Empowering Change: Setting Goals for 2025

In this episode, Hannah and Nayeli discuss the importance of setting meaningful goals for 2025, focusing on making a positive impact on the community. They explore the evolution of goal-setting, the significance of aligning personal goals with core values, and the necessity of creating systems and habits to achieve these goals. The conversation emphasizes the importance of community, accountability, and starting small to create local change. They also address overcoming nervousness in volunteering and the value of education and self-improvement in the journey towards making a difference.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Meaningful Goals for 2025
• 2:49 Aligning Personal Goals with Community Impact
• 5:48 The Evolution of Goal Setting
• 9:11 Creating Systems and Habits for Success
• 11:51 Building Community and Accountability
• 14:48 Overcoming Nervousness in Volunteering
• 18:01 Starting Small: Local Change Matters
• 21:10 The Importance of Education and Self-Improvement
• 24:08 Realistic Goals and Sustainable Giving
• 26:45 Looking Ahead: Exciting Plans for 2025

Transcript

Hannah (00:08)
Welcome friends and thank you for joining us on Ordinary People with Hannah and Nayeli. I'm Hannah.

Nayeli (00:14)
I'm Nayeli.

Hannah (00:17)
Welcome back, Nayeli. I haven't seen you in person since before winter break, so it's been like a month, a month and a half.

Nayeli (00:24)
I know it's been a long time, but be sure that we have been working on bringing new and exciting subjects for our community here at Ordinary People.

Hannah (00:33)
Yep. So we're going to start our first episode of the year talking about setting some meaningful goals for 2025 with a focus on making space for giving back, making a difference and contributing to something bigger than ourselves.

Nayeli (00:49)
I feel like many times when we are doing our resolutions, like they used to be called, now that word is not so cool. So now we call it goals of the year. Most of the time we are focusing on ourselves, which are personal goals around it. Like, okay, I'm going to exercise more. I'm going to improve my eating habits. I'm going to start saving some money. But when we're thinking about all these, it's not always in our scope.

to how these goals are going to impact our community. Thinking of this brings me to my first reflection. I have a very good friend, name is Yolanda Gray. She's a life coach and a mentor. And she holds workshops and retreats, and she always talks about something that is the core values. That concept always resonates with me because for those who are not familiar, a core value is something that deeply matters to you.

can be family, charity, financial stability, safety, happiness, health, creativity. And it's so much easy to achieve goals when they are in alignment with your core values. We can use this concept to set our personal goals, but also we can use it to set goals that improve our community. For example, I care about many sources of objects and sometimes too many.

But financial stability is something very important to me. So I'm very empathic when someone goes to hardship in that subject. I can use that to set my charity or volunteer goals in organizations that work with low-income families or small businesses that are struggling.

Hannah (02:31)
So I wanted to ask, do you personally make goals or resolutions? If so, how serious are you about them? Do you just kind of think of something and then try to do it? Do you write it down? Do you make a plan? Like what's your style when it comes to goals or resolutions?

Nayeli (02:49)
Well, I used to be very specific. I will put all the numbers in there. You will see that and it will look like a financial statement, a personal goal. But I have been shift that and lately I'm more in the broad spectrums of the goals. I'm thinking more medium term, long term.

Because before, when I was so strict about the numbers that I wanted to achieve in any part of my life, I would usually come to frustration and that would make me drop those goals mid-year. I would be, it's May and I would be already dropping every goal because there's no way I would make the number I was expecting. So I started shifting and now I focus more on improvement. I'm getting close.

Hannah (03:35)
Yeah.

Nayeli (03:42)
maybe not at the rate that I was expecting but if I'm getting closer to my goals then I feel kind of accomplished. So I have shift that in my life but what I'm very specific on is the actions. So I do a list of actions that I want to do that are in alignment with my goals and that those are trying to work on it. Another concept that also was introduced to me by Yolanda was the vision journals.

I know it's a very common concept and many people do vision board, but the vision journal is something you carry with you as a reminder of your intentions. You can also write down on their ideas, thoughts, things that you read, things that might help you accomplish your goals. And it's just that. It's just a constant reminder of where is your heart on, where is your intentions and what do you want to do. How about your goals? How do you do it?

