Bingo 2025
Ben Brown / December 2025 (2421 Words, 14 Minutes)
In October 2024, someone got me to rethink the idea of new year’s resolutions. Instead of a short list of one or two big goals, they made a bingo board of a bunch of smaller tasks that could be checked off through the year. This approach really stuck out to me as a creative way to visualize goal setting in life. Instead of a binary success or failure, this board takes all the pressure off one goal and instead spreads it across 25 of them. That way, incremental progress can be made towards filling out the board, and the overall progress can be evaluated more holistically at the end of the year. In this post, I want to reveal all 25 of my boxes for 2025, and dig into why they may or may not have happened.
Overall, this year was a large upswing for me. I started at a rather low point in January, but I feel I grew significantly through the year, and it’s been reflected in my bingo progress.
Without further ado:
Personal Growth and Self-care
Work back to 300/200/400 Squat/Bench/Deadlift [SBD]
Powerlifting is one of my hobbies, and because I lost access to my campus gym and competition level equipment at graduation, I fell out of the habit for about a full year. At my peak, I could squat 400, Bench 200, and Deadlift 500, but those totals went way down with the hiatus I’ve been on. The plan was to find a job and then get back into a comp level gym as soon as possible to start working again, and now I’m back at my alma mater for my doctorate, and can start working out again. I tried my original plan that I was on in undergrad which was 4x a week in the mornings. It worked decently, however my lab is on the other side of campus, which made walking back and forth difficult, especially if I had a lot of gear to carry. As the semester got tougher, I found it difficult to keep up with such a demanding schedule, and fell out of it after a couple months (not before working back to a 300 pound squat though). Next year, I need to revise my schedule and define my priorities so that I can find how much time I can reasonably budget for powerlifting on top of what will likely be my most difficult semester of the entire program. 0.33 points
Go on 3 dates or get into a relationship without using apps [no, but I don’t care]
I accidentally got into a relationship from a connection I made on an app, so I think this is technically a failure, but I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time, and I really want to make the most of this amazing thing I’ve stumbled upon.
Stay in therapy [Half-credit]
I started therapy in October of 2024, and I really connected with my therapist. Three sessions in, I got dumped, which was great motivation for staying in therapy until June, when I moved. I wanted to keep going to therapy, but my therapist hadn’t passed their certification exam for my state yet, so I simply am waiting until that point. After that I swear I will get back into it. I miss my therapist haha. 0.5 points.
Get a pet [In this economy?]
This one made me sad, because I want a pet more than anything, but I need to be honest with myself that I can’t currently afford it on my income and time budget. I made this goal with the expectation that I would have a high-paying engineering job and the free time that comes with that, compared to a student’s stipend and free time. I will just have to be patient until I can manage it.
Save $10k [lol, lmao even.]
In this economy?? Gonna lower the threshold and try again next year.
ENJOY LIFE
Free space.
Career and Education
Finish Fulbright application [Nope]
Before starting my doctorate, I was looking into other pathways to advancing my education without saddling myself with debt, and going abroad on a Fulbright scholarship seemed like a good option. I never finished my application because the opportunity to start my Ph.D. removed the need for me to go abroad to accomplish my goals.
Apply to 5 PhD programs [Task failed Successfully]
I interviewed for and got accepted to one (1) program before applying to any others, so I’m counting it as a success. I feel very good about my decision and this semester with my advisor has gone really well. 1 point.
Get a Job [COMPLETED]
Despite what I said about failing to find an engineering job in industry, I did achieve what I consider to be a job; I started my Doctorate. Effectively, I am paid a stipend for my research labor while taking courses. Obviously, this one will need to be changed for next year. 1 point.
Publish a research paper [Legally Speaking, Yes]
I have one paper in review right now, however it was an invited paper, and as such is not really the same as submitting a paper. I have a few others in various stages of completion as well, though, so 2026 should be a big research year for me. 0.5 points.
Publish my personal website [COMPLETED]
You’re looking at it. 1 point.
Build a personal software project [Several, Actually]
At the start of 2025, I wanted to improve my ability to code in various contexts and languages. I did manage to put together a few personal and school projects that I’m pretty proud of. Feel free to browse my GitHub to see specific projects. I feel I advanced significantly in my ability to design and organize projects, because I had to deal with several other poorly designed projects. Next year I want to keep this trend going, but up the measurement to maybe 3 projects? 1 point.
Social Goals
Take three trips to see friends (or cousins) [2/3]
At the end of 2024, I was feeling rather isolated because I was unemployed and had few means to see friends that were outside of a 30-minute driving distance, while all my friends from high school and college had graduated and moved on to other places, I was living at home struggling to find a job. I made this goal with the idea that I wanted to be more intentional about going to see the people I care about. I think there’s several reasons why this was an ineffective goal. First, I don’t define what a “trip” even means. The intention was to take a relatively long-distance trip to see friends, but here it could also mean a 15 minute drive to grab a drink with someone locally. I think I want to run this one back for next year, and better define what a trip means, so I can better measure whether I am achieving it or not. The score wound up as 2/3 under my original intention of the rule, which ended up being more than an hour drive with the express purpose of seeing that person. I’m not sure if the distance metric is actually relevant to the original goal, and may remove that next year. 0.66 points
Take one international trip [UNDONE]
I want to be able to see the world and experience different cultures while I have the time to do so. This goal was originally made with the intention of getting a proper engineering job in industry and having money to travel internationally. This didn’t end up happening, so naturally I had no overseas trips this time around. I think this is a better designed goal than the previous one because ‘international’ is specific and easily measured. The goal is simple and clear, making it easy to plan for and achieve. Where this goal fails is realism– in the sense that an international trip is a huge investment of both time and money. I don’t know if my current or near-future circumstances will allow for this, but who knows? I think I will keep it on the list for 2026 and plan a trip to Canada to check it off.
