Reconnecting to What Matters: A 2025 Year-End Reflection
Real talk: 2025 has been an incredibly difficult year.
I know I'm not supposed to say things like that out loud, in a blog post, where someone might actually hear it. It goes against everything in the toxically positive solopreneur playbook, which tells us to project only confidence, share only successes, and minimize hardships (or even better, pretend they don't exist). But as someone who speaks often about how essential authenticity is to sustainable and powerful leadership, I can hardly author a year-end reflection without acknowledging how hard 2025 has been for many leaders who are committed to working toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, myself included.
Resistance to this work isn't new, but the forms that resistance has taken this year have been especially dehumanizing and demoralizing. I'm sure that's why the first thought for so many of us, when looking back on the year, is, "I can't wait for it to be over."
Even so, as a coach—especially one who learned about Dr. Haesun Moon's incredibly helpful research this year—I know staying stuck in thoughts about the troubled past and the dreaded future won't help me or anyone lead for healthy and humanizing organizations during these difficult times. That's why, while I must honestly acknowledge this year's challenges, I choose to focus this reflection on the ways it has required me to reconnect to what matters most.
Reconnecting to My Purpose
Several years ago, my friend and Evolve Institute collaborator Dr. Keith Edwards and I exchanged coaching services. One of the most helpful takeaways for me from Keith's coaching was a clear and concise expression of my professional purpose: "I am a catalyst, sparking change."
This expression holds many layers of meaning for me. Fun fact: my undergraduate degree is in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, and this shaped my understanding of what a catalyst is. Catalysts facilitate chemical reactions, the formation of something new. They do this not by magic, but by bringing together the elements needed and reducing the energy required to make the reaction happen—in other words, unlocking the potential that already exists. And in facilitating these reactions, catalysts are not used up; they can go on to do it again.
Like many of the most powerful lessons in my life, I drifted away from this one for a while. This year called me back to it. As I considered options for adapting and evolving my business and services to survive in an environment that often felt hostile to who I am and what I do, I regularly found myself asking, "How does this option align to my purpose? Is this something that a catalyst sparking change would do?" This question has helped me make wise decisions about which ideas to focus on and which to let go of.
Reconnecting to My Values
One of the key strategies of DEI opponents has been to redefine terms like diversity, equity, and inclusion, disconnecting them from their actual meanings so that they are no longer useful for those trying to co-create a world in which everyone is treated with fairness and respect for their essential humanity. Many of us, me included, responded by trying to find new, safer words to use.
But my initial efforts, motivated too strongly by fear, led me to what I call Splenda language: sort of similar to the real thing, but artificial and ultimately empty. I realized I needed to delve more deeply into the words behind the acronym and remind myself of what made me gravitate toward them in the first place. In other words, I needed to reconnect DEI to my values, which Halstead and Taylor (2000) described as the "principles and fundamental convictions which act as general guides to behavior… the standards by which particular actions are judged to be good or desirable" (p. 169).
This process helped me remember that I do DEI work because it is an expression of my core values of connectedness, peace, justice, joy, and renewal. When I ground my language choices in these values rather than in fear, I find words that are both authentic and powerful, words that can't be taken from me because they emerge from who I am at my core.
Reconnecting to My Communities
"We grow stronger when we are surrounded by people who are growing too."
I'm a superfan of Muriel Wilkins' work, and this recent insight from her delivers another powerful reminder of something I believe deeply: leadership growth doesn't happen in isolation; it happens in community.
As leaders, especially those of us committed to cultivating healthy and humanizing organizational cultures, we can lose sight of our fundamental human need for connection. We convince ourselves that we need to have all the answers, that asking for support is a luxury we can't afford, or that our challenges are somehow unique to us alone.
None of this is true.
That's exactly why so much of my leadership development work integrates group learning alongside individualized coaching. When leaders come together in brave spaces to share their struggles, celebrate their wins, and think strategically alongside peers who truly understand the complexity of their work, something magical happens. We tap into collective wisdom that's far more powerful than what any single coach or consultant could offer alone.
I'm also living this truth in my own journey as a solopreneur. This year, I've leaned into group-based learning experiences through the DEI Potluck, the Craft of Coaching community, and the Simply Get Clients program. These communities have been lifelines, reminding me that even though I run my own business, I'm never truly alone in this work.
The DEI Potluck, convened by Jillian “Mama J” Love and Emily Roh, has provided a space where practitioners can gather without pretense, sharing not just strategies but also the emotional weight of doing this work in 2025. The Craft of Coaching community has sharpened my skills while reminding me that coaching itself is an act of hope and expression of belief that people and organizations can change and grow. And the Simply Get Clients program has helped me see that running a values-aligned business isn't about compromising my principles; it's about getting clearer on them.
In these spaces, I've found people who show up authentically, share generously, and grow alongside me. They've reminded me that asking for support isn't weakness, it's wisdom. That celebrating wins together makes them sweeter, and that processing losses collectively makes them more bearable. Most importantly, they've shown me that the answer to difficult times isn't to isolate and tough it out, but to reach out and lean on one another.
An Invitation to Reconnect
Having reconnected with my purpose, values, and communities, I'm thinking now about how to keep cultivating and stay connected to these essential resources in 2026. This isn't a one-time exercise but an ongoing practice, one that requires intention and commitment, especially when external forces would prefer we lose our way.
As you near the end of this challenging year and look toward 2026, I invite you to engage in similar reflection. What did you reconnect to in order to sustain your leadership this year? Perhaps it was:
A core belief about why your work matters that helped you persist when others suggested you give up
A mentor or colleague whose wisdom reminded you that you're not alone in facing these challenges
A practice (e.g., meditation, journaling, time in nature) that helped you stay grounded when everything felt uncertain
A value that, when you returned to it, clarified difficult decisions
And looking ahead: What will help you stay connected to these essential resources in the coming year? What structures, practices, or relationships do you need to cultivate to ensure you don't drift away from what matters most when the next wave of challenges arrives?
For me, the answer involves being more intentional about scheduling time for the communities that sustain me, continuing to ask myself the purpose-alignment question before pursuing new opportunities, and regularly checking whether my language choices emerge from values or from fear.
I believe that when we stay connected to our purpose, grounded in our values, and supported by our communities, there is no system of injustice we cannot transform. But we can't do it alone, and we can't do it if we've lost touch with why we're doing it in the first place.
As we close out 2025, my hope for all of us is this: that we give ourselves permission to acknowledge how hard it's been, celebrate what we've survived and accomplished despite the difficulties, and recommit to the work with renewed clarity about what matters most. Because 2026 will bring its own challenges, and we'll need every bit of that clarity to meet them with courage and creativity.
I'd love to hear from you in the comments: What are you reconnecting to as we move into a new year? How are you staying grounded in your purpose and values? What communities are holding you up? Your reflections might be exactly what another leader needs to hear.
Here's to reconnecting, to sustaining each other, and to the transformative leadership work that awaits us in 2026.
References: Halstead, J.M. & Taylor, M.J. (2000). Learning and teaching about values: A review of recent research. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30(2), 169-202.
