New year, new start: Tried-and-tested strategies to help you achieve your 2025 goals

The best ways to ensure we reach our targets include aligning our goals with our values, learning from past mistakes, dropping self-limiting beliefs, and taking things one step at a time

January is an ideal time to set goals.

These early days of January are a time for reflection. A time when many make plans and set goals for the year ahead.

The trouble is that most of us have done this before and may not always have succeeded in our aims. As we look around at others who appear to be doing better than we are, we might find ourselves asking what they know that we don’t. What are the strategies they use to set themselves up for success?

Workplace psychologist and senior coach practitioner Dr Mary Collins believes January is an ideal time to set goals. “A new year means a new start,” she says. “And with lots of us still on holiday, we have time to set some intentions about how we would like to live professionally and personally in 2025.”

She recommends that we begin by identifying our values and then setting goals that align with them.

“Our values tend to shift over the course of a lifetime,” she says. “They can change when you become a parent or be altered as a result of going through illness or a relationship breakup.”

She often uses the Values in Action profile tool to help her clients determine their values. “It’s based on the work of American psychologist Martin Seligman and functions as a lens that allows you to understand what’s important to you and how you can prioritise that,” she says.

Coaching psychologist Adrienne O’Hare explains that aligning goals with values is crucial because values drive motivation.

“When the going gets tough, you’re more likely to push through if your goal is one that’s based on your values,” she says

Breda McCague typically spends New Year’s Eve making vision boards for the year to come. But as well as looking forward, the leadership coach, motivational speaker, and co-founder of LeanIn Ireland doesn’t forget to look back.

“We have to ask ourselves if we nailed the intentions we set last year and if not, why,” she says. “We need to learn what does and doesn’t work so that we don’t make the same mistakes again.”

O’Hare takes a systematic approach, called the After Action Review, used by the military to learn from past mistakes. “It involves asking four questions,” she says. “What was expected to happen? What actually happened? What went well and why? And what can be improved and how?”

Some may believe they are not good enough, educated enough, or confident enough to achieve the goals they aspire to in life.

Workplace psychologist and senior coach practitioner Dr Mary Collins

“We can get in our way with self- limiting beliefs that come from our inner critic,” says Collins.

“That critic looks for reasons why we can’t do something rather than actively seeking out the supports that would help us to do it. We need to challenge that negative self-talk and shift our mindsets.”

Techniques for doing this include standing up to the critic.

“Would you speak to a good friend like you speak to yourself?” asks Collins. “Try to be kind and compassionate instead of undermining yourself. I find the word ‘yet’ helps with this. Rather than writing yourself off because you don’t have the skills to apply for a particular promotion, tell yourself: ‘I don’t have the skills to do this yet, but I’m going to develop them.”

Get SMART

When it comes to setting goals, there are tried-and-tested techniques. One is following the SMART model.

“These are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound,” says O’Hare. “Couple this process with setting value-based goals, and you’ll really be set for success.”

Breaking goals down into smaller steps is another strategy. “This is particularly true for longer-term goals, which can seem overwhelming,” she says. “There’s only one way to eat an elephant, and it’s one bite at a time.”

Smaller goals also result in more frequent wins. Each of these should be celebrated, says McCague. “It’s how you keep your dopamine levels high,” she says. “And you need dopamine to keep going.”

Coaching psychologist Adrienne O’Hare

Another tactic that can help with achieving goals is working backwards. “If you want to get promoted in September, what do you need to have achieved by June,” asks O’Hare. “And by March? And in each of the 12 weeks leading up to March? The answers to these questions will form a concrete plan of small steps leading to your final goal.”

You will need to manage your time effectively to accomplish each of these steps. To do this, Collins recommends having daily and weekly priorities. “Differentiate between what’s important and urgent and what’s not,” she says. “That will help you focus.”

Awareness of your energy levels can help, too. “I work best in the mornings, but others might work better at night,” she says. “Schedule your most important and demanding tasks when you have the most energy to deal with them.”

Her other tips include taking regular breaks to maintain energy, focusing on one thing at a time, and avoiding any attempts at multitasking.

O’Hare adds that we shouldn’t over-schedule our diaries. “Only schedule 80% of your day,” she says. “That will allow you to deal with the inevitable curveballs that come your way.”

Strength in numbers

When pursuing our goals, we often forget that others may be willing to collaborate and support us in achieving them. McCague advises us to reach out to these people.

She refers to the quote: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. “Other people drive us forward. We do things quicker in a team than by ourselves. We’re more disciplined because others hold us accountable. And we have more fun celebrating wins as a team. So let people help you. Seek out their support and mentorship and learn from their stories and experiences.”

O’Hare’s final advice is to define success more broadly rather than focusing exclusively on the career ladder.

She gets her clients to use the Wheel of Life coaching tool to widen their perception of success. It covers career, family, social life, finances, self-development, health, community, and spirituality.

“I get them to assess how they are doing against these criteria every three months,” she says. “Their wheel is never perfectly round because life is bumpy, but that’s OK as long as they are aware of what they are prioritising and why and have a plan to get back on track. Time flies and it’s easy to lose focus on what’s important, but this tool allows you to assess how well you’re really doing.”

Collins encourages us all to adopt a word for the year.

“Something that will be your North Star for the year ahead,” she says. “It could be health, growth, freedom, or anything at all as long as it will steer you in the direction you want in 2025.”

McCague’s parting words are that we should all go on a diet this January. “Not a diet where we try to lose weight, but a diet where we feed our brains with people and ideas that inspire us,” she says.

One way of doing this is to follow creative and imaginative people on our social media feeds.

“We’ll have all the motivation and inspiration we need for the year to come available when we flick on our phones.”