I was recently asked what my goals for the next year were, and I gave my usual response that I’m waiting until the 15th to pick them to keep some separation from my goals and the vibes of New Year’s resolutions. (An idea I stole from the two weeks I would stay away from the gym each year to let the traffic calm down.)

But I gave a poor explanation in the moment and wanted to formalize some of the ideas here so that I can give a better and more coherent response next time.

Goal Setting is Easy

Goal setting is inherently something easy for us to do. It’s something we do day to day, whether we think about it or not. For a simple example, you have a goal of eating dinner tonight. You’re going to make a plan on how to get it, and you’re either going to accomplish that goal or not. Most likely, you will.

In fact, goal setting is something we do so frequently that we all have our own tips, tricks, and special techniques on how to do it better. Some people subscribe to the SMART goal method, others prefer BHAGs, or there’s MBOs/OKRs if you’re more management-focused. Another trick might be candy rewards or checklists for the dopamine fix we use as motivation. There are countless systems designed to make it easier to keep on top of your goals.

Truthfully, we like getting things done. We like the feeling of accomplishing goals. Sure, going on a hike can be nice, but finishing a trail that you needed to train half a year for has a different feel to it. It’s that feeling of accomplishment that makes memories and shapes our view of ourselves.

In this way, goals are something we enjoy, and they help bring meaning to our actions. We set goals all the time and want to accomplish them. Why, then, are we unable to keep our New Year’s resolutions?

Goal Setting is Hard

When your goals involve changing aspects of your routine, lots of factors conspire against you. For one, the default state is homeostasis. Your mind has figured out a system where everything just fits: you get enough food, you get enough water, the house is just clean enough so that you can enjoy the things you love most.

Changing that system is going to freak out the part of your brain responsible for keeping things the same. But most of us recognize that change needs to happen, which is why we set the goal in the first place. That’s when we encounter the second hurdle: what target do you aim for?

• Is the goal to exercise three times a week?
• Do you fail if you only exercise twice a week?
• Is the goal to lose weight, and if so, how do you determine how much you want to lose?

Being specific in these goals often trips us up and acts as a demotivator when we’re not seeing the progress we expect. Not only that, but once you’ve picked a goal and specified the target, what happens when your target changes in six months?

You started out the year wanting to read more, but now you’re also trying to move and/or get a new job. Suddenly, the free time you were counting on for reading is being eaten up by new priorities. Resolutions often don’t give you the flexibility to shift from one priority to the next that life so often demands.

Things will come up that demotivate us. We’ll be too tired one day, or a friend will ask if we’re free during the time we had blocked out. Maybe a family member will need our help, and we’ll have to drop everything. Keeping motivation for your goals and resolutions is hard for these reasons. And to be honest, you don’t know what those reasons are going to be until you’re there, living the day.

In order to avoid these pitfalls in my own life, I’ve started gravitating towards a vocabulary of ‘themes’ and ‘seasons’ to describe my focus and driving priorities.

Theme – Resilience and Physicality

My theme for the start of 2025 is “Resilience and Physicality.” I don’t mean to suggest my mental and spiritual elements won’t be nurtured, but I need to focus on my physical wellness to bring things back into balance.

Over the past few years, I’ve prioritized mental stimulation and development at the expense of my physical health, and I’m starting to get warning signs that this mode of operation isn’t sustainable. It’s common for 14 of my 16 waking hours to be spent in a mental/digital reality—where I must, as my coworker recently put it, “move digital boxes from one spot to another so others can use them.” COVID probably led to a large shift in this over-focus on my mental world, and it’s a paradigm I’ll be working to change in the years to come.

I “feel” most productive in that digital realm, but for the things that truly matter to my well-being, I need to be more proficient in the physical world. As I move through 2025, I’ll be checking my plans, goals, actions, and habits against the question: “Does this enrich my physical experience, and will it make me more resilient?”

I’ll be back to review in a year, and my hope is that the answer will be “yes” more often than it’s “no.”

Things That Must Be Done This Year

In that spirit, here are some things that must get done this year:

• Continue recovery from some recent injuries and improve my baseline health
• Build habits to protect my time, my health, my community
• Spend time enjoying the world and the people in it

Things That Can Be Done More This Year

Here are some things I’ll be trying to do more of this year:

• Take more pictures
• Connect with more interesting people
• Read more (4-5 books, hopefully)
• Do more of ’the work’ to make the world a better place: charity, activism, education

Things That Excite Me That I Have No Input On

And here’s just a list of things I’m looking forward to that I have no control over:

• Next generation of LLMs and the tools that will be built on them (o3 preview)
• Rumored iPhone SE (https://www.macrumors.com/guide/iphone-se-4/)
• New discoveries in the physical sciences driven by our advancements in computing

Happy New Year!