Hello 2025
theme: Find your balance
In the past, I’ve taken an all-or-nothing mindset toward a lot of things, oscillating between two extremes. One example: If I’m no longer a shopaholic, I must be a minimalist, right? I’m the type of person who finds a lot of comfort in categorizing things. While this can result in more efficient decision-making, it can also lead to black-or-white thinking. To me, it’s a manifestation of urgency (I have to rush to make a decision about who I am) and perfection (I have to be unwavering in my resolve) — two mental models I’ve been working on letting go of.
In 2025, I want to live a life that is increasingly nuanced. I want to be more comfortable in uncertainty and not be in such a hurry to figure things out. I want to balance being curious and open-minded with being clear and boundaried. I want to balance saving with spending, intentionally using my money in a way that brings me safety and joy. I want to balance staying connected with my loved ones with having enough time for myself. In short, I want to find my “just-right” in each unique situation so I can feel at ease and at peace.
2025 Review
I made a lot of progress with finding my balance this year, and I think I navigate situations with much more nuance now. One thing I’m noticing more and more about myself is this: Although my behaviour is balanced and nuanced, my thinking is still rather extreme. I often envision two outcomes with situations; they are either absolutely perfect or a complete catastrophe. As well, my immediate reactions to conflict or even simple requests are often to resist or to flee. I will definitely be carrying my 2025 theme with me as I still have a lot to learn when it comes to balance.
GOALS
This year, my goals are all around living ordinary life — no big projects and no striving. I want to lean into learning how to enjoy daily life, without needing the dopamine fix of achievement. I’ve set seven goals for everyday things I want to accomplish in 2025. These goals don’t have to be directly be related to my annual theme — they’re simply things I want to do this year. After making this list, I noticed that a lot of my goals relate to organization, which I believe will help create balance in my home and within myself.
#1: Choose more offline activities
I experienced a lot of eye strain toward the end of 2024. I realized that I’ve shifted a lot of my activities online, and the increased screen time could be contributing to my eye strain. In 2025, I’d like to spend more time each day doing offline activities. This could include colouring, solving a jigsaw puzzle, reading a physical book, making something delicious, going for a walk, or doing some stretching.
2025 Review
I did very well with this in the first half of 2025. But I was bored in July so I downloaded a game called Animal Restaurant. And I spent hours upon hours on my iPad. I started experiencing eye strain in November and I was worried I’d make it worse with all the time I’d be spending on my computer in December due to Vlogmas(ish) and 31 Days to 2026. Surprisingly, my eye strain went away in December so I think it’s only smaller screens that trigger it. Moving forward, I would still like to choose more offline activities but I’m glad that being on my computer does not seem to exacerbate my eye strain (especially now that I have a 32” monitor).
#2: Reorganize a few areas in my home
Hubby and I sold and decluttered a lot in 2024, but we also bought a bunch of things. I’d like to spend some time reorganizing our condo. Here are the areas I’d like to pay some special attention to:
The wall unit — We have some different interests now and I want to make room for our new hobbies (puzzles and Lego!).
The plant area — We have a lot of storage containers in this area that I feel can be organized more effectively.
The kitchen — I’d like to find a permanent home for hubby’s new glass lunch containers and my new cozy plates.
The locker — We have a locker full of stuff! I’d like to go through it and declutter the things we no longer need or want.
2025 Review
I did all the organization bits I set out to do in 2025! However, through the course of daily living, our condo has gotten rather cluttered again. I’m looking forward to tidying up and possibly doing a nice round of decluttering when I do my 30 Days to Spring Deep Cleaning Challenge.
#3: Figure out my photos
Here are the things I’d like to figure out:
I want to find a new way to organize the photos from my photo-a-day project of hubby and me. I used to make photo calendars — but these are very time consuming so I’ve been bottlenecked as of 2022. I want to find an easier way to organize the photos so they’re still fun for me to look through.
I found a photo album of my family that’s only partly full. I’d like to fill that up.
I have two boxes of old photos I’d like to sort through.
2025 Review
I completed this goal but it was bittersweet as a lot of the photos I organized this year were of our beloved furbabies. I went through many years of photos and backed up an old hard drive that was failing — fortunately, all the files I wanted were still accessible so I didn’t lose anything. I printed out stacks of photos of Truffle and Lulu to put in frames and albums. Moving forward, I’d like to cull and organize my photos (and files in general) so it’s not such a gargantuan task to go through old hard drives.
