As you prepare to say goodbye to 2025, it’s easy for your focus to shift towards the future. The version of yourself you hope to become in 2026. And while that part of growth is exciting, there’s an important step that comes before all of that. A step most people skip.
Honoring your present best self.
At the end of the year, it can be easy to look back with disappointment, regret, or the feeling that you “should have been further along.” But those feelings only cloud the truth of who you are right now. A person who has lived, learned, endured, and grown in ways you may not fully see.
That’s why the first step in my HEART Guide™ is (and will always be) Honor Your Present Best Self.
In a formal coaching relationship with me, this involves detailed assessments, values clarification, and strengths exploration to understand your identity and patterns. But you don’t need a full coaching program to benefit from this step. A moment of compassionate, intentional reflection may be all that’s needed.
Research shows that when you understand your present self with clarity and compassion, you strengthen your sense of identity, which is often the foundation for any change you may want to make. Because the more grounded you feel in who you are today, the more connected you feel to the person you’re becoming. That connection makes lasting change far more possible.
You can build that grounding through reflection. By noticing the strengths you used in 2025, the lessons you learned, the values that guided you, and the moments you surprised yourself, you’ll realize all the ways you kept moving into the person you are today.
Honoring your present best self is about perspective.
To help, I created a short year-end reflection journal you can download here. It will guide you to see your year with clarity and compassion, not criticism.
It’s the perfect starting point for 2026.
Because everything that comes next grows from here. :)
love, b
