17. Bonus Episode: Cyclical Planning for Practitioners
In this bonus episode, Claire invites you into a gentle, spacious end-of-year reflection for practitioners who want to plan their work in a way that honours their energy, their nervous system, and their cyclical nature. Instead of pushing into the new year with urgency, Claire offers a grounding practice centred around the Four Cs: your celebrations, your challenges, what’s currently in your cauldron, and the loops that want to be closed before you step into a new season.
Claire shares how this practice is supporting her as she reflects on a year filled with big transitions — from teaching Cycle Coach School to moving across the world and navigating her own health with more honesty. Lauren joins to offer her own Four Cs, speaking about the deep transformation of early motherhood, tending to her mental health, and learning to trust slower seasons in both life and business.
From there, Claire explores how practitioners can look at the year ahead through a cyclical lens: understanding your personal energetic season, choosing only the priorities that truly matter, and designing a year spacious enough to be sustainable. Rather than planning from pressure, this episode is an invitation to plan from clarity, self-trust, and rhythm.
This bonus episode is a beautiful companion for closing out 2025 and stepping gently into 2026 with clarity, softness and a strong cyclical foundation. It’s one to journal alongside, revisit throughout the year, and share with clients who crave cyclical structure in their work. Click play to move into the new year with more ease, intention, and cyclical alignment.
Our Next Class Starts January 2026: Apply Here
Resources and Links:
Planning template and resources mentioned in this episode: here
Stay connected:
Cycle Coach School Website: www.cyclecoachtraining.com
Cycle Coach Instagram: @cyclecoachschool
Claire's Instagram: @_clairebaker_
Claire's Website: www.clairebaker.com
Lauren's Instagram: @laurenoliviahughes
Lauren's Website: www.findingjulian.com
Claire (00:01)
Something that I so often hear from my clients is that they really want to stretch themselves, like they want to go bigger, but there's often a part of the psyche that says like, who are you to do this? This is too much. This is way over the top. This is maybe appropriate for someone else, but not for you. So I often say to my clients, we want to dream like eagles, really big, really wide, total possibility, stretch, go there. And then plan like mice. So dream like an eagle plan like a mouse. We need to allow ourselves, give ourselves full permission to just go big and then we're going to bring it home.
Welcome to the Cycle Coach Show.
`Lauren (00:47)
Empowering conversations on menstrual cycle coaching.
Claire (00:51)
We're your hosts, Claire Baker.
Lauren (00:54)
and Lauren Olivia Hughes.
Claire (01:03)
Hello and welcome back to the Cycle Coach Show. I am Claire Baker. I'm a women's coach, menstrual educator, and your host for today's special bonus episode. My co-host Lauren will be joining us a little later in the show. And this is our end of year signing off bonus special episode all about closing out 2025 and planning for 2026 in a truly cyclical way.
I really wanted to create an episode specifically for all of our cycle aware practitioners out there. People who understand the importance of planning and living cyclically. A way to reflect on the year that has been and to vision the year ahead in a way that really supports an intention to live and work cyclically. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through
how I'm doing my own reflections on this year inside Cycle Coach School. The way that I work with the four Cs, which are celebrations, challenges, what's in the cauldron and any loops that need to be closed. And then how we carry these reflections into planning for a new year so that you're not burning yourself out by March and then wondering why everything suddenly just feels like way too much.
So if you're a coach or a facilitator, maybe a therapist, creative practitioner, anyone who cares about working in tune with your own rhythms and the rhythms of the world around you, then you are in the right place, my friend. Feel free to make this a little ceremonial if you like. You could grab a cuppa, light a candle, take out your journal, get cozy and comfy.
Whatever you need to do to bring some real presence to this conversation is my invitation to you so that we can spend this time together in a way that's really nourishing and also sets you up for a great year. So let me set the scene for you. For me, it is a Monday afternoon in early December and I'm in my final week of work for the year. I'm in that tender part of the year, sort of a bit of tension, honestly, where one part of me is really ready to hibernate. I always take time off at the end of each year to just really go dark in my business so that I can nourish myself, spend time with friends and family, but also just give myself space away from my creative work, which is often when the best ideas come in, right? It's really important to me that I take that time every year to hibernate and another part is already looking ahead. I'm already thinking about 2026. I'm in the new year.
Like there's new ideas, there's projects I'd love to start planning, okay? So like how do we hold the tension between the part of us that just wants to stop and take a break and have a rest and the part that's looking ahead? And of course we can do both and we can also take time to reflect and this is really what this episode is designed to support you to do, okay? So we're holding both. We're honoring what we've just lived through and we're planning. What is ahead? What's coming? What are we going to be creating and birthing in the world from a legacy minded place and from a cyclical place? So not from panic or pressure or any fabricated urgency.
or comparison, but really from a grounded place. Time is not running out. Let's definitely start there with that principle. Time is not running out. We actually all do have so much time to grow into our visions and our dreams and to see our work unfold in the world. So we're going to begin with a simple reflection framework, one that you can use for yourself in your reflections, but also that you can use and share with your clients. It's really gentle, but it gives us just enough structure to land this year, to close out this year with intention and presence. Before we do that though, let us take a breath together. Yeah, my invitation to you is if it's available, if you're not driving a car or operating any kind of machinery is to just close your eyes or lower your gaze for short moment and allow yourself to become gently aware of the soft rise and fall of your chest. And if it feels good, you can take a slightly longer inhale in through the nose. Hold that breath for just a short moment longer than you might normally before letting the exhalation ground you and release you, relax you.
