My goals for 2025
I’m under pressure. I haven’t published here in almost two months. And last week I decided I will publish something before 2025 begins. And here I am, less than two hours until 2025 arrives, editing this blog post. Times ticking…
Since New York’s hours away from 2025, I’ve decided to share my upcoming goals for the year.
I recently read Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management. This lead me down a reading rabbit hole on his blog that culminated when I stumbled across his 2024 yearly review (alongside reviews from previous years). His posts inspired me to write my own “2024 in review” but I realized something sad; I set no goals at the beginning of the year. So, I had nothing to share. This disappointed me and made me unsure if I should mark 2024 as a fulfilling year.
I won’t make the same mistake with 2025.
For the new year, I’m setting goals—for both my personal and professional life. I figured I would share them with you here. However, I won’t share everything. There are some things I prefer not to make public.
So, with that said, here are my 2025 goals.
Personal Life
I’ll start with my personal goals. Again, this isn’t a comprehensive list. Goals regarding my health, fitness, and social life are not included here. Perhaps I’ll write about them in the future, but for now, I’m focusing on my intellectual goals.
There are three:
- Read 12 books
- Publish 10 quality blog posts
- Rebuild my blog using HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Read 12 books
Since the beginning of 2020, I have been an “on-again, off-again” reader. I go through phases where I read two books every week. Then, I go through phases where two books every three months. Sometimes, finishing two books takes longer (kind of like right now in life). Those month-long reading droughts don’t please me. I’ve noticed my mind feels alive and energized when I read frequently. I feel intelligent, creative, and have the confidence to solve complex problems. I suppose it’s because reading is like exercise for the mind.
But for some reason, I never stay consistent. Until now…
If I had to guess, I have read close to 300 books over the last five years. That averages to 60 per year. Yet, this year, I’m setting my number at 12. Why?
In the past, I focused on quantity over quality when it came to reading. I wanted to read a lot of books and do so fast. The downside to this approach, however, is that I didn’t absorb enough information or lessons from what I consumed. That defeats the whole purpose of reading in the first place.
So, in 2025, I’m focusing on reading quality instead of reading quantity.
12 is a good number because it allows me to take my time and get the most value out of what I read. Plus, I have other hobbies and projects I’m working on (more on those in the next two sections). So, the number of books I set out to read shouldn’t overwhelm me.
Publish 10 quality blog posts
This goal matters to me the most.
My relationship with writing mirrors my relationship with reading. I’ve written consistently on and off over the last five years. I’m always motivated to write and love the idea of hitting publish, but I struggle to put words on papers and churn out multiple drafts. Similarily to reading, I feel intelligent and creative when I write. I find I’m able to think with more clarity and my communication feels fluid and more powerful.
That’s why my biggest goal in 2025 is to write more consistently. And I plan on publishing at least 10 quality blog posts.
Now, the definition of a quality post is arbitrary. There’s no rubric or formula to determine if a post is a quality one or not. Instead, it’s a gut feeling. After a week or so of hitting publish, I’ll reread the post and either think the piece sucks or it’s good enough. The ones that are good enough are the ones I count as a quality post. I’m sure all writers are different when it comes to juding the quality of their work. This is what works for me, so I’ll stick with it.
The good thing about this is that it’ll force me to write and publish a lot. As a data analyst, I’m always “running the numbers” in my head, and when it comes to putting out quality writing, here’s my thought process…
If I post, on average, 1.5 times every two weeks, I should end the year with roughly 40 blog posts. Most will suck. A lot, in fact. So, if I’m generous and say only 25% of what I post is what I deem a quality post, then that would give me 10 quality posts. Boom. Simple math.
Rebuild my blog using HTML/CSS/JavaScript
I’m a tech geek.
I love reading blogs about tech, engineering, and data (I binged a lot of this today). I’m always watching programming or data content on YouTube. And I often read whatever books I find on the previously named fields (As I write this, I currently have an analytics book and a web development book sitting next to me, waiting to be read). If that’s not enough to prove I’m a tech geek, I also work as a data analyst. So, I spend a lot of time writing SQL code (if you consider SQL code) and working on some software development projects. I’ve never felt heavily invested in the whole tech life thing, but I think working as a data analyst and being part of software development projects ignited that passion for me.
