How to make 2025 your best year yet: Goal setting, manifesting & stepping into the new you

Are you a goal-setting, New Years resolution writing, buying a new planner every January type of girlie? Because this is your safe space. Let's be honest, it's easy to be swept up in the feel good 'new year new me' discourse that gets shoved down our throats every January. Each year you think, but this year I will complete my New Year's resolutions and achieve all of my goals and completely change my life.

Yet somehow, midway through February, the excitement and temporary motivation of the New Year has subsided and before you realised it, you're back in your same routine, doing the same thing, with the same outcome.

No more! Because this year, we are making 2025, ahem, twenty twenty-thrive, our bitch.

These easy tips will help you get all excited about your goals and hopefully put some routines in place to actually stick to them and step into your best and most fabulous self.

1. Reflect

Yes, I know... Why are we dredging up the past when we just want to get excited about the future? But this step is extremely important and cannot be skipped! How can you step into the best version of yourself when you're not fully conscious of who you are now, what brings you joy, what is most memorable to you and what you want to leave in 2024?

Crack open your brand new journal (I know you have one, or ten, lying around) and start with these prompts:

2024 was the year that I...

Write down anything that comes to mind. Perhaps it was the year that you got a dog, bought a car, got engaged, changed jobs, travelled overseas or even learnt how to cook.

Top 3 memories of 2024...

This one is pretty self explanatory. Just write down your top three memories for the year.

Who were the biggest people in my life in 2024?

Who did you see the most? Who had the most impact on you, good or bad?

What made me feel...

Passionate -

Peace -

Accomplished -

Energised -

Drained -

Stuck -

Time to get into the details and nail down what made you feel certain emotions. This is helpful to identify what you need to prioritise more in 2025 and what you need to leave behind.

What I needed in 2024...

If you could go back to yourself in January 2024, what would you say to her? What advice would you give?

What I'm leaving in 2024...

What was my biggest lesson...

2. Identify your 'Current Self' and your 'Future Self'

My current self is...

Now taking what you have learnt from the above prompts, jot down a summary about who you currently are. What habits do you have? Where do you work? What is your routine? How do you feel? How is your mental health? Who are your friends? What do you spend your spare time doing?

E.g. I work in marketing and I find myself unsatisfied by my work. I try to eat healthy foods but struggle with balance. I love spending time with my friends but can sometimes isolate myself because it feels easier in the moment. I spend my spare time scrolling on TikTok.

My future self is...

Now where do you see yourself one year from now, January 2025? Try to really visualise yourself in your dream scenario. Where would you be if everything went right this year? What's changed? How do those changes make you feel? What is the ideal scenario?

E.g. I have switched careers and now work in events and I feel extremely fulfilled by my work. I have made amazing memories with my friends and loved ones this year. I spend my spare time reading books or hiking. I love my life.

3. Set your intention for 2025

Now that you have a rough idea on where you want to be in the ideal scenario, it's time to set some intentions for 2025. These intentions should be your guiding principles for when you start to get granular on your goals. These will differ for everyone depending on who you are but could look like this:

I prioritise making memories with my friends and loved ones by saying yes to plans.

I love my body and nourish it with healthy and yummy foods.

I am focused on achieving my goals and achieve my goals quickly and easily.

I am grateful for all that I have and feel lucky to be me.

I feel immense satisfaction from my work and love going to the office.

These intentions should outline the sort of 'vibe' you want to shift into for 2025.

4. Goal setting time baby!

Now that you have reflected on last year, gotten really clear about what makes you happy and what you're leaving behind, created an identity for your future self and set your intentions for 2025, it's time to set your goals for 2025.

The best way to set goals in my experience is to follow the S.M.A.R.T goals methodology.

Specific - Try not to have any lofty statements as goals and really get specific. Instead of "get a new job" you could outline what field you want your job to be in or what you want your new job title to be.

Measurable - Your goal needs to be measurable otherwise how will you know whether you have completed it? Instead of '"start running" try "run 5km without stopping".

Achievable - I'm all for setting big, scary goals, that feel outside of your comfort zone, but your goals should also be within your capability or you could feel demotivated.

Relevant - Are your goals relevant to your overall intentions or the identity you want to step into for 2025? It's easy to get carried away when setting goals and write down a bunch of things that aren't actually relevant to what you're trying to achieve or the lifestyle you want to live.

Timely - Your goals should have some sort of timeliness to it whether it's "run 5km by the end of June" or "see my best friend at least once a week" or "meditate for 10-minutes 3x a week".

I like to write a few goals within each of the below pillars to get really clear on how I can step into the identity I outlined above:

Health & Fitness

Finance

Career

Hobbies & Travel

Relationships

Try not to write too many goals and really focus on the goals that will fill up your cup and move the needle towards you becoming your best self.

5. Write your 2025 bucket list

In amongst all of this goal setting, it's important to remember that the 'best version of you' isn't a stranger, it's you, twelve months from now. What are some of the bucket list items you want to tick off in 2025 that will help shape it into the best year yet?

What are some of the things you've always wanted to do, but just never get around to? These don't have to be huge, crazy experiences like 'fly a hot air balloon' or 'jump out of a plane', these could just be things that will make you feel good.

