As 2025 wraps up, this short episode guides you through a simple, honesty-first journaling reset to help you step into 2026 with clarity instead of drift. You’ll do two quick sessions: a 2025 reflection (what you normalized, what you’re ready to release, and “The Truth About My Year”) and a 2026 intentions reset focused on daily behaviors—not vague goals. We’ll also apply a rightsizing lens to ask whether your current home still supports your healthspan, wealthspan, and sense of purpose for your Next Act.
As we close out 2025 and step into 2026, I’m guiding you through a simple but uncomfortable reset: an end-of-year journaling process designed to cut through autopilot, status quo comfort, and fuzzy decision-making. This is not “new year, new you.” It’s an honesty-first realignment with the lifestyle you want for your Next Act.
In this episode, you’ll do two focused sessions:
(1) Reflect on the last 12 months with questions like: What did I normalize that I don’t want to normalize anymore? Where did I run a pattern that no longer fits? What am I holding onto that I’m ready to release? Then you’ll write one powerful paragraph: “The Truth About My Year.”
(2) Design your next 12 months with specificity (not vague inspiration): how future-you lives day-to-day, what energy/mobility/routines look like, and what environment actually supports that version of you.
We also bring in a rightsizing lens—without forcing a one-size-fits-all narrative. Sometimes staying put is right. But sometimes “aging in place” is fear dressed up as virtue—and an oversized, high-maintenance home can quietly tax healthspan and wealthspan. We’ll treat your home like a set of variables and ask what truly supports your next decade.
Finally, you’ll choose your biggest NO (what you’re done tolerating) and your boldest YES (a behavior-based non-negotiable), so you can enter 2026 with momentum instead of drift.
If you realize you’re at a decision point, book a Rightsized Home & Health Review here: https://bit.ly/4aiIBxxand we’ll map next steps together.
Chapters
00:00 Year-End Reset: Why Comfort Creates Drift in Retirement
03:40 Session 1 (2025 Reflection): What You Normalized + What You’re Ready to Release
07:15 Session 2 (2026 Intentions): Future-You in Daily Behaviors (Not Vague Goals)
10:31 Rightsizing Lens + Your Next Step: Home Fit, Healthspan, Wealthspan
13:11 Taking Action: Next Steps for Your Journey
Hey, hey, welcome back, Ninjas. As we close out 2025, I want to offer you something simple, powerful, and honestly, a little uncomfortable. A year-end reset. Not your typical "new year, new you" coaching, but rather a realignment with the lifestyle you want for your Next Act. Because what I find is that most people don't get stuck from lack of knowledge or lack of willpower. They get stuck because the path they're on is just comfortable. It feels normal.
There's this great quote from Robert Brault which says, "We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal". Unfortunately, that clear path is often status quo, simply doing nothing. But today it's time to challenge that. You can keep maintaining what's familiar and catering to your past self, who by the way is long gone, or you can design your Next Act on purpose and give your future-self a leg up.
But that means you're going to need to be completely honest with yourself. Honesty is the catalyst for action. No more BS about status quo being the safe and secure option. It's not. It may feel comfortable, but it's not safe. It's actually risky.
But before we go any further, let me clarify. This episode is not here to convince you to rightsize your health or home fit or make any other specific decisions. Sometimes staying put is the right call. Beware of any one-size-fits-all narrative. Right now though, the cultural storyline suggests that aging-in-place in retirement is the only prudent path. While that may be possible, it's also just as likely to be fear dressed up as virtue. So today, I want you to get clarity.
What I'm going to do today is guide you through an end-of-year journaling process that is going to help you see your life and your home much more honestly than you probably have all year. Because when your story is fuzzy, your decisions, well, they get tabled, don't they? When your story is clear, momentum is possible.
