My goals for 2025

I’m going to be completely honest with you…

I wasn’t planning on sharing this.

For the most part, I’m very conscious of not sharing goals before they happen.

Why?

Because telling other people your goals secretes the same dopamine as if you actually achieved them (making you less likely to follow through).

That said, I’ve made a commitment to be radically transparent with this newsletter.

So here are my goals for 2025:

Let’s break it down:

First, I think about 4 categories: Work, Personal, Health, Brand.

Then I create 4 types of goals in each category:

1. North Star goals. These are the big goals.

2. Checkpoint goals. This is a smaller, directional goal that helps keep you on track with your North Star goal.

3. Daily systems. This is what you’re doing on a daily basis to achieve the two above goals.

4. Anti-goals. This is what you don’t want to happen on your way to reaching your North Star goals.

Here’s an example:

1. North Star goal: I want to hit a lean 170 lb. body weight while being able to see my six-pack and be mobile for basketball.

2. Checkpoint goal: By end of Q1, I should be consistently hovering around the 160-164 lb. range.

3. Daily system: Workout 6+ times a week. Hoop at least once a week. Sleep 8+ hours every day. Eat clean foods (protein, vegetables, and fruits).

4. Anti-goal: I don’t want to get fat while bulking or be so obsessed with my diet that I have to track every calorie that goes into my body.

You know you’ve set the right goals when you’re both excited and slightly scared you might not hit them.

Here are 5 ways to make sure you accomplish your goals this year:

1. Work backward. Big goals are often perceived as distant and vague. They’re easy to put off to “later”. Instead, work back from your North Star goal to daily actions you can take right NOW to make progress.

2. Look at your goals all the time. I have my goals on a sticky note on my wall - and my daily systems on my phone wallpaper.

3. Get an accountability partner. Someone to support you and call you out when you’re slacking. I text Adam Gilbert my meals every day.

4. Schedule them in your calendar. If you don’t make your goals a priority, they’ll get lost in the chaos of daily life and stay in the “someday” pile forever.

5. Do monthly goal check-ins. You don’t have to wait until next year to reflect and reassess. The tighter the feedback loop, the faster you can improve.

Finally, I choose a word of the year as a reminder of how I want to conduct myself. For 2025, my word is: Volume.

I pretty much already know what I need to do, now it’s time to hold the consistency and raise the intensity. Let’s get after it!

See you next Sunday,

Jay “Here’s to an incredible 2025!” Yang

Ps. I’d LOVE to hear from you. What are some of your goals for 2025? Hit reply and let me know!

Pps. I’ll be playing around with different newsletter formats going into 2025, so stay tuned. What can I say, I like to experiment :)

Ppps. I just updated my website about page - check it out.

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