39 Days Left. Most Leaders Coast. The Best Don’t.

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Every year around late November, I see the same quiet shift happen in leaders.

Energy dips. Calendars fill. Intentions soften.
People start saying, “Let’s revisit that in the new year.”

But here is the truth:
How you use the next 39 days will define how you enter 2026.

Most leaders do not realise they are choosing their January reality right now.

Personal Story

A few years ago, I hit this exact moment.

It was mid-November in Toronto. Cold, dark, heavy.
I was wrapping up a brutal quarter filled with team changes, restructures, and endless decisions.

My instinct was simple.
Cruise.
Survive the year.
Reset in January.

Then one morning, I caught myself saying, “I will deal with that after the holidays.”
It sounded small, but I knew what it meant.

I was giving the next 39 days away.

Conflict and Tension

Here is what I realised:

I was not tired from the work.
I was tired from the patterns I was not addressing.

• Overthinking small decisions

• Carrying other people’s emotional load

• Saying yes too quickly

• Avoiding one hard conversation

• Stretching myself thin to appear “on top of it”

These were not year-end problems.
They were year-long patterns I had been tolerating.

The final stretch of the year exposes everything you have ignored.

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Worth Reading

Here are a few newsletters I read and recommend:

Insight and Shift

So I made a decision.

I was not going to finish the year the same way I had lived it.

I did not launch anything new.
I did not build a massive plan.
I did not reinvent myself.

I chose to reset one pattern.

That single shift created more clarity, energy, and momentum in 39 days than the previous 11 months combined.

That is when it clicked.

Year-end is not a slowdown.
It is a window.
A leverage point.
A pattern-breaking moment if you choose it.

Leadership Lesson

Senior leaders, operators, and high-potential managers all feel the same tension right now.

They are stretched.
They want to finish well.
They are carrying their team’s energy.
They are thinking about 2026 while still firefighting 2024.

The leaders who grow in this moment are the ones who choose to sharpen a single behaviour that changes everything.

Not ten behaviours.
Not a list of goals.
Not a new system.

One shift that changes the way they show up.

It is almost always one of these:

1. Say no faster

2. Decide sooner

3. Stop rescuing people

4. Close one open loop

5. Protect sixty minutes a day for deep work

6. Have the overdue conversation

7. Stop multitasking

8. Ask more questions instead of giving more answers

Repeat any of these for 39 days, and January becomes a different story.

Takeaways

1. Most leaders drift into December. You do not have to.

2. Patterns matter more than plans.

3. Your team feels your energy.

4. Thirty-nine days is enough time to shift your identity under pressure.

Reflection for the Week

What is the one pattern you want to break before the year ends?

If You Want Support

If you would like help finishing the year with clarity or stepping into 2026 with a sharper edge, this is the work I do with senior leaders and organisations every day.

If you want to explore working together, reply with “39” and I will send you a short overview.

Thanks for being here.

With appreciation,
Chris