Tap tap. Is this on? This is what passes for yearly goals or resolutions for me. I don’t don’t grade myself on a pass/fail basis. Rather, these are about what direction I am going.
Personal
I want to think highly of my appearance again. In the last couple of years, I’ve gained weight. A partially related change is that I no longer wear clothes that make me look good. Some of that is that the weight gain has made fitting into some items difficult. Some of that is that I don’t want to buy new clothes for this weight. Some of that is that my clothing has just worn out. I don’t enjoy shopping. For 2025, I will find a combination of weight management, new clothes, and mental health such that I like what I look like.
I want to really enjoy day to day living in 2025, rather than just being content. That may mean more cooking. That may mean meeting people in person and developing some in-person connections that I haven’t had since the beginning of the pandemic. It definitely means getting out of the house more.
Professional
I want to make progress on my genealogy work. Among other things, I will complete a practice kinship determination project that meets the standards of the Board for Certification of Genealogists.
I want to be more active in my professional life outside of the day to day work. I want to go to conferences, work on some open source, write some white papers, or … something. It’s unlikely this will be my last job ever, and I don’t want just my co-workers to know what I can do when it ends.
Media Consumption
I had a few years at the beginning of the pandemic where I just wasn’t reading that much. In 2023, I finished 46 books and in 2024, I completed 77. I don’t expect achieving any book reading goals to be difficult this year. Nevertheless, I’ll put in writing that I hope to finished 28 books this year, two more than my goal last year. Two books every month, plus an extra every quarter.
I haven’t been enjoying the television and movies I’ve been watching. Many days I look at the options and I’m just not enthused. I don’t know how to measure this goal yet, but I intend to be more intentional about what I watch so that I enjoy what I do watch. I’ve ended up watching Youtube for multiple hours per day because I can’t handle the tension of a show or I get bored. I intend to watch Youtube mostly while working on the computer. If I’m sitting in my recliner and watching, what’s on the television should be something I want to watch.
Writing
I will publish a post here on the blog, hopefully every week.
I will write in my journal daily.
Politics
From 2021 to 2024, my political participation was limited, mostly window signs and a few contributions here & there for local San Francisco candidates & ballot initiatives. I want to be more involved in 2025, but I don’t know what that looks like yet.