UPDATE: 24 for 2024 List

If the Year in Review annual recap is the most popular blog post, the annual list and subsequent update are a close second. Whether you draw inspiration for your own personal development challenge from these posts or you simply just like to creep (hey, no shame, we all do it), I’m glad I get to share this journey with you. Not only does it help keep me accountable, it also gives me a moment to reflect on how I finished the year in regards to my goals.

As a recap, the bestie and I started doing the annual list in 2019 as inspired by the hosts of our favorite podcast, Happier. Much like our beloved hosts, we have never accomplished every single thing on the list, and that’s okay! The point of the list is to help us brainstorm what we think we may want in our lives for the upcoming year, and we always end up accomplishing more than we probably would have without the list.

In addition to the list, we always pick a one-word theme of the year. When choosing a theme, I try to think about the general tone I want to invoke for the year. Here’s what I chose for my one-word theme in 2024:

As I was going through options for my one-word theme this year, I was hit with a bit of an existential crisis. We’ve done this for a decent amount of years at this point, so there’s always this force stress inside myself to continue on an upward trajectory, and that in turn leads to feelings of “when will it stop?” and “how do I get off this ride?” So then I pondered, maybe I should just forgo the list this year and let myself relax, which led to immense feelings of shame and general fears of drift and laziness without a focus.

In the midst of this turmoil, the perfect word appeared, as it always seems to just when I need it. As I lathered my hair, mid-shower, all I could think about was how while I was most definitely putting in effort in here (ladies know what I mean when I say it was an everything shower), it felt so comforting to take care of myself so wholly and completely. And just as all the suds swirled down the drain, the word appeared: NURTURE.

I think I did a pretty good job of living my word this year. At the end of December, I came to a fork in the path. I could push myself to the brink to cross off a few more items, or I could accept that some of these items would drift into 2025 and that would be okay. As you’ll see below, I gave myself the grace I would give a dear friend and let go. Friends, it was freeing and one of the biggest acts of self-love I’ve allowed myself. I feel absolutely zero shame about letting the foot off the gas and taking the rest I clearly needed. This was a huge win in letting go of my perfectionist tendencies. Go me!

To add a little more color to how the year unfolded, let’s look back at each item:

Get a 24-day streak on MyFitnessPal ✅

I am proud to report that not only did I hit my streak, but I completed this aim 336 days in 2024, or 92 percent of the time. This is why it’s so important to find a way to keep track of your goals. The easiest way I have found to accomplish this is by setting up my goals in the Streaks app. Not only is it motivating to see how long the streak can go, it also gives you the completion percentage over periods of time. This is crucial for someone like me who is prone to throwing in the towel after losing a big streak. It allows you to see that even if you aren’t perfect, you are accomplishing your aim most of the time. Because I kept a log fairly religiously this year, I made some big gains in my health goals, which bring us to the next item.

Quarterly Bod Pod appointments ✅

As a reminder, the Bod Pod is a specialized machine that measures body composition using air displacement. I’m counting this one since I did my math incorrectly. This is something I plan on continuing off list in 2025, so it doesn’t make much sense to have an appointment in December and then again a month later in January (which is already scheduled). As with most long-term goals, my adherence to losing body fat waxed and waned throughout the year. But by keeping regular tabs on my measurements, I remained accountable and ended the year with about 2 percent less body fat and 7 pounds lighter. This goal is probably the most frustrating on the list because it’s proving to take an absurd amount of patience and tweaking. The good news about the long process is that it is really giving me the opportunity to learn new habits that I can follow for life. This is a marathon not a sprint, baby.

Closet clean out ✅

I love starting the year with a solid closet purge so this one was checked off immediately. Since I don’t buy new clothes all that frequently, this was mainly getting rid of clothes that no longer fit me. Since I am an under-buyer, I usually miss step two of this process which is replacing what needs to be replaced and thus inspired the next item.

Replace donated and worn-out clothes with new ones that fit ✅

I did a pretty good job here. I started by looking at what I was getting rid of and then asked if it needed to be replaced or not. Most items, like my running tights that were now too big, were a yes, so I added them to a list. I also tried to identify holes in my closet, like the fact that I bought denim shorts for the first time in decades and didn’t really have any tees that worked with them. Because I made the list, it was always in the back of my mind what I needed so if I was out and about I could get something that made sense. An unexpected bright side to this list item was that I was able to rehome my old leggings to my brother’s wife. They were in great condition (seriously, I swear by the Oiselle Pocket Jogger Tights), and not quite ready for the trash.

