New Year New Me: 2025 Edition

Posted January 1, 2025 by Lillian in Features / 2 Comments

Happy New Year y’all! I cannot believe this is the first day of 2025. I feel like yesterday was 2020. I skipped out on doing this post last year, and honestly I’ve missed having it. While “New Year New Me” is a bit cliché, I do like having a place to set my goals down on paper, or in this case, on the screen. My goal isn’t to become a new me, but rather to develop new habits that make me a better version of myself.

2024 was both a good and hard year. Good in that I developed some sustaining routines that have allowed me to feel more like my old self. I’ve consistently read around 1-2 hours a day instead of watching TV or doom scrolling through social media. I read the Bible cover to cover and developed a daily Bible study habit. We FINALLY, after nearly five years have developed a good homeschooling routine that works for both little man and I. The hard was losing my grandmother. While I knew she was coming to an end with her battle with dementia, I was not prepared to say goodbye when we did. She was a big influence on my life and a lot of my daily routines reminds me of her. Even reading, as she was a big reader.

For 2025, I’m honing in on what matters most to me: quality time with friends and family, cutting back, and of course reading. As always, I’ll be dividing my resolutions into three categories: bookish, blogging, and personal. You can see past years’ resolutions by clicking here.

Bookish Resolutions

Read 100 books in 2025.

I know what you are thinking….”But Lillian, you only read 86 books in 2024. How will you read 100?” The answer is I don’t know, but I have lofty goals 😂 When I started tracking my reading at the end of 2013, I was averaging between 150-200 books per year. I thought that I was starting to read slower, however what I learned is that my books have gotten bigger. So page count wise I am reading more. Maybe this year I can make it to 100 🤞

Make at least half my reads in 2025 from my TBR shelves (physical, Kindle, or Goodreads).

This is one of those goals that I make every year, and I have to say, I did a good job of keeping up with it in 2024. I read 86 books, and 29 of those came from my TBR (older than 2023). I’m slowly culling my Goodreads TBR with the Down the TBR Hole meme making it more manageable and less overwhelming. I hope to continue that trend this year. As I’m coming to an end on my Goodreads TBR cull, I’ll start in on my physical shelves.

Listen to one audiobook a week.

I made this a goal last year with the Audiobook Challenge, and y’all I did it. I listened to 50 audiobooks in 2024 🙌 The two weeks I didn’t were the weeks we were on vacation which I didn’t read at all so yay! What I’ve learned over the last few years is that if I’m struggling to focus on what I’m reading (which seems to be 99.9% of the time these days), when I switch to the audiobook edition, I wind up enjoying the read. That said, I already have my first listen of the year picked out and ready to go.

Raise my NetGalley percentage by 5 points.

This has been an ongoing goal of mine for a few years. For several years my goal is to hit 80%, but now I just want to see it go up. I got behind back in 2015, and it’s been a struggle ever since to raise my percentage. Hoping with a smaller goal I can start hitting the numbers I need to raise that percentage. 🤞

Blogging Resolutions

Write reviews as I finish the books.

I got in the habit during 2024 of doing this, at least on books that are ARCs or new releases. Books that have been on my TBR for years don’t always get reviewed. I’d like to change that and start writing reviews for every single book I read. That’s the plan anyways. 😅

Post regularly AND blog ahead.

Earlier this year, I had a health issue (all better now) and that knocked me out of my regular post routine. Then as I was getting started again is when my grandmother took a turn. During the last two months, I’ve really buckled down and started posting on a more regular schedule. My goal is to post every weekday and try to post my weekly recap on Sundays. Right now, I’m scheduled about two weeks out. My main goal is to be a full month out with only my reviews to plug in as a I finish the books.

Personal Resolutions

Read through the Bible in a year.

For several years, this was a goal of mine, and then I kinda gave up on it. I would get stuck somewhere in the Old Testament and never finish. The last two years I’ve completed this journey all the way through from cover to cover thanks to The Bible Recap. The plan is to read the Bible in chronological order, and the host, Tara-Leigh Cobble, recaps what we read in a short YouTube video or Podcast (it’s also in book form, I hop between the three forms depending on my mood that day). I love the recaps. This puts what we read into historical context as well as clear up anything that might be confusing. I’ve grown so much in my own faith doing this plan, and I cannot wait to do it again this year.

Read 2 hours every day.

This one may sound simple, but setting this goal reminds me to do it. I prefer to read instead of watch TV for my own entertainment. Having the goal set keeps me from doom scrolling instead. In addition to setting the goal, I’ve figured out about how many pages I can read an hour so I’m able to plan out my reading for the month which I also love. It’s keeping me on track with my ARCs as well as generating content for the blog. To keep track of my reading, I’ve been using the Bookly app which I love.

No Spend Year?

So while doom scrolling on TikTok (exactly what I don’t want to be doing 😂), I did come across several videos about a no spend year. I’ve never done this, but I do want to cut back, start saving, and payoff some debt. I haven’t started planning this out yet, so it may be a few weeks into the new year before I can start, but I’m going to try. A few rules I’m already setting for myself: no buying books until all the ones I own are read (y’all that would take all year or longer), no impulse buying, eat at home instead of eating out. Instead of doing it a year at a time, I will probably do a month at a time and go from there.

Lamentations 3:22 "The faithful love of the lord never ends!"
Because of the Lord's faithful love 
we do not perish,
for his mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
~ Lamentations 3:22-23, Christian Standard Bible

For the last two years, I’ve picked a Bible verse that I try to live my year by. This year I want to remember that even in the hard times (if any come), He is by my side, never failing, always working with my good in mind. Every day starts new, and every day is a chance to know Him better.

Your Turn! What are your resolutions for 2025? Share below

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2 responses to “New Year New Me: 2025 Edition

  1. I need a no spend year too. Need to get debt taken care of. I do a little review post that I get started at the beginning of the month so that I can go in and post a short review of every book I don’t have for a review tour or want to do a separate post for. That has helped me get all my reviews done! I also want to do a lot more books I already own too. Here’s hoping this year works well for you and your goals!
    Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…Top 10 of 2024 – Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading in 2025

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