At 23, I fled a favela in Rio at gunpoint. 14 years later, I returned to launch my first book. It was my first time back in the city since I was a student and a man had pointed a rifle at my chest, convinced I was a police informant. I escaped in a taxi with everything I could carry. This time, driving along the coastal highway, I passed that same favela. As it disappeared in the rearview mirror, I thought about the frightened young man who had fled from there. He had no idea where his life would lead. A few weeks later, sitting on a beach with a journal, he started writing himself a new story. I was living in the pages he wrote. That's what I love about an annual life review. You start to see how decisions you barely remember making became turning points. How small steps led somewhere you couldn't have imagined. How the person you were helped create the life you're living now. Looking back isn't just about measuring how far you've come. It's a chance to decide what you want to write next.

I used to fix computers out of a Honda Civic. Now I'm holding my third book. What connects the two is a habit I started in 2008. I was in Brazil, in my last year of college, with no idea what to do with my life. One morning I sat down on the beach and made two lists: What I was grateful for that year. And what I wanted next. It took 15 minutes. The gratitude list had 73 items on it. Reading it back, I saw a pattern. I was happiest when I was learning, teaching, and traveling. The next year, I was teaching English in Ukraine with the Peace Corps. I've done a review like that every year since. When I started working for myself, that year's review took weeks instead of hours. Rent was due, and it felt reckless. I wrote every skill I could earn money from on one big sheet of paper and carried it from coffee shop to coffee shop. Looking back, those weeks were the best investment I ever made in myself. In 2014, I wrote out a typical day in my life five years ahead. I shared it with my girlfriend, as a bit of an experiment. She's now my wife. In 2019, I started sharing my reviews in public. And it changed the course of my work. Each review showed me my next step. I still had to take it. That practice is what "Life in Perspective" is about. It comes out Nov. 3. If you want to try it, start the way I did. Take 15 minutes tonight and write two lists: 1. What you're grateful for this year 2. What you want next Then read the first list again. It will tell you a lot about the second.

I had to make peace with my past before I could plan my future. In the final days of 2018, my wife and I moved from Oakland into a tiny apartment in Mexico City. We spent our first days there doing our annual life reviews, covering the walls with mind maps, vision boards, and sketches of the future we imagined. On New Year's Eve, with fireworks going off outside, a wave of grief hit me. I was grieving the friends and family I'd left behind, along with all the plans tied to the Bay Area that I now knew I'd never pursue. I lay in the dark and wept. The next morning, I felt lighter. When I opened my journal, I saw that so many of my goals had been about making up for the past. They were designed to avoid regret. I tore out those pages and started fresh with one question: What would I do if I could do anything? That was the morning the idea for my first book was born. Looking back, I can trace it to making peace with the past before trying to plan the future. That's what an annual life review can do. It gives you space to make peace with the year behind you before planning the one ahead. And it's easier with someone beside you. My new book, Life in Perspective, walks you through the process.

Your brain treats a vivid scene from your future like a memory It's called episodic future thinking. There are over 5,000 studies on it, and the benefits start at about 20 seconds I give you those 20 seconds in my new video

Lives rarely go off course all at once It starts with one degree No big deal today, this week, maybe this month Give it a few years and you're on a different continent To have more inflection points, you need more reflection points

Close your eyes for 20 seconds Picture one scene from a future you'd be proud to live Where are you standing? Who's next to you? Now open your eyes and write one line about it I do this exercise with you in my new video

There's no single right way to do an annual life review. The best one fits your work and the season of life you're in. So I asked 10 people to show you theirs. On Wed, Nov. 4, I'm hosting the Annual Review Virtual Summit, free and online from 12-4 pm ET. You'll hear from: • Nicolas Cole, co-founder of Ship 30 for 30 • Jo Franco, filmmaker, host and producer • Rian Doris, founder of FlowState.com • Shira Gill, organizing expert and author • Ari Meisel, founder of Less Doing • Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs • Nick Milo, founder of Linking Your Thinking …and 3 more to be announced Each gives a short, practical talk on how they look back on their year and plan the next. Join for the whole summit or just the talks that fit your schedule, and borrow whatever works for you. It's all to celebrate the launch of my new book, "Life in Perspective," out Nov. 3.

Life moves so fast that we rarely stop to ask ourselves: Are we heading in the right direction? In my new video, we'll do a short life review together to help you pause, reflect, and find your bearings Grab a pen and join me