As 2025 comes to a close and 2026 readies itself to spring on us with the relentless enthusiasm of a springer spaniel puppy, some reflections and learnings to take you into the new year and hopefully help you make it the best one yet.
it's Boxing Day 2025 and my favourite wife and I are having a recharge day. It's cold and grey outside, we've had a couple of lovely days of family meals, with more planned for the weekend and we have leftovers in the fridge as a distraction from the christmas choccies. Vanessa is doing some crafting and I'm going to get a bit of light reading done after I've got this post out of my head.
2025 was pretty much a #WTF? - What the Flip ? - year. I really feel for the soap writers, as reality has out-fictionalised itself. Conflicts still seem to be happening despite a certain President ending them all (I need to be careful what I say for fear of a $10B law suit), the cost of living continues to rise and the ratio of air to quality street in the Christmas tub continues to increase.
If we think of life as the pendulum of a clock, we seem to be swinging well in to the batsh1t crazy side. If we're lucky, we have just got to the end of the swing and things will start getting better, but my gut says we have a bit more to do before the pendulum starts on it's journey back to something a bit more stable.
There have been so many #WTF? moments in 2025 that it makes reviewing the year a lot more of a challenge if you are looking for what your key learnings are. All the 'noise' can easily distract you from noticing how you have grown as a human being, how well you have handled the madness around you and how far you have come since last year.
It could even gaslight you into thinking that you have stagnated or maybe even slipped back ! It would be an easy thing to do in the year we've just had. Staying where you are should be celebrated as a big achievement. Seeing minor improvements is a major achievement and if you've made big strides forward that is just outstanding.
Let's face it, it's been so bonkers that even slipping back a bit deserves a pat on the back for a job well done. We've got to the end. We've all survived and hopefully thrived in some way. So as the new year approaches I encourage you to grab some quiet time to reflect on the year, dive under the distractions and the madness and hunt out the successes, failures and the learnings from both and use it to kick start your 2026.
To get you started, here are my three biggest learnings of 2025. I've done them in 'makes better sense for the post' order rather than in priority order.
Having spent a lot of my early life being slightly disappointed that reality didn't live up to my high expectations of it, this one is has been a life long challenge. I'm not saying I cracked it in 2025, but it has probably been my best year for making the most of the present.
It stands out because it has been such a mad year that I would have normally allowed it to keep me angry, frustrated and feeling helpless and hopeless. I would have allowed it to suck the joy out of the good times and make the bad times so much worse. And I would have blamed it for doing all of the above and by doing so I would have denied myself the ability to do anything about it.
But that didn't happen. The key differences this year were:
Weird things still happened and there were loads of 'well I wasn't expecting that' type moments, but I didn't have a gold standard in my head to compare it to and find it wanting. It took a bit of effort early doors, but got easier through the year. I wouldn't say I've mastered it yet, but I'm consciously competent and continuing to improve.
This is an old friend that has got me in to trouble in the past. My very first summer job was in 1981. My old man had just retired but got me a job in his old division at the electricity board (now SWALEC). It was real drudge admin work so I did what I could to make it interesting. How quickly could I do it ? I'd count how many things I could do in 30 minutes and then try and beat it. It made a boring job interesting and the time flew.
But..... I learned very quickly it wasn't a great way to make friends in the team I was in. The first task I had was a load of sorting and filing. I was given the task on Monday, shown what to do and left to it. After lunch on Wednesday I went back to the person who'd given me the work.
Me: Have you got something else for me to do please ?
Them: No I want that work done. I know it's boring but it needs doing.
Me: I've done all the filing you gave me, so I'm after something else do do.
Them: What do you mean you've done it ? That was two weeks worth of work !
After a couple of weeks I was being told to work slower as they were running out of things to give me and I was making them look bad 🤦♂️
So, I've always had 'do it better than you have to' (#DIBTYHT) set as default. Not from a pride or good work ethic perspective - it just makes the day go better if you do it and gives you that feeling of satisfaction when you complete something well.
2025 helped me tweak my mastery of this one. There had been a bit of procrastination sneaking in, exacerbated by a dalliance with 'mild perfectionism'. They got thrown out and as a result Out Beyond Ideas was born and things got delivered a bit faster. I would say that I've hit the sweet spot this year, where:
#DIBTYHT = Good Enough +
Most importantly, it is an attitude that sits at the heart of a feeling of quiet contentment with everything I do, which forms a solid foundation for a happy life.
This one splits down into two things and have been a game changer for me in 2025. The focus on today bit is only just out of conscious incompetence but I'm seeing progress. It is helping me be more present and connected to the day rather than being focussed on the future or past. It makes planning and reflection more conscious and effective, so the days are more productive as well as enjoyable.
The more impactful part is the 'desire to do the things I must do' bit. I picked it up from a book - Walter Russell - the man who tapped the secrets of the universe - by Glenn Clark. Russell was a 20th century polymath and it was part of his daily mantra. So, I gave it a go and it worked brilliantly. It made me realise i'd got into a really bad habit of avoiding 'mustiness' at all costs. If it was something that I had to do which I had categorised as drudge or boring, I was avoiding it until the last minute and then grumping my way through it. I was putting more effort into not enjoying the activity than doing the activity ! And I'd been doing it for many years, even though I knew it was a waste of energy and was impacting on my wellbeing !
When I first read it, it was one of those 🤦♂️ moments when the bleeding obvious actually becomes bleeding obvious to you. So, I remind myself of it every morning when I get up and it's made such a positive difference that it's hard to describe. First off, you get things out of the way quicker so the 'OMG I have to get that done soon' internal dialogue is cut short. Actually doing the things becomes more fun, so it adds to the day rather than detracts from it. Finally, the list of things I must do is slowly decreasing as they transform into things I like doing. This final bit is still a work in progress but I've made good progress in the last 6 months.
When the world is a bit bonkers, the secret of maintaining high levels of wellbeing and resilience is easy to say, quick to explain and will take a varying amount of effort depending on where you are starting. I've been on this journey for more than 20 years and put a lot of effort into learning and implementation, so anything I do in 2026 is being built on a sound foundation. But if you're just starting on the journey and life is a little bit sh1t at the moment, just doing things that make things Slightly Less Sh1t will be a win.
What I like about these three learnings is they can be added into your repertoire at any time and deliver benefits quickly:
But please remember that this stuff takes time and effort, so do it a bit at a time so that you don't get overwhelmed and give up. Was 2025 the best year of my life ? If it wasn't it's certainly in the top 5 and was one lived authentically with very high levels of happiness, contentment and calmness. As the year draws to a close I'm looking forward to longer days, being more present and making the most of whatever the universe presents to me.
I hope you have a 2026 full of magic, joy, beauty, love and excitement and that you deal with all your #WTF? moments with curiosity and resilience. Keep your optimism realistic and be ready for even fewer quality street in the tub next year.
Mike xx
