2025’s SMART New Year Goals (Because I Do Marketing)

The year is 2025. I'm about 3 months into this blogging experience I am calling “Unrelated”, I’ve recently celebrated my 35th birthday and like a lot of people, I’ve been contemplating what’s in store for the year ahead. Now I’m not one for New Year resolutions per se, they’ve always seemed somewhat fickle to me, but I do love a goal. Which is probably in part why I am suited to data driven marketing and performance now I think about it. 

And keeping my marketing head on my shoulders for a moment, another reason traditional resolutions don’t work well for me, is that they’re either completely absolute (giving up, quitting, banning - resolutions that typically start like that), or completely unmeasurable and vague. I don’t like either type. I like, as fellow marketers will likely be unsurprised to read, SMART goals, and I see no reason why this can’t apply to what I intend to achieve over the next 12 months. 

A SMART goal is one that’s specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. 

The reason I love goals like these, especially personal ones, is multifaceted, but I’ll have a go at explaining at least a few of those reasons. First, to be specific, I think this may simply come down to my personality, but I don’t do well with vagueness. Ambiguous fine, mysterious yes, intangible okay and complicated absolutely, but not vague. 

Vague is unclear, imprecise and uncertain and as a result, it’s hard to work with. You certainly can’t measure it, and it’s damn hard to achieve something out of it. So get specific about what you want to accomplish in the New Year. It’ll make it a lot easier to see it through to fruition, because if nothing else, it’ll be clear. 

One of my specific goals for 2025, is to write at least one blog every month. 

And that brings me effortlessly onto why making goals measurable is great. For one thing, it means you know if you did indeed achieve it, and even if you surpassed it. Fair warning, some basic maths is coming up here, but if I write one blog per month, a total of 12 over the year, then I have 100% met my goal. Should I write two blogs per month, then I have surpassed my goal by 100%. 

It reads like basic sense, and it is, but the benefits are far more than maths. It allows you to see incremental progress towards your goal, as well as overall success. Those incremental wins, and gradual measures of progress are great motivators to keep on going too. And with that in mind, by the time this blog goes live, I’ll be 16.66% of the way towards my end goal. 

Measurable is one thing, attainable is quite another. 

And attainable doesn’t mean easy. Attainable means possible, realistic. I could sit here and decide that in 2025, I’m going to switch careers and become an astronaut. For someone else, that might be completely attainable, for me it’s simply ridiculous. Forget about not having the right education and experience, I’m afflicted with horrendous motion sickness, in short, I am most assuredly not made of the “right stuff”. 

And the point is this, if I set that goal, in the end, I’m setting myself up to fail. So in the spirit of attainability, that’s why my goal is at least one blog per month. After all, I work full time, I have plenty of hobbies, friends and family to see and frankly other things to do. Unrelated is important, so it deserves time, but not all my time, so one blog a month should be attainable, taking everything else into account. The modifier “at least” is an important one though, it means if I attain the minimum, the blogging shouldn’t stop.

When we talk about relevance with respect to marketing goals at least, we’re talking about goals that are a contribution to an overall mission or greater objective. And when I think about personal goals, and specifically New Year goals, or resolutions if you prefer, then this becomes, for me at least, even more important. After all, personal goals are all about investing in yourself, growing, learning and ultimately becoming better and more successful in some way. 

In the context of my goal, it’s relevant to a couple of greater objectives. I’d like to get better at writing, so the practice and experience of writing at least one content piece per month is sure to progress my skills. I’d also love this blog to be read one day, ideally by more than my long suffering and wonderfully supportive friends and family that know about it so far… so contributing to it consistently is sure to grow its visibility. So this goal is absolutely relevant to some of the bigger, longer term objectives I’d like to achieve. (Watch this space and wish me luck)

Last but by no means least, to be timely, or time-bound, essentially means to set a deadline. 

Deadlines are useful for creating urgency, motivation and constraint. And that’s important for keeping things on track and holding myself accountable. So if I haven’t written one blog per month throughout 2025, then I’ve missed my deadline. It really is as simple as that. And speaking of deadlines and accountability, now you know I am striving to write at least one blog per month, so if you don’t see 12 or more posts on Unrelated by this time next year, feel free to hold me to account!

And while I am on the subject of New Year’s resolutions, here are a few more of mine. 

To read one non-fiction book. Now for some people, reading a fiction book would be a breeze, for me it’s potentially quite a challenge. I’m an avid fiction reader with one heck of a backlog to get through, so we’ll see how this one goes. I’d also like to try more new things, ideally one new thing a month, but I’ll settle for 12 new things within a year. On the to try list initially, is pottering making (I’ve done coil and slab building, so the aim is to try the wheel) but I am looking forward to what other ideas crop up and if anyone has any recommendations I’ll take them. And it’s an oldie but a goodie, I’d like to weigh less than 9 stone and that is going to be a challenge let me tell you.

Wish me luck!