It’s that time of year again ~ Your 2026 Year in Review

 

It’s that time of year again ~ Your 2026 Year in Review

This year I am going to use November and December to give you two different ways to work on your end-of-the-year assessment in your personal life and in your professional life.

Let’s first begin here.  Just read and fill in where necessary and let’s just see where this goes.  Write down the first thing that comes to your mind.

Relationships at home and at work

Ask yourself:

• Which relationships are helping me grow?
• Which relationships do not help me grow?
• How can you learn from this year’s relationship choices to be more successful and healthy in the coming year?

Responsibilities at home and at work

Ask yourself:

• Am I doing the right things?
• How can I decide which responsibilities are truly mine versus things I do out of guilt or fear?
• What might happen if I chose to be responsible for things that only I can do?

Returns

Ask yourself:

• What outcomes did your choices produce?
• Did those outcomes satisfy you?
• Did those outcomes move you forward toward your goals?
• If they did not, what outcome would have been more satisfying, and how can you chase that down?

You see, the return you get for the choices you make can either keep you hungry and willing to move forward or drain your energy and keep you stagnant. When you take the time to think about what gives you your best return, you will be better positioned to chase that return from day one.

Seven Steps to a Successful Year in Review

1. Create time to reflect.
2. Value reflection and find time to do it.

“What I value is what I find time for.”

2. Leaders see more and before others see because they take time to reflect.

3. The challenge: Leaders are naturally active. We want to be in the middle of the action. But we are cheating ourselves if we don’t take time to think.

Ask yourself:

What do I feel?

What do I know?

What do I think?

Good thinking takes everything to a higher level.

Thinking reconciles feelings and facts.

“The best leaders make their heart and head work together.”

Develop the discipline of reflecting and evaluating.

Sustained thinking beats smart thinking every day.

2. Prepare your materials.
3. Create a system:
4. Only marked the material the teacher taught.
5. Ask “WHY” all the time.
6. Review and prioritize the material.
7. Materials Needed:
8. A calendar: Are you marking it with both wins and defeats?
9. A legal pad: Write it down. What are your four priorities?

1.

2

3

4.

3 Identify my priorities.

1. 1. When you look at your calendar, make sure your activities match your top three to four priorities. Write these down.
   2. When you review your calendar, write all of your observations. Then, prioritize your observations from most to least significant.

4 Reflect on your findings.

1. What should I do less?
2. What should I do more?
3. The Secret Sauce: Who should I share this with?
4. What can we do to improve this?
5. What do I feel? What do I think? What do I know?

5 Make crucial discoveries.

1. Examples of crucial discoveries I’ve made from my calendar:

Activity is not accomplishment.

1. Growth is not automatic.
2. Book ends of success: All’s well that begins well. All’s well, that ends well.
3. Reflection turns experience into insight.
4. The fastest doesn’t win; it’s the person who starts first.
5. Inspection is the foundation of expectation.

“I have to finish the race if I’m ever going to win it.”

— Jimmy Johnson

6. Plan.

“You’ve got to be able to touch the past before you can deal with the future.”

1. What must be changed?
2. What needs more fuel?
3. Who do I need help from?
4. Knowledge doesn’t change anything. You have to know and then be willing to make changes.

7. Begin scheduling things.

“A worthless meeting has no game plan in the beginning going in, and no accountability coming out.”

And remember: A self-made leader doesn’t make much.

There are three types of mentors:

1. People who knew you and knew they made a difference.
2. People who knew you but don’t know they made a difference.
3. People who don’t know you and don’t know they made a difference.

You have to be about finding your own intentional mentors.

Ask: Who has been successful in the area I’d like to grow?

A word of encouragement from me to you, maybe you’ve had an up and down year.  Maybe the year has felt more like a roller coaster than a walk in the park.  Maybe you’ve felt uncertain about how to move forward in your relationships, responsibilities and returns. If this describes you, you are in the right place.  I believe in investing some time to reflect, review and design your plan for this coming year and that will significantly shape your success in the year to come.

Next month, we will explore a different method of the “Year End Review.”

In the meantime, I am here all you have to do is reach out by email and write in the subject line: “Help with Year End Review!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
908-229-3797
www.janicebastanicoaching.com
www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani