How to Set Goals in 2025
I am an avid goal setter. Creating and working towards goals is one way I add value and fun to my daily life. Goals give me a purpose and a reason to push myself. They create intention behind how I spend my time. And ultimately, setting goals is just another way of planning for the future.
Over the last three years, I’ve used a pretty solid goal setting routine to schedule my goals for the year, then work on achieving them.
In this post, I’m sharing with you how I did with my 2024 goals, along with my goals for 2025.
I’ll also share my goal setting process, and the single most important thing to meeting your goals.
Before we start, I’ll share that I ALWAYS create too many goals for myself. I love the idea of totally upleveling areas of my life, but as you’ll see, that usually doesn’t happen. However, I don’t think this is a bad thing. If anything, at the end of the year, I can see what mattered, and what goals weren’t that important.
(Update – December 2025: If you continue reading, you’ll see that I updated my progress with the 2025 goals I set for myself.)
Goal Setting Method
My goal setting process includes going through the method in this blog post from 2023, “The “No Fail” Way to Set Goals and Achieve Them”. I also talk about how I did with my 2022 goals and my goals for 2023. You can find that post here.
Here’s a summary of the process:
Step #1 – Reflect on the previous year. Your brain will default to everything you didn’t accomplish in 2024, so it’s important that you take some time to intentionally think about what worked and what didn’t work.
Step #2 – Think about what you want for the next year
Step #3 – Take two minutes every day to review your goals and write about one of your goals as if you have achieved it. This keeps your goals top of mind. I do this as part of my morning journaling routine.
Step #4 – Drop “all or nothing” thinking. You’ll create consistency when you no longer give up on something the minute it doesn’t go as planned.
Recap of 2024 Goals
I use this “Best Year Yet” printable that breaks down my goals into different areas of life. I have mine broken down into Household, Spiritual, Finances, Business, Health, Family + Friends.
Goals I created in 2024:
Household
–Complete daily house tasks 80% of time (in Home Planner) – kinda completed. I don’t think I hit the 80% mark, BUT I know I didn’t go more than 3 or 4 days without marking off a cleaning chore so I take that as a win.
–Get rid of 25 things/month – this was suggested in the Home Planner and it sounded like a great idea, but I didn’t do it.
–Practice “one in and one out” for everything we purchase – once again, it sounded great, but I only practiced this once and a while. However, we held a garage sale, so we did some cleaning out and getting rid of stuff this year.
Spiritual
–Focus on being intentional and do what I plan to do and come from a place of discipline – this is a hard goal to track, however, I would say that I’m more disciplined at the end of 2024 than I was the end of 2023. Especially when it comes to hours around working for This Routine Life. I have office hours, and I keep them.
–Keep my future self in mind – once again, this is hard to track, but one of the ways I practice this is by reviewing my goals and writing about them daily. This is another area that has improved in 2024.
–Finished 2024 Reading Challenge + read at least 52 books – COMPLETED! I actually read 54 books this year. In the middle of November I was 4 books behind so I really had to hustle! I traded workouts for reading most mornings.
In case you’re interested, here’s my top 5 books of 2024:
- Wellness, Nathan Hill
- Shark Heart, Emily Habeck
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
- The In-Between, Hadley Vlahos
- Take Back Your Brain, Kara Lowenthal
–Complete three cross-stitch gifts – Did not complete but finished two large cross-stitch projects. The intent of this goal is to make sure I’m incorporating this into my days because it’s something I enjoy so much.
Finances
–Goal carried over from 2023 – We saved $20k in savings for rest of house projects (new driveway and landscaping) – COMPLETED! I utilize a consistent budgeting/money management routine that’s helped us accomplish a lot of our financial goals over the years.
–Goal carried over from 2023 – We saved $15k in our vacation savings to pay cash for Disney trip – COMPLETED! We took the trip in November. This was our first trip to Disney World, and it was truly magical.
–We saved $20k for kitchen remodel – Did not complete. We chose a different financing option to move forward with the kitchen remodel.
– I invested money in stocks – Did not complete. However, we did open a money market account to get a better return on our money.
– I don’t engage with money scarcity mindset – this is another one that’s hard to track. I had some weeks where I found myself in money panic, but I was able to get myself out of it. I have noticed that over time, my money scarcity mindset is less and less invasive. This is a win!
Business
–Make $44k in 2024 – Did not complete. This is one area where I constantly exaggerate what I want to do in my business. Based on my offerings, and how many people I have on my list, math doesn’t math. I made $10k this year in the business, without a clear business plan. I’m happy with that since it’s substantially higher than 2023.
–Increase list to 10,000 – Did not complete. In fact, I really didn’t do much to increase subscribers on my list, and it shows. This is something I’ll work on this year.
–Working for BetterMynd monthly doing coaching and content creation – COMPLETED! I contracted with BetterMynd on the side to provide coaching workshops and content to their population of college students.
–I have worked with 10 private coaching clients by end of 2024 – Did not complete. I worked with 7 private coaching clients and loved working with every one of them!
