You’ve said for years, “I’m going to change my life this year.” However, as each successive year goes by, nothing improves for you because you lose focus. Change is hard, as is developing a solid self-improvement plan to induce change. According to a recent article by the University of Delaware, experts claim that about 90% [of people] give up on their New Year’s resolutions within the first few weeks of the year.
Sometimes, you need a proven method to follow, and that’s understandable because many of us lack the self-motivation required to change. Instead of waiting for life to throw you a curve ball and force you to change, here are some tips on how to get on the path to self-improvement in 2025.
Week 1 – Getting Started with Self-Improvement in 2025
Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, remember that your habits won’t change in one day either. Remember, an avalanche started with just a few snowflakes. Give yourself time and momentum, and you’ll be on your way to success. Let’s start by getting through the first week successfully. “Wax on, wax off, Daniel son.”
Day 1 – Decide to Change
Before you start making New Year’s resolutions, decide to change. This will be the most critical part of your self-improvement in 2025. Do you want to be a better parent? Do you want to stop drinking alcohol too much? Do you want to curb addictions?
Have a profound “come to the Lord” moment with yourself and look at what you need to change. There may be many things, but don’t overwhelm yourself. Start with the thing you need to change that’s most problematic. Remember, this is the beginning of the next 28 days of your life. I’m sure you have many more days left on earth to rinse and repeat.
Day 2 – Prayer Changes Things
If you’re having trouble facing the need to change or getting started with this self-development plan, take time to pray. After praying, allow the universe to show you your path.
Day 3 – Take Inventory of What You Don’t Like About Your Life
No one ever changes what they love about their life, only the things they don’t like. So, take a moment and think about the things you don’t like about your life that you want to improve.
Create a list of those things and place them in a high-quality journal, like this one from my affiliate partner, Amazon. Don’t make this a list of self-criticisms. Be gentle with yourself. You may not like the fact that you’re a few pounds overweight. However, there may be legitimate reasons that you’re in this predicament other than being greedy.
Perhaps you need to change your routine to sit down to home-cooked meals rather than eat out as much as usual. This small change could help you lose weight.
Day 4 – Minimize Time and Money Wasters
Do you have trouble getting things done on time? Are you constantly coming up short on money? These aren’t just random occurrences. You can point the finger at yourself for this bad habit. If you don’t have enough time, observe how you waste time during the day. Perhaps you’re spending too much time on social media laughing at and sending memes. If your dollar isn’t stretching, don’t blame it all on inflation. Instead, look at some things you don’t have to have and start cutting that out of your budget to make your money stretch further.
Day 5 – Stop Stinking Thinking
Thoughts lead to actions, and actions lead to habits. If you have a lot of bad habits, trace it back to your thoughts. If you stop planting those seeds of stinking thinking, you can form better habits and become a better person. Remember, everything starts in the mind. Every great invention was once a thought. Your bad habit was also once a thought.
Day 6 – Get Some Alone Time
You may always be around someone, whether it’s the children, your spouse, friends, colleagues, or family. However, sometimes you need time alone just to rejuvenate, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day to yourself. Work some alone time into your schedule.
Day 7 – Practice Self-Care
You may need to couple this with a self-care routine to take alone time just a bit further. Perhaps during this alone time, you could take a bath using bath bombs and burning wood wick candles from my affiliate partner, Hemlock Park, or enjoy a cup of chamomile or lavender lemon herbal tea from my affiliate partner, Adagio Teas. Whatever self-care regimen floats your boat, do it and do it consistently. Most importantly, don’t let anybody interfere with your time loving yourself.
Week 2 – Getting Into Your Grove
Once you get through the first week, it’s time to keep it moving. By now, you should be ready to move to the next level of your self-improvement plan and no longer be timid. Think of your first week as a warm-up session during exercise. Now, you’re ready to get “into your grove.” Here’s how.
Day 8 – Improve Your Communication Skills
Do you have trouble getting what you want? It may have something to do with your communication skills. Perhaps you aren’t speaking your mind effectively. Don’t underestimate that you will run into knuckleheads here and there throughout the week. But make sure you’re speaking clearly. Try to speak louder and more clearly when talking to others, whether ordering food, speaking to your children about school, or talking to colleagues.
Day 9 – Learn to Say “No”
From a young age, we learn that “no” is a bad word. This is why so many of us grow up feeling guilty about saying “no” to people. Unfortunately, this is one of the most powerful words in the English language and one of the shortest. Learn to use it more effectively in your daily life. If people are trying to talk you into things you don’t want to do, learn to say “no” without feeling guilty. This will get you on the road to practicing good boundaries and respect.