And again, just a lovely nice inhalation through the nose. Hold that breath for a moment and then, let it go. We can also bring in touch here using your hands to place, bring some physical touch to your body. That can really support us to feel more present and grounded and alive to this moment. Maybe a little bit of sound.
Might like to give your body a little shake or roll your shoulders, have a stretch. ⁓ So that we can really arrive here together. So taking out your journal or just taking a moment to ponder these questions with me now, the four Cs that I'm going to invite you to consider are, what were the celebrations for you this year? What were the celebrations? The second one is what were the challenges? ⁓
The third C is your cauldron. What was in the cauldron? Meaning what's brewing for the next season? What are you working on? What are you thinking about? And are there any loops that want to be closed? So you can do this for your personal life, for your business as a whole, and also for any specific projects, right? It could be.
In relation to your one-on-one practice, it could be for a group program that you offer, your marketing content, it could be for your health, right, relationships. I'm going to share a little bit about how this looks for me with Cycle Coach School this year, and you can reflect on your life and business alongside me. So the first is celebrations. We've got to start with the good stuff, right? Buffer ourselves up. And question here is, what am I genuinely proud of this year in my work? So what am I celebrating? What do I feel really proud of? Now, it's not what you think you should be proud of or what would look good on Instagram or TikTok, but what actually lands in your body when you think back over the year, where do you feel like, yeah, you know, I did that and that really mattered?
So it could be something that you've accomplished. It could be a project or a task that you've been working on. It could be a mindset shift that you had, right? A single client that you're so glad that you got to support. It could be a workshop that you held that just felt like an absolute yes in your body. Perhaps even a difficult conversation that you had that you navigated really well.
Maybe a week where you actually said that you were going to take some time off and do some hibernating and you did it. Right. So what are you genuinely proud of this year? For me, when I think about Cycle Coach School this year, my celebrations are holding space for two cohorts of trainees to move through Cycle Coach School, which is around 50 people. And many of them, early on stepping into their own practice, sharing menstrual cycle awareness in their community or deepening the work that they were already doing with cycle awareness principles. I really wanna celebrate the way that the curriculum continues to mature year on year on year. There are parts of it now that have been through it enough times with enough people that it really feels like a rich, cooked stew that's been simmering for years now, there's a maturity to the work that I'm really proud of. And after years of being asked for a self-study program, because let's be honest, like time zones can be a real obstacle for people to take the training sometimes. And I get that as well as budgets.
I'm really excited to be finally offering in the new year a self-study program that will be more accessible financially and also isn't wholly reliant on needing to be on zoom at a certain time. and I'm celebrating this further refinement that's coming through as I've been developing this. ⁓ personally, I'm also really proud that I've been able to hold and teach these containers while also moving countries this year from the UK to Australia. And for receiving a really long awaited diagnosis of endometriosis and navigating my own fertility journey this year and learning how to protect my nervous system and my heart much more than I needed to in the early days of my business. I'm really proud of that.
So my invitation to you, what are three very real, very grounded celebrations from your year as a practitioner? Nothing is too small to be celebrated, honestly. And if you can come up with more than three, then fill the page by all means.
But I really do invite you to come up with three. Your nervous system, it needs to register that you are growing, you're moving, you are doing the work and there is much to celebrate. So we're going to start with celebrations. When you've got those down, we'll move to challenges. So this isn't about shaming yourself or collecting any evidence that you're failing at all. We all face challenges in our life and in our creative work. So.
First of all, you're not alone at all. This is about honesty and it's about acknowledging the very real grit that it takes to show up in the world as a spaceholder, as a business owner, and especially if you're sharing the very intimate work of menstrual cycle awareness. And there are all kinds of challenges that can come up in regards to this. So yeah, I'll be really honest with you. Some of the challenges this year in the school and in my business have been being a teacher while moving through this initiation that I've had around endometriosis and fertility. Now you might notice that sometimes the celebrations are the challenges and the challenges are the celebrations. I think that's really natural. But this really stretched me in ways that I could never have anticipated. And it also been reported as like a dismantling of parts of my relationship with the holistic health world that I have built my life around, my business around. ⁓ There's so much misinformation around endometriosis and fertility and it's been deeply humbling for me to realize that some of the beliefs I once had were actually keeping me really unwell and we don't have the space and time to go into that right now. That might be a future episode.
But thankfully I have Elders and guides in my life who have reminded me that these sorts of humbling experiences, they really help to mature our work and our offerings in a way that actually is in deep service to our female clients and to the realities of their lives. So again, it's a challenge and it is something that I am celebrating as well. Practically, I've been rebuilding the entire ecosystem that is going to hold ourself study trainees. This is, this looks like the challenges associated with onboarding flows, automations, the pacing and the emotional arc of the experience itself. And if I'm honest, I find editing and refining to be probably my least enjoyable part of the creative process. I really love starting new projects and the excitement of Yeah, the vision and taking those first steps. I'm pretty good at getting things going and getting them out into the world. It really ⁓ is an edge for me to sit with a project long-term in the way that I've sat with Cycle Coach School and to continue to edit and refine with precision and imagination. And I'm proud of myself, you know, but it has been, it has been a challenge at times to rethink our systems.