Happier challenge: write 24 ❌

Every year the podcast hosts invite listeners to partake in their annual challenge and this year it was to write either 24 or 2-4 minutes every day. This is a sad fail for me. I was so excited when the challenge was announced because I thought it would be the catalyst I needed to start seriously working on the book idea I have. I also thought it may help me get some of my blogs out of the drafts, but alas neither happened. I started strong, but then life happened and I inevitablely got busy with work and other lifestyle choices (like working on my fitness). Still trying to get it to “count,” I started keeping my streak alive with 2-4 minutes of journaling, which is something they mentioned in the podcast. As time went on, I was counting this activity more and more, which wasn’t how I wanted to approach the challenge, so I went back to counting blogging time only. At the end of the year, my Streak for this goal was 178 completions, or 49 percent of the time. This remains an important aim for me, so I’ve been scheming how I can restructure it in 2025 to make it a more solid habit.

Write 24 blog posts ❌

Given my lack of writing consistency throughout the year, I knew I missed this target. Upon review, I discovered I wasn’t as off the mark as I had originally thought. I ended the year with 19 published posts, which is on par with recent years since I published 20 the year prior. Again, I spent a lot of time in December brainstorming how I might make this more of a win in 2025.

Create 24 reels for Instagram ❌

I didn’t even get close on this one. In fact, I had a bit of a break from social media, which I briefly touched on in the 2024 Year in Review post. I think I really miss Instagram before the algorithm changed everything. For example, did you know that when you make a post, it only gets shown to a handful of your followers and if there isn’t enough engagement within the subsequent couple of hours of posting, it doesn’t show it to the rest of your followers? This is why it’s so important to engage with accounts you care about, otherwise the algorithm will make the decision for you. I do have revised social media goals for 2025, but I think my approach will be completely different.

Attend a knitting festival ✅

I’m so happy about this one! This was one of my just for fun items of the year inspired by the fact that I was set to attend two festivals in 2023 but life got in the way and I made it to neither. This year, I went to three festivals in three different countries! As I mentioned in the Year in Review, we snuck up to London in March and I attended The Stitch Festival. It was completely overwhelming and not quite what I expected since all fiber crafts and sewing were included, meaning there weren’t an abundance of yarn vendors. I did end up with some lovely golden alpaca yarn which made a beautifully drapey everyday sweater.

The second festival I attended was the Swiss Yarn Festival in April. This one was definitely more my speed and was 100 percent all about the yarn. I ended up with two sweater quantities worth of yarn plus a contrast color for a pattern I already had the main color for.

The last festival I attended was the Hohenloher Wollfest in a tiny village in Germany. This was my least favorite of the festivals and I didn’t bring anything home from this one. Many of the colorways I saw weren’t my style, and the ones I did like, I vowed to buy online once I worked through some of my stash. I probably should have skipped this one because it was a lot of yarn buying all at once and my under-buyer self was a little overwhelmed by this point. Either way, Mark was a true sport about all of the festivals as he journeyed with me to each one and found something to do while I went and pet all the wool.

Do 24 pushups in one minute ❌

Technically this one didn’t happen, but the overall intention of the goal did, so count it how you will. I thought by making this a concrete goal, I would get myself to start a lifting routine again. Well, I didn’t do the pushups but I did ramp up my strength game quite a bit. Throughout the year, I transitioned from lifting 2-3 times a week at home, to 4-5 times a week at the base gym. I made the move to the gym towards the end of the year because I was near the upper limit of what I could do at home with our dumbbells and needed to move up in weight. At first, it felt so inconvenient to spend so much time getting to and from the gym (it’s a minimum 45-minute transit one-way) plus an hour lifting, but as time wore on, I grew to love my new gym flow. Part of the success with this goal was that I started to do the commute with Mark. He was an excellent accountability partner because he was going to go to work either way and I felt like I got to spend more time with him since we were together for the first part of the trek.

Create a Lightroom photo preset ✅

As predicted when I made the list, this was incredibly easy to do and I made several presets while editing our Iceland photos. What I didn’t expect was how much these presets would come in handy while I was editing other photo sets. Before I started working on a new set, I would run through all of the presets and most of the time one would look great on the new photo with some minor tweaking. This sped up my workflow considerably. Am I anywhere near being caught up on photos? No, but that’s a problem for the new year.

