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For many of us, December rushes by in a blur of holiday merrymaking and gift-giving, end-of-year invoicing and accounting, and hasty planning for the year ahead. In the rush, the thoughtful year-end reflection we might have hoped for often doesnt happen. Thats a missed opportunity. Reflection doesnt have to be complicated, though. Heres a simple end-of-year exercise to help you process the year, stay aligned with your goals, and move forward with intention. Year in Review First, remind yourself what actually happened this year. Its easy to fall prey to recency bias, focusing on the last few weeks and forgetting earlier events. We also tend to fixate on where we fell shortgoals unrealized, tasks unfinished, issues unresolved. These linger in our minds precisely because they remain incomplete. What we often overlook, though, is what weve already achieved. To get a more accurate picture, use your phones camera roll, online calendar, journals, work self-evaluations, and social media accounts to reacquaint yourself with the full year. Keep this light and stress-free. I often rediscover dinner parties and weekend trips Id forgotten, or reflect on time with family or work projects that felt all-consuming earlier in the year. Theres no rigid process here, just a deliberate stroll through the past year, noting what stands out. If its helpful, make a few notes along the way. Three Questions Next, ask yourself three questions, each of which calls for three answers. The rule of three keeps the exercise simple, efficient, and easy to revisit year after year. 1. What are the three best things I did for myself this year? This question helps you examine how you prioritized your own well-being. How quickly or slowly you arrive at your answers can be revealing in itself. Asking this question first also sends an important signal that self-care is the foundation for everything that you do. Self-care can take many forms. It might mean working out, learning to play the ukelele, or cutting back on drinking. Or it could mean landing a new client, setting a boundary with a difficult colleague, or taking a step toward a new certification. Some answers may feel significant; others may not. One of mine this year was, I went away for a summer weekend with friends. Looking back, that trip stood out as a fun highlight, and I realized how much it recharged me after a busy spring. You get to define what counts here. Where are you trying to grow? What made your life easier or better? 2. What were my three top wins this year? A win is something youre proud of, an accomplishment that resulted from your efforts. It can be personal or professional, but it should reflect your contribution. Rather than my team won an award, for example, try: I contributed X, Y, and Z, which led to my team winning an award. Recognizing accomplishments gives us the confidence to navigate hard moments and clarifies what matters to us. Once youve identified a win, delve deeper to think through what actions produced the outcome. Perhaps a key relationship is stronger this year. What did you do differently? What behaviors, choices, or boundaries made the difference? Look for your specific actions. Again, you define what counts. Your top three wins might not be what the outside world would call your top three wins, but you know why they were important and meaningful, and how hard you worked for them. 3. What are the three most important lessons I learned this year? As you reflect on the year and the first two questions, difficult moments may surface as well. Spend some time with them and ask: Whats the lesson here? Try to distill each lesson into a single sentence. Two of mine from this year were, Its worth paying extra to make travel easier, and Do the hard thing quickly. Yours might involve boundary setting, listening to your instincts, or not settling for less than you need. This year taught you valuable lessons. Dont leave them behind. Once youve identified your three lessons, write them down somewhere you can easily revisit them. Let your own wisdom guide you as you make decisions or face challenges in the year ahead. As the year winds down, its tempting to rush straight into goal-setting and strategy for whats next, but clarity about the future is hard to achieve without first making sense of what just happened. A simple, low-pressure reflection can create a bridge between what weve experienced and our intentions. It helps us carry forward what worked, release what didnt, and enter the new year with clearer self-knowledge and more grounded decision-making.
