If you are staring at the calendar, wondering how it is possible that we are once again a few weeks from the end-of-year festivities, you are not alone. As one friend likes to say, the years feel faster because of proportionality – as we age, each year is a smaller slice of a longer life.
Yet no matter how quickly 2025 seems to have disappeared, it was not a blur.
It was a collection of specific moments: conversations, decisions, mistakes, small wins, hard losses, quiet mornings, late-night worries and unexpected laughter.
Today’s Weekly Insight (and the last for 2025) is your invitation to take a beat and stop long enough to notice the year you actually lived, and to let that noticing help shape 2026.
In that spirit, let’s focus on three moves: reflecting on your year, replenishing your inner resources, and reawakening awe as a leadership and life practice.
1. Reflect: Turn experience into insight
Reflection is not indulgent; it is a performance tool.
Research with leaders and professionals consistently shows that structured reflection improves learning, judgement and effectiveness.
Philosopher Professor Donald Schön highlighted1 that the most effective professionals do not just act; they think both in and on action, using their own experience as a deliberate source of insight and growth.
I often say that reflection causes learning, and that includes learning about what to stop doing, not just what to continue.
As you close out 2025, carve out time to actively reflect by finding your favourite thinking spot – whether it’s a park bench, a noisy café, your couch, or the train ride home from work – and sit with questions such as:
- Where did you grow this year? Think beyond promotions or significant milestones. Where did you become more skilful, more courageous, more honest, or more kind?
- What stretched you? Which challenges tested your resilience, values or confidence? What did those episodes reveal about your thoughts and behavioural patterns under pressure?
- What stories are you telling yourself about this year? Are you narrating 2025 primarily as “too busy”, “too hard”, “not enough”, or are you able to notice the subtler threads – progress, connection and learning?
- What (or who) are you proud of? Pride is often underused as a data point. Where did you show up in a way that felt aligned with the leader and human you want to be?
- What do you want to release? Which grudges, comparisons, expectations or habits do not deserve to follow you into 2026?
Write your answers down.
The simple act of writing helps your brain consolidate learning and makes your insights available to your future self, not just the present one.
2. Replenish: Build your psychological capital
Most of us arrive at December with tired bodies, crowded calendars and frayed attention. The risk is that we use the break only to collapse into recovery mode, rather than to consciously replenish the inner resources that will carry us into 2026.
A helpful frame here is Psychological Capital (PsyCap)2 , which is a cluster of four positive psychological resources that equip you to navigate uncertainty with clarity and confidence: hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism (collectively known as the ‘HERO’ within).
Research shows that higher PsyCap is directly linked to stronger performance, deeper engagement, and improved well-being at work.
It’s ‘state-like’, which means PsyCap sits between a stable trait (like your personality, which is hard to change) and a temporary mood (like feeling happy, which shifts quickly). So you can think of it as malleable but enduring. The good news? You can actively develop it through practice, feedback, and experience, and those gains stick. So in contrast to a fixed trait, you’re not locked into where you are now.
What this means in practical terms is that you can strengthen your hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism through deliberate effort. Those gains will support you over time, which makes PsyCap a strategic investment in your leadership capacity.
Alongside PsyCap, a growing body of research shows that gratitude – the habit of noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of life – is strongly linked to increased well-being, better relationships and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.
So, where do you start?
Rather than creating an extended, overwhelming holiday improvement plan, consider choosing a small number of simple practices that deliberately build your inner reserves. For example:
- A short daily gratitude practice – Each evening, write down three things you are grateful for and why. Keep it grounded and specific. For example, “a difficult conversation that ended better than I expected”, “a quiet commute”, “a friend who checked in”.
- One psychological break each week – Choose one half-day each week where you step away from email, devices and tasks. Let your nervous system downshift. Even brief periods of genuine rest strengthen resilience over time.
- Micro-acts of connection and service – Reach out to someone you appreciate and tell them why. Offer help where you can. Studies repeatedly show that pro-social behaviour boosts our mood and sense of purpose as much as it helps others.
- A kinder internal voice – This year may have contained missteps, missed targets or decisions you would now make differently. Self-compassion does not weaken accountability; it supports honest learning rather than defensive justification.
Think of these as small deposits into your psychological savings account.
On the difficult days in 2026 (and there will be some), you can draw on these reserves.
3. Reawaken awe: Let wonder recalibrate your perspective
Alongside reflection and renewal, 2025 has also been a year where the science of awe has surged.
