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November 24, 2025 14 mins

Do you ever get to the end of a month and wonder why you’re still overwhelmed even though you’re working so hard toward your goals?

This episode reveals the simple monthly review practice that helps overwhelmed working women stay aligned, make consistent progress, and avoid the cycle of overplanning, burnout, and forgotten goals—especially heading into the busiest month of the year.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

  •  How to pause and reflect in a way that actually moves your goals forward
  •  The three core questions that simplify your month and eliminate overwhelm
  •  How to plan ahead intentionally so each month feels calmer and more aligned

Press play now to learn the monthly system that helps you stay on track, feel less overwhelmed, and make meaningful progress toward your goals.


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Life can be overwhelming, but on this podcast, you'll discover practical strategies to overcome overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk, manage time effectively, set boundaries, and stay productive in high-stress jobs—all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the Overwhelmed Worki...

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
Making progress on your goals while
still feeling overwhelmed, A, Ithink it's kind of impossible,
and B, it takes all the fun outof it.
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed

(00:21):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that today's
Working Woman experiences.
And in each episode, you'll geta strategy to bring more calm,
ease, and relaxation to yourlife.
Hi, friends.
Thanks for joining today.
I can't believe it's almostDecember, and therefore it's

(00:44):
almost 2026.
It seems like this year hasgone by so quickly.
Today we're going to be talkingabout one of my absolute
favorite coaching tools, whichis the monthly pause and review.
When you listen today, you'regoing to learn why it matters to
pause and review for yourmonth.
And this is especiallyimportant, I think, as we are

(01:08):
just about to start.
The I would say for mostpeople, the busiest month of the
year, December, is a month thatcould definitely use planning
more than probably any of theother 11 months of the year.
So you'll learn how to reviewyour month, how to reflect
meaningfully and simply on whatwent well, and then how to plan
ahead so that the next monthfeels more aligned and less

(01:30):
overwhelming.
As I've been a coach for thepast eight years, it's so much
fun because as I do things forand with my clients and myself,
I'm just continually learning,like, wow, that thing really,
really worked.
Or okay, that was interesting,but that's not something that
I'm going to keep doing.
I started sharing this monthlyreview process with my clients

(01:51):
after I consistently did it foran entire year.
And I got to the end of theyear - I always have reviewed my
years.
So I got to the end of the yearand I reviewed the year and I
compared it to what I set out todo at the beginning of the
year.
And when I looked back, I hadhit every one of my goals that I
set for myself.
And I'll say more about the waythat I set up goals in just a

(02:14):
second, but I had hit every oneof the goals that I set for
myself.
And I do goals all across theboard.
I have business goals.
I had a goal last year to redomy dining room in a really
colorful way and then host adinner party with girlfriends.
Like I have those kind of goalstoo.
So I have goals all across theboard.
And when I looked back on thisparticular year, I think it was

(02:35):
like three years ago, and I'dhit every one of those goals and
I thought, well, how did thathappen?
Like usually I'll forget aboutone or just lose interest in it
or whatever.
And I realized that it was thismonthly review that I was doing
that was really making thedifference because when you
review every month, you neverget too far off track.
And so I decided to includethat as part of my coaching.

(02:58):
And last year in 2025, for thefirst year ever, I had a
coaching group.
And at the beginning of theyear, we planned all of our
goals.
We did a vision board and thenwe planned all of our goals.
And the way that I plan goalsis I make the goal something
that is a hundred percent in mycontrol.
So for example, I had a goalabout my podcast.

(03:19):
And instead of saying, oh, Iwant my podcast to get in the
top 1%, I said, put out a twotimes a week podcast with a very
simple process, the process forgetting the podcast out.
And the desired outcome, theresult that I want is to get
into the top 1% for podcasting.
So if you do your goals thatway and you put the goal as

(03:40):
something that is in yourcontrol.
So it's not how much money youmake or how much better a
relationship feels, or one ofthe other things I wanted to get
results on this year was notfeeling awful because of
perimenopause.
And so that isn't the goal,that's the result.
And the goal was to find a newdoctor and get new labs and try

(04:01):
eating different macrocombinations and see how that
makes me feel.
So I set up the goals so that Iknow for sure they're all in my
control.
And then I set up what I hopeto get as the desired result.
So in this course that I puttogether, we all did that
together.
We envisioned what we wantedfor the year.
We created a vision board.

