Goal setting in 2025
He who defines himself can never know who he truly is. -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Jessica was feeling let down by life recently. She didn’t reach her goals in the past year, and as the new year approached, she sought my advice because her friend, Tally, seemed to be doing really well and achieving amazing things while Jessica has been stuck in the same rut for a few years.
As Jessica and I discussed our goals for 2025, she reiterated her concerns to me and shared how successful Tally had been this year. Tally had doubled her income, wrote an article every day, completed 2 marathons and an iron man all while taking care of her kids and renovating her guest house with her partner.
As we sipped on our cappuccinos, I sat there deep in thought trying to come up with reasons why Tally could’ve done so well while Jessica was feeling so lost. This was supposed to be her most successful year yet, but she didn’t seem to come even close to what she imagined. Although we had a wonderful conversation, we, unfortunately, left the cafe without any answers as to how she could reach her desired potential this year.
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My road trip across Norway this week has caused my friends and I to go through every form of entertainment in an effort to fill the white, tundra-laden miles with distractions. From music to podcasts, audiobooks and even a bit of silence, we successfully finished the 464km drive from Oslo to Bergen.
About half way through though, I was thumbing through Spotify searching for something new, and I stumbled upon Brianna Wiest’s book, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think. We listened to about 10 of them, but there was one specific essay that reminded me of Jessica’s situation.
In one of the beginning chapters, Brianna sets the stage of the book, which is focused around psychology, by talking about the limitations of our minds.
In the most basic sense, we instinctively seek safety and familiarity. To achieve that, the mind creates scenarios and goals that fit within our current picture of the world. This desire for comfort is then, accompanied by the idea that the universe is infinite which is practically impossible for our finite brains to fathom. So, as a result, our brains simplify and rationalize this complexity to prevent the potential inundation of information from paralyzing us.
I sent the chapter to Jessica and said we needed to chat immediately.
When we got on FaceTime, she told me this idea reminded her of a story she heard on an interview with Alex Hormozi. In a conversation with one of his clients, Alex listened as his client talked about similar concerns with growth related to his social media presence.
The client told Alex he hasn’t been achieving the results he wants from his social media content. Alex asked him how many posts he put out a day. The client responded with 1 per day. Alex told him that his accounts are putting out 300 posts a day. 300x more.
Jessica talked about how perhaps expanding her idea of what was truly possible could help raise her standards for her yearly goals. By multiplying what she thought was possible by 2x, 3x or even 300x she could force herself to find or create the systems and processes necessary to achieve something even greater. Necessity is the mother of invention after all.
This conversation really inspired me to do the same with my goals this year. Obviously it isn’t enough just to set bigger goals. I also need to put in the work. But, with a bigger goal from the outset, I will start the year off right by laying out the foundations and systems required to achieve even bigger goals rather than relying on the miniscule systems or individual skills I’ve used in the past to achieve smaller goals.
At the end of the day, we live a very short life. If we’re lucky, we’ll get 75 new years. With that in mind, if we have the ability to choose between big goals or small ones, why limit ourselves by choosing small ones? Choose the best for yourself and you’re best self will eventually become your reality.
