How to be SUCCESSFUL, How to reach your goals this year 2025

Preface

I'm a college student on winter break right now, although, I only have a few days left. I leave back on January 19th, and it is January 17th. I have two days left. Classes start again on Tuesday, January 21st (cries).

But I can say that I've been proud of the way I've been handling winter break. Yes it was time to relax, and I had plenty of it. And I needed that. But it was also time for me to focus on my goals outside of university and education/career.

I'm setting this up as a preface (ethos: reputation) so you have some reason to understand why you should believe me, when I tell you how you can reach your goals in 2025.

And truth is, it's all about your own motivation, but we'll get there later.

Introduction

I can say that I did a great job at achieving my goals in 2024. To find out more about this, you can read my series (#1-#4) NY (New Year) blog posts that I also did on here, about two weeks ago or so. Right at the start of 2025.

Realizations

When I was headed home for winter break, December 18th, my friends and I had a quick convo about our plans over the break. I remember thinking about it, and saying, "learn that piano song, I'm going to come back and be able to play it, just you wait and see." (I knew this was a stretch, the song is incredibly difficult to learn and play, especially in the correct notes and tempo. Also it's just long, like 8 or 9 pages. I could go on and on about this song...but you don't care). I also said "finish that one book I've been reading" which at the time, wasn't a stretch at all, because I thought I was just going to finish this one section of the book but it turns out there was a lot more I could read that my dad wanted me to read, so it become a longer project (the book is about Orthodoxy, in Russian).

I thought I had too much time over winter break, and in reality, I did. But I also had a lot of goals and things that I wanted to do.

I know what you may be thinking. You had time, so why didn't you just, accomplish your goals, right? Well the truth is, there's two ways of accomplishing each goal.

1. You accomplish it by forcing it, you don't actually have enough time to do it in a calm and happy demeanor, so you force it, but you get it done (school is like this lol).

2. You want to, for whatever reason, actually enjoy doing your goal (the process of trying to accomplish it). So you actually give yourself enough time, and don't rush it (NY goals are a perfect example of this).

   
   

I don't think there's any way I could have finished learning the piano song. It's just too intricate and there's just too many details when you say "learn a piano song..." it's about the dynamics, the notes, the chords, the rhythm, the tempo and a never-ending list. The book...I could have finished, I still technically could, but, would I have enjoyed it? Probably not. And that's not good not just because it's not, but also because it's a religious book, so I feel like my mindset needs to be a little different when reading it than just "I need to finish this." Nah, that sounds wrong.

You see, you don't have to finish your goals in an ungodly amount of time. It's not about this. It's a process, and you should enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

What I know is, I actively worked towards these goals the entire winter break. Every day, I practiced the song, and I read in the book.

I kept myself disciplined, even when not feeling like it, but I didn't push it to unhealthy extent (I would read, and I would practice, but I wouldn't force myself to practice 10 hours a day, and read 100 pages a day, for example). I didn't really set a time limit for how long I should practice, because I haven't really been doing that for years (When I first started piano, and for a couple years is probably the only time I did that). Because it's not about time. It's about how you feel when you practice, and how much more times you think you need to play it, etc. It's not hard to explain, but for the sake of me not knowing if you care enough, I won't explain it any further. And with reading, I guess it's a little bit different, because, you can have a set goal amount of pages you want to read on a given day, and it's not a bad thing, but you should take your feelings into account as you're reading too.

Like sometimes, I'm just so incredibly distracted when I'm reading. I like,

1. Look up and start zoning out.

2. Am thinking about so many things, in incredible detail, as I'm reading? (I'm a multitasker, but this is always weird). There's been a lot going on in my life outside of these goals lol...it's crazy out here...and it's only going to get crazier...

3. There's so much going on around me, that I'm trying to take it in at the same time.

When I was thinking about my goals/activities over winter break, I knew that they were big ones, but I was also thinking, "Damn, I have a LOT of time. And not many things I want to accomplish. It's kind-of a relieving feeling. But this means, I should be able to get this done."

Now, I already mentioned how I feel about that above, but, I also was thinking, "I don't even know what my goals for this new year 2025 would be..." (Read: NY Post #4: 2025 Goals).

At this point, I have already mentioned and talked about my 2025 year goals a lot, but what I didn't mention anywhere yet, and it's the funny thing... is that... I realized, that my winter break goals WERE actually my NY goals.

So,

1. That meant, that those goals were never meant to be reached in such a short amount of time.

2. It also meant that I was so in tune to what I wanted to do in life, that my short term goals were practically the same as long term.

It made me realize something. If you want to be successful, you need to be CONSTANTLY thinking about your goals. They should be a part of your every-day, or as many days as you can make them be a part of. They should be your winter break goals, your summer break goals, your spring break goals, your goals of any particular day, or week, of that year (until they're reached).

It's your motivation, your drive, and your desire to reach those goals, that ultimately will dictate,

1. If you reach them

2. How often you think about them

3. How often you are actively trying to reach them

Good luck out there in 2025!! It's rough out here. Let's make it a great year for everyone.