Complete a Yoga with Adriene monthly program ❌

Much like my pushup goal, this one didn’t necessarily happen in the way I structured the goal, but I ended up doing what I was ultimately trying to achieve. What I really wanted from this list item was to incorporate mobility and stretching work into my fitness program for a more well-rounded routine. Again, as I’m getting older, this is becoming more and more important. I did a much better job of stretching for about 10-15 minutes after runs and ended the year with completing my mobility training at least three times per week 74 percent of the time. Like the bestie reminded me on our annual recap call, if there is something I really want to do, I usually have no issue making time for it and this may be a sign that I keep getting an X on this one year after year. Point taken.

Support friends’ content with comments on social media ✅

This one was pretty weak because there wasn’t a good way for me to measure it. Add on to the fact that I really scaled back my social media usage over the past year, it was hard to know if I was supporting within my limited time on the app. When I saw a friend had made a post, I did my best to like and add a comment, especially for small business accounts. As I mentioned above, if you enjoy content from people it’s absolutely crucial to engage with it on a regular basis or it could disappear from your feed. This could be to the algorithm deciding it isn’t of interest to you, or the content creator may think their content isn’t worth it and stop posting. Likes are $free, people. Use them.

Use the tripod by myself ❌

Admittedly an annoying miss on the list because it’s so simple. I basically just need Mark to show me how to secure the camera on the tripod and then I’m ready to shoot. I contemplated rushing to do this one quickly at the end of the year, but true to my word, I chose to nurture myself and let it go. That said, (spoiler alert) it’s getting moved to next year.

A month of sugar detox ✅

While this goal was a little bit about health, it was also about something much more embarrassing. Starting in the summer of 2023, my skin looked the worst it ever had. I was breaking out with painful cystic acne, something that had never happened in my teen years. I was ready to do anything and everything to fix the problem, except the most obvious answer. I quit sugar. I canceled dairy. I drank peppermint tea. And my skin continued to worsen until it absolutely erupted in December 2023. My confidence tanked. I avoided making plans with people and tried to stay at home. I know it shouldn’t matter, but it broke me. Finally, Mark lovingly said this was beyond my control and I really needed a professional. So I booked an appointment with my doctor and she was convinced this was a hormonal issue. She started me back on birth control and wrote me a referral for a dermatologist. This was the help I needed. It wasn’t a sugar issue after all. Going into 2025, my skin is glowing and back to itself and now I’m managing the scarring of 2023 with my dermatologist. I tell you all this in case you find yourself in a similar situation. It may be absolutely nothing that you’re doing and you just need to see a doctor.

Spend all of my Christmas money ✅

I did it! I ended up treating myself to an LED face mask (see above about trying everything to heal my skin) and a beautiful leather binder system to keep my knitting supplies tidy. I use both of these items daily, so it was definitely well spent. Of course, this problem will likely reset itself in the new year, but I think I know what I will do with it when the time comes.

Plan our travel for the rest of the year ✅

Mark and I spent a cozy weekend in January figuring this all out with his available leave. We organized it as a grid in the Notes app, budgeting days of leave needed, and then added dates once everything was booked. We made it on all of the trips we had planned, so this definitely helped keep us on track and make the most of our bonus year. Out of all of our trips this year, I think our London revisit and Isle of Skye road trip were my favorites. What can I say? I love the UK.

Complete half marathon training plan for a 2:16 finish ✅

I made huge strides in my running game this year. Unfortunately, my goal time proved to be a little too aggressive and while I got close, I did not hit the target before the end of the year. My previous half marathon PR was 2:28 in 2019. I completed four half marathons this year, and with each one I finished faster than the one previous. I ended the year with a new PR of 2:20. I think if I keep planning the work and working the plan like I did in 2024, I should see my goal finish in 2025. These things take time and I’m willing to see it out.

Take the Harvard Happiness course with the bestie ❌

A fail all around on this one. We registered for the course which took place early in the year, and then neither one of us attended a single lecture. Personally, I think I didn’t try too hard on this one because it was only of minor interest to me to begin with. So, I tried revising the goal with something I was more interested in… and failed to do that as well. As I’ve mentioned on the blog previously, my brother and I have really upped our cooking game in the past couple of years. He has begged me to read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat as it has been an invaluable resource in his kitchen. I borrowed the book from my library, realized I was highlighting about every other sentence in the first section alone, and ordered a hard copy… of which I still haven’t read. I will do this. I need to. I want to.

