Fearless New Year - Creating a Life You Love in 2025

As we prepare to welcome 2025, it’s time to reflect on the year behind us, summon our courage, and create a vision for the life we truly want. In this episode, I’ll guide you through powerful exercises to help you reflect on 2024, reframe your fears, and set bold intentions for the new year. Plus, I’ll share tips on creating a vision board that serves as a roadmap for your dreams!

If you’re ready to take fearless steps into 2025, don’t miss my free live webinar, Fearless New Year: Our  Goals for 2025, happening on December 18, 2024. I’ll guide you through even more transformative activities and give you the tools to step into the new year with confidence and clarity.

Sign up here—it’s completely free! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Reflecting on 2024, Preparing for 2025
• 9:36 Creating Dreams Through Action and Vision
• 17:10 Manifesting Goals Through Vision Boards

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Because a big dream is nothing but a big goal and a big goal. The problem with that is that it's so big and so far from where you are right now that it looks and feels unobtainable. So what we're going to do is we are going to take that big dream that we have, or one of those big dreams, and we are going to break it down to smaller goals and small, actionable steps. Welcome to Paradise Perspectives. I'm Rizal, the traveling island girl, and I'm here to help you start living your best life. No matter where you're at. Whether you're dreaming of traveling to exotic destinations, starting a business or even making big life changes, this is the place for you. From the beaches of the Caribbean to your own backyard, we'll explore how to shift your mindset, find your purpose and take bold steps towards the life you deserve. So grab your favorite drink and let's dive into some real talk about living your best life, one sunny day at a time. Hi, and welcome back to Paradise Perspectives, the podcast all about personal development, getting over our fears, and, of course, we sprinkle a little bit of travel in there, because no great life goes without travel, am I right? Hey, it's your island friend and guide, rizizal, aka the Traveling Island Girl, and I'm here to guide you towards creating a life that you absolutely love, and we're going to do that one single little step at a time. If you are new here, I am so glad you're here, but if you've listened to Paradise Perspectives before, I'm so happy you're back, because this episode promises to be yet another one that is amazing, and it's going to be filled with little lessons and tips here and there. So are you ready? But before I forget, happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are listening from the United States of America. This is not a holiday that we celebrate here on St Martin, america. This is not a holiday that we celebrate here on St Martin, although we do go through all the you know, putting in all the efforts to make sure that all the Americans that are visiting us at this time of year have plenty of Thanksgiving dinner options. We do that because you know we're a service-focused island. It's not our holiday.

Speaker 1: 2:22

So I had a little bit of a faux pas that I did in last week's episode because I wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving then, and then, when I uploaded the show, I realized that I made a little doozy on the date. Oopsie daisy on my part. I made a mistake. I thought last week was Thanksgiving, but it is today. Actually, if you're listening right now, on the 28th, it is today. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, if that is a holiday that you celebrate.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Anyway, like I said, it is the 28th of motherfudging November y'all. I mean like, really seriously, how did this happen so fast? 2025 is just around the corner, lurking at us, calling out to us like hey B, where are you at? You know, that's what it's doing right now. It's just waiting for us to get there.

Speaker 1: 3:11

And I don't know about you, but when I realized that November is almost, or has almost, come to an end, I had a little bit of a panic attack, like a mini panic attack. But then I reminded myself that there is no need to panic, and this was just how my body usually had a way of reacting every time we get around the new year. So we need to remember you, and I need to do this today. We need to remember, to take it easy. We are not on a clock here, we really aren't. And speaking of clocks, when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, it will only mean that 2024 has served its purpose. So there really is no need to panic or rush, and we are definitely not getting ourselves all wrapped up into the idea that we failed because we didn't achieve one or all of the goals that we have set for ourselves for this year. You know all of those intentions and what's that word that we always say around the new year I can't find it right now, but you know what I mean. You know all those oh, that's it resolutions, all those resolutions that we have abandoned in 2024, we are not going to be feeling guilty about that. We are not doing that this time. You hear me All right Now.