Make 5 activity-independent friends [5/5]
I’ve been lucky to make a lot of friends this year. In most cases I didn’t directly make them, but they came as a result of my connections with others– mutual friends if you will. The intent of this goal was to get out and about more and make more connections with people that would otherwise be strangers. This is a measurable goal that I completed in some senses, but is still pretty loosely defined. I’ll try and revise it for next year. 1 point.
Find a weekly night for MTG [SUCCESS]
Glad to report that I managed to get into the local Magic community pretty quickly after moving. I have a few groups that I play with locally, but I haven’t quite become a weekly regular yet with the busy semester. Sacrificing time for my hobbies for the sake of schoolwork or other commitments was a common theme this year. Regardless, I have a lot of fun with the people I play with, and I hope to play more in the new year. 1 point.
Volunteer in my community [Yes, but not enough]
Legally speaking, I did volunteer a little this year, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. The thing that was missing from this goal was measurement. Next year I’ll add a number of hours that I want to volunteer over the course of the year. 0.5 points.
Go one week in America without a car [Technically, but no.]
I wanted to try walking and biking more this year, but it very quickly failed. I never actually committed to walking or biking everywhere for a week, but I think I may have inadvertently accomplished this goal by just not leaving the house for a while… Not as proud of that accomplishment, haha.
Skills and Hobbies
Go see an arm of the Milky Way [Almost]
Over the summer I went thrifting and found a used reflector telescope for ~$40. Naturally, I used it as an excuse to finally get into stargazing. With a few minor repairs I went on my first outing in August. As far as the goal is concerned, it was made before this telescope entered my life and was meant to encourage me to touch grass and explore nature more. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a spot that’s dark enough to see the Milky Way. That means that this goal as-written as failed, but I think it was accomplished in spirit, so we’ll call it half-credit. 0.5 points.
Go Camping [Nope]
Camping is actually quite terrifying to me, so I want to find a friend who’s experienced before I explore this one. We’ll see what happens next year.
Cook 3 elaborate or exotic dishes [Not sure]
Turns out it’s hard and expensive to cook things that are hard and expensive. In addition, “elaborate” and “exotic” are very loosely defined. Not a well designed goal. I want to try and cook more, but for this goal I need to better define dishes that meet the criteria. Maybe a better way to meet the intent would be to instead set a goal for the frequency of cooking rather than the complexity of the dishes. 0.5 points.
Learn to repair clothing [Not even attempted]
This one just has all the hallmarks of poor goal design, not measurable, not specific, etc. I do want to learn more hard skills like this in the new year, so I need to make it more specific and measurable. Instead of the goal being to learn, the goal needs to be a product of learning. For example, a better variant may be to make my own patch jacket, or repair a number of my jeans that have holes. The list could go on.
Read 3 books [3/3]
I’m lucky to have many friends that love reading, so it wasn’t hard to get back into the habit when I had the time to devote to it. I read 3 books with the book club we started, and almost finished Dracula in October as well.
- We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin: I really loved this story about mental health and sibling perspectives. The story took a very inventive approach to the unreliable narrator trope and the themes really resonated with me.
- 7 & 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: I don’t think I’ve ever read a proper mystery novel, but this timeloop murder novel also played around with perspective and had (in my opinion) a perfect drip feed of information so that I was engaged but didn’t solve it early.
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau: I read this with a smaller group of friends. It is the autobiographical recount of Thoreau’s time living on the bank of Walden Pond in Massachusetts. To punctuate the reading experience, we took a road trip to Walden pond ourselves to get our book copies signed (watermarked, haha) by the pond itself.
I want to continue reading, and it looks like the Divine Trilogy is next on the list. 1 point.
Become fluent (200bpm) in my major scales on both instruments [NOPE]
This one was just not realistic given my current practicing habits. Next year I want to simply set a goal to practice consistently, before I set a goal of a specific practice goal. In addition, maybe I should just take it one instrument at a time, starting with the saxophone.
GRAND TOTAL: 10.5/25
And that’s the game folks! I think I’ve had a good year on the whole, and I liked having so many different goals to make progress on at once. it really scratched the “numbers go up” itch in my brain. All 25 goals listed abo– an aide runs in and whispers in my ear – What do you mean I missed one? Oh, right..
Buy myself flowers […]
This one’s interesting, because it’s the easiest goal on this entire list, but I never managed to do it. I’m disappointed that I got too caught up in everything else that I never thought to do this one simple act for myself. It feels poetic in a sense, and I feel it reflects a broader pattern in my life of taking care of others before taking care of myself. I bought flowers for plenty of people this year. It would have been so easy to do it for myself, and yet I sit here on new year’s eve without anything to show for it. Next year is a new year, I suppose.
It’s funny how the smallest things can sometimes be the hardest. I’ve lifted hundreds of pounds, started my doctorate, and moved cities all in the same year, and yet I can’t tell you why I never managed to take a moment for myself. Perhaps my self-care takes a different form than flowers, but it’s symbolic. Maybe self-care for myself looks like weekly magic nights, or spending time with my loved ones. Perhaps I need to look for the flowers that I bought myself in spirit, instead of being so literal. I think we all might need to.
Happy New Year.