Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #212| How to Create Your Best Year by Reviewing What Actually Worked (And What Didn’t)
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: Not everything went perfectly this year.
- 0:01Michelle Gauthier: It's true for me.
- 0:02Michelle Gauthier: It's true for you.
- 0:03Michelle Gauthier: But instead of beating ourselves up, we can gently ask, why didn't that go well?
- 0:13Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:25Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:30Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Hello, friend.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: Happy New Year.
- 0:43Michelle Gauthier: Today I'm going to talk to you about something that feels actually very vulnerable, which is my own New Year's reflections of what went well and what did not in 2025 for me.
- 0:52Michelle Gauthier: By hearing this, you learn how to evaluate your own year by looking at this past year and focusing on what did go well, what didn't go so well, and what to do differently in 2026 to improve that.
- 1:05Michelle Gauthier: But as you may have heard on Monday's podcast, I am doing a class on Tuesday the 6th at 12 noon central time called Your Best Year, where we will plan out your best 2026 in workshop format.
- 1:21Michelle Gauthier: So you will get a workbook.
- 1:23Michelle Gauthier: I will walk you through my methodology for creating goals that will stick and will be flexible and in alignment with where you are in life.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: It's a one-hour workshop, and by the end of that, you will know exactly which goals to choose and plan for 2026.
- 1:39Michelle Gauthier: I would love to have you join me.
- 1:41Michelle Gauthier: The link is in the show notes, and the cost for this workshop is $26.
- 1:45Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's get back to talking about my own 2025 reflections.
- 1:51Michelle Gauthier: So what I did, and this is what I recommend that you do as well, is first look at all the different areas of life and then start off by writing down what went well.
- 2:01Michelle Gauthier: Your brain's very likely to want to skip this part or to come up with nothing, to be like, ah, just, I mean, work was okay.
- 2:07Michelle Gauthier: I guess nothing really went super well.
- 2:10Michelle Gauthier: So I really want to challenge you to get out your phone, look back at your calendar, look back at your photos, and really remember what you did that went well.
- 2:19Michelle Gauthier: Then we're gonna look at what didn't go well and how we can apply the information that we found when we asked ourselves both of those questions to create a better 2026 for you.
- 2:30Michelle Gauthier: What I did for myself, I did the what went well, what didn't go well, and I gave myself a grade, a report card of sorts in each one of those areas.
- 2:38Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna start by sharing three things, three areas of life that I feel like went well.
- 2:43Michelle Gauthier: This is where I gave myself A's, sometimes an A minus, or in one case an A plus.
- 2:47Michelle Gauthier: And I'll also tell you why things went well.
- 2:50Michelle Gauthier: What went well was my self-care.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: So mental health, physical health, self-care.
- 2:56Michelle Gauthier: I gave myself an A plus in this area this year.
- 2:59Michelle Gauthier: Not because I was perfectly healthy and cared for myself with perfection, but because I consistently put systems in place that helped me feel better.
- 3:07Michelle Gauthier: So I, for example, got a new OBGYN.
- 3:11Michelle Gauthier: I tried hormones.
- 3:13Michelle Gauthier: If you have perimenopause, you will understand the importance of that.
- 3:17Michelle Gauthier: I used Noom to track food.
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: I tried creatine.
- 3:21Michelle Gauthier: I tried collagen.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: I focused on sleep.
- 3:24Michelle Gauthier: I met with my own coach every week.
- 3:27Michelle Gauthier: I went to the dentist.
- 3:28Michelle Gauthier: I did regular checkups with my doctor.
- 3:31Michelle Gauthier: I went to my gym 167 times.
- 3:34Michelle Gauthier: I did one-on-one meetings at my gym with the trainer.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: So I really feel like I gave it my all in this area.
- 3:40Michelle Gauthier: And that might sound like, oh my gosh, that's so many things.
- 3:43Michelle Gauthier: How did you have time for all those things?
- 3:45Michelle Gauthier: But I spaced them out over the year.
- 3:47Michelle Gauthier: And the way that I was successful in this area is by planning and follow through.
- 3:52Michelle Gauthier: So every single month, I look back on what went well in the past month, what do I want to focus on for this month?
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: And then every single Sunday, I plan my week.
- 4:01Michelle Gauthier: I write down my workouts, I write down the things that I need to do.
- 4:05Michelle Gauthier: If I have a doctor's appointment or a dentist appointment, every time I leave one, I schedule the next one, even the same with my hair appointments.
