“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” — Margaret J. Wheatley
Hello friends,
This is the first blog of the year, and it’s an opportunity to reflect on a year full of surprises and pivots.
I just spent the past few days reflecting back on 2025 in full: the good, the bad, and the beautiful.
Reviewing the past year is one of the most powerful practices I do in December. I do my best to keep the process super simple, otherwise, it can feel overwhelming and I’ll put it off until it’s too late.
This year hit me like a bulldozer. There was no amount of preparedness that could have signaled what the year had in store.
What’s the saying? “If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.” 😉
So much happened, but here’s a quick bullet-point overview before I dive in:
- I began facilitating, teaching and coaching with Oxygen – a company that develops managers and leaders – and I’m loving it!
- I pivoted my business pretty significantly, transitioning from a pure coaching business to creating three income pillars that allow me to flex in some pretty unique ways.
- I experimented with a 5-hour workday – setting boundaries and experimenting with a new business structure to support this desire.
- Wrote 17 blogs that largely captured my year of intentional experimentation and change.
- Snuck away for an anniversary trip to NY with Jill.
- Renewed my partnership with Mary-Beth Frerichs of The Driver Group.
- Took a somewhat spontaneous trip to Rome.
- Sharpened my facilitation skills by leading four Management Essentials cohorts for Oxygen.
- After skiing 45 years injury free, I broke my arm and shoulder in Utah.
- Reluctantly cancelled trips to Rwanda, Tanzania, Croatia, and Santa Fe because of life interruptions. This is why you should always buy travel insurance!
- Considering my injury and rehab all year, I’m surprised at how many places I still visited in 2025: Salt Lake City, Mexico, New York City (x3), Walla Walla, Bend & Sisters, Oregon Wine Country, Rome, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
- One of our dogs tore her ACL in July and needed a lot of extra care pre and post surgery.
- Other highlights I don’t want to forget: I walked almost daily, worked fewer hours while growing my income, improved my sleep routine, deepened some key friendships and nurtured relationships with entrepreneurs I admire. I also learned how to ride an eFoil, got back into the gym 3-4 times per week, celebrated the life of my great aunt who passed away just shy of her 102nd birthday and I got to see my mom get remarried.
When life goes sideways
After 45+ years of snow skiing without an injury, my annual ski trip to Utah ended with me in the medical clinic with a complex fracture of my upper humerus and a badly damaged shoulder.
My first (and hopefully last) mountain rescue
After nearly a year of physical therapy, chiropractic care, and acupuncture, I’m finally starting to get my mobility and strength back. And, yes, I’ll be hitting the slopes again this year… assuming we get some snow before I leave for Mexico!
Unfortunately, this unexpected incident meant missing a once in a lifetime trip to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas with my wife on her birthday. Fortunately, she found a friend to take my place and still got to have an unforgettable experience.
I’m grateful to my body for healing this year and I’m extremely grateful to the caring medical professionals and body workers that have helped me navigate a difficult situation and regain my health.
Most of all, I’m grateful to the people in my life – my family, friends, and partners – who all showed up in wonderful ways this year.
The second half of the year was a slow process of rebuilding, reprioritizing, and recentering. And just when things seemed to be getting back on track, our sweet Addiebelle blew out her knee at the river in July and needed the equivalent of a double knee replacement and rehab afterwards. This meant forfeiting planned trips to Croatia and Santa Fe.
Addie getting some help from the Sandy River Lifeguard & Rescue
Despite the interruptions of life happening, I was able to sneak in a trip to Rome with Jill. Visiting Italy has been a lifelong aspiration and this year it finally happened. When I saw that Jill had a stopover in Rome following one of her retreats, I booked the airline tickets on short notice and we enjoyed one of the most memorable weeks of the year.
We marveled at the Colosseum, The Vatican, the Pantheon – and everything in-between. It was a week filled with history, insanely good food, and adventure. Exactly what I was hoping for and a bit better… because nothing really prepares you for the splendor of Rome.
Checking out the Pantheon – at 2,000 years old, it’s considered one of Rome’s most well preserved buildings.
