Fresh Start Syndrome
Chapter XXII - December 2025
I admit it…despite not knowing until a few weeks ago, that ‘Fresh Start Syndrome’ was actually a ‘thing… I have it.
The days between Christmas and New Year, can feel like you are lost at sea without an anchor. When your familiar structure is absent, over-thinking accelerates. Without the usual rat race to carry you forward, doing less can feel like an itch that won’t go away.
Much like an itch that you can’t get rid of, self-interrogation awaits. What should I be doing more of? Less of? What can I be better at? As if what’s needed is a full reset. A system upgrade. A brand-new version of ourselves.
We repeat this cycle every year. Reflecting, resetting and making endless lists. Then December comes around again, and we wonder why we didn’t follow through on what we promised ourselves.
We set goals (that at the time) sound both sensible and completely achievable… but 12 months later feel strangely disconnected from them. Dissatisfaction without a clear explanation as to why we didn’t ‘execute’ … only further fuels our reason to berate ourselves.
The past few days, where I welcomed some interrupted space, I became aware that the new Lunar Year in the Chinese Zodiac is represented by the Fire Horse. The year just ending has been associated with the Snake, a symbol of shedding skin and stripping back. Shedding skin isn’t elegant. It asks us to release layers of separation. Layers that harden the heart. Layers that keep us distracted from being where we are.
2025 has been year has felt deeply uncomfortable. I’ve heard some hard truths from people who love me. I’ve begun unlearning patterns I unconsciously adopted over the past four decades. Unbecoming who I had become. Letting go of what no longer fits, and beginning to trust myself. If the Snake represented release and letting go… the Fire Horse in 2026 represents movement and energy, and I for one am excited for what it may bring.
Because, the latter part of this year felt very much like stepping into a washing machine. It began on the yoga trip I wrote about earlier in the year. Layers of ill fitting clothes I’d been wearing for decades started to come loose. Some slipped away easily. Others clung on. And as anyone who’s tried to remove an old stain knows, not everything disappears at once.
Yet, we’ve been conditioned to think of success as an end point. The big win. The moment when everything finally makes sense. The day we can say “Yes, I have made it.” Something, I call BS, because success is completely relative and lives in the process, not in a title or bank balance.
If you’re living a life that feels aligned, the process itself is proof. Even when it’s messy. Even when there’s doubt. Staying with the hard graft that shows you haven’t stepped away from yourself.
It’s far less of a dramatic 360 degree reinvention, but a gradual, steady ‘flip’.
The New Year is full of people talking about the promise of a fresh start. Clean skies. A sense that if we mark the moment properly, everything else will follow.
But life doesn’t reset like that. Patterns don’t dissolve because the calendar changes. The beliefs that once guided us, the definitions of success we absorbed early on, the roles we stepped into because they were rewarded or expected, all of that carries forward.
Fresh starts create pressure to transform. When that pressure collapses, we often turn it inward and call it failure. More often, what’s needed isn’t transformation, but honesty….with ourselves.
What many people experience isn’t breakdown or regret. It’s the growing awareness that the story that once made sense… the decisions, energy or priorities you adopted no longer feel clear or aligned. The version of success you never questioned…the identity you built because it was practical, impressive, or safe.
Over time, those stories lose accuracy. Like a snake, we accumulate layers upon layers that eventually need shedding to make way for new ones to surface, grow and take shape. We tend to label this discomfort as crisis, yet, I find it more useful to see it as a guide, and your mind and body telling you that you have an opportunity to feel less ‘pain.’
How wonderful is that?
So, whilst you might feel like an outdated narrative is still running the system and your script…you are also the one who is able to write a new updated and completely bespoke one…just for you.
Years of being a journalist… observing, listening to people speak at moments of change, discomfort, crisis revealed one consistent pattern. People don’t always need a new beginning, they simply need a better understanding of the chapter they’re already in.
Progress doesn’t come from pushing harder or reinventing yourself. It comes from asking better questions and paying attention to what surfaces when there’s no script to follow.
Questions like, ‘what story am I operating from without realising it? What language do I keep using that no longer reflects reality? What am I trying to fix that might actually need reframing?’
