This episode was recorded at the close of 2025 and shared at the beginning of 2026, not as a recap, but as a moment of collective reflection. As the year unfolded, certain ideas kept resurfacing through conversations, stories, and lived experience. Questions about leadership, consistency, courage, discernment and what it really means to grow when no one is watching.

In this episode, Dustin zooms out and reflects on what lingered from the year. Not the highlights alone, but the lessons that revealed themselves quietly over time. Through storytelling, humor and honest reflection, this conversation invites listeners to notice what they learned, what shaped them and what they want to carry forward. Because insight is not tied to a date on the calendar. It deepens when we return to it with intention.

Moments & Themes from the Year

• Framing the Day (and the Year): Awareness over perfection. Noticing when you’ve drifted and choosing to return.
• Consistency Over Intensity: Movement matters, even when progress feels invisible.

• Goal Check-Ins as Course Corrections: Adjusting, reimagining, or deleting goals as a sign of alignment.

• Protecting Your Ideas: Seeking guidance from those with lived experience, not loud confidence.

• Building When No One Is Watching: Quiet work as the foundation of meaningful impact.

• Taking Leaps Without a Clear Landing: How action turns the unfamiliar into experience, and experience into wisdom.
  

Questions to Sit With

• What did you build this year when no one was watching?

• What leap did you take, or wish you had taken?

• Whose voice most shaped your thinking this year, for better or worse?
  

Closing Reflection

Growth is rarely one defining moment. It’s a series of small, brave decisions made over time. As we move forward, we carry both new insights and familiar lessons, allowing them to shape how we show up next.

Thank you for being part of this listening community.

Frame Your Morning, Change Your Day - A simple morning routine for clarity and focus

Mornings don’t need to be perfect to be powerful. In this episode of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope, Dustin explores how to reclaim the first few minutes of your day before the world takes over. Through a simple journaling practice, you’ll learn how to anchor yourself in clarity and presence rather than reactiveness.

She shares her personal three-step system:

1. Write down three things that make you happy today.

2. Choose three things you’d like to move forward (not “must-dos”).

3. Identify one truth to carry with you—a grounding sentence to guide the day.

Along the way, Dustin reveals what happened the morning she skipped this practice and how she reset her day when overwhelm took over. With practical steps and relatable storytelling, this episode is about choosing who you want to be before the day chooses for you.

Try it for yourself tomorrow: five minutes, one journal page, a better day.

Approximate Timestamps:
00:55 – Why mornings matter more than you think
02:57 – The three-step journaling practice explained
04:01 – The power of one grounding truth
05:45 – A story about skipping the practice (and how to reset)
06:50 – How this simple system keeps you centered all day

If this episode helped you, follow Dustin’s Kaleidoscope on Spotify, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a stronger start to their day.

Keywords:morning routine, journaling, leadership, daily habits, intentional living

Over five years. Every single day. Rain, snow, holidays and long workdays—Dustin never missed a walk. What began as a way to cope with the COVID shutdowns became a life-shaping practice that redefined her leadership and resilience.

In this episode of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope, host Dustin Dumas reflects on the surprising lessons she’s learned from walking daily for over five years—and how they apply to leadership, identity, and consistency.

She shares three powerful insights:

1. Progress doesn’t need to be loud — small, consistent steps compound into transformation.

2. You can be tired and still show up — discipline is about commitment, not perfection.

3. Time alone is a leadership tool — clarity doesn’t happen in chaos, it happens in quiet.

This isn’t just about walking—it’s about the power of showing up for yourself every single day.

- What’s the one thing you could do daily that would change how you see yourself?

Thanks again for listening to Dustin's Kaleidoscope. If this is your first time here, I hope this episode gave you something to think about.

If you found this episode helpful, rate the show, leave a review and subscribe—that’s how we grow the community and keep this work going.

Support the show and connect with me:

• Patreon

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And if there’s someone in your life who needs a gentle nudge toward movement, self-discipline or just something positive, please pass this episode along.

Keep moving forward, one step at a time. I’ll see you next time.