Dream big, commit & act: Your best start to 2025

Hello and a very warm welcome to Cultural Communication Confidence with me, Victoria Rennoldson. And I’m really excited to be back today with an episode focusing on the future. So I am looking at this episode all around your action plan for creating your best start to 2025. Now this is part two of a series I did a recent episode which was all about wrapping up and review your 2024. So if you haven’t listened to that episode, I’ll put a link to that, in the show notes. But this episode is really about setting you up for success. So I’m going to be taking you through how to create your action plan. I will be sharing with you some key questions for you to answer. So do take the time to think about them and reflect on them. You can create a very concrete plan for your career, next steps. And I’m going to be sharing right at the end an exclusive invitation. So make sure you stay until the end.

But the very first part of this to get clarity around where you’re going and what it is you want to achieve, is to start with dreaming. Now dreaming is important. We need to allow enough time for contemplation, for really thinking and envisioning what does the future look like in your career? And you may want to go much further than this coming year, than 2025. Maybe you want to really consider what does your career look like in 5, 10, even 20 years time, where is it you ultimately want to get to? And I really encourage you to dream big, to really go for it, to really consider what does your best success look like in your career? Then once you have that and have fully explored that idea, bring it then down to now, the 2025 and really consider what does next level look like to you? What does it look like in your career, next steps? What does it look like in your visibility? And what opportunities are you open for in 2025? What matters right now in your career? There’s a lot there. And you might find this stage alone takes you quite a bit of time. So I like to do this personally. I like to take myself out of my usual I go somewhere where I don’t normally live or work, I go often to a cafe, treat myself to a nice drink and really spend the time journaling and writing around this topic. So I would love to encourage you to do the same.

So dream big, really think about it and then think about your 2025 opportunities. So once you have that clear in your mind, I want you to move to the next question, which is why? Why does this matter to you? This is actually a very critical question because you need to understand your motivation. I’m sure that if you’ve been dreaming big around your career, next steps and where you’re ending, aiming for eventually in your end goal, then it’s not going to be an easy path, it’s not going to be simple and just will happen overnight while you continuing doing the same things. In fact, it may be that you’re choosing a really different path. Maybe you’ve all thinking about changing careers or going for promotion or really stepping up in what you’re doing. Maybe you need to change things internally or externally, whatever that looks like to you. You have to understand your motivation behind it because it may be challenging to achieve it. Understand the impact to you personally if you get there. What does that mean? If you achieved that next career goal, what does it mean to your loved ones around you? What does it mean to your team and your organization? If you are aiming to do that within your current organization? Really consider these questions and come back to this section. Particularly in those times this year when you find yourself feeling challenged. So that is part two, the why.

The next question is about how and I want you now to bring it to thinking about your communication. So how does your communication, your speaking, your leadership presence and authority, your influence and impact? How do all of these enhance your reputation? How do all of these accelerate your career goals? How do they help you achieve your 2025 goals? I often believe that when I’m working with people, they already have amazing knowledge, expertise, experience. But sometimes what they’re lacking is the ability to be able to communicate as a leader, to speak with authority to that impact when they are communicating, this is therefore the link that I want you to make. How can you see these elements, your communication, your speaking, really enhancing what it is you’re trying to achieve with your goals. So that is the next part, the how.

The other key question is who. Who needs to see more of what you can do? So your goal often will rely on you influencing others, your stakeholders being really aware of what it is you do, but also the value that you add. So consider this. Who is it that needs to see more of what you do in 2025? Think about this as a visibility strategy. These could be people internally that you need to network with, to be seen with. Maybe you need to be volunteering to be on cross functional projects or special interest groups to really make sure they can see you. It might be the who, who needs to see you is external and then this is really about maybe you need to be stepping up in your industry, not just your organization. Maybe you are at a point in your career where you have so much to contribute and share and you are ready to step into that role as a thought leader, as a contributor to where the industry is going. So again, really consider this question. Who needs to see more of what you do in 2025?

The next question, however, is really critical for you to consider because although you have great excitement and motivation, although you might be really charged up about 2025, you also need to consider this. What could hold you back now? This could be about considering how you are working today. It might be something to do with your mindset or your confidence that m. There are certain goals that you have that are really ambitious and feel quite stretchy. It might be that you feel like there are certain skills that you need to develop in order to put yourself into the position of being ready for those goals. So really consider the question, what could hold you back and connected to this? What support do you need now? Support might be that you need to develop your speaking or communication skills. It could be that you need to develop your leadership skills in a certain aspect or area. It might be that you do need support to develop your confidence in certain areas that maybe putting yourself on stage or as a thought leader feels quite stretchy. So don’t be afraid to really identify those gaps now. Look at them, think about them and think about what support you might need to get you to the goal.

The final part of this is about commitment. Now I really understand that at the start of 2025, as you’re kind of thinking about this action plan, you’re going to be feeling pretty motivated and feeling really 100% committed to this plan. And I know that as time goes on through January into February, that commitment falls away sometimes. So at this point in time when you have this energy, I want you to really lean into that energy of I am fully in, I am that person right now. I have everything I need to make this happen. And I want you to commit to yourself on this. This is important to hold yourself accountable, to make sure this action plan lives way beyond January and isn’t just one of those things like going to the gym that lots of people do in January. This matters. You’ve written down why and why it means it matters to you personally. That was one of the key questions. So make sure you commit to yourself because you’re the only person who can make this happen with the right support behind you.

I’m really excited. Even just asking you these questions makes me super excited. And I can imagine the energy for you exploring these questions today and dreaming and envisaging your best 2025. So I am super excited to see what your success looks like this year. And that’s where we come to the exclusive invitation because I would love to see your action plan to hold you accountable, to give you some feedback and help you identify the best ways to achieve that 2025 plan. If that is something you would love, then the invitation is that I am holding a few complimentary one to one strategy calls in the next few weeks. I would love for you to apply for one of those and if you’re successful, you’ll have a session with me where we’ll go through your roadmap, make sure it’s really solid and you have everything you need to set you up for that success. If you would like to apply for one of those sessions, then all you have to do is go over to LinkedIn, find my personal profile, Victoria Rennoldson, and send me a message saying ‘application’ and I will do the rest. I’ll send you the link so you can do that. In the meantime, I wish you a really amazing start to 2,025. Happy, happy new Year and look forward to seeing you next time and the rest of this year on Cultural Communication Confidence.