Last week we showed you our template for end of year reflections, this week we thought we'd show you our answers.

In doing so we hope it inspires you to take the time to do your own (if you haven't already). We found this blog particularly cathartic to write so we can assure you, end of year reflections should be seen as an enjoyable exercise not a chore.

As you can see, we have focussed our answers mainly on our business, Evolve Journey. But that doesn't need to be the same for you. Having the four pillars of happiness (health, wealth, relationships & freedom) at the back of your mind when answering each question will help you get a holistic reflection.

If you missed the template for our end of year reflections in last weeks newsletter click here.

Past Year in Review

What standout moments—both positive and challenging—shaped this year. What are the lessons?

1. We held our first in person event early in 2024 where we hosted a panel on habits, mindset and routines and hung out with a bunch of Evolve Journalers in person.

2. After years of work we launched new design and version updates of the Evolve Journal, improving its look and feel while packing more value into the Discovery Course. Without a doubt, this couldn’t have been achieved without the invaluable customer feedback we received and the interviews we conducted—we are eternally grateful for your help. We also made great strides in making our product more sustainable by changing manufacturers, reducing weight and the amount of paper used, and upgrading the overall quality.

3. We haven't been without our struggles. In April our biggest ever order of stock worth over £20k went missing for three weeks en route to us, a true test of our Stoicism. The summer months for us as a business are particularly trying as people are out having fun - not shopping online - but on reflection, this is where we grew the most. As things slowed we searched for growth, it forced us to improve our messaging, redesign the website to optimise the customer experience and explore new ways to provide value.

4. On the topic of exploration... some personal highlights included traveling to Thailand, Spain, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Egypt while exploring some closer to home spots in the Scottish Highlands, Cornwall and Devon. 2024 has highlighted the importance of the Freedom pillar of happiness and reminded us how essential it is to optimise for location freedom giving us the flexibility to explore and to present to experience life milestones with loved ones.

5. Continued our quest outside of journaling while sticking to our philosophy: 'Everything we create must be something we’d proudly use ourselves and that, in the hands of others, contributes to making the world a better place.' On our quest we redesigned of our Stoic Coin and created our first ever necklace in tandem with the brilliant designer Chris Brown. We are insanely excited about our latest product, a digital course and online community, which is set for release in early 2025. Its mission is to connect all those who are looking to make positive changes to their life whilst providing them with the tools to do so.

Looking Ahead

Imagining your future self at 85, if they could see your 2024 what would they say? How can you use that wisdom to shape the next chapter of your life story?

1. As the year closes out we are absolutely full of gratitude. We’re entering our busiest season, a time when we have the privilege of sharing the power of journaling with more people than ever before making positive changes that we hope will create a butterfly effect as we all get a little bit better each day.
If our 85 year old selves could see us now they would probably remind us to zoom out and remind us to trust in the overarching trend that's moving in the right direction. As we expand into new territory and welcome community members to our new offering, we’ll certainly need this wisdom to try and maximise the value we can bring to each and everyone of our new community members, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.

Evolve Journey Annual Review

This week something a little different, we thought we would take a moment to reflect and do some mental decluttering so we can truly clock off for Christmas festivities and look forward to entering 2025, rather than dread it.

Past Year in Review

What standout moments—both positive and challenging—shaped this year. What are the lessons?

Habits and Systems Check

Which routines and strategies were most successful, which ones held you back. Any tweaks you can make for even greater impact?

The Pillars: Happiness, Health, Wealth, Relationships, and Freedom

How did you progress in each of these core areas this year, and what specific intentions or goals will you set for the year ahead to continue that growth?

Time and Connections

How were you spending your time when you created your fondest memories? Who influenced you the most, and how can you strengthen those meaningful relationships going forward?

Goal Alignment

Which ambitions or plans fell by the wayside, and if they still matter, how will you shuffle things so they are reprioritised?

Looking Ahead

Imagining your future self at 85, if they could see your 2024 what would they say? How can you use that wisdom to shape the next chapter of your life story?

