Welcome to the final days of 2025. You made it!

This issue I wanted to speak to something many of us will be spending a bit of time on the next few weeks: some version of year-end reflection.

You’ll think about:

  • What you accomplished in 2025
  • What you didn’t
  • What you want to do differently in 2026

If you’re like me in past years, you might feel disappointed looking back at certain aspects, like you were really busy, and it flew by, but it’s difficult to actually point to what mattered.

The Problem with How Most People Approach This

You jump straight to setting goals without understanding your navigation patterns from the prior year.

You pick what sounds good rather than what actually needs attention, or what other adjacent things may be required for that resolution or goal’s effectiveness or success.

There’s a Better Way

Map who you are, before deciding who you become.

Use four key directions to see where you’ve been investing your energy and where you’ve been avoiding it.

That pattern reveals what actually deserves your focus in 2026.

The Modern Compass Framework

This is the Modern Compass framework. Within each direction are four layers that build upon each other, but for this issue, you only need to know the four core directions:

  • Relationships - Connection, empathy, resonance, loyalty
  • Self - Worth, confidence, control, understanding
  • Character - Environmental patterns, development, authenticity, integrity
  • Trust - Reading situations, trusting your gut, calibrating trust

How I Used This Framework Last Year

At the end of last year, I decided I wanted to become an author - eventually a broader business of applications that serve and stem from concepts in the book.

For decades I have contemplated becoming an author, often writing briefly or during downtime at various points in life on ideas about either Personal Growth or Science fiction.

I finally committed to going for it.

For those that don’t know, Modern Compass is a book I started writing in 2023, and picked it back up as my focus for 2025.

Before I Dove In, I Did Something Different

I didn’t want what happened before to happen again. We’ve all done these things where we break promises and resolutions to ourselves.

So I took a bit more time and mapped where I was as a person - more or less around the Modern Compass framework (before it was fully fleshed out), and decided who I needed to become to be the author I was envisioning.

In large part it was this effort that really set a lot of wheels in motion for me.

The Gap Analysis

Having a good grasp of who you are and what you want to become, can give you very clear indication of what the gap consists of.

Of course writing more and developing the right habit for that mattered, but there were other gaps I found as I looked more holistically at myself.

Example Gap #1: Public Speaking

A big gap was public speaking, or to be specific, impromptu speaking - the ability to easily and readily explain, and/or sell yourself.

I do plenty of presentations virtually for my job, but I have time to prepare my thoughts and what I will say. Those aren’t typically that challenging anymore.

Speaking without a script or strictly from memory, like a quick pitch, that is another ball game.

I knew becoming an author would demand this if I want to be successful:

  • Book talks
  • Potential podcast appearances
  • Webinars or workshops
  • Events where I’d need to articulate my ideas very clearly and without a safety net

So I challenged myself to do more unscripted speaking this year:

  • Taking every opportunity I had to say yes to things in my career (and I did on numerous occasions)
  • Developing on my own by doing TikTok posts and Live videos

The extensiveness of mapping myself to who I wanted to become was a game changer this year. I’ve learned a lot and have improved in unscripted speaking as I intended, although plenty more room to grow.

Granted not everything provided a return. The TikTok experiment for example was good at developing myself, but led to no return in terms of newsletter subscribers, which is the crucial metric for me outside of writing.

This endeavor I consider to be deeply rooted in Character direction of the compass.

Example Gap #2: Networking

Another aspect in this holistic approach I took was networking. I’m good one-on-one, but I’ve avoided larger professional gatherings.

As an author, I can’t do that to be successful.

So I said yes to opportunities that provided a chance to network more, even if it made me uncomfortable and I was successful at this in 2025.

This one was very closely aligned with Relationships direction.

A More Universal Example: Losing Weight

I’m sure not all of you are aspiring authors so I wanted to share something much more universal.

Many of us set our sights on losing weight or making more money as we chose new years resolutions or aspirations for the next year.

Let’s take losing weight for example.

