Happy New Year! 2025 is now a week old. Hopefully you have been able to make the most of this week. I know I have in part because of the winter storm that just dumped 10-12 inches of snow on us, and gave us 2 snow days (so far). These snow days allowed me to get caught up on a bunch of things I didn't get a chance to do over my camp filled winter break.
2024 was a tough year. If I reflect on the last few years, I would say it was probably my hardest year. There was a ton of good. West Clermont's Concert A group broke 80 in their first year ever. The Open group broke 90 for the first time ever in a new class. I had my first experiences being in a box for a world class drum corps. Madison Scouts made it back into finals. I am now the front ensemble arranger and sound designer for the Raiders. The marching band season was one of the more successful ones. The winter season is off to a great start for all of my groups.
"Ryan, that all sounds great. How could say it was your hardest year?" That is a great question. First, go back and read all of those things again. Notice anything? They are all professional accomplishments. I am very proud of all of those things, and plan to continue to build on all of those things.
To get there, I did indoor 7 days a week. I also did 9 weeks of drum corps/band camp, DCI Finals right up to school starting. I had an extremely crazy marching band schedule of 2 rehearsals a day on top of teaching full days at school. All of this well taking on guardianship of my mom and everything that entails. Last school year was draining for many reasons. I let myself go to get everything I got.
I spent a majority of 2024 not happy with myself and not happy with what my personal future looked like. I have no idea what my future looks like (do any of really know). I know what I want it to look like, and I know that I am taking steps to hopefully get there. However, aspects of our future are entirely out of our control no matter the best laid plans.
So here are my 2025 goals to hopefully put me closer to the future I want to have -
1) Lose 50 pounds. I have changed my diet recently, and lost about 15 pounds at the end of 2024. I was going to the gym 3 days a week, but then my schedule picked up with deadlines and I have strayed away from that. I have a few more deadlines to hit and then I plan to push myself back to that gym schedule.
2) Drink 40 ounces of water daily. This is probably like 1a, but I am going to list it as a separate thing because I can accomplish this daily. Those small victories add up and help keep the "motivation" going.
3) Read 12 book this year. This started as "Read 10 pages every day" but I missed one being out of town this past weekend. Unfortunately, reading 10 pages every day isn't totally realistic for my schedule. However, reading 12 books this year means just 1 book a month. The last time I read 12 books in a year was NEVER, so this is an ambitious goal. Especially because I hate reading. However, I feel a "win" in my day when I read. Again, small victories adding up help keep it going.
I like reading books that help me invest in myself or my teaching craft. I am currently reading "Hidden Potential" by Adam Grant. It is a great that I highly recommend. I have a short list of books to read in 2025, but love suggestions as well.
4) Clean up my old indoor shows for resale. This is something I have wanted to do for years now, but always moved from one season to the next before I could. I have opened up a chunk of my summer to dedicate to this task, so I should have a handful of new shows available for the 2026 winter season.
That it is. Just 4 "simple" goals. In the past I have given myself a bunch of goals to accomplish and been let down when I didn't get them all done. I have also accomplished a lot of my professional goals (still a lot to go), so I feel a push to use 2025 to invest in myself.
What are your goals for 2025? Hopefully this post sparks something for you if you haven't created goals yet. It is also alright to not have goals yet. I definitely didn't reflect on 2024 as much as I thought I did until I wrote this. Take the time to do that and then come up with your goals. To those of you using 2025 to invest in yourself, best wishes to you in your journey too.
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