Your Brain's Reset Button

If you're reading this today, I'm impressed. Also, maybe drink some water?

Fun fact: Your brain thinks January 1st is magic. Not because of your resolutions (we both know how those usually go), but science says today is your brain's "fresh start" button – what researchers Dai, Milkman, and Riis call a "temporal landmark". These are moments that our brains use to separate our past selves from our future selves.

It's why you're convinced that Future You will definitely:

• Go to the gym every day

• Finally organize that partner database

• Stop procrastinating on quarterly reviews

• Read every single one of my newsletters (right?)

The Science Part (Keep Reading, I'll Make It Quick)

Temporal landmarks do more than just motivate – they actually shift how your brain processes possibility. And while everyone's obsessing over January 1st, here's the part nobody talks about – you can create these mental dividing lines whenever you need them. Think of them as a psychological reboot.

The Smart Part (I Promise It's Worth Your Hangover)

While everyone else is waiting for random moments like:

• Next quarter

• After the next big launch

• When things "calm down" (sorry, but they won’t)

You can engineer your fresh starts by:

• Breaking partnerships into distinct "chapters" with clear before/after moments.

• Creating momentum dates that aren't tied to quarter-ends or fiscal years.

• Building strategic reset points into your programs (and yes, they can coincide with happy hours).

The Fun Part

Here's what makes this particularly powerful for partnerships: your partners are wired the same way. They're craving these psychological fresh starts too. And you're in the perfect position to create them – just maybe don't schedule them for January 1st (we're all a bit busy today).

The Actually Useful Part

Three ways to put this into action:

1. Transform your next QBR into a strategic reset point, not just another metrics review (bonus: it'll wake up anyone who's usually sleeping through these).

2. Position program changes as new "seasons" of your partnership, complete with their own identity and momentum (way better than "version 2.0").

3. Create milestone moments that aren't tied to quarters or fiscal years – pick dates that matter to your partnership story.

The Human Part

But for today? Just enjoy the fact that you're reading a partnership newsletter on January 1st. That's either incredible dedication or incredible insomnia.

Either way, I'm going to do us both a favor and keep this one short. Your head probably hurts, and I need to go figure out why I thought hosting a New Year's party was a good idea.

Here's to fresh starts (and painkillers),

P.S. If you're reading this hangover-free, please keep it to yourself. Nobody likes an overachiever on January 1st.