It's Time to Build Your 2026 Career Toolkit!

There's still time to reflect on 2025, assess your current situation and get planning for 2026...

Annual Career Reflections are key to next year's planning

Career development is a journey bringing together reflection (past), awareness (current situation), and planning (forward looking). To grow with intention, we must first look back so that we can understand our progress, examine where we are today, and plan forward with clarity.

I’ll be adding some tools in the form of worksheets for Reflection, SWOT, and SMART Goals.

The aim is to provide you with a strong toolkit for projecting your career into 2026! So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Part 1: 2025 Goal Review and Reflections

It’s the end of October, so it’s an excellent time to pause and review the progress you made in 2025 with regard to the goals you set for the year, before you start thinking about 2026.

Reflecting on your achievements not only builds confidence but also helps you recognise patterns in how you set, pursue, and achieve goals. Begin by asking: What went well? What was challenging? What surprised me?

Look at your accomplishments both big and small. Did you complete projects that stretched your skills? Did you receive recognition? Did you build stronger relationships with colleagues? Success doesn’t always mean ticking off every goal—it can also lie in areas where you grew (for example, building an important relationship, giving a presentation) or major learnings (for example, neurodiversity training for new managers).

Equally important is reflecting on setbacks. Do you have goals that are still work in progress or not yet started? We are not here to help you beat yourself up. Rather I want you to consider whether your goals may have been unrealistic, misaligned with your changing values (let’s face it, the world is changing rapidly and sometimes our values reshape themselves accordingly), or were your goals deprioritised for good reason (for example, there was a downsizing at work and you temporarily took on more tasks). Honest reflection can help you reframe “unachieved goals” into insights about priorities, motivation, and resource needs.

Finally, assess how your 2025 goals supported your broader career aspirations. Did they bring you closer to your long-term/3-year career vision? Did they highlight new directions to explore? Reflection isn’t just a look back—it’s the foundation for making smarter, more aligned decisions for the year ahead.

I’ve include a handy reflections worksheet for you to download and use as a template to get you started on your 2025 reflections.

Part 1 Reflections.pdf

Download PDF • 62KB

Wishing you a good review!

Look out for Part 2 in November or sign up for my newsletter today at lisa@lisanellcoaching.com