Hannah (04:39)
Yeah, so a long time ago I used to have more broad goals in terms of health and education related things on my vision board. I mean the way vision boards work, you're just kind of cutting out pictures of what you want to achieve. So they might be pictures of me going to the gym or, you know, me getting my degree and walking across the stage or something like that. Then after I had kids,

I really started getting more specific about my goals list and I started putting a lot more parenting and relationship and mental health goals on my list. I realized that

while I've always had financial goals, but I felt like writing down those social and emotional goals and getting to see the progress that I made each year really made me happier over time than some of the financial goals that I would achieve. So over time, I would get more specific about my goals and write them down in like actionable steps, kind of like you mentioned. So I might take a goal and break it down. Well, in order to achieve

the goal of maybe reducing anxiety. You know, what am I gonna do in that process? Maybe I'll go make an appointment to see a therapist or maybe I'll, you know, try meditation or it's just breaking down that overall goal into more actionable steps like you mentioned. So there's been an evolution in how I approach my goals, but I'm definitely a goal-oriented person. So it really helps me to take this time at the beginning of the year

and really put a lot of thought into what I want my goals to be, what do I want my year to look like at the end of the year, what do I want to look back and be proud of, and then I check those often throughout the year. So that's kind of how I've been handling my goals each year, but I've never written down anything other than very general statements.

of finding a new volunteer opportunity if I know that one is wrapping up. I've never written any more than that, so I'm really excited about this episode to get me thinking about what do I want my impact on the world to be and how can I incorporate that in my goals list for the year.

Nayeli (07:03)
Yes, because often what happens is we can be very specific and intentional with our personal goals because we have more control about the steps that we have to take to do it. What I find sometimes is when we're thinking about social goals or social issues, it's hard to see the impact of our actions. I think both of us were very impacted by the peace building episode and

When we are thinking about that, it sounds like something like we usually hear like, yes, I want to achieve world peace. But then the second thought immediately after is, well, how can I accomplish something like that? How can I do something that looks so far to conquer? So especially the social impact goals might feel unachievable. And even when we volunteer or donate our money, it's hard to measure how the impact of our actions

is really getting us closer to that goal.

Hannah (08:02)
Yeah, as much as I love to volunteer, I've never planned it out. I've never measured what I've done or what I want to do. So I feel like planning it and measuring it will help me grow from one year to the next.

Nayeli (08:16)
Definitely. I think that's very important. Another factor is very important is being intentional because as you mentioned, sometimes we get busy, we volunteer and volunteering become a task on itself. We want to hit a goal to say 200 hours a year. This year I'm going to increase my volunteering. But maybe not even half of the time is meaningful or is in alignment with our core values and that make it harder.

It might be time to reconsider and choose intentionally. Where are we donating our money? Where are we volunteering our time? We need to check our agenda and see if it's full of random commitments because most likely if that's happening, we feel like we're giving, giving, giving, but we don't feel that fulfillment or sense of accomplishment. And something meaningful can mean different for person to person.

It's not that everybody's going to be going to the same cause, not everybody's going to feel the same about the same cause. What is important is you find that it's a passion for you. It's something that is in alignment with your core values and you put most of your volunteer time and most of your donation on that.

Hannah (09:30)
So I recently watched a master class that I think is so relevant to what we're talking about. It was taught by a gentleman named James Clear. And his master class was all about creating systems and daily habits that help you reach your goals. A lot of the concepts that he talked about I've heard before, or I've seen on TikTok, or some of them I do practice.

but there were some new things sprinkled in and it's always good to be reminded, right? I just loved the focus he had on daily habits and building systems into your life that help make those goals happen. So I'm gonna run through a couple of the tips that I got from him and just break it down. So one tip was breaking down what you want to achieve into something smaller and more.

Nayeli (10:18)
Great, yes.

Hannah (10:26)
easily achievable. So like you were saying, Nielie, I want to help promote world peace, which is way too broad and overwhelming, right? So instead of saying I want to help promote world peace, let's break that down into something much smaller. Like I'm going to volunteer five hours a month for a local peace building organization, or I'm going to lend them my specific talent. So that's one thing is whatever it is for you,

take that big broad thing that you wanna help with and try to find a way to break it down into something much smaller and more achievable. The next thing you talked about is focusing on just getting 1 % better at the thing you want to achieve. So that could look like if you're not volunteering at all in that thing you're really passionate about or that aligns with your core values, maybe you're doing lots of other volunteering.