For example:

• Get a massage once a month

• See Wicked: For Good in Gold Class at the cinemas

• Plan an amazing birthday party

• Go for a 6km hike

• Get my bellybutton pierced

• Run a half marathon

• Try out a new restaurant once a month

6. Manifestation statement

Now it's time to manifest. If you're new to the concept, manifesting is essentially the practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the purpose of making them real. This can be done in many different ways. Some people like to do visualisation techniques during meditation, some like to read positive affirmations to themselves in the mirror and I personally like to use a technique called 'scripting'.

'Scripting' is essentially when you script out exactly how you would like your life to look if all of your manifestations came true. It's important to really get into the headspace of what it would be like to have all of your goals come to fruition. Manifesting is about so much more than just achieving your goals, it's about really leaning into how you would feel once you achieve your goals.

Do you feel proud, happy, safe, excited, grateful, energised, fulfilled? Tapping into the emotions behind what achieving your goals means to you is the true secret to manifesting, because if you can feel it, you can create it.

I like to start off my manifesting with a "There I am..." statement. Your manifestation statement should be in the present tense, as though you have already achieved everything you set out to.

For example:

There I am... It's January 2026 and I feel so full of gratitude looking back on all that I achieved throughout 2025. I have had the most incredible year and made so many amazing memories. I feel the fittest and healthiest I have ever been, I truly love my body. I got a promotion and am now the Senior Marketing Manager and I feel so proud of myself. I love going to work everyday and get so much satisfaction and fulfillment from my new role. I have experienced so much joy this year making amazing memories with my friends.

7. Word of the Year

You may have already heard of the concept of writing a 'word of the year'. Basically, choosing a word of the year is like picking a theme or central idea you want to focus on for 2025. It's like having a personal mantra and is a great way to remind yourself of what is your north star in achieving what you want for the year.

My 2024 word of the year was 'Energised - This year I feel energised to have fun, smash my goals and live life'. This word was important to me because in previous years I had battled a lot of fatigue and excuses. I would get home from work too exhausted to make plans with friends, go to the gym or even cook myself dinner. On weekends I would just laze about the house because I felt too exhausted to even consider doing anything. So for 2024, I wanted to focus on feeling energised because I knew it would help me achieve my goals and be the best version of myself.

I carried this word with me the whole year and really felt a huge difference. In March of 2024, I was still struggling with feeling weak and fatigued so I saw my Doctor and learnt that I had iron deficiency and was anemic. I was booked in for an iron transfusion and wow - what a difference it made. It was like a whole new me. I went from someone who exclusively made air fryer food and toast for dinner to someone who made home cooked recipes and meal prepped everyday. I started to have the energy to go to the gym and exercise after work. I looked forward to making plans on the weekend and loved filling up every second of spare time I had. Having the energy to do these things helped me become my best self in 2024.

8. Monthly and weekly goals

Okay so you've done all of this visualisation and goal setting and manifesting, but now what? How do you actually track your progress and keep your goals top of mind?

Monthly goal setting.

Now that you have your goals for the year, it's time to break these down each month and think about smaller goals that will lead you towards your overall objective. You don't need to do this all at once, but rather a check-in each month.

At the start of each month, write down 5 - 6 key goals that will bring you closer to your yearly goals. If one of your goals is to 'renovate my house' you could have your monthly goal as 'paint the house' and then break that down further for each week of the month, 'week 1 - select paint colours and get samples, week 2 - purchase paints, week 3 - prep walls, week 4 - paint'.

At the end of each month, you will want to reflect on the goals you set and measure if you are on track. If you listed 'paint the house' as a goal, check in to see your progress. Did you complete this goal? If no, why not? Do you need to prioritise? Does this goal still feel relevant to your overall goals? How can you get back on track next month? It's also important to acknowledge the goals you did achieve and write about how proud of yourself you are for achieving that goal.

9. Habit tracking

We've set yearly goals, we've set monthly goals, we've set weekly goals, but how can we make sure our everyday actions are bringing us closer to who we want to be?

Habit tracking.

Habit tracking is a simple way to record whether you did a habit. The easiest way to do this is to list your habits on a calendar and cross off each day you complete that habit.

It's important not to overwhelm yourself with too many habits and just pick four or five key habits maximum to focus on each day that will bring you towards your overall goal.

For example, your goals are:

• Write a book by the end of the year

• Have clear skin

• Read 100 books

• Run a half-marathon

The habits you may choose to track could be:

• Reading

• Writing

• Skin care routine

• Movement

You don't have to get too specific with your habit tracking (unless you want to), it's more the practice of getting into the habit each day and getting the dopamine hit from ticking it off when you've completed it. One of my big goals for 2024 was to eat healthier (when I said I lived on air fryer food, I wasn't joking) so I literally made 'eat vegetables' a daily habit to track because my diet was so horrible. It really made a difference in my mindset to ensure I ate veggies each day.

That is my 9 step recipe to ensure that 2025 is the best year of your life and that you're able to achieve all that your heart desires. It may feel like a lot, but when you break it down, it can easily fit into your lifestyle and help transform you from where you currently are, to where you want to be.

If you want to hit big goals this year and step into a new you, it's important to be intentional, aware and reflective to stay on track and hit your goals. I followed this formula in 2024 and it was the best year of my life. Although I didn't hit every single goal I wrote down, I smashed some pretty huge goals that I didn't even think were possible when I wrote them down in January and I'm so proud of myself. When I look back on the 'There I am...' statement I wrote last year, I can honestly say I feel all the feels I wrote down, so I know this formula is tried and tested.

You got this girl!