Complete four Duolingo lessons per week ✅

Here is another perfect example of where I chose rest over the sprint. I completed this goal 64 percent of the time in the past year, so I’ll let you decided if that’s a check or an X. By the end of the year, I only had four units left of the course. If I really buckled down and dedicated more time to my German learning, I could have finished the course. But, I chose to take it easy and take the pressure off and will now likely finish the course in January 2025. I’m okay with those odds. Also, my German is still furchtbar but whatever.

What’s up Wednesday ✅

This was another item that was ill-defined on the 2024 list, but I think I did my best to reach out to my friends on a regular basis. Overseas living is tough for maintaining friendships, and I’m looking forward to being in a closer time zone again in 2025.

Do one creative thing just for fun ❌

They always say when you fail to plan, you plan to fail and well, they’re right. This fell out of my immediate vision and I just never went back to it. I’m okay with it because I don’t feel like I was bored or wasted time in 2024. Right now our life is more about capitalizing on living abroad and maybe creative endeavors will be undertaken more frequently when we aren’t trying to cram a trip in every four weeks or so.

Purposeful remove: Send holiday cards ❌

I had every intention to do this item. I started my address collect list well in advance, but then I saw a post on our community Facebook page that our post office was having issues mailing out in a timely fashion. Someone posted that their holiday cards didn’t reach their intended recipients until months after being dropped in the box. Not one to waste money, I removed this item from the list and will do it in 2025 when I have access to a more reliable mailroom.

Summer of self-care ❌

Ah, a tale as old as time. This was a classic case of where I decided to make the goal way harder than it needed to be, got overwhelmed, and did nothing instead. I started compiling a list of self-care activities for this item, and then for whatever reason decided I needed to do something different every single day for it to count. The logical approach would have been to come up with a list of a handful of items and then just picking from that list every day based on what I felt I needed, but no. I needed to make this mission impossible. That said, I do feel like I took care of myself as a whole throughout the year, so win?

FREE SPACE: Ran a sub-30 5k (a Couple of times)!

A few years ago, I came up short on list items so I decided to give myself a free space. This is something I’ve done ever since because it allows me to highlight something that happened throughout the year that was probably not on the list. If you’ve read any of my blogs about running, you know that I am not a fast runner. Something I’ve dreamt of since I started running was to be able to run a 5K (3.1 miles) in under 30 minutes. This translates into a 9:30 minute/mile or faster pace. Up until now, my usual 5K pace is around 33 minutes. At the end of 2023, I celebrated the fact that I ran the most miles I ever have in a year, and I wasn’t ready to let my foot off the gas in 2024. With Garmin’s help, I spent much of the past year building my speed and increasing my VO2 Max, basically how efficiently your body uses oxygen while you’re running. During a tempo workout, I noticed I was hitting around a 9:30 pace, and so I gave it my all and slid under the 30-minute 5K mark! I was absolutely stunned. While I didn’t think it was a fluke, I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it again. And then I did.

Mark and I rarely run together since he is significantly faster than I am. During our Scotland trip, we had spent most of the day driving to the next location and decided to belt out a quick run before grabbing dinner. We were in a new town and I was nervous about getting turned around, so I tried to keep Mark in my sights. Around two miles, he noticed I wasn’t too far behind him, so he made the decision to drop his pace just a bit but still fast enough to keep me pushing. As we neared our hotel at the top of a steep street, he asked how close to 5K I was. I showed him my watch and he asked if I could beat my previous PR. I nodded, and he cheered me up the hill. I damn near died on that hill, but I once again hit under the 30-minute mark, and just a hair faster this time. Later we would find out that I had COVID during this, so I was even more chuffed with myself.

I can’t explain the pure euphoria that comes with achieving a goal that has been hanging around in your head for what feels like a decade. And then to have that once impossible hill now become something you can accomplish with just a little effort. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is why we make the goals. They may not always happen on the initial timeline, but as long as you keep showing up and keep putting in the work, eventually you’ll get there.

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At the end of the day, 2024 wasn’t about perfect checkmarks but about honest growth and learning when to let go. By accepting that some goals will roll into 2025, I gave myself space to breathe—and it’s a pretty amazing feeling to end the year with zero guilt. Now, I’m channeling that energy into finalizing my brand-new list and one-word theme for the upcoming year, and I’m more excited than ever to see what 2025 has in store.

I’ll be sharing my 25 for 2025 in about a week, along with the guiding word that I hope will shape my mindset for the next twelve months. In the meantime, I’d love to know: What goals or themes are on your horizon for the new year? Drop a comment below—I’m always inspired by the ideas and experiences you bring to this little community of ours!

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