96. Want 2025 to Be Your Best Year Yet? Do This Before You Get Started!

In this final episode of 2024, host Laurie Reynoldson shares her comprehensive approach to conducting a meaningful year-end review before setting goals for 2025. This essential practice helps high-performing midlife women build a stronger foundation for the year ahead instead of rushing into new goals without reflection.

You'll learn Laurie's proven process to review the past year in a way that sets you up for greatness in the year to come. If you're looking to make 2025 one of your best years yet, make sure to complete your 2024 year-end wrap-up before you hit the ground running in 2025.

Cheers to living your best life in 2025!

LINKS + MENTIONS:
Year-End Guide

Best Life Planner

📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter

👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
📩 Email Laurie

💻 Website

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Work with Laurie

Transcript

0:00

It's the last episode of 2024. I'm going to show you. How to do the best. Year-end review. So that you can set yourself up for your greatest year ahead in 2025. So stay tuned. Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life. He friends with Laurie. Welcome back to another episode of the School of Midlife podcast. In fact, this is the last episode of 2024. I can't believe that. We're already at the end of the year. At the time this episode drops we're in that squishy week between Christmas and this year, Hanukkah, both on December 25th. And New Year's. So I hope that you had a wonderful holiday celebration. That was everything that you wanted. Ours was very relaxed and we didn't have a ton of. Plans. And I got to say it was, it was probably the best Christmas that I can remember in a long time. And I think it's because we had such. Low expectations for it. It was just really a time to relax and sit back and enjoy each other's company. And we were in Sun Valley. It was lovely. We went hiking in the snow every day and the Theo thinks the snow is about the best thing ever. But for Christmas Eve. We had planned to go to dinner. Just kind of a charcuterie dinner at a wine bar that we like, because they had posted on social that they were going to be open extended hours through the holidays. And then. If we find out on Christmas Eve that they're actually closing it four o'clock. Um, which meant we had no. Plans for dinner. And we. Decided. All right. Well, we're just going to go into town and we will, we'll see. What's open. And we ended up scoring two great seats at the bar at our favorite Italian restaurant, we had a wonderful dinner. It was, it was great. Kind of planted because we'd been trying to get reservations for that particular restaurant for weeks. And they were completely booked up six weeks before Christmas because we kept trying, we were on the cancellation list. And nothing, but just on a whim, we walked in and there were two seats available at the bar. So we had this great dinner. And then we thought, you know what? The Sun Valley Lodge is beautiful this time of the year. And they have a big Christmas Eve celebration that includes a parade of Santas skiing down Dollar Mountain. All dressed up in Santa outfits and red. Twinkling lights so that they're illuminated as they come down the mountain. There's a special. Ice show. There's carolers through the village. It's it's very. Traditional. Holiday Christmas. Festivities. And. Because of that, the lodge is usually packed. But we thought, you know what? Let's just swing through. Let's look at the lights. They're always beautiful. And we'll just pop into the bar there. And see if we can't have a nightcap. And the bar was packed. I mean, And families everywhere. They were watching football games. The ice rink was still lit up. But it was just packed full of people. And there were plenty of people there who it feels like had been there most of the day. Cause they were snuckered. But there were two seats at the end of the bar. We had a lovely conversation with the one of the bartenders. And we had a lovely Christmas cocktail and then went home and went to bed. And on Christmas. There, there had been some snow. So we did another, um, Snow hike with Theo. The skies were crystal blue. It was beautiful. Beautiful day. And then we stayed home and watched football and. Made very simple, but delicious Christmas dinner. Uh, ham and some smashed potatoes and. A little broccolini with a nice dessert. It was just. Very relaxed and I don't, I'm not sure that we could have planted any better. It was, it was great. And I hope your holidays were just as. Wonderful. Whatever it is that you did. But this week, we're in that weird week between Christmas and New Year's. Right. And I don't know about you, but I feel like every day, I think to myself, I think it's Sunday today. And it never is. It's like Wednesday or Thursday. Um, I think at the time I'm actually recording this. It might actually be Sunday, but I don't know. I don't have a calendar in front of me, but suffice it to say it's that it's that weird week where. I have no idea what time, what day of the week it is. I, a lot of times I've been spending most of the day. In my PJ's or I change into. Yoga pants and take the over