(04:22):
If that makes you feel scared,it's okay.
I guide you exactly all the waythrough it.
You create a vision board, youcome up with the goals and the
actions to take in order to getthose goals that you're
envisioning for yourself.
And then you spread them outover the course of the year.
So for example, there were acouple goals that I had in Q3
and Q4, and I just knew for thebeginning of the year I didn't

(04:44):
even have to think about those.
So you've got these well-spacedgoals to work on for the year.
And then every single month wemeet and we do live group
coaching.
And everyone before the classdoes this review that I'm about
to teach you about, and thenthey plan for the next month.
And that essentially means thatyou're consistently staying on
track to hit your goals.

(05:05):
And the other great thing is aswomen who are busy and
overwhelmed and prioritieschange, you can go back and say,
oh my gosh, that was the goalthat I wanted at the beginning
of the year, but I actuallydon't want that anymore.
I'm just going to take that oneoff my list.
Or you might have a brand newone that all of a sudden comes
into view for you, and you wantto add that in so you can just
for the full year be flexible onwhat matters most to you at

(05:28):
that time.
So this particular class thatI'm talking about that I've been
leading this year called YourBest Year.
And I surveyed the participantsin this year's program.
And the question that I askedthem, because this was the
promise, is how much did thisprogram help you make consistent
progress on your goals withoutoverwhelm?
Because making progress on yourgoals while still feeling

(05:51):
overwhelmed, A, I think it'skind of impossible.
And B, it takes all the fun outof it.
And every single person in theclass responded with a nine out
of 10 or a 10 out of 10.
They were able to just makethis progress.
And so I want to share with youtoday two things.
One is this is going to be myBlack Friday offer, purchasing
this program for 2026.

(06:12):
So if this has your ears perkedup and you're like, wow, that
sounds really nice.
I would love to be gentlyguided through getting all the
goals that I want for the nextcalendar year, my Black Friday
offer could be for you.
And it's the only sale that Ihave for the whole year.
So it is going to be more than50% off.
So I want to tell you that.
And then B, if you just want togive this a try for November,

(06:35):
for the November to Decembertransition, then I'm going to
tell you exactly how to do this,how to do what we do inside of
the group.
Okay, so we have talked aboutwhy monthly reviews matter.
Now let's look at how toactually do it.
So when you're doing a monthlyreview, here are the questions
that I recommend.
Inside the group, we have aworkbook and it has several

(06:56):
questions in it.
But if you were thinking oftaking this and trying it for
November, here are the threequestions that I would recommend
that you ask yourself for sure.
These will get you a long wayin the right direction.
What were your favorite momentsfrom this past month?
You want to think of everythingthat felt like a win for you,
big or small.
So let's say you had like ahuge win at work or a big

(07:18):
parenting win, or maybe yourfamily went on a great vacation,
but also think of the littletiny thing.
So for example, the other nightI went to my niece who's in
fifth grade.
She had a school play and itwas on a Thursday night, and it
was like dark and raining andcold, and I was so tired from
the day.
And I decided that I wanted togo.
So I just kind of went like ina blah mood, but I had said that

(07:40):
I was gonna go.
And I promise you, it was likeone of my favorite wins from the
whole month.
It was so cute, and she was sohappy.
And their little fifth gradeenergy was just the cutest
thing.
So think big and think small.
And when you look at the thingsthat went well, what did you
learn from them that you cantake into the next month?
Okay, so if I look at mine, Itake that example of going to my

(08:03):
niece's play.
That for sure is a clue for me.
I also noticed that the winsthat I wrote down from a work
perspective are things where Iplanned ahead and did things
before they were due.
My wins consistently, monthover month, and best things from
the month are always when Ispend time with people who I
love, especially my family.

(08:23):
So every month I get to bereminded of that and to think
for the next month.
Okay, yes, what I can take intothe next month is knowing that
that is a very important way forme to spend my time.
From a work perspective, if Ithink what went well and what
did I learn from it, when I amvery intentional and plan my
work ahead and get it donebefore it's due, that always

(08:45):
feels a million times better tome than when I'm last minute
trying to get something done.
And then the third question isto look at what didn't go well
and what did you learn fromthat.
And this isn't about shame.
It's just really aboutinsights.
When I was writing thispodcast, I looked back at each
one of my months to read my whatdidn't go well and what did I
learn from that.

(09:05):
And it's essentially for me,it'll be like there were a
couple weeks in this month whereI didn't meal prep and that
felt really stressful, or Ididn't get to the gym as much as
I wanted because I didn't planthe days that I was going to
work out when I did my Sundayplanning.
Mine is always about how thingsgo badly and feel badly when I
don't plan them with intention.

