A Review of 2025
Following a year in review post by a good friend. I have am inspired to create a similar one. Here, I will reflect on some of the meaningful habits and disciplines I have cultivated in the past year.
2025 was a pivotal year for me. A year and a half of mental fatigue and burn-out during my doctoral program began to resolve. The improvement came about from a militant focus on personal health and wellness at a holistic level.
I can't recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear enough. This book helped me reshape my daily habits in small ways. One that has stuck with me is.
The power of consistency
I have had great success in making recent habits stick by making the goal as small as possible. An example here is going to the gym first thing in the morning and doing the bare minimum.
This synergies well with enough tactic I have learned in writing and co-opted for many of my habits. That is, when practicing daily writing, stop a page early. This act provides the initial flow for the next day. Translating into exercise, this means not working out as hard as I used to, but having enough in the tank for me to desire coming back the next day.
Simplified physical wellness
Exercise, sleep, and diet. These are core pillars for my personal wellness. And I come back to these items when I reflect day to day. I can complicate things by digging into the specific details beyond those into specific items (detoxification, sleep hygiene, lymphatic drainage, mineral rebalancing, parasite cleansing, fasting, and elimination of ultra-processed foods), but I'll save that for a future post.
Mental and cognition
On the mental side, I have been actively looking to develop my mental and cognitive ability. When I was in my more fatigued, fugue state, I had times had issues with memory and remaining focused for very cognitively challenging work. So, as my physical wellness returned, I have noticed that my mental wellness also returned. But, I decided improve my mental faculties for when times of stress arose again. A few hobbies have helped me here:
Vietnamese language learning
I decided last year, that now that I have some energy again, it would be a good idea to develop my Vietnamese language skills. Something, I have longed to improve for years, but did not make a priority. Thankfully a company in Vietnam has wonderful private 1-on-1 instructors. And mine (Mr Thinh) has been very patient and encouraging. There is joy in seeing my progression and comfort level improve each week.
Reading and writing habits
Next, I found that memorizing writing to be very helpful. Sometimes it is a verse in scripture, a motivational text, or a piece of prose that is inspiring to me. This video has helped me tremendously with memorization. I did not realize how quickly and easily it could be. In short: (1) repeat the passage outloud three times, (2) write out the passage as an acronym, and repeat the passage using only the acronym three times, (3) then recite it from memory. This exercise has been beneficial for me in that, I can now recall verses or passages in my day to day to meditate on. Which drives home my last point.
On purpose
This year of change has really forced me to recognize who I am and why I desire for structures and habits to return to normalcy. Simply, if I desire to live with a higher purpose, this can be manifested into pursuing greater version of myself: that is one that is dependable, gracious, earnest, and humble. And as C.S. Lewis says “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less”. This is apt, as I think of myself less, I desire to be in community more and share ideas and live fully. This in turn moves into 2026, a year in which I develop skills to improve communication, in writing and in speaking. There has been a flood of information I have personally researched in my healthy journey, and I would love to be able to sift for the pieces that could be useful and beneficial for others.