a walk and do whatever it is I'm going to do for the day. whether That's read a book or. Organize a closet or whatever. And so I finally take a shower right before dinner time and it's, I don't know. It's I. The type a part of me is like, you are just wasting all this precious time. And then the other part of me, which I am more embracing as I get older is like, The slowdown is so worth it. It's so good. It's like, if you're an Archer or, you know, if you, if you know anything about a bow and arrow, you pull that arrow back in the bow so that it can go much faster once it's released. Right. You you pull the bow back and you shoot the arrow forward. And I feel like that's, that's where I'm at this week, which is, um, I'm in the pulling back. So that. 2025 is just going to be like shot out of the barrel. You know, Full speed ahead. Kind of a thing. Which leads me to. What I want to talk about in today's episode, this has been a long intro. Stick with me here. It's. I feel like I'm a little out of practice with the podcasting. So if it seems like I'm rambling. Well, you know, maybe I haven't seen that many people recently and it's just a way for me to. Uh, sit down and talk to you and, and catch up with you a little bit. Anyway, in today's episode, I'm going to talk to you about a year-end review. I am a huge believer in a year-end review. Why is that? Well for most of us as high performing midlife women, We get to the end of the year and then it's full speed ahead into the next year, because we've got all these goals. We want to take care of. And our to do list. Whether we've written it down or not. We just, we feel like there's so much to do. And there's, we got to get started right away. And there's just this anxiousness that is building up. And of course we've been on vacation and we've been relaxing, but okay. Now it's time to get back to work. It's time to get back on track. It's w you know, whatever we're telling ourselves. And yes, I think that there is a time and a place for that. But first. We need to take a look back. Because. What that is going to do for us. It's going to give us a better foundation for what it is we actually want to do in the coming year. What I mean by that is if. We. Like if we think about previous years, At the beginning of the year, it's always set some goals, make some new year's resolutions and we just go for it. Right. We start right away. Which also means that we tend to front-load January with all the things we want to do in the coming year. Wake up an hour earlier, join a gym, start a new workout program. Take on new projects at work so we can finally get that promotion. We change our eating plan. We start making all of these changes because it's the beginning of a brand new year. And for some reason, we think that in order to have a successful year, we need to start as soon as the calendar changes, right. That we are ready to go. As soon as it's January one. So, what that means is we start right away and. I know this because I was guilty of this myself for. Decades, not even years, but for decades, because once I made my mind up about something. Then I wanted to start doing it right away. It's like, you know, and that, that scene in when Harry met Sally, where he goes and finds her the new year's Eve party. And he says something to the effect of, once you realize that you love someone and you want to spend the rest of your life with them, you want that to start as soon as possible. So I get this tendency that we have to start, you know, make our mind up about something and start right away. This is going to be the year that you do all the things that you've been putting off. Write the book. Run the marathon. Leave the job. Leave a relationship whatever it is. That has maybe been on your to-do list for this year and the year before it. We just tend to roll them over into the next year. But when we take a moment to step back and do a year-end review and actually look back to see what was good in the past year, too, to see what we would want to do better. To see. What was important to us? What was. Meaningful to us, the lessons we learned. Then we can take a new approach when it comes to figuring out how it is. We want to spend the following year. It's the exact same reason that we study history in school. And I it's been a long time since most of us have studied history in school. And by the way, Um, this is a total aside, but the more I traveled to Europe. The more, I think. We need to change the way we study history. In the United States, it shouldn't just be about. The names of battles or dates that wars took place, or, you know, w w we tend to memorize names and dates and places just so that we can pass the test. Wouldn't it be fantastic. If we actually say talked about world war two. In and we put it in context, right. So instead of just saying this happened on this date, in this place, these were the parties involved. Let's move. Look, take a more global approach. Literally and figuratively, but. A wider angle and let's talk about, okay, well, all these things happen, but what's the story behind the story. Let's actually give some context. And then I think as. One, I feel like history would be more interesting to learn and to we're actually understanding. Why