2025 is here and you want it to be the best year yet (that's always the goal, right?). Well let me offer what I believe are 5 easy steps to get you started this year.
1. Reflect
Before you look forward, take a moment to look back. Reflecting on the wins, challenges, and lessons of 2024 can give you valuable insight for the future. What goals did you crush? What setbacks taught you resilience? Use these reflections to identify patterns and clarify what you want more—and less—of in the new year.
2. Reassess
This step helps you pinpoint exactly what’s working and what might need a little extra attention. This clarity helps you to organize your growth for the next year. I would suggest making some SMART goals based on your results. These are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. To give you a starting point, you can even break them into categories like this:
3. Reorganize
What areas of your life need to be reorganized? Take a look at your schedule. Does it reflect your priorities, or is it filled with random tasks that drain your energy?
What about your workday, your personal time, your environment, or even your technology — that could use a little more organization?
Take time to reorganize your life and clean out your workspace, organize your files, and even delete apps or programs that are more of a hindrance than a help. Reorganizing is about being intentional with where you spend your time and energy.
4. Revise
In this step I’m talking about financial revisions. Review your 2024 income and expenses and make adjustments for 2025. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how much you make this year if you don’t know how to manage it.
Categorize your expenses into essentials (like housing, utilities, and groceries) and non-essentials (like entertainment and dining out). Set specific financial goals, like building an emergency fund, paying down debt, or saving for a major purchase. I think it helps to assign deadlines to each of these areas. It helps keep you accountable.
Don’t work for your money, make your money work for you.
5. Reserve
Time is our most valuable commodity because, unlike money or resources, it can’t be replenished or earned back once it's spent. Go ahead and schedule important dates and milestones now. Planning creates a structure that prevents wasted time, and wasted moments.
Stewarding your time isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters most, it’s maximizing the most of every moment. As the saying goes, "You can’t make more time, but you can make the most of it.
Remember, growth doesn’t happen in just one day. Growth is simply being a little better today than I was yesterday. The New Year is a blank page — and you get to write the story.
1. Reflect
Before you look forward, take a moment to look back. Reflecting on the wins, challenges, and lessons of 2024 can give you valuable insight for the future. What goals did you crush? What setbacks taught you resilience? Use these reflections to identify patterns and clarify what you want more—and less—of in the new year.
2. Reassess
This step helps you pinpoint exactly what’s working and what might need a little extra attention. This clarity helps you to organize your growth for the next year. I would suggest making some SMART goals based on your results. These are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. To give you a starting point, you can even break them into categories like this:
- Personal health
- Professional health
- Financial health
- Relational health
- Physical health
3. Reorganize
What areas of your life need to be reorganized? Take a look at your schedule. Does it reflect your priorities, or is it filled with random tasks that drain your energy?
What about your workday, your personal time, your environment, or even your technology — that could use a little more organization?
Take time to reorganize your life and clean out your workspace, organize your files, and even delete apps or programs that are more of a hindrance than a help. Reorganizing is about being intentional with where you spend your time and energy.
4. Revise
In this step I’m talking about financial revisions. Review your 2024 income and expenses and make adjustments for 2025. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how much you make this year if you don’t know how to manage it.
Categorize your expenses into essentials (like housing, utilities, and groceries) and non-essentials (like entertainment and dining out). Set specific financial goals, like building an emergency fund, paying down debt, or saving for a major purchase. I think it helps to assign deadlines to each of these areas. It helps keep you accountable.
Don’t work for your money, make your money work for you.
5. Reserve
Time is our most valuable commodity because, unlike money or resources, it can’t be replenished or earned back once it's spent. Go ahead and schedule important dates and milestones now. Planning creates a structure that prevents wasted time, and wasted moments.
Stewarding your time isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters most, it’s maximizing the most of every moment. As the saying goes, "You can’t make more time, but you can make the most of it.
Remember, growth doesn’t happen in just one day. Growth is simply being a little better today than I was yesterday. The New Year is a blank page — and you get to write the story.
Posted in Personal Growth
Brandon Matthews
Brandon is passionate about bringing meaning back to the marketplace. These are practical and applicable principles for your organization.
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