Setting Intentions for Growth and Self-Confidence in the New Year

As the new year begins, now is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and shape the life you want in 2025. For women navigating trauma symptoms, setting intentions can be a powerful step toward healing and empowerment. Setting intentions builds a sense of control and purpose for your life, especially if you have the tendency to feel lost and chaotic.

Over the years, I’ve found this practice transformative in my own healing journey. Trauma often left me feeling lost and chaotic, but setting clear intentions has helped me reclaim a sense of control and purpose. Each year, I take time to reflect on my growth and moments of pride. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of life and overlook how far we’ve come. As someone who has mastered the art of pushing past emotions, I’ve learned the value of sitting with my feelings—acknowledging and honouring them.

Setting intentions allows me to confront my emotional separation tendencies and embrace genuine self-reflection. It boosts my confidence and self-worth, helping me feel more aligned with who I am and where I want to go. This process also reveals unfulfilled intentions, giving me a chance to reassess their importance and make space for new aspirations. Through this guide, I hope to share the tools that have helped me, so you too can map a path toward healing and empowerment.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I’ve included my 30-day action mapper with a monthly, weekly, and daily schedule. Let’s break your goals into manageable steps, visualize your success, and build momentum for an inspiring 2025.

Step 1: Reflect on the Past Year

 

Before diving into the future, take a moment to evaluate the past year. Ask yourself:

• What moments made you feel strong and resilient in 2024?
• What actions did you take that you’re proud of? What were the opportunities that opened up because of these?
• Have any limiting beliefs stopped you from taking these opportunities when they came?
• What challenges did you face, and how did you show up for yourself through them?
• Were there any distractions that set you off course? How could you avoid them this coming year?
• What lessons did you learn about your needs, boundaries, and inner strength?
• Were you true to your values and desires for the outcomes of the year?

Journaling these reflections can help you honour your journey, acknowledge your progress, and identify areas where you’d like to grow.

Step 2: Visualise your Intentions for 2025

Close your eyes and picture your life at the end of 2025. Visualize the details with excitement, possibility, compassion, and self-acceptance.

 

• What do you want to achieve in the next 365 days?
• How do you want to feel about yourself when you accomplish your goals? Confident, capable, and at peace?
• What actions will bring you joy and a sense of empowerment?
• What supportive relationships nurture your healing and growth? Are there any relationships you should step back from?
• How could you prioritise your mental, emotional, and physical well-being?
• What limiting beliefs could stop you from making 2025 your year of success? Are these the same ones that held you back in 2024?
• How could you reframe your beliefs to empower your progress rather than hold you back?

Write down this vision without judgment. Allow yourself to dream boldly, knowing you are worthy of your desires. Be honest with your beliefs and any obstacles. Accepting and acknowledging where you have gotten stuck in the past can help navigate them in the future.

Step 3: Identify Your Core Desires

From your vision, identify the key themes or areas of focus that resonate most with your desired outcomes for the year. These might include:

• Emotional Healing: Practicing mindfulness, seeking therapy, or exploring creative outlets.
• Self-Confidence: Embracing activities that help you feel capable, practicing self-compassion, or setting personal challenges that reflect your strengths.
• Personal Empowerment: Setting boundaries, pursuing passions, or learning new skills.
• Community and Connection: Building relationships with people who uplift and inspire you.

Choose three to five areas that feel most meaningful and achievable. Write these three to five core desires somewhere you can easily see them or refer back to them. Having your core desires set out for the year can aid decision-making and defeat procrastination. When you come up against an obstacle or difficult decision, go back to your core desires and see if they fit into any of the areas you have chosen to focus on in 2025. If it doesn’t fit, let it go; it’s not serving you and what you have committed to yourself.

Step 4: Set Your Intentions with Empowering Goals

Turn your desires into actionable, supportive goals. Start by reframing your aspirations into specific, measurable steps that align with your values and focus on your growth. For example:

• Instead of “I want to feel more confident,” set a goal like, “I will share one idea in a meeting each week to practice speaking up and showcasing my insights.”
• Replace “I need to be more outgoing” with “I will join a supportive group that aligns with my interests and attend at least one session this month.”
• If you aim to improve your self-esteem, try, “I will write down three things I appreciate about myself each evening.”

Actionable goals provide a clear direction and help you build momentum. Ensure each goal feels achievable and aligns with the way you want to grow.

Break larger goals into smaller steps to avoid feeling overwhelmed. For instance:

• If your goal is to rebuild self-confidence, you might start by practicing self-affirmations daily, then gradually move on to challenging yourself with social interactions in safe spaces.
• For a goal like strengthening your professional voice, begin with a practice like journaling your ideas, then progress to sharing them in smaller, supportive environments.

Finally, focus on progress rather than perfection. Each step forward, no matter how small, contributes to your overall success.

