With 334 days still ahead, challenge yourself to subtract what no longer serves you and make 2025 the year your goals become reality.

Here we are 31 days into a new year. For many of us, the optimism of accomplishing great things in 2025 has slowly eroded. The all-too-familiar routine of everyday life has set back in, and we find ourselves robotically navigating through the days, just as we had the previous year. The self-help book you received as a holiday gift currently serves as a coffee table coaster for your morning cup of joe rather than the motivational beacon to “Inner Excellence,” as it was intended to be. The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aggressive, Realistic, Time-bound) goals you had written down, the 4:30 am alarm you’ve set and the Sunday meal preparation for the week, have all given way to the more dominant factors of life, such as the children’s activities and work responsibilities. So, the question is, how do you accomplish the goals you set for yourself on January 1st while maintaining the balance and productivity required for everyday life?

Addition by Subtraction

Goals give you a sense of direction and purpose. They provide structure and give you the confidence to succeed. Goals are best achieved when broken down into more manageable tasks. Think- climbing a mountain. Looking up at the summit from the base, it may seem like a monumental task. By breaking the mountain down into more manageable sections, base, highlands, and summit, and then further down into subsections, the goal of scaling the mountain suddenly becomes more achievable in your mind. But where do we find the time?

Addition by Subtraction

By reconfiguring our thought process and how we perceive certain things, we will be able to remove or restructure aspects of our lives, allowing us to break the mountain down into more manageable sections, leading to small accomplishments, which foster additional motivation, resulting in our goals being achieved. Here is a simple example of what addition by subtraction looks like:

Goal: I want to get more fit.

Instead of ADDING more things to your plate, try this: I will work out five times a week, eat healthy, track meals through a food diary, and so on. Try meeting your goal through SUBTRACTING things. This may look like- subtracting elevators and taking the stairs, subtracting negative people who discourage you from your goals, or subtracting sugar and processed food. Subtracting poor behaviors from your daily lives will open time and space to achieve more, increase productivity, and give you the motivation to see those goals become a reality. Subtraction adds freedom, clarity, and purpose. When you subtract things that are not adding value to your life, you are left with only the things that do add value.

So, in 2025, can you challenge yourself to accomplish your goals by subtracting the negative aspects keeping you rooted in the everyday routine? It’s not always bad to be a loser. Luckily, you have 334 days left to find out.