How does this year live in you?

Bastian Lindberg
Dec 16, 2025
6 min read

A felt-sense review to move forward with clarity and care

By the time we arrive here - emails humming, projects landing, teams half in sprint and half in exhale - the year has already woven itself into us. It shows up in the way your shoulders lift when that Slack sound pings, in the warmth that lingers after a truly good customer conversation, in the quiet pride that sneaks in when you remember what you carried. Spreadsheets can tell us part of the story. Your body and your relationships hold the rest.

This is an invitation to close the year from the inside out. To let the experience you lived become the wisdom you lead with. To go forward not harder, but truer.

Why the body belongs in strategy

Your nervous system noticed everything. It recorded the moments your jaw tightened, when time flew, when a meeting left you strangely heavy. That is data you can trust.

Decisions that endure are not only intelligent; they are inhabitable. When a choice fits your values and your breath, follow-through stops being a struggle.

Teams find common ground faster when they surface their felt sense early. Less circling, more “yes, that’s it.”

So here is a different way for and your team, if you like, to review the year and plan ahead.

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The Felt-Year Review

⏱️ Time: 45–75 minutes

Use it alone, or with your team. Bring a pen, a piece of paper, and a little kindness.

If you’re in a group, a simple container helps: a timer, a check-in, phones turned face down.

Part 1 — Arrive and notice (5 minutes)

Sit in a way that feels like you might actually stay for a moment. Feet on the floor. Let your exhales be a touch longer than your inhales, three times.

Scan lightly. Head, jaw, throat, shoulders, chest, belly, back. No fixing. Just hello.

Give your year an image, a texture, a bit of weather. “This year in me feels like…” Let the first phrase come without editing. Write it down before your inner critic clears its throat.

Part 2 — Map the year on your body (10–15 minutes)

Draw a simple outline of a body. No art prize required. Place what you lived, where you feel it. Use the following lenses, or use your own.

Wins that warmed you. Mark with a small sun and a word. “Launch joy — chest.”
Stretches that strengthened you. Mark with a mountain. “New role — legs.”
Drains that cost you. Mark with a droplet. “Rework loops — temples.”
Relationships that fed you. Mark with a leaf. “Ops duo — back.”
Boundaries you missed. Draw a thin, porous line where it feels leaky. “Scope creep — belly.”

Sit back and look. Let the picture speak before you explain it. What story emerges that your KPIs never told?

Part 3 — Three gentle lenses to deepen the picture (15–20 minutes)

Value fit

Circle what felt aligned with what you stand for, even if it was hard.
Square what looked good on paper but landed off in your gut.

Notice, without judgment: Which value is asking for more room next year?

Energy economics

Name two activities that gave you more energy than they took, regardless of time spent.
Name two that drained you, even when quick.

If energy is your currency, where would you invest, and what would you reduce by just 20%?

Learning edges

Complete these lines: “This year taught me I can…” and “This year showed me I no longer want to…”
Name one capability that quietly grew. Name one you kept to the side.

Where is the edge that feels alive, not punishing?

Part 4 — A brief conversation with the year (8–10 minutes)

It may feel unusual, and it is surprisingly clarifying. If you can, speak out loud, even softly.

You to the Year: “What were you trying to teach me?”
Year to You: Wait for the first clean sentence. Write it before you explain it.
You to the Year: “What would you have me leave behind?”
Year to You: Listen. Jot it down, even if it’s inconvenient.
You to the Year: “What seed did you plant that I should water next?”
Year to You: Capture the image or phrase that arrives.

With a team: do this silently, then share a single sentence each. No fixing, no debate. Just witness and “thank you.”

Part 5 — Let feeling become forward motion (10–15 minutes)

Translate what you sensed into steps that feel kind and doable. Think small steps rather than heroic leaps.

Keep.Two nourishing practices you will continue. “90-minute focus blocks Tue/Thu.” “Weekly customer call.”

