2024 Annual Review + 2025 Year Compass
Reflect, Complete, Vision, Commit
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I’ve experimented with a variety of annual review templates over the years. I’ve done reviews where I meticulously reviewed every week of my prior year and reviews that demanded nothing more than fifteen minutes of reflection.
These days, I prefer a review based on presence: a simple set of prompts that invite you to tune into your present experience of life, reflect on the path you walked to get here, and drop into where you’d like to go from here.
Every year I tinker and update the framework I use, and I’m particularly happy with where this year’s review landed. I’ve been using it with clients and had the thought to share it here. It has four components:
Reflect. Reflect on the prior year. The purpose here is similar to most annual reviews: zoom out on your year, put things into perspective, and get your learnings.
Complete. This is unique to my review framework. I imagine this part of the review as an opportunity to psychologically “turn the page” on this “chapter” of your life. In doing so, you create a clean slate for the next. It’s an invitation to take stock of what’s incomplete and decide what you want carry over and what you want to let go of.
Vision: This is your invitation to vision and intention set. What would a really incredible year look like for you? What do you want to bring out in yourself and into the world?
Commit. Coach Justin put this one in there. This is an invitation to get real: what are you willing to commit to, right now, to start making this all a reality?
Throughout this process I generated a lot of ideas and to-do’s, which I put into their respective idea and to-do lists. This year the process was equally as destructive as it was generative for me: this particular template lead me to clean out what was no longer serving me and open up space for what does.
I did this review for five different categories this year: Business, Health, Relationship, Family, and Community. That might be a little intense for you. No problem! This is a choose-your-own-adventure exercise. You may want to do less, more, or different. I chose these categories because they’re the things I most frequently think about.
Lastly, I intentionally used the word Compass. I was introduced to the YearCompass framework by my dear friend
. While I don’t use that framework explicitly, I love the picture that the word “compass” paints. I’ve been thinking about maps vs. compasses a lot lately. I think me and a lot of people I know are looking for maps in life, when really what we need to learn is to cultivate and trust our inner compass. And so I think of this look-ahead as a compass: some of it may come to pass, some won’t, and there will be lots of unexpected twists and turns on the path. The point is to set the direction you’d like to move in and move toward it boldly, adapting along the way.Much love, and I hope it’s useful for you. If you use it please let me know how it goes!
Before you begin, take a moment and ground yourself. Take four deep, four-by-four breathes, inhaling to a slow count of four and exhaling to a slow count of four. Use these breaths to get present, exhaling any energy you’d like to shed and inhaling the quality of presence you’d like to bring to the exercise.
Remind yourself of the purpose of the exercise: To reflect on your prior year. To take stock of expectations and reality, celebrate all that there is to celebrate, and learn all that wants to be learned. To get complete and in integrity with the year to create a clean slate for what’s to come. To set intentions and make commitments for the next year. To set yourself up as a powerful creator of your reality, past, present, and future.
Reflect
Take Stock: Expectations vs. Reality. Think back to December one year ago. Recall how you felt then. How did you imagine this year was going to go? What expectations did you have? Looking back—how did things actually play out?
Celebrations: What are you celebrating from this year? What were your biggest wins? What are you proud of? What moments made you feel most aligned with your self and vision?
Challenges: What challenged you this year? What made it challenging for you? How did you get through it?
Surprises: What surprised you most this year? What was unexpected? What was unexpectedly easy or challenging?
Learnings: Based on all of this, what are your biggest learnings from the the year?
Summary: If last year were a chapter in the book and you had to pick a word or phrase to title the chapter, what would it be?
Complete
What’s Undone? Is there anything unfinished from this year that you’d like to carry into next year with intention?
What Wants to Be Let Go? Is there anything you’re carrying from the year that you’d like to let go of? Where do you want to create a fresh start for yourself? This may be a mindset, a relationship, or something specific about your personal or professional circumstances.
What’s Unowned? Are there mistakes or situations you haven’t taken responsibility for? Let this be a blameless process. The purpose of this isn’t to shame yourself. It’s to come into a state of honest and responsibility for your year and life.
Forgiveness: Did anything happen during the past year that needs to be forgiven? This may be forgiving others or yourself. Let yourself forgive it here.
What’s Unsaid? Is there feedback, appreciation, or frustration that hasn’t been voiced?
What’s Unfelt? Have you processed all of your emotions, especially around your successes and setbacks?
What’s Unfaced? Are there truths you’re avoiding acknowledging?
Final Insights: Are there any final insights you’d like to capture from the year?
Finally: Say goodbye to last year. Is anything else that you’d like to acknowledge or write down before you close the chapter on this past year of life? Is there anything or anyone you’d like to say goodbye to?
Pause. If you’ve made it this far you’ve done a lot of work! You may want to reward yourself with a break, a breathe, a celebration. You may choose to let what you’ve uncovered sink in and come back later to dream for the future—that’s how I did things this year.
Either way, nice work.
Vision
Vision: What do you want to create in the year ahead?
Changes: What do you want to see change in the year ahead?
Budding: What’s currently budding that you want to make sure to tend to in 2025?
Most important action: What’s the most important action to take to create your vision and the changes you seek? What would you do if there were no limits and you couldn’t fail?
Personas: What personas1 or qualities of self do you want to let loose in 2025?
Intention: If next year were a chapter in a book and you had to pick a word or phrase to represent your intention for the chapter before you wrote it, what would you it be?
Secret wish: Unleash your mind. What is your secret wish for the next year?
Commit
Commit: What specific action are you willing to commit to realize your vision in the year ahead? What’s a first step and by when will you take it?
Request: What commitments do you want to request from others for the year ahead? By when will you request that from them?
Rapid Fire commitments. These were borrowed from the YearCompass framework I mentioned above. This year:
I most want to achieve these three things…
I will love these three things about myself…
These three people will be my pillars during rough times…
I will dare to discover these three things…
I will care for myself with these three things regularly…
I will connect with my loved ones in these three ways…
I advise myself to…
I give myself permission to say no when…
I will say yes when…
I will be bravest when…
This year will be special for me because…
Closing: What’s one word to describe how you’re feeling right now about the year ahead? Take a moment to feel that in your body.
And finally, say aloud to yourself: I believe anything is possible this year.
—
Bon Voyage, and see you in 2025 :)
-Justin
This is my absolute favorite question of this annual review, and might require some additional context for those of you not familiar with conscious leadership. In conscious leadership, we play with what are called personas. You can think of personas as different parts or aspects of yourself. We have all sorts of personas, some that run our lives unconsciously, some that we are conscious to and choose to leverage, and others that we have unconsciously “Xed” out. Personas we’ve Xed out are qualities of self that we’ve told ourselves we can’t be, often for some reason in our early years of life. This question is mean to invite you into what qualities of self you may have Xed out and would like to invite in this year.
Two of mine this year were:
• Self-Assured Risk Taker. I tend to take big risks but worry about every detail. I want to invite the one in me who is self-assured that I will navigate things in the best way possible and get what I’m supposed to get. This part of me does not sweat the details or worry about all the ways things could go wrong.
• No Big Deal. In a similar vein, I’m very familiar with the “BIG DEAL” part of me - the one who makes things into a very big deal, very important, things matter a lot. And I want to invite the one in me who views those same things as no big deal. They’ll happen one way or the other, and life will go on. It’s all no big deal.