Why I’m Not Hustling in January — and You Shouldn’t Either

January in real estate is loud. Everyone’s pushing goals, momentum, and urgency — and if you’re not sprinting out of the gate, it can feel like you’re already behind.

In this episode, Lindsay Dreyer, real estate coach and brokerage owner, explains why a slow start to the year isn’t a problem — it’s often the smartest move you can make. We talk about why January pressure is mostly made up, what actually goes wrong when agents force momentum too early, and how to start the year without burning out or constantly reinventing your business.

If you’re a real estate agent who’s tired, overwhelmed, or questioning why January feels so hard, this episode will help you reset without panic.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why January isn’t a true reset for real estate agents
• The difference between a slow start and a stuck start
• Common January mistakes that lead to burnout
• How decision fatigue drains energy and momentum
• One stabilizing action to focus on instead of doing everything
• Why fewer decisions and clearer boundaries create better results
• How to build momentum in real estate without hustle culture

You don’t need to hit the ground running to have a successful year in real estate. A calmer, more intentional January can set you up for a better year overall.

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Chapters

• 1:08 New Year, Real Talk
• 1:41 The Myth Of January Urgency
• 2:52 Landing Month, Not Launch Month
• 4:06 Rejecting Hustle For Sustainable Pace
• 6:56 Common January Agent Mistakes
• 9:44 Slow Start Versus Stuck Start
• 11:53 Rest, Nervous System, And Motivation
• 13:13 Three January Moves That Matter
• 15:44 Permission To Rest And Reset
• 17:09 Gratitude, Subscribe, And Final Reminder

