Hello and welcome to best laid plans.

This is your host, Sarah Hart Unger, and this is a podcast where we talk all things planning and planning adjacent.

Today, this episode is airing on February the 9th, and we are almost six weeks into

2026. So I thought this would be a really good time for a post-New Year's pep talk. And let's face it,

whenever I do an episode like this, it's probably because I need one as well. Yes, I mean, the year has been going well. I talked a little

bit last week about certain goals that I've made progress with and others that are going a bit more

slowly, but I am absolutely not immune to some of the things on my list, just maybe looking a little

bit less exciting, less appealing as the year goes on.

And I definitely find that this can be a challenging time of year for so many people.

And so I'm going to provide six ideas to maybe help you if you are finding that you're a little

bit in one of those valleys of the year in terms of motivation

or in terms of mood. And maybe some of these will help you to climb out and me as well.

So first of all, why is February hard? Well, in January, the first few weeks can just feel so sparkly

and magical for those of us who are planner types.

And I know many of the people who listen to this episode are those exact kind of planner types.

We count down to the year. We spend lots of time thinking about our goals. We get excited about

new tools and new tactics that we're going to try. And then we start doing them.

And it's really fun at first.

But at a certain point, it sort of hits you that, oh, my gosh, I have made a pact with

myself to just keep doing this forever.

And maybe it's not as fun or as fresh anymore.

Many, many habit goals, honestly, are things that don't have an end.

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