The mostly modest actions – far shy of the sweeping immigration overhaul Obama hoped for this year – put into sharp focus the president’s limitations as he grapples with reluctant lawmakers in an election year. They also underscore how much has changed for Obama since the early days of his presidency, when he declared, “We do big things.”

Yet the flurry of executive actions does seem to be having a cathartic effect inside the White House, which was in need of a jolt after a frustrating and disjointed 2013 that included the flawed rollout of Obama’s signature health care law and a sharp drop in the president’s approval ratings. Advisers who ended the year dispirited now appear buoyed by a new sense of purpose – and the prospect of working around a Congress that has long been an irritant to the president.

“I think people came back from the break over the holidays in a real positive frame of mind,” said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to the president. “You don’t want to be the prisoner of a negative narrative that somehow Congress has stymied the president and nothing can get done.”

Signaling how little the White House expects to change on Capitol Hill this year, Obama communications director Jennifer Palmieri said advisers are already mapping out plans for executive actions that will be unveiled well into the fall and winter. That process, she said, “has ignited a lot of creative thinking around here.”