As we near the end of the year, it is a great opportunity to reflect and reset ready for the year ahead! 2025 has marked our 10th year anniversary and over this year, I have taken the time to reflect on some of my own key learnings over the last 10 years. Below, I have shared 3 of these reflections. They may land with you or inspire you as we end 2025 and look ahead into 2026. They can be applied personally or professionally. I have also shared a great reflection tool that I use at the end of each year to help reset and look ahead into the next year. Reflection 1: Find your own path and set your own pace: In the world of social media and a fast-paced business world, it can be hard not to compare yourself to others, critically question yourself or measure yourself on other people's metrics of success. The reality is that we are all in our own lane, running our own race, facing our own mixture of challenges that come our way. For me, when I reflect across the last 10 years at Arden Matheson, the critical learning and growth has been when I have consciously cut through the external noise to find my own path. A path and pace that works for me, our team and the business. Pace is key because I am fast paced but I need to ensure my team are with me on the journey and I sometimes need to alter my pace. I also have a young family, so the pace and path need to take this into account too. We can gain so much from different external voices in inspiration, ideas and innovative thinking. However, it is important to lean into your intuition, your gut feeling and take the time to step away to work out which path and what pace is right for you. Reflection 2: Raise your ceiling and help others raise their ceiling On the back of my first reflection, a key reflection for me is to raise your own ceiling, stretch yourself, push yourself forwards to meet new meaningful milestones. Shape success that you will feel proud of. We are often the main barriers of our own success and growth. This can look like self-doubt, fear, lack of self-belief. We put our own limitations on ourselves. Taking away the ceiling that we have created can sometimes feel impossible, so rather than taking it away, raise it. Raising our ceiling and making it higher can drive our progress and expand our potential. Taking small steps can lead to big strides forwards. This is true personally as well as professionally. Helping others raise their ceiling is what we do daily at Arden Matheson, and it is wonderful to see this and inspire others to see how they can raise their own ceilings. Reflection 3: The Body Keeps the Score: Rest, recharge and take a break If we don't rest and recharge, we will be forced to stop through illness or poor health. I have lost count of how many times I have ‘kept going’ when I needed to stop. I inevitably then get hit with a lost voice or a bad cold and I know it is my body telling me to stop. Trying to reset and recharge can be hard and this is something to look at on a daily basis as much as a longer term basis. I find this particularly challenging and I am still working on this. Over the years, these are some things that I have learnt work for me: Booking time off across the year in advance Booking a holiday or organising something in this time off (otherwise I am likely to log on or work!) Get outside during the working day at least once or twice a day for fresh air and a short walk. Switch off my laptop at a reasonable time on an evening Have a meaningful morning routine that stops me from logging on as soon as my eyes open! Not making big decisions when I am ready for a break. Doing what I love outside of work and try to be present with this. Walk! I walk after the end of most days come rain or shine! This helps me process the day and reset myself. I have found this to be beneficial, even for just 20 minutes, I feel so much better for it. Finding your own structure to help you reset and recharge can be really impactful and can make a big difference daily. Reset and Reflect Tools At the end of a year or half year, I really enjoy completing the following exercise and it supports my own development and growth. I have seen others work through this in our coaching programmes and they have also found it very impactful. The Reflection Board The Reflection Board is a reflection tool that enables you to reflect back across the year in a practical way. It helps you to take the time to review what has happened and unravel the highlights and the challenges to help you move into the next year. It also gives you an insight into what is most important to you. How it works: Look back through either all of your photos on your phone photo reel (personal reflections) or your work calendar and diary or your work 1:1 reviews (professional reflections) for the year or half year and make a note of the following: What are all the positives that have happened this year including events / milestones/ time spent being, doing or sharing with others. Consider what makes you smile as you look back at these and how they made you feel. What are the challenges or issues that have taken place in this time frame? What are the lessons learnt from these challenges or issues that you can take into next year? Write them all down – all the positives and all the challenges. Once you get to the end of these, make a note of key themes that show up from your list of positives - where can you do more of these next year? How can you prioritise these next year? What can you take away from the challenges and lessons learnt for next year? How will you reset for next year with these in mind? A final point that you could add here would be to choose 1 word or phrase that you want to anchor the next year to based on the outputs of this exercise. The Reflection Board really supports the power of gratitude and appreciation of what has been and helps us to understand ourselves and what is important to us. It can help shape priorities, boundaries and planning as we move forwards into next year. I hope this gives some inspiration and ideas for you, your team or your colleagues. Wishing you a wonderful end of the year and all the best for the year ahead! Holly Arden

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