Year Review vs Resolutions. Ready to stop wishing and start working? Get the Year Review Workbook for £4.97 immediately.
The Lie of “New Year, New Me”
Year Review vs Resolutions. Let’s cut the bullshit. Every December, the world gets high on the same toxic dose of optimism, promising radical change on January 1st. We write down those polite little lists: “Go to the gym,” “Be kinder,” “Dry January.” We call them resolutions.
I call them bollocks.
Resolutions are nothing more than wishes. They are for tourists who think the calendar striking midnight is a magic trick that changes the wiring in their brains. They are built on a rotten foundation: the fantasy that you can leap from your current weak identity straight into a “new me” without doing the dirty work in between. We treat the New Year like a car wash, expecting to drive our beat-up, neglected habits through a midnight countdown and come out the other side shining and new.
It doesn’t work that way.
The gym parking lots are full on January 2nd and empty by February 14th. Why? Because motivation is a fleeting emotion, not a strategy. When the initial dopamine hit of resolving fades, and the actual work begins, the old wiring takes over. And I know this is true because I operated on autopilot for 45 years. Drink. Sleep. Regret. Repeat. I was a passenger in my own life, letting my demons drive while I sat in the back, making empty promises. You don’t fix a life-long mess with a polite list. You fix it with brutal honesty and a tactical plan.
The AAR: Stop Wishing, Start Rewiring
I quit drinking after 45 years. Not with a Dry January challenge I was guaranteed to fail, and definitely not with “New Year, New Me” bullshit. Those methods rely on willpower, and willpower is a muscle that gets tired.
I did it by performing an After Action Review (AAR) on my life.
In the military, when a mission ends—especially if it went sideways—you don’t just shrug and say, “Better luck next time.” You don’t hope the next battle goes better. You sit in a room, you close the door, and you tear the last mission apart. An AAR isn’t about whining, wallowing in shame, or writing pretty poetry about your feelings. It is a cold, hard look at the data.
It’s about looking at the last 12 months without flinching. You analyse the battlefield with brutal honesty, so you don’t make the same fatal mistakes twice. You ask the hard questions: Why did we take casualties? Was the intelligence wrong? Did we freeze under fire? Was it a failure of discipline or a failure of planning?
Getting sober—and getting your life back—wasn’t about “stopping” the drink; it was about starting the work of rewiring. The Year Review is the process that allows you to dig up the old cables in your brain and lay down new ones.
1. The Foundation: Brutal Honesty Only
You cannot navigate to a new destination if you don’t know exactly where you are standing right now. The first step of the Year Review is simple but painful: The Intel Review.
- Where did you hold the line and win this year? Don’t be humble. Where did you show up? Where did you keep a promise to yourself?
- Where did the enemy get through the wire? The enemy isn’t just alcohol. It’s laziness. It’s the phone you scroll for three hours a night. It’s the toxic friend who mocks your ambition. It’s your own ego refusing to ask for help.
- What was the specific trigger? Was it stress? Boredom? Anger? Friday night?
I had to admit that for four decades, my actions proved I was a Drifter and a Victim, not the Warrior I pretended to be. I had to look at the scoreboard and realise I was losing. I had to name the anchor. If you lie on the paper, you’re only lying to yourself. And frankly, you’ve probably done enough of that. The paper doesn’t judge you, but it demands the truth.
2. The Core Mechanic: Identity Reflection
Most people try to change their results without changing their identity. They say, “I’m trying to quit drinking.” That statement implies you are still a drinker, just one who is currently abstaining. It’s a position of weakness.
If you drank for 45 years, you identified as a drinker. To change the result, you have to change the identity. The Year Review forces you to look at your habits as evidence of who you believe you are. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
I didn’t try to become “sober.” I started becoming The Person Who Does Not Negotiate With Weakness.
That’s a huge shift. Instead of waiting for midnight to change me, I used the review to define the new identity I had to build, piece by piece, every single day. I stopped focusing on what I wanted to have (sobriety, health, money) and started focusing on who I needed to be:
- I am becoming the person who gets up at 5 AM. Not because I like it, but because it gives me a tactical advantage over the day.
- I am becoming the person who honours his commitments. If I say I’m going to do it, it is as good as done.
- I am becoming the person who deals in action, not regret. I don’t dwell on the past; I learn from it and move.
3. The Plan: Building the Future NOW
Hope is not a strategy. Hope is a beggar. You cannot hope your way to a better life. The final sections of the Year Review are pure tactical planning. This is the Rewire Plan, the tactical order you put on your wall and execute daily.
- CONTINUE: What works? If you found a routine that keeps you sane, lock it in.
- REDUCE OR REMOVE: Cut the dead weight. This is where most people fail. They want the new life but want to keep the old comforts. You have to burn the bridges to the past. Toxic friendships? Gone. Resentments against your parents? Release them. The lie that “this is just how I am”? Burn it here. You can’t march forward carrying a rucksack full of rocks.
- BEGIN NOW: New protocols. Not “tomorrow.” Now. Identify the “Lead Domino”—the one habit that makes everything else easier. For me, it was total sobriety. Once that domino fell, my sleep improved. When my sleep improved, my focus returned. When my focus returned, I could build a business. Find your lead domino and knock it over.
Don’t Waste Another Day
You don’t need a clean slate on January 1st. A clean slate is a myth. You need a dirty audit of the last 12 months. You need to get your hands in the mud and see what’s actually broken so you can fix it.
I wasted 45 years operating on autopilot, waiting for a magical moment that never came. The calendar turning a page didn’t save me. I saved myself by looking in the mirror and doing the work.
You don’t have to waste another day. Stop dealing in wishes. Start dealing in actions. The war is won in the quiet moments of the morning, in the decisions you make when no one is watching, and in the honest review of your own performance.
Your future relies on what you change in the present. Get to work.
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Year review workbook
A powerful Year Review Workbook for personal growth and life direction. Reflect on your year, identify what held you back, release what no longer fits, and build a plan for the future based on clarity and action, not resolutions. Printable digital workbook.
Feature Bullets
✔ Year Review Workbook
✔ Personal growth and mindset reset
✔ Helps identify habits, patterns and blocks
✔ Structured reflection prompts
✔ Build a realistic action plan
✔ No resolutions. Real rewiring.
✔ Printable digital download (PDF)
✔ Use yearly, quarterly, or anytime life needs a reset
