A gentle end-of-year pause.
A reframe for disappointment.
And a way to learn from 2025 before rushing into 2026.
Merry Christmas – stay safe and enjoy the holiday season with your loved ones!
Today in 3 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
✔️ How to see disappointment as a signal
✔️ Where fighting reality may be creating unnecessary suffering
✔️ The difference between having a year and learning from it
Doable ideas 💭
Write down the biggest disappointment of 2025. Then ask: “What was this protecting me from?”
Didn’t get the promotion? Maybe you’d have been miserable in that role.
Relationship ended? Maybe you were compromising things that matter.
Project failed? Maybe you learned you don’t actually want that path.
Not every disappointment is a tragedy. Some are redirections you needed but wouldn’t have chosen.
What if it saved you from something worse?
Reflections 🪞
Where am I arguing with reality instead of accepting it?
- Notice when you’re mentally fighting what’s already happened
- Spot the suffering you’re adding to pain through resistance
Mindfulness 🧘🏻♀️
Most people will enter 2026 chasing the same goals they abandoned in February 2025.
Why? Because they never stopped to ask: what actually worked this year? What didn’t? And what needs to change?
The gap between “having a productive year” and “learning from your year” is massive. One just happens to you. The other shapes what happens next.
This is why I do an annual review.
Not the Instagram version where everything was amazing. The honest one. What worked. What didn’t. What patterns kept showing up. What needs to stop.
I’ve been doing this for over 5 years now, and it’s become one of my most valuable practices. Not because it feels good (sometimes it doesn’t), but because it creates clarity.
As I already track quarterly, monthly, and weekly reviews in Notion, the annual review becomes a pattern-spotting exercise. Notion AI makes this easier—identifying trends I’d miss otherwise, even generating templates.
Here’s the template I’ve used for the past three years, based on Chris Sparks’ framework: https://venussskty.notion.site/Annual-Review-template-from-Chris-Sparks-Forcing-Function-820e0cf87d084cf6b3a61a7a4fe21285?source=copy_link
But here’s what matters more than the template:
Reflection without action is just nostalgia. Action without reflection is just busywork.
Tim Ferriss said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Z9Lt1T-ko
You can’t fix patterns you don’t acknowledge. You can’t build on wins you don’t recognise. You can’t change direction if you never stop to see where you’re actually going.
So before you jump into 2026 goals and resolutions, take some time this week to look back at 2025.
Not performatively. Honestly.
What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you? What do you want to carry forward? What needs to stop?
The year happened. The question is: what did you learn from it?
Ideas Worth Pondering 🧠
Regret Minimization — To maximize your long-term happiness, prioritize projects you’d most regret not having pursued by the time you’re old and looking back at your life.
– Julian Shapiro
Video This Week 🎥
2025 humbled me. Here’s what I learnt:
Did you love this article?
If so, please let me know by either:
- #1: Forwarding this to a friend whom you think would benefit from actionable well-being tips
- #2: Hitting reply. Send me a sentence or two about what you enjoyed. I meant it when I say I’d love to hear from you. Typing into the void isn’t nearly as fun as interacting with real humans 🙂