3 LESSONS FOR STARTING STRONG

As I sit in a quiet house with wind chimes tinkling softly and the Christmas tree glowing, I’m reminded of the power of moments that tell our stories. Every ornament on our tree captures a chapter of our lives—this year’s addition celebrates my son’s graduation. What does this have to do with starting strong and staying strong ?

Lesson #1 for starting 2025 strong: Gratitude. Not just a feel-good idea, gratitude rewires your biochemistry for ease, primes your mind for opportunity, and strengthens your resilience. Is'nt that what you want in 2025 ? What are you grateful for as you close the year? Here is a picture of my last trip of 2024 through the German Christmas markets (truly magical) that I am grateful for.

For some, gratitude might feel like climbing a mountain after a tough year. Trust me, I’ve been there. If I were a cat with nine lives, I think I used eight of them in 2024. This year demanded everything I had. Health challenges, deeply distressing personal situations—it was the kind of year that drained my life force at a faster rate than I could replenish it. By March, I wondered if I’d need to take the rest of the year off.

Yet, work became my unexpected refuge. From Bahamas to Bangkok, Maldives to Mumbai, from Sri Lanka to Singapore, I delivered keynotes on change fatigue, coached CEO hopefuls, and ran storytelling workshops for iconic brands. My Harvard Business Review article hit the top 10, my book (Deep collaboration: Accelerating performance across silos) launched, and I earned three new global certifications. It wasn’t easy, but it reminded me that when life feels relentless, finding meaning—even in work—can be a lifeline.

I can't always control life (much as I can sometimes pretend I can), but many elements of my work remained under my control. Finding out what is in your control and focusing on that is a crucial part of navigating the valleys of our lives. This recognition that in one area of my life I was falling apart and in another I was trying to put things together and their co-exiestence brings us to lesson #2

Lesson #2: Hold space for life’s paradoxes. You can fall apart and rebuild at the same time. Success isn’t final, failure isn’t fatal—it’s the courage to keep going that matters (as someone said). Embrace the dualities; they’re what make us whole. Keep in check the natural tendency to focus on what is going wrong. Something or the other always is, no matter what the perfect LinkedIn feed of other people's lives will have you believe!

When I shared the nine lives analogy with a friend, he laughed and said, “You know the package renews every January!” I decided to believe him. As I close out the year with one life left, I’m choosing hope for 2025. I am allowing it to happen even though the deep scars of a few experiences start to heal.

Lesson #3: Live from your imagination, not your history. Don’t let the past define your future. What’s possible when you dare to dream? Let the end of the year be your time to exhale and imagine what’s next.

Wishing you clarity, courage, and a fresh set of nine lives in 2025. Please do leave me a comment on how the year has been and what you are hoping for in 2025. It is through human conversations and reflection that real growth happens. Remember - Gratitude, Paradox navigation, living out of your imagination. I hope it allows you to navigate 2025 better.

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