It’s still January, so it seems appropriate to discuss some of my goals for 2025 and goals in general.
Why Make Goals Public
Why am I making these public this year?
There are competing views on whether making goals public is a good idea.
The first is that making your goals public creates accountability. By telling the world this is what you intend to do, you feel more compelled to put effort into achieving the goal.
The other view is that it reduces goal achievement. This blog post at Psychology Today suggests that when our publicly stated goals are acknowledged, our brains treat that goal as achieved so we are less likely to then action those goals.
This post on Atlassian also suggests that goal sharing may not be ideal.
It appears that science says we should keep our goals close, so why am I still sharing some of mine here? Because I think there is still some benefit in sharing them.
Plus, life is an experiment, so this year I’m trying something different.
What Are My Goals For 2025
Here are the main goals relating to my job and this blog.
- Write 45-55 blog posts.
- Attempt recertification of one of my JNCIE certs.
- Attempt 1-2 other vendor certifications during the year.
- Participate in 4-6 CTF events.
- Attempt 4-6 Hack The Box machines.
I do have goals related to other areas of my life which I’m not discussing here. So my overall list is somewhat bigger than this. But, for now, let’s look at the above goals in more detail.
The number of blog posts is about 1 or so per week, which feels realistic at this stage.
Certifications usually help me learn something new, but I’m not looking to do too many. So one to two of them is a nice compromise. I haven’t decided which ones I’ll do yet, that depends a little on what direction work takes me in.
The CTF and Hack The Box goals are doing something that I enjoy. Again, it’s a chance to learn something new, even if that’s not directly related to my work. At this stage, one or two per quarter seems manageable.
Note that all of the above are things that I can control. I can’t control whether I pass or fail a test, but I can control whether I study and turn up for it.
What’s Different About This Year?
The above list is much shorter than in the past. My previous list of goals was a double-column sheet of paper. That was way too many. Most of them would carry over from year to year, which is a bit pointless.
It listed all sorts of things, from certifications to general technology. Some goals were very specific and others quite vague. Some were things I actually wanted to do, and others were just things I felt like I ought to be doing. It was just a mess.
The problem I had was the list became overwhelming, filled with things that just weren’t that important to me. Life happened, as it does, I couldn’t keep up with my ambitions. So I ignored it, and then forgot it entirely and ended up achieving very little.
When you make your goals for the year, you can make the list as big or as short as you want, but I encourage you to limit your goals. Not in their size, but in their number. Do the big thing, just realize you probably can’t do 10 big things at once.
For me, this year I’m doing fewer goals in this area of my life so I can try to put more time into other areas.
Let’s Talk About Goals In General
Goals are great when they give us direction. They’re not so great when they overwhelm us or make us feel like a failure for not achieving them. Maybe we should ask ourselves some questions about our goals.
Take a moment and write down some of your goals for the year. If you’re reading this blog they might be related to networking and security. I’ll make a few up.
- 2 x vendor certifications (e.g. Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, etc).
- Learn 4 technologies (e.g. OSPF, BGP, basic Firewall policy, IPSec, etc).
- Learn a little scripting (e.g. basics of Python, Bash, or PowerShell)
Make your list whatever you want it to be. Next, let’s discuss it in a bit more detail.
Do You Want To Do This?
Are these goals that you actually need or want to do? Or is this just a list of what everyone else on the Internet says you should do to reach some particular outcome? You might have written CCNA on your list. Does that interest you? Does it take your career forward in the direction you want to go? Ask yourself why this goal is relevant to you. If it isn’t relevant, why are you chasing it?
Is It Something You Can Control?
Are you in control of this goal? Chances are you can’t control whether you pass the CCNA, so that might not be a great choice. You can, however, control studying towards it, and sitting the actual exam. Your study will influence your chances of success, but it won’t guarantee you will pass. This is especially true if your goal is passing one of the harder certifications.
Is It An Outcome Or A Process?
Is your goal an outcome or a process? Often when our goals are an outcome, such as passing the CCNA, we stop once we’re done. So maybe you get your CCNA, what do you do with all your study time that has freed up?
Instead of setting the goal as the outcome, think about setting the goal as the process. Maybe the goal isn’t a specific certification or learning outcome, instead, the goal could be to study a certain number of hours per week. You could even say it doesn’t matter what you study, so long as you keep getting in that time. This can allow you to study consistently, rather than making study an all-or-nothing activity.
Setting a process as the goal also ties in with intention setting. Don’t just say “I’ll study for an hour on the weekend”, set a specific intention. Create a calendar entry, set a reminder, set a very specific intention. For example, “At 4 O’Clock on Saturday, I will study VRRP failover for an hour”. People who set intentions like this are more likely to follow through and do the study. Or, whatever particular goal it is that you have. Writing it down or creating a calendar entry is a key part of this, so don’t skip it.
Know Your Limits
Limit the number of goals you have. In IT, it can feel like there are so many things to learn, or achieve, and that you need to do all of it right now. Any given field in IT is incredibly vast, let alone trying to learn several at once. I encourage you to focus on only one thing at a time. I appreciate that can be easier said than done, especially when you have a lot to learn for your day job as well.
Coming back to the example of studying for the CCNA. Focus on that, on what topics you need to learn and what skills you need to develop. Take a brief foray into something else, if you need to for work, but then come back to focusing on the CCNA. When you’re done with that, you can pick your next focus. But trying to do too many things at once will slow your progress in all of them.
You Don’t Need To Compare
Don’t compare your actual goals or how many goals you have to someone else. We all approach doing things differently and we all have different demands on our time. This will vary based on ages and stages – your age, where you’re at in life, where you’re at in your career, your health, or any number of other things. Accept that the comparison is pointless and move on.
The time you spend comparing yourself could be better spent doing the stuff you want to do.
It’s OK To Change The Goal
Remember, most of these goals should be ones that you create for yourself, that you want to do, and that you are in control of. They’re your goals, you set them, and you can change them.
It’s OK to change a goal or even remove it. At the start of the year, we can’t see all the things that are going to unfold and how they may impact our ability to achieve what we want to.
If things are going really well, maybe increase the goal, and make it a bit harder.
If things are hard, consider reducing the goal.
If the goal isn’t important to you anymore or isn’t relevant, then feel free to remove it.
The only time I wouldn’t change a goal is if I was only changing it so I wouldn’t fail. Taking one of my own as an example, if I get to the end of the year and have only done 40 blog posts, I’m not changing the goal. On the other hand, if I get to July and have only done 10, I’d consider revising the goal to ensure it remains realistic.
Enjoy The Journey
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, enjoy the journey. Enjoy who you’re on the journey with – your friends and family. Don’t let your goals take over your life to the extent that you exclude everyone else.
Make sure you have some goals that fill your needs for connection and fun. Not every goal has to be about careers or getting ahead in life.