How to Review and Reframe a Year That Didn’t Go to Plan.
As the year draws to a close, most people’s attention turns to next year. New goals, new plans, the familiar “new year, new me” mindset. And while looking ahead is important, I’ve learned over time that it rarely works well unless you first take a proper look back.
Before making decisions about where you’re going next, it’s worth understanding what’s already happened. Not to judge yourself, and not to dwell on the past, but to make sure you don’t repeat the same patterns simply because you didn’t pause long enough to notice them.
For many women, looking back can feel uncomfortable, especially if the year didn’t unfold as hoped. Instead of clarity, reflection can trigger frustration or self-criticism. That’s normal. Our brains are wired to focus more on what went wrong than on what worked, which means difficult years are often remembered as worse than they actually were.
This is why reviewing a challenging year needs to be done simply and honestly. Not as a performance review, and not as an emotional deep dive, but as a way of taking stock.
Start with facts, not feelings
A useful review begins with what actually happened.
Try writing down, plainly and without commentary:
The main events of the year
What took up most of your time and energy
What didn’t happen that you expected would
Keeping this factual helps you avoid slipping straight into self-blame. You’re creating a clear picture of the year as it was, not how it felt in hindsight.
Look for patterns, not mistakes
Once you can see the year clearly, the next step is to look for patterns.
Ask yourself:
Where did I consistently feel stretched or drained?
What felt sustainable, even if it wasn’t exciting?
Where did things tend to go off track?
The aim here isn’t to identify what you did wrong, but to understand what didn’t work. Patterns are far more useful than individual mistakes, because they tell you what needs to change going forward.
Reframe the year realistically
Many women describe a year that didn’t go to plan as a failure. In reality, it’s often a year where priorities shifted, capacity changed, or circumstances demanded more than expected.
Reframing doesn’t mean pretending the year was positive. It means asking more balanced questions:
Given what was going on in my life, were my expectations realistic?
What did this year show me about my limits?
What am I clearer about now than I was at the start of the year?
This kind of reframing helps you separate effort from outcome, which is essential if you want to move forward without unnecessary guilt or pressure.
Why this matters before setting goals
I place a lot of importance on goal setting in my work because the evidence is clear. People who set intentional, well-considered goals are far more likely to make progress and experience long-term success. This is why my goal setting sessions tend to sell out quickly each year.
However, goal setting works best when it’s informed by reflection. Setting goals without reviewing the year you’ve just had often leads to repeating the same issues in a new calendar year.
Before setting new goals, it’s important to ask:
What do I not want to repeat next year?
Where did I overestimate my capacity?
What assumptions did I make that didn’t hold up?
Answering these questions makes your future goals more realistic and far more achievable.
Refocus with intention
Only after reviewing and reframing does it make sense to refocus.
Rather than starting with big ambitions, begin with a few practical considerations:
What needs to change next year for things to feel more manageable?
What do I want less of?
What level of pace and pressure is actually sustainable for me now?
These answers give you a solid base for setting goals that fit your real life, not an idealised version of it.
A year that didn’t go to plan doesn’t get to dictate what happens next. But it does offer useful information. When you take the time to review it properly, you’re far more likely to make different choices rather than repeating old ones.
Instead of rushing into resolutions, there’s value in slowing down long enough to understand what this year showed you. From there, moving forward becomes more straightforward and far less emotionally loaded.
To support this, next week I will be releasing a goal setting blog designed to help you with what comes next. It’s about clarity, so that when you do look forward, you’re doing so with intention rather than habit.
Sometimes progress starts by being honest about what’s already happened.
