With a few days to go before the holiday season. Most likely with a long list with way too many to-do’s, it becomes a cliché to look back on the year that’s coming to a close. Cliché or not, there is value in pausing for a moment to look back. Grab a hot drink, curl up and reflect for a moment.
Maybe this year has been a blast, filled with surprises, achievement, love, and new beginnings. Or maybe not. Has it been a challenging year? One you’re relieved to see end? Perhaps it’s been bland, just another year passing by.
Whatever this year has been or held for you, it is now part of your life, your history, and the stories you carry forward. Good, bad or bland, it has shaped you.
When you scan back to January and slowly drift through the seasons and months, ask yourself:
- What has this year brought me?
- Who did I have to be to achieve, overcome, or accomplish what came my way?
- In what ways did I step into being the leader I want to be?
- What defined my leadership?
- What has been the biggest gift? What am I grateful for?
- How do I want this year to shape 2026?
Notice what lens you’re looking through. Are you seeing only what went wrong? Only what you accomplished? Both? Something else entirely? The lens you chose shape the story you tell yourself about your life.
If you want additional support for your year-end reflection go here to receive our comprehensive year-end reflection guide.
Gratitude
It is not by chance I mentioned gratitude. This little word that is so easily skipped, but has such a huge impact. When we are busy being busy, or when life is not treating us the way we want, it can genuinely feel like there’s nothing to be grateful for. I’m not suggesting forced positivity, but research shows something interesting: our brains are wired to scan for threats and problems. It’s kept us alive as a species. But this same wiring can keep us stuck in what’s wrong, missing what’s actually working.
When we actively search for something to be grateful for, even the smallest thing, we’re literally rewiring neural pathways. We’re training our brains to notice what works alongside what doesn’t. It helps us chose a different reality, and to see the full picture.
For many leaders, gratitude feels soft, personal, something for the holiday cards but not for their teams or in the boardroom. Expressing thanks and showing gratitude is often forgotten, or not valued, but if you shift gear, notice what people contribute and put words to it, it can become your best leadership tool for making people feel seen and appreciated.
Belonging
One of the most profound things we can offer each other is a sense of belonging. That someone will notice and miss us if we don’t show up. That we are included and integrated. That we matter.
What if we let our phones rest and turn our attention towards the people around us. Or turn inward and connect with ourselves? Real connection comes from our presence, and happens person to person, not through screens.
Forget the polished facade. Be real, authentic. Know that you are enough, and that your time and presence is what brightens someone’s day. Including your own.
And here’s something worth remembering: even the seemingly most successful people can feel lonely on the inside. The curated versions we see online are fragments of the whole story, carefully selected pieces. Every single one of us is navigating our own complexity. Regardless of role, status or position.
What If?
With the holiday season in front of us and only two weeks left in 2025, what would it look like to close this year in a way that feels truly aligned with the human being and leader you want to be? Not according to anyone else’s definition, but yours.
When you look back at this time next year, what would you like to remember?
What if next year, you look back at how you closed 2025 with genuine gratitude for how you chose to end it?
The Voice Inside
As the year quiets down, what’s stirring in you? What has been quietly calling for your attention?
You know it’s there. That voice, that knowing, that sense of what wants to emerge. And alongside it lives a courage, a strength, and a will that’s ready to wake up.
The question is: are you ready to listen?
If you’re sensing it’s time to step up, create a change, form your vision, take your leadership to the next level, I’d welcome a conversation about what that could look like. Sometimes the most powerful step is simply saying it out loud to someone who will truly hear you.