Reflecting on 2025 and Planning for 2026

 As the calendar flips from 2025 to 2026, don’t just turn the page. Welcome a new chapter in your life with intention.  Over the next couple of days and weeks, make some space to reflect so you can be clear about what you envision for 2026.  

A thoughtful reflection on the past year sets the stage for intentional planning, momentum, and growth in the year ahead.  We’ve identified a 3-step process to help propel you into the new year. They are exercises mostly rooted in gratitude. We find that gratitude helps keep our mind focused on positivity and really helps to shape our perspective.  Using that reflection, you can more easily see what’s working and what’s not…. So, you can make 2026 your best year yet. 

 

Step 1: Reflection

During this time, reflect on:  

 

·       Wins 

·       Key lessons learned

·       Energy highs and drains

·       People who mattered

·       Skills you advanced

·       What you’re grateful for

 

Start with the wins

Make a list of 5-10 meaningful “wins in 2025.”  Consider categories of your life such as  personal, professional, health, relationships, learning, finances, hobbies, what are you proud of? Why did these things matter and how did they impact you? How did those wins impact others? 

 

Lessons learned

Without focusing too heavily on the negative, consider some of the year’s pitfalls. What lessons did you learn from them? Were there people or pursuits that taught you things you need to remember? They can also be positive lessons, too.  Do not underestimate the importance of small lessons as they often reveal broader themes.  For example, we missed out on registering for a summer camp and the lesson was to plan much earlier. Getting organized in advance was a priority for 2025 after that 2024 mistake! 

 

Energy audit 

What activities during 2025 energized you and which activities and pursuits drained you? Make a thoughtful list.  For us, travel baseball was exhausting not only for us parents and siblings, but also our player. When we carefully examined the time commitment for getting to practice and missing weekends as a family, we realized what a drain it was on everyone. We eliminated it in 2025 and never looked back! 

 

People who mattered

For some people completing this exercise, this may be the easiest part! Harder might be to prioritize and think about your circle as a hierarchy. Lots of people may matter to you but who matters MOST?  When time is a limited resource, how will you prioritize the people in your life? 

 

Skills you advanced 

Did you take an online class, earn a certificate, or perfect a recipe? Perhaps you took up gardening or painting.  Maybe you advanced your knowledge and use of AI.  How did you grow this year and what new skills did you pick up, or advance? (Also, it’s worth noting that you should not stress if you cannot recall anything you advanced skill-wise. This is not designed to make you feel inadequate or like you SHOULD be developing new skills all the time…. This may not apply this year and that’s perfectly okay.) 

 

What you’re grateful for

In this section, you might find that you are repeating themes, people, or events from your brainstorm above but that is to be expected. Take a few minutes to jot down a few things that you are grateful for.  From simple things to bigger, more elaborate things – you likely have a lot to be grateful for! 

 

 

Step 2:  Planning for 2026

 

With all this reflection and much gratitude for where you have come from, you can start seeing patterns.  Now spend some time thinking about what you want for the year ahead. Where will you take it?  We surmise you will start to identify themes or broad categories with your goals. 

 

For example, you might identify that you saw progress in your habits of getting outside and walking daily for 30 minutes – what a win!  You’d like to continue that but add a social element like walking with a friend once a week, or even going to the gym to lift weights and build lean muscle mass. The theme overall is physical health.  Improving your physical health in 2026 would be an excellent theme to focus on. 

 

Take the time to come up with 3 core themes to focus on in 2026.  Take stock of all the different areas of your life – from your career, family, personal life, finances, health and more. 

 

 

Step 3: Tactical Planning 

 

When you have identified your themes for 2026, experts agree that goals without tactics can be difficult to achieve, so you will need to get specific. Try to break down HOW you are going to get to your goals and achieve your themes in 2026 into small pieces. This is done bit by bit, day by day.  

 

We’ve fallen for these daily planners by Kelly Hughes Designs to help organize our day – one task at a time. One pad contains 50 sheets, and you can organize your appointments and schedule on the left, while adding your “top 3” for the day and to-dos on the right.  Here is a great place to add your daily goals that add up to your larger theme. 

Wishing you enjoyment as you take time to reflect on 2025 and plan out your 2026.  We know with a little bit of time and intention, you are certain to have a strong year ahead.