Hi! Welcome. You being here means more than you know. Knowing it lands with someone like you keeps me going. I'm Lavena Xu-Johnson. I write about psychology for founders. Why? Because scaling a business means scaling ourselves first.
Happy Wednesday, founders,
It’s the last month of 2025!
I can‘t believe how fast this year has gone.
These are the weeks when we naturally start reflecting: summarising and evaluating the past 12 months.
And you can feel it. That mental shift where our brain starts rewriting the year into a verdict, and what it all meant.
So this week’s first issue is a short, lightweight read for your holiday brain:
The Peak–end Rule.
A principle that explains why one bad week can ‘ruin’ a whole year… and why one refreshing ending can redeem it.
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The brain doesn’t average an experience
The Peak–End Rule presents a simple and counterintuitive fact about human behaviour:
We judge our experiences mostly by the peak (the most intense moment) and the end, not the average of everything in between.
In 1993, Israeli psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman, researcher Barbara Frederickson, and colleagues published their study ‘When More Pain is Preferred Less: Adding a Better End’ which changed how we understand experience, memory, and decision-making.
It changed how clinicians design medical procedures (making the procedure slightly longer but less painful at the end improved how patients remembered it and increased willingness to return), how service designers design customer journeys (by engineering an intense closing moment - clear resolution, reassurance, follow-up. Because it drives satisfaction more than the wait), how HR designers design employee experiences (by treating onboarding, reviews, and exits as ‘memory moments’ that shape engagement and retention), and how behavioural scientists design habit-shaping programmes (by placing rewards and “closure cues” at the end of a sequence - so the habit feels worth repeating).
The cold water experiment
Participants did two cold-water trials:
Short trial: one hand in 14°C water for 60 seconds
Long trial: the other hand in 14°C for 60 seconds, then 30 seconds longer while the water gradually warmed to 15°C (still painful, but slightly less so)
They were then asked which one they’d choose to repeat.
Here’s the ‘counterintuitive’ result:
People preferred the longer trial, even though they had more discomfort for longer, but because it ended better, it was remembered as a better experience.
Mean of real-time discomfort measure on the lengthy trial, for 11 subjects who indicated little or no decrement of discomfort when temperature changed, and for 21 subjects who indicated decreased discomfort.
Where peak-end shows up in work
The Peak-end rule has real applications in work, customer support, presentations, events, and client or employee onboarding.
A good example comes from British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett. His team obsesses over the ending of the guest experience on The Diary of a CEO podcast. Once recording wraps, guests are given a personalised photo album of close-up shots taken during the interview. It’s a small, unexpected finish - and it reliably leaves people in awe. More than a few guests have gone on record saying the entire experience felt very accommodating.
A few more examples where we can put this cognitive bias into action:
In meetings:
Structure a difficult conversation (i.e., a pivot or a hard call) so it ends with direction - emphasize the path forward, and a concrete point of momentum.
In hosting IRL or online events:
Create a "surprise moment" near the end: an unexpected guest, a giveaway, or a personal story that shifts the energy
In customer support:
Acknowledge the frustration early, then spend extra time on resolution and follow-up - the customer will remember how it ended, not how long it took
When delivering bad news, structure it so the final message includes next steps, agency, or a commitment - never end on the problem alone
In onboarding (clients or employees):
Design the first day to include one memorable "wow" moment - a personal welcome video, a surprise kit, or an unexpected perk
End the first week with a check-in that's not about process but about how they're feeling, then close with "here's what to expect next."
The more we put a conscious effort into shaping the peak and ending, the more long-lasting the memory becomes.
Apply peak-end to your 2025 story
According to the Peak-end rule, December is more than just a month; it’s a time stamp that shapes what 2025 means for us - whether it ends with meaning, lessons, or resentment.
Years down the line, we probably won’t remember most of the year, but we’ll not forget the peaks… and how it ended.
So will our customers.
So will our partners.
And the end isn’t just what happened. It’s the felt sense people leave with.
Creating a peak-end for ourselves
1) Create one intentional peak
A peak isn’t necessarily a grand event. It can be an emotionally salient moment - a moment we feel truly in touch with ourselves and the people around us.
For the team：
A “wins montage” message: 5 bullet moments you’re proud of (and why).
A private thank-you to someone who carried invisible weight.
For the customers:
A surprise add-on, or personal email from you.
A thoughtful closure: “Here’s what we learned from serving you this year.”
We remember peaks when they’re felt.
2) Clean one ending we’ve been avoiding
Endings aren’t really about celebrations, they’re about closure.
Pick one open loop that’s draining you:
The conversation you keep avoiding
The apology you owe
The boundary you keep breaking
The decision that’s rotting in your notes app
Before the year ends, wrap it up with intention: choose how you show up.
Final thought
A good year doesn’t need to be perfect. If 2025 was chaotic, don’t fix it by pretending it wasn’t.
Honor the peak, give it a good ending, and provide the closure we need to step into a fresh and strong new start in 2026!
How's the depth of today's edition?
Until next week,
Lavena
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