis works with the subconscious mind. It helps release emotional blocks, reframe past experiences and create new associations with habits and goals. Instead of forcing discipline, you create internal alignment. Action becomes easier because the resistance softens.

Hypnosis helps your nervous system feel safe enough to re-engage.

Scenario Two: You Feel Like You Should Be Doing Something Else

This scenario feels heavier.

You return from the holidays and suddenly your old life does not fit the same way. You feel restless, dissatisfied or disconnected. You may not know what you want instead, but you know this is not it.

This can create anxiety, guilt and self judgement. Especially if, on paper, your life looks good.

Psychologically, this is often a values misalignment.

When your actions no longer match your internal values or desires, your nervous system experiences discomfort. Your brain tries to resolve this by creating doubt, overthinking and emotional unease.

Ignoring this feeling does not make it disappear. It often gets louder.

How to Support Yourself in This Scenario

1. Create space before creating answersClarity does not come from forcing decisions. It comes from slowing down enough to listen. Journaling, walking, quiet mornings and reflection are essential here.

2. Ask better questionsInstead of asking, what should I do with my life, ask questions like, what am I craving more of right now, what feels draining, what feels nourishing, where am I living on autopilot.

3. Use hypnosis for clarity and directionHypnosis can help bypass mental noise and access deeper intuitive insight. It allows the subconscious mind to surface truths that are often buried under logic, fear and expectation. This creates emotional clarity, not just mental ideas.

Many women discover that their discomfort is not a problem, but an invitation.

A Quick Guide to Getting Back on Track

Regardless of which scenario you are in, these principles apply.

Regulate first, plan second: A dysregulated nervous system cannot create clarity. Prioritise sleep, movement, nourishment and emotional safety before goal setting.

Rebuild routine slowly: Think of routine as scaffolding, not restriction. Build it piece by piece.

Focus on safety, not pressure: When your brain feels safe, motivation returns naturally.

Align subconscious and conscious goals: This is where hypnosis and deep mindset work create lasting change.

Creating a 2026 You Love

Getting back on track is not about going back to who you were before the holidays. It is about integrating who you are becoming.

2026 does not need to be built on hustle, self criticism or unrealistic expectations. It can be built on clarity, alignment and intention.

At the end of this month, I am hosting a masterclass where we will be setting goals differently. We will work with your nervous system, your subconscious mind and your values to create a vision for 2026 that feels grounded, expansive and achievable.

This is not just about goals on paper. It is about creating a life you actually want to live.

If you are ready to reconnect with clarity, rebuild momentum and move forward with confidence, I would love to have you there.

Your next chapter deserves intention, not pressure.

And you do not have to do it alone. Book your free call if you want to know how it looks lika having a tailored plan of action and accountability to create the clarity and results you want.