Capping off Your Year with a Postcard to Yourself
As the year draws to a close, many of us—including myself— feel pulled in multiple directions, both professionally and personally. It’s easy to feel caught up in the to-dos and skip the higher-level reflection: what you lived through, what you learned, what shifted, and what you accomplished over the last 365 days.
And yet, this pause matters. Deep reflection is what allows you to move into the new year with greater clarity, pride and gratitude. In a very real way, it’s also our opportunity to write another page in our personal history and acknowledge the most distinguishable parts of our recent life journey.
My goal is to offer a Year End Recap that is intentionally simple, visual, and strengths-based—an approach that feels doable rather than daunting. This review can be completed in one sitting or broken into stages over time.
You can complete Part I, II, or III as standalone activities, or move through them sequentially, allowing each step to build toward deeper insight and meaning.
Having included elements of these activities with ongoing Chief groups I facilitate over the last month, I can attest that these were simple and powerful prompts. The final postcard activity elicited the greatest laughter, however, and was a fantastic group activity and conversation.
Part I: Take Stock of the Year
WHAT:
Review and capture meaningful events, challenges, wins, milestones, and shifts that shaped your year.
HOW:
Start with a blank piece of paper. Using your photo reel and/or calendar, begin listing both the big moments and the quieter developments from the past year.
Scroll through your digital photo roll.
Notice what you chose to document—both large and small moments—and what those images reveal about where your attention and energy went.Review your calendar.
Jog your memory about what happened when, surfacing both the “headline” moments and the subtler, behind-the-scenes experiences that defined your year. Note broadly how and to what you invested your time.
Part II: Name What You’re Most Proud Of
WHAT:
Identify 3–5 things you feel most proud of doing, being, or becoming this year.
HOW:
Reflect on the questions below. These are designed to help you recognize moments when you were drawing on your strengths. Your answers can span all areas of your life.
When were you so absorbed that you lost track of time?
When did you feel a genuine sense of pride, and why?
When did you receive positive feedback or appreciation from others?
From your reflections, choose three to five things that you feel most proud of this year. They may include visible achievements—or quieter shifts that only you fully notice or appreciate.
Part III: Create a Postcard to Yourself
WHAT:
Create a thematic “postcard” that captures the essence of your year.
HOW:
You’ve already done the hard work. Now it’s time to distill what you’ve learned into a compact, visual reminder—something that preserves this moment in time and is easy to return to later.
On a half sheet of paper (8.5 × 11 folded in half), jot down words, phrases, symbols, or simple drawings that reflect the core themes and developments of your year. You might even write a humorous one-liner to sum up the year.
The constraint of the half page is intentional. Less space invites brutal clarity and pithy points.
Think of this as a visual time capsule for your future self, which you can revisit to remember who you were, what you navigated, and the defining aspects of this period in time.
This is something you might store for yourself in your mobile photo reel, a folder or photo book to replicate and look back on annually. You might make your postcard by yourself or as a group activity with friends, family or even colleagues; if you choose to do it with those who you are close with, it would be interesting to note the overlap and/or differences in the lived experience.
It’s hard to start a new chapter without capping off the previous one, so I hope you will take even just a little time out for reflection, as it need not be long; In my experience, high performing professionals are the hardest on themselves and fail to give themselves credit and grace in the doses they deserve, so this set of activities can be a good antidote for reframing. By doing so, I hope and anticipate that you will emerge with greater sense of gratitude and even wonder at your imprint on your family, friends, organization and community, and also at a higher level, this particular season of your life.
Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy holidays, and look forward to catching up in early 2026!
