Tired of self-improvement challenges that fizzle out? This is a realistic 12-month plan to transform your life – with actionable steps to stay consistent.

In this post, I’m helping you change your life in the next 12-months. No gimmicks, just real, actionable steps that helped me become the person (and creator) that I always wanted to be.

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This post found you for a reason. 

Maybe you’re unhappy with your life right now… maybe you feel stressed or unmotivated. Or maybe you’re struggling with depression or lacking confidence. 

I get it. I’ve been there. 

I used to watch every “How to Fix Your Life” video on YouTube – and I’d end up in a cycle of short-term self-improvement that always fizzled out and left me feeling worse. 

These short challenges never worked for me. They never actually changed my life for longer than a week. I always ended up right back where I started, taking one step forward, and two steps back.

But then in 2023, something changed. 

Throughout this post, I’m going to help you make the same changes that I made, in the most transformative year of my life. So, keep reading if you’re ready to *finally* change your life in the next 12 months. 

As always, if you prefer to watch instead of read, click the video below.

Change Your Life in the Next 12 Months

In 2023, something clicked for me. This was the first year where the person who entered the new year, looked and felt completely different than the person who exited the new year – in the best way possible. 

At the time, I wasn’t trying to “change my life in 12 months.” 

I had gotten to the point where making permanent change wasn’t about Millie a month from now, it was about creating something everlasting, for Millie 10 years from now or even 50 years from now. 

The process I created in 2023 is something that I do every year now. It helps me transform into the best version of myself, in a realistic way. And that’s what I’m going to show you today! 

You’re going to need a journal, pen, and a large cup of coffee. 

Ready? Let’s go. 

Step One: Complete Two Journal Prompts

Start by completing these two journal prompts. 

1. What does the best version of myself look like 1 year from now? (write as if it’s happening now) 

Example: Today is _____ and these past 12 months have been ______. What’s your mindset like? What’s your view on life? Think about your health, relationships, finances, spiritual growth, work, hobbies, etc. 

2. What does a fulfilling ‘day in the life’ look like for that version of you? (write as if it’s happening now)

Be specific about your morning routine, workout routine, foods you’re eating, people you’re spending time with and nighttime routine. I’ve also done this as a ‘brain dump’ of a general day and then broke things down Sunday to Saturday. 

Step Two: Brain Dump Your ‘Yeses and Nos’

Next, take a moment to think about the things that you say yes to, and the things you say no to. This is optional but I’ve found it incredibly helpful. Here’s a few of mine as an example. 

Things I say yes to: 

• Rest
• Hanging out with friends
• Going to the gym
• Making homemade meals
• Self-care
• Creating time for me

Things I say no to: 

• More meetings
• Unnecessary projects
• Eating out
• Stress disguised as opportunities
• Staying busy
• Working on holidays
• People pleasing

As you can see, these are just things in my life that I wanted to say yes or no to. 

Step Three: Goal Setting

Now it’s time to actually set some goals for the new year! These can be personal goals, business goals, daily or long-term goals – anything. Braindump your goals and write them down as if they’ve already happened. 

For example, here are some of the goals I set in 2023.

• Daily Goal → I created a daily morning routine of water, sunshine and exercise. 
• Weekly Goal → I go to the gym 3-4 times a week
• Long-Term Goal → I read 52 books this year
• Content Creator Goals* → I post 3x a week / I post every week on YouTube

**I try to make my content creator goals something that I actually have control of instead of subscriber/follower numbers. Of course, you want to hit 10,000 followers but as a goal, you have no control over that. However, you can control how often you post, the quality of your posts and how you use the platform.  

Content Creator Goals:

• How often I post
• How often I show up
• What habits am I establishing to help me become a creator?

Step Four: Creating Action Items to Achieve These Goals

With each goal, you need to create action items that will help you achieve these goals. In other words, what is the next smallest step that you could take to move towards that outcome? 

Again, you’re just brainstorming action items for each goal. You don’t have to take action yet – you just need to get into the right mindset for taking action and achieving your goals. The idea here is to reverse engineer your goals by breaking them down in a very tangible way. 

Here are a couple of examples from my year. 

I set a goal to read 52 books a year. Here’s how I broke that goal down:

• Read 4-5 books a month. To help me do that:
  • 2 Audiobooks
  • 1 self-help/nonfiction
  • 1 physical book for enjoyment

I set another goal to establish a morning routine. That goal was broken down by what my ideal morning routine would look like:

• Getting out in the sun
• Putting on sunscreen
• Drinking a large glass of water
• Doing a morning workout
• Postponing my coffee until 90 minutes after I woke up

I think that the problem most people face with goal setting is that they assume to achieve these goals they need to suddenly have more time. However, you don’t need more time – you need better intentions. You need to spend the time you already have, better. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to that later!)

