Midlife Confidence Lab (formerly Edge of Real)

7 Ways to End the Year Strong - #16

• Midlife Confidence Coach | Kristin Hamilton • Season 1 • Episode 16

Share episode

Ready to finish the year strong? We explore ending the year rooted in identity, choice, and self-trust in midlife - so the next chapter starts with natural momentum. Framed by the energetic shift from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse, we trade shedding and inner work for bold, forward movement grounded in presence and clarity.

We walk through seven practical steps to end the year with intention: offering real gratitude to the people who changed you, running a full tech reset to clear mental noise, auditing your year across emotions, energy, relationships, boundaries, work, habits, joy, and self-expression, and choosing values that will steer every decision to come. You’ll hear why open tabs are open loops, how awareness creates power, and how values outlast resolutions when life gets messy.

We also focus on nervous-system health as the engine of confidence - more stillness, mindful walks, breath work, and somatic release - so action feels natural, not forced. Then we recommit to an authentic self-concept, asking what the truest version of you will stop tolerating and boldly say yes to. Finally, we anchor meaning with a closure ritual that marks the crossing into a freer, more aligned year. If you’re done playing small and eager to run in the direction that feels right, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you forward.

Share this episode with a midlife friend who’s ready to feel powerful and purposeful again. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and tell us: which practice will you try first?

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at midlifeconfidencelab@gmail.com and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Kristin:

