The Power of Pause: Building Resilience for the New Year

Happy Monday, SoloGrit subscribers!

It’s the Monday before Christmas, just two days away from the holiday many of us look forward to all year. For me, Christmas is a time to reflect, recharge, and spend quality moments with family.

Our Family Christmas tree is loaded with ornaments from memories in our family.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ll be doing something rare for any solopreneur—I’m “powering off” for 48 hours. No emails, no to-do lists, just uninterrupted time with my family.

As a leadership solopreneur, it can feel impossible to step away. But moments like these remind me why we work so hard—to create a life filled with purpose, connection, and memories.

This week’s GRIT Guide is inspired by that same spirit of reflection and intentionality. Let’s take some time to look back on 2024, learn from it, and prepare for an impactful 2025.

Why Reflecting Matters for Leadership Solopreneurs

Reflection isn’t just about looking back; it’s about using the past to shape your future. As leadership solopreneurs—fractional executives, consultants, coaches, and advisors—we juggle a lot.

Taking the time to pause and assess our wins, challenges, and growth ensures we’re moving forward with clarity and purpose.

This week, I’ll guide you through a reflection process that taps into the GRIT mindset to help you refine your goals for 2025.

1. Top 3 Lessons from 2024

Start by identifying three key lessons you’ve learned this year.

What Worked Well: Maybe you built stronger client relationships or implemented a new marketing strategy that paid off.

What Didn’t Work: Perhaps a pricing model fell flat, or a collaboration didn’t align with your vision.

The Impact: How did these lessons shape your growth as a solopreneur?

Example: For me, one of my biggest lessons came from embracing simplicity in client communication. Clearer messaging and expectations led to smoother projects and stronger relationships.

Write these lessons down—keeping them top of mind will help you grow intentionally in 2025.

2. The GRIT Framework for Reflection

The GRIT mindset gives us a structure to reflect holistically on the past year:

Growth: What personal or business growth are you most proud of?

Resilience: How did you overcome setbacks? Were there moments when you doubted yourself but pushed through?

Integrity: How did staying true to your values shape your decisions and relationships?

Teachable Moments: What new skills, strategies, or tools did you embrace?

Activity: Take a notebook or use our SoloGrit worksheet to jot down answers for each category. Seeing your year through this lens can bring clarity to your wins and areas of improvement.

3. Setting Your Focus for 2025

Reflection without action is incomplete. Here’s how to use your insights to build a clear plan for the year ahead:

Define Your Vision and Mission: What impact do you want to create in 2025 as a leadership solopreneur?

Set Quarterly Milestones: Break down your goals into manageable, 90-day sprints using the 90/3 SoloGrit Framework.

Embrace Flexibility: Resiliency means allowing room for change and growth. Leave space in your plan to adapt as needed.

Example: One of my goals for Q1 2025 is to expand the SoloGrit Lunch Club to include even more opportunities for peer connections.

Breaking it down into actionable steps—such as onboarding more members weekly and creating discussion guides—makes it achievable.

Weekly Challenge

Take a moment to reflect on 2024 and identify:

One key lesson you’ve learned.

How it will shape your approach in 2025.

Post your response in the Happy Hour section of the community and see what others have experienced. Let’s inspire each other with our journeys!

That’s it for this week’s Weekly GRIT Guide! If this post helped you share it with a fellow leadership solopreneur who needs to develop their business with GRIT.

Let’s grow together! 💪