26 An Easy Year End Review for Women Leaders: 5 Questions to Guide 2026

Before you rush into goal setting for 2026, pause and reflect. In this episode of Joyfully Unstoppable, Becky Hamm, leadership coach and founder of Women Lead Well, walks you through a simple, soulful year-end review designed especially for women in leadership.

You’ll explore five powerful questions to help you uncover what truly worked, what didn’t, and what you’re craving more of in the year ahead. This isn’t about achievements—it’s about alignment, meaning, and joy.

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Because high performance without reflection leads to repetition, not growth. Let’s make 2026 your most intentional, joyful, and fulfilling year yet.

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Transcript

1:06

Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable, the podcast for women who are ready to lead boldly, live lightly, and reclaim their joy. Whether you are leading a team, a classroom, a boardroom, or your own big, beautiful life, I am so glad you found us. I'm your host, Becky Ham, leadership coach, speaker and founder of Women Lead Well. After years of high level leadership, I discovered that success doesn't have to come at the cost of your peace, your values, or your wellbeing. Each week, we'll explore what it means to lead joyfully, sustainably, and authentically. Even in a world that tells you to hustle harder and your worth, you carry a lot. Let's help it feel lighter. So. Today we are gonna talk about how to conduct a year end review. We're moving into the holiday season. Things are about to get crazy. I mean, let's be honest, y'all things are already crazy, but, but it's just gonna get even busier. So I want us to take a few minutes today to really assess 2025 so we can learn the lessons that will inform our goal setting and our actions moving into 2026. Why do we do this? Well, because high performance without reflection leads to repetition, not growth. I'm gonna say that one more time. High performance without reflection leads to repetition, not growth. And I don't want that for you. I want you to be able to grow. I don't want you repeating the same cycles, the same bottlenecks, the same dynamics next year, unless you intentionally choose to do so. So a year-end review is critical for positioning you to grow. I have got a goal setting and implementation course called Your Success Blueprint. It's now live. It's a little mini course. It's five modules, it's$26. It is Chef's Kiss, of course. I mean, I made it so of course I think it's good. I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was good. I wouldn't present it to you guys, but I'll link that in the show notes below. If you would like a deeper dive into how to conduct your year end review within your success blueprint. We do a year end review. We also define your values and vision. We talk about, how to set really beautiful, juicy, high impact goals, how to achieve them. And then I've got an entire lesson on how to get back on track if life pulls you off course, because high life, it does every goal, every big goal that you achieve, that anybody ever achieves. At some point you get. You get off track because life gets lifey and so I'm giving you clear guidance on how to get back on track again. It's$26 tailor made for women, who wanna swing for the fences in terms of their goals. But who don't wanna have to figure it out alone? I got you girl. link in the show notes below. But for today, we're really gonna start with step one of that process, doing the year end review. And to support this, if you go to Women Lead well.net, the free resources tab, I've got a free download for you that's called Year-End Review. You won't miss it. and it's got all of the questions for you that we will talk through today just laid out in an easy download. Now I go into a ton more detail inside your success blueprint, but for the podcast today, I just wanna lay out the overview of this step of the year end review to help you get started on it. So grab your journal. you can use the notes app on your phone, whatever, but you're gonna wanna answer these questions. Question number one, as you look back at 2025, what worked for you? What felt meaningful, energizing, aligned, what moments really lit you up, gave you a deep sense of fulfillment. And pride, and you'll notice with this question I am not asking you what did you achieve? Like did you get a promotion? Did you sell a book? I'm not asking you what you accomplished in the year. I'm asking you what worked for you, what lit you up, what? What felt deeply meaningful and fulfilling to you. Because sweet friend, you can be successful and fulfilled at the same time. And so let's move in that direction. If you're not already moving in that direction. If you don't already feel deeply fulfilled by your success, then let's start to carve out those pieces of fulfillment where you find them and let's reinforce them. Let's lean in that direction. So that is step one. What worked for you? What brought you meaning? What brought you fulfillment? What brought you joy? What were those moments? And now the inverse question number two, what did not work for you? What drained you? What distracted you? What frustrated you? What angered you? What pulled you away from what really matters the most to you? And again, I'm not asking you where did you fail?'cause failure is a part of life. Failure is inevitable. And frustration, anger, those are emotions. They're inevitable too. But we learn from failure to grow stronger. And I think a lot of us at this point, we understand that we don't see failure as the end. We see failure as a way point to future growth. And so what I would encourage you to do with this year end review is that you also see frustration, anger, disconnection, that is vital information. That's a way point to future growth as well, or to healing depending on the circumstance. And so get real clear. On, what were those situations where you felt disconnected, where you felt pulled away from what matters most to you, where you were doing work that wasn't fulfilling, that wasn't meaningful, that wasn't connected to joy for you, as you define it, get clear on that. What was it like? What was the actual situation? Why were you in that situation? Why were you devoting energy and time and and yourself to something that wasn't meaningful, that wasn't fulfilling, that wasn't connected to joy? Was it from some sense of obligation? Was it from an inability to set good boundaries or to say no? Was it you were pursuing somebody else's definition of success, but not your authentic definition of success? Why were you in those situations that were pulling you away from what matters most to you, and particularly in those moments where you're frustrated or you're angry or resentful, right? That comes up too a lot for a lot of people. When you are in those moments, oftentimes that's because a particular value that you hold dear has been violated. And you might not be clear on what that value is, right? You just might know