New Year, New World
New Year, New World
Soft Starts. Real Plans. No Performance.
The lockdown may have ended, but things in Sasstopia are far from back to normal. As the Glitterbomb Brigade wraps up containment efforts and the Office of Ease monitors recovery, the start of a new year has sparked a fresh wave of anxiety, pressure, and mixed emotions. From Mayor Tiggy’s cautious optimism to Sassnistas navigating planner traps and hustle hangovers, this week in the Intelligent Rebellion reminds us: the hardest part of detoxing from hustle culture is what comes after. These conversations capture the tension between old patterns and new possibilities—and the collective challenge of choosing ease in a world obsessed with doing the most.
Mayor Tiggy meets with senior leadership in Sasstopia to discuss life after lockdown.
After the Lockdown
Mayor Tiggy and her leadership team assess Sasstopia’s post-lockdown energy. The streets are calmer, but restlessness lingers—and the next phase of the rebellion must be strategic.
Mayor Tiggy: Alright everyone. How’s it going? As you know, the lockdown ended two days ago.
Danica: And yet… the readings haven’t settled the way we expected. They are certainly much better than at their peak. Although the numbers continue to drop, they have done so at a much slower rate as the lockdown was coming to an end.
Mo: Mentally, people are still on edge. We’re seeing spikes in guilt around rest. Like slowing down feels dangerous now. But can you blame them? It doesn’t take much to disturb our peace, but putting our nervous system at ease, takes time.
Sloane: Out in the streets, folks are definitely much more compliant but still a bit restless. No chaos like the protests and gridlock during peak HCT. But people are still pacing. Overthinking. Moving fast with nowhere to go because they keep performing instead of just living.
Diva Themba: This is the natural progression of things. HCT doesn’t disappear just because the source is neutralized.
Mayor Tiggy: So it sounds like the city is quiet… but we are not fully restored back to our normal, peaceful state. I guess that’s…promising.
Danica: Exactly. Systems rebooted faster than habits which is why we all worked together on a strategy for how to get people back to ease. It doesn’t help that things are wildly chaotic in other parts of the world.
Mo: People keep calling the Mindset Center asking when things will feel ‘normal’ again.
Mayor Tiggy: I’m guessing they mean the kind of normal that outsiders tried to disrupt.
Sloane: People are still over-scheduling, self-policing, competing over who’s ‘back on their grind.’ But at least they know it’s not healthy behavior. So, I’m hopeful.
Diva Themba: It’s time to implement the post-lockdown strategy.
Mayor Tiggy: So this is the next phase of the rebellion?
Danica: Yes! And it starts with observation.
Mayor Tiggy: Observation. Education. Reinforcement.
Mo: And if people rush back into the grind anyway?
Mayor Tiggy: Then we remind them why they moved to Sasstopia in the first place. But anyone who doesn’t want to live a life of peace and ease, despite the noise of the world…is free to live elsewhere. Thank you everyone. I don’t know what I would do without you.
Soleil Serenity wants to host a vision board party but doesn’t realize she’s been cancelled.
Soleil Serenity Addresses the Fallout
Soleil is feeling the fallout after pushing hustle content during the crisis. Her attempt to bounce back with a vision board party backfires, forcing her to confront her role in the mess.
Soleil Serenity: OMG! I can’t believe people area not buying tickets to my vision board party! I thought it would be a fun way to come together after the lockdown.
Esperanza: Well…you DID spend a lot of time posting hustle and grind content. You think that people would easily forget?
Shelby: Seriously. I mean we get it, Soleil, you were infected by the rising HCT levels and didn’t realize that you were promoting toxic hustle and grind behaviors, but you had to know people would side-eye anything else you post.
Soleil Serentiy: I knew I would get some negative comments, but this is too much. I just didn’t expect them to hit back like that.
Esperanza: I mean, the responses are…… intense.
Soleil Serenity: I get it, right. Last year, I was telling people to grind harder. To push. To optimize. And then the city locked down because hustle culture almost broke us. Being at home and using the Ease Emergency Kits really helped me along with Zooms with my therapist.
Shelby: People remembered who said and did what when HCT levels were at their peak.
Soleil Serenity: And they should. The past few months were terrible for everyone. I’m not mad at that. But I was infected by the rising HCT levels, too!
Esperanza: Your vision board party upset a lot of people because they are concerned that you’ll promote hustle hard, grind hard messages at a time when we are all trying to reset from the chaos.
Soleil Serenity: You are right and I get it. It just feels like I have to do a lot of groveling before people trust me again. Maybe I need to post a series explaining where I went wrong and apologize?
Shelby: Mmmmm…I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. You are kind of overexposed. People don’t want to hear from you because they’ll think you are only apologizing so that you can sell tickets.