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E-Commerce
In recent weeks, a project called Jmail.world has quickly recreated the online life of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender with myriad ties to the rich and powerful. The effort started with a reproduction of the tranche of released emails in common Gmail style, searchable just like your own email app. Earlier this week, the team behind Jmail, software engineer Riley Walz and CEO of Kino Luke Igal, revealed JPhotos, which is inspired by Google Photos and is full of images that have been made public. The Jmail.world archive now includes sections imitating Google Drive, as well as JFlights, a section tracking Epsteins flight history, Jemini, an Epstein-inspired chatbot, and even Jotify. Together, they create an immersive facsimile of Epsteins digital world. To engage Jmail.world, we must suspend our disbelief, at least in part. The emails, and other documents, include the redactions of government lawyers. Jeffrey Epstein did not have a virtual reality platform for exploring his old haunts (obviously). These pictures were not uploaded to a database in this format and no one actually tracks their flights like this. Still, the endeavor feels not unlike the systems sometimes used by law enforcement to poke through the worlds of their subjects. They suck up records, and then recreate them on their own systems to mine through. In this case, the Jmail tool is available to everyone to examine. You, too, can sort through the digital refuse for evidence of one of the most odious scandals in U.S. history. It is indeed horrifying, in a pick-your-poison sort of way. [A]t some point this stuff will come out — as long [Trump] continues to top polls, wrote a New York Times reporter to Epstein in one exchange, back in 2015. Epstein responded: would you like photso [sic] of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen. There are the ever-flowing emails from his associates, including Ghislaine Maxwell and Steve Bannon. The back-and-forths over strategizing with reporters on the myriad allegations facing Epstein and his associates. There are the redacted images of his sometimes-naked victims. There are his critics, who email him: You are dead. And then, his morally disturbed fans. One anonymous emailer wrote to Epstein: I can’t believe they arrested you again, you are the only man on the planet who would never be bad with any women as you love them too much. Whats surprisingly striking is how much of the stuff on first glance doesnt appear like much of anything, really. There is the endless supply of updates from Quora and the boomerist conversations on political-goings. There are lots of re-forwarded news stories, articles flagged by Flipboard, updates on the markets, and, sometimes, very strange Epstein wrote to himself. In the photos, there are pictures of Epstein doing relatively normal things, like playing the piano and riding a horse. In his online orders, theres a device for mitigating back pain, Fruit of the Loom mens boxers, and CPAP machine replacement tubing. In a virtual recreation of his house, theres a reading nook, a laundry room, and storage areas. It can seem fairly benign, dull even. One has to look through the email back-and-forths to find direct references to the worst of it, but its there, if you know what to look for. His Amazon orders show he orders reveal he bought Bitcoin for Dummies, but also several books about Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita. In the same database of pictures that include snapshots of a concert and pictures of a horse, and pictures of Epstein playing pingpong and petting a dog, are the pictures of horrifying crimes, including plenty of (redacted) images of victims. When he communicates with the other affluent accomplices, its often about nothing, in particular until it isn’t. Social media and the news industry have carefully mined through these emails, looking for the most concerning to highlight. But Jmail asks us to work by ourselves, in a notably more disturbing exercise, and sift through the everyday doings and digital vestiges of a very evil man.
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E-Commerce
After the crystal ball drops on New Years Eve in New York City, it will rise again, sparkling in red, white, and blue to usher in 2026 and kick off months of celebrations for the nations upcoming 250th birthday. The patriotic touches at this year’s Times Square gathering, including a second confetti drop, will offer an early glimpse of whats ahead: hundreds of events and programs, big and small, planned nationwide to mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Im telling you right now, whatever youre imagining, its going to be much more than that, said America250 Chair Rosie Rios, who oversees the bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2016 to organize the semiquincentennial anniversary. Its going to be one for the ages, the most inspirational celebration this country and maybe the world has ever seen. Rios and her group worked with the Times Square Alliance business district and One Times Square, the building from where the ball is dropped, to make the changes to this year’s ceremonies. They’re also planning a second ball drop event on July 3, the eve of the nation’s birthday, in the same beautiful style that Times Square knows how to do it,” Rios said. It will mark the first time in 120 years there will be a ball drop in Times Square that doesn’t occur on New Year’s Eve, she said. A New Years Eve ball was first dropped in Times Square in 1907. Built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, the 700-pound (318-kilogram), 5-foot- (1.5-meter-) diameter ball was made of iron and wood and featured 100 25-watt light bulbs. Last year, the Constellation Ball, the ninth and largest version, was unveiled. It measured about 12 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter and weighs nearly 12,000 pounds (5,400 kilograms). The only years when no ball drop occurred were 1942 and 1943, when the city instituted a nightly dimout during World War II to protect itself from attacks. Crowds instead celebrated the new year with a moment of silence followed by chimes rung from the base of One Times Square. This year, the stroke of midnight will also mark the official launch of America Gives, a national service initiative created by America250. Organizers hope to make 2026 the largest year of volunteer hours ever aggregated in the country. On the following day, America250 will participate in the New Years Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, with a float themed Soaring Onward Together for 250 Years.” It will feature three larger-than-life bald eagles representing the countrys past, present and future. We want to ring in this new year from sea to shining sea. What better way to think about it than going from New York to California, Rios said. This has to be community-driven, this has be grassroots. Were going from Guam to Alaska, from Fairbanks to Philadelphia, and everything in between. President Donald Trump has also announced the Freedom 250 initiative to coordinate additional events for the 250th anniversary. Rios said she sees the wide range of celebrations and programs planned for the coming months, from large fireworks displays and statewide potluck suppers to student contests and citizen oral histories, as an opportunity to unite a politically divided nation. If we can find something for everyone … having those menus of options that people can pick and choose how they want to participate,” she said. Thats how were going to get to engaging 350 million Americans. Susan Haigh, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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