How I Use December to Review this Year’s Outcomes
And celebrate everything that has happened this year.
Every December, I do a review of my life.
Not just my writing life, but my entire life. December is a time of year where I take inventory and start to prepare for the next year.
Now, some have thought it to be silly for me to spend all December in review. Yet, I have found that when I do this, it helps me prepare for the following year and helps me see what amazing things have happened in the current one.
Most of all, December is normally a slow month for me.
Lots of family activities, holidays plans, and snow which keeps us at home a little more than the rest of the year. And to be honest, I love it.
Today, I wanted to share with you how I review my writing in three simple steps. This review helps me complete two actions that set me up for the following year. So, let’s dive in!
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The Minimalist Author’s 3-Step Review Process
Now, this isn’t something I came up with on my own by any means, but it is and adaptation from things I have learned over the years. The key is to do three things:
Review the good and bad.
Consider the lessons learned.
Celebrate the wins.
Let’s break this down a little bit more so you can apply this to your year just like I do. And you never know, you might find that you have a lot more wins this year than you think!
Step #1: Review
When it comes to reviews, I ask myself three main questions. These questions help me to consider the year objectively and subjectively. I create lists based on these questions in my journal. The are as follows:
What good things happened this year? What were key victories, lessons learned, or positive outcomes from everything I did this year? These could be simple like meeting a new author friend (Example: I connected with
, Chris Stanley). Or it could be that you published your first book. Nothing is off limits.What hard things happened this year? You may have failed at some writing goals or published a book that didn’t make money or sell at all. Maybe you tried a new platform and it didn’t grow. Anything that didn’t go like you hoped goes on this list.
What were some unexpected outcomes of this year? Maybe you overstretched yourself and didn’t do all the things you had planned. Or perhaps, you found a profitable niche and it took off. This list is about good and bad things that you didn’t see coming. This is important for later.
The key to these questions is to help you look back and consider what happened, good, bad, and unexpected so that you can celebrate, learn from, and try to see how you can better plan for the following year.
Step #2: Write down lessons learned.
While the bulk of step one was about reflection, step two is about sifting and refining what happened last year. As I reflect through everything that happened, I try and write a list of five to ten lessons learned from the year. Here’s what I do:
Lessons learned from positive outcomes: I write down key takeaways for positive outcomes. For example, I connected with great writers this year like
and that helped me grow on Substack, sell books, and learn from amazing people. Lesson learned: Connect with other creators to support each other and learn from each other.Lessons learned from negative outcomes: These lessons come from the not-so-good lists from before. They are more about what I would have done differently had I known better. For example, I tried launching a high-value program and it tanked. Lesson learned: Do more market research and validate an offer before you create it.
Lessons learned from unexpected outcomes: These are the surprises, good or bad, that hit you this year. For me, an unexpected surprise was how Substack has become a central part of my creation system and Medium is on its way out. Lesson learned: Be open to new opportunities and be willing to let go of old ones.
Now, these are just three examples from my list from this year so far. You might have a few more, you might have a lot more. But the goal is to see what those lessons learned are so you can use them in the second part of the process.
Step #3: Celebrate Your Wins
You have reviewed, you have noted your lessons learned. And maybe you have a lot of lessons learned. But now, now I want you to celebrate the good things that happened. And I want to encourage you to do it three ways:
Quietly on your own. I do this by journaling out the wins and thanking God for each one of them. Typically, I will write down positive stats (25,000 book orders on the year), or the fact that I published my Advent Devotional which I started two years ago. Write them down and celebrate on your own.
Share with family and friends. Now, they may not understand how important your victories are, but the good ones will be so excited for you and encourage you more. They might even take more of an interest in your writing and become fans and supporters like never before.
Share online with your community and following. This is huge because your story encourages those who aren’t as far as you. It also is a great way to show the people who are following along with you that they are about something that is exciting and doing well.
The key to celebration is to prepare the way for making plans on a positive note. These positive notes create hope which unlocks dreams and plans that you may not even know are inside you yet.
Final Thoughts on Review
This is the first part of my December Review. The next part, which I will share next week, is about planning for the next year. And I believe 2025 is going to be the year of The Minimalist Author, the year of huge growth for Atomic Content, and the year of the mini book revolution in self-publishing (more on this soon).
So, take some time this week and review your year. Share in the comments any wins you have this year that come to your mind right away. We can celebrate together!
My name is J.R. Heimbigner and I am a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon with 18 self-published books. I have two things I want to share with you:
Also, this post may contain sales or affiliate links, so I might get a little kickback if you purchase anything. Thank you in advance!
This was very helpful taking inventory over my entire life. Thank you!
I am very much pleased to have gotten to know you JR along with Jamie and the rest of the Substack community.
You were such a huge blessing for me this year