(09:27):
And yours might be completelydifferent, but for me, that is
it.
And you would think that Iwould know that.
And I guess I intellectuallydo, but unless I stop and take a
look at it and review my month,I'm probably not even going to
notice that.
When you start to do this monthover month and notice what
really works for you and whatreally doesn't work for you, and
maybe where you'veoverscheduled yourself, you can

(09:49):
just over time slowly, and Ithink making change slowly is
the best way to do it becausethen it sticks.
You can change your whole life.
So now that you've looked backon your past months, so in this
case, maybe you look at look atNovember and you look ahead to
December, you can ask yourself,what's my number one priority
for this month?
This can be a stressfulquestion because as overwhelmed

(10:11):
working women, we like to have ahuge to-do list with 10,000
things on it.
But what is your just numberone priority for this month?
I personally like to choose onefor work and one for personal.
You could do that, or you couldjust choose one goal.
But that really helps me when Ifeel busy and overwhelmed to be
like, okay, my number one goalfor this month is X, is this one

(10:34):
thing.
So for me in December, mynumber one personal goal is to
spend time with my family doingthe one or two favorite
Christmas things that we love todo.
That's my personal one.
And then the next question toask is how can I plan ahead to
support that?
So one of the fun things that Ilove to do when I'm talking

(10:54):
about our special familytraditions, I think I've talked
about this even on the podcastbefore, is we put on Christmas
pajamas.
My kids are 15 and 18, and theywill still do this.
And now we pick up my littleniece who's six, and she also
goes with us in her jammies.
And we either get hot chocolateor sometimes we get those
Chick-fil-A peppermint shakes.

(11:14):
Oh my gosh, those are so good.
We get those and we drivearound and we look at Christmas
lights.
And so, how can I plan ahead tosupport that?
Is I can text my sister-in-lawright now and say, Hey, would
this be a good day for us to golook at Christmas lights and
then plan it with my kids on aday that I know they don't have
practice or whatever else.

(11:35):
So that is just one smallthing.
But when I look back and reviewDecember, that would be one of
my wins for sure because it'sspecial to me.
Okay, so in summary, what I'msaying is if you consistently
over time do this simple reviewat the end of your month and see
what worked, what didn't work,and what those things are and
how that can help you in thenext month.

(11:56):
And then you plan your nextmonth, you will slowly but
surely change your life and justkeep going more in the
direction of alignment andintention and having the things
that truly matter in your life.
This is exactly what we do inthe your best year program.
There is a full year workbookwhere you put all of your goals,

(12:17):
you do all of your monthlyreviews, we check in every
month.
One other fun thing about thegroup when I did this survey to
get feedback on how the groupwent, one of the things I asked
were what were some of the mosthelpful or your favorite parts
about being in this group?
And everybody said gettingcoached.
So it's a group coaching.
So sometimes, you know, peoplewill say, Oh, I need help with

(12:38):
this, and so I'll coach them onthe group.
So they said getting coachedthemselves, and then listening
to other people get coached,which is also really helpful
because you can be like, Oh,yeah, I should take that lesson.
I think maybe Michelle'stalking to me too in that.
And then third, and these werean equal tie.
Third was other women in thegroup supporting me and giving

(12:58):
me suggestions.
And I love that too, becausesometimes when someone brings a
problem and says, I feel reallystuck on this, I'll give them
coaching and then I'll say, Whatelse do you guys have?
What's worked for you?
What can you share?
So it's so much fun becausewe're all together moving in the
direction of having moreintentional, aligned lives.

(13:18):
Like I said, this is my BlackFriday offer.
This is the only time in thewhole year that I ever discount
my coaching in any way, shape,or form.
If you are listening to thisand you're thinking, yes, this
your best year program justsounds like something that I
need in my life.
I am opening up early accesstoday just for podcast

(13:40):
listeners.
So you don't have to wait untilFriday to get the Black Friday
pricing.
And the link is in the shownotes.
Grab your spot and then you canjust stop worrying about 2026.
We're gonna plan the wholething together.
We're gonna execute the wholething together.
I would absolutely love to helpyou create exactly the year
that you want in 2026.
And we will do it slowly,consistently over time while

(14:03):
also not feeling overwhelmed andhaving fun.
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my website
at MichelleGauthier.com.
See you next week.
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