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Hi friends, happy new year. I cannot believe 2025 is behind us. I'm personally saying good write ends. Welcome to the Happy Agent Co. podcast. For those of you who don't know me, I am Lindsay Dryer. I am a brokerage owner of 15 years, a mom of three, and a real estate coach at HappyAgent Co. I love it when you follow me on socials. So if you want to find me at lindsay.dryer on Instagram, I would love to see you there. Let's dive into today's episode. So every January, the real estate industry collectively loses its ever-loving mind. And everyone's yelling like, New Year, New You, let's hit that grand running. And if you don't have five listings by January 10th, you're a loser. Which honestly, meanwhile, I'm over here. Like, I'm still tired. My kids literally just went back to school. I am also still eating leftover cookies, and my brain feels like total mush. It is oatmeal. So if January has started and you are not fired up and you are not energized, and you're not just running hardcore into your goals, I want to tell you you're actually not behind because a slow start is sometimes the best way to begin your year. So in this episode, we're going to talk about why that January pressure is honestly mostly made up. What actually goes wrong when agents force momentum too early, and how you can use a slower start to the year to build a better year without freaking out or reinventing yourself every five seconds. So why does January feel so intense? It's obviously that new year energy. It is not a neutral month. It is super emotionally loaded. And honestly, social media, I think, has made it even worse because you are getting bombarded with like, here's what's wrong with you, and here's how we're going to fix it. And everyone has like reset everything at once. They've got lofty goals for their money. They've got lofty goals for their routines, for health, for parenting, for self-care. And all of this is just so overwhelming and it's all coming at you at once. And then when you add on your work goals, we have like our personal layer, right? And then we add on our work goals, that is obviously going to add anxiety. And then if you have income goals that you really need to hit, that is going to add even more pressure. January is like the Monday, the ultimate Monday of the month. And no one can be the CEO of their business when they are absolutely exhausted. I know for me, I am actually not charging really straight into January this year because I am coming off a hellacious December where we basically spent the entire month sick, kicked off with my oldest daughter, and then passed it down to everybody. And then we had another sickness hit Christmas Eve. So it's like, I'm exhausted, honestly. And I am gonna honor that. I'm going to go into a maintenance plan, which is like what are the bare minimum? What is the absolutely I have to do's do's to-do list? And I'm going to honor that I am tired. I am exhausted. And there is a bare minimum I need to do to make sure that my business is maintained, but I am not going to force it because rest is a priority for me heading into the new year. That leads me into another point, which is January is not a clean slate month, honestly. I feel like it is a carryover month because we are taking our ideas, our thoughts for how we did in 2025, like all of that baggage or goals or things we want to change, those are all getting transferred over into January. And pretending otherwise is just ridiculous because hitting the ground running like full steam ahead in January is how people burn out by the spring. So here's what I want to challenge you to think. I want you to think that January is not a launch month, it is a landing month. It is where you're landing from the previous year. It is your chance to take a breath and decide what is actually worth carrying forward. Now, if you didn't do this work in December, or maybe even if you did, like January is your time to sit with it. And before you start running in whatever direction feels like the loudest or the most motivating or what you should do, I really think it's important to land, to take a breath, to figure out what you want to bring forward or leave behind. January is like the ultimate hustle mentality month. And obviously, if you've been listening to the podcast, we are not about hustle mentality here. To like the common wisdom and what you're going to see out there is that you need to be fast to be effective. You need to be busy and to be productive. You got to make those calls, right? You got to send out those letters. You have to have pressure, like high pressure to have momentum. And I honestly do not believe that that is the case. You can have a business that has space that allows you to rest while still doing the activities that move your business forward. We do not have to always be in hustle, hustle, grind, grind mode. Here are some of the most common mistakes I see real estate agents making in January. The first is switching their CRM or like tweak figuring out like that new shiny tech tool. They are also looking at maybe their rebranding because they just feel like they have to have a brand or rebranding out of like not feeling secure in their business, um, overcommitting to routines that you won't keep, where you have your calendar time block to the hilt, you have your list of things you are going to commit to, and there's literally no breathing room in your schedule. I recently saw a meme online, which was basically that in order to have a like peaceful, kind of like balanced life, is that you need to build in margins. And when I saw that, I was like, oh my gosh, that's exactly what I do, is that you need to have 15 to 20% of time built into your calendar. Like, do not let your calendar get scheduled to the hill because that is when you burn out, is when you are operating with your hair on fire. So always having 15 to 20% breathing room in your schedule helps you from overcommitting and really burning out. And then another mistake I see is that people just say yes or add things to their list for the year out of fear instead of actual alignment. They're like, well, if I don't do this, I'm not gonna have a successful year. But they aren't actually thinking about is this something I want to do? Is this something that actually aligns with my values, my energy, what I feel comfortable doing in the world? And yes, sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone. But I will be honest with you, in my 20 plus years of doing real estate, I have never, ever made my calls like the coaches tell you to do. It is not about doing things because other people tell you to do them, it is about doing them because they feel aligned. So now that we've got all of that out of the way, I want to talk about a slow start to the year versus a stuck start to the year. So a slow start is intentional. You are it is thought through and you're actually committing to it. A stuck start is unconscious, slow is chosen, and stuck is avoidance or procrastination. So examples of a slow start. Reviewing last year, honestly, and looking at what worked, what didn't work. Another example of a slow start is simplifying, doing less instead of adding more to your plate. It's about refinement, choosing fewer things and then repeating them consistently. I cannot emphasize this enough with my coaching clients. It is not about adding more to their plate. It's about deciding what is important, what are the most important things, and then doing them consistently. That is a slow start. That is an intentional start. A stuck start is scrolling and just like making a list of all the things you want to do this year. That is overwhelming and that is not motivating. That is not going to get you in your business doing the things you need to do. So many people just make lists of ideas or they just collect ideas. And I'm telling you, you can collect all the ideas in the world, but without any consistent execution, it is just going to do nothing for your business. And it's honestly going to lead to you burning out. Another stuck start is just waiting to feel motivated. And if you're waiting to feel motivated, it usually means that you're burned out. It usually means that you need rest and you need a reboot. You need a reset. Hit the reset button. Another stuck start is avoiding making decisions because it feels uncomfortable. And that is a really common place for us to be in, but it also kind of goes back to not feeling motivated, which is you aren't going to make decisions because you aren't able to. Your nervous system is burnt out. So rest might be a priority for you in January. I know that the holidays are not restful for me. I mean, they're magical, right? Like it's super fun. The holidays are great. We visit with our families, but they are stressful. So January is a time for rest and reflection in my world. And I really encourage you to consider having it be that in yours. If you are one of those people who's like, Lindsay, I can't just rest and do nothing. That is not what I'm telling you to do. I am not a person who rests and does nothing. However, you can do less, right? We can intentionally do less and also choose intentional actions. So I have three things for January that I would love for you to contemplate and put into action. The first one is a stabilizing action. So instead of a big January plan, I want you to pick just one stabilizing action for your business. This is something boring. This is not sexy. It is something repeatable and something that if you did nothing else, your business would it would still keep your business standing. So this examples. It could be one weekly sphere touch. It could be one weekly admin reset. It could be one weekly CEO date. So just something that you can stick to that would make a difference in your business. That consistency and that stabilization is what allows you to build momentum throughout the year. So one stabilizing action. The next thing is one decision that you make once. So January is not the month for more options. It is a month for fewer decisions. So decide what your marketing plan is going to be for the year once, or maybe for the quarter if that makes you uncomfortable, but you're deciding once. You decide what your work hours are once and you stick to it. You decide what CRM you are using and you stick to it. Take an honest look at what you research and change on a semi-regular basis or want to change on a semi-regular basis and just decide to decide once. This the decision fatigue is real and just commit to one thing consistently. Because every decision that you are making is energy that you are expending. And so if you are making a decision once or making one plan and sticking to it, that is energy that you'll get back all year because you are not researching. You are there's no switching costs, you're not putting a new plan in place, like you're not just spreading your energy so thin. So we have your stabilizing action, we have your one decision that you're going to make once. And then third, I want you to think about one boundary that you're going to implement. Boundaries are what make our business strong. So an example could be I am not doing any rebrands in 2026. Just not happening. Or I am not making any major tech changes in the first half of 2026. Or I will not say yes to new clients in November and December. Whatever those boundaries are, take a look at your 2025 and look at where did you feel burned out? Where did you say yes when you feel like you shouldn't have? Or what were the mistakes that you made, or like those wasted money, money? Wasting money. That's a big one. Um, could be like, I'm not signing up for any new courses until I take the ones that I bought. So one boundary. So those are the three things I want you to get in place for January while you're resting and having a slow start, hopefully, is your stabilizing action, one decision that you make once, and your one boundary. If you are listening and thinking, oh, Lindsay, I should really be further along, I just want you to take a pause and think, do you really? And I just think January is not the month that we need to like hit it, improve ourselves, because spring market, it will be here before we know it. And if you are tired and you need rest, this is an amazing month to rest. And when you feel motivated, work on your business and implement those three keys that I gave you. If your only win in January is remembering your passwords, which honestly, I think you Google passwords, and showing up without absolutely hating your life and business, I'm gonna tell you, you are doing awesome. And I know that if you take the time in January to really just rest and reset, it's going to pay dividends throughout the entire year. So I want you to ask yourself if you let January be slower, calmer, more intentional, how might it make your year better? I just want to say thank you for kicking off 2026 with me. If you have not subscribed to the podcast, please do. And if you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would leave me a review or share it with an agent who you feel like could use it. I just want you to remember you do not need to hit the ground running. And I know that that's counterintuitive to all the advice that you are getting. You really just need to enjoy the process and getting to where you are going. So until next time, I hope that you stay happy.