Start the Year Off Right: Keys to Making This the Greatest Year of Your Life

JamelleSanders
4 min readJan 7, 2025

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First of all, let me wish you a Happy New Year! We have officially crossed over into 2025 and everyone is buzzing with excitement. Many people entered 2025 with renewed focus, hope, and a burning desire to produce meaningful change. While there is nothing wrong with being excited, I know that the excitement will wear off, the euphoria will dissipate and most people will return to life as usual. By the end of January, most people have abandoned their goals, given up on their vision, and reverted to the same toxic habits. If this year is going to be different, then you are going to have to create a plan and blueprint that will empower you for success and prosperity. These are important steps to help you make 2025 the greatest year of your life!

  1. You need to get crystal clear about what you really want. If you follow my life and work, then you know that I start every year with my Start the Year Off Right Campaign. It is a strategic initiative to get people aligned mentally, physically, and spiritually for the results that they want to achieve. On my podcast, I am delving deep into the framework for starting the year off right. In the first part of this month-long series, I am discussing the importance of having clarity. Anything that you attempt to create or construct this year without clarity will only result in confusion, frustration, and failure. Clarity is the foundation for conquering your goals and realizing your dreams. Clarity defines your priorities, decides your pursuits, and determines where you invest your time and energy. Clarity closes the gap between your current life and the life you want to create. Clarity is what makes everything possible.
  2. You need to take time to set clear goals for the year. After you have gotten clear about what you really want, then you are empowered to create strategic goals for the year. What do I mean by strategic goals? Strategic goals are well-defined, realistic, contain a time horizon, and can be measured and managed. In other words, a strategic goal is a goal that has specificity and depth. The more vague your goals are the less likely your chances of victory. For instance, if you want to lose weight this year take the time to assess how much weight you want to lose and to create a realistic timeline. Ambiguity is one of the greatest threats to your advancement. Specificity sets you up for success by giving articulation to your greatest desires and empowers you to create accountability systems. Also, I caution you against setting too many goals for the year. Instead of writing out a long list of goals, I want you to write 5–7 key goals for the year. Make sure one is a short-term goal. One is an interim goal. Finally, make sure you have at least one long-term goal. This will help to shape what you should focus on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
  3. You need to define the actions that will empower you to manifest your goals. It is one thing to set goals. It is another thing to execute your goals. As I stated earlier, many people go into a new year emotionally charged and excited. However, when motivation and inspiration dwindles you need to have the disciplines and habits in place that will set you up for success. Every year is my year because of my bulletproof mindset and my discipline. I want to challenge you to break each goal down into action steps. What do you need to do daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly to get you to your desired outcome? What I know is that the gap between aspiration and actualization widens without action. The acceleration of your life and the awakening of your dreams demands that you become a person of consistent action. Inaction is the seed for disappointment and defeat. Most people overestimate what they can do in twelve months and underestimate what they can do in the next three to five years. Every action that you take brings you closer to or farther away from your goals. Therefore, you must take action in the direction of your goals. Consistent action not only brings your future into focus. Ultimately, consistent action makes your vision a reality.
  4. You need accountability in your life. Everything that I just shared with you is important. However, if you leave out this critical step then you will fail in 2025 and beyond. As soon as 2025 came in, I made sure that I established and connected with accountability partners. I laid out my goals and my vision for the year. I told them my deadlines for certain things and I charged them with the responsibility of holding me accountable. If I do not follow through with my goals, I will have to answer to them and this is one of the things that keeps me on track. From lived experience, I will tell you that accountability is for your protection and your progress. One is not a great enough number to achieve success. On the other hand, partnership always shortens the distance to the life of your dreams. While it is still early in the year, take some time to establish accountability systems in your life. Do you need to check in with your accountability partner(s) daily, weekly or monthly? Accountability keeps you focused and causes you to be responsible for the decisions you are making and the actions that you are taking. Without accountability, you reduce your life to mediocrity and you live as a second-class version of yourself. Accountability is what makes vision doable and everything possible.

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JamelleSanders
JamelleSanders

Written by JamelleSanders

Jamelle Sanders is the CEO of Jamelle Sanders International. A global management, consulting advisory empowering leaders for success.

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