Near the end of 2024 as I looked forward to the year ahead and what 2025 might bring, the concept of New Year's Resolutions came to mind. Rather than set a few that I knew I would inevitably fail, I chose to set 52 goals, with the expectation that I would at least complete a few of them. The year isn't over yet but realistically I know that I am not going to achieve the remaining goals.
The idea of casting a wide net proved to be an effective strategy, I managed to rack up quite a few in the early months, then a low productivity period hit and I haven't really recovered from that - the abridged version is that my physical health took its toll on my mental health this year.
Of the 52 goals, I managed to achieve a total of 29 which I am considering a win, for one it's over half, and for two, it's a lot more than I expected to actually achieve.
Here's the 29 goals that I managed to achieve:
(Numbers are the original place in the list for each goal)
1. Finish the Duolingo Spanish course
This one probably took the most effort, it is something I had done before, many years ago before Duolingo substantially revised the course so I was confident I could manage it. This one I completed halfway through May.
2. Finish the Duolingo Italian course
This one was a major disappointment if I am honest, and ended up being part of the reason I stopped using Duolingo. The Italian course is a lot less developed than the Spanish course, it also made me realise that Duolingo really sucks if you have no prior knowledge of a language. Spanish is a language I have studied before using many different resources, but my Italian knowledge was virtually non-existent. Despite finishing the course in March, I can't string a sentence together now, making me feel like it was a waste of time.
3. Watch a movie entirely in Spanish that I've never seen
For the sake of having a familiar story to make following it easier I chose to watch the 2019 version of Aladdin which Disney+ has in English and dubbed in other languages; I didn't watch this one when it was released but it was an interesting experience watching it in Spanish. I did manage to understand most of the dialogue without subtitles so I am very happy with that.
4. Watch a movie entirely in Italian that I've never seen
As above, I wanted to stick with a franchise I was at least familiar with, for this one I chose Alien: Romulus which again I never watched when it was released. I don't think I could have followed the entire movie without subtitles (in Italian) but with them I understood most of it - the quasi-mutual intelligibility of Italian to Spanish speakers is doing some very heavy lifting here though not going to lie.
5. Read a book entirely in Spanish that I've never read
For this one I chose a non-fiction book, 'Cultura y Big Data' by Jesús Eduardo Oliva Abarca, mainly because it touched on a subject I was interested in but also in part I wanted to avoid colloquialisms and cultural references that would probably have gone over my head reading fiction.
12. Learn how to make Shumai [Pork Dumplings]
13. Learn how to make Panang Curry
14. Learn how to make Tom Yum Soup
These 3 dishes were chosen as they are my favourite appetizer, starter, and main, from the local Thai place; I bought two cookbooks, 'Hamlyn All Colour Cookery: 200 Thai Favourites' and 'Dim Sum: Dumplings, Parcels and Other Delectable Chinese Snacks in 25 Authentic Recipes' which covered all 3. My attempts weren't great, but learning how to do something and mastering it are two very different things; also I freely admit that as expensive as it might be, my own laziness still spurs me to just order take-out rather than make it.
16. Learn a new programming language
I first learned how to program at 6 years old in BASIC on an Amstrad CPC-464 and since then I've added a long list of languages I know how to code in. For this one I chose Kotlin, which is the programming language Google now prefers Android developers to build their apps with rather than Java. I think it's an interesting language but I still prefer Java [which is not surprising as I have written textbooks about it in the past]
18. Clear my backlog of games on Steam
This stood at 153 games at the start of 2025, and peaked at 156. I played every single game and found a few new favourites. There's one small caveat here, despite the backlog being cleared to zero from the start of the year it didn't stay there for long as I bought new games since, my new backlog stands at 11 right now, but I am still counting this as a win because every game that was in the list when I set the goal has been played.
19. Lose a stone in weight [14 lbs]
This one is tricky, in July I cracked a wisdom tooth and had to have emergency dental surgery to remove it. In the aftermath I couldn't really eat at all. I lived on Jelly [jello if you're American] for about 2 weeks after the surgery and then soup for about a month after that because it was painful to chew anything. By the start of September I had lost 28 lbs, I have been eating normally since mid-September, it's now December and I've lost another 8 lbs totalling 36 lbs. This one gets marked completed as a technicality because this wasn't something I achieved through a concerted effort, I'll count it as a win if for not other reason than the fact I've kept that weight off.
23. Dump, sell, or donate everything in storage that I don't want to keep
This one I achieved quite early, before the end of January I had a clear out and got rid of a lot, most of it went to a local charity shop, the rest went to recycling where it could and some of it went in the bin unfortunately.
