The one question every handler should ask before 2025

December has this funny way of making us believe that life is “on pause” until January.

We tell ourselves we’ll get serious next month.

We’ll start fresh in the new year.

We’ll magically become more organized, more consistent, more confident, more … everything.

But handler life doesn’t reset at midnight on January 1st.

Your habits don’t suddenly upgrade.

Your mindset doesn’t auto-install new software.

Your dog definitely doesn’t show up with a revised manual.

Fresh starts aren’t created by the calendar.

They’re created by clarity.

And there’s one simple question that gives you more clarity than any to-do list, training plan, or color-coded planner ever could:

“What kind of team do we want to be next year?”

Not:

“What do we want to achieve?”

“What should we fix?”

“What titles should we finish?”

Those are output questions.

They’re fine, but they don’t drive behavior.

Identity does.

The team you imagine determines the training you do.

The habits you build.

The mindset you practice.

The choices you make on the hard days.

The energy you bring into the ring.

When you ask, “Who are we becoming as a team?”

You shift from outcome-chasing to identity-building, and that’s where the real transformation lives.

What does “the team we want to be” actually mean?

It’s not poetic. It’s practical.

Maybe next year you want to be:

A team that recovers quickly after mistakes.

A team that trains with intention instead of chaos.

A team that protects joy (even in the sloppy-weather months).

A team that doesn’t spiral under pressure.

A team that communicates clearly.

A team that shows up prepared, not panicked.

A team that is consistent, not perfect.

Notice how none of these are titles or Qs.

But all of them lead to titles and Qs.

Because identity → behavior → results.

Not the other way around.

This question also reveals the good kind of gap

When you define the kind of team you want to be, you automatically notice where your current habits don’t match that identity.

This isn’t “look at everything you’re doing wrong.”

This is, “Oh, hey, here are the few places to focus because they matter.”

It turns December into reflection instead of regret.

Small actions that support the identity you choose

These aren’t goals.

These are the building blocks of who you’re becoming:

Weekly intention-setting

A simple, realistic training plan

Reviewing one video each week

Practicing your ring routine

Choosing one mindset focus per month

Protecting your emotional energy

Doing less, but doing it with purpose

These small actions reinforce your future identity far better than a long list of resolutions.

And here’s the real magic:

Asking this question now, before January hype kicks in, gives you direction.

Then January simply becomes implementation — not scrambling for a plan or trying to “start over.”

Your dog doesn’t need you to be perfect in the new year.

They need you to have a sense of where you’re going together.

Your team’s future isn’t written in the calendar.

It’s written in this moment — in who you decide to become.