Compiling 2025: Goals, strategies, and milestones
This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Compiling 2025. Reflecting on your year is an important step before moving forward into the new year. Check out my 2024 reflection before diving in here and reading about my goals, and goal-setting. Debugging 2024: Lessons learned, wins, and achievements Michelle Duke ・ Jan 17 #devchallenge #newyearchallenge #career #speaking New Year's Eve 2024 On New Year's Eve, as my husband and I sat on the beach, sipping champagne and waiting for the fireworks ✨, we asked each other about our goals for this year. Goal-setting is one of those activities I've done for as long as I can remember. When my husband asked me this, I thought about it for a bit—at this point in time, I hadn't really sat down to set my goals for 2025. But this question prompted me to start gathering my thoughts and thinking about what it was I wanted to achieve this year. Structuring and setting goals I believe goal setting is something we should do for all aspects of our life. Every year, when I write my goals, I look at various parts of my existence, and write goals for each of those sections. Here is the list I use when thinking about "aspects of life": Career Physical/sport Financial Family/friends/community Spiritual/mindfulness Hobbies Wellness and health Exploration/travel Each of these aspects represents a different part of our lives and I have goals for each of these. For example, a career goal might be "learn Python enough to build an AI chatbot", or "take on a leadership position within my company, even if it's something outside my direct team". Physical or sports goals might be "go to the gym at least three times a week", "run 10km in 45mins". You can see how breaking goals into categories can help us succeed. It also forces us to think outside the usual goals and categories we often think about when we talk about "goals". For example, if I ask someone what their goals are for this year, I might get something like "lose 10kg", or "get a promotion". You rarely hear someone talk about things like "set aside time for myself for meaningful reflection". Try and have at least one goal in each of the classes.
This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Compiling 2025.
Reflecting on your year is an important step before moving forward into the new year. Check out my 2024 reflection before diving in here and reading about my goals, and goal-setting.
New Year's Eve 2024
On New Year's Eve, as my husband and I sat on the beach, sipping champagne and waiting for the fireworks ✨, we asked each other about our goals for this year. Goal-setting is one of those activities I've done for as long as I can remember. When my husband asked me this, I thought about it for a bit—at this point in time, I hadn't really sat down to set my goals for 2025. But this question prompted me to start gathering my thoughts and thinking about what it was I wanted to achieve this year.
Structuring and setting goals
I believe goal setting is something we should do for all aspects of our life. Every year, when I write my goals, I look at various parts of my existence, and write goals for each of those sections. Here is the list I use when thinking about "aspects of life":
- Career
- Physical/sport
- Financial
- Family/friends/community
- Spiritual/mindfulness
- Hobbies
- Wellness and health
- Exploration/travel
Each of these aspects represents a different part of our lives and I have goals for each of these. For example, a career goal might be "learn Python enough to build an AI chatbot", or "take on a leadership position within my company, even if it's something outside my direct team". Physical or sports goals might be "go to the gym at least three times a week", "run 10km in 45mins". You can see how breaking goals into categories can help us succeed.
It also forces us to think outside the usual goals and categories we often think about when we talk about "goals". For example, if I ask someone what their goals are for this year, I might get something like "lose 10kg", or "get a promotion". You rarely hear someone talk about things like "set aside time for myself for meaningful reflection". Try and have at least one goal in each of the classes.