These aren’t self-help questions. They are editorial ones.
It’s no surprise to those who know me or have read my writing, that horses are my soul animal. They have always taught me something important…there’s no room for pretence with them. They respond to what’s real. If you arrive distracted, forceful, or half-present, they mirror it back. If you move with awareness and respect, there’s a sense of working together rather than against each other.
There’s something in that as we move into 2026. As a writer and creative, I’m drawn to storytelling that is coherent, grounded, aligned and alive. And, allow these next few days - as we move from one year to the next - to interrupt your momentum just enough for you to notice where energy is being on a story that’s already run its course.
It’s about recognising that each day is yours to shape. you can start it again no matter what time of day it is. Sometimes the change is small. A subtle adjustment, to something more instinctive and true, before the layers of ‘dirt’ began collecting.
Real change comes from noticing what you’ve been carrying forward automatically and deciding what no longer belongs in the next chapter.
So, if you’re thinking about what comes next, the question may not be what do I want to start, or even what do I want to change? It might be this. What story am I still living that belongs to an earlier chapter, and what would happen if I told it more accurately now?
As this year ends, my professional work is evolving alongside me. Flip It is changing because I am.
There will be more focus on communication and the stories that shape how people live and work, always grounded in the art and craft of storytelling. In 2026, this will show up more clearly across my writing and my podcast, drawing on my background in journalism and communications strategy.
And personally, my work is simpler. Less time looking outward. More trust in myself. More space for the part of me that loves to play, dance, and care a little less about the noise outside.
While Flip It Podcast takes a short pause between seasons, I wanted to share a quote from the late Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh.
“Calming allows us to rest, and resting is a precondition for healing. When animals in the forest get wounded, they find a place to lie down, and they rest completely for many days. They don’t think about food or anything else. They just rest, and they get the healing they need. When we humans get sick, we just worry! We look for doctors and medicine, but we don’t stop. Even when we go to the beach or the mountains for a vacation, we don’t rest, and we come back more tired than before. We have to learn to rest.”
Season Three is on its way in the New Year, with new voices, more stories and a little refresh.
But for now, thank you for being here.
🔗 Full episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts.
SOMETHING I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU:This month, I’ve chosen a video from Chris Anderson, the curator of TED, where world renowned speakers, experts, and innovators take to the stage to present one idea in 18 minutes or fewer.
Through his work, Chris Anderson has dedicated his career to sharing ideas he believes are worth spreading.
Too often, the narratives we encounter, both in mainstream news and online media, focus on people at their worst. As a journalist who spent years working in 24 hour breaking news, I can testify to how easily this becomes the dominant lens.
But when you flip the narrative and look at the world at a more instinctive, human level, a different picture emerges. One shaped by relationships, generosity, and people who act with quiet kindness, often without recognition.
They exist in abundance.
That’s why I’m encouraging you to listen and watch this talk. Chris explores how human kindness and simple acts of generosity can have a profound impact, not just on individuals, but on entire communities.
It’s a reminder that the stories we choose to amplify shape the world we believe we’re living in
If you have a story, an idea or know of one that deserves to be heard on the Flip It Podcast, please get in touch. Stories shared, save lives — they have and continue to save mine.
And if you are new here, then a huge big warm hello and thank you for being here.
I’m the Founder of Flip It Global, where I help leaders and organisations protect against poor communication and fragmented messaging.
After 20 years as a BBC journalist interviewing world leaders, icons, and everyday heroes, I created The Flip It Framework to help businesses communicate clearly and consistently with their customers and teams.
Blending journalistic storytelling with results-driven strategy, The Flip It Framework helps organisations communicate their purpose, align messaging, and deliver engaging content that connects inside and out.
I also take on the occasional ghostwriting project, so if you’d like help bringing your story, book, or brand narrative to life, please contact me at laura@flipitglobal.com
I believe storytelling is the most undervalued asset in business and in life.
Loved the idea of stepping into the new year with the notion of mirroring. (It almost scares me to think that every time I show up for parenting or working with a resentful or discouraged attitude, I can not expect any positive outcome.)
Thank you for this post, and Happy New Year!