In the interests of starting 2025 on a positive note, I thought I would set myself a few goals/New Year Resolutions. Before starting to write this post, however, I had a look at previous years and what I have blogged about at the start of the year, wondering what past goals had been, and noticed a handful of things:

• I have actually tended to do more goal-setting at the start of the academic year rather than the calendar year in most instances, when I have done it.
• Burnout at various points has impacted my goal-setting (before the pandemic: driving a shift from working 5 days to working 4 days which began in September 2020 but was initiated pre-pandemic; during the pandemic: well, obviously….and thank goodness for the afore-mentioned shift part way through; and since the pandemic: the combination of house-buying, house-renovating, wedding planning and moving – the latter 3 all in 2023 and interspersed with ill health – did for me quite comprehensively.)
• When I did do it at the start of 2017, I drew on this slide from a presentation I had done for EVO (quoting EVO via that blog post – Every year in January and February, the Electronic Village Online (a project of TESOL’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section) brings together English language educators from around the world to engage in free, collaborative, online professional development sessions, – not sure if it is still running now!):

So I suppose this blog post, once complete, will be fulfilling the grey italics regarding motivation at the bottom of the slide.

Coming up with something that is “challenging and difficult yet realistic” is, itself…challenging, I feel! Hitting that sweet spot requires both a good degree of self-awareness and, perhaps, of humility. It’s so easy to aim too high and miss realistic. On the other hand, if one lacks awareness and confidence, it might be equally easy to aim too far the other way and pick something that you duly achieve but is perhaps less satisfying than it might be. This time last year, “challenging” was simply surviving and carrying out my job duties. Nevertheless, I managed to do quite a bit of CPD last year, which goes to show that you don’t necessarily need goals in order to achieve things! It can be a more organic process. If we consider our minds and bodies as our primary tools, they won’t be good for getting anything done if we don’t look after them so that has to come first before the rest can follow. Last summer holiday was certainly much-needed recovery time for me.

So what of this year? Well, so far so good… I had an extra week of leave which meant that as well as doing the famiy Christmas visiting marathon (1 week) and being ill (10 days), I did have a couple of days of real down time and didn’t have to start work while still poorly. This makes a huge difference wellbeing-wise and motivation-wise, the latter because I have actual energy and, also important, ability to generate positivity. This year is going to be very challenging due to external factors but things will unfold as they unfold regardless of what my brain is doing. Which leads me to…

Resolution 1

Channel my brain into positive and creative pursuits (rather than only using it for worrying). Too fluffy? Well what it looks like is:

• doing more writing: blogging – I’ve not done much blogging recently, up until the second half of last semester when I got started again. I want to do more this year!
• doing more writing: creative writing (fiction) – I’d done no creative writing since about 2016 or so until last week (life has been a LOT) but oh the joy it’s brought already in the short time I’ve been back at it. 🙂
• creative writing development: I’ve started a course by Malorie Blackman on BBC Maestro about writing YA fiction. My sister gave it to me for my birthday in 2022 and I’ve only now got round to using it!

• being curious about my students and my team of teachers and using that to feed innovation in how I support them.
• doing more piano, while not linking success or failure to specific quantities: this may seem to fly in the face of measurability but I have realised that in the past I have set myself time-limited goals e.g. do a bit every day, or x days a week or whatever, and then when I’ve missed sessions I’ve been more likely to then not do it for a spell because missing the session felt like failure. So this time, I will count each time I do it as a success, regardless of whether it’s day 10 in a row or the first day in 2 weeks. After all, it is a pleasure not a rod to beat myself with!
• learning: doing CPD always brings me great satisfaction and so does learning new things outside of work. I want to do both whenever I can (albeit not simultaneously)! Within this lies continuing preparation and exploration for my future Ed Doc. As well as information-based things, I’d like to learn how to crochet but I’ve never done it before so it needs maybe a holiday in which I am not ill to have the brain space possibly… We shall see!

My next resolution, to balance out no.1, will focus on the physical:

Resolution 2

Prioritise physical wellbeing. I’m no spring chicken and am at that delightful age and stage where I’m actively losing muscle if I’m not working hard to maintain it! Physical health and wellbeing also have an impact on mental health and wellbeing. Too fluffy? Well, what it looks like is:

• do a regular bouldering session at the bouldering wall: once a week on a Tuesday is doable when I have my NAW
• Do an additional strength training session one day a week.
• Keep running 4 times a week (on 2 x work days I go out before breakfast! Which is a lot more enjoyable in daylight once the days get longer!!)
• Do yoga regularly – I predict being able to manage this approx 5 times a week (my timetable on Thursday and Friday isn’t so amenable to it!)
• Do lots of gardening (great for getting fresh air and bits of exercise; a short burst of weeding or digging could be a perfect 10 minute break…)

So, that’s me…but something is missing and it is the basis of my final 2 resolutions…

Resolution 3

Put time and effort into my marriage. Too fluffy? Well, what it looks like is:

• Support my wife in achieving her own goals.
• Prioritise spending time with her regularly.
• Continue team-working everything effectively!

I am lucky in having a wonderful marriage but I never will take it for granted!

Resolution 4

(On the topic of not taking things for granted…) Make time for family and friends. Too fluffy? Well, what it looks like is:

• make the effort to get in touch with friends/family
• make the effort to see friends/family
• balance this with my need for solitary downtime/recovery (I need to recognise this need because otherwise I will inevitably burn out!)

So, that covers mental, physical, emotional/connectional areas and encompasses personal, social and professional domains. Circling back to the diagram, these resolutions/goals deliberately don’t have any completion dates as such, because they are ongoing, regular things rather than one-offs. They don’t appear clear and specific on the face of it but I have a clear and specific idea of what they look like in practice, which suffices. Being ongoing things, they are all both proximal and distal. In terms of measurability and ability to be evaluated, I can do this simply by looking back on each day/week/month and seeing what I’ve done. I think they are definitely realistic…are they challenging and difficult (enough)? Well, all the examples require effort to do, but they are positive and uplifting so it is effort I will be happy to make! I do think if our resolutions/goals are uplifting and/or inspire us, we are more likely to carry them out! I would add that as a principle. 🙂

What are your goals/resolutions for this year? Whatever they are, Happy 2025 to you! Let’s hope it is as kind to us all as it can be.