Today it is time to sit down and reflect on ending 2025 with intention. For the last couple of years I have been referring back to a list of questions from nosidebar. I helps me, like they say on their page, to savour my successes and make peace with myself.
Here goes:
1. What makes this year unforgettable?
The one thing that shaped my year 2025 is the habit tracker app Habitica. I came across it unexpectedly. Since I enjoyed Duolingo, even with the AI enishittifying it somehwhat, I thought to myself that it would be fantastic to have a gamified habit tracker.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, at least in hindsight, that there has been one for several years. Habitica gives me the digital confetti and the jingles that part of my inner team seems to crave, so that I get the most tedious things done and crossed off my list. Even todos that have been living in the back of my mind for more than ten years.
I still can’t believe how productive I have been and how much fun I have had and also how much selfcare there has been involved in all of it.
2. What did you enjoy doing this year?
I enjoyed the Clutterbug challenge. It helped me realise that I actually can stick to something as long as it comes in really small portions. Decluttering for five minutes (even using a timer) or getting rid of just five things is such an effective motivator.
After the month that I did this 30-day program, I kept a habit of small bursts of decluttering, just not every day. There is still a lot of clutter in my home, so I can see myself enjoying this hobby for at least another year or so.
3. What is the one thing you’re grateful for?
There is usually a lot going on in my life to make me feel grateful. One thing this year were the results from my medical examination marathon. I hated being investigated this much and this closely, but at least now I know that my heart, brain and lungs are okay. Or at least as okay as can be expected from a woman my age 😉
The reason I went to all this trouble was my post-COVID fatigue. Since September 2023 I have been feeling like I am constantly wearing a cape made from lead. A specialist examined me and told me that he expects me to make a full recovery. I just need to be patient and try improve my fitness level a bit by cautiously doing some light exercise.
4. What’s your biggest win this year?
2025 was the first year that I managed to write 12 short stories in 12 months. I have been doing the deadlinesforwriters challenge since 2022 but in the years before something always managed to come up.
This time around I may have procrastinated until deadline day a few times, but I always handed in a story that I was at least okay with. Still, I can hardly believe it.
I even got a cool badge out of it. One entire year of disciplined writing, who would have thought? Well, I wouldn’t have.
5. What did you listen to that made the most impact this year?
One audio book that I listened to and which touched me deeply was „On Tyranny“ by Timothy Snyder. It was the edition with the extra bits about Ukraine. All the history that he explained was fascinating and frustrating at the same time. It gave me a new perspective on WWIII as well as Russia’s current war against Ukraine.
Also, there was a lot in the chapters about tyranny in general, that may turn out to be very helpful even here in Germany, if things keep going the direction they are headed right now.
My favourite quote was:
„Don’t obey in advance.“
6. What did you worry about most and how did it turn out?
I actually worried about still not being able to smell lilac blooms. In 2024 they smelled of boiled nothing and one of my favourite spring pastimes is smelling each and every lilac tree I come across. The COVID infection back in September of 23 had apparently damaged my olfactory nerves. Another consequence was that the taste of food lacked detail for a long time.
As it turned out, my sense of smell for lilac was back to about 90% this spring. Hopefully, next year they will smell as intense as they always have.
7. What was your biggest regret and why?
Not doing more to protest against right-wing extremism. So many countries seem to go down the same path as does my own. I wanted to get active so many times and I even joined „Omas gegen Rechts“ (german link), an association of older women against the right. But I was a member on paper only. It took me until December to turn up for one of the meetings.
I worry that this is the time to do something, so that in a few decades we will not have to look back at all the opportunities we missed. So many things seem to be repeating themselves, and the question „What would I have done back then?“ is becoming less and less theoretical.
If I could go back, that is the one thing I would change about last year. So now I that am ending 2025, my plan for 2026 is to stay in contact with Omas gegen Rechts and to get organised with other people to feel less alone and helpless.
8. What’s one thing that changed about yourself?
The thing that changed about me as a blogger is how little I worry about rules and outside advice by now. My blog is a wild mix of maths, stories, rants and musings about society and selfcare. So what? When I decided to only follow my own plans and ideas it was really liberating and I wrote twice as many blog posts this year as compared to 2024.
9. What surprised you the most this year?
How small the island of Amrum is. I spent a weekend there a couple of years back. Back then, we visited a friend who drove us around the place by car. So in my memory, Amrum was full of asphalt roads and cars. Nice, but rather urban.
In 2025 I returned to meet a cousin who was there with her children as a cure for her son’s lung problems. I went by train and ferry and realised that this island is realtively small, in fact. There are beautiful footpaths everywhere and if you don’t mind walking you can get to all the tourist sights on foot. There is one main road that connects the ferry harbour in the south to the northernmost peace of beach. Not so urban after all.
What a difference your mode of transport makes when it comes to your perspective on and perception of a location.
10. If you could go back to last January 1st, what would you tell your past self?
„So much is going to change for the better in your personal life, and for most of it, you will be the one who made it happen. So maybe worry a little less and trust in yourself a little more.“
„Also, thank you for planning the Holiday Season so well and then forgetting about having planned it. It was a lovely surprise!“
What about you?
How do you go about ending 2025? Do you have a ritual or your own list of questions?
In any case I wish you a happy New Year and all the best for 2026
Schreibe einen Kommentar