#4: Find a way to track my media consumption
This is a strange way of saying that I want to make lists of the books I read and the movies/shows I watch. In 2024, I tracked the books I read in my goals post but I found the process simultaneously clunky and not detailed enough. I’d like to find a better way to track the books I read in 2025. I also want to track the movies and shows I watch. This is purely for interest. I like know how long ago I read or watched something. Plus I often forget so I’d like to add a few notes to jog my memory.
2025 Review
I tried a bunch of things to track my media consumption and Google Calendars seem to be working well for me right now. I have a calendar for (1) fiction books, (2) nonfiction books, and (3) movies and shows. I also enjoy recording book reviews for my YouTube channel, which is a fun way for me to “make notes” on the books I read.
#5: Continue to track my caffeine and alcohol consumption
My 2024 tracking led to a lot of fascinating insights and self-reflection so I’m not ready to let it go. But I’m not doing this to further lower my caffeine and alcohol consumption. Instead, I’m simply observing myself with no judgment or shame. Again, this is purely for interest. I’m very curious about why I choose to continue to drink caffeine and alcohol when neither makes me feel very good. So this year, I’ll be adding a few notes around each decision point.
2025 Review
In 2025, I drank caffeinated tea or coffee 40 times and I drank alcohol 7 times. This tracker has been super interesting but I think I’m ready to let it go.
#6: Choose one exercise from ABR to complete every month
It’s only been a couple of months since my authenblissity reset so I’m going to take a break before doing another full reset. In the meantime, I want to keep the concepts top of mind — so I’m going to choose one ABR exercise each month to work through. I’m not sure whether I’ll go in chapter order, select an exercise based on what I want to work on, or choose randomly. My book was designed to be able to be used in all these ways so I’m eager to give it a try.
2025 Review
I really loved this goal because it helped me to stay connected with my book. It was such a joy and also very helpful to complete one exercise from the book each month. I ended up going in chapter order and this felt surprisingly aligned with my interests in each month. I’d like to carry this goal forward into 2026.
#7: Create a list of questions to answer every three years
One thing I’ve been trying to balance is referencing external sources of information with trusting my own inner compass. I’ve been answering this set of 50 questions since 2013. While I’ve learned a lot about myself through this process, I’ve been wanting to create my own set of questions for a while now. This is the year!
2025 Review
I created a draft of questions in early September when I was feeling a lot of creative energy and motivation. But that all went away when Lulu unexpectedly passed so I didn’t return to my list of questions. I plan to finalize the questions and respond to them in 2026.
PRACTICES
I’ll be experimenting with three practices in 2025. At the end of the year, I’ll decide whether I want to continue with the practice, tweak it, or let it go.
#1: DAILY REFLECTION
I change up my daily reflection question every year to align with my annual theme. In 2025, I’m going to ask myself this question at the end of each day: “How did you create balance for yourself today?”
2025 Review
I answered this question in all of January but it wasn’t the right fit. I had read a phrase in a book that really stayed with me so I decided to change my question to “How did you release your stupid pride today?” This was the magical question that I needed in 2025. I answered this question every day for the next 10 months, then switched back to my original reflection question in December to cap off the year. I had a number of insights from doing this, including the realization about my behaviour versus my thoughts and reactions, which I wrote about at the top of this page.
#2: Me-time Monday
Me-Time Monday is a new discovery from my 31 Days to 2025 challenge. The idea is to do one thing for myself every Monday, anything I like. I can nap, read, take a bath, go for a walk, doodle, listen to music, do a puzzle, the list goes on. It’s up to me to decide what to do and how much time to spend on the activity. The only “rule” is to listen deeply to what I truly want to do.
2025 Review
Me-Time Monday was and continues to be such a gift! I will be carrying this practice into 2026 but I’m in a groove so I won’t be highlighting it in my next goals write-up.
#3: No-plans week
No-Plans Week is also a new discovery. I first tried it last May during my birthday week, and I enjoyed it so much that I made it a regular monthly recurrence in my calendar. The idea is simple — I don’t make plans during this week. It’s the same week as my period so I’m feeling pretty ill — that’s the main reason I don’t want to make any commitments, even if they’re things I’d usually look forward to. In 2024, I ended up making a bunch of exceptions, so in 2025, I’d like to try harder to respect this time for my physical, mental, and emotional rest.
2025 Review
No-Plans Week has such a good rhythm to it and puts me in such a good mood. This is another gem of a practice that I will be carrying with me into 2026. I was much better this year at respecting this time for myself so I don’t think I need to highlight this practice in my next goals write-up either.
Here’s to a year of balance,