Cut.Two drains you will stop or gently reduce by 20%. “No slide polishing after v2.” “Decline meetings without an agenda.”

Create.One ritual that anchors your values. “Monthly ‘decision retrospective’ to notice when we overrode our gut.”

Commitments.Three sentences that start with “I will…,” including behavior and cadence. “I will protect two no-meeting mornings per week.”

Witness.Share these with a colleague or your team (or partner/friend when you do it for yourself). Ask them to reflect back the value they hear in your choices, so you can feel your own why.

Optional team circle (30–60 minutes)

Round 1: Each person shares, in one minute, “This year in me feels like…” The group answers only with “Thank you.”

Round 2: Each offers one Keep, one Cut, one Create. One curious, non-leading question per person, then “Thank you.”

Close: Each names one appreciation for the team this year and one quality they want to bring into the next.

A small example

Image: “A river after rain—muddy, moving, alive.”

Body map: Sun in chest (customer stories). Droplet at temples (late approvals). Mountain in legs (first all-hands facilitation). Leaf at back (ops partner).

Value fit: Strong alignment with learning and service; friction with simplicity.

Energy economics: + Writing customer notes; + Coaching 1:1s; – Deck polishing; – Ad-hoc status calls.

The year’s message: “Trust the simpler path.” Leave behind: “Performing expertise.” Water: “Spaces for real conversation.”

Steps: Keep weekly customer calls. Cut slide polishing after v2. Create a monthly “simple-first” review. Commit to two no-meeting mornings.

Letting it settle, letting it guide

After the exercise give your notes a little air. Close the notebook. Take a short walk, or make a cup of tea. Notice what lingers when you stop trying to hold it all. Often the clearest thread shows up in the quiet after the doing.

If you’re working with a team, send a simple thank-you to the group and name one thing you’re taking with you. Then, choose a gentle cadence to keep your insights alive. Two simple rhythms tend to hold well:

A 20-minute weekly “Keep/Cut/Create” check-in for the first month of the new year. One focus each week, one small adjustment agreed and protected.
A monthly “Decision Retrospective” where you revisit one decision that felt good in the body and one that didn’t, and refine how you decide together.

You might also translate your one-word quality into something you can touch. If your word is steadiness, put it into your calendar as a boundary. If it’s play, give yourself one meeting a week where experimentation is explicitly the goal. If it’s spaciousness, schedule white space before key choices. Make the word operational, so it can carry you when willpower thins.

Invite allies. Share your commitments with one colleague who can nudge you kindly and celebrate small wins. Rotate that role each quarter in your team. This turns personal insight into shared culture, one gentle nudge at a time.

And remember the pace. Real change likes to travel with breath. If you catch yourself sprinting back into the old groove, pause and return to the felt map. Ask, “What would make this step 10% kinder and 10% clearer?” Then do that.

A blessing for the threshold

Before we cross, let’s bow to the year that lived in you. To the late nights and early mornings. To the courage it took to say yes, and the wisdom it took to say no. To the conversations that healed something small and important. To the failures that quietly composted into learning. May what was heavy find its place. May what was beautiful be remembered.

Inwards. May you find the ground beneath your feet again. May your breath arrive before your inbox. May you trust the information in your body: the warmth that says “this,” the tightness that whispers “not this.” May your values feel less like memories of the past and more like pulse. May you meet yourself with the same kindness you offer others, especially at the edges you are still growing.

Upwards. May your next steps be guided by the truest thing you know. May clarity come in sentences you can actually live. May your effort be well-aimed, your teams well-held, your experiments well-timed. May simplicity have a seat at the table. May your work serve something that makes you proud to sign your name.

When you’re ready, place a hand on your chest, another on your belly.

Thank the year for what it made of you. Thank yourself for what you made of it. Then look toward the first week of the new year and choose one small act that embodies your word. Put it in your calendar, protect it like a promise, and let it be the first step of a year that grows from the inside and reaches where it needs to go.

Onwards…

Bastian