Overview:

As the year comes to an end, it's important to reflect on personal achievements, challenges, and disappointments. Instead of focusing on what others have done, take time to think about what you have done, what you have not done, and what you have started to do but have not yet finished. Think about your biggest laugh, your greatest achievement, and your biggest challenge. Your biggest disappointment could turn into your biggest opportunity. Here's to an amazing new year full of laughter, achievement, and opportunity.

At this time of the year, many people are putting out their list of the best of list. Many
times, when we think of the end of the year and a year in review, we look at things like the best
in entertainment, movies, TV shows, songs, or maybe your favorite concert.

The more I’ve thought about it, I’ve thought about how about instead of talking about what other people did, how about we talk about what we did. What if our year in review and the year’s “Best of” is our year in review? It’s what we did, what we didn’t do, and what we started to do but haven’t yet finished. As the new year begins, it’s so important for us to think about where we were in 2025 and to think about where we want to go in 2026.

As you think about your year in review, here are some things that you could look at. For
starters, what was your biggest laugh? Research shows that laughter is good for you physically.

Proverbs 17:22 says “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” 
Think about that thing that brought you so much joy in the moment that you laughed so loud or
so long that it brought you a great sense of joy. And in that joy, in that moment, you had a little
bit of healing and a little bit of a break from all the things that are going on around you.

Also, what was your greatest achievement this year? What is the thing that you set out
to do personally, professionally, spiritually? Did you lose weight? Write a book? Pay your bills
on time? Finally, take that dream vacation? Or did you get that promotion on your job? For
some, your biggest achievement may have been your biggest challenge.

Reflecting on your biggest challenge allows you to think about all the things that you were able to do that helped you overcome that challenge. Even if you say you haven’t completely overcome it, dealing with the challenge most likely puts you in a position where you started to deal with some things that needed to be dealt with. Speaking for myself, dealing with multiple challenges professionally forced me to reframe and change my perspective. I had to reframe how I saw myself and the challenge. More importantly, I had to reframe how I saw my ability to manage and work through the challenge.

Doing all of this taught me something: Your biggest disappointment could actually turn
into your biggest achievement. Because a lot of times what happens, once again, through reframing, dealing with that challenge and dealing with your disappointment, you have to reframe, rethink and revisit that challenge.

Revisiting your disappointment, as a friend of mine loves to say, will allow you to see how they are oftentimes your biggest opportunities. What is the sweet part of that bitter moment? What’s the opportunity that’s tucked into that disappointment? Your biggest disappointment, which I bet if you think about, could turn into, or has turned into, or will turn into, your biggest and greatest opportunity.

Here’s to an amazing 2026 full of much laughter, achievement and opportunity!

Shewanda Riley is a Dallas, Texas based author of “Love Hangover: Moving From Pain to
Purpose After a Relationship Ends” and “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A Book of Prayers
for Writers.” Email her at preservedbypurpose@gmail.com or follow her on Instagram
@shewandawrites.