100 Questions for Remembering 2025
An invitation to remember the year on behalf of your 100-year-old self
Hello fellow learn-it-all š
Greetings from outside of Detroit, Michigan. Snow is coming down quietly as I write this. Iām inside, warm, grateful Iām not one of the ravenous squirrels attacking the birdfeeder like itās their last meal. My sinuses, which are bulging my brain, make my skull feel two sizes too small, however would like a word. Last night, over lasagna, my dad explained the nuances between Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican traditions. Then I decorated the Christmas tree, crowned it with an angel, and went to bed with fingers sticky with sap, smelling like evergreen. Worst problems to have.
Iām sharing all of this because these are the kinds of moments that disappear first. And thatās what this letter is really about. To create ways to remember.
Anywho, welcome to letter 293.
āQuestion to think about
How do you want to remember this year before it slips away?
š¤ Reflecting
Iāve put together 100 questions to remember the year.
Start with the first three, try out the ten, and if you're feeling fairly contemplative, give the list of 100 a whirl. Feel free to skip most of them. Let the questions choose you. Stop whenever you feel complete. Think of this as a remembering ritual rather than some annual report that companies create for review.
And for those who donāt want to do this alone, Iām hosting something special next weekā¦
The Remembering Ritual is a gentle container for reflecting, writing, and preserving 2025 together with an opportunity to voice aloud with others.
If you want to write, reflect and celebrate the year while making some new friends, the Remembering Ritual will be for 90 minutes on Tuesday, December 23rd, starting at 11 am EST, which is 5 pm CEST or 8 am PST on Zoom.
šļøWriting on Why to Remember
Sometimes, I think about my 100-year-old self. What would she wish I had written down? What would she want to remember?
Thereās no denying it: I am obsessed with reflection.
Not because I love prompts and lists, but because Iām afraid of forgetting.
We each experience so much life in a single year. Project, places, people, conversations, shower thoughts. And without intention, it all blurs together. Reflection, for me, is an act of preservation. A way of saying: this mattered and I donāt want to lose it.
Ever since the end of 2019, Iāve made time at yearās end to look back before rushing forward. It has become one of my most grounding rituals in adulthood. And I donāt do it to review and optimize, but as a memory capsule and for my future self at 100 years old, who will probably forget everything.
Here are the stories and intentions of my life Iāll be reading if I lose my mind in the future like my grandma did:
2019 - adulting
2020 - practice
2021 - play
2022 - patience
2023 - courage
2024 - zest
2025 - exploration
2026 - ?
Before we consume more, what if we preserved what we already lived?
The year-end gives us a liminal space to answer those questions while the memories are still lukewarm. I donāt want to let this year vanish.
So this year, instead of curating yet another list from others, I created something by curating my favorite questions.
Without further ado, here are the 100 prompts I have curated for you (and for me).
100 Questions for Remembering 2025
ā The 3L Spotlight Questions
ā 1. What did I LOVE this year? What am I grateful for?
ā 2. What did I LEARN this year? What did my experiences teach me?
ā 3. What did I LACK this year and want to change next year?
These are the MVR, the minimum viable reflection. Imagine you had Alzheimerās in the future and wanted to remember what 2025 was all about. They could be short snippets or long and meandering. Nothing is too random. This isnāt about answering well. Itās about noticing what wants to be remembered. If you answer nothing else, answer these.
If you would like to create a copy of this as a GDoc to fill out or print, please do so below:
šÆ If You Only Answer 10ā¦
For intermediate people who want a bit more depth without overwhelmā¦
What did I love this year?
What did I learn this year?
What did I lack and want to change next year?
What surprised me about my year?
What made me come alive?
What drained my energy?
What am I most proud of?
Who do I want to remember from this year?
What am I most excited about right now?
When I look back on this year, what do I hope Iāll smile about?
š The Full 100 Questions
Follow what resonates. You are not meant to answer everything. Let the questions choose you. Stop when you feel complete.
š± Three L Spotlights
What did I LOVE this year? What am I grateful for?
What did I LEARN this year? What did my experiences teach me?
What did I LACK this year and want to change next year?
š§ Remembering & Meaning
What surprised me about my year?
What moments feel most vivid now?
What patterns or themes emerge when I look back?
Where did I invest most of my time thinking about?
Where did I invest most of my time in doing?
If this year were a chapter, what would it be called?
What do I most want to remember about this year?
What felt ordinary then but meaningful now?
What moments would I want my future self to revisit?
What stories shaped my year?
What travel or places mattered more than I expected?
ā¤ļø Emotions, Energy & Aliveness
What made me come alive?
When did I feel energized?
When did I feel depleted?
What emotions showed up again and again?
What habit put some pep in my step?
What grinded my gears and made me mad?
What made me sad?
What created joy?
š§ Well-Being, Attention & Technology
How did my relationship with technology affect my well-being?
How did technology support my attention and health?
When did it drain my energy or attention?
What type of information did I consume the most of?
What consumption genuinely nourished me?
How do I feel about my amount of time on screens?
What habit could allow me to create time offline?
What helped me feel more grounded or present?
If I could wave a wand, what would be a healthy relationship to the Internet, media, or my phone?
What rituals or routines could regulate my nervous system more next year?
š Wins, Strengths & Skills
What big or small wins did I have this year?
What am I most proud of myself for?
What did I follow through on even when it was hard?
What would past-me be impressed by?
What skills did I strengthen or use most?
What skills or ways of thinking do I want to learn?
What are my superpowers?
What felt easier than it used to?
What compliment would you like to have received?