- 4:12Michelle Gauthier: So I really focus on getting these things on the calendar.
- 4:17Michelle Gauthier: And I do that every week and every month, and then of course every year.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: Another area where I had a lot of what went well listed was work.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: So I did over 500 coaching sessions and I really focused on my clients.
- 4:30Michelle Gauthier: And I felt like my clients got great results this year.
- 4:33Michelle Gauthier: I mostly worked 30 to 35 hours a week.
- 4:36Michelle Gauthier: I did two podcasts every single week, and I had fun creating cool stuff that I enjoyed doing.
- 4:43Michelle Gauthier: So, what's the why or the how behind this?
- 4:47Michelle Gauthier: I set a schedule for myself.
- 4:49Michelle Gauthier: I have an accountability partner in Carrie who does so much work for me.
- 4:54Michelle Gauthier: And I know that in order for her to produce the podcast, that I have to have it to her by a certain time.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: So I have someone who's waiting for me.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: I'm also doing doing work that I love, which makes it easier for me to get up on Monday morning and say, okay, great, time to go to work.
- 5:11Michelle Gauthier: Another area that I would say went well for me is my relationship with my partner.
- 5:15Michelle Gauthier: I put a lot of effort into planning weekends because we are, we don't really live near each other.
- 5:23Michelle Gauthier: We both have kids, we both have jobs, we have our own schedules.
- 5:28Michelle Gauthier: So, in order for us to spend time together, which is required for us to have a good, solid relationship, we really have to plan and we both have to be committed to spending that time together.
- 5:41Michelle Gauthier: So we go on a trip, even if it's just for a weekend, and even if it's not very far away, we try to do that once a quarter.
- 5:50Michelle Gauthier: We try to take advantage of random date nights.
- 5:53Michelle Gauthier: If all of a sudden we were both free, we would try to at least go to dinner.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: Or in the summer, we actually did a lot of fun outside things.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: In the morning, we have coffee again when possible.
- 6:03Michelle Gauthier: We try to do this like once or twice a week.
- 6:05Michelle Gauthier: After all the kids are at school, we will have coffee and have real conversations, like, how are you really doing?
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: And then this year I feel like I was a lot better about not letting anything fester or ignoring things.
- 6:16Michelle Gauthier: I also focus on every day, every night when I go to bed, I think about what was good for that day.
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: And I try to focus on what was good with our relationship and where I'm grateful.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: I asked for what I needed and I asked him what he needed too.
- 6:31Michelle Gauthier: What can I do for you?
- 6:32Michelle Gauthier: So those are some of the areas where I feel like I did well this year.
- 6:36Michelle Gauthier: And as a girl who was raised as a Midwesterner who's supposed to be humble, that feels like it was a lot of bragging.
- 6:42Michelle Gauthier: So I don't really feel comfortable with that, but I'm just sharing with you guys that is what I did well this year, and I am proud of that.
- 6:49Michelle Gauthier: Now I want you to think about what habits did you do in the past year?
- 6:54Michelle Gauthier: What are you proud of?
- 6:56Michelle Gauthier: What are some of the things that you don't need to restart because they're already in motion?
- 7:00Michelle Gauthier: So for example, I told you that I already have my work hours down, that I always plan my workouts on Sunday, that we have these coffee dates on school mornings after the kids go to school sometimes.
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: So those are all things that went well last year and will just continue to go well.
- 7:15Michelle Gauthier: They're just part of my habit and my process.
- 7:17Michelle Gauthier: Okay, now let's move on to what didn't go well.
- 7:20Michelle Gauthier: So this part is not for judgment, it's just for learning.
- 7:24Michelle Gauthier: Not everything went perfectly this year.
- 7:26Michelle Gauthier: It's true for me, it's true for you.
- 7:28Michelle Gauthier: But instead of beating ourselves up, we can use this part to gently ask, why didn't that go well?
- 7:33Michelle Gauthier: The first area that I would say in the didn't go well category for me was parenting teens.
- 7:39Michelle Gauthier: I gave myself a B in this category.
- 7:41Michelle Gauthier: It's not that I did a terrible job, but there were so many things that I learned over this year having a senior, for example.
- 7:48Michelle Gauthier: I didn't understand how much time and effort it took to help my senior decide what to do for next year when he graduates from high school.
- 7:56Michelle Gauthier: I then felt stress and pressure, which he then felt.