The importance of a reset
For the past several years, I’ve practiced an annual ritual of bringing closure to the year. It’s become essential to me – this practice of slowing down long enough to actually notice what happened. Not what I hoped would happen or wished had happened, but what actually was.
What I’ve noticed is that it’s easy to hang on to disappointments. The losses, the discomforts, the ways things didn’t go as planned. They tend to stick with me like glue. The human mind seems almost programmed to grip tightly to what went “wrong.”
Each new year offers a blank slate, a fresh start. But if I haven’t made peace with the past, I won’t start clean at all. I carry forward all that baggage, all those unfulfilled dreams and lingering disappointments. They affect everything that comes next.
My process has become almost ritualistic in its simplicity. How did the year feel? What am I grateful for? What felt like a disappointment? There’s something powerful about acknowledging these things, about getting it all on the table where I can see it clearly.
I’ve been reflecting every week throughout the year, asking myself similar questions. But what I’m most excited about is the cumulative reflection. Reading back through my journals and notes. Looking at my calendar, month by month. Scrolling through the photos on my phone, each one a small window into a moment I lived.
This is how I recount the year to myself. Not as I wished it had been, but as it actually was. The good days and the terrible ones. The moments of joy and the stretches of disappointment. All of it, the full spectrum of the human experience.
This practice of making peace with the past is what makes space for the future to arrive, unencumbered by what I might otherwise still be carrying.
And there’s a pleasure in it I didn’t expect when I first started this ritual years ago. A kind of tenderness toward myself and the year I’ve lived. Not everything worked out, but I showed up. I did my best. And I lived through all of it.
That’s worth acknowledging. That’s worth making peace with.
Looking forward
I review the year because looking back helps me move forward. Reflecting on 2025, I see several themes I’d like to keep exploring and trends I’d like to shift.
Professional life
This was a big year of letting go – of releasing the need to do everything myself and say yes to new opportunities and ways of doing business. I found more energy and peace in partnering than I ever expected. Moving forward, I’d like to keep strengthening my partnerships and have a robust private coaching practice, guiding ex-corporate professionals to convert their experience and insights into meaningful work, done from anywhere, while working a lot less.
Intellectual life
While I did manage to write on a somewhat consistent basis, my output felt a bit scattered and inconsistent. I completed a 30-day writing challenge where I posted short-form content on LinkedIn and I was surprised by the increase in engagement and followers from this experiment. Mostly, it gave me insight into what I enjoy writing about and which topics people resonate with. In 2026, I plan to experiment more with writing and move everything over to Substack. I also want more space for reading and thinking. And I will purposefully deepen my skills around facilitation since I’m really enjoying it and doing it weekly. I believe that enhancing human-centric soft skills will be increasingly important as AI takes over most routine and repetitive skills.
Lastly, I’ll be doubling down on my AI proficiency. If I took away anything from my career in tech, I learned that it’s futile to bet against world-changing technologies. From everything I’ve researched and experimented with, AI will become a major part of our lives in 2026 and beyond – disrupting entire economies and empowering those with the skills and desire to leverage it. Hang on. I think 2026 will be a wild ride when it comes to AI.
Spiritual and personal life
Rituals and time in community are crucial to maintaining my mental health. I want to continue building my life around those foundations, with work fitting around them rather than the other way around.
I will continue applying this question to my decisions: “How can I enjoy my life while living it?” Keeping this question at the forefront has been pivotal for me over the past year, causing me to re-think my approach and perspective to life and work. I want to continue building on this.
Lastly, this year made me even more grateful for the amazing people in my life. I’ve been pretty bad at staying in touch – I’ve been slow to respond or completely missing messages and emails. Thankfully, my friends and network are wonderful and nobody resented me for not being as available this year. If you’re someone I haven’t replied to, please follow up with me; that would be the best New Years gift.
Thank you for reading, and wishing you a Happy New Year!
Live bravely,
Michael
P.S. What did this past year teach you – and how will you let it shape who you’re becoming?
