Year-End Review: How to Take Stock of Your Year and Plan for Greatness

Dec 8

As the year draws to a close, it's the perfect time to pause, reflect, and take stock of your journey. A comprehensive year-end review is more than just checking items off a list; it's a powerful practice that helps you learn, celebrate, and intentionally plan for the future.

Why the Year-End Review is Crucial

The year-end review is your chance to gain clarity and perspective. It's the mechanism that ensures you're not just going through the motions, but actively learning and evolving.

Reflect and Learn: Reflection helps you understand what worked, what didn't, and why. The lessons learned from your past growth will directly inform and improve your life next year.
Acknowledge Growth: It's important to remember how far you've come. Reflecting on your growth helps you feel fulfilled and accomplished, realizing that you have what it takes to be successful.
Plan Intentionally: By wrapping up the current year early through reflection, you give yourself the opportunity to set your next year's goals more intentionally and thoughtfully.

5 Essential Steps to Take Stock of Your Year

A structured approach to your year-end review allows for honesty and actionable insights. Block out a couple of hours, sit in a comfortable place, and get into your zone to focus on these steps.

1. Take Stock of Where You Are vs. Where You Wanted to Be

Be honest with yourself and evaluate your actual progress toward the bold goals you set at the beginning of the year.

Write down your goals across all important areas of your life (Personal, Family, Professional, Financial, etc.) and document the status of each.
Identify what pleasantly surprised you this year—what unexpected great things happened?
Analyze what you did differently this year—were there new habits or approaches that led to success?

2. Celebrate Your Accomplishments (Big and Small) 🎉

Don't skip this step! Celebrating your wins is crucial for maintaining momentum and energy.

Write down all your accomplishments for the year—the small, medium, and big things. This shows you that you have made progress.
Mark key milestones and take time to do something special for yourself. Celebrating is part of the process and will energize you for the rest of your life's journey.
Share your accomplishments with your support community to gain encouragement.

3. Explore Areas Where You Did Not Make Progress

It’s just as important to understand where you struggled. Approach this with an open mind and look for lessons, not fault.

Highlight the areas where you feel you did not make the expected progress.
Ask yourself why: Was the goal not truly important to you? Did you lack the necessary resources? Did you take on too much and fail to prioritize?
Learn from Setbacks: When things went differently than planned, what was the valuable lesson you learned? Setbacks are signals for a change you may need to make.

4. Identify What to Start, Stop, and Continue Doing

Use the lessons from your review to inform concrete changes for the next year. This is how you ensure that what got you here won't stop you from getting there.

Stop

Focus: Identify things that no longer serve you, are distracting, or cause burnout.
Examples: Stop overworking, stop letting fear stop you, stop putting off self-care.

Start/Restart

Focus: Identify new routines or past joyful activities that you need to intentionally reintroduce.
Examples: Restart planning routines, start prioritizing rest, introduce new wellness routines.

Continue

Focus: Identify what worked well and what you need to sustain for long-term success.
Examples: Continue celebrating wins, continue seeking support, continue learning.

5. Look Ahead and Plan Your Next Move 🚀

The review seamlessly transitions into planning for the future. Use your insights to set your intentions and recommit to your overall purpose.

Determine what you want to accomplish over the next year and over your next five years.
Think about what will make you proud at the end of the next year. Imagine yourself looking back. What do you want to say you did or experienced?
Make changes to your plan for action, detailing the tasks you will work on in the coming months.
Recommit to your goals and find ways to be brave and take risks again, knowing you can achieve great things.

The time you dedicate to reflection now is the best investment you can make for an incredible and successful year ahead.

Time to Reflect

What three lessons did you learn this year through your success and lowlights?
What are you most proud of accomplishing this year?
What challenge or failure taught you the most valuable lesson?
What boundaries or habits need to change for next year?
Who was your greatest supporter this year, and how did they help you?
What is one new goal setting habit you are committing to for the upcoming year based on your reflection?