2024 is coming to a close. At the end of the year, I love to reflect and regroup. Creating a practice around this has made a big difference in my life and business because it creates intentional action. The truth is that the vast majority of people don't—around 95%—and adding this to exercise to your life will put you in the top 5% of those who do.
I’ve always been a goal-oriented person, so setting goals is not new to me, but one thing I’ve started doing that’s been game-changing is spending time reflecting on the year to see what insights I can gain.
One of my favourite quotes comes from 19th-century philosopher John Dewey, who said, “We don’t learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
I have found this to be 100% true.
So if this isn’t something you typically do, I hope you’ll reconsider. And in today's newsletter, I'm going to help you get started.
Let’s dive in.
2024 reflections
Last year, I tried an exercise for the first time and loved it so much that I decided to make it part of my annual tradition. I recently shared it with my community in a workshop so they could also experience it.
It’s Sahil Bloom’s 7 reflection questions, and you can find it here. I recommend finding a quiet space with a notebook and pen, and maybe a tea, where you'll be uninterrupted for a good hour, to write these out.
Here is a summary of the questions so you can get a sneak peak:
- What did I change my mind on this year?
- What created energy this year?
- What drained energy this year?
- What were the boat anchors in my life?
- What did I not do because of fear?
- What were my greatest hits and worst misses?
- What did I learn this year?
These are all so powerful, but even if you just choose to answer the first 2-3 questions, you'll gain a ton of insight.
I’m a huge fan of energy audits. In fact, reflecting on what energizes me and drains my energy was a major driver in my decision to leave my corporate role and launch this business. When I did this exercise, I used a pen and paper and scribbled out two messy columns, but it was the same idea.
Once you understand what activities, projects, and people energize you and which ones drain you, you can become intentional about spending as much time as possible in the ‘energizes’ column!
That may mean a big life decision like it did for me, but it can also be something less drastic, such as hiring someone, outsourcing a task, or automating it. Heck, maybe it just means making a deal with your partner where you trade dishes for laundry.
One thing Sahil has talked about doing is colour-coding his calendar after each event as red, yellow, or green depending on whether the activity drained energy, was neutral, or energized him. I tried doing this for a week just for fun and was unsurprised to see that most of what I do falls into the ‘energizes' column or is neutral. Since becoming aware, I've done great at cutting out the draining stuff.
Give it a try and see what you learn!
Looking forward to 2025
Another great activity for this time of year is setting 2025 goals. You may be one of those ‘anti-New Year's resolution' folks, and if so, that's okay. But regardless of the date, it's just a good idea to be intentional about how you plan to spend your time and what you want to accomplish personally and professionally.
One method I enjoy is starting with a ‘wheel of life' exercise. This is where you ask yourself, ‘how happy or satisfied am I in each of these areas of my life on a scale of 1-10?'
Here's one version of the wheel you can use:
Then you look at the various categories and decide which ones you want to focus on creating goals around this year. Don't choose them all – that's just overwhelming! But are there 3-4 that stand out and are important for you to improve?
Once you choose your categories, come up with 3-5 actions in each that will help you improve them.
Last year I used a slightly different wheel. I chose:
- Personal space
- Business
- Network
And I made massive progress in these three areas! You see, diluted efforts create diluted results, so focusing on what matters will have the greatest impact.
The key thing is that you can't just create your goals and then put them in a drawer until 2026. You need to be reviewing them on a regular basis.
One way you can do this is to set a reminder in your calendar monthly or quarterly to check in on your goals. But I like to go a step further.
Every year I re-write the affirmations I want to say to myself every night before bed. And just below these affirmations in my journal, I write:
2025 is the year I will:
(or whatever year it is)
And then, I list my goals.
And seriously, this works!! I've done this for the last couple of years and have crushed almost every one of my ambitious goals. This year, I'll miss 2-3 out of 12 goals, but that means I'll hit 9-10 of them! And friend, I don't mess around with goals. I set big ones.
Some of mine for this year were:
- Start writing for Forbes ✅
- Grow my email list to 10K ✅
- Run my first ultra-marathon ✅ ✅
- Cross the $1M mark in my business ✅
I'm going to sit down this week and list out 10 or so new goals for 2025. I honestly can't wait!
If this scares you, I want to remind you that you can change your goals anytime. There is no goal police coming to get you. But if you never set any goals because you're too afraid to commit to anything, how are you going to know if you're even headed in the right direction?
In my community, we have a monthly goal-setting call, and it's so much fun! We reflect on the previous month and then set a goal with a few related actions for the current month. I've really grown to love this ritual because I do it right along with the women in the community.
So ask yourself – what are my big takeaways from 2024?
What do I want to accomplish personally and professionally in 2025?
It's never too late to get in the driver's seat and make it happen for yourself.
Aaannnndddd… if your goal is to land a VP role? Girl, you NEED to be at my new masterclass in January. Put it on your goal list. It's free, and I've put double-digit hours into making it great for you. Sign up here.
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
PS. I'm here to help you crush your 2025 career goals – join my brand new free masterclass that I'm doing LIVE at 4 different times in January. I'm sharing Your Blueprint to VP and I promise you'll leave with some insights and actionable next steps.
