Are you ready for your Golden Era?
If you believe 2025 was the start of the Golden Era of your personal brand and the world around you, what would you invest in now?
We’re officially a quarter of the way through the 21st century. So, how do you plan to make 2025 the best year yet for your personal brand and personal life? Or even better, enter your Golden Era? Set yourself up for potential years of success, prosperity and well-being. More than thinking about just the year ahead for your personal brand and life, where do you want to be three, four, or five years from now? Are you sowing seeds for your personal brand this year that your future self will reap the benefits from?
Here’s how I plan to enter the Golden Era:
1. Set the intention
Economic and other elements have made the last few years a struggle for many. Plus, it came after years of lockdowns, uncertainty, separation or loss. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the world and your personal brand. It’s the golden age of opportunity, information, AI, social media, and even the markets have shown some sparkles of recovery.
Traditionally, the Golden Era is a time of nostalgia for the best years. It’s often something you can see in hindsight. But what if you decide it is the start of the Golden Era for the world and your personal brand right now? What would you do differently? What would your future self a few years from now thank you for or wish you did? Invest your time, money and energy into those things - instead of wishing you had in hindsight.
For simplicity's sake, I won’t go into the details of the economics, technology and cultural shifts about why I believe, with conviction, that the Golden Era is upon us. But, I’ll summarise by saying I’ve decided wholeheartedly that this is the start of the Golden Era, and it’s changing the way I plan and behave as a result.
2. Attract the energy you create
The Golden Era theme features through my vision board, Pinterest, and how I write my goals. I’ve even created a playlist for a soundtrack to match my intention. My husband and I both discuss it as though it’s a fact, rather than a wish. I’ve long understood the psychological and neuro-linguistic power of ‘acting as if’ and speaking your ambitions into the present tense. But having such a specific theme has made this feel more real than ever before.
In his book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr. Joe Dispenza discussed the importance of the quantum You. Everything in the universe is made up of sub-atomic particles. They are both everywhere and nowhere until they are observed. Therefore, everything in our physical reality exists as pure potential. Mind and matter are entirely entangled:
“That quantum field contains a reality in which you are healthy, wealthy, and happy, and possess all of the qualities and capabilities of the idealized self that you hold in your thoughts.”
From a quantum perspective, you have to match the potential reality that exists only as an electromagnetic potential. This broadcast will pull you toward the reality you want, or it will find you.
3. Set clearly categorised goals
In my previous blog, I discussed how to write down goals the right way. But what types of goals should you be writing personally and for your personal brand? I overlay two techniques.
In his book Your Best Year Ever, Michael Hyatt suggests setting goals within 10 key domains, aiming for 7-10 each year. The domains consist of:
Spiritual
Intellectual
Emotional
Physical
Marital
Parental
Social
Vocational
Avocational
Financial
The key is understanding which domains need the most attention in this season of your life. I set goals specifically in each relevant area. For example, this past year, I read the Bible cover to cover as a spiritual goal. I read a new book in classic literature every week as an intellectual goal. I focused on yoga as a physical goal. I had goals relating to specific hobbies and so on. I set very clear financial goals every year. Now, with the Golden Era in mind, I plan to pay extra special attention to these in the coming years.
I ensure these goals create synergy with my core values. By that, I don’t mean some vague values sense-check. I’ve done the deep work to set 5 personal values. These drive my decision-making - much like best practice for any business. You can read more about my goal-setting process in my previous blog.
4. Identify the opportunities others aren’t
In setting your personal and personal brand goals and building your desired habits, don’t get so focused on yourself that you create blinders to the world around you. How do you spend time educating yourself about the enivornment you operate in? What major trends are happening in the world? In your industry? And how are you responding to it? Take the time to learn things you don’t naturally understand. What opportunities are others missing, making fun of or avoiding?
In Courage is Calling Ryan Holiday says:
"The paradox of course is that almost everything new, everything impressive, everything right, was done over the loud objections of the status quo. Most of what is beloved now was looked down on at the time of its creation or adoption by people who now pretend that never happened.”
The majority play it safe. Without risk, there is no reward. If everyone was doing it, it wouldn’t be valuable.
5. Play the long game
As Grant Cardone highlights in his book, The 10x Rule, people tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but underestimate what they can achieve in five, ten or more years. Even if the economy doesn’t turn around in 2025, what can you do now? If the stock market stays down - great, that means stocks are on sale. If crypto crashes, that means you can invest at cheaper rates.
This, of course, isn’t financial advice. But it’s about asking yourself, whatever your situation, where an opportunity lies.
How are you planting seeds? In Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert T Kiyosaki says:
“Our assets are large enough to grow by themselves. It’s like planting a tree. You water it for years, then one day, it doesn’t need you anymore. Its roots are implanted deep enough. Then the tree provides shade for your enjoyment.”
Sometimes, seeds you planted years ago and gave up on spring to life when you least expect it. So, play the long game. This applies to your non-financial pursuits for your personal brand and personal goals, too. When you play the long game, the rules of the game change, and you play differently. Simon Sinek discusses this in The Infinite Game.
There are two kinds of games - Finite and Infinite Games:
Finite Games
Finite Games have known players and fixed rules. They have agreed upon objectives that, when reached, end the game.
Infinite Games
Infinite Games are played by known and unknown players with no exact rules. How players choose to play can change at any time. There is no finish line, therefore no such thing as ‘winning’. This creates an infinite game. Here, the primary objective becomes to keep playing, perpetuating the game.
6. Invest your time
You don’t need money to be investing. In the Almanak of Naval Ravikant, Ravikant is quoted as saying this about the new rich:
“Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep… If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.”
It costs next to nothing, if anything at all, to start a podcast or YouTube channel or to post on social media. If you can’t invest your money, invest in media using your personal brand. I discussed the major shift happening in the media in a previous blog and the opportunities available for all personal brands to be part of this seismic shift.
Buying stock takes seconds, and creating content for your personal brand takes time. But when you’re planning your financial and investment strategies for 2025, think outside the box. Understanding that investing comes in different forms. So plant seeds for your personal brand and personal life. Your future self will thank you for making the most of the Golden Era.
