5 Strategic Ways To Help Your 2025 New Year’s Resolutions Stick

With the start of 2025 right around the corner, this time can be a time of self reflection and processing. Maybe you've been spending more time on social media envious of others' posts. Maybe you have been reflecting on your progress in 2024 and want to make changes to reflect a goal.  Maybe you've had recurrent thoughts about wanting to change, but feeling lost on how to get started.

Ongoing questions remain.  What would I like to see over the next year? What are my yearly goals? Can I celebrate the wins along the way? How do I plan to follow through on these goals? In this post, we will talk about 5 strategic ways to help your 2025 new year's resolutions stick.

​While making your annual resolution, we want to set ourselves up for success.  The goal should be something reasonable and attainable for the time frame. We can use wishes and dreams as guidelines to create a goal. Look for benchmark progress marks. Consider a timeline and signs of progress. Not all progress can be seen, especially initially. 

1. Enlist Smaller Stepping Stone Goals

I love to use the example of climbing Mt Everest when creating expectations for a goal. If we have a high goal, we need reasonable action steps to get there. Steps to train, what to pack, timing, etc. just to get to base camp. Similarly, we want to create actionable steps for our goal setting. These stepping stone goals should allow spaces to see and/or feel our progress. Ultimately we want these stones to lead us to the larger goal but also feel good about the wins along the way.

2. Chose Visuals and Feelings For Benchmarks

Whether your goal is focused on something internal or external, we can look for signs of progress. If you want to feel stronger, you may look for visual signs of progress about how much you can lift or emotional progress of how you feel while lifting. Similarly, we want our goals to allow space to see and feel good. It’s not just about getting to the finish line but the trail along the way.

3. Enlist Help

Use your support system to create check ins. Be clear about what you are looking for from them and provide feedback about what feels good for you. If you’re looking for specifics like not getting feedback about physical appearance then this would be a good time to set reasonable boundaries. We’re more likely to get positive results when we communicate and set expectations. 
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Visual reminders of your goal and determination can help you push through on days where you might be lacking motivation.  Place positive affirmations near your desktop, fridge, nightstand, bathroom mirror or any similar place you could regularly see them.  Leaving a reminder on your phone screen may be another helpful way to speak your goals into existence.  Here are three options you can save for yourself.​

4. Avoid The All Or Nothing Mentality

In my years of working with people toward their goals the number one thing standing in peoples way is an all or nothing mentality. It’s normal to have this tendency because it is a cognitive distortion that everyone may go to. However, recognizing it and trying to stay out of our own heads may be vital to your success.
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Did you create a daily stepping stone goal to be checked off and you missed a day? One day does not determine consistency or lack thereof. You are human and perfection is impossible. Tomorrow is a new day. Have a daily goal to move your body at 6am and you woke up at 6:08am? No need to throw out your goal with minor changes. There can still be time to reach our daily goal. Pivot and make the adjustment as needed. We’re more likely to match our goals when we realize that we can pivot with the environment. Your body and mind will thank you later.

5. Remember Your "Why"

Your why is what makes you choose an answer, a direction, your purpose or your goal.  Your "why" for attending a concert might be that you love the artist and that when you listen to their music it always puts you in a better mood.  Your "why" for setting a space boundary is that you might feel more awkward around strangers when they are in your space bubble.  Similarly, you have chosen this annual goal to help propel you.  In moments when you feel like giving up, remembering why you chose the goal and focusing on the big picture may help you stay on track. 

Therapy May Be Part Of Your Goal

If self actualization is part of your plan for 2025 then therapy may be a large part of your goal. While there are a few ways to find an appropriate therapist for you, it might be helpful to get a referral from someone in your community you trust and/or your insurance carrier. Your therapist should be aligned with your goals and make you feel comfortable in sessions. The goal of the therapist should be to help you feel like your best self and to be your teammate in treatment. Therapy should allow you to process what was, discuss what is, and create manageable expectations for the future. Wherever you are on your journey, therapy can be a helpful tool toward your individual success.

With so many types of goals in circulation, there tends to be a theme of being better. Feeling better, doing better.  High goals often emphasize perfection and leave less chance for celebrating other types of progress. As you create and manage your expectations for 2025, let the goals and steps be reasonable and appropriate. Give yourself grace in remembering that progress is in the journey and that consistency and side steps are part of the process. Not all steps to progress can be seen but also felt over time. Whatever your goals and reality brings you in 2025, I hope it brings you peace. 

Stay well,

Author

Megan Bowling, M.A., LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has been in the mental health field for more than ten years and is passionate to share mental health wellness strategies.