Here's how I suggest you use this episode to get that clarity. I encourage you to set aside some time over the next two weeks to look back and reflect on 2025, and then look forward and set your intentions for 2026. I want you to start with 100% honesty with yourself about all successes and all obstacles you've had all year. Just let your journaling flow, no censoring. Just give yourself this free-flowing mind-dump.
If you're driving or walking right now, just listen and notice what hits you and come back later and do the writing. Don't procrastinate this. Really make the time a priority. It's seriously time well spent. It will help you step into the new year feeling focused and empowered. And please give yourself enough time so that you can do this thoroughly.
If necessary, break the journaling into two sessions. You can do one block of time for your 2025 reflection and one block of time for your 2026 intention setting. Just pick a time when you're least likely to be interrupted. Put your phone in another room, grab a notebook, preferably paper, yes, pen and paper because I think handwriting slows your brain down in a useful way. And then set a timer for 20 minutes. Give yourself just one rule. Be completely honest. Don't try to sound wise, don't censor what you write, just let it flow. Does that sound good?
All right, let's get started. Part one, reflect on 2025. We're going to kick this off by reflecting on the last 12 months. At the time of this recording, it's the end of 2025. So you're just going to look at the entire year. regardless of when you're listening to this, just look back over the last 12 months. First, start with a 10,000 foot flyby through the months remembering all the key events that made up the year. Then zoom down a bit closer and start to fill it in with a few specifics just to give your mind's eye a rough outline of your year before you start answering any of questions. Do you have that rough outline or sketch in your mind? Then good. Pick up your pen and paper or journal, whatever you have, and let's answer some questions.
My first question for you is this. It's one of my favorites because it slices through denial without being dramatic. Question one, what did you normalize this year that you don't want to normalize anymore? Don't overthink it just write. Could be clutter, could be the constant burden of home upkeep. Maybe it's isolation and days passing without connection. or it's that background anxiety of what if something happens? Maybe it's feeling slightly trapped in the logistics of your home. Or it could not even be about your home, but how you've been treating your body, your sleep, your calendar, your stress.
Now go one layer deeper. What story did you use to justify normalizing it? Did you think something along the lines of "This is just how it is? This is what getting older looks like"? Or "I'll deal with it later, it's not that bad. Other people have it worse". That last one's classic, right? It's a great way to stay stuck while sounding humble.
Next question. How much of your year was spent on autopilot doing what's familiar instead of what energizes you? Autopilot is sneaky, it feels efficient, it feels responsible, but it's also how an entire year disappears in a blink.
Another question, where did you keep repeating a pattern that no longer fits who you are? And I want you to be brave here. If you say "I don't know", write that down too, because I don't know is often code for I'm afraid to know.
Now this next question tends to bring up grief, so I want you to go gently, but go honestly. What have you been holding onto that you wish you could let go of? Is it possessions, habits, stories, versions of yourself you want to let go of? Maybe you're wishing you'd let go of the fantasy that things will magically get easier, or the belief that you must earn retirement by working longer. You might even be holding on to worry, indecision, and the burden of a lifestyle that no longer fits.
Perhaps an even more important reflection is: What new clarity did you gain this year about who you are in this stage of life? What matters most to you now? Is it your time, your health? Is it convenience, connection, freedom? This question is gold because it is going to shift you from "what should I do? to "who am I now"? In your home, your routines, your environment, they should serve who you are now, not who you were 15 years ago.
Before you finish that reflection on 2025, I want you to write a summary paragraph called the "Truth About My Year". No spin, no fluff, just the truth. Include all of the major wins and challenges that you had. If you do nothing else, if you only make time for this one question after this episode, I encourage you to at least write that end-of-year summary.
Because the next step is going to be to look towards your future-self. It's time to shift from drift into intentional design, from being reactive to proactive. As we move into 2026, into a new year, this is where I think many people get inspirational and vague. We're not going to do vague today, we're doing specific.
