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MAKING HEADWAY

BY RICH FARRELLY

Credit: Me. Berlin, Germany

Sunday, January 5th, 2025

Wow, there are a lot of new subscribers here. I may need rotator cuff surgery after the high-fives I have to give out to you all! 

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Hey Holiday Maker!!

Far out, it is the 5th day of 2025. I usually stop saying to people, "Where has the year gone?" in mid-February. I think the humour wears thin well before then. Maybe I should read the room and it is just not funny or worth people even bothering with the 'Face with tears of joy' (😂) emoji . 

Only 361 more days to go, or 360 depending if you are the type that counts today as a day even though it hasn't finished....cheeky (Happy New Year, by the way!! Cheers) . 

If you can't believe you're at this point in 2025, you're not alone. Millions (possibly billions) around the world are wondering the same thing. But, what is really on their minds as they consider pouring old wine into new bottles? It's the 'What's in and What's out' list for 2025. 

Let's pull back the velvet curtain, look across the stage at our audience and break the fourth wall (I only just learnt about the fourth wall and really wanted to include it here, so I have indelicately squeezed in a theatre metaphor) to understand the trends that will shape leadership and our lives in 2025. 

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There's a lot I left out: Keep building resilience. More time with friends. Less Doritos. More reading. Less scrolling. But, like life, I had to choose, so here we go unlocking the shackles (hence the photo reference at the top) of 2024.

What's in and What's out for 2025 [According to Rich]

✅IN: The flow

❌OUT: The grind

Interrupting the grind of the gears is zee name of zee game in 2025. Effort? Battle? Exhaustion? So passé. This year is about finding the hum to achieve greater things and finding the people who care that you show up.

✅IN: Mastery

❌OUT: Perfection

Perfection created the new Executive-suite category of 'CEO of Bottlenecks'. Mastery cuts you some slack and opens up possibilities. It lets you create space for magic and that input that comes and that you cannot plan for. Don't be so attached to your own agenda. Let your intuition lead, and trust that you can make space for even better magic. You can be the sorcerer and the apprentice at the same time.
 

✅IN: Direction

❌OUT: Speed

I did originally write 'tap the brakes' as being 'IN', but 'Direction' gives us more. It means we have a better sense of the map and the territory. Both of these are important.

✅IN: Networked

❌OUT: Siloed

We're not self-made, we're community made. Nobody achieves anything alone. Be very conscious as far as building a core group or a mastermind group of companions who are on a similar path to you, so that you don't have to go at it alone. I noticed this in the back part of 2024, but to paraphrase Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens's classic story of orphaned and lonely silos: More, please.

✅IN: Momentum

❌OUT: Inertia

For the science geeks out there, you may know this little nugget and didn't think it would ever make it into the Arts Faculty where the dreamers were hanging out - Momentum (p) is Mass (m) x Velocity (v). It now has the added bonus of helping people to understand how to overcome resistance to change. We can pull as many levers, push as many buttons, and turn as many dials as we like to try and make change happen, but to get the systems and people (Mass), and speed and direction (Velocity) right requires the right amount of chutzpah. 

✅IN: Focus

❌OUT: Distracted by shiny things

I used to have a mirror ball hanging from my office ceiling. It was my bosses way of reminding me to not be distracted by the shiny and fun things that would take me off task. Focus-time has been bantered around for a few years now, but the rubber is really starting to hit the road (an expression that just won't go away) and will be necessary for the chaos of 2025. Letting the sun set on parts of your life not serving you anymore is where I am going with this.

✅IN: Letting go

❌OUT: Analysis paralysis

I have never seen the movie Frozen. In my leadership programs, when I talk about the concept of letting go, someone always (as in, without exception) hums the tune 'Let It Go', which is in the movie. I know it ain't that easy to 'let it go'. It takes time and energy to reframe, reset, rethink, thank, forgive (even yourself) for that thing you are banging your head against a brick wall for, so you can move forward from that thing that is holding you back (and hurting your head).

✅IN: Coffee and donuts

❌OUT: Coffee and donuts

27 years of policing say that these will never be O-U-T. 

✅IN: Real problem

❌OUT: First problem

Unless the problem is as simple the printer being out of paper, the first problem is never the real problem. Dig into what the actual problem is. 

(Actually, why didn't Stanley refill the paper? He used it last.)

✅IN: Sitting forward

❌OUT: Sitting back

Immersing yourself in the theatre of life is the aim here. The Laz-e-boy recliner with the built in refrigerator and eighteen mode massage feature is on the porch, ready to be collected by a stranger from Facebook Marketplace who is not as enlightened as you.

