While it’s still November, this will be one of my last Blogs for 2025, as such, goal setting for 2026 and reviewing the year of 2025 are budding topics. However, it’s hard to set relevant goals without reviewing what needs to be improved first.
Previous Goals
The first place to start with a review of your year is the goals that you set for it last year. For myself, I like to start from a positive place and look at the goals I achieved before moving to those that may need some work. For myself, this year I tackled new tasks and opportunities professionally that really helped solidify my professional foundation.
When it comes to goals I was unable to achieve, the outcome is less important than the why. Moving into next year’s goal setting, you need to recognize why a goal was not met and how that can be prevented going forward. For myself, the goal that I failed to achieve this year was taking on more public speaking opportunities. I failed to meet this goal as I didn’t actively seek out opportunities as often as I had planned. Going forward, I intend to continue working toward this goal, but I will change my approach so that I can comfortably and actively put myself in public speaking roles.
Highlights
While goals are important, especially professionally, patting yourself on the back and acknowledging your own wins is just as important. Ask yourself what your top 3 wins were this year whether it was professionally or personally, don’t just stick to surface level acknowledgement take a moment to think about why these highlights stand out to you and what made them important.
Lowlights
Similarly to highlights, lowlights are also important to review, albeit more uncomfortable to focus on. Ask yourself what your top 3 lowlights were for the year and investigate why these moments have stuck with you and what you can do to prevent them in the future. Sometimes the answer is that there is nothing you could have done, and that is ok.
2026 Goals
Once you have addressed your previous year’s goals, rewarded yourself for your wins, and thought about your lowlights, we are finally ready to set our goals for 2026. For that, I will see you in my next blog!
Dylan Coffey, Human Resources