Ask Yourself Further and Deeper Questions

If it’s “I want to lose weight,” ask yourself: if you had to pin that to one of the 4 compass directions, which one is driving that feeling or need?

  • Self - To improve self worth, confidence, or control?
  • Relationships - To improve your attraction and accomplish more within relationships?
  • Character - To overcome maybe some inherited character traits that aren’t serving you anymore?

Why This Matters

If you go so far to find what direction you feel drives that decision, you will undoubtedly find more things encompassing losing weight that need to be part of that focus.

For example: If your aim was “lose weight so I am more confident.”

Take it from someone who had very slow growth to confidence, there are multitudes more things that you can and should do that go into confidence than just your weight.

I’m not saying don’t focus on weight, but you’d be missing a huge part of the puzzle if confidence was the driver all along.

Another Example: Making More Money

Making more money is another common resolution, but dig deeper to determine what drives you to that:

  • More autonomy and control over how you spend your days and vacationing? → Self (control work)
  • To provide for your family? → Relationships
  • To grow your skills and capabilities? → Character
  • For safety and security? → Trust

The Cost of More Money

Here’s the thing with more money in particular: earning more usually comes with a cost.

More hours, more stress, more responsibility.

  • Working extra to provide for your family is noble, but not at the cost of your presence with them
  • Taking on additional projects for growth might strain the relationships that ground you
  • Chasing money for security could mean burning yourself out and ignoring what your body is telling you

That’s why the directional assessment matters. It’s important to balance and assess the full picture.

When you understand what’s really driving the goal, you can pursue it without sacrificing what actually matters.

That’s what directional thinking looks like. You map where you are, identify where you’re going, and work on the specific gaps between the two.

Activity: Direction Check

Take 10 minutes with the Modern Compass diagram above and look at your year.

Step 1: List 4-5 Significant Things from 2025

Think of significant things you did or decided in 2025:

  • Projects you took on
  • Changes you made
  • Commitments you kept
  • Things you learned
  • Relationships you invested in
  • Jobs you left, took, or stayed with

Step 2: Ask Yourself - What Direction Was Really Driving This Decision?

Self - Did this build your foundation? Your sense of worth, confidence, understanding of who you are?

Trust - Did this require reading a situation or person accurately? Trusting your gut despite external pressure?

Character - Was this about breaking inherited patterns, developing and learning new skills, building authenticity, or restoring or growing your integrity?

Relationships - Did this deepen connection? Build empathy, find resonance with people who share your values, strengthen loyalty?

Step 3: Look Specifically at Trust

Which decisions relied on your gut, intuition, or trust in others?

How did those turn out? Would you have changed anything?

Step 4: Look at the Compass as a Whole

Which direction keeps pulling your attention as you think about 2026?

Do any feel neglected?

What This Reveals

You might discover:

  • You’ve done impressive Self work but avoided anything requiring trust in others
  • You’ve built connections but they don’t resonate with who you’re becoming
  • Every decision was about optimization and none of it was about authenticity

Whatever you find, that’s your starting point for 2026.

Not a list of aspirational goals. A direction worth moving toward.

One Last Personal Experience

As I worked through this activity myself, I thought about my choice not to explore changing companies this year.

Obviously this comes with assumptions about the degree of safety I feel within my job (this will vary by individual), but I had plenty of opportunities to explore despite the rough year IT had with thousands of people laid off.

I chose not to entertain them strongly on the belief that I’d rather keep the good gig I have now that allows me space to work on things like this.

This decision was a big Trust move:

  • Trust in myself
  • Trust in the career I’ve built to stay relevant and steady in this AI world
  • Just a sense of trust in the process

The Bottom Line

Stop setting goals based on what sounds good.

Start with direction:

  1. Map where you’ve been investing energy in 2025
  2. Identify which direction feels neglected
  3. Work on the specific gaps between who you are and who you want to become

Directional thinking reveals what actually deserves your focus in 2026.

Always… follow your compass.

- Josh

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