Health
–I’m in my weight window of 140-145 – COMPLETED! This has taken me almost three years, but I’ve lost about 15 pounds and I’m down to a weight I feel comfortable with. It’s not the weight loss necessary that’s made me happy, it’s keeping the weight off and recognizing all the habits I’ve created along the way to get me here.
–I eat around 90g of protein/day + 25g of fiber a day – Did not complete. I tend to get overwhelmed with the thought of so much protein and how I’ll manage that. However, as I’m getting older, I know this is important to not only my body, but my hormonal health also. I’m working on this again in 2025.
–Beat my 2023 workout percentage of 65% – Did not complete. I’m short by 18 workouts. I’m a little bummed, but I still worked out 219 days of the year, which is 60%, not bad!
– Beat my 2023 10k steps percentage of 49% – COMPETED! I completed over 10k steps 195 days out of the year which is 53%.
Family + Friends
–Take a trip to Disney World in November 2024 – COMPLETD!
–Celebrate mom’s 70th birthday in a vacation home with family – COMPLETED!
–Check in with BF daily – Did not complete. But didn’t go more than three days without checking in!
–Check in with friends on a weekly basis – Did not complete. One thing I constantly struggle with is keeping in touch with friends who I don’t see often. I’m hoping to create some sort of system or routine this year to help me stay accountable to keeping in touch.
My goals for 2025
Finally, let me share my goals for 2025. Some of these goals I’m continuing to work on since I didn’t complete them in 2024, and I’m adding some new goals.
UPDATE: It’s now December 11, 2025, and I’m sharing below the progress I’ve made with my 2025 goals.
Household
-Complete at least 16 chores/week in Home Planner – count up chores at end of week – As of right now, I’ve met this goal 23 out of 52 weeks, so that’s around 44% of the year. Even though I didn’t fully meet this goal, I am celebrating that I used my Home Planner to track my cleaning every single week in 2025. This shows that I was doing some sort of cleaning on a weekly basis versus completely giving up on my cleaning routine.
–Redo kitchen, mudroom, and foyer – COMPLETED (ish). We had our kitchen and mudroom completely remodeled in the beginning of 2025. However, we haven’t purchased the new cabinetry for the mudroom, but the space is functional and meeting our needs for right now so we are focusing on spending our money in other areas. I semi-redecorated the foyer, and plan to change it up a little bit more after Christmas.
–Save $3k in business to redo office. – I’ve started saving to redo my office space, but I’m no longer completely interested in spending the money this way. So this is put on hold for now.
–Delete at least one picture a day in cell phone. – COMPLETED (so far). I can’t tell you if I reduced the number of pictures on my phone, but I can say that I loved looking back over the years and finding pictures that ignited an old memory, or really captured the essence of how my life was at that time. This task was actually pretty easy. I would just search the current date in my pictures, then scroll through all the pictures taken on that date and delete the ones I no longer want/needed.
Spiritual
–Feet hit floor by 4:15am 85% of days = 311 days out of the year. – I modified this goal to “Feet hit floor by 4:15 am or 5 am” to make the summer and weekends a little bit more doable. As of right now, I met this goal 178 days out of the year which is 57% of the 311 days I was aiming for. I still look at this as progress. Time and time again, I’m reminded that my day’s go SO. MUCH. BETTER. if I wake up super early.
-Complete 2025 Reading Challenge and read at least 52 books. – ALMOST COMPLETED. I’m currently on book number 48, and I’ve been really hustling with reading. I’m confident I can complete this goal by the end of 2025.
In case you’re interested, here’s my top 5 books of 2025:
- Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
- The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt
- The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club, Martha Hall Kelly
- The Nix, Nathan Hill
- Die with Zero, Bill Perkins
–Write for one hour at least 3 times a week for business or a total of 156 days. – I started the year working strong on this goal, and by July, I gave up. I wrote for one hour 33 days of the year. I’m contemplating working on this goal again for 2026, but reducing the time to something like 20 minutes a day.
-Write my goals using Future Focus method daily. – I participated in this practice 165 days out of the year which is about 45% of the year. Even though it wasn’t daily, I never missed a month, so I was consistently checking back in with my goals.
Finances
-Pay off Tim’s truck and work on paying off the boat. – COMPLETED. However, instead of working on paying off the boat, I had to get a new car so we are working towards paying that off, along with our other debt. This is something we will continue to work on for 2026.
-Invest most of savings in Money Market account. – COMPLETED.
-Start saving for Alaskan cruise in 2026 – COMPLETED. The cruise is booked for July 2026, and money is set aside to fully fund the vacation. This is another one of my Bucket List items so I’m super excited!
Business
-Revenue of at least $20k. – Once again, I didn’t meet this money goal. I’m estimated to make about $8k this year. Slightly below what I made last year. However, if you read my last weekly email, you’ll know that I’ve slowly been taking a step back from the business so this makes sense.
