My Best-Of List for 2025

I love a good year-in-review list and getting recommendations for things to read/watch/do. So much so that we have a Slack channel with that name where our team shares recommendations on an ongoing basis. Today, I’m sharing a few of mine with you! 

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Favorite thing I watched on TV: 

• Severance (Season 2), and also
• North of North (Netflix, about an Inuit community in Canada, funny and poignant and beautiful)

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Favorite movie:

• Sinners (maybe a top favorite movie EVER)

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Favorite thing I read: 

• In the Absence of the Ordinary, Francis Weller 

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Favorite poem I read:

• Prescription for the Disillusioned, Rebecca del Rio, 
• and also this one by Chelan Harkin:

The flower never had a to-do list,

Not one day of her life.

She just pointed her whole self toward light.

The rest took care of itself.

Favorite podcast I listened to: 

• The Telepathy Tapes, Season 2 

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Favorite thing I bought/received: 

• A membership to my local spa (which I highly recommend if you’re ever in Sonoma county!) and the monthly massages I’ve had with the most incredible body worker. 

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Favorite new tool for writing:

• I’m obsessed with stone paper notebooks (they are waterproof! You can write in the shower!)

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Favorite new ritual: 

• Sunday evenings have become no-media nights and my husband and I lay in bed and talk for hours and it’s sweet and intimate and so special. And we’ve been together for 29 years next month! 

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Favorite place I traveled:

• Oaxaca! My 4th visit and I love it more and more every time. I wrote about that trip here. 

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Favorite thing I created: 

• My new Substack, the Witch Wound, which has felt like a super vulnerable, personal and liberating creation. I’m so proud of myself for doing this! 

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Favorite Bright Morning Podcast episodes:

• Assessing Trust In Your Coaching Relationships: Coaching Demonstration: Episode 228. In this role play episode with Mike, we demonstrate two conversations that explore how to assess trust in a coaching relationship. In the second role play, Mike shares his belief that I reported on him to our principal—and the anger that comes along with that violation. It demonstrates how to navigate one of the most challenging situations while staying rooted in the commitments of a Transformational Coach. 

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Favorite podcast on which I was a guest: 

• This episode on The School Leadership Show, with Jenn David-Lang and Mike Doughty

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Favorite workshop I facilitated: 

• This is so hard!!! I can’t pick one. I loved my time consulting and facilitating with the Beaverton School District in Oregon, and also a keynote for the United Federation of Teachers in New York, and also the workshop in Austin…and the last one of the year in San Diego…
• Really: I loved ALL of the workshops I facilitated this year and if you were there with me, I’m so grateful. I’m ending this year recognizing that my core human needs were met in new and profound ways this year. 

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Favorite accomplishment: 

• The Art of Coaching Teams Learning Library which was a huge, collaborative project (literally, everyone on my team has played some role or another) and which I know is already having such a meaningful impact on so many leaders. 

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Did you have favorite Bright Morning moments in 2025? I’d love it if you shared this blog post on LinkedIn and tagged me in your response!

With love,
Elena

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