🚀 Starting 2024 with Ambition

At the start of 2024, I set my goals high. I wanted to push myself, stay motivated, and have a clear blueprint for the year. Now that I’m reflecting, I can say this – I didn’t hit every goal, but I’ve ended the year in a better place than where I started. And that, to me, is progress.

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🎯 The Railway Job: A Change in Perspective

Goal: Quit my railway job by the end of the year.
Outcome: Didn’t quit – and I’m okay with that.

Quitting my railway job was at the top of my list. I’ve wanted this for years, believing it was the ultimate marker of success. I planned to quit toward the end of the year, fully transitioning into my businesses.

But as the year unfolded, things changed. Redundancy became a possibility at work, and if that happens, I could walk away with a substantial payment after more than 10 years of service. Quitting before that just to hit my goal didn’t make sense financially.

Redundancy may not happen, but it is worth staying put for a while just in case it does. Aside from that, if I’m being totally honest with you, my feelings about leaving a job that I like have changed since I set this goal at the start of the year.

This year has been one of the most stressful for me business-wise, even though I promised myself I would take it easier. Creating the step-by-step self-publishing course almost broke me.

I put everything I had into creating that course for six months. Combining that with working my railway job, managing all of my Facebook groups (thank God I found the amazing Katie to help me with KDP Secrets), and handling course students, admin, YouTube, Etsy, etc., I experienced true burnout.

Considering all of that, being your own boss is great, but ultimately you are in charge of every problem and decision (and there are millions of them).

My railway job is beautiful, and I have come to realize that. I go there, have a laugh, get told what to do, and my brain switches off when I clock out. And I get paid well. I’m not sure why I was trying so hard to get away from it. Especially with the talk of redundancy, I have come to appreciate that it may be taken away from me, which makes me realize how special it is.

Who knows what will happen in the next few months, but at least I have options available either way.

Beyond that, I’ve realized I actually like my job. It’s simple, I get to have a laugh with colleagues, and once I clock out, I leave work behind. Given how stressful this year has been with business, I’ve come to appreciate the stability and lightness my railway job provides.

👉 Reflection: If redundancy happens, I’ll embrace it. If not, I’m happy to stay put for now. Sometimes, goals shift because we grow and gain new perspectives. I no longer see quitting as the ultimate sign of success – sometimes, having options is the real win.

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💷 The £20,000 Per Month Goal: Learning About Specificity

Goal: Consistently earn £20,000 per month.
Outcome: Hit the target three times – but not consistently.

I teach goal-setting in my self-publishing course, and I always emphasize the importance of being specific. Reflecting on this goal, I realize I didn’t follow my own advice – the goal was too vague.

• Was the target £20,000 before tax and expenses or after?
• What does “consistent” mean – three or four months or every single month?
• Should investment income count toward the goal?

Looking back, a clearer goal would have been:
“Earn £20,000 before tax and expenses at least six times this year from all income sources.”

🎯 Result: I hit that amount three times this year. Technically, I didn’t achieve the goal fully – but I’m not upset about it. Earning that much even three times is a blessing, and I feel fortunate to have come this far.

👉 2025 Focus: I’ll make sure my goals are more defined. Income fluctuates, and that’s okay – what matters is progress.

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🏡 Kitchen Renovation or Moving Home

Goal: Renovate the kitchen or move house.
Outcome: Renovation in progress – scheduled for 2025.

I definitely won’t be moving home for another two years at the earliest. The thought of dealing with moving home when I was burned out was not appealing to me in the slightest.

I haven’t renovated my kitchen either as this was not a priority with the course being created and then Q4 straight after.

However, this is in motion now. In the last month, I have found a contractor to do the work, I have had plans drawn up by the kitchen company, and chosen the colors and style of the kitchen. I do have to wait until March/April for my contractor as he was booked far in advance.

Although this was not completed in 2024, it will be done in 2025. I won’t lose any sleep over that. This was more of a bonus than a goal.

👉 Reflection: Although this was not completed in 2024, it will be done in 2025. I won’t lose any sleep over that. This was more of a bonus than a goal.

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👥 Growing the Facebook Group: Quality Over Quantity

Goal: Grow my Facebook group to 60,000 members.
Outcome: Reached 44,000 – but shifted focus to quality over quantity.

Again, this was more of a bonus than a goal and not something that I had full control over.

A few months after setting this goal, I realized that getting more people in the group was not really that important. As more people entered the group, it meant that Katie and I had to deal with more spammers and scammers.

This caused me to limit how many people entered the group. I was more selective about who I gave access to.

The group has still grown a lot since the start of the year. I believe we had 30,000-35,000 members at the start of the year. We now have over 44,000.

🔹 Special Thanks: A massive thank you to Katie, my incredible moderator. Without her, this wouldn’t have been possible.

👉 Reflection: Moving forward, the number of group members isn’t my focus. I’d rather have 5,000 engaged, helpful people than a massive group full of spam.

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✈️ Family Vacations: One Goal Fully Achieved

Goal: Take three family vacations.
Outcome: Achieved! 🙌

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m not materialistic – I’d rather invest in experiences and create memories with my family.

These vacations were crucial for me this year. With all the stress, they gave me the chance to recharge and reflect. I know for sure that without these breaks, the year would have been far harder to manage.

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👨‍💻 Hiring Staff: Scaling Smarter, Not Harder

Goal: Hire staff to help scale my business.
Outcome: Achieved – and it’s made all the difference.

I did achieve this. I have come to realise that I need a lot more help if I do wish to continue scaling my businesses. I cannot do it all by myself.

I did have an illustrator who was a great help in creating a lot of colouring and activity books. I have since found another person to help with this job. I have also outsourced a lot of A+ content creation.

👉 Reflection: Scaling further means more decisions and problems, and I’m not sure that’s what I want right now. 2025 might be a year to slow down and enjoy the progress I’ve made.

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📈 Reflecting on 2024: Progress, Not Perfection

To summarise, I have hit two of my goals, maybe three, depending on how you look at it. Some of these missed goals are just delayed.

But overall, I have had the best year of my life financially. I am very blessed to be in this position. I practise gratitude a lot, which helps me to stay humble and thankful. I always tell myself how lucky I am when I see others that have less.

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📝 Setting Goals for 2025

I would like to take 2025 a lot easier on myself. However, I am very driven and have a constant conflict going on inside my brain. When I relax I feel guilty and tell myself I should make hay while the sun shines, and when I work too hard, I question why I am doing it.

The real message here is that although you don’t hit your goals 100%, don’t let that put you off. Don’t let it get you down. As long as you have improved in some way from when you set the goals, that is good enough.

Continue to set those goals, whatever they may be.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2025 and that it ends better than it starts.
Ben

P.S. A little gift from me to start your 2025 off on the right foot.

If you would like the free goals template that you can customise in canva, you can find it by clicking below.

Get the FREE canva template here

You can customise it however you want and add your own goals.

I would love for you to post your goals in my group KDP secrets, so that it creates a bit of accountability for you and also inspires others.

I created my goals in canva and then printed the image off and put it in frame so that I am reminded on a daily basis what my goals are. This may help for you. I also have these goals saved as the wallpaper on my phone.

👉 Join the KDP Secrets Group and share your goals – accountability can inspire others. Let’s make 2025 a year of intentional progress together!