The Goals Reframe

A year-end ritual to celebrate where you’ve been and choose what’s next

In 2000, my husband gifted me a beautiful leather journal. I loved everything about it—the paper, the leather tie, the box it is stored in.

This wasn’t going to be another travel journal. It needed a special purpose.

It became my Year-End Reflections journal.

On the first page, I wrote a poem to myself:

The year comes to a close.

What did you learn?

What new things did you try?

What was in front of you all along that you did not see until this year?

This book starts in the year 2000.

I am 30 years of age.

For what happens to me from this point forward, read on. 

For what happened to me in years prior, read on.

But read more closely. 

For it is all there.

All I am at any point is where I have

Been, Gone & Learned.

JLB 2000

Reading this poem kicks off my New Year’s Eve ritual.

On the last day of each year, I find my leather book and a quiet space. My favorite is sitting in front of my home fireplace with a glass of wine. I’ve partook in my tradition from a Vermont ski lodge, a rooftop riad in Morocco, and oceanside in South Africa.

I also bring accessories—a pen, my calendar, my photo library, and scrap paper.

The ritual involves two parts.

Part 1: 

I list key events from the prior year—everything from favorite concerts, travel adventures, work accomplishments, personal challenges, and new discoveries. 

In 2025, I:

Part 2: 

I list several goals for the forthcoming year. These fall into broad categories of family and friends, career, education, hobbies and interests, physical and mental health, and explorations. 

In 2026, I will:

When you do this year-end exercise for several years—or in my case, 25 years—you need to allow for some extra time. Just opening up the journal is a trip down memory lane. It’s a reminder of my past, and how it’s led me to who I am today.

It’s my favorite travel venture of the year.

Like any high-achieving recovering perfectionist, I review the goals I set for myself 365 days ago with hesitation.

I used to beat myself up on the select items not achieved. Today, I put greater emphasis celebrating what I did achieve. And I ask myself whether the items avoided are truly my priorities.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a change in how I write my upcoming year declarations.

They are less goals, more experiments.

This year-end reflection is very personal. Other than my husband (who now joins me in the annual exercise), no one has seen my journal.

Yet I’ve long wanted to share the simple idea of this exercise with others. 

Finally, I created a guide to do so.

Click here for the Year-End Reflections Guide (PDF)

I encourage you to print out the guide and handwrite your responses. Handwriting improves memory and recall. But if you have a special journal, by all means use it—may this ritual become your 25 year tradition! 

The Year-End Reflection Guide invites you to first look back. Going month by month over the past year, list the moments that mattered. See the patterns that shaped you. Note the lessons you don’t want to leave behind. 

Only then can we turn forward.

When we do, let’s do it with a different framing—one that feels both truer and kinder.

Let’s choose to create the year ahead as a series of experiments—playful, curious, open-ended.

In our careers, many of us have been trained in SMART and BHAGgoal setting. Reframing to an experiment mindset removes the quiet performance pressure. It keeps our focus on growth, learning and evolving.

When we frame our intentions as experiments:

• Failure becomes information
• Success becomes feedback
• Curiosity replaces self-judgment

Experimentation lowers the stakes and raises the learning. 

Did I accomplish it? becomes What did I notice? What energized me?What surprised me? What needs adjusting?

It keeps us focused on what is happening versus what might be an outdated plan.

In the Guide, after reviewing your past year, spend some time thinking through your wants and desires for 2026 across all aspects of your life. 

Then name a few experiments for the year ahead. 

They might touch on how you work, care for your body, relate to others, or travel, learn and create. They are not meant to be grand declarations—keep them intentional and rooted in curiosity.

For example, a goal “I will write a book this year” might be “I will write weekly reflections to see what emerges.”

The goal “I will transform my health” might be “I will experiment with a daily morning routine of stretching and taking a neighborhood walk.”

Experiments are intentionally low-stakes and time-bound. 

They invite feedback, not perfection.

And that’s the ideal antidote for us high-achieving seekers.

However you decide to spend the last few days of 2025 and the first few days of 2026, I encourage you to carve out time to reflect, imagine, declare, and create. 

Pause to look forward. Orient yourself toward what truly matters. Define a future of your choosing. 

I recommend a goals reframe.

Less “What must I accomplish?”

More “What feels important for me to experiment with?”

Celebrate where you’ve been. Choose what’s next—with intention and purpose.

All my best to you in 2026!

Inspired to experiment? Let’s do it together. As a Success Coach, I love helping others refine their values, strength and story for their next life stage. Alternatively, join me in Venture Travel (up next: Cambodia, Spain Camino, Morocco). We connect to people and stories. When you travel differently, you think differently and do differently.