Transform Your Life and Business in 2025
Did you know there's an entire science around goal setting?
As someone who’s always seeking ways to blend solid planning with energetic alignment, I was thrilled when I came across Ali Abdaal’s video, “How to Actually Achieve Your Goals in 2025 (Evidence-Based)” (see his video below). His five simple, research-backed strategies feel like a perfect match for self-employed health pros like us, especially as we navigate the challenges of building sustainable businesses and avoiding the roads to burnout.
If you’ve struggled with sticking to New Year’s resolutions in the past, this might be an answer. These steps are straightforward, actionable, and based on science. Even if you implement just a couple, you’ll significantly increase your chances of achieving your goals in the coming year. So aim high!
I thought I'd summarize Ali's steps and put them into context so you see more clearly why these strategies are worth integrating into your goal-setting process. Here they are:
1. Write Down Your Goals
This step might sound almost too simple, but Ali emphasizes that writing down your goals can be transformational.
Evidence This Works: Ali references a study by the Dominican University that found you’re 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you physically write them down. The study compared two groups: those who wrote down their goals and those who didn’t. The group that wrote their goals achieved significantly more, showing the power of this simple practice in enhancing commitment and focus.
Ali suggests not overcomplicating this. Use whatever method works best for you: a Google Doc, a physical notebook, or even a sticky note. He personally uses a quarterly system he calls “Quarterly Quests,” where he sets three or four achievable goals every three months to stay focused and avoid overwhelm.
Action Tip: Start by choosing 3-4 key goals for the next quarter. Write them down in a notebook, app, or Google Doc, and place them where you’ll see them often.
This small step can make a big impact. For holistic health practitioners, writing down your goals not only increases the likelihood of achieving them but also brings clarity to what matters most. It’s a powerful way to align your daily actions with your vision for work-life balance and expanding your business.
If you prefer watching, take a moment to hear Ali explain these concepts and share his personal system achieving goals.
2. Look at Your Goals Regularly
Once you’ve written your goals down, the next step is to actually look at them regularly. This taps into the power of the brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS), which acts as a filter to prioritize information based on what’s important to you.
Evidence This Works: The RAS filters millions of sensory inputs to focus on what aligns with your goals and priorities. For instance, when you decide to buy a particular car, you suddenly notice that model everywhere—not because there are more of them, but because your brain is primed to notice them. By reviewing your goals daily or weekly, you train your brain to prioritize opportunities and solutions that align with your vision.
Ali suggests incorporating this into a weekly or daily routine. For example, during his weekly reset, he reviews his “Quarterly Quests” and sets three key priorities for the week. He also uses a journaling prompt in his “Morning Manifesto” to revisit his goals.
Action Tip: Schedule a specific time each week to review your written goals. Pair it with an existing habit like your morning coffee or Sunday planning session.
For your business and personal life, regularly reviewing your goals helps keep you aligned and motivated. It ensures that even amidst the daily chaos, you’re consistently moving toward a life and livelihood you love.
3. Monitor Your Progress
Tracking your progress might seem like an obvious step, but it’s often overlooked.
Evidence This Works: A meta-analysis of 138 studies involving nearly 20,000 participants revealed that monitoring progress is a significant predictor of goal attainment. People who actively track their goals are far better at achieving goals because it creates awareness, accountability, and momentum.
Ali shares that he uses simple systems, like color coding (green, yellow, red) or progress metrics, to evaluate how he’s doing. Whether it’s checking off tasks in a project management app or logging milestones in a notebook, the act of measuring progress creates a sense of achievement and momentum.
Action Tip: Choose a method to monitor your progress. This could be a to-do list app, a bullet journal, or even a whiteboard where you track your milestones visually.
Monitoring progress gives you the feedback you need to course-correct and celebrate wins, no matter how small. For solo practitioners, this can ease financial pressures by ensuring you stay on track with business goals while fostering balance in your personal life.
4. Visualize Obstacles and Make a Plan
This step, rooted in the work of psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen, combines optimism with realism. It’s called mental contrasting: visualizing your desired outcome while also identifying the potential obstacles that might stand in your way.
Evidence This Works: Dr. Oettingen’s research shows that mental contrasting significantly improves goal attainment. By combining visualization of success with a realistic view of obstacles, individuals are more likely to prepare effectively and persevere when challenges arise.
Ali introduces Oettingen’s WOOP method (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan):
Wish: What do you want to achieve?
Outcome: What will it feel like when you achieve it?
Obstacle: What challenges might arise?
Plan: How will you overcome those challenges?
Action Tip: For each goal, spend a few minutes working through the WOOP method. Anticipating obstacles and planning solutions makes achieving your goals more realistic.
As a practitioner, using mental contrasting can help you manage your time and energy more effectively, making room for both professional success and personal fulfillment. It’s a step that lets you dream big while staying grounded in actionable steps.
5. Tie Your Goals to an Identity
This final step is deceptively simple but incredibly powerful.
Evidence This Works: Studies have shown that when goals are tied to identity, they are more likely to be achieved. For example, people who identify as "voters" are more likely to vote than those simply asked if they’ll vote. The shift from action to identity makes a profound difference in behavior.
Ali explains that when he adopted the identity of being an author, it helped him stay consistent with his writing. Similarly, when he saw himself as a YouTuber, creating videos became second nature.
Action Tip: Reframe your goals into identity statements. For example, instead of “I want to grow my practice,” say, “I am a thriving health and wellness entrepreneur.”
By aligning your goals with your identity, you create a natural motivation to act in ways that support them. This shift can transform your business, improve your relationships, and help you dream even bigger about what’s possible in your life.
Make Achieving Your Goals Easy
Ali’s five strategies are simple yet incredibly effective. By writing down your goals, reviewing them regularly, tracking progress, anticipating obstacles, and aligning them with your identity, you’ll set yourself up for success. These fact that these steps are backed by studies that show how they work should give you confidence to test them out for yourself.
As you step into the new year, I wish you clarity, courage, and consistency in acheiving your goals. Aim high and go for it! Make this New Year your best ever.
And if one of your goals includes adding more income streams to your business, add enrolling my my www.AddOnlineIncome.com program one of your goals. It’s designed specifically for holistic health pros who want to create sustainable, scalable income that doesn't suck all your time away so you can love your livelihood.
Here’s to a prosperous and fulfilling 2025! Happy New Year!
