It's hard to believe that 2025 is already coming to a close.

The end of the calendar year presents us with a valuable, yet easily overlooked, opportunity:

In our rush to look forward and plan for the year that will be, we often fail to reflect on the year that was.

But a failure to reflect will eventually result in a failure to grow.

I started conducting a Personal Annual Review over a decade ago. It's been a life-changing exercise—one with an outsized impact on my personal and professional growth and transformation.

Today's piece shares the structure for my Personal Annual Review.

I hope that it will spark you to conduct your own before year-end, as I know you will gain incredible value from the exercise.

Here are the 7 simple questions that may change your life:

Note: I recommend downloading my free ​Annual Review PDF​ to walk through each of the questions and create space for the reflection.

Question 1: What Did I Change My Mind On This Year?

I used to assume that the most successful people had all the answers. That they just knew more than the rest of us.

But as I spent more time around these people, I came to realize this was entirely wrong.

The most successful people don't have the right answers.

They ask the right questions.

They realize that finding the truth is much more important than being right.

In fact, they legitimately enjoy being wrong. They lean into the feeling of being an embarrassing beginner. They embrace new information as software updates to their brains.

The Personal Annual Review starts with that core insight in mind:

• What did I change my mind on in 2025?
• What software updates did I have this year?

To paraphrase a famous quote from Mark Twain, "What did I know for sure that just wasn't so?"

Goal: Identify 2-3 key changes.

Question 2: What Created Energy This Year?

One of my strongest held beliefs is that your outcomes follow your energy.

To action on this belief, I use an exercise that I call the Energy Calendar:

The idea is that you reflect on your calendar and color code the events according to whether they created energy (green), drained energy (red), or were neutral (yellow).

The Energy Calendar is a simple visual tool to course correct as you identify trends in the types of activities that are positive or negative for your energy.

Drawing upon this idea, Question 2 asks you to reflect on your calendars from the year on a macro scale.

Open and review your calendars from the year:

• What activities, people, or projects consistently created energy in my life? Write them down.
• Did I spend ample time on these Energy Creators or did they get neglected?

Goal: Spend more time on these in 2026.

Question 3: What Drained Energy This Year?

Continue your calendar reflection, but with an inverted focus.

Open and review your calendars from the year:

• What activities, people, or projects consistently drained energy from my life? Write them down.
• Did I allow the Energy Drainers to persist or did I manage them in real time?

Goal: Spend less time on these in 2026.

Question 4: What Were The Boat Anchors In My Life?

Boat Anchors are the people, mindsets, and actions that hold you back from your potential.

You're trying to push, full speed ahead, but they create a drag on your life.

Boat Anchors can include:

• People who belittle, put down, or diminish your accomplishments. Who laugh at your ambition and tell you to be more realistic. Who harm the quality of your environment through negativity and pessimism.
• Self-limiting beliefs, stories, and mindsets.
• Bad habits that cut into your growth.

Question 4 asks you to identify the Boat Anchors that exist in your life.

Goal: Eliminate or minimize the energy you give them in 2026.

Question 5: What Did I Not Do Because Of Fear?

"We suffer more in imagination than in reality." - Seneca

One thing I've learned:

Fear comes from inexperience, not incapability. You're afraid because you haven't done it yet, not because you can't do it. Inexperience is the problem to be solved—and it's solved through having the courage to act.

The thing you fear the most is often the thing you most need to do.

Question 5 forces you to reflect on your fear and confront it.

Deconstruct the fears that held you back:

• What was the downside if I had taken action?
• What was the upside if I had taken action?

Goal: Get closer to your fears in 2026.

Question 6: What Were My Greatest Hits & Worst Misses?

Your natural bias skews how you see your year:

• The optimist sees all hits.
• The pessimist sees all misses.

Question 6 requires you to take an objective view:

Write down your hits and your misses. Reflect on why the hits hit and the misses missed.

Goal: Develop a balanced perspective on your year.

Question 7: What Did I Learn This Year?

"When you stop learning you start dying." - Albert Einstein

It's easy to lose sight of your progress and growth when you're zoomed in. The final question pushes you to zoom out and reclaim your perspective.

Take your time on this one. Reflect on the other questions from the exercise.

Write down what you've learned.

Goal: Identify 5-10 transformative learnings.

Conducting Your Personal Annual Review

Here are the 7 questions for your Personal Annual Review:

1. What did I change my mind on this year?
2. What created energy this year?
3. What drained energy this year?
4. What were the Boat Anchors in my life?
5. What did I not do because of fear?
6. What were my greatest hits and worst misses?
7. What did I learn this year?

The Personal Annual Review is a life-changing exercise. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Note: I recommend downloading my free ​Annual Review PDF​ to walk through each of the questions and create space for the reflection. For those who want to go deeper and return to the exercise more regularly, I recommend ordering a copy of the ​Life Planner​.