Day 10 – Improve Your Work-Life Balance
You do so much during the day. One of those things is work. You probably spend more time working than you do with family or sleeping. Unfortunately, there is no way around the 9 to 5 lifestyle. After all, you have bills to pay and a family to support. However, you should start looking at ways to improve your work-life balance.
Maybe you should seek a job that pays more and allows you to work a hybrid schedule. Or maybe you can ensure that you take breaks from your job at regular intervals to enjoy vacations with your family. Whatever you decide, ensure you work towards proper balance in your home and work life.
Day 11 – Start Active Listening
We all love to multitask, but sometimes, it’s best to just take time and focus on active listening. Instead of cleaning dishes or doing other projects while someone is talking to you, make a conscious effort to stop what you’re doing, give a person eye contact, and listen to what they have to say. You’ll be surprised at how much info you’ve been missing out on by not actively participating in listening to people who try to talk to you throughout the day.
Day 12 – Improve Your Leadership Skills
Are you tired of being stuck in your career, not making money, and not being taken seriously? Your instinct may be to look for another job. However, it may be best for you to move out of the same old job title and into something that allows you to demonstrate leadership skills. Such a job will not only challenge you but could also bring in more moolah.
Day 13 – Try New Things
Have you always done things the same way your entire life? Perhaps you hang around the same people. Or maybe you watch the same type of television shows. Or go to the usual hang-out spots and eat the same food. Part of self-improvement in 2025involves stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things. Check out that new restaurant that just opened up around the corner. Make a new friend by attending some local meetups.
Day 14 – Network
Besides trying new things, getting out and networking with new people may be a good idea. Perhaps you’re stagnated in your career or in your life because you keep hanging around the same groups of people. Get out and network and see what others are doing.
Go to trade shows. Visit local parks and museums. Attend membership meetings. But don’t just be a fly on the wall at these events. Introduce yourself and get some conversations started. Finish up by passing out your business cards or at least exchanging your number with a few new people.
Week 3 – Getting Ready to Form Permanent Habits
If you’ve successfully completed the second week, congratulate yourself. You’re heading into week three, which is how long it typically takes to form new habits. It usually takes 21 days to form a new habit. You’ll have done 21 new things at the end of this week! Isn’t that exciting? Let’s keep it rolling.
Day 15 – Change Your Diet
Okay, now we’re getting into the nitty gritty of what may change your life forever. You probably have been eating a certain way since you were young. Now, those habits are taking a toll on your body, and you can feel them in your joints or see them in the mirror. It’s time to start making changes to your diet. Perhaps you can start by reducing problematic items in your diet, like sugar and salt. Or you can go full-on and change your lifestyle to a plant-based diet or Keto by buying groceries from my organic affiliate partner, Thrive Market. Whatever you decide, take it one day at a time.
Day 16 – Start an Exercise Regimen
In addition to changing your diet, you may want to start an exercise regimen. Don’t wait for your doctor to force you to. Instead, be proactive. If you’re unhappy with how you look, know that exercise and better eating can do more than plastic surgery to change your appearance.
Keep in mind that crash diets aren’t the way to go, either. You didn’t become overweight overnight, so you won’t miraculously be 30 pounds lighter overnight. If you are, you’ll need to go to the doctor to discover what’s wrong with you. If you’re the type to lose interest in exercise quickly, try to pick something you enjoy and doesn’t feel like a chore. Maybe you love dancing and can lose weight with ballroom dancing or salsa. Or perhaps you love swimming and can lose weight doing water aerobics.
Don’t give up. Realistically, it may take several months for you to start to see the results you desire. So, don’t hit the gym expecting to look like a superstar in a few days.
Day 17 – Start Saving Money
In tough economic times like the one we’re currently living in, saving money may sound like a funny joke. However, whether times are lean or abundant, you must find a way to start saving. Do you have to buy that expensive coffee every morning? Do you have to eat out as many times as you do daily? If you can cut a few of these activities out of your life weekly, you’ll manage to save $20 a week. There are 52 weeks in a year. That’s $1040 in savings a year. Now, imagine if you cut even more than $20 a week. You could be rolling in dough by year’s end!
Day 18 – Start Investing Money
Before thinking of blowing the money you’ll save by year-end, consider how you’ll invest it instead. Discover some stocks you’d like to purchase. Or maybe you want to open a 529 and start saving for your children’s education. Whatever you do, don’t just take the money you saved and blow it on an even bigger wasteful thing. Figure out ways to grow your money so that you can literally make money in your sleep.
Day 19 – Pratice Gratitude
On day 3 above, I mentioned looking at what you don’t like about your life. However, I don’t want to forget to mention that you should also be thankful for everything that is going right. Yes, actively practicing gratitude can drastically improve your life. So, each day, try to reflect on something in your life for which you are thankful.
Day 20 – Meditate Regularly
Millions of thoughts run through our heads daily. It’s a surprise that most of us remain sane. In some cases, some of us don’t remain sane because thoughts can drive us crazy. Although you can’t stop your thoughts, you can focus on them by meditating regularly. Discover the best time of the day or week to meditate and remain consistent. Like sleep, your mind needs something that calms it down. Meditation is the way to go. If you’re unsure how to get started, get a subscription from my affiliate partner, Gaia, and you’ll be practicing meditation in no time!
Day 21 – Give Charity
Helping others helps you in so many ways. So don’t forget to be charitable. Take some time to give to those in need, and be thankful that you aren’t dealing with the difficulty that someone less fortunate is struggling with. If you have time, take it further and volunteer your time.
Week 4 – It’s Over, but Keep Going
Whew. If you make it to week four, your 28-day challenge will be over in seven days. However, it doesn’t stop at the end of 28 days. You should have enough momentum and drive to keep improving. Let’s do this!
Day 22 – Get a Mentor or Two
If you feel like you can’t maintain this new life you embarked on a few weeks ago, it may be time to get an accountability partner, better known as a mentor. Try to choose a mentor that can help you specifically with career progression and one that can help you improve all other aspects of your life, such as finance and health.
Day 23 – Start Working With Experts
Besides getting mentors, it is also a good idea for you to start working with experts. In the book Richest Man in Babylon, one of the main problems the character had was taking advice from people who weren’t experts in what they did. Why learn about handling money from a shoe cobbler? Learn about money and business from those who deal with it every day. Pay good money to learn from the best. Hire a CPA to make better decisions with your small business taxes. Hire a financial planner to make better decisions with your money. Get someone to help you with legal issues, like someone from my affiliate partner, Rocket Lawyer. Stop relying on the expertise of those who aren’t experts.
Day 24 – Assess Your Career and Update Your Resume
With all these changes you’re making in your life, you may have concluded that you need to make some changes within your career. Do you want to move up at your current company or move up at another company? Do you want to pursue another career entirely? Now is the time to take inventory of what you’ve done, what you are doing, and how you want to move in the future. While you’re at it, update your resume. If you’re not an expert at writing resumes, consider getting a professional resume written by my affiliate partner, Top Resume. Also, don’t forget that I am a writer and provide limited resume writing services, too. Check out my writing services page to see how I can help you with your resume.
Day 25 – Work on a New Wardrobe
Earlier in this article, I mentioned that you should start saving money and investing it. Well, don’t just invest the money in stock the stock market. Consider buying new pieces to add to your closet if you need a wardrobe overhaul. If you’ve decided to get a new job, having a nice tailored suit and all the accessories is a good idea to have on hand.
Day 26 – Get More Training and Skills
If you discover you lack the skills to reach the next level in your career, don’t throw in the towel and give up. You don’t always have to go to college to acquire the skills you need for a new career. A few thousand dollars could help you become a real estate agent, and once you start, you can write those expenses off, as you can become an insurance agent or a financial advisor. Discover the actual cost of improving your career. Your new calling may not require a college degree, just solid customer service and sales skills.
Day 27 – Coach Someone
Sometimes, you learn a lot when you’re educating others. So, don’t shy away from the possibility of coaching others. Heck, becoming a life coach may be a new career option for you. After all, people are always looking for guidance in some area of their life.
Day 28 – Stay “in the Know”
Finally, you’ve reached the 28th day of your 28-day self-improvement plan. Don’t stop here. Instead, make sure you stay “in the know.” Choose some newspapers and magazines to subscribe to. Or follow a few podcasts or news channels on social media.
You made it! Be proud of yourself because most people can’t make it through the first week of changing their lives. Comfort zones are real; no matter how much you want to change, your subconscious may hinder you from changing. Remember, it controls all involuntary things operating in your body. So, the subconscious is a very powerful control agent. If you got this far, it’s safe to say that you’re well on your way to forming a new habit and becoming a better you in 2025. Rinse and repeat!
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This blog article is the opinion of the author. It should not take the place of professional advice.
