2025 Goals
and what I'm excited about.
On the weekend, Jen and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a quiet night in.
But for our 10th, we did a big trip and on it, we reflected and thought about what we want from the next decade together, and decided on the following goals:
To raise 3 honest and resilient daughters.
To keep growing as a people so we keep falling in love.
To have meaningful careers.
A year later, I wouldn’t change a thing, and every goal I set for 2025 will align with them to ensure I stay focused on what truly matters.
1. Family Goal: Leave the girls at home alone to build their confidence
The girls are going great and I think it’s time to build their independence by trusting them more, starting with leaving them home alone. Jen is not so keen on this. But the twins especially are in good routines, and I think this will build their sense of responsibility and self-esteems.
Plus it’ll give Jen and I more time to exercise or go for a morning coffee!
We’re also mindful of overloading their weeks (and ours) with commitments. They already do swimming all year and play soccer during winter. But if they want, we’ll encourage them to pick another sport to play in summer.
2. Health Goal: Get in life best shape by running less
Last year was a big year of growth for me mentally. And this year, while I’ll still do work to improve my mental health, I’ll focus more on physical health.
Whenever I’ve tried to get fit in the past, the desire came from a place of thinking I’m not enough and a slob, and thought life would be perfect if I just had a six-pack.
But because I’m now proud of who I am, regardless of fat levels, I feel ready to get into the best shape of my life purely for my long term health. Not to achieve any running feat just to feel proud of myself.
Since retiring, I’ve ran too much and leaned on it to regulate my emotions and control my weight.
I binge eat when I’m stressed. But I’m rarely stressed now and feel ready to achieve peak fitness without much running.
I’ll keep running because I love it. But I’m struggling to shake a niggly injury, so I’m going to focus on strength and mobility from now on. Injuries are the worst and will do my best to avoid them.
So my goal is to go to the gym at least 100 times this year (minimum 30 minutes per session), prioritise stretching, and incorporate plenty of walking into my routine.
3. Career Goal: Full-time wage doing meaningful work
After some false starts, I feel my career transition is nearly complete, and earning a full-time wage doing work I love is within reach.
Last year, thanks to some help from
, I launched talks website on energy management to help improve team well-being.And if I can stay on the current path, I should achieve a full-time income by the end of March. But I won’t count my chickens before they hatch.
To stay consistent, I’ll share 50 stories on my blog or LinkedIn, as this (and word of mouth) has been the best way to attract customers. Sharing stories not only helps spread my message of prioritising your energy to improve your health and performance, but it also helps me prepare for the talks.
Elsewhere, I love The Dock, but I’ll start pulling back there after 10 years. And if I play my cards right, I’ll also find a co-founder and relaunch Alfred this year. I already have a few people interested who I’d love to work with. But I won’t rush or force it. I’ll just keep meeting with interesting people and explore what a tool to help people improve their energy could look like.
The same goes for Running for Resilience. I’d love to do more work on it, especially as the team has discussed making 2025 “year of the story”. But the board seems comfortable with a softly-softly, risk-free approach for now. So aside from doing the bare minimum to keep it going, I’ll focus my energy elsewhere.
Other things I’m excited for in 2025
• Family trips. Heading to Fiji for the Brumbies season opener and to Singapore to celebrate Jen’s Nan’s life. Will be the girls first trips overseas! Pumped especially for Fiji with all my extended family coming for the game. Family and Footy! What more do you need!
• The British and Irish Lions Tour. Was a career highlight to be apart of the last series 12 years ago. And can’t wait to host the Lions fans at the Dock before the Brumbies game and head to Melb for the 2nd test. C’mon Wallabies!
• The R4R Gala. Didn’t do one last year and we rushed the planning of our first one in 2023. But there’s so much to celebrate about this great community and I’m excited for what the organisers have in store!
Summary
Leave girls home alone more to build their independence
100 gym sessions
Share 50 stories
Thanks for reading. If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably interested in goal setting and I’d love to hear your goals for 2025 in the comments below.
Or if you think goal setting is overrated, please share why.
Love this Ben! :)
Who is writing your gym sessions? Are you programming them yourself or have you outsourced it?
I enjoy the variety I have in my training since I stopped competing in weightlifting. 4 x gym, 1 x walk and 1 x park run per week.
I haven't lifted heavy in a while, but I'm learning to be okay with it and just stick with a load that suits on the day.
some nice clear goals which are challenging yet achievable