Goals & New Years Resolutions for 2025

2025 New Years Resolutions Time!

Keeping it cliche as hell with what is probably the 87th Internet post you have seen about the importance of setting goals and resolutions. That being said, I believe with every fiber of my being that having concrete, well-defined goals you want to make progress towards in the future are necessary to help you get closer to a more beautiful life for yourself. I know I have done goals/resolutions posts previously (my apologies for slacking off a bit with being consistent with those, life got a bit hectic in November/December. I'm trying to get back with the routine and make progress towards some goals of mine (both professional and personal) that I will describe in more detail further below.

Professional Goals for 2025

My professional goals for Thumos.Life include the following:

• Write and Publish a minimum of one blog post each week.

  • If you are a Thumos.Life Real One™, meaning you have been reading my posts since the beginning, you know this has been something I keep wanting to be consistent with professionally. I love writing, and I feel like it helps me as a creative outlet, as a way to keep my therapeutic skills sharp, and most importantly work as a way to share therapeutic guidepoints and principles with people in an effective manner (I hope!). So be on the lookout in the future for more posts and content from yours truly, and if there is anything you would like to see me write more about, please feel free to drop me a line to let me know ((www.thumos.life; 281-782-4314; or jared@thumos.life)!

• Attend & participate in at least 1 networking and/or mental health professional community event in the Greater Houston area.

  • Anyone that knows me is aware that if left to my own devices I will always opt to be a solitary hermit, doing my best efforts to avoid any events or functions where I may be required to go outside of my social anxiety comfort zone. That being said, when I do go out to professional events, I almost always end up having a great time, meeting interesting people, learning new things, as well as getting to share about the aspects of mental health and therapy that I am passionate about. Plus sometimes they take place at restaurants or bars that I do not typically go to in my regular life, which is always fun.

• Make more concerted and deliberate efforts to network and reach out to the nerd and geek communities in the Greater Houston area.

  • Anyone that interacts with me for a conversation that lasts longer than seventeen seconds is bound to come to the realization that I am a huge nerd. For as long as I can remember I have had an immense love and appreciation for so many franchises, including (but definitely not limited to) Star Wars, Marvel Comics, The Lord of the Rings, The Dresden Files, Naruto, Lego, & the WWE. Not to mention the countless nerd pursuits I would love to learn more about if I could only find the time and/or people kind enough to help me learn (Dungeons and Dragons comes to mind. If you know of a group open to a pure beginner, let a brother know!).

  • The reason it is important to me to network and reach out to these communities in a professional context is because I know how important it is for a therapist to develop and define the niches they want to work with when operating in a private practice. As a nerd myself, one of the niches I have found success and fulfillment in while engaging in my clinical work over the past decade is when I have gotten to participate in the therapeutic work with my fellow geeks, nerds, and peculiar individuals.

• Digitize and collect my therapist handouts and resources into Thumos.Life branded materials that I can market, share, and ultimately sell to individuals (both clients and other professionals) as an additional source of income.

  • Over the course of 10+ years working as an individual therapist across practically every level along the spectrum of care, I have had the unique opportunity to develop handouts, group therapy content, and individual therapy lesson plans for all manner of clients, diagnoses, and scenarios. Having done that, I feel strongly that it would be prudent to collect that information, insight, and wisdom (if I could be so bold as to use that term) into handouts and documents that other individuals could use for their own self-growth and development.

• Invest time and effort into my two secret projects I am wanting to roll out in 2025.

  • I am limited in what I can say about it currently (my apologies for the secrecy and smoke/mirrors), but there are two projects I have been wanting to desperately find ways to make work as a clinician, and 2025 is the year I think I will finally take the risk and take the leap of faith. So keep an eye out for them in the near future!

    
    

Personal Goals for 2025

My personal goals for Jared for 2025 are the following:

• Engage in physical activity at least three times each week.

  • Earlier in December of 2024 I got back into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) after a long abscence (chronic health issues, the COVID pandemic, and having a child) I was lucky enough to find a gym in my local area that has a Noon class every weekday. After some fenagling with my schedule, I was able to find a way to make it to the class a good handful of times, and I absolutely loved the experience (shoutout to Revolution Dojo Katy!) There was a great community of people there, and I also got a great workout in getting completely demolished by everyone there, but loving every second of the experience.

  • That being said, in the event I am unable to make it to a BJJ class (illness, schedule difficulties, etc.), my plan will be to go on walks/bike rides in my neighborhood, or trying to make time to fit in some weight lifting (either at the Lifetime gym near my house, or with the Kettlebell or dumbells I have in the garage).