Instead of feeling like you're going to change the world this year, focus on just getting 1 % better at the thing that you want to do, which I've heard other people mention this before a lot in fitness world is, hey, just focus on getting 1 % better today than you were yesterday. But this can also apply to the impact that we want to make in the community. So let's say that

You've told yourself you're gonna volunteer 10 hours a month, but you never seem to get around to doing it. And when it actually comes time to volunteer, you know, you don't feel like it, it's just, it's too overwhelming. You've made an unrealistic goal that you can't meet. Instead of doing that, just try to do 1 % better than you are today. Maybe start with one hour a month. And don't feel bad about telling an organization, I'm only going to give you one hour a month.

That way you create a habit of showing up. If that's all you can do, that is a great start and it is 1 % better than what you're doing today. Another tip he had was never miss more than once. So let's say you really don't feel like meeting that volunteer commitment and so you call in sick, just don't let that become the end of your volunteer commitment entirely. Maybe they were expecting you to show up and pack meals.

and you didn't do it and you felt bad and so you don't want to show up anymore. But get rid of that train of thought and just give yourself a break and say, hey, I missed once, but I'll be back next month. Another tip he had was creating visual cues for your progress. And it could be just as simple as like color coding your volunteer time on your calendar. So when you scroll back through the year, you have a visual cue of

all the times that you've volunteered. And for you, Nyele, that visual cue could be writing in your vision journal, like what you did and how it made you feel so that you can look back and be reminded of how good it felt when you volunteered. I think the most impactful thing that he talked about was if you've built these habits and systems around your goal, when you don't feel like showing up, those habits and systems will kick in and it will be more likely that you show up.

even when you don't feel like it. So a couple of examples are, let's say you joined a volunteer group, make it a family date night, go with friends, build a community that are counting on you. So when you don't feel like going, someone in your group is gonna hold you accountable to showing up and that will help you continue on even when you don't feel like going.

So making a commitment on your calendar and building habits around that will make it much easier for you to succeed.

Nayeli (14:21)
And we can also apply it to donations. Like if you have a donation goal already set, set the auto pay. I don't know you, but life gets busy and I forget to pay. So when it's already included in your budget, then set the auto pay. So that way we won't forget the money is going to go where the causes that you really care about it. And they will be counting on this money too, also for their budgets and everything. There is other area that

this works very well is like, for example, if you want to support small or local businesses, you can set a day a week or a day a month where like, let's say every Saturday, we are just going to go to eat to local restaurants. We're just going to eat to buy our Saturday treat, our ice cream or coffee or our cookies. We're going to get it from a small business.

That way, if you do it every Saturday or the first Saturday of the month, whatever your budget allows you to do it, it's going to be built into your routine. It's going to be part of your family planning. Everybody will know that that's what happened the first Saturday of the month. So it's a way to start creating this good habits.

Hannah (15:37)
That's a really cool idea. It's like small business Saturday every Saturday. Yeah, I love that.

Nayeli (15:42)
Sadly, because once a year is not enough. Yeah,

what it's important is we have to make a routine. We have to build a routine. And you know, they say that you have to do something 21 times before it becomes a habit. So the first times you might have to schedule it, you might have to sometimes push yourself a little bit to do it. But after that, it's going to become part of your daily routine. It's going to become part of your week routine.

and it's going to be integrated so you won't feel like something strange.

Hannah (16:14)
Yeah, and a lot of those tips that James Clear was talking about really boil down to smaller habits that we can form to achieve a realistic goal. The goal that you're making is not realistic. You're gonna feel like giving up. So it's really important that we try to make realistic goals for ourselves.

to make sure that it's more likely to happen. And then if it matches our core values, it's gonna be more rewarding. And then if we've built these systems around it, like scheduling it and going with friends, then if we have a day where we don't feel like going, we're more likely to go anyway because we don't wanna miss it. So there's a lot of ways that we can put these systems in place to make it easier for us to achieve our goals.

