My Goals for 2025
- Declutter my home. I've never been very good at this, but it's proven to be so much more difficult with two young kids. Still, I know I can do a better job and keep a cleaner house in the process. To start, I might do a packing party.
- Consistency in planning ahead for weekends away and other trips. ADHD makes this hard, but I’m always happiest when I have a well-conceived plan to execute. So many times I feel like I'm being led around by plans that are made for me, or feeling bummed out that a weekend was wasted due to poor planning. While rest is important, my goal this week is to look ahead six months and start marking down weekends for both family and personal getaways and then prepare a list of possibilities to discuss with my wife.
- I've started to be more intentional about making friends instead of complaining that meeting people is hard. A couple months back, I began going to a meetup group for writers. I put my fears and imposter syndrome aside and said "fuck it". I've really been enjoying it, and I plan to do more of this sort of thing in the year ahead.
- Continue to work on my mental health. I don't want to get into too much of this here, but I've been taking my mental health very seriously and making positive changes to support my growth, including reducing anxiety, improving my focus, setting healthy boundaries with people, thinking positive thoughts about myself, working on my emotional dysregulation and rejection sensitivity. In addition to continuing therapy, I plan to look into microdosing psychedelics and ketamine therapy, under supervision.
- Consuming music more intentionally. For too long, I’ve let the algorithm guide my consumption, and that’s what it feels like as opposed to enjoyment. On Wednesday nights (or midweek), I’m going to make it a habit to find a new artist or album to listen to while folding laundry. This will hopefully help me do better at folding and putting away my clean laundry, which again, my ADHD makes seem like an almost insurmountable task at times.
- Improve my photography. I’ve been inspired by others who post a photo every day, and I would like to try that this year. I got some new camera gear this year and I’ve learned a lot. I’d like to bring this to the next level.
- Read more books. After grad school, I got out of the habit of reading consistently. It felt like a chore. This year I almost made my goal of 12 books, and even though I didn’t succeed in meeting the goal, I successfully started building it as a habit. My goal this year is 21 books, or roughly one every two weeks, with a little wiggle room for grace.
- Put my phone down more when I default to doom scrolling because of exhaustion. No explanation needed.
- Part two of the previous goal is to be more present with my kids. Again, no explanation needed.
- Make more time for myself in healthier ways than retreating. Whether through physical activity, weekends away, community college classes, or just an hour at a coffee shop to write or read, my goal is to improve the ways in which I choose to relax, recreate, and/or create.
Also posted on: