My 2025 Goals for a Better Life

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but I do believe in aspiration & hard work

Fireworks above the Hollywood sign

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions for the simple reason that they set up a formula for unrealistic expectations and self-loathing. I don’t like to do things that make me feel worse about myself just as a matter of principle and creating an annual cycle of disappointment seems like a bad idea. I do, however, believe in the value of personal goals and the value of aspiration and hard work in the pursuit of happiness and well-being. So, as my last MIXTAPE of 2024, I’m going to chart out my goals for 2025 both to flesh them out and also to hold myself accountable for my dreamworld with the (important) standard disclaimer that I don’t expect to meet every goal and I won’t judge myself for falling short since I intentionally ask too much of myself. I just believe wholeheartedly in the importance of pursuing your own goals. Full stop. I also believe that some goals get easier and some get more complicated with time as you learn more about them and there’s often a lot of naïveté involved when you’re just in the goal setting stage. But as long as I’m putting in the work all the time, I’ll be happy.

Here are my personal goals for 2025:

1. Find an awesome new literary agent

2. Hit the ground running in my new career as a financial advisor

3. Travel to at least one new country this year

4. Buy a grey suit, a second pair of glasses, a pair of black Stan Smiths, some Buck Mason t-shirts, & a second-hand Burberry trench (you fancy little bitch)

5. Pay off my credit card debt

6. Sell my sophomore linked short story collection, The Miseducation of Jessie Hayashi & His Cosmic Dictionary of Loss and/or my sophomore novel, Dizzie & Moto and/or my speculative novel, Dukkha, My Love

7. Get a new car because LA

8. See all my specialists at Cedars-Sinai to make sure everything is going well

9. Change my sleep routine to a corporate schedule (and stick to it). Big ugh there, but what can you do?

10. Maintain my running and weight-lifting routine even with a 56-hour a week job

11. Go to the AWP in LA and see old friends

12. Embrace my inner prep again

13. Give some joint readings with some of my writing friends

14. Get at least $1 million in assets under management in my client book for my first year

15. Finish all those email drafts I’ve got saved and finally send them out

16. Study for and pass the Series 7 and Series 66 exams

17. Do a much better job protecting my sleep hygiene

18. Start reading at night again before bed (after passing my exams, of course)

19. Get more work done on my Nisei-themed sleeve

20. Replace my TikTok use with Reddit to read about investing, financial careers, dividends, CFP career paths, & financial advisors

21. Keep up the night baths because Japanese trip

22. Max out my 2024 ROTH IRA

23. Create more time for yoga before bed

24. Start contributing to my 401k once my new jobs starts, make $2,400 a year in my dividend portfolio, & double down on core ETFs in my individual, 401k, & ROTH accounts

25. Tell more friends I love them for no reason at all

26. Continue writing newsletters for MIXTAPE bi-monthly

27. Find new ways to make LB’s life easier, quieter, more nourishing, more beautiful, more healthy, & more joyful

That’s all I’ve got for now! Stay tuned for my first MIXTAPE of 2025 and thank you so much for reading my newsletter. I love you, lol!

-Jackson