This year I find myself less motivated to talk about goals than normal. Probably because the year included a big shake up with an unexpected job transition from Stripe to Cloudflare. Or maybe it was because I was focused on what really matters, rather than some superfluous goals.

Regardless, it’s time yet again to review how I did accomplishing my goals for 2025.

😼 more adventurous marriage

As much as we wanted to break the mold, our love of country music was revitalized with new artists like Ella Langley and Zach Top. So we leaned into our western side and danced at Mavericks even more, went to the rodeo, and ate out at cool country places like Haywire.

But we still did plenty of different things! We went floating just the two of us, Gaby tried ramen for the first time, and we had a nice french coffee date one morning.

For our belated 10th anniversary we took a week long trip to Mexico! We split our time there, half on Isla Mujeres and half in Puerto Vallarta. It was the best trip we’ve taken together! We stayed in a luxury hotel, lounged on Playa Norte, partied all night at Coco Bongo, and swam in cenotes.

For our 11th anniversary we had a nice dinner at Wu Chow downtown and then saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra. We always like to use anniversary dates to eat at fancy restaurants and do different things for entertainment.

So while this goal wasn’t our entire focus for the year, we definitely struck the right chords.

👷🏼‍♂️ just build stuff

Due to the sudden job switch and lots of unplanned interview preparation, I didn’t spend much time building side projects this year.

I was able to update bradgarropy.com to the latest versions of vite, eslint, and tailwind. Some of those updates were arduous, and really decreased my motivation to actually build something.

I also spent a lot of time building out a remix application template. It’s a todo application with authentication, password management, user specific data, database connections, crud operations, unit and end to end testing, linting and formatting, error monitoring, and continuous integration all built in. I was planning on using this as a base to build out multiple applications this year, but got derailed.

While I didn’t complete any applications here, I at least set up a strong foundation to get started.

🇲🇽 more spanish conversations

We took two trips to Mexico this year, one to Guadalajara to see extended family, and another to Cancun to celebrate our anniversary. Needless to say I spoke a ton of Spanish while I was there, and felt more confident than ever!

At this point, my learning is really coming down to practical application, and how fast I can switch my brain to Spanish mode. I still struggle talking in realtime every now and then, but I always get complimented on how far I’ve come.

💪🏼 lean for summer

Luckily Gaby and I had a reason to get lean in the summer, our anniversary trip to Cancun. I got down to 178, and those last few pounds really made a difference! That cut went a little more aggressive than what I would have preferred, but I also reached 179 in the October just by staying consistent in the gym.

😶‍🌫️ understand caffeine and alcohol

At the beginning of the year I cut out caffeine and alcohol in an attempt to understand how I felt without them. I had never really taken a break from either, so I was considering this an experiment.

As for coffee, mornings without it were rough. I was foggy and unfocused, even after more than a month! It didn’t give me headaches, or affect my mood or my digestive system, so I brough caffeine back. I do find myself drinking less of it though. I rarely take pre-workout anymore, and usually drink only one cup of coffee instead of two.

When it comes to alcohol, I realized that the perceived benefit is not worth the cost. While I didn’t drink enough to have hangovers, I can completely tell a difference in how I feel the morning after drinking. My head is clear and I feel well rested when I’m sober.

At this point, I’m doing my best to stay away from alcohol unless I’m having a few with Gaby at home, or out with friends.

I had a short lived tradition in Discord where I would announce to the channel anytime I was doing something and hanging out in voice chat. We tried that for a while and even leaned into a standing Friday hangout, but those didn’t pan out for long.

I also started playing WoW with Ryan Furrer from Discord, but the job transition interrupted my play time and I found myself not wanting to come back.

Regardless of what did or didn’t work, the folks in the From Scratch Discord are amazing, and I depend on them for the developer and tech conversations I can’t get anywhere else!

🎮 play more games

With the stress of changing jobs and interviewing, I found myself relaxing with video games any time I could. Here’s the list of games that I played this year.

Switch 2

• Vampire Survivors
• Balatro
• Mario Kart World
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Hades 2

Playstation 5

• Diablo IV
• The Plucky Squire

PC

• World of Warcraft

I don’t really intend to return to World of Warcraft, and the Playstation 5 will most likely gather dust until the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, but the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 really sucked me back into Nintendo games and got my whole family excited to play together.

🎸 more physical things

I’ve kept up with the kids and their piano lessons, and it’s been really fun to learn a new instrument. I’d like to keep going there, especially if it will motivate the kids to keep learning. It’s also quieter to practice than the drums or guitar, so it’s a good option for the house.

My son got super into remote control cars this year. We spent a lot of time driving them, breaking them, and then fixing them. It scratched an itch I had to fix and tinker with things.

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger on a Bambu Lab P2S, especially during the Black Friday sales, I just couldn’t justify it. I was nervous to spend so much money and then just run out of things to print.

But I did get a Raspberry Pi for Christmas, which could be the gateway into building small electronics projects, which could lead to 3D printing enclosures in the future.

🎬 conclusion

This year felt like a year where I solely focused on introducing my kids to new experiences, strengthening the relationship with my wife, and using fitness and video games as a way to unwind during stressful times.

While that is something to be proud of, I produced really nothing of value in my spare time. And be that as it may, I just didn’t have the capacity for it this year. That may be a cop out answer, but it’s truly how I feel about it.

Life is too short to stress about side projects, so finding that balance of doing things that interest me but not overwhelming myself is key in the goals I have for next year.