Setting Goals for the Back Half of 2025
It’s July and it’s natural to look back at the first half of the year and ask… Where did the time go? Why didn’t I get more done? Am I really on track?
If you’re feeling any of that right now, I want to offer you a reframe.
👉 It’s not too late.
👉 It’s the middle of the year.
👉 There’s plenty of time to achieve your goals: starting now.
Why We Get Stuck Looking Back
As creatives and entrepreneurs, we set big, beautiful goals in January. We dream. We plan.
But then life happens:
A launch takes longer than expected.
Family needs more of our attention.
We hit tech snags, mindset wobbles, or plain old burnout.
By July, it’s easy to focus on what didn’t happen. But that focus keeps us stuck. And here’s the thing: the next 6 months are a blank canvas.
You can choose what goes on it.
Looking Forward
✨ 1️⃣ Pause and reflect, but don’t judge. Our creative journeys are like winding roads. That’s why I picked an image of a road for today’s blog cover because our journey is full of twists and turns. It’s an adventure and you never know what’s around the next bend or corner.
Here’s my advice: Take 10 minutes this week to review what went well in the first half of the year.
What are you proud of?
What progress did you make, even if it wasn’t what you planned?
What lessons did you learn?
✨ 2️⃣ Pick ONE priority for the rest of 2025.
I know. I know. As creatives we have so many ideas. And you probably have 10 things you want to do. But focus creates freedom.
What’s the ONE goal that would make the biggest difference?
Examples:
Create that awesome freebie your ideal customers are waiting for
Publish your freebie so that you start growing your email list
Launch your first course or finish your first surface pattern design collection
Start a weekly Newsletter if you love to write, or
Start a free Facebook group to build community around your creative passion
✨ 3️⃣ Break it into milestones.
Once you’ve picked your ONE priority, map out monthly milestones and stay focused on that ONE thing. I use Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner to break my goals down even further from monthly to weekly to daily. The planner comes with training materials to help you optimize how to use it. I love it and it’s a huge help in keeping me on track.
This turns a big, dreamy goal into something you can actually work toward, week by week.
Action Plan for the Next 6 Months
Here’s a practical template you can follow:
🎯 My big goal for the rest of 2025 is:
[Write it here]
🔹 Milestone #1 (by end July):
[Write it here]
✅ This week:
[Write it here — one small action to get you started]
✅ Week 2:
[Write it here — another small action to keep you going]
✅ Week 3:
[Write it here — another small action to keep you going]
✅ Week 4:
[Write it here — another small action to keep you going]
Rinse and repeat those steps for each month between now and December.
Write your goal, milestones and action steps down because numerous studies show that you are 42% more likely to achieve them when they are written down. Here’s a study by UPM Communications from April 2024 called: “The Power of Putting Pen to Paper: How Writing Down Goals Transforms Dreams into Reality.“
Success In The 2nd Half
When I look back at my own business journey, I see time and again how much I accomplished in the back half of each year. Don’t forget or overlook the fact that most sales happen between October and December so the back half of the year is the PERFECT time to get moving!
The biggest successes in my business didn’t happen because of perfect plans I made in January. They happened because I refreshed or revised or improved my plans throughout the year.
That same opportunity is here for you, right now.
Want Help?
One of the best ways I know to create and stick with a meaningful goal is to surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
That’s exactly why I created the Creative Business Mastermind. If you’re craving support for the second half of 2025, please apply so we can talk one on one to see if we’re a good fit to work together.
If you missed The Creative Business Blueprint LIVE in June, don’t worry. I heard you and I’ve created a digital course version so you can access what we covered and dive into my framework at your own pace.
👉 Click here to learn more.
Final Thoughts
Don’t let the voice that says, “I should be further along by now” slow you down. Look ahead and choose one goal. Take the first small step toward it this week.
Because it’s never too late to create® and 6 months is more than enough time to create something amazing.
xo,
Anne
P.S. I will be live on Wednesday at noon PDT which is 3pm EDT.
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
