4 strategies for setting (and achieving!) your career goals in 2025

Are you feeling “stuck” in your current job, or feeling like you’re in need of a new challenge or opportunity to grow? Whether you’re looking to completely overhaul your career in 2025 and pursue a different industry altogether, want to step out on your own and try being your own boss and starting your own business, or you’re looking for a new role that more closely aligns with your personal and professional goals, values and priorities and gives you room to grow, 2025 offers a clean slate, a fresh start, and the chance to identify what you truly want to achieve in your professional life.

Do you want to pursue a new career in Pilates, one that gives you more flexibility, freedom, financial reward and fulfilment than you’re afforded in your current role or industry? Do you want to elevate your existing career in Pilates, learning to work with different groups of clients, committing to ongoing professional development and continued learning, or possibly even opening your very own studio? Do you want to step up in your healthcare career, improving your confidence and skills so you can better support your patients and their diverse needs, and open up new employment and income opportunities where you feel valued, respected and cared for as you deserve?

Wherever you’re at in your career, and wherever you want to go, there is one fundamental key to achieving career success - whatever “success” looks like to you… Clearly defining your career goals, and then taking actionable, planned and intentional steps towards achieving them is your one-way ticket to achieving your professional and personal goals in 2025.

Let’s kickstart the new year together with clear, achievable goals and a plan of attack ready to set into motion as soon as the year begins. Don’t wait for success to come to you - pursue it with determination, ferocity and relentlessness! The opportunities awaiting you are endless, all you have to do is choose to pursue them. And to do so, we’re sharing four powerful strategies to help you set and achieve effective career goals in 2025.

Clarify your goals and vision.

Having a clearly defined vision of what you want your career to look like (both day-to-day, and on a broader scale) is foundational to effective goal setting. Whether you’re seeking personal growth and learning, financial independence, a feeling of purpose in your work, or anything in between, make sure you understand why your chosen goal is so important to you. Take some time to brainstorm what “success” looks like to you - it’s highly individual and personal, and no two people’s definitions will be the same.

Once you understand what “success” means to you, identify the core values or feelings you need to experience to feel you’ve achieved your definition of success. Do you want to feel secure in your ability to provide for yourself or your family? Do you want to feel excited to go to work every day? Do you want to feel purposeful and fulfilled, knowing you’re making a positive difference in people’s lives with your work? Do you want to experience less stress and pressure in your job, so you have more energy and time to dedicate to other areas of your life you consider more important?

These questions will help you figure out the way you want to feel in your career, so you can set clearer goals for 2025. Once you’ve come up with the core feelings and values you want to prioritise, it’s time to reflect on where you are right now.

In your current role or industry, are you fulfilled and satisfied? Do you feel valued and appreciated? Are you given the flexibility and financial reward you want or need? How do you feel before each new work week - excitement, dread, fear, anticipation, eagerness, energy? What aspects of your current job excite you, and what elements would you do anything to change or avoid?

Once you’ve figured out how you feel about your current reality, it’s time to identify what changes you want to make in your professional life.
Brainstorm responses to the following prompts, jotting down the first immediate thoughts that come to mind - ideally, you want to hand-write your answers to allow you to get into the flow of the exercise.

• Why did you choose to pursue your current career in the first place
• What impact do you want to have on your patients/clients/colleagues etc?
• What does ‘growth’ in your current role look like? What do you want it to look like?
• Can you achieve your professional goals and find fulfillment where you are?
• What needs to change to allow you to actualise your goals?
• Do you want to specialise in a particular niche within your industry, working with specific clients or patients, or developing expertise in a certain field or area?

Next, it’s time to visualise.

• What does your ideal career or job look and feel like? Where are you working?
• Who are you working with and for?
• Are you your own boss, or how does your employer treat you? What type of patients or clients do you work with?
• What does your day-to-day look like?
• And your work-life balance?

Physically close your eyes as you picture what you want your future career to look like - immerse yourself in the vision and experience of it, and tune into the values, feelings and daily experiences that are coming up as critically important elements you want to pursue.

By now, you should have a fairly well-developed idea of your mission or vision for your career, both in the short- and long-term future. If you’re a visual person, create a vision board (on Pinterest, print stuff out, whatever works for you) and put it somewhere you’ll look at all the time so it’s front of mind and ready to motivate you and remind you of what you’re working towards in the moments you experience uncertainty.

