Why the Start of the Year Feels Both Energizing and Heavy

What I’m Seeing as 2026 Begins

As 2026 begins, many of the conversations I’m having with entrepreneurs, CEOs, senior leaders, and experienced professionals take a similar tone. There is genuine excitement about what lies ahead. Priorities are clearer. Decisions are being made. Work is moving forward again.

At the same time, in more than half of those conversations, overwhelm or anxiety is showing up. Not as the main issue being discussed, but as something present beneath the surface.

These are capable leaders. People who are clear on direction and confident in their roles. What they are describing is not uncertainty about the work. It is a sense that something feels unresolved as they move into the year.

Both things are true at once.

A Pattern Emerging Across Conversations

What stands out is not the roles or the industries. It is the consistency of the pattern.

Many leaders entered the year quickly. The pace returned. Expectations followed. What did not always happen was reconnection after a demanding period. Not because it was avoided, but because attention shifted immediately to the next item and task.

In these conversations, disconnection shows up in familiar ways. Internally, where signals of fatigue or strain were set aside in order to deliver. Relationally, teams continued to function, but with less ease, openness, or depth than before.

The return of energy can make this easy to miss.

Why Reconnection Often Comes Last

After extended periods of pressure, leaders tend to focus on forward movement. Planning resumes. Decisions accumulate. Others are looking for clarity and direction.

This response is practical. It is also incomplete.

What is often missing is time to reflect on what was carried, space to reconnect with internal signals, and attention to how teams are actually arriving into the new year, not just what they are expected to produce.

Reconnection is rarely skipped intentionally. It is overtaken by urgency.

How Disconnection Begins to Affect the Work

When connection has not been re-established, work continues, but it becomes heavier than expected. Feedback carries more emotional weight. Collaboration requires more effort. Silence is more easily filled with assumption. Small tensions that would normally resolve themselves start to feel personal.

This is often described as burnout, but that label misses something important. What is showing up here is misalignment. The pace of work has resumed before there has been time to integrate what came before.

Progress continues, but without stability, consistency, and grit.

Disconnection as Information

In these conversations, disconnection does not present as failure. It presents as information.

It signals that energy and pressure have returned faster than clarity and connection. That excitement has arrived before meaning has been fully processed.

For leaders, this is less a call to slow down and more a prompt to pause long enough to consider what will support the work ahead.

What I See Helping

What helps in this moment is not another framework or a push for greater resilience. It is intentional reconnection.

That often begins with leaders creating space to reflect and name what they are carrying without urgency or judgment. It extends to restoring clarity in relationships by normalizing check-ins, clarifying intent, and addressing tension early rather than allowing it to solidify into assumption. It also involves separating identity from output, so feedback can be received as information rather than as a measure of worth or capability.

This work does not lower standards. It strengthens the conditions required to meet them.

An Opportunity Early in the Year

Early in the year, this presents a meaningful opportunity for leaders. Those who attend to connection before pressure accumulates do not lose progress. They create steadier conditions for decision-making, engagement, and performance.

Energy becomes easier to sustain. Teams engage with greater confidence. The work feels more grounded.

This is why my work begins with connection, and why I developed The Clarity Path. Not as a soft skill, but as the foundation for clear thinking, confident decision-making, and sustainable leadership.

I work with capable, committed leaders who are often carrying more than they let on. What they usually need is not another tool or model, but a place to slow down, make sense of what they are holding, and reconnect before strain quietly builds.

That recalibration often determines how the rest of the year unfolds.

About the Author:

Karas Wright is a leadership and business coach who works with CEOs, senior leaders, and professionals navigating complexity, change, and growth. With a background spanning business leadership, coaching, and psychology, her work focuses on restoring clarity, strengthening connection, and supporting sustainable leadership. Karas is the founder of Wright Step Coaching and is known for her grounded, practical approach to helping leaders think clearly and lead with confidence.