-Increase list to 5,000 – Hard to tell. I think I actually met this goal, but I deleted cold subscribers twice from my list over 2025 which brought the number down to about 3500 by the end of the year.
-Work with BetterMynd doing one-on-one coaching and workshops. – I am still hosting workshops for BetterMynd, but I am not doing one-on-one coaching through the organization.
-Conducted 60 “Overwhelmed to Organized” sessions. – I only conducted 11 of these sessions over 2025. Halfway through the year, I stopped promoting these sessions so it makes sense that the number is low.
-I have worked with 10 private clients. – I worked with one (wonderful) client this year, and we’ve been working together since January.
Health
-I’m in my weight window of 140-145. – COMPLETED. This was actually a bit of a struggle this year. I gained a few pounds over the holiday’s last year, and it’s taken me almost the whole year to get back into my weight window.
-I eat at least 50 grams of protein/day and 25 grams of fiber. – COMPLETED. This was a goal that carried over from 2024. I’ve had intentions of focusing on my protein and fiber intake, but the whole thing seemed overwhelming. Plus, whenever I would add more protein to my diet, I would gain weight, so I just told myself my body didn’t need more protein. However, I was feeling really lethargic, and like I shared above, my weight wasn’t moving like it used to, so I figured I needed a change. I heard about a program called Nourish that provides meetings with a nutritionist online, and it’s usually covered by insurance. I starting working with a nutritionist in October, and it’s greatly improved my life. Not only have I lost the weight I put on, but my energy is more sustainable, and my cravings for sugar and sweets has declined greatly. I also learned how to incorporate protein and fiber into my diet in a way that felt good. I’m now eating, on average, 105 grams of protein and 25 grams of fiber a day.
-Beat my 2024 workout number of 60%. – COMPLETED. I actually exceeded this goal. I’m currently at 234 workouts for the year, which is 64%.
-Beat my 2024 10k steps of 53.4%. – I didn’t complete this goal, which is surprising since I’ve taken a 5-10 minute walk on a daily basis. I’m currently at 165 days which is 45%.
-Took one 5-10 minute walk/day and take picture to capture weather each day. – ALMOST COMPLETED. – I’ve taken a walk and a picture while walking, every day so far and I’m not going to miss a day now! I’m on day #345.
-Complete 100 day challenge with Peloton. – COMPLETED. This was completed in the first 100 days of 2025.
Family + Friends
-Create a system to keep in touch with friends and family. – COMPLETED. One thing I know for sure about myself is that checklists motivate me. Because of this, I created a list of friends that I wanted to check in with every month. Once I checked in with them, I’d put a check next to their name for the corresponding month. This helped hold me accountable to getting in touch with friends and family.
-Host friends or go out to eat/coffee with friends twice/month. – COMPLETED. I also added this to the checklist I referenced above to hold me accountable.
-Take part in fun activities with others once/month. – COMPLETED.
Monitoring Goal Progress + Accountability
I worked on writing out these goals in mid-December. After I finished creating the goals, I immediately created a new notebook in my Goodnotes and titled it 2025 Future Focus. I included my “Best Year Yet” worksheet and a “Habit Tracker” . I set the “Habit Tracker” up for January to track the goals that require daily action.
The rest of the notebook is used for my daily Future Focus writing ritual. Every morning, as part of my morning routine, I’ll read through my goals and then write for 2 minutes as if they’ve happened.
At the end of each month, I go through the habit tracker and transfer the totals to a Master Habits Spreadsheet I created. This holds me accountable to the goals that track a percentage of days for the year. Plus, I like comparing myself to years previous to see how I’m tracking.
I’m also using Instagram this year to help hold me accountable. I’ll be posting my daily walk picture here as well as other goals I’m working on (as well as sharing updates, inspiration and offerings for This Routine Life).
The Single Most Important Thing for Meeting Your Goals
I used to set goals in January, only to fall short and give up by the spring. Over the last few years, I’ve stayed pretty committed to my January goals. I attribute this to the simple fact that I don’t give up. Even if things don’t go as planned, or I fall short, I just keep working toward the goal until I get there.
This can be really hard at times. Your brain will always feed you reasons to stop trying, or why you can do it some other time. Giving into this part of your brain is a form of sabotage and will keep you stuck.
Most of the goals I’ve achieved were outside the timeline I set for myself, but I didn’t use that as a reason to give up. I just kept working on it.
Attacking goals in this way has created the most sustainable change in my life – including weight loss, five years of not drinking alcohol, and continuing with This Routine Life when I wasn’t as far ahead as I wanted to be.
The best thing about not giving up is that you don’t have to start over again. You just keep trying until you get to where you want to be.
What Are Your Goals for 2025?
Now that I’ve walked you through my goal setting process, shared my goals with you, and told you how to achieve those goals, what goals will you set for yourself in 2025?
Let me know in the comments below!
Before you leave, grab The “Type A” Moms Guide to Feel Organized + In Control of Your Time, for FREE. You’ll find it here.
