As 2025 comes to a close, many are taking stock.
Plans are reviewed. Decisions revisited. Quiet questions begin to surface about what stays, what shifts, and what comes next. All of that matters.
But alongside reflection, strategy and planning, there’s another layer of reflection that’s easy to miss, and yet shapes everything else.
How did we actually move through this year?
Where did we slow down and think, and where did we rush because it felt safer to do so?
“In any given moment we have two options, to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”
— Abraham Maslow
When I talk about taking the stairs rather than the lift, I don’t mean choosing the harder option for the sake of it. I mean choosing to stay present with the work.
The lift gets us where we’re going quickly. It’s efficient … Familiar … Often necessary. But it carries us past the experience of getting there. We arrive without having felt the effort, without having noticed what changed in us along the way
The stairs are different.
They ask a little more of us. They slow us down just enough to notice our breathing, our balance, the steps beneath our feet.
And in doing so, they quietly build strength, awareness, and confidence.
In leadership and founding work, the stairs are the moments we don’t rush. The conversations we stay with, even when they’re uncomfortable. The decisions we think through rather than outsource to habit or pressure.
Sometimes the lift is exactly what’s needed. But if we always take it, we miss the learning.
Being “in the 2%” isn’t about doing more or proving anything. It’s about choosing presence over autopilot. About being willing, when it matters, to take the stairs and stay connected to the process, not just the result.
What the Year of the Snake has been asking of us
In Chinese astrology, 2025 has been the Year of the Wood Snake.
The Snake is associated with wisdom, intuition, and renewal. It’s not a fast energy. It doesn’t rush forward. It watches, senses, and waits for the right moment. And when something no longer fits, it sheds its skin completely.
That image feels important for leadership.
This year has quietly asked many leaders and founders to notice what no longer fits. Ways of working that once helped but now drain energy. Roles we’ve outgrown. Expectations we’ve carried without questioning.
Shedding doesn’t usually announce itself. Often it happens beneath the surface. We only realise later that we’re responding differently, leading differently, or no longer tolerating what once felt normal. In many ways, the Snake invites us to take the stairs inward.
- To slow down enough to notice patterns.
- To sit with uncertainty rather than rushing to certainty.
- To trust intuition alongside evidence.
It’s reflective leadership. Strategic, but not showy. Intentional rather than reactive.
If this year has felt quieter, more internal, or even uncomfortable at times, that may have been the work. The slow work of shedding what no longer serves, so something more aligned can emerge.
From shedding to movement, the Horse gathers pace
As we move towards the Chinese New Year, the energy begins to shift towards the Year of the Horse.
Where the Snake asks us to pause and shed, the Horse brings momentum. Energy. Forward movement. Confidence.
But this is where the stairs matter even more.
Momentum that hasn’t been earned can feel frantic. Movement without reflection can scatter energy. The Horse’s power is at its best when it’s guided, focused, and grounded in what’s already been learned.
The reflective work of the Snake becomes the foundation for the movement of the Horse.
This is not about suddenly sprinting forward or making dramatic declarations. It’s about noticing what is now genuinely ready to move, because the groundwork has been done.
- The stairs here look like steady, intentional action.
- Clear decisions built on earlier reflection.
- Progress that feels solid rather than rushed.
The Horse reminds us that momentum doesn’t need to be chaotic. When it’s aligned, it feels freeing rather than overwhelming.
Leadership is built step by step
Taking the stairs in leadership is rarely a single moment. It’s a pattern of choice.
- Choosing to think rather than react.
- Choosing to stay with complexity rather than simplify too soon.
- Choosing to build capacity rather than burn energy.
Over time, those choices compound. They shape culture.They shape trust. They shape how it feels to work with and around you.
This is why leadership doesn’t live in big statements or bold gestures. It lives in the everyday moments, the meetings, the pauses, the way decisions are made and explained.
How we move matters as much as where we’re going.
A CALMER™ way forward
As the year turns, many people feel pressure to reset or reframe everything. But meaningful change rarely comes from rushing.
This is where I often return to a simple rhythm that underpins my work, one that mirrors the stairs rather than the lift.
- Clarity, creating space to see what really matters.
- Alignment, noticing whether values and actions still sit well together.
- Leadership, showing up with intention and responsibility.
- Momentum, moving forward at a pace that feels grounded rather than frantic.
- Energy, paying attention to what drains and what restores.
- Reflection, pausing often enough to learn and adjust.
You don’t need to do all of this at once. One step is enough.
The stairs aren’t about speed. They’re about staying connected to the journey.
A closing reflection
As we leave the Year of the Snake behind and step towards the momentum of the Horse, perhaps the invitation is simple.
What are you ready to shed?
What now feels ready to move?
And where might choosing the stairs help you lead, build, or decide more clearly?
Sometimes being in the 2% isn’t about standing out.
It’s about slowing down just enough to choose well, and staying present with each step as you move forward.
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