So my first question looking forward towards 2026 is this. How is future you living one year from now? Next year, when you're doing a similar self-check. Describe that version of you in concrete terms. What kind of energy do you have? How is your mobility? What are your routines and relationships like? Not emotions like "I'm happy". mean, how do you actually live? How do you wake up in the morning? How do you move? How often are you outside? How often are you laughing? What does your day-to-day feel like?
And then this next question is where your rightsizing lens comes in. Treat this question like a scientist. You're going to look for environmental variables that either support the outcome or sabotage it. What kind of home supports that version of you? Think not just number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but environment. Things like climate, community, cost of living. What's going to be the best fit for your Next Act? And here's a related question. If your current home is consuming a disproportionate amount of time, money, or maintenance, is it truly "safe" for you to stay put? Or is it quietly taxing your healthspan and wealthspan?
If the answer is "No, it's definitely shortening my healthspan and wealthspan", then a move may be in order. Alternatively, if the answer is "Yes, my current home can support that version of me, but I'm going to need to make some changes for it to keep working", then rightsizing for you may not require a move, but rather a redesign or a renovation for accessibility. Or maybe you need for simplicity, refinance for cash flow, create a plan to connect with your community. Just be honest about what you're going to need to support future you.
And then I'm going to ask you to answer a couple of boundary questions. They're going to help guide your next steps. The first boundary question is this. What's your biggest "NO" for the coming year? Are you saying hell no to clutter? No to home upkeep that steals your weekends? No to fear? No to waiting for urgency or crisis to force your hand? No to the idea that your best years are behind you? Whatever it is, write your biggest no. The first one that comes to mind. Then write what not saying no is going to cost you socially, physically, and financially if you keep tolerating it.
The second boundary question is: What's your boldest "YES" for the coming year? Is it yes to energy and strength, yes to mobility and independence, yes to your best Next Act? Think behavioral, not a vision board, a behavior. In other words, What are your new non-negotiable yeses and nos that future-you is going to thank you for?
Because here's the thing, you are not the same person you were on January 1st, 2025. And I mean that in a good way. If you've listened to any of my podcasts this year, I have no doubt that you're outgrowing outdated beliefs, that you're letting go of old identities and getting clear on your long game. Now your home and your health, they get to catch up, don't they? You are in your Go-Strong decade, or perhaps sliding into the Go-Slower decade. Regardless, doesn't matter. Don't wait for crisis to get into action. Stay proactive. Create a lifestyle to support your longevity while you still have options available to you.
And if you feel resistance to that, it's okay. Resistance is simply information. It doesn't mean stop, it means pay attention. Ask yourself, what exactly am I afraid I'll lose if I change? Because sometimes we cling to a home not because it's a good fit, but because it protects us from uncertainty. And yet uncertainty is exactly where our growth lives, isn't it? It may also, paradoxically, be your safest course of action.
So here's your two-session plan to do any time over the next couple of weeks.
Session one is your 2025 reflection. Answer those questions, write that "Truth About My Year" summary, and end by writing one sentence "In 2025, I'm done normalizing [blank]!"
Session two is your 2026 intention setting. Describe future you in detail. Describe the home and environment that supports future-you. Choose your grand "NO" and your bold "YES". End by writing one sentence "In 2026, I will honor myself by [blank]".
Remember, no censoring, no overthinking, just do a free-flowing mind-dump to get your thoughts on paper. And if you catch yourself trying to write the "correct" answer, that's your cue to go deeper. When you're done journaling, circle the three most emotionally charged lines that you wrote. Those are your clues. Those are the places where truth is trying to wake you up.
And if you realize that you're at a decision point about home or health or how you want to live, don't carry that alone in your head for another year. Go ahead and book a Rightsized Home and Health Review with me. It's a complimentary one-on-one session where we look strategically at your home, your health, your lifestyle, so that you can make confident next steps. You'll fill out a short questionnaire first, then choose a spot on my calendar. I'll help you get clarity and direction for your Next Act.
Until next time, my friends, live well, love more, age less.