But the question that I've kept returning to is how can we honor the magic of our live training, but in a self-paced world. And so I've been thinking more about quarterly office hours that we're going to be offering, how we can have community spaces that aren't reliant on time zones and open dialogue under lessons, things like this, which has been demanding at times to reimagine things, but also really deeply satisfying. ⁓ And then between running the school, writing my sub stack, the periodical. we had season two of this podcast. I also launched my own book club podcast, plus of course, working with my one-to-one clients. think, you know, this year was a year where I had a few moments of, okay, who let me do all of this at once? Have I over committed?
⁓ There was some edges around capacity and prioritization, I would say a few months ago. And then, you know, as always, I come back to this process that we're going to go through in just a moment. I'm really getting clear on what my priorities actually are and then letting some other projects take a back seat. This is a really familiar lesson for me. might be familiar to you as well, especially if you're a creative who naturally has a lot of ideas and things that you'd like to bring into the world. So we're gonna share in a moment how I work with that challenge. So for you, what were your challenges this year? So perhaps you had some client wobbles around boundaries or expectations. ⁓ Perhaps you had, like me, a of an overcommitment at points in the year to different collaborations. Or maybe you found yourself doing more pro bono or free work than you might normally like to do.
Perhaps you stacked launches on top of personal upheaval. ⁓ you might have tried to run a program during a season when actually you were feeling pretty exhausted. Just noticing, right? Like when were you challenged in 2025? We're not judging, we're just collecting data. Okay. So get those challenges down and you might notice like me that there is also much to celebrate in how you navigated that challenge. The third question, the third C is what is in your cauldron? This is a, this is the fun part for me anyway. So, but the cauldron, we mean what is bubbling away for you for 2026 and beyond. So these are the ideas, the questions, the desires, the projects, things that have been simmering, but maybe aren't fully formed yet, or they could be fully formed, you might have a very clear crystallized vision on what it is that you want to create in 2026 or offer. Now we're not necessarily committed to all of these, you know, there's often things in the cauldron that don't actually make it to the light of day, but it's important to honor them by naming them. We're acknowledging like, yes, this, this is in the mix. This is alive, even if it is just a small little seed right now.
So in my cauldron at the moment when I feel into what I'm brewing for New Year, I've got the continued refinement, this deepening of the self-study option to cycle coach school as a sort of like level one curriculum for practitioners. And I'm really excited about this. And then my vision is to offer shorter, more focused trainings that spin off from the main curriculum for our alumni. So for folks who've already been through the training, then there's always more branches, there's always more to explore and learn. So things like rites of passage work that our alumni can weave into their cycle coaching sessions, ⁓ workshops around creativity in the menstrual cycle, how to run group programs, things like this that, yeah, almost like a level two, an extension of the curriculum. I'm really looking forward to offering those to our alumni.
I'm really feeling into quarterly office hours to bring, now we have so many cohorts from the school, ⁓ really over 250 people who've been through Cycle Coach School. I'm imagining these quarterly office hours where we can all gather seasonally and share to connect, reflect and learn from each other, ask questions, hold space. These, yeah, these I'm excited for. ⁓ There's also the creative projects that I have outside of the school, right? So my sub stack writing, my book club podcast, there's a YouTube channel that I'm imagining and feeling into right now that I feel excited about. There's a writing retreat that I would love to run here. So for you, what is in your cauldron for 2026 and for the next few years, maybe there's a group program that you would really love to run.
It might be taking your one-to-one client work deeper, so going deeper with your clients. Perhaps there's a training in something that you've been flirting with for a while or toying with and it's been tugging at you and 2026 is the year that you commit to that. Or maybe it's stepping away from something actually, letting go of something that no longer feels aligned, even if it looks really good on paper. Okay, so the cauldron could also be doing less of something too. So you don't have to know how any of it is going to happen yet. We're just naming what is there and being really honest with ourselves about what we actually would really love to bring to life in the new year. Then the fourth C is loops to close. Okay. So this is such an underrated part of yearly reflection, but it's a really important one. A loop could be something like an offering that needs a proper closing ritual. So not just, you know, an old course that you used to run that you're just never going to mention again and it'll just fade away into the background. But actually really saying like this, this course has run its course and now it's time to end this chapter to create space for something new. It could be a client relationship that really needs a clear ending or maybe a follow-up.
It could be a collaboration that you've been going back and forth with on someone for a while, but perhaps the energy's just not there anymore. And actually you'd need to be honest with that person about that, that this loop needs to be closed. It could be a financial, energetic or emotional debt that needs your attention. Maybe an unfinished content series, something that you started this year with a lot of passion and excitement.