24. Read at least 1 book I've never read every month [12 total]
When it comes to history, my knowledge was limited to the UK, some European history to a limited extent and a cursory knowledge of a few others as a result of learning about British Imperialism. For this goal I decided to focus on textbooks that detailed the history of countries that I knew very little about beyond what you see in the media. I read textbooks about The Netherlands, China, Greece, Brazil, Japan, Austria, and Belgium, as well as one about modern Japan; the other two titles were The Art of War and An Essay on Man.
25. Watch at least 1 movie I've never seen every month [12 total]
Again seeking to fill in the gaps in my cultural experience I decided to look up a history of Disney movies and started with Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. I also added Fantasia into the Disney list along with the Muppets Haunted Mansion because those were movies I had heard of but never seen before. The two movies mentioned prior in Spanish and Italian also counted towards the initial 12, along with a few cult classics that people often mentioned, Metropolis (1927), Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, and Addams Family Reunion - that last one is the only one of the list I regret watching because it was abysmal. I went beyond 12 this year but didn't keep a list of the others.
28. Upgrade my computer
Unfortunately this is another goal that gets crossed off due to a technicality. In January the SATA controller on my motherboard decided to pack in so I was forced to do this one sooner than expected, nevertheless I upgraded to a new PC with a much better spec than I had before, not the highest due to budget constraints but more than I need so I have room to grow.
30. Change my wardrobe and incorporate colour more
This one was easy, after losing a lot of weight most of my old clothes didn't fit anymore. Navy blue, olive green, and khaki broke me out of my black and white monochrome wardrobe.
31. Complete 1 month without Caffeine
Another technicality but I'm still counting it, after the dentist debacle I drank only water, eventually adding fruit juices, smoothies, and milkshakes to my diet, nevertheless I went more than a month without any caffeine.
32. Complete 1 month without Alcohol
From the 4th of January up until mid-November I was alcohol free, that didn't take a lot of effort to avoid.
33. Complete 1 month without Take Out
Again after the Wisdom Tooth extraction I didn't have take-out for over 2 months so, yes a technicality but I'm still counting it because even though it wasn't by choice I still did it.
34. Post a new 30 day challenge on my blog
Throughout April I posted the 30 Days of Gaming challenge which includes 30 posts in response to a prompt I found online. This one was enjoyable because I got to revisit some of my old favourites.
41. Start a gratitude journal
This one is a little vague, I did start the journal and kept it for all of January but then dropped off after that. I'm still going to count it as the goal was to start, and see how far I got, and the answer was a month.
42. Eat less meat
This is a definite win, from the start of the year right through I have ate a lot less meat, opting for seafood where possible or the veggie option. I have still ate some meat though so I can't claim the pescatarian label, but significantly less.
43. Ration my news intake
Around April I deleted all of my news apps from my phone and deleted the bookmarks I had in my browser too. I made no effort to seek out news, only what managed to reach me. For the most part this has been successful, the apps are still gone and I rarely check the news anymore and I am much happier for it.
44. Make an effort to engage more with content creators I enjoy
This one has taken the form of Youtube comments mainly on smaller channels that I like to watch and engaging in a few of their discord servers. I'm choosing to keep up with this one, I'm considering it a win because I definitely engage more than I did, but it's also something I will take with me going forward.
45. Make a meaningful donation to charity
Two specific donations I am choosing to count for this, one was at the start of the year to a charity that provides support for carers here in the UK, and the other was to a GoFundMe to help fund a young girl's chemo, they were both as much as I could afford and I feel better about both as opposed to donating to larger charities which I still don't entirely trust. All I will say is that my view that no-one working for a charity at any level should be earning 6 figures or more has only hardened this year, I don't care how big the charity is, I don't think anyone can justify that.
47. Take more pictures of myself
This one was easy to achieve, I have taken a lot more this year but I haven't shared them with others, which to be fair wasn't the goal so I am still counting it as a win.
50. Read History books about other countries
These ended up counting towards the 12 books goal above which I didn't think all the way through when I set the goal.
51. Learn more about Art History
For most of February I watched video essays and lectures on Art History, I focused mainly on Abstract, Surrealism, and Absurdism but also found a surprising attachment to Industrial Design. This is definitely something I want to do again in future, pick a month and focus on it.
52. Try food I've never had before
Also in February I ended up exploring Szechuan cuisine and it turned out to be very much to my taste, just the right side of spicy, hot for flavour not hot just for the sake of being hot.
Overall I think this has been an interesting experience, I would definitely recommend giving this a go if you're wondering what to do for 2026, making the list itself is an effort but as long as you add a mix of realistic and a bit more ambitious entries I think it proves to be more of a motivation than a daunting task.
Having said that, my health problems have left me physically and mentally exhausted and while the year isn't over yet, I know I won't achieve the others in the time I have left. I also know that setting this many goals for 2026 would end up working against me, next year my health has to be my main focus, if I achieve nothing else but make it to the end of 2026 in one piece it will already be enough.