Awe – that feeling of being in the presence of something vast that stretches your understanding of the world – is physiologically powerful.
Recent studies3 show that regular experiences of awe can reduce depressive symptoms and stress, and increase overall well-being, even in people living with chronic health conditions.
Awe is also linked4 with lower markers of inflammation, greater feelings of connectedness and more pro-social behaviour.
For leaders, awe is quietly radical. It:
- Shrinks the ego and expands perspective. You feel smaller in the best possible way – less consumed by your own worries, more connected to something larger.
- Softens certainty. Awe reminds you that you do not have all the answers, which is a healthy stance in complex, ambiguous environments.
- Re-energises curiosity and creativity. Wonder is fertile ground for new ideas.
Feelings of awe are not limited to rare, bucket-list experiences. You can cultivate everyday awe by paying deliberate attention to what is already around you, such as:
- A sky that looks different every evening.
- A piece of music that moves you.
- A conversation where someone chooses courage over comfort.
- A child’s unfiltered delight.
- The bounding of your dog as you go for a walk (which is one of my favourites).
- A scientific idea, book or artwork that changes how you see the world.
As you move through the final days of 2025, experiment with a simple practice: once a day, pause for 30 seconds and ask, “Where could I find awe in this moment, if I really noticed it?”
It may feel small, even trivial, and yet the emerging science suggests it is anything but.
4. Reset: Design your 2026 by margins, not miracles
The turn of the year often coaxes us towards grand, but in reality brittle, resolutions that collapse a few weeks later.
A more sustainable approach is to think in terms of intentions and marginal gains – small, consistent shifts that compound over time.
Sir Dave Brailsford’s now-famous “aggregation of marginal gains” transformed British Cycling by seeking 1% improvements in hundreds of small areas, from training protocols to sleep and nutrition.
Leaders can apply the same principle to their own development. It might be, for example:
- 1% more listening in each meeting.
- 1% clearer priorities each week.
- 1% more recovery is built into each day.
As you look to 2026, instead of asking, “What do I want to overhaul completely?”, try these questions:
- What qualities do you want to demonstrate more of next year? More courageous? More present? More strategic? More generous? Name the qualities, not just the outcomes.
- Where will you focus your best energy? Which relationships, projects or causes truly matter to you and to your organisation? How will you protect time and attention for them?
- What will you consciously stop? Which commitments, habits or patterns no longer fit the leader you are becoming or want to be? Stopping is a strategic act.
- What one or two practices will you commit to for 90 days? Pick small, concrete actions that express your intentions – a weekly reflection block, a monthly development conversation with your team, or a daily boundary around device use.
The goal is not a flawless year. It is a year in which you show up more intentionally, recover more intelligently and stay more connected to what matters.
A personal thank you
Every year, I am humbled by the number of people who choose to read these Weekly Insights. To those of you who have been here for years and those who joined in 2025 – thank you.
Thank you to my clients – longstanding and new – for your trust, challenge and partnership. Working alongside you as you navigate complexity, lead through uncertainty and create better workplaces is a privilege.
Thank you to the people behind the scenes who keep everything moving – from logistics to design to the quiet, essential details that make programs and projects work. A huge thank you to Kerrie Holien, who joined the team this year and has been instrumental in keeping many things moving forward.
As always, my deepest thanks go to my husband, Craig, for his unwavering support, humour and patience, and to our furry companion, Barney, whose enthusiasm for walks and cuddles is a daily reminder of simple joy.
I am taking a summer break and will be back with more reflections, research and practical ideas in late January 2026.
My wish for you is that you finish this year gently: with a little more reflection, a little deeper rest, and a few more moments of awe than you might otherwise have allowed.
To you and your loved ones, have a wonderful festive season – however you choose to spend it. May 2026 bring you good health, meaningful work and many moments that make you glad to be here.
Take care, have fun and stay well.
Getting you ready for tomorrow, today®
Award-winning author and global workplace expert, Dr Michelle Gibbings, helps leaders, teams and organisations unlock strategic influence to accelerate progress.
References
- Schön, D. A. (1992). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315237473
- Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge. Oxford University Press.
- Monroy, M., Amster, M., Eagle, J., Zerwas, F. K., Keltner, D., & López, J. E. (2025). Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial. Scientific Reports, 15, Article 16453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96555-w
- Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe as a pathway to mental and physical health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221094856