But it just didn't get going in the way that you thought it might. It could be a website that's half updated, promises that you made to your audience that you just, you really need to complete and release. For me, as we move into 2026, some of the loops that I'm closing are looking back over some of the course offerings that I've been running now for, gosh, nearly 10 years. Over 10 years actually for some of them and being discerning around which offerings are actually complete now and updating my personal website so that it actually reflects where my work and my focus is now and not where it was five or 10 years ago. There are some loops around backend admin. I've had a few shifts this year around the software that I pay for and use, third-party payment systems and processing.
Stuff that's pretty boring, honestly, but does need time and attention. And I need to just go through all of my subscriptions and ensure that everything I'm using is essential, that they all work really nicely together, and that I'm not paying for something that I don't actually need. This has been on my to-do list for most of the year, honestly, and I really want to take some time before 2025 ends to just really ensure that those systems are really tight.
So for you, are there any loops that need to be closed before you step into 2026? And you could make these two lists, right? There might be loops that you're going to close before the end of the year, things that you would feel really great if they were wrapped up before we reach the 31st of December. And then there might be some loops that you're going to close in the first quarter of 2026, things that could happen a little down the line. And this already is starting to give.
your year, a bit of a cyclical shape. So we're thinking about things that we're completing before the end of the year, things that are brewing. And then we're starting to look towards the first quarter of 2026 and starting to put some tasks and some projects and some visions into that first season of the year. But before we do that, I'd love to bring Lauren in.
Lauren's been moving through her own huge year of transition and I invited her to reflect on her 2025 through the same four questions. Celebrations, challenges, what's in the cauldron and the loops she's closing. So Lauren, I'm going to pass to you. What do your four Cs look like for this year?
Lauren (24:46)
Thank you, Claire. It's so nice to be back in this space with you. And I said this to you in a voice note earlier, but what a gift, what a gift you are in this ⁓ realm of planning for the year ahead. It's like that Virgo Sun Aquarius Moon rising energy where it's like, let's be organized, but with so much spaciousness for reflection and thinking outside of the box. And I'm looking forward to the listeners hearing the rest of this episode because the part beyond my reflections is just as good. I was just like, ah, chef's kiss, chef's kiss. Oh, what a year, what a year. 2025 is a nine year. It's the year of the snake, a big shedding, a big year of closure. And for me, it was a year of new beginnings, as you alluded to.
As our listeners probably know, I was expecting a baby in July and she arrived. She's a girl. ⁓ We've named her Agatha and she's absolutely brilliant. And with her arrival, my whole world has been shattered, turned upside down. Everything I thought I cared about, I do not.
So this reflection exercise was really beautiful and I ⁓ carved space out specifically for it. So Agatha is with her father right now making dinner and having a nap. He's making dinner, she's napping. And I had some candles lit, I had some beautiful anointment oils and some Palo Santo and my journal. And yeah, was just really enjoying listening to your reflections, Claire.
So let's start at the top, celebrations. Obviously, grew, like this year was literally divided in half because she came at the start of July or July 13th. ⁓ So celebrating that I grew and birthed an entire human being, like I did that. Like I was absolutely in awe of my body and how it changed and knew what it needed to do. even in the birth,
⁓ portal, just really trusting that connection. Yeah, and since then, I've obviously nurtured her. I'm currently exclusively breastfeeding. We do contact naps. We are co-sleeping. We don't have any family in the city that is like helping us really during the week. So it's been a lot on me. A lot of trial by fire is what it feels like, but what a gift.
Honestly, I feel so lucky to be her mom. So I'm just really celebrating being present with her, allowing myself to pause my business in a season where it's not at its best. And that'll kind of come up in the challenges a bit, but it's just been a real big season of trust and allowing myself to enjoy this when there is so many unknowns and variables and yeah, leaning into my community, asking for help, receiving all things I'm very uncomfortable with. In terms of, yeah, my business, I am celebrating the den, which closed at the end of March. It was the longest space I've held. was a six month.
I'd say program, but it wasn't really a program. It feels more like a, I guess it was a program, but I had a really beautiful, intimate group of women. And we just wintered together and spiraled into ourselves, explored the depths of our creativity and just, yeah, began the year with such curiosity and openheartedness. And what I'm really celebrating this beyond the longevity of the program which like the midpoint I was like, can I do this? And I could. What I'm really celebrating is the quality of women that was attracted into that circle. I think sometimes it's very easy to compare yourself, ⁓ especially as a projector in human design, we really are at our best in groups of like six or seven. And that's basically what we were. But still you're comparing yourself sometimes to people onbsocial media who have like, you know, hundreds of people in their programs. ⁓ But like, what a beautifully curated space. I'm celebrating that a lot of these women were repeat clients, which just makes my heart sing because there's always that fear of like, I hope they enjoyed what they received from me. I'm hoping I give enough, like all these thoughts. So to have what I consider some like honest powerhouses show up month and after a in these circle spaces and to just trust fully and to energetically give back as much as I was pouring into them. It was really beautiful. And it was kind of funny at the end of the year, Spotify had wrapped two of my top songs were literally songs that I always played during like our meditations and writing and creative hours in the den. So it was a beautiful reminder of a time that felt very distant.
Yeah, so just really celebrating, like I said, those repeat clients, just feeling so honored that women want to come back and spend more time with me. And on that theme, and on that mother theme, I'm also celebrating that I've made a community of mothers here now. In my lifetime, when I look back, that is one of my gifts, is the ability to bring women together, to bring people together in community.