Evolve journey daily pages

Work your way through for the perfect mindset to set your intentions for 2025. 

Have you dreamt of starting your own business but you doubt yourself? Perhaps your salary keeps you comfortable and you’re worried the timing isn’t right or your idea isn’t good enough. Well that was me back in 2019 I was working in a sales job that was lucrative but I couldn’t stop thinking that I was trapped trading my time for money. I looked into the future in this career and couldn’t see how I could become truly wealthy. This was the year I silenced my imposter syndrome and I started my first business, Co-founded with my brother.

I have learnt a lot of lessons along the way and here are three questions that I wish I had asked myself before starting. If I had asked these initially the successes in our business would have come much earlier. 

• Who are you creating this for and how will you continuously learn from their feedback?
• What is the wealth creation ladder for my business idea? 
• What will my average day look like? 

If this sounds like you and you’ve been debating the validity of your business idea, let me save you some pain and give you the questions to ask so you can avoid my mistakes and start  smarter.

Who are you creating this for and how will you continuously learn from their feedback?

When we started our business we did this because we saw tried to buy a guided journal for ourselves and there was nothing available to offer what we wanted. So our logic was if it doesn’t exist we will make it. Our thoughts were to design products for ourselves and then we assumed this would naturally appeal to everyone and success would come easy.

Boy were we wrong. 

In assuming our products would speak to ourselves and therefore everyone they actually ended up speaking to no one. 

This is ironic because in designing our first product and launching it we took way longer than we should have to speak to customers and learn from how they were using the product, things that didn’t make sense to them and other opportunities for improvement. 

If I could start again I would begin with a clear audience in mind, I would speak with them as much as possible to continuously learn and improve my offering. (If you’re reading this as an Evolve Journey customer we’d love to hear from you)

What is the wealth creation ladder for my business idea? 

Credit Nathan Barry. Source https://www.stevanpopovic.com/wealth-ladder-lens/

I didn’t know it at the time but I was trying to jump from one of the ladders of wealth creation with the lowest ceiling of wealth, trading my time for money, to one of the highest. Selling products. 

I wish I had considered this question before starting so I was clear on the skills gap in between and whether this was indeed the game I wanted to play. Asking this question would make sure I design the business from the offset with the highest potential for wealth creation.

With your business idea, it's a good idea to think about how you can make it the highest leverage version of the idea possible. 

For example, the initial idea may be to learn how to become a yoga instructor and then set up a business as an independent yoga instructor. 

This gives you a bit more freedom than full-time employment but is still trading time for money. Instead, how could you make this more leveraged and increase the potential wealth creation? 

The answer could be instead of teaching in person create an online course and sell to students digitally so you can invest time upfront but then after with a little marketing you make money when you sleep. 

Any wealth creation limit is fine, it's your business, after all, it's just important to know upfront so you can make sure you are happy with the sacrifices needed given the maximum potential.

What will my average day look like? 

One constant outside of death and taxes is problems. No matter your income, rank or station life will always give you problems. 

It's helpful to look into the future and predict which potential problems your aspirations will bring you. If starting this business means eventually scaling to over 100 employees and you know you dislike managing people then you might want to rethink the business direction.

Getting clear on what you want your average day to look like if the business is successful can help you to get clear on the direction you want to take things. Making key decisions earlier will set you up for success. 

If you picture yourself doing not a lot and just relaxing on a beach then you likely want to avoid building a business that relies on your personal brand as a content machine and instead look for something with strong exit potential. 

If you want to be able to reallocate or pursue a nomadic lifestyle then the systems and the type of business you build should reflect this. 

Move forward.

It seems simple but it's easy to get wrapped up in the passion of your idea and ignore these things, before you know it you’ve steamrolled yourself into golden handcuffs with a business that you didn’t want but didn’t know how to avoid. 

These three questions will avoid a lot of pain and give you a shortcut to the future life you want for yourself.