Winter, Reflection, and Finally Slowing Down
Winter has always been a reflective season for me. It’s the time of year when the constant pressure to do, produce, and push quiets down enough that I can actually hear myself think. I don’t feel the same drive to go, go, go—and for a brain like mine, that pause is essential.
Looking back on 2025 from that slower place, I realized how many of the lessons I learned weren’t gentle insights. Some were hard-fought. Some were earned. And some showed up and slapped me right across the face. As I move into business lessons for 2026, what stands out most isn’t what I accomplished—but what changed in how I relate to my business, my body, and my brain.
The biggest theme of the year? Avoiding what’s uncomfortable doesn’t make it go away. It just gives it more space to fester.
Learning How My Brain Actually Works
One of the most significant moments of 2025 was being diagnosed with ADHD. For most of my life, I thought I was depressed and anxious. Turns out—surprise—it was ADHD. That diagnosis was gobsmacking, not because it changed who I am, but because it explained so much.
As a business owner, knowing yourself isn’t some vague, woo concept. It’s deeply practical. It’s knowing what something feels like in your body. It’s recognizing when a system drains you instead of supporting you. Before this year, I was completely disconnected from my body because being in my mind—chaotic as it was—was more stimulating.
When I started learning how my brain works and building systems for the brain I actually have (not the one I thought I should have), things shifted. Tasks didn’t necessarily become easy—but they took fewer spoons. And that was revolutionary.
This is a core tension in ADHD and entrepreneurship: success doesn’t come from forcing yourself into “approved” ways of working. Maybe you’re not an early bird. Maybe your best work happens late at night when the world is quiet. When you listen to your body instead of fighting it, progress shows up in unexpected ways.
Clarity Over Complexity (and Just Doing the Thing)
Another hard-earned lesson from 2025 was about task initiation—and avoidance disguised as productivity. For me, that looked like building an extremely impressive spreadsheet. It was color-coded. It had ten tabs. The numbers fed into each other perfectly.
And I had no idea what to actually do with it.
That spreadsheet reinforced my identity as “a numbers person” without making any real difference in my business. And the truth is, as business owners, we have too much to do to spend time on systems that look good but don’t move anything forward.
This is where the lesson landed hard: clarity beats complexity every single time. You can always make something fancy later. At the beginning—or when you’re stuck—you need simple. You need something easy to update. You need a system that works for your brain and that you’ll actually keep up with, even if it doesn’t look “consistent” by societal standards.
If something in your business is taking time but not making you money—or helping you avoid more uncomfortable work—that’s worth noticing.
Your Brain Matters More Than the “Right” Method
One of the most freeing realizations this year was that there is no single right way to run a business. If a system doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work—no matter how many gurus swear by it.
Your financial system, especially, has to work with your nervous system. If spreadsheets overwhelm you, that matters. If QuickBooks makes you shut down, you don’t have to use it. I use a personal budgeting app because it helps me understand my money in a way other tools never did.
Avoidance isn’t a moral failure. It’s information.
The invitation here isn’t to shame yourself for what you avoid—but to notice it with neutrality. No guilt. No “I should be better at this.” Just: this is a thing. From there, you can ask how to approach it in a way that actually supports you.
Sometimes the thing that looks like chaos from the outside is exactly what your brain needs on the inside.
Why Shame Can’t Be the Engine Anymore
If there’s one lesson I’m carrying most intentionally into the future, it’s this: shame is a shitty motivator. I spent most of my life driven by it—this desperate need to be better, faster, more impressive—because I was terrified of being found out.
That fear kept me stuck. It kept me from helping people. From pursuing opportunities. From believing I was good enough.
Shame isn’t like guilt. Guilt says, “I did something wrong.” Shame says, “I am wrong.” And building a business from that place will burn you out, even if you achieve everything you set out to do. It will still feel hollow.
The question I keep coming back to is this: where am I moving because I want to—and where am I moving because I feel like I have to?
When motivation is rooted in shame, you disappear. When it’s rooted in curiosity and choice, you stay present. And that presence matters, especially when it comes to money.
If you’re working long days and your bank account doesn’t reflect that effort, you’re not failing. You’re missing clarity. That’s why I created the profit checker—to help you look at one product, just one, and see whether it’s actually supporting your business.
No elaborate spreadsheets. No finance background. Just a clear next step.
👉 Download the profit checker and start there.
