A Simple Reminder About Getting Better

Are you thinking about next year?

I know some of you are scrambling in these last 48 hours —

Meet goals:
“I only have 4.5 miles left on my 2,500-mile running goal in Strava… where am I going to fit that run in today?”

Set goals:
“Okay… I should probably write my goals down. Like. Actually write them down.”

Lament goals:
“Maybe 2026 will finally be the year I can do a pull-up.”

I get it. I do this too.

In my work as a fractional CMO, this time of year is full of conversations about what’s next — marketing plans, budgets, priorities, and what it will take to get better. And over time, I’ve noticed something.

The most successful practices aren’t having these conversations for the first time right now. They started back in October. The exceptional practices are measuring a rolling 12 months. And, they’re ALWAYS paying attention to what’s working, what’s not — and the only person, or practice, they’re really comparing themselves to is… themselves.

Or, as my good friend Mary Roberts has etched on the back of her prosthetic:

#itsmevsme

So this year, instead of scrambling at the finish line, I decided to end it a little differently.

My Weekly Review

For years I’ve used a simple Weekly Review — one page, once a week — to capture wins, challenges, what worked, what didn’t, key learnings, priorities for next week, and a bit of gratitude and reflection. I send it to my amazing assistant and my business coach.

I’m not perfect. Most weeks it’s Monday, sometimes Tuesday, occasionally I miss it entirely. #reallife

I keep these in a binder (yes, my Gen-X is showing) and scan them. A few weeks ago I thought: What would happen if I looked at these together? So I uploaded a ZIP file of handwritten weekly reviews and asked ChatGPT to help me understand the patterns in my year.

Full disclosure: I wasn’t sure what to expect. I read books. I listen to podcasts. I take courses. I learn from others — and I believe deeply in all of that. I wasn’t looking to replace learning. I was curious whether it could accurately reflect back my patterns. I use AI nearly every day and am acutely aware of its limitations.

Turns out, it could. And it did.

8/8

It surfaced patterns in wins, challenges, and learning — and from that, a sort of personal operating system.

And here’s the part that really stuck with me:

My operating system has changed.
It doesn’t look like it did 10 years ago.
It doesn’t even look like it did 2 years ago.

As we grow, our wins change.
Our challenges change.
What “better” looks like evolves.

Right now, in this season of my life, my strongest weeks tend to include:

• Physical movement
• Live, in-person impact
• 1:1 meaningful connection
• Progress toward a mission (CAF)
• Structure and preparation
• Writing
• An emotional anchor
• Beauty or a meaningful memory

When it laid everything out, it also made something else clear:

5 of 8 = a good week
6–7 of 8 = a great week
8 of 8 = a peak week

Bonus points if the week includes “combo activities” like physical movement and live in-person impact a.k.a me racing around the room at the DeW November 2025 conference in my Sneex 🙂
It reminded me of a quote I’ve come back to more than once:

“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”

That’s what this felt like.

Not because it replaced learning from others — I still read, listen, study, and learn constantly — but because it helped me simplify everything I’ve already learned into something personal, current, and actionable.

Better Is Different Now

The things that help us get better change as we do.

What worked ten years ago might not work anymore.
What even worked two years ago might not fit this season of your life.
And that isn’t failure — it’s growth.

For me, I don’t think the answer is doing less learning. I’ve learned that my real power will comes when I pair that learning with noticing. How can you notice?

Notice what fuels your best weeks.
Notice what drains you.
Notice how your definition of “better” is evolving — because it should.

As you head into 2026, my hope is that you give yourself permission to pay attention — not to find the perfect system, but to better understand your own.

P.S. If you’re curious what your own “best week” includes right now, a single page and a few honest minutes is more than enough to start. I believe in you.

 
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