Did I stick to my 2025 goals?
Last January I published my 2025 goals. How did I do?
Do these 5x/week:
🟡 No instagram before noon
Shielding my brain from cheap dopamine like Instagram has a profound impact on my focus. Many days I fail, but it's a boundary I want to keep for 2026 and beyond.
🔴 15+ minutes studying Portuguese
This was my biggest fail of the year. I couldn't figure out a way to get it consistently into my routine. Luckily, I continued with 1:1 classes through iTalki so my Portuguese improved massively to the point where people consistently compliment it. It's better than the average foreigner, but my goal is to get to C1, where people won't compliment it, they'll just know I speak it. My biggest weakness is listening comprehension, which I plan to improve through podcasts.
✅ Work outside of apartment
I started by going to cafes in the mornings, then graduated to co-works for most of the day, and now I walk 15 minutes to my favorite plant-filled co-work nearly every day. I feel more focused. And it has AC in the summer and heating in the winter. I bought a dedicated monitor and I've made a surprising number of good friends.
🟡 Send a postcard until I've sent 100
I believe I've sent around 95... home stretch! But I completely lost steam on this and haven't thought about it much.
✅ Work out
This year I worked out more days than I likely ever have as an adult. I give all credit to a text that my friend Ashwin sent me on Jan 22, 2025:
Here’s a question do you wanna do some type of workout accountability thing again I think it would help me be consistent
Since then we text each other when we work out, counting the number of times each month with the goal of hitting 20.
My stats: feb 19, mar 21 ✅, apr 13, may 15, jun 22 ✅, jul 19, aug 19, sep 20 ✅, oct 21 ✅, nov 21 ✅, dec 12
It’s kind of silly how simple and effective it is. On cold mornings when the last thing I want to do is workout, the thought of texting Ashwin has really motivated me… I have to use my two rest days per week wisely. The exercises I did this year were, in order of frequency: calisthenics, running, cycling, soccer, HIIT, yoga, hiking, and a spontaneous Barry’s class 😆
Find joyful collaboration
My biggest goal for the year was to work with people that catalyze amazing work. It's quite difficult to find. Even if you find the right person or people, you could end up working on the wrong project together, or even have the right project but the wrong timing. My strategy was to make lots of little collaboration prototypes with friends I admire. For some it was as simple as brainstorming over video call, for others we actually built things. I got at-bats with Alexis, Janice, James, Iggy, Alan, a different James, Anna, Vicky, Aaron, Andy, and probably more people I'm forgetting. I designed an iOS game with a UI entirely made out of cheese, a guessing game for long-distance friend groups, software for photobooths, a focaccia art workshop, and more.
Then one day, the founder of a company that I worked at 8 years ago messaged me on WhatsApp. He was in Lisbon and wanted to get breakfast. He had left the company he founded after growing it to a $2B+ valuation. After traveling the world with his family for a few years, he was scheming his next project. Turns out, we both are obsessed with bringing people together. I joined the two engineers he was prototyping with and have been working on planta.network since July. We're now 7 people.
Complete 4+ side quests
I like this category because they're like extra credit and I found myself adding to the list throughout the year.
🟡 Make big screen prints or other physical art
I didn't end up collaborating with a screenprinter like I initially imagined, but I did get my work published in a printed Zine so I'll give myself partial credit.
❌ Get a new tattoo
Didn't prioritize it, but have some ideas for 2026.
🟡 Design and host a creative workshop
I started to plan a Focaccia Garden making workshop with my Italian friend Anna but we postponed it because life got too busy towards the end of the year.
🟡 Host a standing monthly potluck
I hosted some nice dinners at my place, from potlucks to a 14-person Thanksgiving, but nothing recurring for now. I could see a rotating, recurring dinner happening in 2026.
✅ Organize a camping trip
I brought my camping gear to Portugal coming back from a U.S. wedding and I used it on a great 1-night trip with Toshi and Max to Serra da Estrela National Park, the tallest mountain in Portugal: 1,993 meters (6,538 feet).
✅ Take my apartment interior design to the next level
Bought a nice rug for under my bed, a side table, two cabinets for more storage, and a sun lounger for my balcony. Next up: more art.
✅ Take salsa classes
My sweet friends got me a month of classes for my birthday. It was fun, but I'm not sure if I actually retained much, so am on the fence about continuing.
✅ Find the path between Parque Eduardo VII and Monsanto
This was an amazing discovery and now my main running route. Getting to Monsanto park is a joy because it's so big that it doesn't feel like I'm inside a city.
✅ Do a muscle up
My original goal was to be able to do a muscle up by Jan 1, 2025 but I failed. Then my goal was March 1, which I failed. But on my bike trip in Slovenia with the encouragement and guidance of some friends, I got my first muscle up in July and now can do one consistently. Now I need to work on making it cleaner and then doing two in a row.
How many books did I read?
I think just four which is sad, but they were all bangers.
- Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten
- An Untamed State, Roxanne Gay
- Table for Two, Amor Towles
- The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker
So overall how did I do?
I'm pretty happy with the goals I achieved this year. I'm glad I more formally wrote down goals because looking back it helps me make sense of the year. Time to think about 2026. What was 2025 about for you?