The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 320: Reflecting on your 2024 and Prepping for a Bigger 2025
Today, I am diving into all things business reflection related: how to reflect on your 2024 and set yourself up for an even bigger year in 2025.
Reflecting on your 2024 and Prepping for a Bigger 2025
BY: MELISSA LIN
Welcome back to another episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Lin, and I’m thrilled to have you with me today because we’re diving into a topic that’s close to my heart: reflecting on this past year, embracing the lessons, celebrating those big and small wins, and setting ourselves up for an amazing 2025!
Today, I’ll be sharing some journaling prompts to help you get clear on your 2024, mindset shifts that’ll create a fresh, motivated approach for the new year, and practical steps to set yourself up for success. So grab a notebook or your favorite journal because we’re about to make the next year your best one yet!
Reflecting on my year:
So, a little story from my own journey this year—because let’s be real, growth never stops! 2024 had its ups and downs. I set some big goals for myself, and while I celebrated a lot of wins, I also hit some unexpected roadblocks. There were moments I felt on top of the world, and other times I was second-guessing my choices, feeling frustrated, wondering if I could manage it all. But reflecting back on those moments, it’s clear that every step—especially the challenging ones—led me closer to growth, alignment, and deeper self-awareness.
And that’s what I want for each of you: the chance to look back with pride, kindness, and appreciation for everything you’ve accomplished this year. Even if the journey wasn’t perfect, it’s about how much you’ve grown, learned, and adapted. So today, we’re going to dig deep and take the first step toward making 2025 truly transformational.
Key steps for reflecting on your 2024:
Let’s jump into our reflection practice with some powerful journaling prompts. Reflection helps us close one chapter with clarity and gratitude and start the next one with intention and purpose.
Celebrate Your Wins: Write down three things you’re proud of this year. What were your proudest accomplishments? These don’t have to be big—maybe you finally launched that new service, improved a client process, or simply set better work-life boundaries. When we celebrate our wins, we start training our minds to see the positives and recognize progress. Take a few minutes here to jot down your proudest 2024 moments.
Identify Key Lessons Learned: Next, let’s look at the lessons 2024 brought us. What were some of the most challenging moments? And, more importantly, What did they teach you? This can be anything from realizing you need more downtime, better systems in place, or even learning how to better handle rejection. Take a deep breath, be honest with yourself, and allow space for whatever comes up.
Align with Your Values: Let’s also look at what felt in alignment with your values and purpose. Where did you feel the most fulfilled? What brought you the most joy and satisfaction? And on the flip side, where did you feel resistance? Reflection on these questions can help you identify where to invest more time and energy in the new year.
Set Intentions for 2025: Finally, let’s get clear on what you’d love to carry forward into the next year. Reflect on the goals, habits, or areas of your life that you want to keep nurturing. What would make 2025 a year that feels fulfilling, joyful, and true to who you are?
Here are a few of my favorite journal prompts to use when reflecting and prepping for the upcoming year:
I’m proud of myself for _____ in 2024.
I wish I had done _____ in 2024 so this year I’m playing bigger and am going to do it!
3 things I learned in 2024 were ____
My results for 2024 makes sense because ____
Something I believe is that there’s a reason for everything AND our results in business always make sense. When we are signing clients consistently, it typically makes sense: you’re showing up on social media, you’re connecting with your audience, you’re selling to your audience, you’re consistently adding value, etc. When something isn’t working, figure out how it makes sense so that you can make tweaks and refine instead of spiraling into stories that don’t serve you.
Results make sense example:You posted about your brand new offer three times last month and no one has bought: makes sense. If you’re only posting about your offer a few times and expecting sales, it makes sense that no one has bought. Majority of the time your offer needs to be seen 7-10 times, likely 20-30, it needs more brand awareness.
Do you consistently have clients that break your boundaries? How does this make sense? Are you attracting clients that aren’t aligned OR are you not providing the expectations/boundaries in your containers and actually holding true to them?
When it feels like things didn’t go as planned or that nothing is “working”, zoom out. What is actually happening here?
Mindset shifts as we wrap up 2024:
As we move into a new year, mindset is everything. Here are some mindset shifts to help you step into 2025 with a fresh, empowered approach.
Perfection Isn’t the Goal, Progress Is: Let go of the idea that everything needs to be flawless. When you focus on progress, you’re giving yourself the freedom to experiment, make mistakes, and grow. Embrace the mantra: I am allowed to grow and change.
Embrace Abundance: Start cultivating an abundant mindset by looking for opportunities and solutions rather than focusing on challenges. Ask yourself, How can I grow from this experience? or What’s the opportunity here? This will open your mind to all the incredible possibilities waiting for you in 2025.
Let Go of Limiting Beliefs: Identify any beliefs that have held you back in 2024. For example, if you’ve been telling yourself, I’m not ready for that next level, start challenging that thought. What’s one action step you could take right now to start proving that belief wrong?
Practical tools for success in 2025:
All right, now let’s talk about practical tools and systems that’ll help you achieve those big goals in 2025. Here are a few things to start implementing now:
Streamline with Systems: Systems make scaling your business easier and your daily work less stressful. If you haven’t yet, consider setting up automated workflows for client onboarding, content scheduling, or task management. Think about which processes took up the most time this year and brainstorm ways to streamline them.
Prioritize Self-Care and Boundaries: As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get sucked into working around the clock, but this often leads to burnout. Set boundaries around work hours, and schedule self-care into your routine. It’s not just a nice-to-have; it’s necessary for sustainable growth.
Find Accountability: Whether it’s a mentor, a coach, or a mastermind group, accountability can be the difference between setting a goal and actually achieving it. Find people who understand your journey and who can push you forward even when things get tough.
Goal-Setting with Flexibility: As we move into the new year, start with your big goals, then break them down into quarterly or monthly targets. The key here is flexibility—stay open to adapting as you go. If something’s not working, shift your approach. Remember, the goal itself is more important than the specific path to get there.
Today we’ve touched on reflecting on your 2024, big mindset shifts for the new year, practical tools that serve you and your business, and so much more! We are already getting ready and excited for next week's brand new episode. I cannot wait to share it with you, we’ve got some amazing topics coming your way. We will see you next week in another brand new episode of the Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning.
Topics we cover include:
The power of reflection in business
Mindset shifts for the new year
Practical tools that help your business grow
Setting intentions for the upcoming year
And so much more!