Soleil Serenity: This is my livelihood we are talking about, though. I need to do something.
Esperanza: If I were you, Sol, I would cancel the vision board party. I think that’s the first step. Then, I would maybe just take a little time offline until things start getting back to normal.
Soleil Serenity: I don’t know how to do that.
Shelby: Maybe it’s time to explore a new career. Influencer culture is kind of dying anyway.
Soleil Serenity: I don’t know who I will be without my platform.
Esperanza: Well, now is a great time to find out.
Nadine is stressed because she’s not ready for the new year.
New Year Check-In
Nadine spirals about feeling unprepared for the new year, but Angelique helps her reframe success and reminds her that rushing isn’t always the answer.
Nadine: Ugh. Why do I always feel behind when the new year starts? I always have a long list of things that I want to do to close out and set up for a fresh start in the new year. So frustrating.
Angelique: Girl, it’s the first week of January. Relax.
Nadine: Relax? How can I? You have your plans set? Everyone else has their plans. Words of the year. Goals mapped out.
Angelique: Ok, so you don’t. Why do you spin out like this every year? Do you not recognize the pattern? Besides, don’t look at me and how I plan. I like the idea of a fresh start for the new year, but it’s less about setting goals and more about working on mindset. You can’t accomplish anything without the right mindset. You know that.
Nadine: I do. But the last few years have been a lot and I’m just trying to plan so that I don’t get caught up in all the outside noise. I have a lot I want to accomplish.
Angelique: I get it, but sometimes you have to slow all the way down instead of ramping all the way up. We can achieve our goals without putting so much pressure on ourselves.
Nadine: I am a perfectionist. I always feel pressure.
Angelique: That’s the HCT talking.
Nadine: But I feel like I should have bounced back by now.
Angelique: From what? A global unraveling? A cultural reset?
Nadine: When you say it like that…
Angelique: This year feels different because it is different. We just went through something major in Sasstopia and it’s going to take time to reset things back to the softness and ease that we have come to expect.
Nadine: So what am I supposed to do in the meantime?
Angelique: Maybe nothing yet. Maybe the win is not rushing to become someone else.
Nadine: Maybe it is time for me to do things differently.
Angelique: Yes, I think it is.
Nadine: Ok, no more new year, new me stress, at least, for now.
Mak Maker is trying to help Finance Fabiola because she’s stressed about making plans for new year.
The Planner Trap
Fabiola nearly falls into the new-year grind cycle with a shopping spree of planners. Mak reminds her that we need to plan differently in this post-HCT world.
Fabiola: Hey Mak, You got a minute? I need to vent.
Make: Sure, what’s up.
Fabiola: I am feeling very overwhelmed. Being home on lockdown for the past few weeks made me realize just how much I was missing out on. I, literally, almost bought three planners last night.
Mak: Three? You are doing too much.
Fabiola: Yeah! Daily. Weekly. Vision-focused. Like if I organized myself hard enough, everything would start to make sense again.
Mak: Well, did it work?
Fabiola: No. There were too many options to choose from. Looking through them all just made me tired.
Mak: Well, the world doesn’t reset because we are at the start of the new year. I never understood why people stressed themselves out to start fresh every year.
Fabiola: Well, it’s not like we aren’t encouraged to do so. Every ad on my feed and most content creators that I follow are constantly promoting ‘new year, new you’ in the weeks leading up to the new year and for the entire month of January.
Mak: Yet, none of them acknowledge what we just lived through.
Fabiola: So, you think we shouldn’t be making these big plans and setting big goals for the year? That seems, unrealistic.
Mak: It’s not that. Things in the world feel very weird. Pretending that it’s business as usual seems kind of out of touch. What I’m saying is that I think we all need to plan our life differently in this new reality.
Fabiola: I guess you are right.
Mak: Welcome to the year where everyone needs to take a step back because we still have a wild ride ahead.
As Sasstopia recalibrates, it’s clear that recovery isn’t about bouncing back—it’s about choosing a new path forward. Whether you’re rethinking your planner habits, dodging digital detox denial, or redefining what a fresh start looks like, remember: the rebellion is intelligent for a reason. It invites us to observe, question, and create intentional rituals that serve our peace—not perform for outside validation. Let this be the year we choose softness, slowness, and strategies that sustain. Download the Your Real New Year Reset worksheet as a soft-start worksheet for when you’re not feeling the "new year, new you" hype
Curious about the story behind the story? Check out my Substack, Hustle Rewritten, where I share personal insights and commentary on the many ways that we can rewrite the rules to how we show up in life, career and business. Explore the world of Sassy | Chic | Geek, check out our content here on Substack, on YouTube for our Prelude to Intelligent Rebellion series and Pinterest. We occasionally post on IG , Facebook and Threads.