What is there to celebrate in the past year? What experiences would you like to cultivate in the coming year?

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

― Søren Kierkegaard

Free Year-End Practice Toolkit

Each year, as one chapter closes and another begins, I carve out time to pause, reflect, and imagine what’s next. This isn’t just a ritual; it’s a practice I’ve honed since 1999—a way to honor the past while stepping intentionally into the future. Since 2015, my wife Chris and I have shared this practice with others through a year-end retreat at her yoga studio called Consciously Creating Your New Year.

This toolkit is an invitation. It represents a distillation of years of practice, experiments, and wisdom. I have gathered this wisdom from mentors, colleagues, and my own lived experiences. It’s designed to guide you. Whether you’re an individual seeking clarity, a leader looking to inspire, or an entrepreneur shaping a vision, it encourages you to reflect deeply and move forward with purpose.

Why Reflect and Plan?

The simple act of reflection can change how we live, work, and lead. It invites us to celebrate the wins we often overlook, learn from the challenges we’d rather forget, and create space for clarity about what matters most.

For individuals, this practice fosters a greater connection to yourself and your aspirations.
For leaders, it helps you realign with your values and lead your team with greater purpose.
For entrepreneurs, it provides the clarity needed to navigate complexity and cultivate meaningful growth in your business.

This toolkit isn’t just about setting goals—it’s about aligning your life and work with who you are and what you truly want to create in the world.

Inside This Toolkit

Through carefully crafted prompts and practices, this guide will help you:

• Look Back With Insight: Celebrate your successes, embrace the lessons from challenges, and uncover how the past year has shaped you.
• Look Forward With Intention: Set clear goals and meaningful intentions for how you want to live, lead, and work in the year ahead.
• Cultivate Awareness: Deepen your understanding of how your life—and your business or leadership—is speaking to you now, and how you want to respond.

This is more than a planning tool. It’s a reflective journey that connects the dots between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming.

For Leaders and Entrepreneurs

If you’re leading a team or running a business, this toolkit offers practices that go beyond personal reflection:

• Reflect on how you’ve shown up as a leader or entrepreneur this past year.
• Revisit your vision for your team, your business, or your organization, and refine your path forward.
• Discover ways to cultivate resilience, adaptability, and clarity in your leadership, enabling you to inspire and guide others.

Leadership and entrepreneurship can be lonely roads, but reflection and intentionality create space for deeper connection—to yourself, your team, and the work you’re here to do.

Start Your Year with Purpose

This toolkit has been a transformative guide for countless individuals, leaders, and entrepreneurs. It’s helped them uncover hidden insights, align with their values, and design the future with intention and heart.

It’s my hope that it does the same for you.

Feel free to share it with anyone who might benefit from starting their year with a renewed sense of clarity, connection, and purpose.