2025 Planning And Goals
My first post of 2025 and I find myself looking at my life through a new lens, maybe because of the new calendar year, or maybe because I’m just at that stage in life. If my life were a game of chess, I’d be deep in my mid game, trading pieces preparing my final positioning before the end game commences. There are certain feelings that arise, influenced by a lot of self reflection and introspection. If there is one feeling I can summon, it is gratitude for my life. As of this post, I have a wonderful wife and two healthy sons. I am fully employed and enjoy what I do. I am relatively healthy and mobile. I have built a wonderful community around me. If things change drastically tomorrow, I can at least say they were good today.
My goals are pretty much the same as they were last year because I ended it in a good place. What is changing is the way I approach them. First off, for career advancement I am changing the way I learn. I didn’t get nearly enough done in 2024 that I wanted to do. Instead of trying to deep dive everything, I am going to shift to gaining a broader understanding of things. This should help me broach more subjects and finish the learning path I’ve laid out. I find I have a tremendous ability to improvise, but I need knowledge to make that process more effective. What also makes this approach attainable is the ability to lean into LLMs to round out the specific, hard technical insights I might need. For example, I may ask ChatGPT about a certain library I could use to solve a problem in Python, but I should also understand how to write a script to utilize that library instead of trying to get AI to iterate through one for me.
For improving my health I will be adding a lot of workout time to my regiment. I’ve found a lot of results occur when I hit 60 minutes a day, but I will probably find a way to do 90 instead. This means really getting the most out of my early mornings before the family wakes up and putting in another 30 minutes before bed. I also quit drinking any empty calories in 2024, like soda, alcohol, dairy, and pure fruit juices. I am going to keep that up that abstention for the foreseeable future. Although I love a good beer or old fashioned bourbon cocktail, I’ve come to prize really restful sleep, which isn’t always doable after a few alcoholic drinks.
Finally, my goal as always is to be a good partner and parent. This year is going to be a transitional one in that department for sure. My sons are getting older and starting to become capable of more adventurous type things. I believe Ted maybe ready to start fly fishing with me and going on longer bike rides. We may get a backpacking weekend in at some point also. Ben is getting into sports and is quite good at them, so there may be an opportunity to enjoy that with him. And of course I will also continue serving my community through Scouting. Although I am giving up a lot of the leadership responsibility, and am passing on expanded leadership opportunities at the district level, I will still look forward to helping these youth pursue their goals.
For planning purposes I will continue using the Purpose Planner notebook. I’ve been utilizing this for about two years. It is incredibly helpful and the system I’ve developed with it fits neatly into my life. Part planner, part goal tracking, part log, part note taker, it summarizes a week for me and lets me know how I’ve done. I can see when things aren’t getting logged that I am not being productive and can adjust. It is an incredible tool. I’m also looking to improve my mental energy by cutting back on the use of social media. I am already off Twitter/X and Instagram, and barely use FaceBook anymore. However, I still soak up a lot of time on Reddit, especially in the mornings, which isn’t great for the dopamine levels.
Some smaller changes include a plan to shift away from our beach vacations. It is an absolute luxury to be able to spend a week every year next to the ocean, but I’m more of a mountain person and would like to spend more time there. We will most likely start venturing west a little bit more and I am hoping this summer we can pull one off. I also plan on getting into fly fishing again, I’ve not done that at all for some time. Indoor pursuits will remain the same, I will keep up my video game habits but I am reducing the number of games that I will play. I will also probably stream the same amount of episodes I do every week also. I already spend very little time compared to most doing these things and I don’t foresee increasing it. I may be spend 8 hours a week total on “indoor pursuits”, compared to the average 40 hours of most Americans, and although I would love to sit down and binge a season or two I just don’t have the time.