Longtime readers of this blog will know I gave up on making New Year's Resolutions many years ago.
Instead of doing what most people do every January, which is to make "resolutions" that get abandoned days or weeks later, I decided several years ago to adopt a friend of mine's practice of choosing three words to guide the year ahead. The "theme" approach offers flexibility within a framework, and that's an approach that has historically worked well for me.
My 2024 themes were "Experiment", "Expand", and "Exercise"... but I didn't do particularly well with these themes last year. (You can read more about that at the end of this post.)
This year, to get myself back on track, I've chosen the following three words for 2025:
1. Development
I want to supercharge my personal and professional development in 2025.
Professionally, I intend to:
Successfully complete Hubspot's Content Marketing Certification Course;
Successfully complete Google's AI Essentials and Generative AI for Educators courses;
Publish another two books in 2025, one business book and one children's book;
Launch a marketing-themed podcast.
Personally, I intend to :
Read/listen to at least one book every month;
Continue teaching myself French via Duolingo, maintaining a perfect learning streak;
Learn how to play Claude Debussy's Clair de lune on the piano, a classical piece I remember first hearing at the end of Ocean's Eleven. (The remake starring George Clooney, not the original starring Frank Sinatra.) I've played the piano for 40 years, but I'm extremely rusty so perfecting this piece will be a significant challenge.
Unlike my 2024 goals, every single one of these goals is completely within my control.
All I'll need is time, effort, and a lot of...
2. Discipline
Discipline has never been one of my strengths, but this year, I'm committed to becoming more disciplined with my reading, writing, exercise, and development routines: I'll set aside dedicated time for each of these activities weekly and not allow myself to opt-out with excuses like "I'm too busy", "I'm too tired", or "I don't want to do that today."
Building and maintaining strong, disciplined habits will not only help me with my development goals but also serve as the foundation for my success in 2025 and beyond.
3. Delight
In 2025, I'll try to not only put myself in situations where I experience delight but also try to delight others more often. I'm not yet sure exactly what this will mean, to be honest, but I'm excited to figure it out.
Development, Discipline, and Delight.
I'll let you know next year how things turn out.
P.S. That blue card you see in the photo above is sitting on my desk right now, and will remain there all year to ensure my themes are top of mind every day; an identical card sits on my nightstand so my three words are the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see before I go to sleep. I can hardly expect to make progress on my themes if I can't remember what they are, right?
P.P.S. If keeping your New Year's resolutions has proven problematic in the past, choosing a theme for the year is something you might wish to try. If you'd like a few ideas, you can read about my 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 themes by clicking the links.
P.P.P.S. If you're interested, here's the post-mortem of my 2024 themes...
I did experiment somewhat with my writing, but my experiments were both too infrequent and too timid.
I wrote last year that I wanted to expand everything but my waistline. Unfortunately, that's primarily what I expanded last year. I'm giving myself credit for publishing my first children's book (thus expanding my list of published works) and increasing my follower count on LinkedIn (thus expanding my reach), but I would have liked to do better.
Despite my expanded waistline, I did exercise my body quite a lot in 2024; while I didn't visit the gym for my weight-lifting workouts as often as needed, I spent a lot of time on my basement treadmill. I exercised my mind by dedicating myself to learning a new language, and while I can't yet speak French, my Duolingo streak is currently at 317 days. And I certainly exercised my right to say "no" to things I didn't want to do if those things didn't serve my interests.
In last year's post, I also listed nine things I wanted to accomplish in 2024 but, regrettably, achieved fewer than half of those goals:
The Wins:
Publish a second book. Check -- "Don't Let the Crocodiles Fight!" is available now!
Become an advisor to one start-up. Check! I'm honoured to serve as an advisor to an AI start-up focused on helping job candidates better prepare for interviews.
The "Almosts":
Be invited as a guest on five Podcasts. I was a guest on only two podcasts in 2024. You can watch my first appearance here, and my second should be published sometime in the next few weeks.
Write my 650th dpThoughts post. This is my 617th post since I started writing dpThoughts in January 2020. I succeeded in writing at least one post per week in 2024, but I would have needed to write 1.6 posts per week to achieve my 650 post goal.
The Fails:
Secure an additional Fractional CMO assignment. I had several great initial conversations but they didn't result in signed agreements. Thankfully, I did have some amazing consulting assignments that kept my mind engaged and my bills paid!
Secure at least three paid speaking engagements. I didn't put any dedicated effort toward seeking out paid speaking engagements, and none fell into my lap. Sigh.
Start my own marketing podcast. It didn't happen in 2024, but watch for it in 2025!
Secure an Adjunct Professor role with Schulich. I'm listing this as a fail because it didn't happen, but I also learned that "Adjunct Professor" is a mere honorarium that doesn't come with what I really wanted (i.e. a guaranteed number of courses per year and a higher rate of pay), so I'm okay with not achieving this particular objective.
Lose 70lbs+ through even better diet, exercise, and sleep habits. Umm... let's just say I went in the opposite direction here. Ugh.
Would I have liked to accomplish all nine of my 2024 goals? Of course!
But failure is a part of life, and the older (and wiser?) I get, the more I appreciate that life is about progress, not perfection.
So here's to all of us making great progress in 2025!
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