Speaker 1: 4:25

If you, too, have been getting into panic mode, or if the thought of stepping into 2025 feels scary and maybe a whole lot of overwhelming like it's in my case I definitely am feeling overwhelmed then I need you to not worry, because you are not alone. I'm feeling all those feelings too. It is a bit scary, it is a bit unknown. We don't know what 2025 is going to hold for us. You know, I used to get so into my head about the new year and while I was all on social media posting about new year, new me and all of that craziness, I was feeling deep down like. I had to climb this very big mountain called the new year every single time, and I was putting all this pressure on myself to be better and do better and have all of these resolutions. But with the personal growth that I've been doing recently and over the years, I've realized, or I've learned, a thing or two, and one thing. One of those things that I've learned is that, with the right mindset and a clear vision, you can actually turn that mountain into something that inspires you, rather than something that is very, very intimidating.

Speaker 1: 5:35

So, in today's episode, I'm going to help you take a look back at 2024, although that is not my favorite thing to do. It's normally not something I like to do or like to tell others to do, because I don't believe in living in the past. But for the purpose of today's exercise, we need to first reflect on the old year before we can start putting all of our dreams in place for the next year. All right, and I'm going to teach you how to map it all out with a vision board. That's what we're doing today. Oh, before we go any further, though, I am hosting a free live webinar, my first, first webinar. My gosh, I'm like scared as fudge. It is called Fearless New Year Our Goals for 2025.

Speaker 1: 6:24

And we're going to dive even deeper into the topic of today's episode and you're going to walk away with tools to make your year even more extraordinary than this year was. All right, I'm going to share more about it at the end of this episode. So make sure to just stick around till the end. Ok, let's get started. Are you ready to make sure that you stick around till the end? Okay, let's get started. Are you ready?

Speaker 1: 6:51

So let's first take a moment to reflect on this past year. I mean, like it's not completely over yet. I don't want you to think, oh, my God, we only have one more month to go. No, instead, think of it this way we have a whole other month to still go before the end of 2024. So let's take a moment now to reflect on it.

Speaker 1: 7:07

I'm going to give you three prompts for you to journal about later. So these are three questions that you need to ask yourself, and you're going to write down the answers in your journal or on a piece of paper. Okay, you can do that later after this episode. You don't need to do it now, because I'm sure you're busy doing multitasking, like we women usually do. You're probably taking a walk or a jog, or you're in your car on your way to work. Whatever it is that you're doing, you do not need to do this right now, but at least start thinking about it.

Speaker 1: 7:35

So the number one question that I want you to ask yourself is what were your wins this year? What were your wins? And when I'm talking about wins, it can be little things that you have achieved this year, little goals that you have been able to meet. It can be big or small, it doesn't matter. It can be big wins, small wins. Write these down in your journal.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Number two what challenges did you face and how did you grow from them? You know, I'm sure this year may have been really great for some and may have been really challenging for others, but every one of us had had our set of challenges this year. I'm sure of it. So just remember that every crisis or challenge is there to teach us something. There's a lesson to be learned. That's something that we're going to get out of. Whatever challenge we've overcome is going to help us grow into the new version of ourselves. That's how I see it. So every setback is a setup for a comeback. I love that quote. Write it down somewhere. Every setback is a setup for a comeback.

Speaker 1: 8:45

All right, now the third question you are going to ask yourself is what's one thing you'd like to leave behind as you step into the new year. What is one thing that you'd like to leave behind as you step into the new year? I'm really glad you asked, rizal. I'll go first. In my case, I would love to leave behind my fear that I'm not worth my big dreams. The irony of this is not escaping me right now because, yes, I may be very good at helping others and I give great advice, but I have my own struggles that I deal with on a daily, and I have my own fears as well, and definitely one of those fears is more actually, the belief that I'm not worthy. That is something that I've been struggling with all my life, like most of us who feel unworthy. I want to explain this to you for a little bit.