that you're feeling resentful, or you're feeling frustrated, or you're feeling angry. And so again, as part of this reflection, take a little time and ask yourself, think of specific actual moments over the past year where you felt that way, where you felt frustrated, resentful, or angry, and ask yourself, what is it about that situation that triggered me? That evoked that response from me. What was it about it that was so frustrating, that was so angering that caused that resentment? And C, as you're thinking through it, and particularly with that first question about what lets you up, what was meaningful to you? Where do you feel fulfilled? Where do you find joy? Probably as you do this reflection, you're gonna start to see, That there is an inverse relationship or two ends of the continuum between what lights you up and what leaves you feeling disconnected or resentful or frustrated. And that's fantastic insight, right? Because as you look toward 2026, you can ask yourself, how do I put myself in more situations? Or I'm feeling fulfilled and my work has meaning and I'm feeling that joy. And how do I protect myself from the situations that spark the frustration, the resentment, the disconnection, the alienation. So one, what's been working? Two, what's not been working? Again, not in the accomplishment dynamic'cause.'cause that's fine, but that's not nearly as valuable as what's working. in the meaning, fulfillment, connection, joy, what's not working in terms of the disconnection, the frustration, the resentment, the anger. Question number three. What are you craving more of in 2026? And again, here, I don't mean this in terms of accomplishment, this is not traditional goal setting. You're gonna set. If you choose, you can set some big traditional goals. You can talk about launching your side hustle. You could set a goal to run a marathon. You could set a goal to change jobs if you don't like the position that you're in, or get the promotion or complete the certification. Whatever you can set like traditional professional goals, uh, or, or personal goals. Talk about run a marathon, but, but let's take just now as we're doing this reflection. Step out of that. I need to accomplish stuff to be happy mode and step into what actually makes you happy, truly you in your life. Because again, this is a leadership podcast, but you will be a much more effective leader in either formal leadership roles or informal leadership roles to the extent that you feel fulfilled and that you feel that the work you do every day has meaning. So what are you craving more of in 2026? Are you craving more space on your calendar time for deep reflection? Are you craving more true, authentic connection with people? Are you craving more money in the bank account that actually build up the FU fund so you can jump off the cliff and leave the job that's draining you? What are you craving more of that? And then I'm saying craving, and I'm saying it 15 different times. Because I'm not talking about the rational mind, I'm not talking about the achievement focused part of you. I'm talking about that intuitive, emotional, somatic like physical part of you. What are you craving more of? What would delight you in 2026? Build that list. And then as we move into 2026, as you start setting goals, if you are a goal setter and not everybody is, that's great too. But as you, if you start to set your goals for 2026, let's, let's lean into that. Let, let's make sure that some of those cravings are some of the things that you are going to build, right? Yay. Make it a great year. Okay. Question number four, in what parts of your life are you fully resourced? And here I'm talking about resourced in terms of you have all of the support, all of the ability, like the actual knowhow, the knowledge, the information, the capacity, and all of the time that you need. Are you fully resourced? At work, are you fully resourced at home? Are you fully resourced in terms of your physical health? where are all of your needs being met? In what aspects of your life are all of your needs being met? You are fully supported. And I really hope that there is at least one part of your life where you feel fully supported and resourced. And then after you've answered that question, then question number five is the inverse of that. Where are you under-resourced? Where do you lack the support, the ability, so the information, the know-how, the knowledge to do the thing, right, or the time that you need. Where are your needs not being met again? That could be at work. So in the professional aspect of your life, it could be at home in the personal aspect of your life. It could be like your house, right home and personal. It could be health, but what aspect of you, what aspect of your life needs additional support? And to the extent that you can, when you're answering this question, be specific about the exact type of support that you need in these different aspects of your life. Super, super helpful. Why? Well, because once you are aware of those gaps, then you are more inclined, you're better able to find ways to fill those gaps and you might have to get creative, right? If, if the support that you need is financial, well, you might have to get creative. If the support, that support that you need is time, you might have to be creative on how you're gonna free up some of your time. But that awareness is critical to helping you fill those gaps as you move into the new year. Now in the download, I also walk you through an assessment of your communication skills of your decision making over the past year, your emotional intelligence, mental agility, team building. So definitely check out the end of year or year end review, uh, for a broader look at all of the dynamics that are present in effective leadership. But I'm trying to keep these episodes short. I have noticed that I have like crept into the 20 plus minute episodes and I wanna keep them under 20 minutes if I can, just because I know you're busy. You've got a lot going on. So today we just focused on the overall review, those five questions. I hope they are helpful for you As you look at 2025 with that eye, to not repeat the same cycles, not to repeat the same bottlenecks, but to grow to be more fulfilled, find your life more meaningful and rewarding in 2026. And I hope that you'll join me next week as I walk you through setting some big juicy goals for your life in 2026. It is gonna be fun, it will be empowering, and it will help you get ready to have your best year yet. Now if this episode spoke to you, I would love for you to share it with a friend who's running on empty. We need more women leading from alignment, not adrenaline, and don't forget to like and subscribe. It really helps a little podcast like mine. You can also grab one of our free resources, like the year-end review or the Mental Load reset@womenleadwell.net and LinkedIn the show note below. Remember. Joyful, sustainable and authentic leadership is possible, and you deserve to enjoy every minute of it. Until next time, I'm Becky Ham, and this is joyfully unstoppable.