Before You Add More, Subtract: A Year-End Reflection for Women in Their Second Act

As another year comes to a close, it’s tempting to sprint into January armed with resolutions, fresh planners, colour-coded goals and a head full of “new year, new me” pressure.

But if 2025 has shown us anything, it’s this:

Women don’t need more to do.
We need less of what drains us and more of what matters.

This was a big year in a woman’s world. We watched rights rolled back, corporate feminism repackaged as cupcakes and systems continue to fail women and girls globally. At the same time, we’re standing on the brink of one of the largest transfers of wealth and power into women’s hands in history.

The tension is real: our rights are being eroded, while our power is quietly expanding.

So the question for your second act isn’t “How much more can I squeeze in?”
It’s: What am I no longer willing to carry?

And what could become possible if you simplified your life, your leadership and your attention?

This Year’s Through-Line: Energy, Boundaries, Power

Across my writing and coaching this year, a handful of themes kept repeating themselves.

From Why Self-Care is Not Selfish: It’s a Strategy for Self-Discovery to articles on boundaries, future planning and women’s wealth, the pattern was clear:

You can’t change your life if you’re constantly exhausted by it.

When your energy is low, everything feels harder. The smallest decisions feel heavy. Your future self feels distant. This is what I call the energy gap the space between how you’re living now and how you want to feel.

You don’t close the gap by pushing harder.
You close it by simplifying:

• Protecting your energy like the currency it is

• Setting boundaries that stop the constant leakage of time, emotion, money and attention

• Letting go of identities, obligations and expectations that were never really yours

Boundaries aren’t about shutting people out. They’re about creating space for the life you actually want to live.

Even one small boundary, not checking email before breakfast, blocking time for movement, claiming one phone-free evening a week, creates a ripple effect.

It signals: “My energy matters. My life matters.”

Less Hustle, More Alignment

We also talked about vision and consistency as your compass for change, especially through the 5-3-1-90 Method:

• 5 years: Who is your future self?

• 3 years: What milestones matter most?

• 1 year: What must shift in the next 12 months?

• 90 days: What small, consistent actions will you take now?

Here’s the secret we forget:

Before you build a bigger life, you usually have to build more space.

Space in your calendar.
Space in your nervous system.
Space in your inbox, your relationships, your home.

You can’t hear your future self clearly when your life is cluttered with everyone else’s priorities.

Subtract First: A Case for Simplifying 2026

Instead of asking, “What am I going to add next year?”
Try asking, “What will I subtract?”

Here are some places to start:

1. Simplify Your Digital Life

• Unsubscribe from newsletters, updates and marketing emails that no longer serve you (including mine, if this season is done for you, truly).

• Mute or unfollow accounts that drain you, trigger comparison or clutter your feed.

• Delete apps you haven’t opened in months, bookmark bar saves and old downloads you’ll never use.

Your attention is one of your most precious resources. Spend it like it matters.

2. Simplify Your Commitments

• Audit your calendar: which meetings, committees, groups or routines are obligation rather than aligned choice?

• Decide what gets a “not this year”. You don’t have to break everything. Sometimes you just don’t renew.

• Reclaim simple non-negotiables: a real lunch break, a weekly walk, a night with no plans.

Remember: every “yes” is a “no” to something else. Start saying yes to yourself.

3. Simplify Your Story About Yourself

Many women I coach are living under old stories formed by family, workplaces, culture or past relationships:

• “I’m the responsible one.”

• “I’m the peacekeeper.”

• “I’m the hard worker in the background, not the one in the spotlight.”

Your second act asks a different question:

Who am I now, and who am I becoming?

As you step into 2026, you get to let parts of your old identity go:

• The version of you who apologises for taking up space

• The one who tolerates less than she deserves

• The one who waits to be chosen, invited, approved of

Less shape-shifting. More standing in your own shape.

4. Simplify Your Relationship with Power & Money

This year, I’ve written a lot about women, philanthropy and the great transfer of wealth:

• Women giving more and differently, than men

• Women stepping into structured giving, impact investing and collective funds

• Women using money as a tool for justice, not just personal security

But before you decide how you’ll use your money, ask:

• What am I funding in my life and in the world, by default?

• Which expenses, investments or obligations no longer align with my values?

• Where am I ready to redirect my time, money and energy into what I actually believe in?

Simplifying isn’t just about decluttering your wardrobe. It’s about decluttering your priorities.

Your Second Act: Less Noise, More Truth

We’re living through what some call a “metacrisis” – climate, inequality, conflict, democracy, all under strain. It’s a lot.

But as I wrote in Speak the Truth: A Call to Lead in a Collapsing World, leadership now is less about fixing everything and more about showing up with clarity, compassion and courage in your corner of the world.

You don’t need the perfect plan for 2026.
You need the courage to tell yourself the truth and take one aligned step.

So, before you buy another planner, sign up for another program or write another long list of resolutions, ask yourself:

What if this year is less about adding and more about editing?
What if your next level is not more, it’s cleaner, sharper, simpler?

A Simple Year-End Reflection

Pour a cup of something you love and journal on these:

1. What did I say “yes” to this year that I already know I won’t repeat?

2. Where did my energy go and what would I like to reclaim?

3. What 3 things (habits, relationships, roles, subscriptions, expectations) am I willing to release before 2026?

4. Who is the woman I’m becoming and what does she no longer tolerate?

Then choose one small action:

• Unsubscribe from five emails that don’t serve you.

• Cancel one recurring commitment.

• Say no to one thing you would previously have agreed to out of guilt.

• Clear one drawer, one folder, one corner of your home or digital life.

Small acts of simplification are not superficial. They’re symbolic.
They tell your brain: “We’re doing life differently now.”

Walking Into 2026 with Less, But Better

My intention going into 2026 is simple:

• Less noise, more depth.

• Less performance, more power.

• Less overloading women, more building systems that actually work for us.

I’ll keep writing, coaching, speaking and building spaces for women in their second act to lead in life, in their careers and in the world.

But I’ll also keep saying this:

If my work stops serving the woman you’re becoming, you have full permission to unsubscribe, unfollow, step away and find what fits. That’s part of leading yourself too.

And if you’re ready for a year of less clutter and more clarity, I’m right here with you.

Self-care isn’t selfish. Simplifying isn’t selfish.
They’re both strategy for the future you’re building.

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Or head to My Resources section and pick up the ‘Future Planning Map: From Vision to Action’.