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Don't Wait for January 1: What to Do With the Last Quarter of the Year

August 17, 2026

Erica Anderson Rooney
Erica Rooney smiling with a microphone in hand

Hey there!
I'm Erica Rooney

I'm an ex corporate girl, turned founder, and 2x bestselling author, and I help women get into positions of power - and STAY there - without burning out.

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Don't Wait for January 1: What to Do With the Last Quarter of the Year

Look at the calendar. There are fewer than 90 days left in the year. What are you going to do with them? Most women already answered that question without meaning to. They said January 1.


I run a free 90 day check in and I started it in October on purpose, which everybody thinks is insane. It is candy season. There are buckets of Kit Kats and Hershey bars on my counter and I am absolutely taking the mommy tax out of my kids' Halloween haul. Turkey day is around the corner. Then Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever you celebrate. That is exactly the point. This is the stretch of the year when goals quietly get tossed in the trash and everyone tells themselves they will pick it up on January 1.


Think about your life like a football game. You do not give up in the fourth quarter. You step it up and you make sure you walk away with the W. The last 90 days of the year work the same way, and they are the whole difference between starting January already in motion and starting January from a dead stop.


There is real research behind the pull you feel toward January. Katherine Milkman at Wharton, with Hengchen Dai and Jason Riis, published the fresh start effect in Management Science, showing that gym visits, diet searches and goal commitments all spike right after temporal landmarks like a new year, a new month, a semester or a birthday. Those landmarks work because they let you file an imperfect past into a closed chapter. Here is the catch. You do not have to wait for the biggest landmark on the calendar. A Monday counts. Today counts.


The challenge itself is small on purpose. Three pillars: health and wellness, career and professional, and mental health. You pick one small daily goal for each and commit to two weeks at a time, and you make it slightly harder than what you already do. Mine were 10,000 steps a day and following my meal plan, reading for the professional pillar, and meditating for mental health. News flash, I was horrible at meditating. I hated it. Two weeks in I swapped it for getting outside and grabbing some vitamin D, and that swap is allowed. That is the design.


No perfection required. If you eat your kid's candy, do not give up, just pick it back up the next day. Your small steps add up quicker than you think, and the good that you do today has the potential to change all of your tomorrows. So think about where you want to start next year, and then start it now. Do not wait for January 1 to grow.

TRANSCRIPT:

Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside her, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum. We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com. Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. Let's talk about the ninety day check-in challenge that I have going on right now. So if you don't know, you are missing out. But we, me, I have a free ninety day check-in going on right now. Now this started at the October when we only had ninety days left in the year, but it's not too late to join. You're probably asking me, why now, Erica? It's the holidays. It's candy season. There's buckets and buckets of Kit Kats and Hershey bars and gummy bears on my kitchen counter. My kids are about to bring in all of my favorite candies after Halloween, and I am getting that mommy tax and taking out my favorites. Turkey days around the corner, holidays, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever you celebrate. I know, but this is exactly why. It is that time of year that it is so easy to lose sight of our goals. It is so easy to let them just fall to the wayside and say, what? I'm gonna pick it up on January 1. I know y'all are guilty of that. I'm guilty of that. I have done it too, but that is why this ninety day check-in is so imperative. Don't let your professional goals get pushed to the side. Right? Don't toss those health goals in the trash, and don't let your self care go down the drain. We can be so much closer to our goals and everything that we wanna achieve in 2023 if we just start now. So take a minute. I want you to think of your life like a football game. If you're not into sports, just bear with me for a minute. But you don't give up in the fourth quarter. Hell no. You step it up. You make sure that you walk away with that w. The last ninety days of the year is just like that. Don't let yourself slide backwards. Stay focused. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, again, this ninety day challenge, it's not too late to start. K? It's all about the small, attainable, daily goals to keep you focused on three pillars in your life. That's all I'm asking. Asking. Health and wellness, career and professional, and your mental health. So I have a super fun and easy checklist. You mark down what areas of your life you wanna focus on. You write out how to plan on doing all of that. So for example, mine were 10,000 steps a day and following my meal plan at for my health and wellness goals. It was reading for my professional pillar and meditating for my mental health. Now news flash y'all, I did mental health for two weeks and I was horrible at it. It did not work for me. I was not enjoying it. So I switched it up for taking an outside break. So just getting outside, getting some vitamin d for the next two weeks. All I'm asking you to do is commit to two weeks at a time with different goals. Not goals that you hit all the time. Right? If you're somebody that gets 10,000 steps a day, don't make that your daily goal. Make it a little bit more challenging. The important thing too is I'm not striving for perfection here. We are literally just coming off Halloween by the time this episode dropped, and I know y'all got loads of candy stocked up. If you enjoy your kids' candy, don't give up. Just pick up the next day. Now if you signed up, tell me, how are you doing? Send me a message. I wanna know. If you haven't signed up but you want to, head over to my Instagram. Super easy to find the sign up sheet or check out these podcast notes. I'm gonna drop it in there. But I'm telling you, with this ninety day challenge, it is possible to make strides towards your goals. No perfection required. It's about building an intentional life and that happens little by little. Your small steps add up quicker than you think. This is your space to dig in. Think about where you wanna start 2023 and start it now. Don't wait. Don't wait for January 1 to grow. Start cultivating the life that you want now in 2023. Be intentional about your professional pillar, your mental health pillar, and your health and wellness pillar. So I want you to take a moment and think about what matters. Do more of that. Let go of the rest. Life is too short and too meaningful to coast through. Remember, the good that you do today has the potential to change all of your tomorrows. So tell me, are you in my ninety day challenge? What are your goals? Where is your focus? How are you doing? Really, how are you doing? That you want more and what you want. Now, let's do something about it.

​RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

- Ready to stop spinning and stop doing it alone? Join HER Collective, Erica's community for ambitious women who are smart, capable and driven.

- Never miss an episode of Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors.

- Get Erica's book Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors and start shattering the beliefs that keep you stuck.

- Shatter your glass ceilings with a quarterly refresh.

RELATED EPISODES:

Sleep, Sweat, Therapy: The 3-Part System Behind Peak Productivity

Your January Goals Are Sliding. Here Is How to Get Them Back Before August.

Brain Hacks for Ambitious Women with Dr. Heather Collins

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What is the 90 day check in challenge?

It is Erica's free end of year challenge built around three pillars: health and wellness, career and professional, and mental health. You choose one small daily goal for each pillar and commit to it two weeks at a time, then swap out anything that is not working. There is no perfection required.


Why start new goals in the last quarter instead of on January 1?

Because the last 90 days of the year are exactly when most goals quietly get abandoned, and starting now means January begins with momentum instead of a blank page. Wharton's Katherine Milkman has shown that new years and new months genuinely do motivate people, but any day can serve as a fresh start. Waiting for the calendar just costs you three months.


What do you do when you fall off a goal halfway through?

You pick it back up the next day, and you change the goal if it is not working for you. Erica set meditation as her mental health goal, was terrible at it for two weeks, and swapped it for daily time outside. Swapping is part of the design, not a failure.

MORE FROM ME

Follow me on Instagram @ericaandersonrooney and @joinhercollective

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your support helps us reach more women who need these insights. Thank you for tuning in to the Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor podcast. See you next week!

Hi, I'm Erica!

In the last 15 years, I climbed to Chief People Officer, 6x'd my income, walked away from a culture that stopped matching my values, wrote two books, and built HER Collective to help thousands of women rise to power and lead in the age of AI. I've learned a thing or two about smashing ceilings and closing gaps, and Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors is where I open the playbook, the receipts, and the real stories to share it all with you.

Erica Rooney in a pink vest, holding a microphone in front of a director's chair with a podcast mic and her two books, The AI Gap and Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors, smiling
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