Let's burn 2025 to the ground...but like…let's actually do it this time, tho
What happens when the universe stops hinting and starts taking drastic action? How deciding what to release can reshape your work, your money, your joy.
This essay is part of a series I’m writing leading up to January Joy, a free slate of events I’m co-hosting with Claire Venus ✨ next month, including live conversations with experts about how they grow with joy, challenges to help you plan your own joyous growth, and a masterclass at the end to wrap it all up. You can sign up for free to get access to all most of the events.
All you have to do is subscribe to the January Joy publication, and you’ll be registered for everything but the masterclass, which is $100. However, Hapitalist members get a free ticket. If you’ve been thinking about joining, this is a great time to consider an upgrade.
Hi,
I’ve traveled a lot in my life, and one of the things that sticks most vividly in my mind is driving across Tanzania on safari, watching the savannah burn. It’s frightening, awe-inspiring, and frankly a little confusing to watch acres and acres of fields burn down, as far as the eye can see, smoke billowing and fire licking the sky.
It’s even more mind-boggling when you learn that the burn was intentional to help fuel future growth.
We have controlled burns all the time in California, but they usually happen over there…in the woods…away from humans. Watching a fire rage in real time while you take pictures of giraffes and caribou on vacation is considerably more surreal.
When I think about 2025, I’m certainly ready to burn it to the ground…I think we can all (at least mostly) agree on that sentiment…
…but instead of fighting the universe as it unleashes chaos upon me…
…I want to take control of the burn, like those farmers who confidently watched their fields burn, knowing something better would rise from the ashes.
We are taught that all fires are bad, but while fires do burn everything in their path, they are also cleansing, even necessary, to seed new growth. The growth will come, but the burning comes first and, as Kalen Dion famously said, "For this part, darling, you must be brave.”
It’s not hyperbole to say that 2025 took almost everything from me, at least financially.
In January, I lost my biggest client, which accounted for 25% of my revenue, and about 80% of my profit.
In April-ish, we had to replace all the pipes under our house.
Then, in June we shuttered Writer MBA, including the conference we spent 2+ years building, and accounted for another 50% of my revenue (though thankfully almost none of my profit).
Finally, in August, our car broke down for the last time after we spent $1,500 on repairs, and we didn’t want to spend an additional $9,000 to repair a car worth at most $2,000, so we bought a new one.
I’m entering 2026 having lost what amounts to 70-80% of my yearly revenue, while owing thousands of additional dollars in obligations a month. There is nothing on the horizon that can obviously replace that revenue, and those bills will keep coming due whether I figure it out or not.
It’s suboptimal, but I have been thinking about it like a controlled burn. Those parts of my life clearly needed to burn so that new growth can take hold, even if I can’t see it right now. For context:
I didn’t like working for my client. I like them just fine, but I hate running Facebook ads, and I hate myself when I run them. It was just so much money for so little work.
Our company wasn’t working. It was dragging both of us down. Since we both had our own businesses and worked in the same space, it was cannibalizing both of our solo businesses, while barely breaking even.
We desperately needed to get the pipes under our house fixed. Every time we opened our dishwasher, it released a nauseating smell. It just sucks that we reached this point when the other chaos was happening.
We obviously needed a more reliable car. We only have one and the one we had was very old. We bought our last car in 2012, and it fell apart after a decade of use. The timing sucks, but it happens.
I like to think of this like the universe forcing me to shed things I had been ignoring for too long, instead of trying to destroy me.
I needed to let go, but I couldn’t until the universe forced the issue.
I read this book a while ago called When the Body Says No. In it, the author makes the case that your body will tell you what it needs. If you ignore what it’s telling you, then it will use stronger and stronger language until you have no choice but to listen.
That is what I think the universe was doing to me in 2025. After barely breaking even on our first conference, we decided to run a bigger one. The universe made it incredibly painful for us, but eventually we did break even on it.
However, the message was clear “If you do this again, I will not save you.”
This time, we got the message and took action on it, shuttering the conference. Since the conference was 90%+ of our revenue, we closed the company down behind it as well.
I haven’t been doing a good job in recent years listening to what the universe was telling me. I used to be better at it, but I have been holding tight to things I shouldn’t for a while now.
I knew it, even though I didn’t know it.
The universe has been sending messages that were always clear, at least in retrospect, and in 2025, it stopped playing nice.
It has nothing to do with how much I love it or how hard I worked on it. The universe is telling me with 100% clarity what will serve me in 2026…
…and it’s burning down everything else.
Those things were my past but they are not my future. They make great anecdotes and wonderful memories, but they aren’t right for me now. They taught me things, but they have nothing else to teach.
They brought me joy, but they no longer bring me joy.
In some cases, as with Frictionless Growth, I’ve pulled forward the parts of my past that do still serve me, like adding Ecosystems to my new SCALE paths modality…
…but most of it will stay in the past.
As we age and grow in our career, we simply can’t bring forward everything we loved just because we loved it once. It has to serve us somehow. Otherwise, it will become a burden.
So, this is my challenge to you…look back on those past years, the ones that you wanted to burn to the ground, and ask yourself…
…“Did you, tho?”
Did you really burn it to the ground? Or did you rescue at least a few parts the universe was trying to burn off you?
Is there something trailing you year after year that you just can’t get rid of but should? If so, maybe that’s the reason you keep feeling the need to burn every year to the ground…
…Because you haven’t yet.
I’m not advocating for you to necessarily abandon responsibilities, but this is at least an opportunity to decide on a sunset date for the ones that don’t serve you…
…or, if you can’t do that, at least try to really and finally fix the root of why you’re in such turmoil with it every year.
Our Puritan Work Ethic tells us that it’s only “work” if it’s “hard”, which means when things aren’t working, it’s those hard things we keep piling on because they are the only things that “feel” like we’re actually doing anything.
Here’s the thing, though. After hanging out with many, many successful people, I have found that success only really comes from following your joy.
That’s why I’m working with Claire Venus ✨ on a free program we’re calling January Joy.
It’s all about how to grow joyously in 2026, and also make the money you want to make. It’s filled with live conversations, challenges, and even a masterclass at the end of it.
The masterclass is $100, but the rest of it is completely free. Plus, it will be free for all Hapitalist members, and be available for watching afterward inside my archives.
If you have been thinking about joining, now is a great time. I have so much extra cool stuff planned for you next year.