If you’re more of a words person, come up with a vision statement articulating what you see as career success in the long-term, and what you’d like to achieve in the next 12 months to feel like you’d made positive steps towards achieving this.

Break down your goals into actionable steps and milestones.

Large, big picture, long-term goals can feel exciting, but in reality it can feel really overwhelming and confusing when it comes to actually starting to work towards them. Many people wonder where to even begin, and fall into the trap of feeling like their goal is too far out of reach, so there’s no point even trying to get there in the first place.

However, if you break these big picture goals into smaller, manageable steps and milestones, you’re creating a clear roadmap to your success.

Firstly, make a list of short-term goals which are instantly identifiable and pivotal to your longer-term aspirations. Things like “Becoming a qualified Pilates instructor” if you want to pivot into a lucrative career in Pilates and start your own studio; or maybe “Expanding my online presence to reach new patients” if you’re an allied health professional looking to provide better support to more people with diverse needs. Arrange these short-term goals into a realistic timeline, starting with the most pressing and following with the natural sequential order your goals fall into.

Now, we’re going to make these goals SMART. If you’re not already familiar with SMART goals, this stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound goals - or essentially, they’re goals which you can actually achieve, and determine when you’ve achieved them.

These almost always involve adding some kind of quantitative measure to each of your goals. For example, instead of wanting to reach new patients or clients, you’d adjust your goal to “I want to increase my patient/client base by 25% in 2025.” As you can see, this is something you can monitor your progress towards, and clearly identify when you’ve achieved it.

You can also better understand how you plan on achieving this goal when you’ve been super specific as to what you’re working towards. So in this instance, you can follow your goal of increasing your client base by 25% with some ideas of how you plan on going about this. For example, “To achieve this, over the next three months I am to complete a social media marketing course and establish a presence on Instagram and TikTok, host a free information session with potential clients about the services I provide and how I can help them, and follow up with 10 potential clients to understand how I can convert them and get them over the line to become actual clients.”

See how much more achievable and thought-out your goals feel now?

Once you’ve written out your list of short-term SMART goals in a realistic and achievable timeline, you may want to break them down even further, setting monthly or weekly targets to ensure you’re staying on track.

Even better - set yourself a fortnightly or monthly reminder to check in on your goals. Revisit your list and timeline, and assess whether you’re on track to achieving them, and you’re meeting the milestones you established for yourself.

If you’re not quite getting there, consider whether you need to readjust your goals (Were they too ambitious? Were too many things happening at once? Were they unrealistic?) or your plan of attack (Are you working hard enough? Are you lacking motivation? Do you need external support or guidance to overcome obstacles that have come up? Do you need to allow yourself a little more time to achieve the goals you’ve set?).

And when you do achieve your short-term goals and milestones, take the time to CELEBRATE! Feel proud of yourself, enjoy the feeling of accomplishment, and really acknowledge the hard work you’re doing to get to where you want to be in your career. It will all pay off in the end! But don’t lose sight of what you’ve already achieved in your eagerness to look to the future and your “end goal”.

Invest in your continued education and professional growth.

If you feel like you’re no longer learning or growing, or there’s no room for progression in your current role, it’s time for a change. You need motivation, challenge, variety and inspiration.

You should always aim to be growing or learning in some way in your job - whether that’s:

• Investing in professional development and upskilling courses
• Attending webinars and workshops hosted by leaders in your industry
• Networking and meeting new people in your field
• Finding a mentor (or someone in your industry whose work you admire) who you can learn from - for example, attending the classes of a Pilates instructor you look up to for inspiration in your own teaching and programming.
• Learning new business skills (like marketing, finances, client management)
• Completing additional relevant qualifications (like your APPI Ante and Post Natal Pilates certification if you’re interested in instructing this group of clients, or an APPI Clinical Pilates Certification if you’re a health professional wanting to offer greater expertise and skills to your patients)
• …or something else, committing to your ongoing growth and development is critical in helping you achieve your career goals.

Industries like healthcare and fitness move so rapidly, with new methodologies, technologies, innovations and service offerings developed all the time. Both are highly in-demand industries, which means competition is fierce - making it all the more important to stay ahead of changes and evolution in the industry, and continue setting yourself apart from your competitors.

This also helps keep you inspired and motivated to continue pursuing your goals with determination and intention.

