A Holiday Reset: Reconnect, Reflect, and Realign

The hol­i­days offer the one thing lead­ers rarely get: Space.

Space to breathe. Space to step back. Space to reconnect.

Use this moment to audit the three areas that deter­mine your capac­i­ty: Work. Self. Life.

When these buck­ets are aligned, you have endurance. When they aren’t, every­thing is hard­er than it needs to be. As I wrote in Your Oxy­gen Mask First:

1. The Sim­ple Year-End Reflection

Before Jan­u­ary hits, sit down with a spouse, part­ner, or trust­ed advi­sor. Ask:

• Your biggest wins or achieve­ments of the year?
• Your biggest chal­lenges, frus­tra­tions or disappointments?
• The biggest lessons?
• If you could do the year over again, what would you do differently?
• What needs to shift for you to be at your best in 2026?

2. The Mas­ter Plan

Reflec­tion isn’t enough; you need alignment.

A good Mas­ter Plan pulls you out of the weeds and forces clar­i­ty. It ensures your deci­sions line up with your long-term goals, not just today’s noise. Use the break to update your:

• 10-Year Pic­ture
• 3‑Year Goals
• 1‑Year Plan
• Q1 Plan

Clar­i­ty cre­ates ener­gy. Ener­gy cre­ates momentum.

3. Don’t Do It Alone

The best plans come from con­ver­sa­tions with a part­ner who will ask real ques­tions, push your think­ing, and help you see your blind spots.

If you need a frame­work, this video walks you through the exact struc­ture I use with lead­er­ship teams.

Take 60 min­utes. Grab a note­book. Plan for the future you actu­al­ly want to create.

If You Want Inspi­ra­tion, Start Here

Here are the Top 10 insights our com­mu­ni­ty leaned on this year for per­son­al growth and resilience:

1. Why AQ Beats IQ

In a world where smart and emo­tion­al­ly aware lead­ers are still get­ting blind­sided, this piece makes the case that adapt­abil­i­ty — not IQ or EQ — is the real lead­er­ship edge, and the one skill you can’t afford to stop training.

2. Plan­ning for the Next Year and Quar­ter Century

A prac­ti­cal invi­ta­tion to zoom out, reflect hon­est­ly on the last year and the last 25, and then get ruth­less about what tru­ly mat­ters so you can trans­late a long-term vision into clear, focused actions for the next 90 days and beyond.

3. Get Strate­gic with a 10-Year P&L

This post chal­lenges lead­ers to stop bud­get­ing like oper­a­tors and start think­ing like own­ers by using a 10-year P&L to con­nect today’s strate­gic deci­sions to the kind of busi­ness they actu­al­ly want to be run­ning a decade from now.

4. 4 Fix­es to Com­mon Strate­gic Plan­ning Mistakes

Cut­ting through why strate­gic plans fail and lay­ing out four prac­ti­cal fix­es to sim­pli­fy your strat­e­gy, focus on what tru­ly dri­ves growth, avoid dis­trac­tions, and build the account­abil­i­ty required to actu­al­ly execute.

5. Reset­ting for Growth

This arti­cle chal­lenges lead­ers to step out of the dai­ly noise, re-clar­i­fy what tru­ly dri­ves growth, and realign their strat­e­gy so effort, atten­tion, and cap­i­tal are point­ed at the moves that actu­al­ly matter.

6. Strate­gic Align­ment and Accountability

Real growth comes from get­ting crys­tal clear on the vision you’re build­ing toward, mak­ing a small num­ber of dis­ci­plined strate­gic bets, and cre­at­ing the own­er­ship and 90-day rhythm that turn align­ment into real accountability.

7. KPIs – What’s Most Important?

Strong lead­er­ship starts with a small, focused set of KPIs that clear­ly tell the sto­ry of busi­ness health, cut through dash­board noise, and give lead­ers and teams the insight they need to make bet­ter deci­sions every week.

8. The Pow­er of a Fortress Bal­ance Sheet

Strong com­pa­nies don’t just rely on strat­e­gy in uncer­tain times — they build fortress bal­ance sheets that act like oxy­gen can­is­ters, giv­ing lead­ers the cash, resilience, and options to stay calm, deci­sive, and oppor­tunis­tic when oth­ers are scrambling.

9. Build­ing a Team of A‑Players

Great lead­ers stop try­ing to be the smartest per­son in the room and instead build teams of A‑Players — often before they feel ready — by giv­ing expe­ri­enced peo­ple real own­er­ship, room to lead, and the chance to help build some­thing meaningful.

10. Leav­ing Room to Learn

Lead­er­ship scales fastest when curios­i­ty stays high, ego stays low, and you’re will­ing to get com­fort­able not know­ing so you can keep learn­ing, adapt­ing, and sur­round­ing your­self with peo­ple who stretch your thinking.