  • All of the above is really just there to remind future versions of myself that we have a laundry list of options when it comes to being physically active, and that we do not have to resort to laziness and being sedentary at the first sign of resistance or plans falling through.

• Practice some type of creative skill (not writing) for at least thirty minutes each week.

  • In my youth I engaged in a vast number of creative pursuits, admittedly at varied levels of proficiency (with very few of them reaching much farther than what I would consider "barely average skill level"). The primary creative skills that I am hoping to expose myself to and gain more experience in include: playing music (singing/playing guitar primarily), drawing (and maybe coloring said drawings), as well as tinkering on various DIY/Maker projects around the house/in my garage.

• Do something sweet/kind for my wife and daughter (outside of the things I already do usually for them) at least once each week.

  • Not to toot my own horn, but I feel like it would be an honest statement to say that I try my hardest to make sure my wife and daughter know constantly that they are without a doubt my two favorite people on the planet (and if I am being honest, there is a pretty big gap between them and third place, no offense). Despite that, I think in 2025 I want to try and find more ways to make conscious efforts to show them my love, compassion, and adoration I have for them through my actions (both big and small).

• Develop & maintain a morning and evening routine that is conducive to me staying on top of my goals, both professionally and personally.

  • Because of my neurodivergence (diagnosed later in my 30s as both ADHD & Autistic) I have come to learn that I thrive, do well, and ultimately progress when I have a structured and well thought out routine to my days/life. Ironically, my neurodivergent brain absolutely detests having a structured and well thought out routine with the fury of a thousand suns, and does all it can (both overtly and subtly) to try and derail the plans I make for myself.

  • Because of this mismatch/conundrum, I am going to strive for progress, not perfection when it comes to my routine, which will consist of trying to complete as much of the following each day:

    • Weekday Mornings

      • Wake up when my alarm goes off (No Snooze!), Start making tea for Kaleigh and Coffee for myself, engage in a brief mindfulness meditation while the drinks are getting prepared, do some stretching/flexibility practices to help me get more limber/mobile, and then review my calendar for the day.

      • Once my girls start waking up for the morning, help them (and myself) start preparing for their respective days, trying to be mindful of ways I can reduce and mitigate the immense mental load my beautiful wife carries each day for our family. Once that's done I drive my partner-in-crime (my daughter) to school.

    • Weekday Days

      • Once I get my daughter to school, the routine then shifts to what I need to get done for myself, both personally and professionally. This will vary from day to day, so I do not need to get super detailed here, but will typically include things like meeting with clients, completing documentation/adminstrative tasks for Thumos.Life, going to the gym or BJJ, as well as completing chores/tasks around the house.

    • Weekday Nights

      • Every so often I do have clients and/or meetings/networking events in the evening (see the professional goal above). When those are not happening though, I would hope that my ideal routine for 2025 would consist of me attempting to cook a meal for my family (a skill I desperately want to improve at currently), having some meaningful time with my wife and daughter (especially before my daughter starts reaching those teenage years when I hear rumors from other parents that she may start thinking I am lame and not cool to hang out with (total blasphemy!)), and then starting the bedtime process for everyone. The bedtime routine with my daughter is without a doubt one of my favorite parts of my day almost every day, and I cherish each time I get those special moments with her.

      • After that, when I am getting ready for bed, I want to make sure I take complete care of my dental hygiene (brushing and using my waterpik), reading (fiction or non-fiction, doesn't matter) for a little bit, doing my Homework for Life, completing my gratitude practice, and then reviewing my schedule from the day and see if anything needs added to the next day.

    • Weekends

      • Honestly, I am going to leave weekends open, because they will almost always be at the whim (and mercy) of the plans and chaos that not only my life conjures up, but also what my wife and daughter dreams up as well. So my plan for that will be to just go with the flow, ride the wave, and do my best to "control the controllable"

        
        

And that is what I am hoping to work on when we embark in what I am sure will unfortunately be a chaotic 2025. There is so much in the world that is not necessarily the way I would prefer for it to be, but my plan at the moment will be to practice the same principles I advocate to my clients in therapy sessions. I am going to continue making concerted efforts to engage in actions and behaviors that are in accordance with my personal values system, all the while doing my best to accept and acknowledge all of the uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and urges that arise while I attempt to do so.

If any of what I wrote above resonates with you, and you think I might be a therapist you could connect with and do meaningful work with in 2025 (and also live in the state of Texas, where I am licensed), please feel free to reach out to schedule an intake call so we can get the ball rolling to start working together!