things happened instead of just memorizing the dates and the times and the places. All right, so that that's an aside, but we learn history in school so that we can learn the lessons from the past. Right. So that we can better understand the present. We can help shape the future better. And it allows us to learn from our past mistakes and successes. That's why we do a year-end review because yeah, sure. We can start fast. Like we have for ever. Or we can take a step back and say, what was good about this year? What do I want more of in the coming year? What wasn't so great. What, what would I love to never see or do or experience again? And then for those of us that are planners out there, and I think that's most of us. Whether you do your planning in the Best Life Planner. And if you don't, you absolutely should. I know that I I've mentioned it here before, but one of the women who came to the Best Life Retreat this year, Was just saying, you know, I love the Best Life Planner, but I think you screwed up. Um, you should have called it a life designer. And she's been using the Best Life Planner for probably. A year and a half, maybe a little longer, and just thinks it's about the best thing ever, because it's got that Morning 5, 10, 5, so that she can get very focused on what's going on in her day. The 10 Dreams That She Achieved written as if she's already done them, that keeps her focused on. Uh, her longterm goals and the life she wants to live. There is. daily top three, where you write down your top three priorities and other to-do lists. There's a schedule. You can track your best life habits. There are over 50 pages for notes. And it's all wrapped in this beautiful Navy blue linen cover with a gold coiled. Binding. I am a planner junkie I mean, I've tried them all when I couldn't find one that worked for me, I actually created the Best Life Planner. So I know that it'll work for you. So instead of just opening up another planner and filling it out and, and kind of going through the motions. You can actually use a tool like the Best Life Planner. Two. Help you create the life you want to live. The other great thing about the Best Life Planner is it's undated. It's a quarterly undated planner because I am a big. Believer that. We don't all decide. We want to start a new habit, a new planning habit on January 1st. Or the first day of the month or whenever it is. So when. You decide you want a plan when you decide you want a new life designer. You can do it, and you're not going to pay for a bunch of dates that you didn't use. So if January six, which is a Monday and all the planning does start on a Monday. Um, You can just start on page one. You don't have to pay for the five or six or 36 or whatever, you know, the six months before that, that you didn't use, you can, you can start whenever you want. If you want to learn more about the Best Life Planner, there is a clickable link in the show notes. If you want to get your Best Life Planner before. January 6th, then you need to order it pretty much. As soon as you hear this episode drop. I will put it in the mail to you as soon as I receive your order. If you want the O G version of the best life daily planner and habit tracker, it's 10 bucks right now. So it's a total steal. Again, I will drop them in the mail to you the day after I receive your order. Let's get back to the year-end review. What does that look like? Five or six years ago, I got really intentional about doing a year-end review. It might've been a little longer ago than that, but it's mainly because I got really tired of living the same year. Every year. It felt like. My. Goal sheet for each year. My to-do list. It was pretty much the same year after year after year. It seemed like a lot of my goals were goals that had been on my list for several years before that. Same goals. Just. Rolled into the next year, because I didn't feel like I had satisfactorily or successfully achieved them. And because I wasn't spending any time. Just taking a beat and looking back. To figure out how much success I'd already had. I was getting frustrated by the pace of. Movement. Like, I just, I wasn't where I felt like I needed to be or felt like I should be. What's interesting when you do a year-end review, though. Is. It's amazing how much. You are forgotten about. How much you have already moved. Say, you're going from point a to point B. You have already moved so far from point a that you just don't even remember it because your, so in the thick of it, Your going through the motions every day. You're you're, you're just doing life and. For most of us. Yeah, maybe, maybe the last year was a little challenging. Maybe we had some struggles or some lessons we had to learn again or. Some roadblocks on our way to where we think we need to be going. The truth is you're so much farther along than you think you are. And once we realize that that actually creates more momentum as we head into the next year. To continue moving in the direction. That we're hoping to go. Okay. So, um, like I said, it was probably five or six years ago. I was kind of half assing it for a while. You know, a couple of years before that. Five or six years ago, I created. A system that I use every year. And it has made a world of