Yes, I’m a new year goals person… have been most of my life.
While the Gregorian calendar is probably not the best or most interesting framework for time, it is the most widely used across the planet, and it’s deeply embedded in my psyche, so I continue to find it helpful to make plans around. If it’s cringe to do so, then I’m cringe.
I don’t subscribe to any particular goal-setting methodology, but I do attempt to keep things organized, simple, and natural with a mix of both qualitative and quantitative measurements as is appropriate. I should note that I’m deeply suspicious of tech people who use OKRs or similar corporate paradigms for their personal or relational development.
Also, I don’t ever expect or hold myself to achieving all my goals to 100%. I’m usually satisfied as long as I make forward progress on things, especially if it ends up being like 50-70% of the way there. That’s not to say my goals are aspirational, it’s more just to say that I’m not a stickler.
Anywho, I wanted to provide that bit of context for all the new people I’ve met this year who aren’t familiar with my feelings on the topic yet.
Health
- Continue aiming for a somewhat mediterranean diet
- Continue playing tennis 2-3 times a week
- Continue to consume a lower amount of added sugar, alcohol, and fried food
- Start exercising outside of tennis on a regular basis
- Start going back to the dentist after ~1 year off
- Consider trying to reduce the dosages of my mental health related medications (anxiety/depression) now that I’ve been stable for awhile
- Get to bed earlier and achieve 7-8 hours of sleep
Career
- End my (unpaid) sabbatical
- Land my next job (ideally thru relationships and discovery rather than applications) OR begin to generate income from a project
Art
- Use are.na on a daily/weekly basis
- Create one major art project
- Create one minor art project
- Create a new series of photographs
Development
- Build another web app
- Make a custom website for myself for the first time
- Launch [redacted]
- Finally get Bluesky oAuth working
Content
- Begin publishing longer form content on my blog at least once a month
- Create some sort of helpful + free “evergreen” content series
- Continue microblogging daily
Tennis
- Take some private tennis lessons to improve fundamentals
- Play in a tennis league now that I’m not a total noob
- Setup some singles matches rather than just playing doubles
Dating
- Find someone I want to enter into a formal relationship with (doesn’t necessarily need to be extremely serious, but I want to go beyond the 4-8 dates stage that I’ve experienced several times in 2024)
- If need be, continue going on first dates regularly (2-4 a month ideally)
Friendship
- Make some new friends within a 50 mile radius of where I live
- Cultivate existing relationships
- Find and join a book club
Personal & Spiritual Development
- Meditate more than I did in 2023
- Research sigils and magick finally
- Read at least one book a month
- Start journaling again
- Take a solo trip
- Travel someplace new
- Clean the garage
- Volunteer for something
If you have goals for 2025, I’d love to hear what they are!