⁓ I feel, yeah, very honored with that gift. And so yeah, having a baby in a country where I don't know anyone with kids and it's all very new. I'm the first of our friends here having a baby. It just felt very lonely initially. And luckily through like the NHS, so their health system, we had some antenatal classes. So really just like being a bit of a leader in that space of inviting them over, making plans, be like, come on over, we're doing crafts, we're doing this. And just really forcing myself upon people and also bringing that Canadian charm of leading with my heart and vulnerabilities in a community where Scottish, British folk aren't always forthcoming with how they feel.
Depending on where you find them. So in a group of somewhat strangers, I've just felt, yeah, like I'm celebrating, I'm able to open them up and to allow them to share and to encourage them to lean on each other. I still have room to grow with that, but it's feeling really good. And yeah, I'm.
Yeah, ⁓ I'm feeling very fulfilled by those relationships. In terms of challenges, ⁓ obviously that, you know, feeling lonely in motherhood, worrying that Agatha wouldn't have any friends when she was literally like four weeks old. And I was wildly hormonal and just cried about it all the time. ⁓ And with that, yeah, Claire, know when you were..giving your examples of celebrations and challenges. They are so interwoven sometimes, aren't they? So a bit of a celebration and a challenge ⁓ has been my mental health in motherhood. But with that, I'm celebrating that I am on a low dose of an antidepressant.
I've never been on medication before, so this is all very brand new for me. I'm on Sertraline, if anyone listening is on that club. And it has felt so wonderful to be supported by medication in this season. One of my goals with motherhood has been to not continue the martyr archetype or to feel like I'm constantly sacrificing my own self. So kind of, you know, it's still a challenge, but overcoming it in this way and asking for help and receiving it has been really wonderful. Other challenges are trusting what was out of my control, so not doing enough, not making enough money, ⁓ being that, being more tired than usual, especially towards the of my pregnancy. And obviously now in motherhood, my reserves are quite limited during the day. Like I'm with her all the time. And so I'm not able to necessarily do the things that I would normally do to pour into myself, like those self-care pillars that I had with my anxiety and stuff aren't there when there's a tiny person who needs you all the time.
Another challenge is not having my mom nearby to help with Agatha. She's in Canada. They'll be here for the holidays, which I'm so excited about. yeah, it's just been really, really hard. Yeah. Another challenge, which is always feeling sticky, but since moving to Scotland three years ago, it's been money. ⁓ And that transition into mother has kind of shaken that even further in the sense that I felt like I, in previous iterations of myself, like in other eras, I like made more money, had more savings, all these things, like, but obviously didn't have the right partner, didn't have the right city, ⁓ didn't have the baby, you know, all those things. Everything happens for a reason. But yeah, it's just been hard to be in this season with what feels like a very tight budget at times. ⁓ Yeah, I also found the transition to mother really shook my vision for my business. Like all of a sudden, I think I mentioned it earlier, I just don't care about certain things. And so I'm feeling a bit directionless about next steps and like what I actually want to be doing. yeah, so it's just challenging to honor my gifts and my strengths.
when there isn't anything concrete to lean into. Like there aren't certain projects that I'm like, I can't wait to get time to do this. Like it's just like, I'm like, where am I feeling drawn to? I don't know. And so I'm really having to just like trust and surrender and yeah, believe that the right things will land as they are meant to. So in terms of the cauldron, I am going to continue grounding into motherhood, finding a rhythm that feels good. So in the new year, I'd love to like, get back into the gym and feeling strong in my body, taking space for myself to be creative. I'm excited to start cooking for Agatha, because she'll be starting food in the new year, which is wild to me. can't believe it. She's too little. No. ⁓ I've really been enjoying writing on Substack and reconnecting to that creative time, especially when she's napping strapped to my body. I'm like, it's been really nice to just write for no purpose because I think so much of my writing has been tied to my business. And so to just allow my brain to run wild has been a beautiful gift because yeah, I'm a writer first and foremost forever and ever. And yeah, it's been really wonderful. yeah, ⁓ another thing I'm putting into my cauldron is allowing this question mark around my business to just simmer, which feels scary to admit.
But yeah, there's so many different trainings that are just really speaking to me right now. ⁓ And I feel fortunate in one way to not have the finances to be able to leap into one because I'm just like, I think I'd be leaping all over the place. And so it's almost a bit of a gift to be like, can I have to take a beat and be like very clear on what my next step is? But yeah, like, is it a new niche? Is it a new program? ⁓ I'm really wanting to plenty.
Plant more seeds in Edinburgh and do more things in Scotland, like physically, face to face, heart to heart. Yeah, so I'm just letting ⁓ a variety of things percolate and just trusting that the right people will step forward, the right opportunities will step forward. What's really interesting, the journal that I wrote in, I kind of wrote, celebrations, challenges, cauldron closing across four quadrants and the closing, the line that it's on.
There's a quote in the middle of the page randomly and it says, is the answer. And I'm like, ⁓ that's so beautiful. In closing, in terms of what loops I'm closing, there's not a whole lot of clarity, which I once again just trusting that ⁓ there is a strong desire to kind of review workshops and just really hone in what I'm offering.
