There’s this guy I follow online known as “Knees Over Toes Guy.”
I’m a walking bag of pinched discs (sorry, TMI) so I pay attention when he talks about movement and rehab. He advocates for some weird-looking things if I’m honest. But it all comes from a compelling place.
Like, he shares one story of inspiration.
There was this powerlifting coach, Louis Simmons, who had this insight back in the ‘90s. He recognized that Finnish lifters were dominating the deadlift. He got curious. Started watching. Turned out many of them worked as loggers — spending hours a day walking backward in the cold, dragging felled trees out of the way.
Unsexy though the work may have been, Simmons realized that movement pattern — walking backwards under load — was giving them a leg up (pun, sorry).
So he built a sled to replicate the movement in the gym. It became a cornerstone of strength training.
It’s on my mind as we close out 2025.
Most of the adjectives I’d use to characterize this year aren’t really safe for this family-friendly newsletter. So let’s call it…Politically divisive. Economically uncertain.
Tariffs and pullbacks and frozen investments triggered a lot of organizational breath-holding and chaos.
A lot of people just trying to get through. It’s been a real grind.
I think many of us are tempted to flush this year. Write it off. Start fresh in January and pretend this one didn’t happen.
So, those Finnish loggers. They too were grinding it out. But Simmons watched through the slog. And he saw something — noticed a bright spot and spun it into an innovation.
He found gold in the observation and I’d love to invite you to do the same as you reflect on what this year has been for you and your team.
Not the wins you planned. The ones that surprised you.
What feedback landed this year? Where did you delight someone, change an outcome, show up in a way that actually worked? What made that moment happen — not luck, but what YOU brought to it?
Where did something small land big? A quick note. A piece of advice you’ve given a hundred times that finally clicked. Where did impact outpace effort — and what was different about how you approached it?
When did you feel most alive at work? In the zone. Losing track of time. What were you doing? Who were you with? What conditions made that possible?
When were you at your bravest? When did you say the hard thing, ask the risky question, push back when it would’ve been easier to stay quiet? What made that feel safe enough to try?
Those moments are in there. Even in a year like this one.
The conditions that unlock your best work aren’t universal. What energizes me might drain you. That’s why we each have to do the excavation ourselves.
So before you close the book on 2025, take an hour. Look back. Not at your failures or your frustrations. And not even at your biggest-bangest moments. But at your bright spots. The quiet moments in which something meaningful happened. Don’t let it escape you.
There’s something in there worth carrying forward.
You just have to look.