Nayeli (17:02)
Definitely. We all need to be taking these points in account because that's the way we are going to keep showing. We're going to keep volunteering. We're going to keep donating and we're going to improve, as you say, just 1 % at a time. And we are going to be better than the last day. And I just want to come back to a very important thing and that's community. Exercise with someone that keeps you on track of your goals. When you, they call it accountability partners. In these social matters,

It's also very important to have accountability partners. It's build a community around you that will keep you into your goals. Like for example, if you volunteer regularly, let's say a homeless shelter, the staff will keep you on the loop or when they need you, what they need of you. They might even contact you if they need an extra hand in a day that you might have no thought of showing up. So if you find.

a cause that is close to your heart, that is something that you feel passion about. Go reach that community because that community will keep you informed, they will keep you in the loop of what is happening and you will feel needed. That's very important. And as they know they can count on you, you will start feeling part of that community too. It will keep your interest up.

Hannah (18:29)
Yeah, when we are volunteering for things that are related to our kids, you are automatically in this network of other parents. And it's very easy to make those connections. I feel like when you all have the same shared goals for your children, whether that be sports or clubs, and it's very easy to build that community. I feel like personally, but when we're talking about things like

inserting ourselves in something new. Like we talked about, we're very interested in peace building now. It's not something you or I have experience with. It can be a little bit scary for me. You know, can just speak for myself is because I'm going to have to meet new people and make new connections and the whole experience will be new to me. That still makes me very nervous today. I would push through it.

but I'm sure a lot of people can identify with that feeling of wanting to branch out and volunteer for this thing they're really passionate about, but feeling nervous and overwhelmed to actually take that step to do it. I remember the first time I volunteered for Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Meals on Wheels and tutoring ESL students. Those were all really short stints of volunteering for me, but I remember

feeling very nervous about going through that process of being a new volunteer with no training all by myself and just kind of showing up being this new person and saying, where do I go? What do I do? Am I going to be good with these people? Am I going to be good at volunteering for this specific thing? Am I going to be a good big sister to a kid I've never met before?

Like how am I going to handle these interactions with these people in their golden years when I drop off their food? So I've always had these feelings of nervousness doing something new, but I will say that each time I've pushed through that nervousness, like you mentioned, Nielie, the volunteers who are there do such a great job of making you feel welcome, making you feel

like you are needed and they want you to come back and they understand you've never done this before and you need instructions and you need advice. So if you're like me and you wanna get out there and you wanna put something on your goals list, but it's hard to just get started because maybe you have those nervous feelings about taking on something new.

Keep that in mind. And also you can grab a friend or a family member and say, hey, just come with me to this very first meeting and let's make sure it's legitimate and it's not like a sketchy volunteer opportunity. We want you all to be safe. But then after that, you you don't have to volunteer with me if you don't want to, but if you do, great, we can do it together. But there are ways to get past that initial.

nervousness of diving into something new and also

Nayeli (21:42)
It's very important that we know our talents and maybe there are people that they don't enjoy being around other people or interact with others. That doesn't mean you cannot do something. There are like a few years ago we volunteered to do what they call care packages and they do for the homeless community and you know that you assemble these hygiene kits when you put together like in a ziplock bag, a shampoo.

a sub bar, different staff that they might need under daily necessities. And you just assembled it at home and you drop them at a collection center. We did that during the pandemic, but it was hard to get into in-person volunteer opportunities. So if you have that social anxiety, you don't want to be around anyone. You don't have to do it. There is a way that you can use your talents in the good. You just have to find it. There are many

Now, fortunately, there are many places where we can search for these volunteer opportunities. Some are online, some are in person, some are just required to you to do a task that you don't have to do there. You can do it in your home. There are many ways that you can participate that doesn't have to hold you from being an humanist. As you mentioned, Hannah, sometimes we are very nervous about when we are passionate about a cause and we got into this

conference or we're trying to get into this world. We see, we sometimes see these people that has been in the field for years. So they speak a certain terminology. They use certain words. They know about the programs, how they work, the financial of the programs. And sometimes we feel overwhelmed because we are new in the field. We don't know, but we have the will. We feel that that is something we are passionate about.

So maybe the first step is to educate ourselves. And there are many tools we can use. mean, we can use the old fashioned Google because now AI has takeovers, Google feels like so old school. But also we can join maybe Facebook group that they are working on the subject. We can read books, we can listen to podcasts, we can watch YouTube videos, all these to start educating ourselves and getting more

comfortable with the terminology, learning more about the words that are useful in that field. And that will make you feel so much comfortable to approach an organization or approach a local charity when you know more about the subject. And also it's very important that when we do that, we don't feel like, let's say we have to reach to United Nations right away.