Speaker 1: 9:36

This is a belief that was created in your childhood. It was a way for you to cope with whatever little traumas you had to face and traumas are not really big events in your life or big things like a death in a family early when you were a child or anything like that. A trauma can be developed as little things as well, like, for instance, if you were put down for a nap and you woke up before the planned time that you usually wake up at and you realize that nobody is home and you found yourself alone and you got scared. That can be a little trauma. Maybe your mother had to run out to the grocery store to grab milk or whatever you needed for when you wake up from your nap and you found yourself alone, like I know. If you were a little kid, probably that wasn't the case. But whatever it is, whatever little trauma it could have, been it still a trauma? Like in my case, I was always looking for, you know, I was constantly busy trying to get approval from my dad. That was one thing that had led to a little trauma in my youth and then that now has taught me about, you know, believing. I've then formed this belief that I am not worthy, I'm not good enough. So that is what I am leaving behind this year. I'm leaving that shit behind. A second lack of other words. So again, what all are you leaving behind in 2024? You know? What all are you planning to leave behind where it belongs in 2024? Write that down.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Okay, now we have come to the more fun part of today's exercise, and that is setting your vision for 2025. And how we're going to do that is that we are going to not only think about what we want to achieve for 2025, but, more importantly, what do we want 2025 to feel like? What is the feelings that we want to have in 2025? You know, if happy is one of those emotions or feelings that you want to have, then happy it is. You know it's like. Think about also what you or how you want to feel. This is your chance. This is your chance, right here, to dream big. There is no limit here, okay, so dream as big as you want. If things like fear, judgment from others or money were not a factor, what would your ideal year look like? All right, right. So think about it. If you weren't afraid of what people thought of you, and if you had all the money in the world and you weren't afraid, what would your ideal year look like? How would your 2025 feel and look like?

Speaker 1: 12:24

Now for this exercise, instead of only focusing on the material stuff here, like a new car, a new apartment or house, or maybe you want a new job or a body, like Christmas, I don't know. Focus on how you want to feel, not just what you want to achieve or get, not just the tangible and physical stuff, but also what feelings you want to feel when you get, or think you'll get, what you want. Okay, great, now that you have made that big list of your big dreams, we are going to take those dreams and we are going to break them down into smaller, achievable goals, because a big dream is nothing but a big goal and a big goal. The problem with that is that it's so big and so far from where you are right now that it looks and feels unobtainable. So what we're going to do is we are going to take that big dream that we have and we are one of those big dreams and we are going to break it down to smaller goals and small, actionable steps.

Speaker 1: 13:30

So, for example, my big dream for 2025 is to finally become financially independent. It is something that has been on the top of my list for every new year for a while, I have to say and although I haven't quite gotten to that number yet that I want to get to, there were a lot of beliefs and thoughts and emotions that I had to deal with. First, I do believe that this is my year. I'm gonna make it my year, all right, and how I'm gonna do that is by first establishing that what the figure is, that to me means financial independence, and then I am going to break it down into numbers that I need to get to every quarter, so like quarter one. If, for instance, $10,000 is what I want to make in total, I need to make $2,500 in quarter one, then in quarter two another $2,500 and then so on, and build it up to that $10,000, right, are you with me? Okay, so that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Now, if your big dream is to finally start your own business, for example, you can break that down into smaller goals first, like filing for the paperwork one day you know for the license that you'll need, or letting chat GPT help you create a business plan on another day, and then another time you're going to write down all of the things your website must include. Then, on another day, you're going to actually build that website or have it built for you. Then you're going to start an Instagram or Facebook account for the business and you're going to put out feelers to see what people, or if people, are actually interested in what you have to offer. So you're going to break it down to achievable smaller goals and actionable little steps. All right, so what that is going to do for you, like I said in the beginning, is that you are not going to be staring at this goal and think, that is that you are way too far away from it. It's going to by breaking it down. It's going to be staring at this goal and think that is that you are way too far away from it. It's going to by breaking it down. It's going to be much more achievable than if you just look at the big goal only. All right, we're gonna focus on the smaller goals instead of the really big one, and even those you break down when you break it. You can even break it down into smaller ones yet as well. It depends on how big this dream or big goal is that you have. You're going to see that, all of a sudden, this big goal doesn't look so scary anymore. Right? So we've come to the last part of today's exercise, and that is, we're going to finally create the vision board itself, because we've already set our dreams for 2025. We know what we want, we've established that, and now we are going to do one of my favorite tools, which is, um, you know, bringing it all into our vision, by creating a vision board.

