Our "Your Best 2025" Goal-Setting Workbook Is Here!

Perfect to do alone, with friends, or a partner for the New Year.

Hello friends!

The New Year is upon us, and contrary to what disgruntled media members might be saying, it’s actually a great time to re-revaluate the past and set goals for the future.

This is because of something called The Fresh Start Effect, which I first learned about when I had Wharton-professor and behavior change expert Dr. Katy Milkman on The Liz Moody Podcast (it’s one of our most downloaded episodes ever and I highly recommend for the New Year, called The Secret To Getting In Shape, Sleeping Better, Saving Money, and Being More Confident and Productive).

She shared that we have more energy and motivation to go after goals at Fresh Start moments in our lives. Fresh Starts are moments that psychologically separate our past self from our present self—your past self might not have been a person who exercised regularly, but you’re no longer that person. Your past self might’ve had a really hard time apologizing, but that was a whole different you!

The New Year is one of the most famous Fresh Starts, because our brain can easily think, I’m no longer the person I was last year, which gives you a far greater sense of possibility and excitement for the future, which will increase your results. It’s the reason why we have the instinct to make resolutions and goals in the New Year. That said, we have natural Fresh Starts all the time. A Monday is a Fresh Start. The first day of a new month is a Fresh Start. You can also create Fresh Starts in your life—one of my favorite examples of this is buying a new book. You’re no longer the person you were before you bought the book, because now you’re armed with all of this new information. I definitely feel that when I dive into the pages of new nonfiction.

That element of I’m no longer the person I was last year is so key, though, because it ties into another principle of habit formation—that habits are formed by changing our identity, rather than solely our behavior. Here’s how that shift might play out:

Not:

“I want to eat more vegetables.”

But:

“I’m a healthy eater.” And then asking yourself throughout the day what behaviors and choices a healthy eater would make.

Not:

“I want to read more books.”

But:

“I’m a reader.” And then asking yourself throughout the day what behaviors and choices a reader would make.

This one change makes it far more likely for our habits to stick, and for us to reach our goals.

The 9 Questions To Ask Yourself To Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet

It can be hard knowing who we want to be and what changes will truly make us happy, though, which is why over on The Liz Moody Podcast, I’m sharing 9 Questions to Ask Yourself to Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet.

These are not your typical reflection questions—they utilize the latest research to help you truly identify what you want, what’s standing in your way, and how you can reach the goals you want and become the person you want to be. Here are some sample Qs from the episode:

• Who’s one person that I’m jealous of? What stokes my envy specifically?

• What’s one word for how I want to feel every day? What’s one thing I can calendar in to feel that way?

• What’s one thing I spent money on that brought me happiness? What did I spend money on that didn’t increase my happiness as much as I thought?

You can hear all of my answers, get the other 6 questions, and an explanation of the science behind each question in this fully-free-to-access episode—listen on Apple Podcasts, listen or watch on Spotify, and watch on YouTube.

From this week’s episode:

“We’re actually fairly bad at figuring out what truly makes us happy in life. There’s great research around this—there’s something called ‘Hedonic Adaptation’ which essentially means that when we upgrade our lives, we adjust to that as the new normal, and then get decreasing happiness returns, which explains why new houses, new cars, and other new material items don’t tend to make us as happy as we think.”

The takeaway:

Internalize that research shows the New Year is a great time to take stock of your life and make new goals, and frame goals in terms of identity change, not behavior change.

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I also made a 13-page, 3-part workbook for creating your dream 2025, which paid subscribers can access below. You can do this alone, or with some friends or a partner—it’s the perfect way to ring in the New Year (and make 2025 your best year yet!).

Paid subscribers get to unlock the second half of this newsletter—there's something extra you'll want to see every week like follow up questions with podcast guests, in-depth meal plans, workout plans, and so much more. We work hard to make it really worth it for you, and you’ll get two of these bonuses every single week in your inbox! Paid subscribers can also comment on posts, participate in the chat, access Q&As with me, and more.

To 2025!

xo,

Liz

Here’s a sneak peek:

If you upgrade to paid and you’ll be able to access the PDF immediately right below this to download! Have fun!