We can start reaching out to a local organization, a small one, and start getting involved in that field and we will grow in it. It's not like we just start passionate about something and immediately going to be talking and making a conference in the United Nations. It's not like that. It's little by little. It's a step by step.

Hannah (24:59)
Yeah. And one thing that's come up in our research often is that change happens locally, right? Yes. So like you mentioned, starting small is actually not a bad thing. And, and I think before we started this journey, I think I felt a lot like the impact that I was making wasn't big enough, but that's a recurring theme is that change has to happen at the local level. And so,

If that's all you can do is at the local level, you should not feel like that's not enough. That's exactly where you need to be. And it is enough.

Nayeli (25:41)
Exactly. And it also applied to our donations. Remember when we were talking last episode about donating, there is this way that you can donate the cents when you pay something and it's round up. that's the name round up. And you might donate 30 cents each time. Well, by the end of the year, you might have donated $200 and you didn't notice. It was just that little bit that adds up and

and think that's the mentality we have to get into these goals, into these social goals. Tiny bit helps a lot.

Hannah (26:16)
So

I've been thinking a lot lately about the number of hours that I have in a week. I asked chat gbt to give me a breakdown of what a typical full time working mom does with her hours in a week. And chat gbt said there are 168 hours in a week. And I'm paraphrasing here after you take out sleep, work, eating, meal prep, chores, getting ready.

errands and administrative tasks like paying bills and making appointments. Most people have somewhere between 26 and 51 hours of time left in the week and we get to decide how we want to spend that time. So I really have been thinking a lot about that. And I think you mentioned earlier, Naili, that we may be spending a lot of time on things that

don't align with our core values or maybe we're spending all of our time and you know on family things and that is our core value but I think it's a great place to start and say okay this is roughly the number of free time that I have in a week these are my core values and what I really want to do with that time I'm really excited to take all these things that we've learned today

and start to journal them and check back in next year and see what we've did and what we learned. So I'm really excited about that.

Nayeli (27:51)
And we also have to remember that it always feels better giving than receiving, but especially when it's in alignment with our goals and what we want to reach, where we want to be, what the future are we setting for ourselves and for the world and for our families and for our communities. And, you know, we also have to take care of ourselves because the better we are, the better we can give, the better we can be for our communities, for our families. And that is very important. So we have to make a commitment, but

always realistic, nothing, not unachievable goals that will just give us anxiety and will just give us like extra pressure. Just let's settle goals that are achievable, that are in alignment, as you said, and we have to make a commitment to work on it. Sometimes discipline will take us longer than just the will to do things. So that's something we have to incorporate and I'm taking this note to myself.

That it's something we build daily.

Hannah (28:51)
The world always needs more humanists and doesn't have to be some billionaire philanthropist. There's a lot that we can do and I'm really excited to see what we'll be able to accomplish this year.

Nayeli (29:06)
Yes,

we hope this episode helps you to set up your goals to incorporate humanitarian work. Remember, nothing is too small. Every contribution counts. But what is coming on for us in 2025? mean, at least in the podcast, we have set some goals for that, for sure.

Hannah (29:24)
Yeah, we have some exciting things coming up for the rest of our season in 2025. We do have some difficult topics to discuss as well, but we try to kind of break that up with some lighter episodes because like Niale mentioned, we still have to worry about our mental health. But we're going to talk about human trafficking. We're going to talk about the importance of youth programs and how they impact so many different aspects of our society.

and we'll have a few more episodes planned and we're really excited to wrap up the year with a fun trip to New Orleans where Nielie and I are going to attend the Points of Light conference and we're going to mingle with a lot of amazing nonprofits and some people out there doing some exciting things and we hope to get that on video for you all. So we're really excited about 2025 and we appreciate you all.

hanging in there with us and listening and giving us your time. Yes.

Nayeli (30:25)
Welcome

to 2025. Welcome to our village. We are happy that you are here with us. Please share with us your goals. If we can be in any help or we can guide you in any way, we are here to grow together and hopefully we find your comments here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app so you are notified when new episodes drop.

Hannah (30:50)
You can also find us on Instagram at Be The Change Hub and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. All the links to our socials will be in the show notes.

Nayeli (31:01)
Thank you for listening today and being part of this community of change makers.