These 2 things will make your 2025 successful

2 simple actions that will actually help you achieve your goals.

Author

Michael Ly
14 Jan

Read Time: 5.6 min

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Here’s the route for today

📣 Announcement: Get inside access to my content!

💼 Topic: Read this to land a job in 2025

  • 2 ways to make 2025 your year

  • Ditch goals, start Quarterly Quests

  • Here’s how I would do it

ANNOUNCEMENT
Get inside access to my content!

Exciting news today. I’m officially launching my new weekly email series: Insider Epics!

Here are the details:

Name: Insider Epics 👑

Schedule: Every Friday @ 9:00 am

Content you can expect: Will consist of 2 pillars

Pillar 1. Behind the scenes of my newsletter

I grew The Leap Sprint from 0 to 4000+ subscribers in a year and I’m releasing the playbook on how I did this.

Topics you can expect:

  • How I get sponsorships and monetize

  • Strategies I used to get my first 1000 subscribers

  • Avoiding writer’s block and generating consistent ideas

Pillar 2. Behind the scenes of my LinkedIn content

At 0 followers, I used to be scared of LinkedIn.

Today, I’ve hit Top Voice with 2500+ followers and had several posts go viral!

Topics you can expect:

  • How LinkedIn helped me get my 1st job

  • How to get your first 1000 followers

  • Why you need to build a LinkedIn audience

  • The secret to writing viral posts

Who is the ideal reader?

Do you fit these characteristics?

  • You like your job but also want to build something meaningful on the side that feels truly yours

  • You’re ready to turn your skills and passion into a 2nd income stream that complements your career

  • You’re excited by the idea of turning your voice and expertise into a personal brand that opens new doors

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TOPIC
Read this to land a job in 2025

🔵 Don’t get stuck in the goal-setting trap

Here are some not-so-surprising stats:

  • 80% of people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions by February

  • Only 8% of people stick with them the entire year

I get it, it’s January, new year, new you right?

Your goal for 2025 might be landing that dream internship, negotiating a raise, or getting that promotion.

Regardless, there’s a very common trap people fall into when setting goals.

It’s setting them too broadly.

Having big goals is great, but without direction, you end up making no progress.

Today, I’m going to help you plan and achieve your 2025 career goals in 2 simple steps.

Let’s dive in.

1. Ditch goals, start Quarterly Quests

Most goals fail because they’re not specific enough. Instead what you should be doing are what I call, Quarterly Quests.

Think about it - saying "I want to land a job in 2025" is like saying "I want to get fit." It's too vague.

But what if you broke it down into 90-day periods? Now we're talking.

Here's what a Q1 quest might look like for job seekers:

  • Apply to 10 jobs per week (that's 120 applications in 90 days!)

  • Cold email 1 new person each weekday (100 new connections by April)

  • Attend 2 networking events per month

See how much more manageable that feels? Instead of a giant mountain, you're looking at clear, bite-sized steps.

2. Every day, define your Critical Missions

Ever had those days where you felt busy but accomplished nothing? Yeah, me too.

That's where Critical Missions come in.

Here's the hack.

Every night before bed, ask yourself one question: "What are the 2-3 things I need to do tomorrow that would make my day productive?"

For job searching, your Critical Missions might be:

  • Send that follow-up email to the recruiter you met

  • Complete one job application

  • Prepare for tomorrow's coffee chat

Small? Yes. But these daily wins compound faster than you'd think.

With Critical Missions, set no more than 3 per day.

Here’s how I would do it

Let me show you exactly how I'd approach job hunting in 2025 using this system.

Annual Goal: Land a Product Manager role at a tech company

Q1 Quest (January - March):

  • Apply to 10 carefully selected PM roles each week

  • Have one coffee chat per week with current PMs

  • Complete one PM case study every two weeks

  • Attend 2 product management meetups monthly

Daily Critical Missions (example):

Monday:

  • Research and apply to 2 PM positions

  • Send a connection request to a PM at a target company

  • Work on case study for 1 hour

Tuesday:

  • Prepare for a coffee chat with PM from [Company]

  • Follow up with last week's connections

  • Review and update PM portfolio

See the difference? Instead of "get a job," you have clear, actionable steps for each quarter, broken down into daily missions.

Your next steps:

  1. Write down your big 2025 career goal

  2. Break it into your first Quarterly Quest (January - March). You can do this on a piece of paper or use Notion

  3. Tonight, write down tomorrow's 2-3 Critical Missions. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t hit all of them. Achieving just 1 Critical Mission is enough

Remember - small steps, taken consistently, lead to big changes.

See you next Tuesday 🤝

-Michael Ly

P.S. miss last week’s email? Read Finding a 9-5 that doesn't suck 

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