Speaker 1: 16:24

All right, so this is definitely one of my favorite tools for bringing my dreams to life, and I only did this for the first time at the beginning of this year. Can you believe it? No, really, like I've only done it one time before, and that was at the beginning of this year, in January 2024. So, just before I started recording this episode, I actually pulled it up and I looked at it and I actually teared up, because on it were at least three things, or three little goals or not. Well, there weren't little at the time. I wrote them down. They were really big goals to me. I was so far from it at that time and I saw that at least three of them became a reality. So that is so, so beautiful, isn't it? I'm like, so proud of myself.

Speaker 1: 17:10

So a vision board is not just about pasting pictures on a paper. It's so much more. It's about focusing your energy and your intentions on what it is that you want to become, who you want to become and what it is that you want to realize in your life. It's a way for you to align to the version of you who already has it all Okay. So when you see your goals every day, you are naturally going to start making decisions that align with those goals. You see what I mean here. Your vision board is not just a cool little arts and crafts project. It is so much deeper than than that.

Speaker 1: 17:48

So here are the step-by-step instructions and I'm not going to go totally deep into that. I'm going to leave that for the free webinar, which I'm going to explain a little bit more later. I make mine, for example, in Canva. You might like to make yours on a physical board and yeah, I started that way also at the beginning of this year and now I I realized you know what? I couldn't find the right pictures to kind of let go with my vision board in magazines and stuff. So I decided to create it on Canva. But if you want to do a physical one, by all means you can do that. You can get like one of those like really large, thick papers and then get a couple of magazines and then you cut out. Get a couple of magazines and then you cut out.

Speaker 1: 18:28

First of all, before we get there, the thing that is important is we must write down three to five things that we want to focus on in the new year. So what are the three to five things that you want to accomplish in 2025? We've already done that exercise just before about, you know, writing down all of your big dreams and goals. So you're going to look at that list and you're going to take three to five out of that list and you're going to then put that aside, put it in your head. You already know what a three to five are. I recommend you leave it at maximum five, just because if you go more than five, it's going to be really overwhelming and your vision board might look very junky at the end of it. So you don't want that. You want it to be a clear vision board with clear intentions. Then you're going to gather images, words and quotes that represent these goals that you have set for yourself. So the three to five goals the three to five things that you want to achieve in 2025, you are then going to gather all of the images, words and quotes that represent them and you're gonna arrange them on a board or you're gonna use a digital tool like what I do, like Canva, for example, and you're gonna arrange them on this board now.

Speaker 1: 19:46

My vision board this year had a picture of LA and it had an amount that I wanted to make per month. I had a picture of my family having dinner together, and it has a picture of a women's retreat that was sold out. I had a word sold out on it as well, and I realized that I have accomplished LA. I've been to LA, I got to go to LA. This year, I have a picture of my family having dinner and guess what? I'll be on my way to Belgium for Christmas and it's going to be the first time that my whole family is going to be together for Christmas. We haven't had a Christmas all of us together in 20 years, so that one's pretty much going to happen as well, although, you know, last time I was in Belgium also, we've had, of course, family dinners, so that has already been a reality in my life, and I also had a picture of a women's retreat, and that retreat I had it back in June and this year, you know, and it was sold out. So it is such a wonderful feeling when you can go back to it.

