December, as a coach

December is a happy month for me personally.
The weather changes in Thane. The pace softens.

Professionally, though, it’s a different story.

If you coach group sessions, December is hard. People travel. Plans pause. Energy dips. Some are waiting for January 1st to “restart”. Attendance drops, even when motivation and consistency are things we talk about all year.

It’s not a failure. It’s a pattern.

For a long time, I thought this was something to fix. Something to push against. But this year, I decided not to fight it.

Instead, I treated December as a pause that already exists.

With fewer sessions running at full capacity, I suddenly had time. Time to sit down. Think. Read. Revisit plans. Look at what I’ve built and what needs re-calibration; not just in the programs, but in myself.

What needs to change in how I coach?
What needs to stay?
What assumptions am I carrying without questioning?

Rather than staying frustrated about cancellations or lower numbers, I flipped the switch. I enjoyed building again. Starting things from zero. Refining instead of reacting.

There was also an unexpected upside.

Smaller sessions meant more personal conversations. More check-ins. A chance to reconnect with members as people, not just attendance counts. That’s one of the quiet privileges of coaching groups , when numbers drop, attention deepens.

December didn’t need to be productive in the usual sense.
It just needed to be honest.

Sometimes the work is showing up fully on days when no one’s watching.
Sometimes it’s accepting the lull and using it well.

I’m learning to respect both.

Whenever fellow coaches or group members complain about low attendance in December, I remind them of something I keep coming back to:

You earn your houseful sessions by staying committed on the days when attendance is dismal.