difference. So, what does this look like? What's a system look like. I literally take out my phone and I take out my calendar. And my calendar is on my phone. It's on my best life planner. I have a huge wall calendar that I keep sticky notes on throughout the year. And I do a comprehensive look back. Of every photo. In my camera roll. And every appointment. On my calendar. Why do I do that? Because you forget so much. I cannot even tell you. How much you have done seen, accomplished, experienced in the last year that you have completely forgotten about. Because we, we get into these routines and, and we, we, we feel like, you know what, we're going to the same places we're doing the same things. Like life just isn't. It's not different or it's not new. And because most of our, our life is routine. We forget about the little moments we forget about what we've done and where we've gone and who. We've spent time with, so when we start by going through our phone and our calendar, It's going to remind us of. All of the life that we have packed into the last year, because guaranteed. We have forgotten. Once I go. Month by month, literally day by day. Cause I'm swiping through my calendar. I am looking at every single appointment on every single day. I'm looking at every photo that I've taken. And I go month by month and I write down. All of the, the things that I've done, everything that I've experienced. Um, Tasks that I've started or finished. Uh, were there big meetings? Were there important moments? Anything that seems that it was memorable for some reason or another. And I totally don't judge it. I mean, it's either because. I want more of it. Going forward. It made me feel good. I was happy or I want less of it. Like I learned a lesson I don't ever want to learn that again. But I write down everything. And then once I have finished going through every single photo. And every single appointment. Then I answer a series of questions. I'm going to walk you through the questions, but here's something fun. I actually made you a year end review guide because I love having a form for myself. There is a spot for every month for you to make your notes on what it is you did each month. And then a series of several pages of questions where you can write down all of the answers. We'll we'll go through the questions. We'll go through some of the questions here, but kind of just give you an idea of what's in the review. If you want your copy of the year end review guide. There is a clickable link in the show notes, and I would be happy to send it to you and I, for me, it's perfect to have something tangible. That not only will I I'll do the review on, but then I can put it away. And file it away with my 2024. Bill's and other. Documents papers, other things that I'm keeping. But once I have it written out, I can also refer back to it because there is probably going to be some time. Where, you know, You started strong, maybe you lost a little momentum. And you just need a little kick in the ass to get going again. Like, why did you, you might even start asking yourself, why did I even start this? This is stupid. Well, if you pull out your year-end review guide, then you can be reminded exactly why this was important to you. So there's something very. Important about writing it all down and capturing your impressions and what you're thinking now so that you can actually use it when you need to, when things. Get a little muddy in 2025. Cause they will. Okay. So if you want your free copy of the year-end review guide, just click the clickable link in the show notes and I will send it right to your. Email. Normally, I would say that there's no right or wrong way to do something like this. But I do. I have to tell you that. You're going to need to set aside some time to do this correctly. Because it's going to take you a little while to go through every photo in your camera roll, unless you don't take photos of anything. And that's fine. Um, yeah. Most of us though. We don't live that type of a life anymore. Right. We take photos of everything, whether it's our food that we're eating, or a funny thing that our dogs doing, or, you know, We're at something for our kids or we travel somewhere else. We, we take photos of everything, which is great. We take all these photos, the, all they do is live on our camera. So by going back and reliving them, then we're remembering all of these experiences. So it's going to take you. I usually set aside half a day to do it. And that doesn't mean that that's the only thing that I've got going on. I might be watching a movie. I might be watching a football game. I'm probably listening to music. I I get real cozy and I settle in for a bit because it takes a while. So after we go through the, every photo in our camera, roll every appointment, then we're going to ask ourselves a series of questions. What have you done this year that has brought you the most joy or created the most positive feelings and memories? So, you know, what were you doing? Who were you with? Obviously. You want more options to have similar experiences in the year coming forward? Right. If we're getting intentional about creating the life that we want to live about living our best life. Obviously we want to infuse that