The players comment about the backend software. I wrote UGG because I'm like a same-sees. I'm definitely spending too much money on random stuff that I'm just like not using to its full capability. Yeah, I mean, maybe that's what I need in the near is finding like the dream business coach to just be like, look at what I'm doing. Tell me how to hone it. Look at my gifts. Send me in a direction. ⁓
But I know I have the answers. I just need time and space to tap into them. Another loop I'm closing, which feels, I think, scary to admit, but I think I just need to say it out loud, is I did a certification years ago, shortly after I went through Psycho Coach School, in the fertility awareness method of birth control. I did the FEM training, and I really enjoyed it. But quite quickly thereafter, realized, like,
it was a bit of a moment of fear, I think, of like how spiritual this MCA world can be and how feminine and embodied and it was almost like, like back to like the very masculine side of this work as like a knee-jerk reaction to be like, well, I'll need to justify what I'm doing and like to people I'll need to know everything about our cycles and blah, blah, blah.
And yeah, like I said, I enjoyed the program. I love learning about the body and all this stuff. And I use FAM myself and I keep thinking, I should offer, I should offer like, you know, a workshop or something to share that information with people. But there's just so many other people in my life who are doing it so well and with so much passion and love that it's almost like when you meet someone and they have a job and you're just like, I would hate doing that job.
but I'm so excited that you're passionate about that because then I don't have to do it. Not that I would have to do every job in the world, but that's just where my brain goes. And so the fact that people are so excited about it, I'm just like, I think I just need to let it go. And part of that is I'm on this email list that drives me crazy, because I get like a million emails a day of just like other practitioners around the world asking questions to like a group email list. I don't know. And I think I just need to get off of it and just like close that chapter and like allow my brain space to float away from that training and see what takes its place. And know that it's okay to like change your mind. Yeah, feels scary to admit, but I don't think I'm going to be a fam teacher. ⁓ Yeah, those are my four, four reflections. Thank you, Claire, for this invitation to come back. It's been such a gift.
And like I said earlier, I've already listened to the rest of this episode and it's incredible if you do follow Claire on Substack. I think it was at the top of this year that you did a bit of a planning post that I absolutely devoured and loved where you spoke about the legacy mindset. ⁓ I won't go into it because you're about to explain it, but just trust that all of this planning
This is about to take so much beautiful shape. And yeah, by end of the episode, you're going to have so much clarity of like 2026, let's go, action points. And for now, since I've already listened to the end of the episode, I will just say my main focus obviously is Agatha and pouring into her and just enjoying this season because she's only going to be this little for so long. And I just love her so dang much. So.
Happy winter solstice to those of us, I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland, so those of us in the Northern Hemisphere and happy summer solstice to you, Claire, and to everyone in the South. Sending you so much love and enjoy the festive season.
Claire (42:27)
Thank you so much, Lauren. That was really beautiful to hear. And I love how these four questions, they meet us in such different life seasons. So now that we have done this close in reflection, we're going to gently zoom out because yearly planning doesn't actually just live inside one calendar year, right? It lives inside a much longer arc. And this is such an important part of the annual planning process that I think often gets overlooked, which is actually taking a much longer view of our, legacy of our work and our business. So one of the most helpful questions that I think we can be asking as business owners, and we can ask our clients as well, is what do we actually want to happen in the next five-ish years? I'm not necessarily talking about a really specific five-year plan, although that's also great to have if that suits your creative personality. But as practitioners, I think it can be very easy to over-focus on the next launch that's in front of us or the next intake or cohort, the next lot of clients we're taking on the next quarter. And we forget that actually our work, our bodies of work, our legacy, it unfolds over years, decades even, right?
So when I look at the last five years of my own business, I see that I've had one book traditionally published, 50 Things You Need to Know About Periods, which I'm so proud of. I can see that I have had one major training that I've built and steadily refined over multiple cohorts. I have one sub stack that has grown into a really genuine home for my creative writing.
I've got a couple of podcasts, this one and my book club podcast that finally made it out of my notes up and into your years. And I have a business income that has steadily grown in revenue. Thankfully, I'm very grateful to have revenue that's able to happily support me and support my life and a small team. Now there's other smaller things in there as well, but I'd say they are the really big rock.
They're the things that really stand out to me. Now this is not a lot of things at all. It's a handful of things, really. A handful of things done really well. And this is a strategy that I personally really believe in and I know that it's one that's very effective for me and it's very effective for others, which is really prioritizing and committing to a few things over a longer period of time. So I'm asking myself if this is what five years looks like, this is what I can actually really accomplish in five years, then what do I want the next five to hold in my life and in my work? So you might imagine the kind of practitioner that you want to be in five years time. Okay. So maybe there's one training you'd love to do in 2026, but what about in five years? Like.
There's something really freeing about thinking about the possibility that could happen in a much longer timeframe. How about the communities that you'd really love to be a part of, the kind of schedule that you want to have? Like how do you imagine your weeks to look in five years time? What about the financial foundations that you would love your business and life to be resting on in five years? And the body of work that you are building day on day, week on week, year on year in five years, what would you really love to create? So when I talk about a legacy mindset, we're not just talking about the next client in front of you or your content strategy for the next month. We're talking about building something that's actually meant to last, something that is sustainable and something that has impact on the planet and I know that's what you want, it's what I want. And I would say it's what every trainee who has come through the school really wants is to create something that really makes a difference. And guess what? We don't have to do it all in 2026. When we can really feel that, when we remember that we actually have much more time than simply just one year.