What are your top 2-3 goals at the moment? Come let me know in the comments on this video. We can encourage and support each other! 

The 12-Month Creator Plan

If one of your goals is to become a full-time content creator over the next 12 months, and you’re not sure what the action items are to help you get there… I have a 12-month creator workbook. This workbook is designed to help you step-by-step through becoming a full-time content creator. It goes perfectly with this video that also walks you through how to become a full-time content creator in 12 months. 

Step Five: Habits

The last braindump that you need to do is around your habits. I want you to think about any additional habits that you need to add or remove to make this a permanent part of your life over the next 12 months. 

This might involve more self or life evaluation. For example, if you want to read more – you might need to remove a habit that’s stealing time from this goal (i.e. mindless scrolling). Once you have an idea of the habits that you need to create or remove from your life – it’s time to apply everything we’ve learned so far! 

Habit Layering: Assign Habits & Goals to Months

What is habit layering? For me, it’s assigning goals and habits to specific months of the year. This was the biggest thing that truly helped me transform my life in 12 months. 

I started with the lowest intimidation habit (i.e. the one that’s the easiest to implement) for the first month and then continued to build on that throughout the year. Let me show you an example of this in my life! 

My Main Goal:

Establish a morning routine that incorporates water, sunlight and exercise. 

My Action Items: 

• Spending time in the sun
• Drink a large glass of water
• Do a morning workout
• Postpone my morning coffee
• Wear sunscreen
• Take my vitamins

I then broke down the goal into specific action items by month. 

JANUARY:

• Daily goal ➝ Start my morning with water & take vitamins
• Weekly ➝ Read 1 book (audiobook)
• Experiment with movement & find what brings you joy (running, yoga, weightlifting, group classes, etc.)

FEBRUARY:

• Daily goal ➝ daily sunscreen
• Weekly ➝ Oil pulling + teeth whitening
• Movement M, W, F

As you can see, these transformations aren’t going to happen overnight. The idea is to slowly build up to your transformation in a way that doesn’t force you to make big scary changes and commit to everything all at once. If you’d like to see me work through a few more examples of this – skip ahead in this video to 12:45. 

Sticking to Your Goals

One thing you may notice is that I started January and February only focusing on 1-2 of my main goals – even though I had set 5-6 main goals for the year. You don’t have to work on all of your goals right away. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Choose 1-2 goals that you want to establish first, and then as those become part of your routine, add more goals throughout the year. 

You have 12 months to change your life – you don’t need to do everything all at once. 

How to Stick to Your Goals in 2025

Step One: Make Your Habits/Goals Visible

There are so many ways that you can make your goals more visible – but this genuinely will propel you to change your life in the next 12 months. You can:

• Put them in your calendar
• Create a sticky note each month with the new habit
• Vision board/desktop/wallpaper

However you choose to do this, try to make these aspirations more visible in your day to day life.

Step Two: Consume What You Aspire To Be

I think educational content is a great way to do this. Find books relevant to your goals and read about them. You can also listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos of people showing their day in the life as that person you want to become (i.e. a content creator, a runner). 

It’s also important to set healthy boundaries. Don’t consume content that’s making you feel worse about where you are. Unfollow who you need to unfollow and consume content only that inspires you. 

Step Three: Stick to the Plan, Not Your Mood

This is something that I still struggle with. Don’t make decisions for the future you, based on how you currently feel. Stick to the plan.

For example, if you don’t feel like working out – plan your outfit and book the workout class for 7am. Even if you don’t feel like working out right now, make a plan for future you to stick to that goal. 

Step Four: Give Yourself Grace

This is a huge one. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis. I tend to see my goals in black and white. If I tell myself that I’m not going to have any sugar, and then I eat a cookie… I end up feeling like all hope is lost so why not eat the whole jar of cookies. 

When in reality – it’s just a cookie, you’re just a human and it’s all going to be OK. No biggie. 

If you want to be a content creator but you haven’t posted in 2 months, does that mean it’s too late for you? Not at all. You can just jump right back on. And you can learn from these “mistakes” and modify your goals for your needs. 

This is especially important for those of us with a 28-day menstrual cycle. Our bodies fluctuate so much during these cycles. One week you might be really motivated and the next week you might want to lie on the couch and eat chocolate. 

Give yourself grace. Understand the changes in your life, in your body and work with the lifestyle that you have. Find what works for you. If you really want to change your life in the next 12 months, you have to find the rhythm that works best for you. 

Making change doesn’t have to be big and scary. It can be bite-sized and gradual. I know that’s what works for me! 

And don’t forget to download my 12-Month Guide to Becoming a Full-Time Content Creator (if that’s one of your goals for the next 12 months of your life.) You can download that here. 

Don’t forget to follow your joy! I’ll see you in the next one.