- 8:00Michelle Gauthier: And then it turned into sort of a toxic topic for both of us.
- 8:04Michelle Gauthier: And also, I've a senior in high school and the freshman high school, it was a big year of change for her too.
- 8:08Michelle Gauthier: So just seeing how teens evolve and developmentally speaking, they are supposed to want to do things with friends and other people who aren't family.
- 8:18Michelle Gauthier: So it was a gentle balance and sometimes not gentle at all, in trying to figure out when do I like force family time and when do I just let them do what they want to do or be where they want to be.
- 8:30Michelle Gauthier: So I feel like this was a year of change and trying things and seeing what didn't work and trying other things and seeing what also didn't work, and then eventually getting to a good answer on most of them.
- 8:41Michelle Gauthier: So why did this happen?
- 8:43Michelle Gauthier: With regards to my son and what he's going to do after high school, I just really didn't understand the time and effort that it took.
- 8:50Michelle Gauthier: So I think when it's time for my next child to be a senior, I will double my estimates and really plan it out better and start earlier.
- 8:58Michelle Gauthier: Sorry, first child, we got it done, but it was much more hectic than it needed to be.
- 9:03Michelle Gauthier: And I think that's true a lot of times for the first child.
- 9:06Michelle Gauthier: I'm the first child myself.
- 9:07Michelle Gauthier: So I understand we're kind of the tester child.
- 9:09Michelle Gauthier: I also think for me, anytime I do something new, so parenting two teens who are all of a sudden really into being with their friends all the time, when something is new for me and I don't know how to handle it, it just takes me a while to adjust.
- 9:23Michelle Gauthier: It takes a while for my thinking to adjust.
- 9:25Michelle Gauthier: I need to figure out what I want to do.
- 9:27Michelle Gauthier: So there was just a lot of that, just adjusting to a new situation.
- 9:31Michelle Gauthier: And next year in 2026, I will be doing that again as my first child moves out and does go off to school.
- 9:39Michelle Gauthier: So I need to just keep in mind that those kinds of things always feel stressful to me and that the best way for me to handle it is to plan what I can and then just learn as I go.
- 9:48Michelle Gauthier: Another area where I didn't give myself a great grade was fun and adventure.
- 9:52Michelle Gauthier: I spent time with my close people, as much time as I could allot to that.
- 9:57Michelle Gauthier: So, like to see my friends, but I really didn't do anything that was like adventurous or creative.
- 10:03Michelle Gauthier: And it's funny because I'm great at planning, but it seems counterintuitive to plan adventures and creativity.
- 10:09Michelle Gauthier: Like those things should just come up, but it's actually not true.
- 10:13Michelle Gauthier: I really think that I need to plan in time or ideas for adventures or things that I want to do.
- 10:20Michelle Gauthier: The lowest grade that I gave myself was around the area of money.
- 10:23Michelle Gauthier: I paid myself consistently.
- 10:25Michelle Gauthier: So when you have your own business, you don't get a paycheck.
- 10:28Michelle Gauthier: And sometimes you make lots of money and sometimes you don't make as much money, and it's kind of up and down.
- 10:33Michelle Gauthier: It's not like you consistently like take what you make for the year and divide it by 12.
- 10:37Michelle Gauthier: But I actually did pay myself consistently as if I had a paycheck.
- 10:41Michelle Gauthier: So that was good.
- 10:42Michelle Gauthier: That was the good part.
- 10:43Michelle Gauthier: But beyond that, I just need to be much more intentional about where it goes, to pay attention to it, to continue to keep teaching my kids about money so they get allowance and they know what things they have to pay for and what things I will split with them or that I will pay for.
- 11:00Michelle Gauthier: But for example, they have my credit card on their Apple Pay, and sometimes they'll just decide that there's something that I should pay for that's like a pair of new pajamas at Target that they don't really need or whatever.
- 11:12Michelle Gauthier: And I just didn't keep a really tight rein on where things were going or plan strategically about things.
- 11:20Michelle Gauthier: I just kind of was a little willy-nilly with it.
- 11:22Michelle Gauthier: Why this happened and what I know about myself is I just don't love details like that.
- 11:27Michelle Gauthier: I just don't, I don't think it's any fun to track those kinds of things.
- 11:31Michelle Gauthier: And as long as it's going pretty okay, I don't really need to worry about it.
