Looking ahead to 2025
Setting goals for a productive and profitable year ahead!
With 2025 fast approaching and the holiday season almost upon us, this is the perfect time to dedicate some thought to your aspirations for next year, whether these are professional for your small business, or personal.
But if you’re like me (neurodiverse) and find it a challenge to pin down one thought from among the hundreds that flit around your head all at the same time, try out some of these tips to define what you want to achieve next year:-
Think about what you have achieved this past year:
Ask yourself:
What did I love about this year?
What do I want to do again?
What did I benefit from so much that I want more of it in my life?
What didn’t work so well?
What do I want less of in my life?
What do I want to remove from my life completely?
Try writing these down on a sheet of paper divided into two columns, one side for all the pluses, and one side for all the minuses. Once you’ve completed this exercise, you’ll have a really clear idea of what direction you are going to want 2025 to go in. After all, we all want more of what we loved, right?
Think about who and what you want to be, as a person
Your vision of yourself will influence everything that you do, how you act, the opportunities you chase, the way people react to you. Try to write that down in one brief sentence. Here are some examples:
“I want to inspire those around me to make a positive contribution to the world.”
(This was from a friend who went on to set up a small local charity gathering donations of blankets and food for the street homeless)
“I want to share my knowledge to help support other women to find the confidence to strike out on their own.”
(This one was from another friend who is now a life coach supporting women who have come through abusive relationships to start their own small businesses and currently has a full portfolio).
“I want to be organised, efficient and still have time to relax in my PJ’s at the weekend.”
(This came from a client who we helped reorganise her small enterprise so she could smooth out the stress points and find time for herself and her young family)
It doesn’t matter if what you envision for yourself seems like a pipe dream – they are all pipe dreams until you write them down and then suddenly you start to work on moving your life in that direction. The vision for yourself is what ends up guiding all your actions.
Define the pain points and plan changes
The “pain points” are the areas of your life where you feel the most stress or tension and that you know, in your gut, that you could do better or that you have added in your ‘minus’ column. Ask yourself, is this something I can just stop doing or eliminate from my life? Or is this something that I can change by changing my habits or behaviour? Again, jotting all this down on a sheet of paper helps (you can use your phone, but old-fashioned pen and paper actually works best, it’s the way your brain, hand and pen all link up to formulate thoughts that seems to help you focus so much better).
This could look something like this:
Personal
Too many arguments - Be less irritable, especially with family
Missing appointments or being late - Be less forgetful
Feel less sluggish - Get out more often into the fresh air
Find mental space for clear thinking – get better sleep; pause for thought during the day
Financial
Not enough disposal income - Spend less erratically; stop impulse buying
Don’t have enough set aside for a rainy day - Save more
Have no idea what I am earning or spending - Stay in total control of finances
Heading for mid-life and still not made it yet - Think of the future, sort out that pension, and decide what ‘making it’ actually looks like for you
Business / career
Need more clients – develop a new product or service
Too much to do, too little time – expand your team or outsource some tasks
Bored with work – learn a new skill and use it to get a new job or set up a business
By this point, you’ll be well on the way to knowing what you want to achieve in 2025.
But let’s take it a step further. How will you be able to stay focused on these ambitions during the year? We all know that the best laid plans....can be derailed by things that happen that our out of our control.
As you set out your list of specifics, such as that new service that you are going to offer in 2025, break each of them down into SMART goals. This means:
S = Specific: write out each goal in each area of your life that you want to improve so that it is detailed; avoid being vague. For example: you won’t just note down that you are going to develop a new service, you must fully describe it. Our property management client has just set out a new service for 2025 that is defined as: a key-holding service for property owners. Simple and it does exactly what it says.
M = Measurable: set out landmarks and milestones that you want to reach along your way. For the new service it could be: five customers in the first quarter, ten in the second, fifteen in the third and so on. It’s a bit like wanting to lose weight and breaking down the 12Kg that you want to lose in one year to 1kg per month
A = Achievable: set out how you will be able to achieve it, making sure you understand how much time you can spend on this and what resources you can allocate to this. Some goals may need more than just 2025 to be achieved, and some might be done and dusted by end of January.
R = Realistic: this is about you, your life, your business and what you want and not about anyone else. It is rarely possible to feel a sense of achievement when you work on someone else’s goals, so make sure these are right for you, and for your business or projects.
T = Timely: you cannot reach a vision that is vague and that might happen at some point in the future. You will invariably allow other things, people and events distract you from it. Enter target dates in your 2025 calendar now, with reminders along the way, so you can track your progress and return frequently to focus on that goal. If you’re like me and easily distracted, this is an invaluable activity.
Final few tips
Make your goals visible: put them on the wall, stick them to the fridge or at the end of your bed, in your daily planner; wherever works best of you so that you have a daily reminder of where your life journey is heading
Celebrate every single achievement that takes you closer to your goal – prosecco works for me, but you might prefer dinner with your partner, tea and cake with your team, a weekend away...whatever works for you to keep you motivated, positive, and above all, enjoying the process.
Schedule regular check-ins on your goals - maybe with yourself if you are a solopreneur, but it helps if you share this with a friend, a partner, or a mentor. Or with us, if you have chosen to let us help you in your path. This helps to keep you accountable and motivated
Ask for help: you don’t have to do it all by yourself. If you want a tidier house, enlist the support of your family to help, hire a cleaner, declutter and get rid of the overflow of ‘stuff’. This is especially important if you feel overwhelmed or stressed. Talk things over with a friend or a coach or a mentor. It will help you keep things in perspective and on track to meet those goals
Be flexible. Determination is great but as the year progresses, you might need to adapt your goals or change them altogether. This does not mean you have failed; it means that you are able to grow and evolve. Bend with the wind so that you don’t snap.
Using these tips will help you find your goal setting for 2025 a positive experience. Reach out on our website or in our social media to let us know how you get on. And if you’d like to book a goal-setting session with us – leave a message in the Contact Page and we’ll get back to you for a free, no-obligation chat.