So before 2025 officially kicks off, consider the following:

Look into 2-3 online or in-person courses or certifications that can enhance your skill set and align with your 2025 career goals. Consider which courses, providers and content most closely align with your own values and work - are you looking for an evidence-based course and education provider? Are you searching for flexible learning options? Is it a priority for you to find a course that allows you to start working with a specific group of patients/clients?

Figure out what you want to achieve from your growth and professional development efforts, and what your priorities are, and then use your research and the opinions of others to help you find the perfect fit for your goals.

Schedule in time every week (or at least every fortnight/month) to dedicate to professional development and learning. Even if this simply involves reading a relevant book, or attending an online webinar. Add it into your work calendar just as you would any other meeting, and make it as equally non-negotiable! No rescheduling, no avoiding. Make a commitment to yourself and your career!

Create a work-life balance that feels sustainable and motivating.

Balance is so important for anyone - even those people who swear they wake up at 5am every day and dive straight into their work because they’re just so passionate. But achieving your career goals doesn’t just demand you to focus on your professional life and work. It also requires you to maintain a healthy balance, making room and time for your personal life and self care alongside your work.

For Pilates instructors and health professionals alike, burnout is a very common issue we see people experience time and time again. Pushing yourself to the point of burnout is not going to help you achieve your career goals, so it’s important to prevent yourself from reaching this point. When you experience burnout, you feel unmotivated, uninspired and unsure about whether your career is right for you… all the opposite experiences to how you want to feel when working towards your 2025 career goals.

To achieve a sustainable, enjoyable work-life balance, you need to establish clear boundaries and make them non-negotiable. For example, limit your work hours to 9-5 on weekdays, or whatever hours suit your schedule and role. Once you’ve determined your hours, be strict with yourself and do not get into the habit of working outside of these - and yes, answering emails counts!

Similarly, schedule time for yourself into your work diary. Add in things like your workouts, an occasional massage, social events, mindfulness, hobbies, even rest days! Whatever brings you joy and is a priority for you, add it into that calendar and prioritise it just as much as you do your work. Remember, you can’t show up to work at your best if you’re not filling your own cup first.

Consider creating a business model which can support this long-term balance - for example, if you’re a Pilates instructor why not offer group or online classes so you can see more clients in less time, and even potentially cut out travel time too? If you’re an allied health professional, why not diversify your income streams by offering online programs or workshops to bring in passive income during your “off” hours and days and give you a little more flexibility and relief from your work demands.

When you’re establishing your ways of working and your boundaries, consider the most sustainable practices you can introduce which will serve you both now, and long into the future. You don’t just need to prioritise work-life balance now. It needs to be a focus always, to ensure you do your best work when you are in work hours, and can still enjoy and live your best life outside of work hours too.

So the time has come: how do you want your career to look (and feel!) in 12 months’ time? Remember, setting clear, actionable goals is a critical step… but it’s only the first step. What matters most is following through on these goals with consistent, planned, intentional actions (which is where SMART goals and timelines come in handy!).

Reflect on how 2024 has shaped and influenced your career, and the lessons you’ve learned along the way. And allow this to guide you as you sit down and spend some time identifying exactly what you want to take with you into 2025, and what you want to leave behind. We’d love to hear your personal career goals if you’re willing to share with us - send us a DM on Instagram @unitehealth and if we can support you in any way, we’re all ears!

If you’re looking to grow and expand your current career in 2025, you can check out our range of upskilling courses - all of which are evidence-based and designed specifically to equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to support more patients or clients than ever before. We’re always adding new, exciting course options to meet your requests, so keep checking back in regularly to see what’s on offer!
If you’re an allied health professional wanting to stay ahead of industry changes and set yourself apart from your competition, or you simply want to offer more comprehensive and effective services to your valued patients, our APPI Clinical Pilates Certification is for you!

Or, if you’re looking to make a complete pivot and pursue a career in Pilates that offers you the freedom, fulfilment and fun you’ve always wanted from your job, our APPI Pilates Instructor Certification is the perfect way to set yourself up for success and open up as many employment opportunities as possible for when you’re a qualified instructor - after all, it is the most respected, recognised and highly-regarded qualification in the industry Australia-wide!

And if you have no idea which course or certification is best suited to you and will help you achieve your 2025 career goals, we’ve got you! Book a free chat with our course experts today for all the personalised advice, guidance and answers you need to take the next step towards your goals with confidence!