- 11:36Michelle Gauthier: But I think that this area really does need to be a focus, even though I don't love super detailed stuff.
- 11:41Michelle Gauthier: So I feel like I need to figure out a way that works for me where it feels like a good mix of laid back, but also in control.
- 11:49Michelle Gauthier: I'll keep you posted on that.
- 11:51Michelle Gauthier: So now that we know what went well and what didn't go well, what we want to take from here is what to do differently next time.
- 11:57Michelle Gauthier: So based on what I learned from everything I just told you and more, I can think about a few key pivots and takeaways.
- 12:06Michelle Gauthier: So what I learned from what went well and what didn't is if I'm intentional and I plan things and I give myself enough time, I'm very likely to accomplish them.
- 12:15Michelle Gauthier: That last part of giving myself enough time, I don't always do.
- 12:19Michelle Gauthier: I can fall apart at that.
- 12:20Michelle Gauthier: So if I'm intentional and plan things and give myself enough time, I'm very likely to accomplish them.
- 12:25Michelle Gauthier: So if we take my idea of I'd like to have more adventure and creativity in my life, how can I plan for more creativity?
- 12:33Michelle Gauthier: Even something as small as like getting a journal that's a creative journal where it might have a prompt once a week or once a day or something of a little creative activity to do.
- 12:44Michelle Gauthier: Or maybe I think of something big and creative that I want to just start working toward.
- 12:48Michelle Gauthier: Like I got a sewing machine last year, I used to always have one.
- 12:52Michelle Gauthier: I got a new one from a friend last year, and maybe I want to come up with a project to work on for that.
- 12:56Michelle Gauthier: The other thing that I'm taking from my self-evaluation is that during times of change or when I'm trying something new.
- 13:02Michelle Gauthier: So raising teenagers is something new for me, that I need to really pay attention to my mindset and my expectations.
- 13:11Michelle Gauthier: So I had a certain expectation about how it was gonna go with having two high schoolers.
- 13:16Michelle Gauthier: That was based on nothing.
- 13:18Michelle Gauthier: I never knew how it was to have two high schoolers.
- 13:20Michelle Gauthier: So I need to keep my mindset open and keep my expectations low and just know that it's going to feel different than it felt in prior years and that I will figure it out just like I successfully figured out having a three and a five-year-old at one point.
- 13:34Michelle Gauthier: I can figure out how to have a 15 and an 18-year-old.
- 13:37Michelle Gauthier: That math didn't work.
- 13:38Michelle Gauthier: Okay, but you know what I mean.
- 13:40Michelle Gauthier: And then the last thing I learned is that when I look back at all of the things that I accomplished this year and I feel really good about them, I want to pat myself on the back and notice that it's because every single week I focus on what I want to do.
- 13:56Michelle Gauthier: I make a schedule and I execute on that schedule.
- 13:59Michelle Gauthier: Obviously, sometimes things come up and I have to change, or there might be a week where I just can't fit everything in.
- 14:05Michelle Gauthier: So I have to drop some things, but it's just over time not having a robotic schedule, but having a gently planned schedule to say this is what this week is going to look like, then creates a month.
- 14:16Michelle Gauthier: And then after that month, I look back at the month and I plan the next one and then I go week by week by week.
- 14:21Michelle Gauthier: And so what is a real key to my success is intentionally every week and every month planning and evaluating how things are going.
- 14:29Michelle Gauthier: If you do that, you can really never get too far off track.
- 14:32Michelle Gauthier: So that is my review of my 2025.
- 14:37Michelle Gauthier: If you're listening to this on New Year's Day and you're thinking about how you want your 2026 to be, this is a great way to get started.
- 14:44Michelle Gauthier: I mentioned at the beginning that I'm doing a workshop on January 6th at noon central time.
- 14:49Michelle Gauthier: And the pre-work for that workshop is exactly what I'm talking through here.
- 14:54Michelle Gauthier: So if you sign up for that workshop, you will get the pre-work.
- 14:58Michelle Gauthier: You will see videos and get a workbook to go through what I just talked about.
- 15:03Michelle Gauthier: And then on the live workshop, you will be working through what goals you actually want to create for yourself in 2026.
- 15:11Michelle Gauthier: I would absolutely love to have you join me.
- 15:13Michelle Gauthier: The link is in the show notes, and I hope to see you then.
- 15:17Michelle Gauthier: Happy New Year.
- 15:23Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 15:26Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com.
- 15:32Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.