On continuing resolutions

visions for 2025 onward

My ideal way to spend New Year’s Eve is by going to bed before midnight. This approach helps me skip the forced sense of transition, avoid any existential dread, and wake up feeling refreshed. I embrace the seamless blend of days, ready to welcome 2025 onward with a clear mind.

The working world has taught me to search for the small wins I once took for granted as a student. These days, I’ve been pivoting conversations toward learning how others find that feeling of achievement. It’s been fascinating to hear about friends training for races and already signing up for new ones in 2025. Naturally, this got me thinking: should I get into running?

Then reality hit. If I were truly motivated, I’d lace up my shoes today and start marathon training. Why wait for January 1st, 2025, to turn my life around? That train of thought took me to another realization: I haven’t written down any resolutions for the past two years. Why didn’t I? And now, as I think about what I want for myself in 2025, I’m confronted with how to create my vision.

To unpack all this, I decided to dig up my old list of resolutions from December 31st 2021. Below, you’ll find the exact text (blanks, incomplete categories, and all), followed by some tidbits on whether, why, how, and when I actually met those lofty goals—or didn’t:

---

2022 Resolutions

Career

• Find an internship related to field

Travel

Family

Academic

• End my senior year with a better GPA

• Try to use to Pomodoro Method

• Get into a good Graduate School Program and do well in grad school

Spiritual

• Mindfulness Meditation everyday

Social

• Prioritize social events if necessary for school

Self-Growth

• Start Weight Lifting

• Start Yoga

• Try to use less social media

• Stop online window shopping

• Get my drivers license

• Journaling frequently

• Stick to my skincare routine

Learning

• Read More - 2 Books a Month

• Read New York Times Every Day

• DELETE TIKTOK or actually use 30 MIN A DAY

• Time Management

Creativity

• Start more knitting projects

Books:

The Future of the Mind

---

Results:

Career:

• Find Internship Related to Field (March 2023) - Quite vague. I was still waiting for grad school acceptances at that point, and though I only applied for Master’s in Biostatistics programs, I truly had no idea what that entailed for full-time work. I did find an internship related to “field” and completed it in the summer of 2023.

Travel:

• Empty bullet point - I hadn’t quite fulfilled my desire to travel the world, but I did go to London in March 2022 and India in June 2022.

Family:

• Empty - Apologies to my family members for this exclusion.

Academic:

• End my senior year with a better GPA (Incomplete) - I’m quite sure my last semester of college dropped my GPA due to a lack of drive after being accepted to grad school.

• Try to use the Pomodoro method (Jan 2022 - …) - I’m sure I used this at some point in 2022 and continue to try to implement it as needed.

• Get into a good Graduate School Program and do well in grad school (Jan 2022 and May 2024) - I got my first grad school acceptance in January 2022, and that is the school I attended. However, “do well” is subjective, so I hope graduating is sufficient for completing that metric.

Spiritual:

• Mindfulness Meditation every day (July 2024 - …) - Though I skip days at times, it took me until mid-2024 to incorporate meditation into my routine.

Social:

• Prioritize social events if necessary for school (Incomplete) - As always, I prioritized personal social events over ones for school.

Self-Growth (The peak of my interest):

• Start weightlifting (Jan 2023) - Though I often remain inconsistent in the name of variety, I must thank Tea for making me feel comfortable with lifting and fixing my form. (Please move back; I need a gym buddy.)

• Start Yoga (May 2022) - I took yoga lessons on Zoom in May 2022 but have yet to incorporate it as a habit.

• Try to use social media less (Nov 2022 - July 2023) - I kickstarted my social media release journey in November 2022 when I first deleted TikTok. I succeeded in using social media less when I finally deleted Instagram in July 2023. I now get my social media news through NYT and friends and memes through LinkedIn and Substack.

• Stop online window shopping (IMPOSSIBLE) - I said what I said, but I am happy to announce that I order far less clothing online and try to shop in-store as much as possible.

• Get my driver’s license (August 2022) - After delaying this process for as long as I could (two weeks before I moved to NYC), I theoretically lost passenger princess status (not true at heart).

• Journaling frequently (August 2024 - …) - I bought my current journal on August 17, 2024, and have since journaled almost daily. I wish I had started sooner.

Learning:

• Read More - 2 Books a month (Incomplete) - I so wish I had been doing this instead of succumbing to brain rot.

• Read New York Times Every Day (Jan 2022 - …) - Okay, “every day” might be a stretch, but I have notifications on for breaking news.

• DELETE TIKTOK or actually use 30 MIN A DAY - I rid myself of what was clearly my main resolution (in all caps) in November 2022.

• Time Management - This is too vague to judge. I find it hard to eliminate the thought that I’m continually procrastinating and falling behind.

Creativity:

• Start more knitting projects (Jan 2022 - …) - I’m quite sure it took me two years to finish the scarf I had started. I have also defaulted on providing a picture of the sweater I was supposed to knit and include in my December letter, as I declared in Ordered Wandering.

Books:

• The Future of the Mind (UNREAD as of Dec 2024)

---

Now onto 2025 onward:

It’s clear that one year wasn’t enough to accomplish my 2022 resolutions. Perhaps that’s why I avoided setting resolutions for 2023 and 2024. Some goals were too vague to measure, while others required more thought and commitment than a single year allows. Though I believe in fate, I’d like to rest my progress on tangible goals, to allow myself to cherish small moments of achievement.

I’ve caught myself using the phrase “in the next three years” in conversations when someone asks me about my life plan. Inserting evidence of texts I’ve sent to back this up:

Now, three years later, reviewing my 2022 resolutions, I realize that I’ve completed many within a three-year span. I find happiness in knowing I reached a majority of these targets, even if they didn’t happen in a year. My ongoing approach is: setting personal visions in three-year increments. This doesn’t require pen and paper (I blurt them out all the time—evident from this letter) and I can begin the journey toward them today.

Visions for 2025–2028 are in creation, and I’m looking forward to what’s to come. Updates on how these materialize will arrive in December 2027. In this spirit, Selin, Erica, and I will be making vision boards.

If you choose to set resolutions (visions) for 2025 onward, whether inspired by this letter or not, I wish you luck! I’d love to hear about your goals and your plan of action to achieve them. See you in 2025 onward!

---

San Diego is beautiful this time of the year. Happy Holidays!