Speaker 1: 20:57

So my mistake last year or this year, rather, when I created this board in January of this year, I forgot. I just saved it and I forgot all about it, instead of printing it out and placing it in a place that I'm going to see it every day. So that was my one mistake and you should try to avoid this mistake as well. You see, the first time I ever heard or seen a vision board was when we were visiting friends in Florida and they had a vision board that was taped up on the outside of their shower door. They had a glass shower door and then they had this beautiful, big, large vision board that they taped up and I thought it was weird because I used their bathroom and I was like, okay, what is that? And they did explain to me that it was their vision board and explained to me what it was, and they wanted to place it somewhere that they could see it every day. So every time when they were in the shower taking, they wanted to place it somewhere that they could see it every day. So every time when they were in the shower taking a shower, they would look at their vision board. So that is what we're going to do so.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Even if you create this on Canva or on another digital program of some kind, you are going to print it out and we are going to paste it somewhere where we see it every day. If you need to put it in your ceiling, so it's the first thing you see in the morning, the last thing before you go to bed. And do so, I'm going to probably put it right next to my bathroom mirror, because I'm sure there is no way that I'm going to leave the house without checking myself in the mirror first, and I always do my you know, talk positive to myself mirror practice. I do that every morning, so I'll be sure to see that vision board hanging there. So make sure that you put it somewhere where you can see it every day.

Speaker 1: 22:38

All right, okay to recap, because we've come to the end of this episode and I can't believe it went by so fast. So today, what we did is we reflected on 2024. We dreamed big for 2025. We talked about creating a vision board to help us bring those dreams to life. That's what we did. Now, I hope this episode leaves you feeling inspired and that it's going to help you take the necessary steps into the new year and that you can step into the new year with intention and excitement instead of fear and uh, you know overwhelm. We don't want to feel like that anymore, so I hope this helps you align it all for you put it on a nice, clear vision board.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Okay, I want to remind you. If you are ready to take this to the next level, then you definitely need to join me for my free live webinar. It's called fearless new year our goals for 2025. I know I'm so proud of the name. It is happening on the 18th of december and we're gonna work together through what we spoke about today and we're gonna go a little bit deeper into all of it. All right, I'll guide you step by step through creating your vision board and you'll leave with a clarity and motivation that you need to make your 2025 your best year yet. All right, that's what we're going for, and I can't believe I'm hosting my first webinar. It is definitely scary as fudge because I've never done it before, but we're going to do this together, so if you want to be a part of it, I really, really invite you to be there.

Speaker 1: 24:17

Join me for this free live webinar. Don't wait to sign up. Use the link in the show notes or send me an email to hello at the traveling island, girl, if you want to be part of it. It is absolutely free, so, really, you have no excuse not to be there for this. Okay, if this is what you want to do and you want to do it with me, then this is your time, december 18th. Make sure that you're there. It is only one hour and it's absolutely free, so there's no why you shouldn't be there. All right, so it is one hour out of your day to focus on you and your dreams, and that's important. Just like I said in last episode, you must come first. You need to be a little selfish sometimes. This is your time to be selfish. You're going to be there for the webinar and I cannot wait to see you.

Speaker 1: 25:08

As always, if you have enjoyed this episode and this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, leave a comment, leave a review. I love hearing from you because by you leaving me a review, it's going to help me do better next time. Remember also that by sharing this episode, this podcast will then find its way to other women who, like you, need to hear these important messages. All right, so don't be greedy, don't keep it all to yourself. Sharing is caring, don't forget that. And, fyi, before you go, I am no doctor. I'm just a woman who has gone through her share of challenges and I've decided to finally do something about it. And if I can do it, so can you. So please take with you what resonates and leave what doesn't All right. Until next time, keep dreaming big. Goodbye for now, sayonara Da Ciao, adios A bientot and until next time. My name is Rizal, the Traveling Island Girl, and this has been another great episode of the Paradise Perspectives podcast. Bye.