January 2, 2026

Goals Goals Goals! A Review of 2025 (spoiler alert - not done is the dominant theme)

 Oh Hey! 2025 is over! Let's have a review of my goals and how I did...

First, I think I only have one goals post from last year, and it's here.  I had a lot more goals than this, but apparently never got to blogging them.  So... how did I do?

Personal

Paint my Nails Monthly
    Yes. I've been pretty good about this... mostly if I can do it during a work meeting on teams.

Train for a 1/2 Marathon
    Yes. I trained and ran it.  I'm not super pleased with how the race went, or being really ill the week beforehand, or doing only 2 of the 3 training runs a week... but I did it.

Improve Accessory Situation.
    Nope. Have not bought, worn, or thought about this.

Strength Train 100 time
    Nope.  I did 85. Oh well.

Ride 50 miles in one weekend
    Nope. Did not do this or find a weekend where I could even try this.

Buy a blazer or jacket to classy up work clothes
    Nope. work clothes are sort of worse than ever.

Take a skills class at bike park wales
    Nope. I just couldn't find a day for it.

Go To Paris
    Nope. Postponed to next year or the year after or some other time

Take a bread making course
    Nope.

Take 15 in person yoga classes
    Nope.  But also the yoga studio I liked closed down.  I did 6.

Learn to style my hair, buy a new hairbrush, and potentially a new hairdryer
    Medium I got a hair drier, learned nothing about my hair, and even my husband thinks I need a new brush because now about 30% of the bristles are missing from my existing hair brush.

Professional

Grow professional network - reach out to 5 people
    Poor. I reached out to 1.  We had a good call and then nothing happened and neither of us pursued anything.

Spend 90 minutes a month on personal learning courses. 
    Nope. 

Document Successes Weekly and Monthly
    Medium... I have a bit of a monthly review going but work was weird and intense.

Mentor other people - figure out step forward for mentoring
    Medium - I had a mentee! For a few weeks until she quit.  So I guess that's not really a success and I haven't had headspace to move forward on this at all.

Family

Overnight trip with Ezra
    Nope.

Overnight trip with Lily
    Yes! Went to Bath

12 Adventures with Andy
    Yes... sort of.  Some of the adventures were a drink or lunch.  But I did manage to fit in 12 things that we did, including indoor climbing and a trip to Bike Park Wales.

See a theatre show with Andy or kids
    Yes - I saw a few this year, Andy and I went to Banff film festival.  I took the kids to a pretty average kids production of The Frog Prince.  We went to a kids ballet in Feb as well. 

House

Hang art in the office
    Yes... and then we moved rooms and now I still need to hang art in the house (there's less art than the end of last year)

Replace toilet paper holder downstairs
    Nope.

Improve lighting - buy a new lamp
    Nope.  If anything it's actually worse than last year, we now have light fixtures we don't like which also have burned out bulbs because we intend to replace them but haven't.

Replace bath panel
    Yes - but the new one we got (which was $$$!) is already falling apart so that is a mid fail.

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So... that was a year of random goals rarely achieved.  But even so, many of those goals were to dos, and they can stick on the to do list this year.

Because I am in a January funk I don't really have many goals for this coming year yet.  Which is fine, because days pass and at some point I can make goals again.  Maybe surviving 2 year old twins (and hopefully making some nice memories with the 5 and 7 year old!) for another year will be success enough.

8 comments:

  1. I think 85/100 for strength training is pretty good, to be honest. Maybe an "almost" instead of a nope?

    And, girl, go get yourself a new hairbrush! You can do that!

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  2. Girl, you need to give yourself more credit for the half and strength training! Of course the training and pre race stuff was rough, BUT YOU HAD A PR. You reached 85 PERCENT OF YOUR STRENGTH GOAL.

    My goal list is half notes jotted on my phone while hiking and half in my head, and for right now that's good enough.

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  3. It sounds like you did well with your goals! I started painting my nails, once a week here, I was all of the colours. Good job with the marathon! That is an amazing achievement.

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  4. I mean, managing 2yo twins is a feat in itself! I only recently started to make "goals" and really they are mostly to do sort of items and not really stretch goals, but I have a weird relationship with goals. So 25 in '25 worked super well for since it was mostly fun things and mostly not big, long range things. That's the approach I will take for the forseeable future. But I had to get to this more sustainable stage of parenting before I even felt ready to do 25 in '25! And that stage was when my youngest was 4... I think getting through the day as a working mom with very young kids is a lot!!

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  5. Okay Rachel, 85 out of 100 is bloody awesome. Like Lisa above, I have a sort of a “wish list” rather than goals. It could be vague but that’s how I wanna do it.
    I understand about nails and hair. My nails are mainly unpainted but they are filed and neat. I swear my cuticle oil and aquafor. I’ve been k own to bring my nail bag, with everything in it, to kids’ activities, painting nails in gymnastics and jiu jitsu. When I sit at a red light, I rub aquafor into my nails and cuticles.
    Hair… I have quite a few greys but don’t want to get my hair. Yet. Treat yoself to that hairbrush!! And let me know if you like it, I need one, too.
    Daria

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    Replies
    1. Oh before I forget, there is a brush at Sephora that is called “Mane” that is apparently great.

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  6. I’m not sure what kind of brush you are looking for, but my hairdresser uses the one I wrote about in this post, so I bought one and it is SO MUCH BETTER than my old one (also pictured), and I wish I could go back in time and buy it 10 years ago. https://jellyjules.com/friday-randomness-94/

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  7. New hairbrush! Low hanging fruit! You got this! I feel you on the January funk, or maybe a hangover from Nov and Dec (not a funk but I think the lack of routine and constantly being around people finally got to me!) I need to shape up and get back into the groove!

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