11 BIG Questions For Your 2025 Year-End-Review

A few days ago, a friend of mine reached out in frustration at the reality of just how hard 2025 has been for her. She’s angry, and rightfully so. She’s gone through so much change, and a lot of pain. It had me thinking a lot about how we naturally reflect over our year as it comes to an end. Sometimes, we don’t even realize we are doing it. And when it’s been a hard year, we think about all of the changes that were out of our control and how so much of what we once knew is simply gone forever. We lose people, traditions, dreams, and sometimes so much more. This can make it really hard to look forward at what’s to come, and it can also make it really hard to look at all that we gained from the year too.

In my earlier years of blogging, I’d written about reviewing the end of each year quite a bit. In my mind, it’s incredibly important in so many ways. Your life can change in a single second. There are over 31.5 million seconds in a year.

There aren’t any rules to using the following questions, but I do want to give you three guidelines. The first is that you should write all of your answers down. When you write, there is something that solidifies what you’re writing. Putting it on paper is truly magic, no joke. The second is that you should keep it somewhere you can easily look back on. If it’s in a journal, mark the page. If it’s a single sheet, put it somewhere special. Lastly, try to do it this year instead of next. Leave 2025 in the past, for better or worse.

And if you really want to make it special, leave me a comment and tell me if these questions helped you even in the slightest, and how if you’re up for sharing.

1. What did 2025 ask of me that I didn’t expect when the year began?
In what ways did I have to grow up, slow down, toughen up, or soften?

2. In what ways did I abandon myself this year, even in the smallest ways?
Where did I override my needs, intuition, or truth to keep the peace or keep things moving?

3. Where did I show real strength in 2025, even if no one noticed or applauded it?
What were my quiet strengths? Those often count more than loud wins.

4. What patterns repeated themselves this year, and what are they trying to teach me?
Emotional, rational, behavioral, or mental loops.

5. What did this year teach me about who I am now, not who I used to be?
How was my identity reshaped; my priorities, patience, ambition, or self worth?

6. What am I still grieving from this year that I haven’t fully acknowledged?
A version of myself, a relationship, time, energy, a dream, or expectations that didn’t pan out.

7. When did I feel most like myself in 2025?
What was I doing, who was I with, and what does that say about what I need more of?

8. What did I learn about my capacity this year?
What can I handle, what breaks me, and what helps me recover?

9. What truth about my life became impossible to ignore in 2025?
The thing I kept bumping into, even when I tried not to look at it.

10. What were my 2025 month-by-month wins?
Not just accomplishments, but moments when I thrived, pivoted, leveled up, and truly LIVED.

11. If 2025 had one closing lesson for me, what would it be?
Not a Pinterest quote. The real one. The kind that changes how I move forward.

See you!
Amy