What a year, right? So many things happened to all of us,and as we closed out the year, I found myself trying to just breathe and make sense of it all (though I couldn’t actually do that second bit …).
Many people I know have been in the same position. Maybe you are, too.
It’s hard to find meaning in chaos, but in my year-end reflection, I always strive to identify the key things I’ve learned. Much of my reflection focused on the dance between joy and chaos, and I’d like to share some of this with you.
Lessons to carry into 2026 and beyond
The chaos around me is real, and my response to it is human.
The upheaval we are experiencing is both global and local,both planetary and personal. It is real, and it often leaves me overwhelmed emotionally, mentally, psychologically and spiritually. This is a natural, physiologic and psychologic human response. It’s OK and completely normal to feel this way. But it’s not healthy to stay in that overwhelm, so I have to develop and use tools to interrupt it.
Community is an antidote to chaos.
Community can be defined as a group connected by shared interests and common goals.Belonging is a sense of being valued, seen and heard in a setting that provides safety and security. A group with a connection becomes a community by providing that sense of belonging. In chaotic times, local and personal communities become key to my own sense of meaning and purpose, and they help me manage the overwhelm.
VUCA Prime is a useful tool for dealing with chaotic overwhelm.
In 2025, I learned about the VUCA Prime model. Many of you are familiar with Volatility, Uncertainty,Complexity and Ambiguity, or VUCA. Last year, during an Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine meeting (another impactful community in my life!), I learned about the capabilities needed to offset VUCA: Vision,Understanding, Clarity and Agility.
Collectively, these attributes represent VUCA Prime, and they offer real tools for staying constructive and effective amid chaos. For me personally, that means reassessing what matters most to me at this stage of my life (vision), deepening my understanding of what it will take that vision, developing clarity around my areas for growth in2026 and leaning into the agility needed to make change. VUCA Prime!
The people in my life ground and center me, and they bring me joy.
My family and friends have long grounded me, and over the past year they’ve been a particularly meaningful source of connection,perspective and wisdom. I’ve focused on deepening these relationships this year,and it has helped to settle my anxiety and overwhelm.
But more than that, this focus on connection has brought me extraordinary joy. (I actually helped my family prepare and pull off a27-person holiday dinner in December — what a joyous riot that was!) And my friends — oh, my dear friends. So many of them remind me to stop watching the news, stay grounded in what I can do locally to make a difference and take care of myself! I surround myself with people who offset, rather than contributing to, the overwhelm. These are some of the dearest people in my life, and I am grateful to all of them.
When I’m tired, I have to admit it — to myself and others.
2025 was a year of real fatigue, if not exhaustion. It’s hard to admit that — I was trained to push through fatigue and acculturated to not complain. But, at 63, it’s harder to hide it when I’m tired, and more difficult to push through it. And it does not serve anyone or anything well when I try. Being honest and making space for rest benefits me, as well as my loved ones, clients and my business team.
So, I have been trying to rest more when I’m tired (naps are my friend), and I’m taking time to envision my ideal work life be for 2026. Part of this involves a curated Q1 reading list that I intend to apply to my own life. These include:
— Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less — Here’s How, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
I’m also talking honestly about being tired — with those closest to me and with all of you. Having witnesses to this process helps me stay accountable, and sharpens my thinking, giving me more of that clarity needed to embrace VUCA Prime.
When I am joyful, I need to acknowledge it to myself — and tell someone else.
Perhaps most importantly, I am trying to reconnect with joy.I have a mission statement for my life, and one part of it says, “I will foster joy wherever I can do so with integrity to my own self. I will be a net positive contributor to the amount of joy, peace and compassion on the planet.”
That’s a tall order, and it’s not just a one-year goal, but a lifetime aspiration. It means I need to see and name moments of joy in my life, no matter how small, then I have to bring that sense of joy forward in my body, mind and spirit in order to hold onto it. Finally, sharing that joy with someone else helps me to externalize it and make it more tangible. My moment of joy becomes real and something that can be shared.
Speaking of joy
Writing this has been a wonderful source of joy for me today — it has helped me to realize that I have managed to bring vision, clarity,understanding and agility to my own life in the midst of a chaotic world. And it’s brought me a sense of peace. I hope you are finding ways to do these things in your own life. I’d love to hear what’s working for you.
Finally, I want to close by sharing one more bit of the joy that recently came into my life. We got a new puppy, and we named her Pippa Joy. While she has brought a degree of chaos to our lives, she’s also been true to her name and brought boundless joy. Here’s to all of us finding more joy in the chaos!
