The Weight and the Light: Closing 2025 with Clarity
The year is closing.
I'm sitting by the fire writing this, looking back on a year full of travel, opportunity, and new light. I walked through half of 2025 with Keep Light in my pocket, and finally felt ready to pull the curtain open and let it shine. That process is still unfolding.
This time around, I'm more aware of how much of yourself goes into building something—especially when it's just you. No employees, no storefront, no product to stand behind. Just your ideas, your experience, and the belief that what you know can help others. I'm taking my time finding the balance I want for the work ahead. I feel inspired to help, excited to share, and honored that people are interested.
Building something asks a lot—and if you're like most small business owners, you're probably somewhere between exhausted and grateful, maybe holding both at once.
Before the rush of January planning begins, before the pull of fresh starts and new goals takes over, I want to offer you something simpler: permission to stop. To look back—not with judgment or the pressure to fix everything—but with honest curiosity.
What worked this year? What didn't? And what do you actually want to carry forward?
The Cost of Never Stopping
Here's what I see happening more and more: we're moving so fast that we've stopped actually feeling what's working. We're layering on—new tools, new systems, AI, automation, another strategy, another quick fix—without ever stopping to ask if the foundation underneath is solid.
It's like putting another coat of paint on a wall without checking if the drywall is cracked. Eventually, it all starts to buckle.
And I get it. Stopping feels risky. There's always something urgent pulling at you, always someone saying you need to adopt the next tool or get left behind. But here's the thing: redoing something isn't failure. Stripping back isn't going backward. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is pause long enough to see clearly before you keep building.
Reflection isn't about dwelling in the past. It's about observing, taking note of what drained you and what sustained you, so you can make intentional choices moving forward.
Three Questions to Close the Year
So as this year winds down, here are three questions I'm sitting with. I hope they're useful for you too.
1. What felt heavy this year?
Not just what went wrong—but what drained you. What kept you up at night? What did you overthink beyond imagination?
Maybe it was the constant sense of being behind, no matter how much you did. Maybe it was the mental load of holding every detail yourself. Maybe it was realizing that working harder wasn't actually making things better. Maybe it’s the hesitancy of clearly stating what you need from your team.
A lot of small business owners describe this same feeling as treading water—whether that's barely staying afloat, swimming with no shore in sight, or frantically looking for a lifejacket.
Name what felt heavy. Write it down. You can't shift what you won't acknowledge.
2. What actually worked?
It's easy to focus on what broke or what's still undone. But there were moments this year when things held. When something clicked. When your team came through, or a customer reminded you why you started this work in the first place.
What routines kept you steady? What decisions made things just a little easier? What do you want to do more of next year?
Give yourself credit for what went right—even if it feels small.
3. What's one thing you want to change?
Not ten things. Not a complete overhaul. Just one thing that would genuinely make your business feel lighter.
Maybe it's finally creating that training system so you're not constantly re-explaining everything. Maybe it's organizing your admin work so you're not scrambling at month-end. Maybe it's building in breathing room so the business doesn't need you every single minute.
Pick one. Start there.
What's Your Word for 2026?
If you want to go a step further, consider choosing one word to anchor your year.
I know this might sound a little woo-woo, but there's real power in it. Athletes use mantras to stay focused under pressure. Navy SEALs use single words to anchor themselves during the hardest training. Ultra-marathoners repeat one word for hours to keep moving forward.
It's not magic—it's about creating a clear mental touchpoint when everything feels overwhelming.
Research on goal-setting shows that one clear focus is more effective than juggling multiple competing priorities. A single word cuts through the noise, reduces decision fatigue, and gives you something to come back to when you're lost in the weeds.
Not "organized and profitable and balanced and visible and growing." Just one word.
Maybe it's: Ease. Clarity. Trust. Build. Steady. Aligned. Flow. Focus. Gratitude.
What's the feeling you want more of? The quality you want to cultivate?
Pick one word. Write it somewhere you'll see it. Come back to it when you're making decisions, when you're overwhelmed, when you need to remember what you're actually working toward.
Moving Forward
Growth doesn't come from doing more or working harder. It comes from building systems that support you, creating clarity in the chaos, and making intentional choices about how you want your days to feel.
That's the heart of Keep Light—helping you organize what feels overwhelming so you can focus on the work you love.
If 2026 is the year you're ready to build systems that hold, train your team with confidence, and run your business with more ease, I'm here.
Let's make the new year feel lighter.