What strengths did others reflect back to me?
š§ Challenges, Friction & Growth
What struggles did I overcome?
What did those struggles teach me?
Where was there unnecessary struggle?
What patterns or habits kept repeating?
Where did I doubt myself?
What worries or concerns kept coming up?
What expectations weighed on me?
What risks did I take?
What fears did I face?
What did my discomfort show me about myself?
š§ Values, Integrity & Alignment
What are my top values?
In what ways am I living a life aligned with my values?
In what ways am I not yet living by my values?
How have my values, priorities, or beliefs changed?
Where did I act with integrity, where I followed through on my words?
Where did I struggle to do so?
Which choices felt most true to me?
Where did I people-please?
What would alignment look like next year?
On my deathbed, what does success look like to me on my own terms?
š¤ Relationships, Community & Connection
What new people did I meet this year, and how did they impact me?
Who in my community influenced me the most?
Who did I influence?
When did I feel deeply connected?
When did I feel lonely?
What important conversation(s) mattered?
Who would I love to thank and/or give a compliment to?
Who would I love to reach out to and (re)connect with?
How did I show up in my relationships?
What spaces would I like to plant seeds in next year?
š Dreams, Curiosity & Inspiration
What musicians or albums or playlists made me move and groove?
What books, course, or videos inspired me?
What do I want to create someday?
What dreams keep returning?
Which project idea gets me excited to get out of bed?
What hobbies or curiosities do I want to move from āsomedayā to āsoonā?
What would I attempt if I trusted myself more?
Who are my heroes?
What qualities do I admire in my heroes?
What kind of life do I secretly long for if I described the āday in my dream lifeā?
Who do I want to impact?
What are my favorite questions I want to explore?
What has been inspiring me lately?
š± Looking Ahead
What do I want more of next year?
What do I want less of next year?
How do I want to feel at the end of next year?
What habits could facilitate that feeling?
What boundaries could create a healthier life for me?
What month-long experiments do I want to try out?
What would my future self thank me for?
āØ Closing the Remembering Ritual
What sentence captures this year?
What do I want to carry forward?
What am I ready to release?
What deserves a gentle goodbye?
What felt meaningful?
What felt unnecessary?
What story about myself am I letting go of?
When I return to this in a year, what do I hope Iāll smile about?
You are not meant to answer everything. Let the questions choose you. Stop when you feel complete.
If you feel overwhelmed, please return to the top three questions, and I invite you to join the Remembering Ritual on Zoom for 90 minutes on December 23rd at 11 AM EST.
š§Listening
My Intention Setting Spotify Playlist
šWord to define
Preserve
verb [with object]
To maintain (something) in its original or existing state: all records of the past were zealously preserved.
Etymology
late 14c., preserven, ākeep safe or free from harm,ā also āact so as to insure that something does not occur,ā from Anglo-French preservare, Old French preserver, Medieval Latin preservare ākeep, preserve,ā all from Late Latin praeservare āguard beforehand,ā from Latin prae ābeforeā (see pre-) + servare āto keep safeā (from PIE root *ser- (1) āto protectā).
From early 15c. as āmaintain, keep in a certain quality, state or condition.ā Of fruit, etc., āprevent from spoiling by use of preservative substances,ā 1570s; of organic bodies, ākeep in existence or alive,ā from 1610s. Related: Preserved; preserver; preserving.
šQuotes to inspire
āReflection requires stillness. One cost of rushing from thing to thing is that you lose the space to think. Hard work matters, but nonstop motion often hides a quiet truth: you could have used your time better. If you never pause, you confuse activity with effectiveness. Make time to think. Walk outside. Sit quietly. Create space. Then move again, but this time on purpose.ā ā James Clear
āYou waste years by not being able to waste hoursā ā Amos Tversky
šøPhoto of the Week
Enjoyed this sliver of Dutchness outside of Eastern Market on Sunday with my parents at the classic DrVries Cheese store in Detroit, Michigan.
šShoutouts to others templates
to Jonny Miller: Reflecting Forwards
to Steve Schlaf: 2025/26 Annual Reflection
to Tiago Forte: Tiagoās Annual Review Template
to Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Year in Review Worksheet ā¢ Ness Labs
to James Clear answers these questions: What went well this year? What didnāt go so well this year? What am I working toward? ā> You can find his past reviews here.
to Khe Hy: Your 2021 Annual Review Template
to Compass: Year Compass 2025 : Sample
I am grateful you chose to fill part of your day here.
These letters are where I make sense of the world, unravel my life, and sort out whatās on my mind.
If something in this letter resonated, press the ā¤ļø , leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetJL@gmail.com. I love hearing from you.
Keep on learning š
Tot snel šŗ šŗ
Toodles :)
Jen
PS - If you want to support my work, you can subscribe or grab a copy of my memoir Letters to My Life. A reader shared that itās āa must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationshipsā
PPS - If youāre anything like me, you love novelty. You feel the pull of everything left unread, unwatched, unexplored. Thereās a feeling of behindness and panic that youāll never catch up. But what about the gems you already found? That book from Stephen King that cracked something open. The stranger you met on a train who ran a publishing house shifted how you see the world. The FINNEAS album that made you smile while running around the track. If you want to join in to meet others while they reflect on their year, come join me on Zoom Dec. 23rd (my grandmaās 97th bday) at 11AM EST.
Thanks for writing this, it clarifies a lot; this remembering ritual, a thoughtful progression from previous reflections, offers an intriguing, if extensive, way to process the year.
What was surprising is always an excellent question.