Savor Successes and Serendipity in 2025

The new year is often a time for writers to reflect on the year before and what we accomplished. Yet, we sometimes dread looking back because we didn’t achieve all we hoped or planned. Still, we’ve had successes, planned and unplanned, and probably more than we realize. This guide to looking back can help writers note and evaluate their achievements, and replicate them (and more) in the new year.

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Kudos to You
It takes time and thought to identify our accomplishments, not just what they were but why they happened. This is especially true when we try something new. Whether you set the same yearly goals or add spice to your plans, it’s important to pinpoint what you did, familiar and new, what worked and why.

If you’re a goal-setter or want to be, here are questions to ask to record and celebrate successes, including the unexpected:

• What were your most significant goals and accomplishments for 2025?
• Separate the list into planned and unplanned accomplishments.
• Next to each item, note why it’s important to you.
• What successes did you achieve in areas that were new to you?
• What were the outcomes of all your accomplishments?
• What happened that made them successes?
• What unexpected outcomes resulted from your set goals?
• What enabled you to reach your goals and their results?
• Answer these two question for the unexpected.
• Whether or not your successes were planned, note how you might replicate them going forward.

Serendipity
Unexpected successes, especially in areas new to us, are bonuses. Yet, we need to pay attention to what comes out of the blue so that we know what happened, why it was a success and how it came about. We also need to record the outcomes of our experiences.

Here are questions to ask to savor and make the most of serendipity:

• What were your unexpected accomplishments?
• What makes you consider them successes?
• What were their outcomes?
• What surprised you most about these successes and their results?
• How might you replicate these going forward?

To enhance the savor of success, use whatever forms of recordkeeping you most enjoy, including voice recordings and photos. Pictures really do paint a thousand words. They also motivate us and ignite our imagination through memory. And don’t forget to update your bio, CV and online presence. In doing so, you’ll derive even more pleasure from seeing the rewards of your hard work and the unexpected.

Whatever method we use to record our accomplishments, let’s savor success, planned and unplanned, and recalibrate the shortfalls. It’s a great way to set the stage for the rest of 2026.

Happy writing and very happy New Year!

Adele Annesi is an award-winning writer, editor, instructor and poet. Her five-star cultural heritage novel is What She Takes Away (Bordighera Press). She coauthored and coedited Now What? The Creative Writer's Guide to Success After the MFA. Her MFA in creative writing is from Fairfield University. Also a vocal performer, Adele has the podcast Adele Annesi on Writing.