Dear Sage,

The year’s finish line is in sight, and I’m running on fumes. The list is long, the wins feel distant, and next year already looms large. I want to finish strong - and not just collapse at the end.

How can I end the year with a sense of encouragement instead of exhaustion?

— Running on Empty

Dear Running on Empty,

You may be more equipped for this moment than you think.

Think back: When have you faced challenge, complexity, or change - and still found your way through? What helped you then that might help now?

We often rush past what’s working, scanning only for what’s left undone. That habit hides our progress.

Find Strength in What’s Already Working

Before looking ahead, look back.

What did work this year?
Which relationships, experiments, or decisions helped your team move forward?
What moments made you proud, even quietly so?

When you name what worked, you don’t just remember - you rebuild energy for what’s next.

A Personal Story

Although it was years ago, my early engineering training can still surface as an unconscious urge to simply find the problem and fix it.

At one annual planning offsite, I wanted to be both efficient and helpful - so I zeroed in on what we needed to do better. Up to that point, our work with clients had been both impactful and profitable. Still, I was stuck on the thin pipeline for the year ahead.

The conversation started to drag. Then one teammate said, “I wonder what would happen if we went back into what’s worked well to find clues for next year.” Another suggested we take a walk while we talked.

An hour later, we piled back into the rented cabin—faces red from the cold, hearts warm from the appreciation we’d shared along the trail. After a few more logs in the woodstove, we began shaping a strong plan for the next 12 months—together.

What You Can Try

Reflect, don’t rush. Take 15 minutes to list three things that worked this year - personally or as a team.
Name your through-lines. Look for patterns in what energized you or made collaboration smoother.
Share the credit. Acknowledge your team’s progress out loud. What you name becomes what you build on.
Let momentum set direction. Use what worked as the launchpad for early-year goals instead of starting from scratch.

What Encouragement Really Looks Like

Encouragement isn’t about ignoring what’s hard. It’s about seeing strength clearly enough to carry it forward. When leaders pause to name what’s working, they remind everyone—including themselves—that progress is already happening.

You don’t have to finish the year by doing more. You can finish it by seeing more.

And if you’d like to carry that kind of perspective into next year, start a conversation about how your team can build from what’s already strong.