Welcome back to Midlife Confidence Lab, formerly Edge of Reel, where we make boldness feel natural, decisions feel doable, and self-trust and confidence feel like home. I'm your host, Kristin Hamilton, a certified life coach helping midlife women who are in their what's next chapter of life. I am so glad you're here. Today we're talking about finishing the year strong. I think this is deeply important, not just for our mindset, but for our identity, our confidence, and the energy we carry into the next chapter of our lives. And when I say strong, I don't mean hustling or performing or pushing your way to some make-believe finish line. I mean finishing with clarity, with alignment, with self-respect, with a grounded sense of who you are and who you're becoming. This episode is going to be a mix of reflection, psychology, spirituality, and some Eastern philosophy that I love. Specifically, the energetic shift from the year of the snake to the year of the horse. And I'll walk you through the seven things I am personally doing to close out this year in the most aligned way possible. Welcome to the lab. Now let's get into the episode. So let's talk about this snake-to-horse energy shift, the energetics of endings and beginnings. According to the Chinese Zodiac, the year we're closing, the year of the snake, is about shedding. Snakes grow by literally outgrowing themselves. They leave behind an old skin that no longer fits. And that's what so many of us in midlife have been doing this year: shedding old roles, releasing the ones that we've outgrown, shedding outdated expectations, shedding beliefs that we inherited, not chose, shedding relationships or dynamics that kept us small, shedding identities that were built for survival, not expression. Snake years involve deep inner work. They're intuitive and internal. They're healing and clarifying, and they create this deep intuitive clarity. So many of you have been shedding versions of yourself that you've outgrown. The roles, beliefs, survival patterns, people pleasing, marriages, careers, dynamics. And now we're heading into the year of the horse. Horse energy is strong, forward-moving, bold, independent, and deeply intuitive. The horse does not wait for permission. It doesn't over-explain its direction. It runs powerfully toward what feels right. The horse represents freedom and forward momentum, action that feels natural, not forced, confidence that is rooted in presence, courage, independence, and clarity. I don't know about all of you, but I am so on board with this energy. How we end one year is how we begin the next. So this episode is really about how to close your snake year with intention, so you can enter the horse year with clarity and energy and strength, momentum, and aligned confidence. So with that, here are the things I'm doing to finish this year strong. As always, take what serves you and leave what doesn't. You're the boss of you. But don't be afraid to challenge yourself. Remember, we are done playing small. The first practice that I'm doing to end the year strong. Intentionally thanking the people who shaped my year. Living in gratitude is one of my core values, one of the pillars of who I am and how I purposefully choose to live my life. Because of this, I decided to get even more intentional and direct and really let the people who I care about know that I appreciate them. The real, deep kind of thank you. The kind that acknowledges you changed me, you helped me grow. My life was better this year because of you. There is something incredibly healing and grounding about naming what has shaped your experience. It builds connection, it softens self-protection. It reinforces self-trust by showing yourself that you acknowledge what has nourished you and expressing emotional adulthood. I talked in the very first episode, Paper Dolls and The Real Girl, about this feeling of not feeling like a real person, of feeling separate and outside of what I thought everyone else was doing to live their lives. Gratitude helps me feel more real because I get to acknowledge what is good in my life and really evaluate the ways I feel and the things that I do and have. It also reminds you that you are not doing this life alone. Now I want to make a distinction here. I think we all know people who do not receive thanks very well. It's important to keep this in mind here, not to change yourself or your feelings, but to make sure that this isn't about gushing or going overboard or making people feel uncomfortable, because that would just take away from the whole idea. This is about a genuine thank you that isn't drawn out, but is your truth expressed to them simply and without ceremony. I mentioned the softening of self-protection earlier, and I kind of want to go back to that for a minute. I heard Mel Robbins speak once about dropping the sword. And I have really thought about that over the last several years, about being open and not defensive at every turn. I had my defenses so high to avoid being hurt again, that I was brandishing that sword in front of anything and anyone who dared approach my fortress. I think that by having gratitude, especially toward the people who've entered my life, that I've been able to soften and allow people in again and allow myself to acknowledge and see again the good in people, their good intentions and deeds and feelings, I have attracted absolutely amazing, incredible people into my life. So I want to end this year by shedding the distrust and fear of being hurt and embrace the kindness and good intentions of almost everyone I have in my life and bring that energy into my next year. The second thing that I'm doing to finish the year strong, a full tech reset day. I'm talking phone, laptop, cloud, subscriptions, notifications, all of it. This one might sound out of place here, but it changes so much. If the end of the snake year is about shedding, I will be setting aside a full day and doing a complete digital declutter. I'll be clearing out old screenshots, organizing my camera roll, closing browser tabs. My God, I have so many browser tabs open. Cleaning my laptop, sorting files, unsubscribing to things, turning off notifications that drain me, clearing messages that I am never going to respond to, backing up what matters and letting the rest go. Because digital clutter is mental clutter. Open tabs are open loops and they cause me stress. Notifications are these tiny little hits of stress that I don't even notice anymore, except as stress. This can also help reduce decision fatigue because there's just less staring at you. And most importantly for me, I think is that it will help me feel more competent and in control. I always feel like a serious mess when I open my computer and literally have pages of open tabs. So this is the simplest way to create that mental spaciousness for the year ahead. The third thing I'm doing to finish the year strong is a full end-of-year audit. What worked, what didn't, and why. And this is not a self-critique or what I did wrong. This is a clarity practice. So I break it into categories: emotional, energetic, relationships, work and career, boundaries, habits, joy, and self-expression. And some of those overlap each other. But I ask myself, what has supported who I'm becoming? And what has drained me? What surprised me? What patterns have I been repeating? What did I avoid and why? What do I want to carry with me? And what is ready to be shed snake style for good? Awareness creates power. And power creates choice, and choice creates confidence. So I