It’s officially the beginning of 2025. And everyone is making resolutions and setting goals again.
Yeah, No.
I believe that most people usually have the best of intentions with their yearly goals and resolutions. Unfortunately, the things people come up with are often too broad and ambitious and scary. In fact, statistics show that most resolutions are doomed to fail before spring has even sprung.
I’ve decided to not make a list of resolutions or set concrete goals this year. Life isn’t static and orderly, so why should my personal and business direction be rigid and planned out to the minute? For that reason, I’ve chosen instead to create a personal manifesto* for 2025 and beyond. (I’m told all the cool kids have them.) Think of these as my guidelines for travelling through life. *remote cabin not required.
My 2025 Manifesto
Business
- I’m going to keep doing the things that are working, and let go of the things that aren’t. I know, it sounds painfully obvious. Sometimes it’s good to have that reminder.
- I will find something new and different that relates to my business that I can fail at this year. And then after failing big for a while, I can discover and be pleasantly surprised that I’m actually half-decent at that thing at some point later in the year. (You never learn much from an easy win.)
- I am going to strive to fail BIG. You can’t go halfway. Make a choice and ride that sucker into the ground* if you have to. (Then figure out what went wrong and try it again. And again.) *Except when skydiving. That you should definitely not ride into the ground.
- My learning goal is to learn things to the point where I am adequate/passable/decent at it. I don’t want to aim for mastery right out of the gate. Once I have achieved a passable result, THEN I can decide if I want to continue working to mastery. My goal is passable, not perfect.
- I need to make sure I’m “toddling” into new things at the beginning. That means embracing being bad at it for a while. I need to lean into that awkward terribleness of new things with the enthusiasm of a 5 year old. Which means I can’t be self conscious or embarrassed by failure. Observe the feedback, adjust, then try again. Just focus on the learning.
- I will work to get away from the idea of “perfection”. It’s easy to spend so much time trying to be perfect at something that I never get around to doing the actual thing.
Personal
- I will learn just for the sake of learning. I want to make sure that I’m not learning new things just because I feel I have to. Instead, I want to learn things because they are interesting, or odd or different. (Especially when the thing doesn’t specifically seem useful at the time.) Those are the best things to learn.
- Make an effort to take time to breathe. It’s easy to get caught up in the work, and the learning, and the day to day of being a small business/professional/entrepreneur/etc. I need to make time for my kid/spouse/pet. I need to allow some “me time” for a silly hobby. I need to get outside and take a walk. Take a moment and look at the stars. Or just sit and *be* for a bit.
- I need to keep moving forward. Any progress is progress and should be acknowledged and celebrated. And that means that taking one step forward still counts as progress. At the same time, on those more difficult days, just holding the line and not losing ground is also valid progress. I can’t beat myself up for not summitting Everest before breakfast. I need to celebrate the small wins and use that momentum to keep moving forward.
- Just do the thing. Whatever it is. Trust myself, my skills, and my ability to adapt to Just. Do. The. Thing.
So there you have it.
So, That’s my 2025 personal and business manifesto. What do you think about resolutions and goals in general? And were there any bits of my manifesto that might work for you?
One last thought to ponder before you go…
If you can fail when doing everything the way its been done and the way people think you should be doing it.
Then why not try and fail the way you’d do it?