A Year-End Intentionality Exercise for Creators

Plus My Visual End of Year Review

If you’re looking for a way to set a meaningful direction for 2025, here’s an exercise I use to align my goals with what matters to me:

• Step 1: Choose a motto you want to use as your north star for the year. I wrote about creating mottos here and here.

• Step 2: Choose 3-4 words that are important for you to embody in the year ahead.

• Step 3: Identify a few small goals that you can accomplish within each word. Try to make the goal specific, not vague.

• Step 4: Make it into a graphic to put it somewhere obvious so you can remember what you set out to do. I made the mistake last year of not putting the goals on the graphic which made it harder to remember them.

Here’s the graphic I made for 2024:

When I first looked back on 2024, I saw it as a tough year and I didn’t feel great about it. My inner perfectionist wants to dwell on everything I didn’t achieve, but I’m choosing instead to focus on the positives (as I encourage you to do too!). When I did that, I felt pride and more hope for the year ahead.

Here’s what came up during my reflection, especially in relation to the intentions I set for 2024:

I encourage you to take some time to reflect, whether it’s now at the end of the year or whenever you feel the need to recalibrate. Use the exercise I shared as a guide, or simply ask yourself: What sort of reflection feels right for me in this moment?

What about you?

What’s something you accomplished in the past year—big or small—that you’re proud of? Or what intentions are you setting for the year ahead? Share them in the comments, and let’s cheer each other on as we move into 2025!

Leif Love

On Christmas morning, we dressed Leif up as a reindeer and me as an elf, and we went skijoring together. Here’s the joyful video I keep watching on repeat of the experience.

Take care and keep creating!

-Katharine