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2024 was a bit of a rough year, with job losses, hard economic times, and low business confidence. The new year offers a chance to reset. 

Dr Dougal Sutherland offers his top tips for starting 2025 off with some oomph: 

• If you have a job, count your blessings! Lots of people lost theirs last year and so it’s important to remember that even though it may not be the best job in the world, at least you’re in paid employment!  
• Plan out your holidays for the year as best you can. Have a look for the public holidays that are happening in 2025, can you make any of these into longer weekends (e.g. four days instead of three) and give yourself that extra time to rest and recover? Looking ahead I can see there is quite a gap of public holidays between Matariki and Labour Day – can you plan for some leave then? Four months is a long time to go without a break, especially in winter. 
• Make a daily ‘Have to, Hope to, Love to list’ – “Have to” are things you must do today; “Hope to” are things that you can do if you have time; “Love to” is at least 1 thing per day that fills your cup – make sure to give this as much priority as “Have to”. 
• Take some time to reflect on 2024 – what did you learn from the year? What went well and you would like to keep doing? Anything that you would like to avoid doing again that you did last year?  
• Think about the people in your life – are there some who you would like to see more of? Can you plan ahead to make time for them? On the other hand, is there anyone who it may be better off not to have in your life? Are there some (polite) ways that you ease off these relationships? 

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