New Year's Eve may feel like a long way away, but 2025 is just around the corner. Soon, the holidays will be accelerating us into the close of 2024. Prepare now to make sure 2025 is your best year yet.
Read time: 4 minutes
Not sure how to do that? Here's a simple three-step action plan to identify your true priorities and establish plans that will make them a reality in the new year. Block out time on your calendar to work on each of these steps in a focused way.
Let's dive in:
1. Reflect and Project
Begin by reflecting on this year. Open a notebook and write down key events and results from each month. Where did things not work as expected or desired? What brought the greatest satisfaction and positive results? What can you celebrate from the year?
Now look forward. Write down what you'd like to change. What would you like to achieve? What result would make 2025 an exceptional year for you? What do you want to start? What should you stop?
Take 15 minutes and write an end of year 2025 letter reflecting on what you've done, what you've achieved, and how that makes you feel now that you've brought those priorities to life throughout the year. If anything feels off, discard those items that aren't really what's important to you for next year.
Take stock of your 2024
Focus on where you wish to be at the end of 2025 in very specific ways: work, personal life, and health
Embrace bold improvements and write them down
Finally, choose the overall, most important priority. What's the single difference maker for you in 2025?
Create a base by reflecting on the year past and build what you want to experience in 2025. You can achieve an amazing amount in a year, but it won't happen by accident. You must be specific with yourself. That's why writing out those priorities is so important.
Celebrate your wins and look forward to your next goal
2. Plan and Prioritize
Great. You've identified the meaningful outcomes for 2025. Now take each category and identify the milestones for each three month period. The milestones are those intermediate steps that will serve as markers of progress.
To reach your income goal, what do you need to complete by April 1? July 1? October 1? Do the same for each category. Keep in mind the rhythm of the year: family vacations, school breaks, major work events, and the like.
Focus especially on your number one priority.? Be especially thoughtful about those milestones. Keep it to one clear milestone each quarter for each of up to 3 priority goals.
Create quarterly milestones for the intermediate steps necessary to reach your goals
Be specific and write them down
Think through the necessary steps
Starting with your number one priority goal, take the time to understand what progress looks like throughout the year. Then you can use those quarterly milestones to create your weekly task lists that will guarantee success.
3. Prepare and Learn
Use the remaining time this year to identify what you will need to learn and what new skills you need to develop to accomplish your goals. What training could you complete? What research? What reading?
Identify areas where more knowledge, more experience, or more data would help
As Jim Rohn famously said, to have more, we must become more. Use this time to lay the foundation for an amazing new year ahead.
Action Summary
Reaching your goals in 2025 won't happen by accident. You need to be purposeful and focused to have a great year. Planning now can make that a reality.
Reflect on your year so far. Where do you want to be at the end of next year?
Break down each of your top 3 priority goals for the year into four clear steps of progress for where you need to be at the end of each quarter in order to be successful by the end of the year
Use the remainder of this year to build up the necessary skills and prepare yourself for growth ahead
Interested in some specific examples? Want to go deeper on how to plan for a great year? Explore my guide to the 12 Week Year strategy or reply to this email and let me know.
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