think this is a really important thing to do and be able to move forward with that awareness in mind. The fourth thing I'm doing to finish my year strong, choosing my values for the next year. So resolutions are good and goals are a great forward momentum motivator, but values are the anchor. Values shape behavior more consistently than goals ever will, because values speak to who we are rather than what we do. And then who we are informs what we do. Some of the values I'm choosing for the next year include boldness, freedom and ease, following my intuition, consistency, which speaks to self-trust, connection and being present, and fun and joy. So when I am faced with the decision next year, I am going to ask myself, which choice aligns with the values I committed to. And by following that, I am choosing my true self every time. That is how you build self-trust. One aligned microdecision at a time. The fifth thing I'm doing to finish my year strong, continuing to strengthen my nervous system. Anyone who's been here for any amount of time knows how strongly I believe in this. Preparation for the horse year, where momentum and forward movement are going to be the themes. This is going to require a regulated foundation. So for me, that's going to look like more stillness, continuing, maybe even increasing my daily meditation practice, more walks outside, more time to myself without something in my ear. And I love being in your ear, but there are times when it's okay to just be in silence and be with your thoughts. More breath work, more somatic release. Remember, soma just means body. More creating spaciousness by creating boundaries. I'll be reducing commitments to drain me, doing things on purpose, and treating rest as non-negotiable and not optional. Confidence and building confidence is not thought work alone. It's not something we can just do by thinking. It's also a nervous system work. And a regulated body builds a regulated mind, which strengthens our confidence. The sixth thing I'm doing to finish the year strong is recommitting to my self-concept. And I think this is my favorite one. This isn't about creating a shiny new identity. It's about committing to the truest version of yourself. The one that you may have been too busy or too afraid or being too responsible to express. Ask yourself, who am I becoming next? What version of me wants to emerge in the new year? What would the more confident, more aligned version of me stop tolerating? What would she say yes to? What would she stop apologizing for? What is she hungry for? This is reinvention, yes, but it's also a reclamation. I think I mentioned a few episodes back that I recently moved. I went through much of what I have, and this involved going through a lot of old pictures of myself. I was showing them to my two young adult children, and I noticed that the ones that they really looked at and the ones they liked and asked me about, and in a few cases, even asked for copies of, were the ones where I could clearly see the light in my eyes and the excitement and aliveness on my face and in my body. It reminded me of how spirited and free I used to feel. I was goofy and wide-eyed and just loved life so much. I had this energy and vibrance that I miss about myself. That is the real me, the me that was there before I squashed it down. And it doesn't really even matter how that squashing happened. What matters is that I've seen it again and I know it's in me. It's it's my true nature. And that means I can get back to it. And I am. And the year of the horse is going to be a huge one for me on this front. I just know that it is. So the seventh thing that I'm doing to finish the year strong is to develop a ritual for closure. Rituals matter because they anchor meaning, and meaning matters. Remember, we're no longer just stumbling toward God knows what. We're doing something deliberate. And in this practice, we're going to deliberately choose something that will officially bring closure to the year. So this can be simple. You can write and then burn safely, of course, a list of what you're releasing. You can declutter an area of your home. You can take a solo walk that represents for you a symbolic kind of crossing over from one year to the next. You can choose an object to represent the identity that you're stepping into and put it in a prominent place to remind yourself. You get to decide what closing the year looks like for you. Just make it intentional and make it yours. So as I reflect on some of this, I personally and professionally have worked through so much gunk and I've cleared and clarified so much this year. I really did go inward and I'm ready to close that up and move into the next year of the horse. As I was gathering my thoughts for this episode, I actually wrote out the description of the horse energy because it excited me so much. And I'm going to put it up somewhere where I can see it every day, like inside the cabinet where I keep my coffee. That's where I have a few select reminders that I like to just kind of catch every once in a while whenever I open the cabinet or whenever I just need some kind of energy infusion. So I want to read that to you again. What I wrote, that's the summary of this energy that we're heading into. Horse energy is strong, forward-moving, bold, independent, and deeply intuitive. The horse doesn't wait for permission. It doesn't over-explain its direction. It runs powerfully toward what feels right. The horse represents freedom, forward momentum, action that feels natural, not forced. Confidence rooted in presence, courage, independence, and clarity. That is the energy of our next year, my friends. Isn't that exciting? I'm so excited about this. So finishing strong in midlife, I'm not talking about productivity. It's about identity and choice and intention. When we're younger, time just feels wide open and endless. But now we feel the weight, but also the gift of choosing how we spend our years, intentionally choosing. So a year-end reflection like this helps you step into the new year with more self-trust. It helps you move toward the life you want. It helps you stop abandoning yourself because you really know yourself and where you're headed. And it helps you build the confidence that comes from inner alignment. So the snake to the horse, shedding to strength, clarity to movement. You're not just preparing for a new year. You're preparing for a new era of yourself. If this episode made you think or feel something, anything, how about gifting someone else with that and share it with another woman in midlife who's ready to feel powerful and purposeful again? Thank you so much for being here. Until next time, stay curious and keep playing and experimenting in life. And remember, trust the woman you're becoming. She is done playing small. Choose bold, choose aligned, choose the life that you want to live. Love you. Bye-bye. If what we talked about today feels close to home, if you're tired of dimming yourself down, second-guessing every decision, or feeling like you've lost track of who you really are, I want you to know you don't have to figure it out alone. Sometimes we all need a guide, someone who can hold the mirror, remind us who we are, and walk alongside us until we're steady in that truth ourselves. If you've been listening and thinking, yes, that is what I need, I'd love to invite you to book a free discovery call with me through the link in the show notes. I'd love to meet you and walk this path of rediscovery with you.

Head Shot

Kristin Hamilton

Host