Resolutions 2025
It can’t be healthy to think about resolutions for this long. It should be reserved for that lazy week at the end of the year when you’re just starting to feel shamefully well-rested. It’s harder to pretend the new year is so full of possibilities once you’re back in the rhythm of things. When you give yourself a month, you end up with whatever this is. All the recent hedging hasn’t excised all the optimism of early drafts (or any of the indulgence).
Last Year
My best resolution from last year was to host get-togethers. They’ve always gone much better than expected. It never ceases to amaze me that people show up at all. I hosted a handful of times last year, and I hope for about once a month this year. Food themes and a play reading (Uncle Vanya) were big successes which will be repeated. Any other fun suggestions are welcome.
Learning guitar also went much better than expected. I can play basic chords and can muddle through a simple tab. I’m excited to keep practicing and improving. All credit to a friend who started a band of dilettantes which was both an impetus to start learning and a challenge to learn harder songs than I would have picked for myself. The best part is jamming and trying out new songs with my bandmates (all covers so far). (Recently we spontaneously started playing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”. I’m hoping to trick them into doing this more).
The final unexpected success of the year’s resolutions was competing in my first sprint triathlon at Lake Wilderness in early June. It was very fun and quite an adventure. I’m glad I did it, and I’ll definitely want to do more.
I asked the organizer if wetsuits were required, and she said 97% of participants would wear one (meaning they’re optional, but it was very cold).
One thing I did intend to bring was a bike. I was halfway there (~20 mins out) when a truck pulled in front of me with a bike in its bed. I wondered if we were going the same place before I realized. Luckily I had time to go back and get it. Also luckily my large bike fit in my small car (barely instead of easily like I imagined without ever thinking to double check. Cars are so much bigger than bikes!)
I talked to one person there. I told him my goal was to have fun. Then I beat a time that he called “unimaginable”. For revenge, he told me about his AI startup.
The race itself was very fun, much more than a marathon. You get to do everyday activities like toweling off and putting on shoes as fast as you can. Your body feels so confused when you transition, but after you adjust, it feels better because you’re using slightly different muscles. It also makes it hard to pace. I want to try an Olympic length, but I’m afraid that wouldn’t be as fun unless I invested in a nice road bike and clipless pedals.
Fittingly, I squeezed The Corrections in on Christmas flights as the 20th book of the year. Though I didn’t read anything I’d gush about, highlights were Middlemarch, Simple Passion, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and Teach Like a Champion. I’ll keep the same goal for 2025 since it came down to the wire, but I’m not naming it as a resolution because I’ve already won.
I feel like I didn’t waste as much food, but I didn’t measure anything before or after, so I can’t declare victory. I did eat more meals that were motivated by large quantities of vegetables that were about to go bad. (New grocery shopping hack is to pick up a random food that I don’t know how to cook and guilt myself into cooking and eating it).
The leaning resolution had a surprisingly strong hold on me for a dumb joke. I could have been doing a lot of subconscious leaning, but I also did a lot of conscious standing up straight in elevators and at bus stops. Inconclusive results on quality of life.
I did not remotely “justify my place” in the Boston Marathon. But y’know. I finished.
Daily writing fell apart quickly. I only did it from the beginning of Dec 2023 (got an early start) until mid February. I thought I stopped to spend more time outside in the Summer, but actually it’s still pretty chilly here that time of year, so I must have just given up. I enjoyed it while I had a rhythm, but it was hard to pick back up after I stopped.
This Year
Write every weekday
Writing more is the concrete life change I’m most certain I want to make. I rarely make time for it, and I often wish I’ve done more. Keeping a diary is one of the best habits I’ve formed, and I think there could be similar but distinct benefits to writing publicly more often.
Based on the trend from 2022 to 2024, I’m on track to not write any blog posts this year, and I can’t let that happen. But I also want to branch out into different forms, and I strongly believe that the best way to get better at writing is to do it more.
It’s pretty much the same as last year. A half hour of freewriting every weekday with the intention of getting some publishable material (with enough revision). It’s been a tough start, but I am bolstered by the fact that I’ve stuck with it so far (although it’s not like I can give up before I’ve officially made the resolution).
Go to the Olympic Peninsula
Years ago, my sister said the Hoh Rainforest was a favorite stop on a long, Western road trip. I was so excited to go when I moved to Seattle, but I still haven’t been to the Olympic Peninsula at all, and that’s embarrassing.
Compost
Composting feels like one of those rare unambiguously good deeds (and I won’t hear otherwise). I just learned that my building has a compost bin. I’m counting on this being an easy win.
Secret resolution: Have more fun
Having fun is a secret resolution because the moment I thought of it, I started having less fun. It’s a classic “pursuit of happiness” problem. I intend to forget it as soon as I publish this post.
I’ve kept a todo list for a few years now, and while I shudder to imagine the chaos my life would devolve into without it, it does have a strange tendency to turn everything into a chore. Likely because “Broil bechamel over whatever you want” is right next to “new drivers license”. And the longer something fun stays on a todo list, the more it feels like something I’m putting off and have to force myself to do.
This is about choosing the fun version of things rather than the chore. I’m reminded again of how unhappy I was with my New Yorker subscription because I felt so much pressure to keep up with it and read enough for it to be worthwhile and pick the most interesting articles. I recently discovered that I can just go and read it at the library. I can take myself on a field trip, and if I miss a week, there’s not a stack of issues in my apartment.
This is not a list of things I have to check off. It’s a few fun ideas I’ve had so far.
- Visit many non Olympic Peninsula PNW places
- Cross country ski
- Learn to play blindfold chess
- DIY Film festival
- I didn’t go to Sundance this year, so I might just take a week and watch a movie every morning
- Do something crafty
- I always go to Joann’s to throw together a last minute Halloween costume and wish that I had more excuses to do crafts
- See how much of a language I can learn in a week-month
Not fun: Strength Training
Notice this is not in the fun section. I’m finally willing to admit that, while cardio is way better, strength training may be worthwhile. You still won’t see me in a gym. I’m planning to just do calisthenics and maybe some stretching, but I haven’t decided how to organize it. Let me know if you have suggestions or favorite exercises.
Truly secret resolutions
I must maintain some intrigue. I won’t even commit to these being real resolutions. It may just be a placeholder to remind everyone that some of my life is private.
Anti resolution: Don’t learn to use em dashes
As always, I’m a strong opponent of doing things because you “feel like you should”. You should do what is good and makes sense and you want. As such, I’m specifically calling out here that I will NOT be learning to use em dashes in 2025. Some people may say that I overuse parentheses (and that I use them in some places where em dashes would be preferred). Let them be right. I won’t learn how they work grammatically or the markdown syntax. At this point, it would only be an admission that I didn’t know how to use them before.
Something I think will happen naturally and inevitably: Get really into E.B. White
I picked up a book of E.B. White’s New Yorker short humor from the library. I hardly ever get books I’ve never heard of, but this one was so delightfully charming. I’m glad that people let him do that. It’s a nice reminder that there are humorists other than David Sedaris (who I wish I liked more than I do). I may even go back and reread Trumpet of the Swan.
Didn’t make the cut: Develop mental habits
I wrote a lot explaining what I meant by mental habits before I realized it all boiled down to “stop making the same stupid mistakes", and that’s not something I can commit to doing. I’ll spare you from the explanation (for now). I’ll keep thinking about it, but I can’t promise to be any less stupid by Jan 1, 2026. Besides, I have more than enough resolutions already.