It’s the start of a new year. I’m 18, living away from home, and starting this new life. It’s time to start living it. As I’ve grown into a young adult, I’ve let life happen to me and had little to no knowledge of the power I had to change the trajectory of it. My goals, aspirations, and visions were simply left up to chance, which makes sense as to why I haven’t achieved as much as I’ve wanted to until now because I didn’t understand that nothing happens if you don’t make it happen. So, without further ado, here are my rules for 2025 that I have been using and will continue to use to make this the year where things happen. Because when people look at me next year, I don’t want them to say, “She’s so lucky” but instead, “She worked SO hard.”
Vision board? No, ACTION board.
We all have heard of vision boards, and they’re a fun activity to start off the new year with, but my board consists less of pictures of girls abroad or with the loves of their lives (don’t get me wrong, I have some of those in there too) but is more of a folder of reminders for this year, things I can take action on right now, reminders of where my grades should be, words of affirmation to keep my confidence, and reminders of where I COULD be if I remain consistent.
Evolve or repeat.
If you want to make changes in your life, then you need to make changes to yourself, too. The habits that are holding you back are a product of the decisions you make, so you have to initiate the change in order to see results and grow. If not, you will stay in that cycle until you do.
DISCIPLINE will take you places MOTIVATION can’t.
We all have days where it’s cold, or you woke up to bad news, or you just don’t feel like it. That’s okay. What’s not okay is letting those thoughts win. Discipline is control, something we lose when we let our thoughts spiral into us becoming dysfunctional. Do it sad, worried, broke, and exhausted. Nothing will feel worse than when you look back at what you could’ve done but didn’t. The cost of laziness or procrastination is the life you could’ve lived within that time.
Doing what’s best for you isn’t going to feel like it every time.
Sometimes, the less desirable path reaps the most reward. Sometimes, you’re going to have to stay in or pick up the extra shift, but the benefits of investing in your future will stick with you for so much longer than the excitement of grabbing a few drinks with some friends. You have plenty of time to do that but only so much time to build your future and take advantage of the resources in front of you at this very moment. This can also apply to other aspects of your life. Saying goodbye to people is hard, but you have to reflect sometimes and decide whether that relationship is serving you in the sense that it’s equal and helping or supporting your goals instead of weighing them down or distracting you. Sometimes, you have to cut away A LOT of weeds for flowers to be able to grow.
Life gives lessons, not sentences. Do not become a prisoner of your past.
It’s really hard to run forward if you have your head turned to look behind you, isn’t it? Think about it the same way when you’re thinking about your past. We all have made mistakes. Unfortunately, we are bound to make at least a few more, according to human nature, but something that is so important about humans making mistakes is the lessons they’re meant to learn from it and the actions they take from that. If we were to sit down every day, regretting all that we’ve done, there would be no time to do more good things. And as for the concern of how you’re perceived, you wear your guilt, and you wear your pride. It will be painted all over your face if you choose to feel sorry for yourself over a situation. If you take accountability and move forward with the idea in mind that you are still a growing person, learning and experiencing life for the first time, it’ll be a lot harder for people to use your past against you.
This year, the ball is back in your court. It actually always has been. Like me, you just might not have known. Stop LETTING life happen TO you, and start MAKING life happen FOR you.