✅IN: Over - delivering

❌OUT: Over - promising

A local cafe I go to when I am on holiday gives customers a little chocolate freckle (here's a Reddit article on freckles for those not familiar with them) with their coffee. Because of this personal touch, I walk past three other cafes to get to that one each morning. Surprising and delighting people by going the extra mile, adding the personal touch, or doing something unexpected, helps build and reinforce trust and your brand. 

✅IN: Small steps

❌OUT: Giant leap

The only person who can use both of these in the one statement is Neil Armstrong. Small steps towards your big goal is better than leaping and maybe doing an ankle on the landing because you haven't really warmed up, practised, or assessed the magnitude of the leap. Gravity has alot of pull (See what I did there? You're welcome).

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You probably think I am asking too much of you here, but there's no pressure to do them in any particular order, or to do all of them, and there's no Final Boss Fight like in a computer game or movie that it's all in service of, and that's OK. Just pick one and get to work. 

If fear is holding you back, try diving into this two minute-ish video on the subject. Elizabeth Gilbert - you may recognise her as the author of Eat. Pray. Love. - uses a great metaphor for accepting fear. 

If you need me to help you unpack any of these - even eating less Doritos - contact me here or call me.

What would you include in the list for what's in and what's out? Let me know.

Looking for a way out? The answer may be right in front of you.

In 1995, two prisoners, Heiss and Baker, escaped a prison in Darwin, Australia, by making a copy of the prison master key, which could open every lock in the jail. In 2013, a former prison officer revealed how:

"The prisoners' information handbook had a pair of crossed keys on the front of it. Those keys were a dead-set copy of the keys that we had."

"Heiss was in a cell where he could reach his arm through the window and reach the lock," the prison officer said. "Baker [a jeweller who had jewellery-making equipment in his cell] was in a cell where he couldn't reach the lock. He used to give the key to Heiss and he would put it in the lock, then give it back and say 'I think it needs a bit more off here or there'."

The officer said Heiss's escape caused a huge amount of embarrassment for the authorities.

"The handbooks were taken off the prisoners straightaway and the contractors were called in to change all the locks," he said.

Take from this what you will. 

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MONTH  

(I don't receive anything for these recommendations. I just like them and thought you may be interested)

BOOK

The Anger Fallacy: Uncovering the Irrationality of the Angry Mindset

This is basically a reality check for anyone who’s ever thought, "My anger is totally justified!" Spoiler alert: it’s probably not. The book dismantles the myths we tell ourselves about anger, like how blowing up will "clear the air" (more like smoke up the room). It highlights how anger is often based on irrational thinking and teaches you how to chill out, rethink your triggers, and handle life’s many annoyances without losing your cool. 

TV SHOW

Utopia - Protected Species (Apple TV, Australia)

A friend of mine recently reworked her organisation's website. The scriptwriters for this episode may as well have been from her office. If you are thinking about redoing your website, this is well worth watching. Even if you are not thinking of redoing your website, this is well worth watching. If you want to see how Australian Government departments operate more broadly and cringe at the accuracy, watch this. 

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The 'Just some stuff I find interesting' section.  

Bermuda fireworms glow during the biannual mating season, to attract mates.

Specifically, female Bermuda fireworms begin glowing 22 minutes after sundown on the third night after a full moon. Every time.

"It's like they have pocket watches," said Mercer R. Brugler, research associate at the American Museum of Natural History
 

Also at 22 minutes after sundown on the third night after a full moon, male fireworms' eyes spontaneously enlarge, so they'll be able to see the females more easily.

Guest Post

I am trying this idea of a 'Guest Post'

We all have something we have crafted or created, or an idea we are toying with, so if you are keen to take it for a test drive or push whatever it is you have to say a little further, let me know and I can include the whole thing or a link to it. It does not have to be polished. Even a photo on a napkin will be enough. Who knows who you will touch. For the avoidance of doubt, all the creative juices remain with you. I am just giving you a platform to tease them out and maybe get feedback.

It doesn't really matter how tenuous, weak or inherently vague the link your creative genius has to the leadership and life theme of these letters. The idea is to just give it a red hot crack.

At the moment the structure of this letter is like one of those boards in a TV show where the main character is trying to piece together all the connections of a crime or conspiracy on a pin board with red wool around the pins, but doesn't have much to go on. Here's what I am picturing. 

AI Generated Image.

If you are imagining this is how we did it when I was in the police, you have the wrong picture. We weren't that sophisticated. Even New Years Eve came as a surprise every year to those tasked with organising the resources for it.

I like to think we are all little cheer squads for each other in this world and our default position is that we all want each other to succeed in business and in life, so feedback and ideas are always welcome. I know it is coming from a good place. I am even open to a ‘letter to the editor’, if you are inspired to write.

Thanks for reading to the bottom and bearing with Making Headway in its baby steps! 

I look forward to writing to you again next month.

Rich

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