The urgency sort of eases up a little bit. We can breathe a little more, we can breathe a little deeper and we can say, okay, this project doesn't necessarily have to be done by March, right? It could be one small stone on a much longer path. So what is your legacy? What is it that you really want to create in the world over a longer stretch of time? What impact do you want to have and how do you want the business that you run or your practice, how do you also want it to sustain you? What does this look like in your life over a much longer length? And we can go way beyond five years here as well, right? Like let's really stretch it out, okay? So that's my next invitation to you is to be really honest with yourself around the legacy that you want to have with your work. Maybe press pause, right, if you need to actually take some time with this. It's a big question. It's a big question.
Then we're going to zoom back in, but we've got that long lens now in our back pocket. So the next question is, what is the vibe of your 2026? Now I love having a word for the year. think that it can be a great way to anchor ourselves into the energy of a new year. so maybe there's a word, something that you know really captures what the new year is going to be about for you.
And I think it's also really important to get quite honest with ourselves around what's actually happening in our lives in 2026. What season we are in personally, is this a season of expansion and growth and change and transformation, or is this a season of stability and grounding and really honing in, getting those roots sunk deep into the earth?
And what does your nervous system actually really need in 2026? So for me, 2026 is like really all about the grounding. I've had a pretty expansive, transformative couple of years. And honestly, next year I am calling in way less travel and really feeling based where I am, really being where my feet are while still serving my business, which is mostly in the US and the UK. I'm really grateful to have such an international global business, but my feet are going to be here ⁓ where I am and hopefully being deeper into the journey of starting a family, which for me really does, ⁓ I really feel the invitation to ground and to be more in a stable chapter of life. Of course, life will do what life will do, but that's my intention going into it.
I know that I really want to continue to teach and lead cycle coach school with our self study underway and more of those level two alumni offerings that I mentioned earlier throughout the year. And yeah, really focusing on local in-person connections as well. it's something for me is like rooted, fertile, steady. That's the sort of energy of my 2026. It's not going to be about hyper growth or.
50 new offers at all, it's more about depth, continuity, and for me, a really intentional creativity next year. So what's your year about? What do you have a sense intuitively that it's going to be about for you? It could be a healing year, maybe it's a year of visibility really being seen. It could be a real back to basics year for you or build the foundations year, a year of.
Total transformation, right? So you get to name, you get to name this. And then when opportunities and ideas come in, you can ask yourself, does this align with the energy of my year that I'm really hoping to cultivate or does it belong perhaps in another season? So the next step is to have a little look at what's in your cauldron, have a look at your energy for the year, have a look at your five year vision as well. And just notice that there's anything else that needs to be written down. So again, in your journal, is there anything else that you know you want to work on, build or create in 2026? Any offers that you want to run? Any trainings you want to take? Any projects you want to start or complete? And a number of clients that you'd love to bring in, like, let's just really make sure that everything has been named.
Go full messy if you need to and really let yourself be over the top. Something that I so often hear from my clients is that they really want to stretch themselves. They want to go bigger, but there's often a part of their psyche that says like, who are you to do this? This is too much. This is way over the top. This is maybe appropriate for someone else, but not for you. So I often say to my clients, we want to dream.
Like eagles, really big, really wide, total possibilities, stretch, go there. And then plan like mice. So dream like an eagle, plan like a mouse. We need to allow ourselves, give ourselves full permission to just go big. And then we're going to bring it home. We're going to refine, we're going to get into the nitty gritty and we're going to be really realistic as well in what we actually commit to because.
We're going to take our list of all of the things that we would love to do next year, and we're going to cut it in half. I know. It hurts. It really hurts. I get it. But this is an important step, I believe, in the process because often our brains wildly overestimate how much we can actually get done in a year.
As practitioners, we also hold an emotional labour. We do a lot of invisible work that doesn't often show up on our to-do list. Right? The most meaningful projects, the book that you want to write, the training that you want to run, the courses, the workshops, the body of work, these take longer than we think, most of the time. Now look.
Of course, there might be some of you listening to this who think, actually, I've got a few more things to my list and hey, awesome. Like everything that I share, if it doesn't suit you and this is in no way resonating, take it or leave it. That's cool. But if your list has got, you know, 20 really big projects onto it, then we're going to cut some of this down. We're going to play a little bit with circling, like maybe.
Three to five things that are genuinely top priority. If I said to you, what are the three things that you would really be devastated if we got to the end of 2026 and you had not completed them or even started them and you know that you would feel really devastated by that, then they're the three that we need to bring more presence and attention to. So have a think about the life season that you are in, your nervous system.
Your financial needs, your five year vision, your energy and season of 2026. And let's circle three to five things that are really top priority for you. Now other things might still happen. That's great. They absolutely might still happen, but let's get really clear on what it is that is most meaningful for you in the new year. The rest is not going in the bin.
