As we begin to wind down 2025, I wanted to spread out my 25 for 2025 goal check-ins and address five at a time in five different posts, ahead of late December when I’ll turn my attention to new inspiration for a new year.

Here are updates on the last five of my goals:

Prepare for 25th Wedding Anniversary

Status: Ongoing, Coming Soon

This goal was one that is still many months away here at the end of 2025. We will celebrate 25 years of marriage in August of 2026. We are still dreaming and planning what that will look like. As for the parts of this goal I shared here’s where we stand.

We have been talking and planning (ish) about a trip for 2026. So much of that hinges on Ryan’s next assignment, including location, operational tempo, will he/won’t he deploy. As it’s looking now, we should be free to take at least some type of trip next year once we leave Savannah and Fort Stewart. New York City is topping my list and perhaps some type of fishing trip too.

I did make a Spotify playlist of 25 years of Ryan and Claire. I added the top pop, top country, and top R+B song from each year between 2001-2025. I’ll add one more year for next year.

I did not drop off my ring for cleaning, prong tightening, and sizing. I did have multiple phone calls about sizing and doing a little ring project at Markman’s Diamonds, where my diamond is from. Ryan no longer wears his platinum band. With his job/lifestyle/proclivity for losing rings, he now wears a silicone band, and his original ring is in with my fine jewelry. I’ve considered melting it and my original band down and making it something new.

I have not done a printed 25 years of Ryan and Claire album. I’ll likely carry this over to next year.

I did research 25th wedding anniversary traditional gifts. It’s silver, but we both decided that it’s actually called, we bought a cabin in the mountains.

Learn the Art of Silience

Status: A Work in Progress

There were several bullet points under this goal heading. I will say that this is a bit harder to quantify, but I have come a long way here. I am nearly always aware in conversations of whether my role is to listen, encourage, or give input.

I very regularly ask the person, “Do you just need to vent or are you looking for feedback?” This has been so helpful, especially in cases where I fall into the trap/habit of being the advice-giver or thinking my advice/opinion is actually going to move the needle for someone and it actually never does.

Now, I just listen, nod, and offer words like…”I am so sorry you are going through that…” or “That sounds really tough…” or “Tell me more about that…” or “What do you think you should do…” or “What are you going to do about that…”

And to be very clear, this goal and these solutions/questions have much less to do with another person and any issue I have with them, and they have everything to do with my need to control, influence, or over-function in my role. I have been working on cleaning up some co-dependency boundaries for a few years and this was just a next, right step.

This same vibe applies to complaining and speaking negatively about others/gossiping. In addition, I am working to recognize my own words when I speak. I’m being conscious to opt for life-giving words over words with derogatory connotations. (Examples of words and phrases I’ve tried to omit include things like: overwhelmed, busy, tired, stressed, “over it,” and instead tried to reframe in such a way that allows me to live UP to the positive parts of life and not live DOWN to my vocabulary.)

Channel My Inner Theo of Golden

Status: Going Great

Theo of Golden was a top read of 2024 and after falling in love with Theo and being profoundly moved by his example, I wanted to look for ways to implement “Theo-living” into my own life. Things like being a good neighnor, someone who cares for the needs of others, community minded, and kind to strangers were near the top of my list. There’s so much about Theo that reminds me of my dad and the way he lived, that I decided this was also a way to honor my dad as well.

Meet culdesac neighors face to face: We know and interact with three of five and one of the others moved and there’s recent new neighbors and the other has a weird schedule that is kind of opposite of ours. BUT, the biggest neighborhood upgrade for me is that I’ve met TONS of neighbors and their dogs out walking. I am trying to stop and chat and interact anytime we pass. There’s a particular father/daughter that walks at night like me with their two dogs Bluey and Pinky. We stop and chat most nights. I also met a cluster of neighbors on a back street and one of them I regularly text with now.

As for conversations with strangers I’m recording in an app, I set out for 25 but only recorded seven in my app. I’d say that real number is closer to 15 but I am conscious of striking up conversations more now than I used to be. People acutally love to talk and share and connect. Sometimes, you have to invite them in to doing that.

I give myself a 100 on interacting with cashiers, wait staff, and other customer service folks. I do this literally every single time I’m checking out, ordering, etc. There’s usually a lull in the transactional nature of our interactions and I simply ask, “How’s your day going so far?” The answers are sometimes short and cliche and many times, this one question leads to a brief conversation. The main thing here is that I want to look into the eyes of the people I’m engaging with in public. I want to smile at them. Give them my full attention. Let them know they are seen and valued. I hope and think we both leave the interaction feeling a little more connected to the human race. Ditto to compliments. There is almost always something genuine you can find to compliment someone about.

Review and Reflect

Status: Ongoing and Continuing

Maintain my quarterly journal and planning system. Check.

Include printed photos at the end of each quarter. Check.

Daily, monthly, and quarterly reflection check-ins. Check.

25 blog posts published at elizabethclairewood.com. 14 for the year with a nice every-Monday-Wednesday cadence continuing– the writing feels good, and I’m feeling the benefits of regular writing and posting…I feel in my groove.

10 Good Things Posts for Instagram every Sunday to my feed. Check.

Something not explicitly added here but that I have included in my routine is a nightly, very brief, only-a-few-bullet-point-short-form answers to a handful of questions to wind down the day ritual I’m doing with a Michael Hyatt journal. Loving that too. I use that and the Lectio 365 most nights to clear my mind before I go to bed. This routine definitly helps me sleep better.

This was not a difficult goal to meet. In fact, all of the reflection I do is so important and integrated, I likely didn’t even need to make it a goal. It’s just a part of my life now.

Blank Goal #25 for 2025

I left my original list one shy of 25 so I’d have room to add something else. It turns out I didn’t end up adding a 25th goal.

I’ll have a blog post (probably next week) where I do an overall evaluation of the year at a glance with some big picture takeaways.

This has been a great year. Some of the goals I set were ambitions, some were not. Some goals were ones where I needed constant checking and tracking and others were not. All in all, I think setting intentions and following through with those little promises to myself is usually a net positive experience for me.

I’d love to hear from you and get an update on how your 2025 went and what goals you were working toward all year.