January Wellness Reflection: Honoring the Season Between

Where we’ve been. Where we’re going. And how we arrive well.

January isn’t just a clean slate of opportunity- it’s a pause between movements. And this year, that pause has been made literal. From Texas to Tennessee and beyond, many of us have been given an unexpected timeout as ice storms settled across our communities. Here in the Nashville area, we hope you are safe, warm, and regaining power if you lost it. These moments of forced stillness can be frustrating, humbling, and oddly connective.

Our lives are so often shaped by load-ins, deadlines, tours, and high-output seasons. January, especially in weeks like this, offers a rare invitation to steady the breathing, reflect without urgency, and reset with intention.

At ECCHO Live, this season matters. Not just for us as an organization, but for us as a community that understands both the beauty and the toll of working behind the scenes.

Looking Back: A Year of Impact & Connection

This past year, ECCHO Live continued to grow in ways that were both measurable and deeply human. We expanded All Access support, offering confidential mental wellness counseling, coaching, and adding in financial guidance to live event professionals across disciplines. We provided a variety of community touch points through on-site support, lunch and learn webinars, hosting casual gatherings and trusted partnerships. And we deepened our commitment to advocacy and education, helping normalize conversations around mental health, financial stress, and long-term sustainability in an industry fueled by passion and pressure. Most importantly, we heard story after story of professionals choosing to pause, ask for support, and redefine what “success” looks like for them.

Together, these efforts reflect a year of steady growth, meaningful connection, and deepened impact. What follows is a snapshot of where we’ve been, capturing key moments, outcomes, and milestones that shaped ECCHO Live over the past year. This Year in Review offers a shared look at the work, the reach, and the care that carried us forward.

This collective impact matters...and so does what it asks of us.

Behind every milestone, event, and moment of connection is energy spent, care given, and effort extended. As we start this year, we carry this forward while also respecting the invitation to pause and tend to ourselves with the same intention we bring to our work.

A Wellness Lens for January: Rest Is Not the Reward

After high-output seasons, rest is not something to earn. It’s something to honor.

Reflection helps us metabolize what we’ve lived through. Resetting allows us to choose what we carry forward...and what we leave behind. January becomes a powerful container for this kind of care, offering space to reconnect with what’s sustainable, supportive, and true for us now.

With that in mind, reflection isn’t just looking back, it’s a tool for charting a more suitable path forward. Below are a few practical ways to use this season to organize your year with intention and care.

Five Ways to Organize Your Year (Without Burning Out)

1. Anchor Your Year to Seasons, Not Months

Instead of setting rigid monthly goals, consider organizing your year around production seasons that reflect the natural rhythms of live event work. You might identify periods of high output- tours builds, rehearsals or events that demand your full attention, followed by carving out intentional recovery time to rest and reset.

Planning seasons can offer space to look ahead, handle logistics, and prepare for what’s next, while creative or exploratory seasons invite curiosity, learning, or new ideas without pressure for immediate results. Naming these seasons in advance, and intentionally pairing rest alongside work, can help you build a year that feels both productive and sustainable.

2. Choose One Guiding Question for the Year

Rather than resolutions, select a question to return to throughout the year:

• What supports my sustainability?

• What does “enough” look like this year?

• What am I ready to do differently?

Let the answer evolve as the year unfolds. Make decisions as you go to pull that into stronger focus.

3. Map Your Non-Negotiables First

Before your calendar fills up with gigs, travel, and commitments, take time to identify your non-negotiables: the practices that keep you well and grounded. This might include adequate sleep, regular time off, therapy or coaching, and meaningful connection with people who know you beyond your job title. When these essentials are named early, they can be scheduled and protected with the same care you give to show call times, helping ensure that your well being isn’t the first thing sacrificed when life gets busy.

4. Build a Low-Lift System

Create systems that work even when you’re exhausted:

• One place for finances

• One calendar

• One simple weekly check-in ritual

Complex systems don’t survive tour life as well as simple ones do.

5. Reflect Forward, Not Backward

Instead of asking “What went wrong?”, try:

• What did this season teach me?

• What do I want to bring with me?

• What am I complete with?

Reflection focuses on integration rather than judgment. It helps retrain our brains to prioritize learning and positive application over shame or disappointment.

Reflection also invites gratitude, and there are many ways to express it. We’re thankful for the people, moments, and efforts that have shaped ECCHO Live through our seasons of growth and evolution. Each contribution, seen and unseen, has helped build the foundation we continue to stand on and confidence to keep bringing new things to our community.

Forward Momentum

As we move forward this year, we do so with greater clarity about who we serve, how we support, and why this work matters now more than ever. If you’re moved to share your appreciation, we encourage you to thank our Partners directly...they always appreciate hearing how their support makes a difference! And if you’re interested in becoming a 2026 Partner or learning more about how to support this work, we’d love to hear from you.

Honored and grateful to our current partners who have signed on to support our work in this year ahead!

Also know that if you feel like you could use support as you navigate the space of these days ahead, you may want to consider being part of the All Access program. All Access is offered year round, providing up to 4 free 1:1 sessions per year in mental health support, coaching and financial coaching for those working full time in live events, as well as for your spouse, partner and dependents.

In 2026, we invite you to move with more care, more clarity, and more support. You don’t have to carry it alone, and you don’t have to have it all figured out. Whether that looks like reaching out for support, participating in a program, thanking a partner, or simply giving yourself permission to rest, you are welcome here.

January is the space between notes.

Take a breath.

We’re glad you’re here...and we’re honored to walk into the year ahead together.

— The ECCHO Live Team

Empowering People. Amplifying Potential.

And of course, there were multiple votes for Gold Bond, no explanation necessary.

If you’ve got a favorite item that gets you through the heat, the hustle, or the 18-hour work day, send it our way or tag us online. We love seeing what fuels your season.