4 Habits to pick up in 2025

2024 is wrapping up. The days are short, and the year feels spent. I’ve decided on four habits for 2025. Simple things, but they matter

• Having fun with programming again. I went from having fun in hackathons and working on one-off creative concepts to write boring pull requests for huge organizations. Day to day involve politics, outdated processes and blasé coworkers. If this can’t be changed, fine. I will make my own. Silly projects, odd concepts — whatever makes me smile.
• Find Community . Years ago, it was abuzz with community, either entrepreneurshop, montréal or arts. The pandemic came shut it all down. We stayed inside and forgot what it meant to belong. I want to bring it back. Does it mean hosting events? Or online connections? 🤷 We’ll see
• Fix, Make, and Grow – sustainably I started tinkering at the chalet, messing with tools. Then real repairs. Now I want to make things. Grow things. Build with my hand. Like programming, it should be fun, not feel like work
• Read again When I was a teenager, I read a book every two days. Fast forward, the Internet captivated me and my mind became a hummingbird. I want to loose myself again in stories, ideas and thick, dusty books.

Are these smart? A reader will tell me these are not measurable. I will respond sometimes you have to let go and go where the heart goes. Not everything should be measurable, specific or time-bound.

Here are two others I will also have in mind:

• Cooking I am able to put things together in the kitchen. But no signature dish or anything that gets a “wow”. So I will learn a few handful mains/desert/sandwiches recipes that the young and not so young ones will love. Bonus points if it is simple and sustainable.
• Outdoors I’ve been in Canada for almost half my life and I’ve never done any skiing, snowboarding, camping here. I am not looking to get back to the level I had in Europe but will see into camping, climbing and pursuing winter sports with kids.

Life is short. I can fail at cooking or find community. But at least I wouldn’t die wondering if I had fun and did what I wanted to do.