Releasing What Held You Back in 2024

These days leading up to New Year’s Eve are ideal for reflecting on the past year before setting intentions for the next. Most likely you are like the many professionals I have spoken to who were unintentionally holding themselves back last year. As I interviewed hundreds of you for my upcoming book (publication date August 12, 2025), I stumbled upon eye-opening discoveries:

• The unexpected universality of pain points you share across gender, age and industry segments
• The two pain points which stood out above the rest were about
  • time scarcity &
  • interferences to your sense of direction.

Time scarcity

Whether focused on a shortage of time during each day or week or feeling as though you are falling behind in the long term, the majority of you perceive that you suffer from a scarcity of time. The majority of you say “I have a lot going on right now,” as though this is unique or as though this is a passing phase. I’ll share more with you in the coming days, but to start let’s look at what I call “short term time scarcity.”

Drilling down on short term time scarcity

Our fast-moving economy makes many of you feel that earning a living takes up most of your precious time. Many of you can barely stay on top of other needs such as exercise, sleep, commuting, family, and socializing. I hear people talk about the variety of ways you perceive you do not have enough time in the day or the week. Here is what you said:

• “My issue is defining time in my work week for this life purpose business.”
• “Balancing the time required to give attention to full-time job, side hustle business, and relationships.”
• “I try and do too much, both at home and at work, and therefore don't always enjoy it.”
• “Managing my time grading papers—I wish I could do it faster while maintaining high quality feedback."
• “Time to do it all”
• “Getting priorities completed”
• “I’m working to spend more of my time doing the things that have the most purpose in my life. So many things clamoring for my time.”
• “Too little time—LOL”
• “I struggle with the Time Management and Effort vs. Results ratio.”

If you can do some journaling this weekend, discuss in writing and reflect upon when and how much you felt pressed for time this past year. In my next post I’ll share more of the insights with you…

Warm regards,

Ingrid Stabb