2024 is over and it has been a year full of some really high highs and some really low lows. As I reflect back over the past year, I see many good things and goals met but I also see some things that were a total flop. That is mainly due to some personal family issues that just derailed the second half of 2024 for my family. But we made it through and feel grateful for the awesome things we were able to accomplish despite the hardships. If you need help in Setting Goals for 2025, check out our 2024 year in review and new 2025 goals below.
Setting Goals for 2025:
Before I lay out my goals for 2025, let’s look back at my goals for 2024. For the past several years, I have broken my goals up into the same set of categories and it works well for me: Intentional Living, Personal Growth, Career, Relationships, Travel, Community Involvement, Health and Finances. These categories are my top priorities, so you can use the same or swap a couple out for something else that is a priority in your life.
Looking Back at Last Year’s Goals for 2024:
INTENTIONAL LIVING: My goal was to keep decluttering our home and to sell items online before taking them to Goodwill. I actually sold quite a few things on FB Marketplace in 2024. Not much substantial, but all together I think it was close to $200 cash. I set deadline reminders in my Google calendar to reduce the asking price after 2 weeks and to throw the unsold items into the donation box after 4 weeks. I set aside the items up for sale in a box labeled as such. This system worked well for me and was not hard to keep up with at all. The second part of my goal last year was to update some decor in our home; something not done in a very long time. I did accomplish this in bits and pieces throughout the year. It helped that I keep my Amazon wish list up to date so for my birthday or holidays; my friends and family were able to purchase home items from my list.
PERSONAL GROWTH: My goal was to read a few personal development books that are sitting in my to be read pile. That was a flop since I didn’t do much reading this past year. I also really wanted to learn a new skill, specifically playing piano. Another flop. This would have been a nice goal to work on, but I spent a lot of time on other goals that fulfilled me. Keep reading to find out more on that.
CAREER: In 2024 my daytime career did well and I didn’t have any specific goals set for this area. I received a substantial yearly raise and my boss continues to be pleased with my work, so I count that as a win. I wanted to focus more time and energy on blogging consistently and as you can see, that didn’t happen. But I will say I spent time on some back end and marketing aspects of my blog this year and have increased my views by 3x; so that it so freaking exciting and motivates me to keep plugging away.
RELATIONSHIPS: Making new friends, setting regular date nights with my husband and indulging in a joint hobby of photography were unmet goals in 2024. We did however, meet several new acquaintances this past year though our increased charity work.
TRAVEL: We only traveled to a few places in 2024 including to visit family in Pennsylvania twice, friends in West Virginia once, to see another friend in Indiana once in January, not recommended, and to our house on Oak Island a few times, mainly to do work, not to relax.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: This area is where we kicked ass in 2024. We consistently volunteered at our county animal shelter, typically twice a month. It’s so much fun, but not glamorous work. We also got more involved with a German Shepherd Rescue group that we started working with towards the end of 2023. We currently have our third foster dog through the rescue. My husband joined the board and I started a marketing committee. Another awesome goal met was setting up a scholarship through our local community college for students enrolled in trades programs. This is something close to our hearts and we have talked about doing for years but didn’t really know where to start. After consulting with a few financial folks, we set up a meeting with the school and got it up an running for the Fall 2024 semester.
HEALTH: I am happy to report that I only halfway failed this goal in 2024. I meant to schedule all of my medical appointments that I had been putting off but due to our family issues this year, I did not prioritize this at all. We did hire a personal trainer about halfway through the year which was technically my birthday gift. Our trainer comes to our home weekly and kicks our butts. I thought this was a little extravagant at first, but really it is affordable and gives us no excuses to skip out on our workout. I also changed our diet towards the beginning of 2024, nothing crazy or drastic, just a lot of salads for dinner and we have seen and felt the difference.
FINANCES: We are steadily doing pretty well with this goal. We are keeping up with our monthly household budget which can be time consuming, but really is a helpful tool.
Setting Goals for 2025:
INTENTIONAL LIVING: My first goal for 2025, will be to consistently journal and to document daily gratitude. I am typically pretty good at hitting the pause button to find something I am grateful for during good times and bad, but I think it would be neat to document this and to look back at the end of the year.
PERSONAL GROWTH: Reading and learning new skills is a desire of mine. I received the book 12 Week Year for Christmas and I am already halfway done reading it. More reading in the new year and learning a new skill is a goal I have on repeat. This year I am keeping it simple. I have a sourdough starter kit just sitting in the kitchen waiting on me to get it going. If you have any tips on the perfect sourdough bread, please leave me a comment below. I also discussed this goal with my husband as I was disappointed I didn’t learn a new skill last year. He came up with a great idea of learning more about creating stained glass art. I have already been Googling classes and workshops in my area! For Christmas, I received a small hand held sewing machine. I like to make scarves for the dogs when we volunteer at the local shelter. Hopefully once I figure out how to use this thing, I’ll be able to make even more cute bandanas for the pups.
CAREER: Blogging consistently and continuing to increase readership will be my career focus in 2025. I have lots of ideas but will create a content calendar to keep myself on track.
RELATIONSHIPS: I think I can incorporate some date nights with the hubs into our busy schedules. I think planning in advance and getting it on the calendar will help me to stay on top of this one.
TRAVEL: So this goal does not get put on the back burner this year, I will be planning out several trips now around my work schedule and blocking off the time on my calendar. I already have a trip to visit family in Baton Rouge and Pennsylvania as well as a trip back to Oak Island on the books. We talked to some friends in Kentucky over the holiday that we haven’t seen in years and hope to plan a joint trip sometime later this year. I have never been to Kentucky, so leave me your travel recommendations in a comment below.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: In the new year, I plan to continue our current volunteer positions at both the local animal shelter as well as fostering through the German Shepherd Rescue. I hope to grow the marketing committee I started in 2024 to help the rescue group grow and flourish. We have everything set regarding our scholarship for the Spring 2025 semester. I believe the school will be scheduling a luncheon this spring so we can hopefully meet some of our scholarship recipients. I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart that we have made such progress in this area of life.
HEALTH: We just renewed our weekly personal trainer. I would love to bump that up to twice weekly, but I am not sure my husband’s work schedule will accommodate that, maybe, we’ll see. I will set my overdue medical appointments. And we’ll take a look at our diet/ meal planning. I think we can make some additional improvements there.
FINANCES: In 2025, we’ll continue to complete our monthly household budget, it’s really the only way to see where all of our money goes each month. I hate doing it, but it is super helpful. My husband revised our template for the new year to incorporate some changes we made in 2024.
Help for Setting Goals for 2025:
- How to Get Your Shit Together in 2024
- My Goals for 2023
- Goal Setting Tips for 2020
- January’s Monthly Goal Worksheet
- How to Make Reading a Habit
- How to Start a Gratitude Journal
- How to be Organized in 2023
- How to Get Organized + Prepared for 2022
- 22 New Habits to Start in 2022!
- The Best 6 Daily Habits of Organized People
- Goal Setting Tips for 2020
Are you setting goals for 2025? What goals are you setting for yourself in the new year? How do you keep motivated throughout the year? If you have any goal setting tips, please share in a comment below.
