Why You Probably Don’t Want 2025 To Be Your Best Year Ever: There’s Something Better!

Happy New Year! ??

Here’s why you probably don’t want to focus on 2025 being your best year ever: You would have to look at previous years to compare – which takes you to your past – and then plan a future based on that past.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course.

But there is another possibility that can be much more interesting and – well – fun!

As Wayne Dyer wrote in Your Erroneous Zones:

And you, dear reader, have you really lived 10,000 or more days or have you lived one day, 10,000 or more times?

We begin by asking, “What do I really want my life, work, relationships, body, finances, spirituality, felt experience, and so on, to be this year?”

Begin without referencing the past, suspend “reality” and allow anything to be possible. Yes, remember that you are human. No one has yet been able to weigh 100 pounds less in one day and live to tell about it!?

On the other hand, we can sense possibilities that might rationally seem unimaginable. The June 2019 article, “What You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Mission,” (link to article is in the comments) from the Smithsonian Magazine reminds us:

When President John F. Kennedy declared in 1961 that the United States would go to the Moon, he was committing the nation to do something we simply couldn’t do. We didn’t have the tools or equipment—the rockets or the launchpads, the spacesuits or the computers or the micro-gravity food. And it isn’t just that we didn’t have what we would need; we didn’t even know what we would need. We didn’t have a list; no one in the world had a list. Indeed, our unpreparedness for the task goes a level deeper: We didn’t even know how to fly to the Moon. (Emphasis added.)

Back to planet earth.

Here are some examples of beginning with what we truly want. First, I’m using ones related to income generation, since that is easy to quantify and relate to. Further down, I offer some related to life’s work and career.

When I have clients that want to increase the income in their businesses, I ask them to prepare spending plans rather than budgets. Most people budget based on how much money they have, how much money they predict can be generated based on the past, and their current assessment of the future.

A spending plan on the other hand allows people to dream. We ask, “What do you really want? How do you want to live, what do you actually want to pay people, what do you want to create in your organization? Therefore, how much money do you need to generate to fulfill what you really want?"?

Another example. Let’s say a person is in sales and has become consistent at selling $100,000 worth of product. He decides to create a new goal for the year. Looking at last year he determines he can probably easily sell $135,000. Yet, if he probed a little deeper within himself, he might realize that he would LOVE to sell $200,000, given his dreams for his income and just the fun of trying to accomplish that. But he doesn’t want to let anyone down and possibly “lose face” if he doesn’t reach his goal, so he declares to himself and other appropriate parties that his goal is $135,000. Reasonable. Predictable. Not very interesting. And since it’s so reasonable and predictable, i.e., bland, he might not even reach it as it invites complacency!

Yet, if he had “gone for” what he really wanted, yes, he might not have made it, but he probably would have sold a lot more than the $135,000 he settled on.

Why don’t we create exciting goals and intentions like that? We are afraid of failure, what people might say, and so on. Yet, a $200,000 goal would be much more fun and exciting if appropriate agreements are made with ourselves and any managers involved that $135,000 is the bottom line, AND “I’m going for the gold!”

Many people don’t pursue their true dreams because they think they have to do more of the same, harder. To go from $100,000 to $200,000, equals doubling the effort in many minds.

Yet, declaring the future we truly want requires a new perspective. Letting go of traditional ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Focusing on our heart’s desires and what might seem impossible can inspire the creation of new ways of working and pursuing goals.

The leadership team of an organization that I coached propelled their income from $8.5 million to $12.25 million in nine months. They didn’t work any harder, had a blast discovering things about themselves, others and the world they didn’t know before and created the organizational culture they truly desired.

Everything I’ve said also applies to aspects of our lives that aren’t as easily quantifiable.

Career or Life’s Work

You might think, “I really want to be around animals, but I don’t want to be a veterinarian, walk dogs, and so on.” That might end the exploration. But in staying with what you want, asking questions, such as, “what could I do that keeps me around animals?” paying attention to ideas that come to you, no telling what you might do or offer in that domain.

Or, “I want to bring something material into the world, something of substance,” but I don’t know what that is.

Or, “I really like the profession I’m in, such as law, but it’s time that the profession evolved and I feel excited thinking about that.”

Or, “I’ve always felt a sense that __________ (fill in the blank), but no one’s ever done that and I don’t know what that even could look like.”

Those are all the beginnings, the seeds; you are actually trying to tell yourself what you want.

And none of these is as clear as making money, sure.

But these all lead to feelings of being more alive, creative, experiencing more meaning. They are clues to what you truly want. These are your going-to-the-moon declarations. They aren’t clear, but they are the possibilities you sense that to your rational mind seem unimaginable.

They are clues to the best year for you!

The key is to stay open to what is possible, to be curious about what these clues mean, to allow your imagination and intuition to inform you.

So, what is it that you truly, madly, deeply, want to be, do or have this year? Don’t even reference the past.

Become quiet, curious and honest with yourself about what you truly want.?

This may be a reason many focus on making one year better than another rather than asking what they truly want: they would have to be honest with themselves.

We fear change and what might be required for us to be the person that could manifest those experiences and possibilities. Although that is not as challenging as many people think it is. It’s actually very freeing, in my experience.

It takes determination, heart, vision, the ability to step into the unknown.

We can only have the desires of the heart if we are capable of manifesting them! The universe is nudging us to listen and proceed.

Perspective shifts once we realize that we are actually free to declare what it is we truly want, and we don’t have to merely have and do and be more of the same, i.e., getting better or best.

With the shift of perspectives, possibilities and opportunities that weren’t available before become available.

Have fun listening to your heart’s desires, declaring without evidence the future you would truly love to live and experience, and begin its manifestation!

Ready to live the year you really want to live?

Every minute counts.?

If you’re a lawyer who’s ready to know what you truly want and are serious about creating the year – and life – you truly want, (without letting the past determine your future), check out my Reclaim Your Life program here: Peggy O'Neal (scroll down to the featured section).

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