Going Deeper with Intentions in 2025

Planning a life and living a plan – the process of transformative change

On a fun day trip to Ventura, CA to have my wetsuit repaired for free at Patagonia’s HQ and to visit the Indoek gallery down the road.

I think the biggest mistake people make when coming up with New Year’s intentions is that they are last minute drunken decisions. Real intentions needs to be road tested well in advance to stick.

But first, why do I call them intentions and not resolutions?

Well, resolution is such an overused word, often associated will failure, and only meaning a firm decision while intention feels stronger and is defined by taking an aim or making a plan.

If you really want to have confidence in making real positive change in the new year you need to battle test your plan and turn it into an every day activity. Without an every day effort nothing is going to change.

“Virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions,” Aristotle said. The writer Will Durant interpreted it thusly: “We are what we repeatedly do… therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” In other words: Excellence isn't this thing you do one time. – From the Daily Stoic

It’s also easy to reach too far too quickly. It’s known that we often overestimate progress in the short term and underestimate progress in the long term.

I think the best intentions over time turn into a new desired lifestyle. They might not be obvious at the start but over time they turn into a way of living that you always desired but never really committed to.

Everything I’m doing is pointing me towards a very independent and active lifestyle in the outdoors anywhere in the world. For that to happen, I need to acquire a lot of new skills and get into a really good shape.

Last year I wrote down three simple intentions that I’ve been working on almost every day this year:

1. Improve wellbeing and fitness

2. Build deeper relationships

3. Create positive impact

But I didn’t really state exactly how I would accomplish these intentions except for doing my kettlebell workout every other day (which I in July replaced with swimming and strength training six times per week and sold the kettlebell).

So for 2025 I’ll keep these high-level intentions but get more specific and detailed about the every day activities. One thing I’m already doing differently this year is to start planning before Thanksgiving (November 28) and not after like last year.

This has given me a little bit of a head start and the opportunity to experiment with different activities and how they fit into each other.

One thing that has always created havoc to my intentions in the past is traveling, especially internationally travels, which makes it really hard to stick to an everyday routine. So in 2025 I’m staying in Southern California.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t plan to move around. There are plenty of fun things to do in Southern California during all seasons and shorter road trips are a perfect way to explore the mountains, ocean, desert, and woodlands.

Other constraints are to minimize traditional and social media and entertainment in general and replace by good books or outdoor activities. I’d rather learn a new language than spend several hours per day scrolling and browsing.

Clear constraints and boundaries can be very effective in staying on track so start with what you’re not going to do next year might help in flushing out what you really do want to achieve. There is always a trade-off – choices you need to make.

So let’s go back to this year’s intentions and dig deeper: