Episode 114: Leveling Up for 2025: Growth, Goals, and a Dash of Humor

Welcome to the episode that kicks off 2025 with energy, excitement, and a whole lot of laughs! In this conversation, we dive into what it means to grow, adapt, and set intentional goals for the year ahead.

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

• The power of reflection: what worked, what didn’t, and how to make adjustments moving forward.
• The sacrifices, changes, and growth necessary to achieve different results in 2025.
• Why we believe there’s always room to level up, even if life feels amazing right now (hello, new pizza toppings!).
• Practical tips to set goals that align with your vision and values.
• A reminder to embrace both the fun and the challenges of personal and professional growth.

We also couldn’t resist bringing in a bit of holiday cheer and humor as we talk about cookies, pizza, and our favorite ways to approach the New Year.

Now it’s your turn! What’s on your 2025 agenda? What changes are you making to ensure this year is your best one yet? Share your goals and reflections with us—leave a comment, DM us, or connect with us on social media. We’d love to hear from you!

Don’t forget to:
👉 Share this episode with someone in your network who’s ready to level up.
👉 Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more).
👉 Drop us a review and let us know what resonated with you (and how much you love our goofy humor).

Here’s to a year of new beginnings, bold moves, and massive growth. Until next time—get after it!

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube or Spotify and leave us a review!

• Like the show? LEAVE US A REVIEW wherever you listen!
• Have a question? CONTACT US at info@thepursuitofbadasserie.com!
• Want to sponsor us? Find out how HERE.

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Hey, I’m Lynn.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the Pursuit of Badasserie: The Podcast. Welcome 2025. This is the first podcast of the new year.

I know it’s every year. say, I can’t believe it’s a new year, but every year I am still awestruck at just how fast time goes.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Yes. Can you believe it’s 2025 already? Like in a freaking insane.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

No. because 20 years ago was 1980. don’t know what happened.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I don’t know. Okay, remember Y2K.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Do you remember that?

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Yes, I remember Y2K. We’re going to give a little bit of reality check around New Year New Me, but yeah, we’re up leveling.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Any of you. Okay. No, no, no, no. Okay. So for our audience, we’re the topic today is New Year New You and sort of a myth buster around this reality check around what that means, a reality check around New Year’s resolutions.

And it’s not to say we don’t want people to improve and embrace change like every day. Any day could be a Monday kind of mentality, because there’s always that feeling like it’s easier to start anew if it’s the first of a month, if it’s a Monday, if it’s the new year, something or it’s even your birthday, so people feel that that’s the perfect time to start something new because it feels fresh like Monday is a I’ll work out on Monday, you know, it’s one of those things.

So we’re not poo-pooing the desire to be better and to improve yourself and and to strive for more. want those things.

We love those things. We do. We have these existential crisis all the time, talking to ourselves sometimes often.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I’m a little too often.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Staff meeting, it’s fine. We talk all the time about this because we are constantly trying to up level. We are constantly trying to be better, do better, make the world better in all intents and purposes.

So when it comes around to January 1st, right, I bushy-tailed or probably hung over, or waking up into a new year.

And what irks us is this common theme of resolutions, new year, new me, and then nothing. And just, it’s just, you’re saying it because that’s what you say, and then there’s no action put into it.

It is just another day. It is another Monday. a week goes by, a month goes by, still haven’t flushed your teeth, you haven’t eaten any vegetables, we get it.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Since it’s a new year new me, if it’s new year same me for 75 years. Yes. Yes. You know, people think it’s just like magical like button, like day that all of a sudden so reset and we don’t have to do anything to actually have that transformation to have the cause and the effect and it’s not the day and you were saying actually earlier and I don’t know if you said it in you actually said this phrase but you were talking around is like there’s no better day to start something than yesterday.

The next best day is today. It’s the same thing as planting a tree. So you don’t have to wait for this day in the new year and that’s the wait but also when that day comes it doesn’t just magically

turn you into, you know, the princess or whatever, real changes every day actionable steps. It’s not like January 1 isn’t a reset button for your life, for your business.

You have to put in every day action and it’s a gradual, it’s a gradual movement. It’s that that that consistency of every day actions gives you that transformation.

It’s not just like snap my fingers, have a man, did you ever wish you had a magic genie, know, lamp for many reasons?

I’ve often wonder what my three wishes would be. That’s not facts people. That’s not reality.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

come on, wake up. I’ve analyzed my three wishes, like assuming that the genie was out to trick me, like, how would I word it in the exact right way that you get my wish so that even if he were a tricky little a hole, he would, I would still get the outcome a lot, because there’s all those like, story.

Or as if you ask the wish and like, oh, I want money. And then like, your family dies and leaves you money.

And like, all the negatives, like I worked it out in like a 4am insomniotic moment, worked out my dream wishes, however I digress.

But it’s true that one of the hardest things, and I say this with sort of love, not really loves more like veiled animosity, that as someone who worked in the fitness industry for 20 plus years, I loved New Year’s Solution Time because this is like, like New Year’s disillusionment time where people thought they were gonna suddenly be so dedicated and they would buy their gym membership in full and they were like, yeah, I’m gonna buy an outfit and I’m gonna be great.

And I love those people because I mean, I would make triple my monthly income in one month because people were so excited.

But most of those people, like if you think about the big box chains, like not necessarily the boutique fitness studios, the big, like a gold gem or a ballets or whatever, LA fit.

Yes, they’re banking on people not coming. In fact, they want they they over sell memberships with the knowledge that 30 something percent are never going to show up.

They’re hoping you don’t show up. They’re like banking on your ability to wake up on January 1st, hungover and say, maybe I’ll wait till Monday because January 1st, very rarely falls on a Monday, but sometimes it does.

But even still, it’s just like, oh, I’m talking over, maybe I’ll start tomorrow, it’s fine. I’ll wait to start my workout routine and then seven years later, you haven’t done it.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I thought it was more like your inability to have discipline and actually get your head out of here and do something about it.

But to go back to the transformation doesn’t happen overnight, like, again, a new date on the calendar doesn’t erase those bad habits, doesn’t erase the excuses that you always give yourself doesn’t erase the patterns or the struggles that you have put into place that you continue to live through.

And so, you have to make change. Also, another thing about new, new, new, new year, new you, and this goes on your, your example.

love the gym examples are so easy is a lot of times people don’t need a drastic overall. They think it has to be a completely different person.

There’s somebody who is just like unattainable or doesn’t have anything to do with who they are, not always, but like, you know, they’re, I don’t even want to go that down that route.

But, you know, it’s just not feasible. And so you have to change everything. And that’s not true. Huge leaps and bounds.

if we look at weight loss, if you lose a bunch of weight all at once, that’s typically not sustainable, right?

It’s not long term. You can have some quick fixes, but it’s not fundamental and foundational to get you to, to keep that, right?

sustainable change. often, at times, when you try to do like, especially when you’re not used to it, and you try to do this big drastic overhaul, if you are one who’s gonna like put in the work to do the overhaul, you can do it.

And if you haven’t done the ground work to be able to, and the fundamentals, the foundational work to be able to sustain it, you’re building it on shaking ground, a lot of times you don’t know exactly what you need to do, you haven’t put the forethought into it, and it can really lead to overwhelm and burnout, and a lot of doors in your face, and which, you know, is part of business, but if you’re not used to that, and part of life, life, life’s like, let’s be honest, but if you’re not used to that and haven’t set yourself up for better success, then it disinheartens you, and you actually end up worse than what you started out with, typically.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Absolutely, absolutely, you talk about When it comes to making these changes, there is a lot more. discipline there because yeah January 1st is a great motivation for lot of people but motivation is not the same thing as discipline.

I could be motivated to work out but then at 5am on January 1st when I’m hung over and it’s negative 20 degrees outside, mean not where I am but somewhere, it’s negative 20 degrees outside, it takes discipline to get you out of the bed and get you into the gym every day and then the next week and then the next month and then six months later that takes dedication, discipline, it’s not just motivation because I would say most of the most discipline people I know are not motivated all the time.

You just can’t be motivated all the time unless you have somebody who’s you’re paying to make you get motivated which is what personal trainers do which is what nutritionists do which what coaches do, there’s all sorts of professions that can hold you accountable but ultimately it’s the discipline to actually do it put in those actions.

But in the those fundamental steps because even, I mean, let in our coaches and coach consultants, more consultants these days, but we can tell you what to do.

We can motivate you, hold you accountable, but we can’t force you to have the discipline to put in those day-to-day steps that are the small action things that are going to create the results, the consistent results that you’re looking for.

We can’t make you do it. I mean, I guess I could make you do it. That’s more like a dominatrix thing, which is like a holder of the professional, which might give you this year.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

never podcast. Another podcast.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

podcast.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

don’t Just saying. Well, but you know, it’s facts. Like we can lead you, we can show you the door, but we can’t make you go through it.

mean, even if we push you through it, at the end of the day, you’re not going to stay through it.

We have no problem pushing you through it, but you’re not what we’ve learned in the years is that if you don’t actually, it’s kind of like the caving bought his car and earned the money versus a kid who was given his car.

like the person who has typically earned his way, his or her way, put it in the work, they appreciate more, there’s more impact, there’s more compounded cause and effect as well versus the one who does not.

Another myth too, or I don’t know this would be a myth, but a lot of times people who are like, okay, I got this, I’m going to do this, and the first time they have a setback, they like feel like, what was me?

I failed, or they make excuses, just one more cookie, just one more cookie, just one, but this failure or this like backslide, this like, oh, I, I, I tripped and fell whatever into a pile of cookies.

I don’t know how we’re talking about cookies, now I’m getting heavier for cookies. Anyway, the truth is, growth in change is not linear.

learning compassion and grace for oneself. Because is failure, um, tripping, uh, you know, setbacks, it’s all a part of the process.

And this is those back to where we were just talking about, like, are you really setting yourself up for success?

Do you have the support around you to be able to unders, like, to be able to weather, um, that particular setback or that, that failure, right?

Have you set yourself up in the right way as much as possible? Or do you have the ability energetically, emotionally, spiritually, to be resilient, because that has to come from you.

That’s a muscle that you build. And so you have to realize, like, you’re going to get more nose and yeses.

You’re going to have failures. There’s going to be setbacks, but growth isn’t linear. And so this whole new year, new year, like bright-eyed and bushy to tell, you’re super excited.

And then the first, like, door slammed in your face, you kind of get your butt hurt. Like, you’re not going to, you’re not going to go very far.

And so this whole, like, are you setting yourself up for success?

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

that’s your failure. And I have to say also, are you recognizing how far you have come and what you have accomplished?

There’s this new trend. I mean, it’s probably not gonna be new by the time by the time this podcast comes out, it will not be a new trend.

It will be an old trend, but an Instagram trend where the first image is, Oh, I’m so hard on myself because I haven’t accomplished all that I’ve wanted to.

And then the second picture is but here’s what I actually accomplished. had hit this milestone in my business. did this many days of travel.

you know, I had a new baby, I lost 20 pounds, I hit six figures, I hit seven figures, I whatever.

And I think that when you’re looking at this whole new year new you, it’s important to also take a look at what you actually have done because you can’t really set yourself up for success and make bigger leaps and bounds.

You don’t know where you are. How can you know where you’re going next if you don’t even know where you are?

I mean, I’m not great with maps, but I know that, at least.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Great. I mean, I’m great at maps, too.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

I knew that one. You remember MapQuest? used to type it in, like, in a piece of paper, and you would, like, drive around with a piece of paper, try to figure out where you’re going.

would lead you to, like, an alley, and that was, like, high-tech.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

That was high-tech. Actually, I was going through old things with my grandma over the Christmas when I visited her, and she had maps from, like, way back in the day.

I was like, you know I mean? Nobody knows how to read these anymore.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

But I can remember traveling across the U.S. Oh, yeah. What’s the big map?

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

The big map?

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Yes.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Figure out how to re-fold it, then actually have to follow on the lines and make sure. we would spend the most time with, we’d have, like, the big one for the state, and then I’d yell that by my axe to put the map down.

You can’t be letting people see the ears so far.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

That’s right.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

You can’t let people know you’re a tourist. Anyway, anyway. We’re in one of those moods.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Yeah, yeah.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I’m not going to to the day, it’s like scary, not navigable, but nowadays you anyway. Moving along.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

The point of that was you got to know where you’re going. You got to know where you’ve been. You do know where you’re going to get to go to next.

really it’s so taking a minute if you’re thinking about I mean we’ve already passed the first of January but you know most resolutions actually are within the first seven days they fail and then after if you get through the first seven days it’s usually fails by the second month but the first week of February.

So if you happen to have gotten all the way to almost through week one of January and you’re still holding on to your resolutions great now we want you to just take a second to look back at 2024 and assess how did you come or how far did you come with what did you achieve what held you back from achieving what you wanted.

you change your mind halfway through the year like were you following and striving for a goal that wasn’t really you.

doors or wasn’t really something that you align with now and let that be a guide to help you go further from there.

mean, the whole concept of if we don’t know, learn from the past that we’re going to, we’re doomed to repeat it.

It’s the same thing when it comes to your life. It’s not just a history lesson, it’s the history of you lesson.

What did you do last year? Was it a success? Was it a failure? If it was a failure that’s still success in a lot of ways if you learned from it, not if you sat in it, but if you learned from it.

So where can we go from here and what actual steps can you put in place? Not just this whoo, I’ll burn a piece of paper and I’ll set my intention to the world, which is great.

not like pooping people’s traditions. I know a lot of my friends who are probably really mad at me now.

That’s good.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I love you guys. I know you guys do this. Actually, I just taught that.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

And I believe, I know, I understand, but it’s not just, no, it’s not just that. have a friend who every, every New Year’s Eve, she jumps off of a step.

up onto her right foot. So she’s always landing on the right foot of the new year. There’s a lot of adorable traditions that people do.

And I love you guys. And if you don’t put in the action and you put in the work, I mean, unless you’re amazing at manifesting and like, mean, that is not me.

That is not me. I cannot just wish upon a star. I have to work for it.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

No, it’s not me jumping off on the right foot. So for those of you that slide into our DM side, it’s not me.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

You guys, I love you guys. know that I love you.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

And I’ve done it with you. You know that I would never fool your things. I love it.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

No, get another shot at me. I’ll do anything.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

So that’s bad.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

That’s bad.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

I’m not fooling you. You know, here’s the thing. Here’s another thing. All of this said in the reverse engineering and looking backwards to look forward and seeing what worked, where your barriers are.

The one thing that we haven’t really kind of dove into, I think we should spend a little bit of time is like, if you are setting your

self out like I have said it and no man has said it. Are you saying yourself up for success?

So if you’re setting in all these goals, but yet you are doing the same things that you’re doing last year as you this year as you did last year.

So in order to get different results, you have to do things differently, right? So that’s the first thing. The second thing which actually should be the first thing is if you’re creating goals in the same environment, headspace, spiritual space, physical space, like mindset, etc, that you did last year where you didn’t achieve so much, then how do you expect to achieve differently this time?

What are you willing to change? What are you willing to do in order to have those things happen? know, Amanda and we’re definitely exactly every movement that we do in our business.

We don’t, we never wait till the end of the end of the beginning of the year, we will set goals for the year, but we’re constantly reviewing, we’re constantly, we’re like, okay, this is what we didn’t do.

this is how we didn’t show up. Like, this is where we dropped the ball, but this is where we had successes.

We’re not just, we’re not just hard on ourselves. We’re also recognizing the successes, but we’re constantly up leveling. We’re constantly saying, okay, what needs to be tweaked?

We’re constantly doing the self-work as well. And when we don’t, when we kind of like fall into like the life is life-ing and just the , we can tell.

There is definitely some cause and effect. Now, sometimes our systems are fortified enough and all that’s in the right place, but we’re able to pull ourselves out pretty quickly, even if we start to slide down backwards.

Right. So what we’re going to say to you, though, is like, are you? Cleaning the slate. Are you cleaning out the clutter energetically, emotionally, spiritually, financially?

Wherever you need to clear the clutter, to be able to set the stage, to give you the environment inside and externally, to be able to absolutely have that new year, new year results that you want, right?

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Absolutely. We’re not saying you can’t have a new you in the new year. No, no. We’re just saying to stop saying that and then wondering why it didn’t happen a year later when you didn’t do anything.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Yeah, I don’t really like that phrase. I think it’s more of an uplumpling, but some of you believe me.

Some of you can use a brand new you. I don’t think any of you are listening to her.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

No, I like the idea. I mean, in general, I like the idea, well, I love a love-hate relationship with the idea of new year and a year because I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with you.

Well, I think there’s a lot of things that are apparently wrong with everybody, but I don’t think that Necessarily changing yourself is the solution.

don’t think yeah, that’s always the issue I don’t think you have to become like I’m not gonna be blonde this year.

pencil and I’m not going blonde.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

That’s all right We’re great, but that would be new year with the blonde for a night like I’ve always been shabby I have to be brunette.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

I can only be brunette. I’ll stand can’t can’t be anything else, but I’ve tried. Oh my god.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Oh One day I’ll show you picture of me as well. I want to see that It’s terrible.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

We want you to up level we want you to embrace that if you you is what resonates in your brain Think great be new you if up level is what resonates for you if resolution resonates with you if it’s Goal setting that resonates with you.

Whatever that means to you because I know we all have different ways of saying basically the same thing It’s all semantics But ultimately our goal in this

It’s podcasting and just everybody be pretty much preached to whether not they want it or not, is that we want to actually see it happen.

don’t want to just, there’s nothing worse than living 75 years of the same day and calling it a life.

I sit on that quote all the time and there’s a lot of things this last couple of months for me that have made me really sit with the idea of the life that we lead.

And I just, I wouldn’t feel good in myself to dull my shine and to live less than what I’m worth and less than what I’m capable of.

we don’t want that for any of you either. We don’t want you to look back next year and realize you’re in the exact same place, setting the same resolutions and the same new you that you’re looking for that you tried for the last year and didn’t reach.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Absolutely, absolutely agreed. So we want to hear from you. What do you got going on in 2025? What are you going to do differently?

print, sacrifice, change, grow from, what are you going to do different in order to get different results? We want to hear it.

Leave it in the comments, DM us, let us know. Let us know what your goals are for 2025.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

We want to even, even if you love your life, because literally I love our lives. We’re not saying that we I love my lives.

Awesome. And there’s always room to go up 100%. There’s always room to go up. Even if my life is so great that the only thing I could think of is like, what’s the new pizza topping I’m going to try?

Then like, that’s my resolution. Like, what’s my life is so awesome. only thing I can add is a new pizza.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Great. That’s what I’m going to add. But what can we add? What’s something? I wish that were the case.

Now you’re hungry.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Hey.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

cookies. Pizza cookies.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

I mean, way too basically, you know.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Well, it is the season, folks. And I know a belly hurts.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Sorry. Welcome to this holiday season. Now, you’re listening to this, we’re past the holidays, we’re into new year, new year, year, We’ll suck it up, let her cup.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

That’s right. That’s right. drop us a note. Let us know. want to hear what you want to accomplish in 2025, how you’re leveling the new part of you that is going to arise, the growth that you’re going to have.

And yeah, let’s see it. And also make a comment of what resonated with you about our podcast, except for how awesome and how we crack ourselves up because we certainly do.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

We love our comments about that. You just say whatever you want, how do you get negative? Sorry, I love it.

We’re happy to hear it.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Hater’s going to hate.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

It’s OK.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

OK, now you’re saying it. All right, so share this podcast, share this podcast with somebody who needs to hear it in your network.

make sure you’re hitting the subscribe button and check us out on all platforms for regardless of where you’re listening to us or press all platforms from YouTube to Spotify to Apple and blah blah blah.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

I’m sure all those other companies are happy that you included the mint of blah blah blah. I wasn’t gonna say the underwater bath weeding company which I’m sure gonna be a great podcast host these days.

Thank you everyone for listening. We hope that you have an amazing year of new, fresh, whatever it is you’re looking for.

Thank you.

Lynn Howard (Lynn Howard)

Yup.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Till next time. Get after it.