Anyway…
In addition to being a tech geek, I also love building things. I’ve written/self-published a novel in 2020, coded algorithms with Python in 2023, grew a LinkedIn following through data content at the end of 2023, and even used no-code platforms (like Webflow, which this site uses) to build two websites. So, yeah, I’m a builder.
This year I want to challenge myself to build cool.
I’ve decided to mesh my tech and building passions by learning how to build a website from scratch. That means ditching the no-code platforms I currently use and learning HTML/CSS/JavaScript.
Luckily, I understand most web development fundamentals after using Webflow. But I know nothing about JavaScript. I’ve only coded in Python before (which I’m learning again right now). And I have no clue how to deploy or host a website on the cloud. So, that’s going to be a challenge.
But, I’m excited for this one.
Since it’s something I’m passionate about right now and hope to write about more, I’ll probably work on this a lot over the next few months. So, while this is a goal for the year, I may progress with the goal faster. We’ll see…
Professional Life
My personal goals are goals. You can call them SMART ones, too, if you’re a fan. My professional goals differ, however. Perhaps “goal” is the wrong term to use. I could argue that “focus” is a better word. But for the sake of this post, I’m going to use the word “goals” to describe the following. It’s easier to understand that way.
With that out of the way, I have five goals for my 2025 professional life:
- Learn the business better
- Learn how to write better
- Focus on problems others can’t solve, don’t want to solve, or don’t have time to solve
- Always think “customer first”
- Learn how to communicate better
Learn the business better
I have been with my current company for a little over one year. And, in that time, I have learned a lot about the way our business and industry operates. There’s plenty to learn when entering a new industry or joining a new company. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes teams you don’t expect to be involved in day-to-day operations. Some of these overlooked teams play crucial roles in an organization’s success. And I’m fortunate to be part of one of those teams—the data team.
I work at a vitamin and supplement company that’s very vertically integrated when it comes to product development, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. And we’re fairly large with over 1000 employees worldwide. That number’s growing quickly, too, as we recently acquired another vitamin company.
There’s a lot happening every day, and my team plays an important role in many of our business processes. So, whenever our internal systems and processes fail, I have the luxury of being part of different calls and email chains with the people in charge of troubleshooting the issues. Whenever possible, I offer solutions and try to help. I’ve noticed, however, that one thing always prevents me from doing more—a lack of knowledge.
I’m new to the industry and young in the workforce. I’m only 24 years old, so many people at the company have been in their careers or the vitamin industry longer than I have been alive. So, there will always be things they know that I don’t understand yet.
And that’s okay. It’s natural.
But I’m a bit of a go-getter. I want to do more, provide greater value, and grow into an important person in the company. To make that happen, I have to solve important problems. And to solve important problems, I need to understand the business and industry better.
That’s why it’s one of my 2025 goals.
Learn how to write better
I quickly learned that written communication matters. A LOT.
No matter where you work, you will communicate through email, Slack, Teams, instant messages, etc. Yes, verbal and in-person communication matters too (you’ll read about that soon). But the majority of writing occurs in the written form.
I already consider myself a good writer. Honestly, I could call myself a “great” writer if you compare me to those who participate in writing instead of those who practice writing. So, when writing critical emails at work, I do a good job making them clear and consice. This especially matters when I’m emailing important people in the company. They don’t have time to waste.
Another reason being a good writer matters is because people are busy. If someone’s important to the company and drives meaningful gains, they have a lot on their plate. So, they don’t have time or the mental bandwith to decipher long, sloppy messages. If you don’t write well, your emails don’t get read. That’s one way to make diminish your value at a company. You may think your hard work and great output is enough, but it’s not. Communicating well through writing is what seperates the good from the great communicators.
