The 2025 Exit Interview (Part 1)

We are officially in the liminal space.

There are exactly 17 days left in 2025. We are suspended between the fading echoes of the last twelve months and the impending new year.

Right now, amidst the holiday rush, most of us are asking the frantic questions like, Where did the year go? or, What am I going to do differently next year?

I’ve talked a lot about how every day is a new opportunity to write a different story, and that remains true. But there is a distinct power in the turning of the calendar—a psychological "reset" button that helps us “feel” like a new person, ready for transformation.

But here is the hard pill to swallow: everyone wants to have a "new year, new me," but few people actually put in the work to make that transformation happen.

While we crave the "New Year, New Me" energy, the data is unforgiving. Roughly 91% of people abandon their resolutions. 23% quit after the first week. By February, the majority (64%) have slipped back into the complacency trap.

Why?

They started planning before they finished processing.

Next week, we are going to talk about the architecture of goal setting. But this week, we must do the heavy lifting. We must dig into the most overlooked component of growth: reflection.

I have become a deeply reflective person (sometimes to my own annoyance). I constantly pester myself with questions like, What did this feeling mean? How does this align with my soul or desires? How will I apply this in the future?

It can be uncomfortable. Sitting down to audit the complexity of your entire year is a daunting challenge. But life will teach you the same lesson over and over until you learn it. Reflection is the tool that ensures you learn the lesson the first time, or at the very least don’t have to repeat it 100 times.

Every year is filled with ups and downs, and some years have more downs than ups and vice versa. Think of the events of 2025 like cobwebs in the back of your mind. Taking some time for an end-of-year reflection allows you to dust them off, keeping your mental space clean, tidy, and ready for new furniture.

Reflection also helps put your life into perspective. When you marvel at all the craziness you went through and somehow still made it out alive, you start to learn how to ride the undulation of life with a bit more ease and grace.

There are dozens of reflection questions you can find all across the internet, and I’m sure they all hold some level of value. Here are the 6 questions I am asking myself to close the loop on 2025:

1. Who gave me energy, and who burned it up?

Your life is a constant hydraulic system of energy. Energy starts inside your soul and radiates outward, manifested in your words and actions.

You receive energy tangibly (interactions, touch, conversation) and intangibly (the "vibe" of a room, the presence of a person). Your ego is simply the filter that helps process and make sense of it all.

You already know the answer to this. You know exactly who drains you. If you leave an interaction feeling heavy, exhausted, or "off,” even if you can't logically explain why, you have found an energy leak.

Once we learn where these leaks in our energy are, we can start repairing them, and it starts by identifying where we are losing energy. You can’t keep your cup full if there is a hole in the bottom.

2. What was the most important lesson I learned, and how will I apply it?

We are learning all day, every day. While it may be difficult to nail down the “most important” lesson from 2025, simply asking ourselves the question does two things: 1) it gets us thinking about what we learned, and 2) starts to make a hierarchy of these lessons.

It can be helpful to pick some categories. What was the most important lesson you learned in your job/business? Your relationships? Your health? Your relationship with money?

A lesson unapplied is just a memory. It only becomes wisdom when it changes your behavior.

Fill in this blank. “When [Situation X] happened, I used to do [Old Habit Y] until I learned [Lesson Z]. In 2026, when [Situation X] happens, I will do [New Action] instead.”

This framework closes the loop and solidifies the learning for the future.

3. What brought me the most joy?

Note that I did not ask what made you happy. Happiness is fleeting; joy is resonant.

I truly believe that chasing joy is the only way to create a meaningful life. You can find joy in sorrow. You can find joy on a mundane Tuesday or just sitting on the couch.

Maybe your greatest joy wasn't the big vacation, but the peaceful morning walks you took or sitting in your favorite chair you finally bought. Dig for the moments where time stood still.

4. What did I learn about myself this year?

This is my favorite question to ask right now in any situation and is distinct from learning a lesson about the world. This is about self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge requires that you ask yourself about your wants and desires, how you felt and how you acted.

When you got into that argument with your partner, did you learn that you get defensive when you feel unheard? When you had less in the bank account than you wanted, did you become a stressed-out person who doesn’t sleep or become less generous? Did you learn that you don’t usually have the motivation to go to the gym or be active when you are busy at work or when the weather is subpar?

This year, I learned that I get agitated when I feel rushed, and that I am not the most patient person when "painting by numbers." I learned that I really do like slow mornings and showers in the pitch black.

We mistakenly think we know ourselves because we have lived with ourselves for 24 hours a day our entire lives. There is infinite depth to your own psyche. Ask yourself: “Do I actually like this, or have I just told myself I do?”

5. What do I want to teach or show others in 2026?

The gift of consciousness is the ability to learn. The price is giving that knowledge back.

One of my favorite parts of my past life as a teacher was showing students what it looked like to be passionate about something. Even if they couldn’t care less about the Medieval music history I was forcing upon them, they liked it a little more because they could hear the passion in my voice.

You teach people how to treat you, but you also teach people what is possible. You can show someone what resilience looks like. You can demonstrate kindness. You are not just living a life; you are modeling a standard.

6. What is my favorite thing I do every day?

Your day is your life in miniature. How you build your Tuesday reflects how you build your life.

I’ve been on several podcasts recently, and without fail, the host asks: “What’s one thing someone can do to start living a happier life?”

My answer is always the same: Do one thing, every day, that you love doing.

It sounds simple, but it is radical because it runs deeper than just doing whatever you want all day every day and focuses your mind on the parts of your life that you love doing.

This starts the snowball effect. Gradually, you begin to crowd out the obligation with passion. You don't even have to wait for retirement to enjoy your life! By choosing one intentional moment for yourself every day, for no other reason than you love it, you choose yourself over and over again.

And that, my friends, is how you build an uninterrupted life.

This is not an exhaustive list of reflection questions, but rather a handful of questions I think are helpful for gearing up for a new year. Knowing where you are helps inform where you want to go, and once you know where you want to go, then you can start worrying about how to get there.

This week was about knowing where you are. Next week we will be asking ourselves questions about where we want to go before finishing off the year with learning how to get there.

Until next time, live uninterrupted.

~Coleman