I’ve made it through the Fall semester and I’m getting to slow down a bit as I begin planning for my 2025 goals. Winter break is a time for me to relax, reflect, and refocus. This past 6 months has been busy for us on several fronts. Between having two kids in college and a freshman in high school, we put a lot of miles on our cars (both kids are about 100 miles away, but in different directions). I have also been rehabbing knee and shoulder injuries and have been at physical therapy weekly for both issues. I also have had to limit my workouts which have been tough both physically and mentally on me.
Now is the time to put 2024 in the rear view mirror and set some goals to help me grow as a person in 2025. As leadership expert Brian Tracy discusses, our goals are most frequently broken down into 3 categories: health, wealth, and relationships. Below is a short overview of my 2025 goals. These are to both help give me focus and possibly give inspiration for others who are looking for a change but are sure where to give their focus.
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Health
My goal word in the area of Health is Longevity. I’ll be turning 50 later this year and my health and fitness priorities have begun to shift the past few years. How much I can lift is less important and waking up pain free and being able to do all the activities I enjoy has become my focus. I’ve also been battling back from a few injuries that have slowed me down. I’ve been going to physical therapy for oth my knee (
I want to continue my 2025 goals of daily movement and exercise. It may vary from day to day, but I want each day to include being active for at least 45 minutes (1). I also want to include using the sauna at my gym or the infrared sauna bad we have at home 3 times a week(2). Regular sauna use has been shown to have several benefits for overall health. When it comes to working out, I want to get back to following a workout routine instead of winging it at the gym (3). I’ve been using Beachbody workouts since I found P90X over a dozen years ago, and their online platform for workout programs is second to none.
Fom a nutrition standpoint my goal is to continue to heal my body from the inside out with nutrient dense foods. I am thankful that I am not having to take any daily prescriptions like many of my friends. Over the past few years I’ve made some subtle changes that have definitely helped. Instead of getting coffee first thing in the morning, I’ve been drinking a glass of water with half a squeezed lemon or a green juice blend (4). I’ve also been substituting my coffee with mushroom coffee a few times a week. Mushroom coffee is rich in both adaptogens and antioxidants. I’ve tried a few different brands but this one is my favorite. Finally, I plan on getting 150g of protein daily (5). Prioritizing my protein intake will help both keep me from over indulging in carbohydrates while also preserving muscles as I drop my total daily calories.
Wealth
My goal word for wealth is balance. With two kids in college life has definitely become more expensive (even though we had a good amount set aside for tuition). Because of this my 2025 goals in the area of welth are focused around taking advantage of easy opportunities to earn more money without having to sacrifice my health or family time.
As a teacher my base income is fixed, but I do have a few opportunities to take advantage of extra duty supervisions throughout the year (6). Making a few hundred extra each extra can add up and it’s not as overwhelming as getting a second job. My wife and I are both also considering teaching summer school as well (7). It’s been almost 15 years since I taught summer school, but it might be an easy way to help limit the amount of college loans needed. My other main source of income is selling my teaching resources through TPT. I’ve been focusing more on data to drive my decisions on what resources to create and how to improve my SEO so what I have made can be found through search (8). I am really enjoying taking teaching resources I’ve developed over the past few decades and can see myself continuing to build my TPT business..
In addition to increasing my income, my goal for 2025 is to make each dollar go further and reduce some expenses. By summer break my goal is to have both of our cars paid off (9). I spent much of 2024 improving my credit rating so that I can take advantage of using points and miles to cover more of our vacation costs so we don’t have to spend as much out of pocket on family trips. I currently have 5 smaller trips planned for the first half of 2025 and for each of these a majority of the costs are going to be covered with points and miles (10)
Relationships
My word for improving my 2025 goals for my relationships is connection. Life gets busy and it becomes easy to let friendships drift apart. Days and easily turn into weeks and months and best intentions can fall to the side. Danielle and I have gotten back into a routine we had a few years ago with Sunday morning activities. We recently found a great yoga class led by one of our teacher friends and we are committing to Sunday morning yoga together (11). As I mentioned above, the goal is to make more smaller trips in 2025 (12). I have already locked in trips for March and April and am working on June and 2 in July after summer school is done.
I am also looking to do more things together around our house. Our January project is to restore the chairs for our dining room table (13). Helping more with making dinners (14) and working on puzzles (15) are also fun activities we enjoy doing together.
Final Thoughts
After a few setbacks I am ready to now focus on my 2025 goals. I’ll be breaking the year down into 4 quarters and will be sure to give updates throughout the year on my progress.
