Crumbling and catharsis

Happy new year.

Were you aware that we are officially in the second half of the decade? I just recently realized this, over a cornetto and a cappuccino, overlooking the Mediterranean on the Italian coast.

Let it sink in for a minute. It begs the question, what have we been up to in the past five years? What do we have to show for it?

The 2020s have felt disconcerting, boundary-shifting, emotionally raw, or just plain chaotic for many. AI has pushed us from denial to fear to careful optimism to delirium. Global politics are freakishly unreal, with wars, presidential posturing, social unrest, and collective extremism. Technology is increasingly becoming a U.S. billionaire’s poker game.

Last year felt like standing on a cliff for many, and not in a good way. All this chaos and uncertainty has a purpose, though. As I reflect on my past twelve months, now that they are safely behind me (whew), I see a shedding of old patterns, beliefs, and structures. For many, this meant losing jobs or coming face-to-face with industry realities. Or coming to terms with what just wasn’t working anymore. For some of us, it has been an emotional reckoning with past decisions, the kind that hurts most because we can’t change the past.

As I look out onto the new year stretching before me, I feel an unexpected sense of hope. If you’d asked me three weeks ago what I thought was in store for 2026, I would have been 100% sure of doom, gloom, and collective chaos getting weirder and more unbelievable. When we’re in the eye of the storm, that’s really all we can see.

While that reality is still unfolding, I find new strength in the fact that we are embarking on the second half of the decade, and that there is still so much we can shape and mold.

Through all the chaos and the crumbling of our illusions about what the world looks like and how it works and how it’s changing, we can now study the pieces and begin imagining it anew.

We stand at a rare precipice of transformation. We need to cultivate and nurture the imagination of what this all could amount to. Trust that there is still disappointment, disbelief, and disillusionment ahead. It’s okay to be down about that, to crumble a bit. Let’s not forget, though, we are a species with the capacity for immense resilience and transformation.

Change management theory likes to say people hate change. I’ve found that to be very untrue. People within tight systems fear change, like in organizations. But individuals are constantly seeking it. What else is a New Year’s resolution if not actively pursuing the possible?

So let’s do just that: actively pursue the possible in 2026, without hiding or erasing or suppressing the uncomfortable or difficult. We have four more years to turn this collective narrative of doom and powerless-ness into something beautiful, resilient, and compassionate. Where will you start?