If you couldn’t tell my rambling, writing matters to me. I’m focusing on my writing in my personal life, but it’s also a big focus in my professional life.
Focus on problems others can’t solve, don’t want to solve, or don’t have time to solve
Some people don’t want to stand out at work. They don’t want to go above and beyond what is expected of them. They’re content doing the work they are expected to do. They’re okay with being average. I’m not like that, however.
I want to stand out. I want to do great work and make a lot of money doing so.
I have a developing theory based on my short, data career so far. It’s that the best way to make yourself indispensable is to work on problems others:
- Can’t solve
- Don’t want to solve
- Don’t have time to solve
I’m still working on the specifics. But, the way I see things, when you work on these types of problems, you create solutions others currently cannot create. Even better, if the problem is business critical and you’re the only one (or the best option) to solve it, then you become indispensable.
A lot of the work I have done over the last six months involves these types of problems. So far, I’ve been praised and recognized for my contributions. So, in 2025, I’m directing more attention to this thinking. Hopefully, it treats me well.
Always think “customer first”
(I’ll clarify now that “customer” in my context refers to coworkers and internal stakeholders I build solutions and tools for. I work on the operations side of the business, so I’m not referring to the consumers and wholesalers buying our vitamins and supplements)
I don’t want to make the mistake of working on a fun, challening project that I enjoy but provides no value to my customers.
This is a trap I saw often when I created content on LinkedIn. People in the data space loved building visualizations, dashboards, and portfolio projects to show off their skills. But they always focused on their appealing aesthetics or the fancy, analytical techniques they used. What I learned early in my time at Piping Rock is that people don’t care about how pretty the applications and reports you build are. And they certainly do not care about the techniques or tools you used to create them.
Instead, they care about the value your solutions deliver. They care about how you benefit their life or work.
Yes, it’s nice to create something that doesn’t strain the eyes or confuse people. But 100% of people would prefer products that make their life easier and look scrappy over products that don’t provide value but look pretty.
Now that the new year is arriving, different teams and departments within all companies (including my data team), will identify their priorities and big-picture projects for the year. It’s easy to fall into the same trap as people on “Data LinkedIn.” Many teams will likely build things they think will help or think will look good or think will provide value.
I want to focus on building things that will benefit my customers. If I’m always thinking “customer first” I should be able to do work that creates real value. And that should help me and my data team stand out in the company.
Learn how to communicate better
This is similar to my “Learn how to write better” goal. As previously stated, communication matters. It matters more when in a technical role like me. I’m constantly communicating with different audiences—other data people, software developers, project managers, non-technical operations people, other IT people, etc. And an important communication lesson I learned is that the way you talk about an idea to one audience will differ from the way you talk about it to other audiences.
This makes communication tricky. Every time I’m talking to someone about a data or tech topic, I have to be intentional and choose what I say carefully.
Over the last couple of months, I have become more away with the way I communicate with people at work. This has helped my communication improve. I’m able to talk about complex, technical topics better than I could one year ago. I attribute writing to most of that improvement. Before presenting an idea to someone, no matter how important they are in the company, I take time to write out my thoughts and clarify my thinking.
But my current progress is only the start. I still have a long way to go with my communication. I can name a few meetings I have been in during the last two months where my communication was choppy and unclear. Fortunately, I’m aware of the improvements I need, so I would say I’m in good shape here.
My final thoughts
It feels weird thinking about my life at the beginning of 2024. That feels like way too long ago. The person I am now completely differs from who I was then. So, I don’t know who I will be at the end of 2025. Obviously, I want to be the guy that accomplishes all of the goals I talked about in this post. But as the year progresses, what I value may change. I’m okay with that.
If what I value changes, then I’ll change my goals as needed. Hopefully, however, it doesnt’ come to that. But we’ll see what happens.
Also, at the beginning of this post, I said that I set recently set a goal to publish something before 2024 ends. Well, it’s now 10:51 pm. Looks like I accomplished the goal. Even though this post isn’t perfect and could probably use another round of edits, I’m proud I accomplished my goal. Good way to start the new year.