with more joy we want, we want to do more things that made us happy. Similarly, we're going to look at. You know, W what, what wasn't so great. What caused the most stress? What caused the most negative feelings? What were we doing when we were unhappy? And we're gonna also look at, you know, what were we doing? Who were we with? And. I will say that it's important to recognize the difference between something that causes you stress because it was new or hard. I mean, anytime that we're doing something new, there's probably going to be some stress or it's hard. So, you know, maybe that creates some, some stress or some negative feelings that's different than if there are people in your life or situations in your life that cause you. Stress and anxiety like, you know, they make you unhappy. You don't, if you, if you had the choice, you wouldn't want to do that. Write that down rec, but recognize the difference between stress because it's new and hard versus stress that is. Causing you anxiety because it's related to certain people or situations. Next question. What were your biggest wins? What did you accomplish? What did you achieve? And, and recognize that your, the one who gets to define. What the big winds or. Um, they could be wins that anyone would recognize, which is, you know, a new job or. You placed in your age group in a local half marathon. Maybe you ran for office and you won the election. Everyone recognizes that. But it could also be things that no one else would notice. Right? Like you finally got to the point where you were sleeping at least seven hours a night. Or you swapped out your afternoon, diet Coke for water. You counted to five or 10 before you reacted or responded to your kids or your spouse or your coworkers? Whatever it is that you define as a win that you define as an accomplishment that you feel like you achieved. You're going to write that down. Next question. What haven't you finished yet? Next question. What were the most important lessons you've learned? This is getting at. We are moving beyond what we were taught growing up, which is you either succeed. Or you fail. There is so much gray area between those two that you either. In my opinion, you succeed. Or you learn the lesson, but there's always a lesson there and you're going to keep. Experiencing situations that are going to make it so that you have to learn the lesson eventually. And once you learn the lesson. Then then you can move on, but. Until you learn the lesson, you're going to keep. Finding yourself. In situations. Where you have to learn the lesson again. So what were the most important lessons you learned? What were you the most proud of? What would you like a do over on? Right. If you could go back and do something differently, what would that be? Is that a work project that turned out differently than you expected? Like maybe you do a different approach there. Is that a conversation you had with your mother-in-law? Is it. You know, maybe, maybe next time you would call Uber. Instead of driving after a night out with your friends, whatever it is. There's something that you would like to do over on. What is that? There are questions like who has been the most important to you this year? What was your best purchase or investment? What new habits? Did you start that are serving you? Did you start a daily walking routine or maybe you do a meditation before you go to sleep. Are you writing out? The weeks to do list. On Sunday night as part of a Sunday night planning session. Are you writing out Mondays to do lists before you leave the office on Friday so that you can clear your head for the weekend? Maybe you're maybe you're getting 30 grams of protein with every meal, which seems to be the new way of eating for all midlife women. Like. You know, 30 grams of protein per meal. It seems like a job, but we're all trying to do it. But what new habits are serving you? And then along with that, are there habits that you want to focus on in the next 12 months? It could be more of the same. Maybe, maybe you even started the year planning all of your meals at the beginning of the year, and then you fell off and you'd like to get back to doing that, whatever that is. And then we're going to finish bye. Asking yourself. What do you want more of in the next 12 months? So, what did you do this year? That you want more of going forward? And. On the same token. What do you want less up? Like, if you could choose and not experience any of the things that you want less of in 20, 25, what would that be? And then the final question that you will ask yourself as part of this review and you can see, I mean, it takes a little while, right? You got to go through every photo. You've got to go through every appointment. You've got to ask yourself these really intentional questions. But we're going to finish with what is one decision you could make? Or one action you could take that would have the biggest impact on your life in the coming year. This one might take a little. More time. Because you're really gonna want to think about it. I mean, most of us don't want to limit ourselves to one decision or one action. And maybe, maybe, maybe you give yourself to, so there's one decision and one action. It doesn't have to be an either, or