Sit With Your Wins (And Everything Else)
A year-end reflection that goes beyond the highlight reel
It’s the beginning of 2026. For many of us, we spent December plotting and planning and then once we hit January 1st it’s go time. This is the time where our New Year’s Resolutions are fresh and we have this sense of urgency that if we don’t get started now we will already be behind.
This year, I chose felt the urge to do something different. My December felt like I was finishing the last 5k of a marathon and I was just crawling to the finish line. I was finishing up work, a yoga teacher mentorship programming, doing some birthday party planning, and gearing up for my trip to Nigeria. I didn’t have it in me to do any 2026 planning. I needed more time to finish out the year before getting ready for the next one and since I didn’t necessarily have it (I mean December 31st was coming whether I was ready or not), I decided I’ll plan for 2026 in the beginning of January and that all will be okay.
While scrolling on TikTok, I came across this video that talks about how important it is to carve out time to sit with your wins. As an overly ambitious women, I’m always executing on something but I never take the time to really acknowledge and celebrate what I’ve done. This video made me realize that I need to intentionally carve out time to just sit in gratitude with what I’ve accomplished. 2025 was the year that I did A LOT. I don’t know if it was necessarily more than I’ve accomplished in previous years, but it felt like it was. Some of the things I did that I’m proud of were:
Plan a 50 person trip to Kenya for my mom’s birthday
Released another LinkedIn Learning Course
Ran a 10k
Led 4 projects at work that successfully went into production without causing an incident
Completed my 200 Hour Yoga Teach Training Certification and got accepted into the studio’s mentorship program
Hit my Investing Goal
Each of these accomplishments required a lot of time, energy, and intentionality. They represent growth, courage, and commitment to the things and people I care about. So instead of rushing into 2026 planning mode, I spent the last half of December sit with everything I achieved, to let it sink in, and to celebrate how far I’ve come. Because the truth is, we can’t keep becoming if we never pause to honor who we’ve already been. Celebration is only part of the story.
2025 wasn’t just wins and accomplishments. There was also a lot of hard stuff. There’s things I didn’t finish, moments I wasn’t proud of, relationships that shifted, and times I felt lost. And to be completely honest, those moments taught me just as much as the victories did. Because celebration alone, doesn’t tell you what to do next.
I can celebrate running a 10k, but if I don’t also reflect on why I struggled with consistency in my training, I’ll repeat the same patterns. I can be proud of leading successful projects at work, but if I don’t examine why I felt so drained by December, I’ll burn out again. Real reflection isn’t just about what you did. It’s about who you became, what you learned, and what needs to change.
So yes, let’s honor the wins. But let’s also sit with the full year. The messy parts. The growth that didn’t look like progress. The things you’re ready to release. That’s where the real wisdom lives: in the margins between what you accomplished and who you’re becoming.
I’ve put together 12 questions to help you look at 2025 with honest eyes. (This is what I call a Bookmarked reflection—a quarterly practice I do to track my becoming, and I’m inviting you to do it with me.) They’re organized into three parts:
The Year That Was: Looking back and processing what happened.
Who You Became: Noticing who you are now
What You’re Carrying Forward: Setting your intentions for the new year
These questions are designed to be done over time, not in one sitting. Some will feel easy to answer. Others might make you uncomfortable. If they make you uncomfortable, that’s usually where the real insight lives.
You can print them out or just grab a journal. Set aside 30-60 minutes in a quiet space. Don’t just think about the answers. Write them down. The act of writing reveals things thinking alone won’t.
And remember: there’s no right way to do this. The goal is reflection, not perfection. If a question doesn’t resonate, skip it. If one opens something up, stay with it longer.
The Year That Was
Before we can move forward, it’s important to look back. When I look back on the past year, I see it as a year of really deep personal growth. Last year really challenged me to set firm boundaries on what I will and will not allow in my life and understand what moments pushed me beyond my limits. Here are some questions I asked myself to help me process and understand last year:
What moment from 2025 made you feel most alive and like yourself? (When did you feel “yes, this is me”?)
What moment surprised you about your own strength or capacity? (When did you handle something better than you expected?)
What did you lose this year? What did that loss teach you? (Relationships, opportunities, versions of yourself, beliefs you had to let go of)
What were you tolerating that you didn’t need to tolerate? (What did you put up with out of habit, fear, or obligation?)
What consistently filled your energy? (What left you feeling more like yourself, not less?)
What unexpected thing happened that changed your trajectory? (The thing you didn’t plan for that actually mattered most)
Who You Became
Each of those moments last year led you to who you are now. It is the person that you are carrying into this year with more awareness and more clarity. In order to understand who I became at the end of 2025, I sat with these questions:
What did you learn about who you are this year? (A truth you discovered about yourself)
Where did your actual behavior not match what you say you value? (The gap between who you say you are and what you actually do)
What old story about yourself did you finally let go of? (The narrative that wasn’t serving you anymore)
What You’re Carrying Forward
Now that you’ve understood what happened and who you became as a result of it, it’s time to set your intentions for the new year. While this past year showed me how much I can do, I also realized I didn’t spend enough time sitting with how I want to feel. You can spend the entire year achieving every single goal on your list, however, if you have no understanding on how you want to feel when you get there, none of this actually matters. Here’s some questions to get you in the right headspace:
How do you want to feel in 2026? (Not what you want to accomplish)
What’s one way you want to show up differently in the new year? (A way of being, not just a goal)
If you could describe 2026 in three words, what would they be? (The energy you want to bring)
The Margin Notes
Now that you have a wider lens of what you are hoping for in 2026, take the time to read between the lines. Look at your answers as a whole. What patterns do you notice? What keeps showing up? The most important insights aren’t in any single answer. They’re in what connects them all.
Take some time to identify:
One thing to release: A commitment, belief, or habit no longer serving you
One thing to embrace: a practice, project, or way of being calling to you
One small system to support it: how will you make this easier for yourself
My word for 2026 is commitment. Not just a commitment to the things I say I want to accomplish but a commitment to being the best version of myself with or without the accolades. In order to do that, I’m:
Releasing: Hitting the snooze button
Embracing: Waking up at 5:30am during the week
System: Getting a physical alarm clock instead of using Alexa
It’s not perfect, and some mornings I’ll probably still struggle. But that’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s intention. It’s knowing what I’m building toward and taking one small step to make it easier and honor that commitment.
Before You Close This Tab
2025 was a chapter in your story. Some parts were beautiful. Some were hard. Some were boring. Some were transformative. All of it matters. All of it got you here.
If your answers to these questions revealed more mess than clarity or more questions than answers, good. That’s real. A year isn’t a neat narrative. It’s messy and contradictory and full of things that don’t resolve cleanly.
But there’s power in looking back honestly. Not to judge yourself, but to see yourself. These aren’t just questions to answer, they’re bookmarks in your story. They help you notice what you’re carrying that you don’t need to carry. To recognize growth you didn’t even know was happening. To close the chapter with intention instead of just flipping the page.
Take your time with these questions. Let them sit with you over the next few days. Revisit your answers. Notice what changes when you read them again with fresh eyes.
And when you’re ready to turn the page to 2026, you’ll know exactly what to bring with you and what to leave behind.
Welcome to the new year. Cheers to leaving room for who you’re becoming
P.S. If one of these questions surprised you or revealed something you didn’t expect, I’d love to hear about it. Reply to this email or leave a comment below. I can’t wait to discuss it with you.