Step 5: Build an Action Plan

Creating a solid action plan helps transform your goals into achievable milestones. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Break Down Your Goals: Divide your goals into smaller, manageable tasks. For example, if your goal is to build self-confidence, your first task might be practicing self-affirmations each morning.
2. Set Deadlines: Assign realistic timeframes to each task to stay focused. For instance, plan to join a supportive group, club, or team by the end of January. If your desire is for healing, you could complete three therapy sessions by March.
3. Prioritise Tasks: Focus on one or two small steps at a time to prevent overwhelm. Begin with the biggest tasks and work backwards. I always do my hardest tasks in the morning, when I am most focused and energised. If you do all the little things when your most energised, you waste it on little ‘to dos’ that could have been done when your more tired. Use your time of biggest strength to take on the biggest battles; it will help utilise your daily energy resources wisely.
4. Utilise Tools: Use calendars, planners, or apps to track your progress. Tools like habit trackers or journaling apps can help you maintain consistency. I am old school. I like to have a big flip calendar and printouts. I stick them where I can see them and tick off each task as I complete it. This also means if I am feeling low and like I haven’t progressed, I can just flip back through the months and see everything I have accomplished.
5. Prepare for Challenges: Anticipate potential obstacles and brainstorm solutions. For example, if social anxiety holds you back from joining a group, you could attend virtually at first or pair up with a friend.
6. Be Realistic: One of my major challenges is overcommitting. This can lead you to focus on all the things you didn’t get done rather than see all the tasks you have accomplished. If you already have commitments that can’t be moved, such as holidays or work, then on top- planning to build a business, start a new hobby, meditate, see a therapist, bake the cake for your friend’s birthday, etc., will just set you up for disappointment. Schedule in the big commitments first, then see where you can add your tasks around them. Remember, if you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
7. Schedule Regular Check-Ins: Set aside time weekly or monthly to evaluate your progress, adjust your plan, and celebrate your achievements. Reflecting helps you stay on track and refine your approach as needed.
8. Incorporate Rewards: Reward yourself for completing milestones. This could be as simple as buying the dress you have been admiring for months, treating yourself to a piece of cake, a night out at the cinema, or simply taking time to relax and appreciate your progress. On my calendar, I write my milestone and the treat I can have when I accomplish it. This reminds me when I look at it that there is more than just accomplishment at the end; there is also reward. When I am exhausted, I will admit, the treat sometimes motivates me more than the accomplishment.

Remember, an action plan is a flexible roadmap. It’s okay to adjust your steps as you learn what works best for you. The key is to keep moving forward and to celebrate every step, no matter how small.

Step 6: Sharing Intentions to Create Systems for Support

Support is crucial in sustaining progress, especially when working through trauma or suffer from attacks of self-doubt. Consider:

• Sharing your intentions and goals with a trusted friend, therapist, or coach.
• Joining communities focused on self-confidence, self-love, or healing. If a large group overwhelms you or online communities create too much noise, leaving you more confused than focused. You can reach out for an accountability buddy, this can be someone from that group that you have 1:1 weekly reviews with or a coach who can help tailor an accountability plan for your goals.
• Scheduling regular check-ins with yourself to reflect and adjust. This point is crucial, we can often burnout if we don’t check in, then punish ourselves for having the audacity to need a day off. It’s ok to need to slow down, make changes or take a day, just make sure you don’t loose your way.

Step 7: Celebrate Your Wins

Life should be a celebration. Whats the point of doing all the hard work if you can’t enjoy it?

Every step forward is worth celebrating. Treat yourself with kindness and acknowledge your efforts, no matter how small they seem. This can tie into your milestone rewards. You can add little mini milestones rewards throughout the week to help keep you motivated and inspired.

Step 8: Embrace Flexibility

Personal growth isn’t linear, and your goals may evolve. Give yourself permission to adjust your plans as needed. Flexibility allows you to stay aligned with your needs and intentions, even when life throws challenges your way.

Tools for Success

• Affirmation Cards: Use daily affirmations to remind yourself of your worth and strength.
• Vision Board: Create a board that reflects your desires and your journey toward self-love and empowerment.
• Journaling Prompts: Explore prompts like, “What makes me feel confident?” or “How can I honour myself today?”
• Guided Meditations: Practice mindfulness to reduce anxiety and connect with your inner self.
• Supportive Media: Seek out books, podcasts, and social media accounts that inspire and uplift. Here is a link to my Strong Women Role Models guide with inspirational books, social accounts and podcasts that will keep you motivated and inspired by stories and journeys from Scarred & Fabulous females.

Final Thoughts

2025 is a blank canvas, and you are the artist. By setting compassionate intentions, crafting nurturing plans, and honouring your journey, you can create a year that celebrates your resilience and beauty. Start with one small step today, and watch as your vision for 2025 unfolds with grace and strength.