it can be one decision or one action. It could be starting something. It could be stopping something. I think it's important to pay special attention to anything that scares you a little bit. Anything that you feel like. This one action that you could take, you, you kind of feel a nudge or you feel a calling to do it, or you you've got this deep down truth that you know, but maybe you don't want to admit it because it feels a little scary or it feels just too big. How are. How would people judge you, if you said out loud, the thing that you're thinking. If, if it scares you a little bit, It's probably worth. Pursuing. And then once you've identified that one decision or that one action, maybe, maybe just go a little deeper there. Why is that one decision so important to you? Like, how will it impact your life? And if you're someone who needs some guardrails and a lot of us do. Then what are you going to do to hold yourself accountable for making that decision or taking that action? Let's start planning. Next steps right now. When you're not feeling the momentum that you feel at the end of your year-end review to do the one action or to make the one decision. What are you going to tell yourself, what are you going to remind yourself? How are you going to get yourself into action? If you can plan out some of those, and it could be, I'm going to set a timer for five minutes and I'm just going to start. And if I'm still not feeling it after five minutes, I'm going to let myself, I I'm going to. Go do something else today. Totally. That's absolutely fine. If you have an idea of how you're going to react, when you don't feel the momentum or you starting to get a little pushback or maybe the healthy boundaries that you've set to to make it so that you can take those actions or, or stand firm in your decision. Maybe those boundaries are. People are creeping up on them a little bit, or they're trying to step over them. What are you going to do when that happens? Once you have completed your 2024 review. Will you let me know. How it went for you. I my guess is you're going to be amazed by everything that you. accomplish in 2024. And there's probably going to be blots of things that you've forgotten. The probably going to surprise you. Just let me know how it went for you. Were there certain questions that were more difficult than others? And if there's anything that has come up. For you as you've gone through this, that. You want to hear more about. In 2025. Shoot me an email. Send me a message on Instagram. I'm always looking for. New topics to cover on the podcast. And if I know that it is something that's important to you. you. better believe that that is going to hit the top of the list when it comes to programming for next year. I can't wait to hear from you. About how your year-end review went. In next week's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about, okay. Now I did the year end review. Now what. So next week is going to be focused on you spent time doing this? Instead of just filing it away. How can you use that? Two. Start planning and planning in a meaningful way for 2025. And because we're still kind of in that funny week between Christmas and new years. I hope you have a very. Festive and enjoyable new year's Eve and new year's day. And if I were you. If you're lucky enough to not be working until. January six, which is the first Monday of the year. I take the rest of the year. off. Right. Just. Relax, enjoy yourself a little bit. Uh, because 20, 25 is starting fast here. It'll be here before we know it. And. If I were, you I'd take the rest of the week off. So enjoy your week. Enjoy some relaxing time. You've absolutely earned it. Don't forget to get your free copy of the year-end review guide. By clicking the clickable link in the show notes. If you want a shiny new planner for 2025, because I don't know about you, but if I don't have a new planner, it doesn't feel like a new year. Make sure you get your best life planner ordered now so that it will be here in time for you to start 2025 next week. Enjoy the rest of your week. Thanks so much for being here. I will see you right here next week. This will be back on next Tuesday. We will be back in our normal schedule, um, when the School of Midlife is back in session. So until then, Happy new year. Take good care and I'll see you real soon. Thank you so much for listening to the School of Midlife podcast. It means so much to have you here each week. If you enjoyed this episode, could you do me the biggest favor and help us spread the word to other midlife women? There are a couple of easy ways for you to do that first. And most importantly, if you're not already following the show, would you please subscribe? That helps you because you'll never miss an episode. And it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. Second, if you'd be so kind to leave us a five-star rating, that would be absolutely incredible. And finally, I personally read each and every one of your reviews. So if you take a minute and say some nice things about the podcast, well, that's just good karma. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you right back here. Next week when the School of Midlife is back in session until then take good care.