Happiness. Balance. Career satisfaction.
The end of the year brings an opportunity to reflect on our personal experience with each of these three things.
If you're willing to play along with me for a moment, I challenge you to take this opportunity to reflect on your year.
How would you rate yourself in happiness? Balance? Career satisfaction?
What grade would you give yourself for each of these elements?
For those of you who are skeptical about whether attaining these is possible for you, I would challenge you to ask yourself: What has you believe it isn't?
A Personal Reflection
In 2023, after an incredibly fulfilling career in executive recruiting and talent management, I got clear on my next step. I would launch an executive coaching and leadership development firm, The Catalyst Executive.
There were several critical people involved in the confidence I cultivated to actually do it.
My desire to live in alignment with my purpose and have an impact on the lives of others drove me to do the work. In Share Your Vision to Unlock Success, I wrote about the power of sharing your vision with others.
In 2023, I did a lot of that. And while I wasn't necessarily thinking in terms of happiness, balance, and career satisfaction at the time, I can say that all three played a role in my desire to take the leap.
I can honestly say that 2024 went nothing like I planned, from January to December.
It was a year filled with happiness, balance, career satisfaction, and success.
Was it all perfect? Of course not. There was still so much to learn and so much room to grow.
I was grateful for all of it: my support system, the leap, and the results.
As I look toward 2025, I challenge myself, and my readers, to consider what it would mean to intentionally design a year that prioritized happiness, balance, and career satisfaction.
Here's the framework for doing so.
A Framework for Reflection
Imagine you're standing at the end of the coming year, looking back.
What was your experience over those twelve months in happiness, balance, and career satisfaction?
Name what it was like to experience happiness. Name what it was like to experience balance. Name what it was like, that is, how you knew you were experiencing career satisfaction.
Pretend you're writing your autobiography in December 2025, reflecting on a year filled with happiness, balance, and career satisfaction. That's the lens from which I challenge you to write.
Let's say you gave yourself a C in happiness, a D in balance, and a B- in career satisfaction for 2024.
Now imagine it’s December 2025, and your experience has been entirely different.
How was your experience different? How did you improve those grades?
What did you put into practice for yourself? What choices did you make? What did you say yes to? What did you say no to? What did you prioritize?
Most importantly, what was the experience like for you?
Write as though you've already lived it. Describe the year you created, the choices you made, and what those choices made possible.
Now, go. Create it for yourself.