They can stay in the cauldron, they could even go onto the larger five year list. And so for me, my top three core 2026 priorities have got to be teaching cycle coach schools sustainably with our new self-study format and the alumni offerings. Writing, which is always a top priority for me creatively and growing a new marketing channel, which will be this YouTube channel, growing that gently and having some fun with that.
And everything else, honestly, it's got to go back in the cauldron for now. And now the next step is to give the year a bit of a cyclical shape rather than expecting ourselves to move at the same pace all year. So here's a few ways that I do this. So I want you to have a think about when in the year do you naturally feel more energetic, more social, more creative? There might be specific seasons.
It could be in a month or two that you know you're really at your best in the year in terms of output, right? And then where do you naturally feel a little more tired, a little more contemplative or inward or slow, or you really like to have space and time away from your business? So this could be when your clients tend to disappear anyway, like holiday seasons, school holidays, know, study terms, things like this. You might notice like.
January is always really quiet or August is always dead. That's a time that you like to be able to switch off. You might notice that spring is naturally a really creative, launchy time for you. Or that autumn fall back to school vibe is a time that you love to be releasing a new project or starting a new course yourself. So instead of being surprised every year when these natural like slow periods happen because they happen for all of us.
Then we can actually begin to plan for it, right? And I like to call these simmers seasons or fallow phases. So a simmers season is when we're doing really low key, gentle client work. It might be a time for that backend tweaking, doing a lot of work, you know, behind the scenes, all of the, you know, behind the scenes admin stuff that as business owners we need to do.
Or maybe it's a follow phase, like literally just time off, time away where you are fully switched off from your business. And I think both are really important, honestly. And then of course we have seasons where we're really engaged. There's a lot of ⁓ front facing work in our business that we're doing. We're doing a lot of work with clients maybe, or a big marketing push. So let's just have a look at your year and be really honest about where these summer seasons or fallow phases and big creative chapters are happening in your year. So on a practical level, where are your simply must rest periods, right? Times where you are spending time with your family and friends, you're away from your calendar, you've just got lovely white space and there's not a lot of commitments or collaborations. Where are you more inclined to?
Enjoy a simmer season or maybe a simmer month or a simmer week. So perhaps here you're doing fewer calls. Maybe this is not a launch season, but you're still showing up for some clients. And then of course, where are your follow phases, which is really like non-productive time at all. You're not selling, you're not teaching, you're not creating new things. You're just really letting your soil rest. Okay. And then where's then does the creative work happen? Where are you launching? Where are you teaching or leading your group programs? And how will they sit throughout your year so that they're not jammed up against each other, that they, everything has some space and time to breathe. So I like to think of this as like a stove top. So you've got a limited number of burners and not every burner needs to be on full boil all of the time, right? So think seasonally, think.
⁓ in terms of the commitments and the realities of your life and start to vision into what would your dream creative year look like if you were to take this cyclical brush to your year. Now I suggest checking the show notes for a link to my relaxed year of work planning template. And this lives on our blog on the Cycle Coach School website, if you would like to map your year visually. ⁓
There's also a post that we'll link to in the show notes that goes into more detail around zooming into your monthly and menstrual rhythms as well. So playing with A week and B weeks or designated no client days during your week, right? Working with your menstrual cycle creatively. So if you'd like to learn more about how you can do that, please visit our blog. Before we begin to finish, I'd like to.
Just share a quick word on money because sometimes these conversations around slowing down and living and working more cyclically can spark a part of us that feels afraid about what this might mean for us financially. I really want to be clear that slowing down does not automatically mean earning less. Some of the most stable financial years of my business over the last 13 years have been when I have focused on one or two things or when I've priced my offerings with more spaciousness and intention around how much money I actually need to make when I've let other projects go or just let them rest for a while. So it's really important that we know our numbers, but don't assume that burnout or hustling or doing everything is actually the safest financial strategy. Oftentimes it's not. Okay. We've covered some ground in this episode, so let us come back to a presence and reflect on what you can journal on and what you can take into your annual reflections and planning for the new year. You're going to want to focus on your celebrations, your challenges, what's in your cauldron and those loops that want to be closed either now or in the new year. You're going to zoom out to your legacy mindset, your five year lens, and then bring it back in to that 2026 vibe and then.
You're going to look at everything that you'd really love to do and choose those top three, maybe five max priorities. As for me, I'm going to be closing up the school for the winter hibernation. I'm going to be welcoming our self-study students in January, resting deeply, taking time to be with friends and my family, intending to my own cauldron of ideas for the new year. So thank you for being here. Thank you for really caring about cyclical work and for doing all of the work that you do in the world to bring cyclical awareness to the forefront of people's minds and hearts. And if this episode stirred something in you and you would like to learn how to work this way with clients, how to share menstrual cycle awareness with your community, then our self-study program is now open and you can move through it at your own pace with these optional office hours and community next year. And I would love to support you as you bring this work to more and more people. Big, big love and we'll see you in the new year.
Lauren (1:03:19)
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Cycle Coach Show. If you loved what you heard, then please review, share, and subscribe to help us reach more cyclical listeners like you. You can find us on Instagram at Cycle Coach School or online at cyclecoachtraining.com.
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