Happy 2026, folks! I actually can’t believe that 2025 is already in the past. It just flew by! Exactly a year ago, I made a list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2025, with a variety of goals, ranging from fitness to crafts and education. Today, it’s time to celebrate my achievements and shed a tear over my failures. It’s a mixed bag! Not everything went to plan, but that’s just life – we can’t predict everything. As I’m currently making a list of resolutions for the new year, it’s a good chance to learn from my progress in 2025 and maybe even roll over some of the missed goals. So, here is the final summary of my New Year’s Resolutions 2025.
Finishing Spanish Duolingo course
Let’s start on a positive note, and my biggest achievement this year. After over 6 years of daily lessons, I finished the Spanish Duolingo course on October 8th 2025. What a spectacular…ly lacklustre moment that was! I wrote all about it in this post – check it out to find out how disappointing that moment was. Either way, I’m immensely proud of this achievement. Whilst I’m far from being fluent in Spanish, I can get the gist of Spanish songs or written news articles, and that’s something! I’m not stopping here with my Spanish learning, but I need to find a new routine to add to the simple daily refresh lessons in Duolingo now. A post all about my New Year’s Resolutions for 2026 will be coming soon, and I might make one for language learning again…
Learning to crochet
One of my crafty goals for 2025 was to learn to crochet. I didn’t make any progress until around Easter, and when I started learning, it was hard. I wrote about my first crocheting projects in this post. My very first attempt – an egg – looks absolutely hilarious!
Since then, I managed to make huge progress. Bear in mind, I have a lot of hobbies and interests, and a busy lifestyle overall – I didn’t commit to crocheting every day. Yet, over the last 8 or so months, I managed to go from failing to crochet an egg despite watching dozens of crochet tutorials, to being able to follow semi-complex patterns and crochet with various techniques.
The plan wasn’t to become an expert in one year – that wouldn’t have been realistic – but to be able to crochet simple items, and I think it’s fair to say that achieved my goal!
Embroidery on clothes
Being able to create, adjust, or enhance clothes is something I’ve been wanting to do for ages. As an easy first step, I had a plan to make simple embroidery patterns on plain clothes. And well, I still think it’s a cute idea, but I never actually attempted it. This resolution was a complete flop! I did buy a basic, plain black T-shirt a few months ago, specifically for this project, but it’s still sat in my DIY storage box, intact. Maybe one day?
Being better at improving my professional skills
Another one of my goals was to focus more on my career. I’m fortunate to have a stable job in a growing industry, but I don’t feel like I use my full potential. Coincidentally, my role changed around June, and I was promoted to a position with a lot more responsibilities. And while I learn something every day, I still feel like I’m not making much progress, and sometimes let procrastination take over. I’d say this resolution was a failure, actually – I haven’t done much to introduce a better structure for myself. I envy all of those people working in serious industries and having complete dedication and passion for their jobs, but that – unfortunately – ain’t me.
Fitness – running
I had two running-related goals for 2025. The first one was to run 15km. Not in a race, just in my spare time. I completed the goal on August 17th, running 15km in 1 hour 33 minutes 47 seconds. It was a bit of a miracle – I struggled with injuries and various health issues for a few months in the middle of the year, being unable to do much exercise at all. I don’t really know how I went from close to no exercise to running the longest distance ever in under 3 weeks, but it happened. Success!
As for my other running goal – running 5km in under 24 minutes 15 seconds – I didn’t get anywhere near it. Breaking that time would have required quite a few weeks of consistent training, and running several times a week. For a variety of reasons, that wasn’t possible.
Fitness – learning to do one pull up
This is probably one of the most disappointing flops of my New Year’s resolutions 2025. I went from aiming to learn to do a pull-up to having a few months of injuries and health issues over the summer, to now struggling to force myself back into a consistent gym routine. It’s really difficult to get back into regular exercise after a few months out of the gym. I wish the year had played out differently, but oh well. I’ll probably have another attempt at building up my strength in the coming months, but no pull ups were done in 2025.
Do more flexibility exercises
My goal was to do a stretch & flexibility workout twice a week. Aaaand, I failed miserably. I’ve been doing weekly dance classes for a year now, so at least I’m guaranteed to do some stretching during the classes, but I rarely do it at home. Considering my frequent back issues, I really need to get more consistent with my flexibility exercises. I think this resolution will have to roll over to 2026, hopefully with better results.
To be less messy and better organised with house chores
At this point, I’m starting to lose hope. I have no idea how people manage to stay on top of all house chores and keep their homes in pristine condition. If you’re one of them, I need some tips, please! I’ve been making conscious effort this year, but feel like I’m stuck in a vicious circle.
Be better at resting
Not a typical goal you’d see on a list of New Year’s resolutions, is it? Well, I felt like I was always keeping myself extremely busy, I was always on a run. A full time job, busy gym routine, lots of hobbies… I actually got a bit better at allowing myself to rest, mainly thanks to my health issues preventing me from sticking to my gym routine all summer. I even spent a few whole days at home (not a few days in a row, just a few days in total). Which, to me, is incredibly hard to do. Working from home, I already spend a lot of time in my small flat. I really struggle to stay indoors all day, it makes me feel like a potato and it actually requires mental effort. Even if I’m ill, I feel the urge to go on a walk at least once a day.
This year, I managed to listen to my body a bit better, and allowed myself to slow down when it was the right thing to do. I think this goal was a success.
Reading books – 6 books a year
My final resolution was to read 6 books this year. Which, honestly, isn’t particularly ambitious. As a teenager, I was a total bookworm. I once read over 100 books in a year. During summer holidays, I was able to read a couple of books in a day. But then, as I grew older, I found other hobbies and forgot about books almost entirely.
I had a slow start this year. I read Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (I’d never read it in English before, so it felt like the right choice). Then, the wheels came off again and I didn’t read anything for a few months.
Around August/September, I decided to challenge myself and bought another book from the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in Spanish. My Spanish, despite finishing the Spanish course on Duolingo, isn’t advanced. But, I still managed to read the whole book, guessing the meaning of the words I didn’t know – it certainly helped that I had read that book in two other languages before, dozens of times.
Then, again, I didn’t read anything for a couple of months, until one week in November, when my broadband internet went down for several days. Unable to spend hours doomscrolling, I reached for a book. I finished it within a few days, and reached for another one. Since then, I managed to make it a bit of a habit, and have been reading regularly before bedtime. I think I ended the year with 4.5 books read. I didn’t hit my goal, but I had a strong end of the year, and hope to roll this habit over to the new year.
Final thoughts
And those were all of my New Year’s resolutions for 2025. Overall, although I’m a little disappointed with some of the flops, I feel like it didn’t go too bad. I managed to achieve some of my goals, and – most importantly – I think I got at least one from each category – education (Duolingo), crafts (crocheting), fitness (running 15km) and self-development (taking rest). I will probably have another go at some of the failed resolutions, so although they’re failed for now, I’m not giving up hope.
Now, it’s time to finalise my list of resolutions for 2026 – I will share it here next week. Have you made any resolutions in 2025? If so, how did you do? Let me know, I’m curious to hear about your experiences!
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