Where You Heading In 2025?
What do you think you’ll do in 2025? — start something new? start something you’ve been contemplating but putting off? — and then looking back wistfully and saying to yourself “I missed the bus, again.” Hey come on — many of us have been there — regrets, self-recriminations, negativity — a lot of us if not the whole of humanity have been there. So, what’s new?
These things are part of (to use Hannah Arendt’s words) the Human Condition.
Happy New Year.
We have to work at our happiness — relentlessly. Happiness is hard work — as I once advised a very young person who was floundering — and, who I’m so happy to report has now found their feet. I don’t think this was my victory but theirs. The only role I played in their happiness is that I was in the right place at the tight time for them. If they succeeded — and they did — it was entirely because of their tenacity — it was because of their refusal to give up.
If you wanted to get somewhere, there could be someone for you, too, to help build a project that can lead to your success.
My website could be that ‘person’ to help you get there if you like — of course no promises, except the promise of providing actionable advice. So, starting here right away . . .
Step Back — Reflect
To tell you honestly, I can’t think of a low risk high-potential venture in 2025 and beyond that anyone can start with little to no capital investment, other than affiliate marketing.
I find this the safest enterprise that anyone — anyone with a laptop — can engage in from almost any where in the world. All it takes is the intention — the intention of not wanting to live in regret and self-doubt perpetually.
I won’t give you the rosy upside — that you might be living on some tropical island paradise (Tahiti?) sipping Pina coladas under green palms caressed by warm tropical winds — although that would be nice, too. Don’t forget to send a post card.
Rather, let me give you a sensible reality check, first: nothing is likely to happen, not overnight any way. Anybody who promises you a deal like that is to be treated with great caution. Affiliate Marketing is not a fly-by-night scheme of quick money and a quicker exit. Affiliate Marketing is a viable business model used by many to generate extra revenue.
On the downside . . .
There may be days of emptiness. There might be disappointments. There might be days of checking the exit nervously. As I said above, that’s the human condition — and I would be less than honest if I were to suggest that the human condition could be negotiated. No, I am sorry, the human condition can’t be negotiated.
Let me be brutally honest — no one can get you out of your inertia except you. It’s called self-agency.
It’s your life after all, no one else’s. Only you can decide whether you’ll be a spectator or a participant in your own life. Write your own story — yourself.
Start Here . . .
“Once upon a time there was a . . . [insert your favourite subject] . . . who made a plan to get themselves out of the inertia they were suffering at that time. “
Time to buy a notebook (my favourite, Moleskin) and start sketching the ideas. Find a quiet place somewhere and start the day by looking at your notebook. Start your day here.
If it’s a new notebook, start putting in small achievable tasks in list form to be attended to the following morning. You can do that, can’t you?
Small Is Beautiful
We underestimate the power of small things.
One of the most common mistakes many if not most of us make is thinking that starting a new venture requires fanfare, when actually, all it needs is a start, however small, however seemingly insignificant at the the time.
You’re embarked on a process of self-discovery as much as a process of building an income stream, for example — which if done right can be the only income stream you may need in time.
The Questionnaire
- Where do you see yourself going in the next few years?
- How much money do you think you’d be comfortable making from affiliate marketing?
- How much time and effort do you think you can invest?
How you answer those questions will define your goals.
A Solid Plan
Since this is an exploratory exercise, we can play out as many scenarios as we wish — in fact, that flexibility will give us the option of evolving our plan as we move forward. Periodically, you’ll need to review your plan and reset it. Plans that evolve over time are the only plans that survive in the long term. Plans that stay static are most likely to fail. Remember, everything moves in TIME.
Aim to make only a plan, not the plan — perfectionism is the premature death of many great enterprises.
Scenario
- Let’s say, for starters, in 2025 you want to make $1000/month for which . . .
- You’re able to invest 3/4/5 hours/day . . .
- Everyday/ every second day . . .
Please feel free to adjust the no.s as you desire.
Will That Be Enough?
May be. May be not.
Only you can tell. In fact, if the idea of $1000/m sounds almost insulting, then that’s a good sign — that’s your motivation talking to you. Keep letting it talk to you.
Start somewhere — any where — and then modify as you go along. Evolve. It’s only the rinse and repeat of this basic strategy that has ever got anyone any where in life. In retrospect, it is possible to attribute many things to your success. In reality, however, it may be nothing more glamorous than a plan that evolves constantly over time. Adaptability — in other words. Small incremental changes are what we’re aiming for — $1000 a month, then $1100 by reinvesting the small profit into the business and so forth, scaling up gradually.
Scaling up will also mean increasing all your main inputs — time; effort; investment.
Visualise
Project forward and think when you’ll be adding more zeroes after $1000.
One of my students struggling to achieve good grades, once asked me, “How do I motivate myself?” I answered, “How important is getting good grades for you? There’s your motivation.”
Stay Hungry
Wishing you the best in 2025.