🐍 Shedding My Skin for a Wiser 2025

Introduction

In 2024, I seemed to say "time is really flying" every single month. Some say that when you're busy, time feels like it moves slowly — but for me, with so many things happening all at once, I felt a little overwhelmed, and time just flew by.

Since last year, I started writing my annual reflections and resolutions as public blog posts. Looking back on them a year later gives me the greatest insights and stirs the most emotions. This time, I'm revisiting the resolutions I wrote exactly one year ago for 2024 one by one. Many goals fell short, but there were also unexpected strokes of luck and people I'm genuinely grateful for — it's a mix of feelings.

🐉 2024 Review

Work

• I served as a Program Manager at a US IT company for a full year, and I think I consistently contributed at the level expected of the role, without any major ups and downs. (I was particularly proud to find my name on the list of people who received the most Tacos 🌮 — our internal praise and appreciation sticker system — across the company throughout 2024.)
• I kept weekly work notes to track my tasks, and I give myself credit for not missing a single entry.
• Wanting to further develop my English skills, I kept a personal note titled "Native English" where I collected genuinely useful expressions I encountered at work. Looking back at them now, there really are a lot of great phrases. I'm proud to have been consistently building that collection. (Now I just need to actually make them my own 😅)
• When planning last year, I wanted to stay close enough to the crypto space to get involved professionally. Luckily, I got to observe a crypto company from the inside as they developed and launched a product, and I also ran a crypto fund myself. I think I achieved about as much as I had personally aimed for.

Reading & Writing

• I finished 16 books in 2024. The goal I set — "one book every two weeks = 26 books per year" — went unmet again 🤯
• After giving a presentation on RWA (Real World Assets) at Differance last year, I developed a deep interest in currency, exchange rates, and macroeconomics, and it shows in what I read: a lot of books in those areas.
• I also read biographies (Elon Musk, Donald Trump), books on anti-aging, artificial intelligence, and marketing/management.
• Writing, in retrospect, was my weakest area. I wanted to publish one post per week on this blog for a total of 52 — but I only wrote 12. The fact that I didn't write a single post analyzing a business model is more shocking than I expected. I need to reduce the mental burden of writing a post while sharpening my ability to convey ideas concisely and to the point.

Health

• I was shocked in 2023 when my muscle mass barely changed all year, so I started 2024 with the goal of reaching 24kg of skeletal muscle mass. I kept forgetting about it throughout the year — but when I finally checked back in December, it had increased by about 1kg. It wasn't the result of intentional effort, which is disappointing, but I consider myself lucky.
• I ran a total of 143km in 2023. In 2024, I ran 254.81km. If I had run just a little more, I could have doubled the distance — which is a slight regret.

Wealth

• Every year I commit to building solid non-employment income, and in 2024 I thought I was quickly achieving that through a space rental business — until an unexpected event forced me to stop.
• In the end, I haven't yet built a sustainable source of non-employment income in 2024.
• I've been doing some investing (or speculating, really). It's good in that it drives me to deepen my economic knowledge and insight, but when I catch myself trading emotionally, I feel like it's all pointless. When it comes to investing, I'm still in a messy, uncertain transitional phase.
• In 2024, there were also financial disputes and conflicts. Going through various experiences, I came to deeply feel the saying: "The money that comes to me is worth as much as the attitude with which I treat money." If I treat each dollar carelessly and without respect, wealth doesn't accumulate — but if I spend wisely and treat money with care, significant assets build up. I sincerely hope I can remember this lesson and make wiser decisions going forward.

Relationships

• In my 20s, I focused on expanding and growing my network. But 2024 was a little different — it was a year of pruning existing relationships. I realized that while having many people around who interact positively with you is important, so is keeping your distance from people who have a negative influence.
• I believe that good relationships are built on a foundation of gratitude. In 2024, I didn't prioritize relationships as highly as other things. I had many people I was grateful for, but I didn't give back to those around me as much — that's something I regret.

🐍 2025 Resolutions

Work

• I plan to develop expertise in Jira — the core tool of the PM role — to the point where I'm recognized for it at work and fully satisfied with myself.
• I plan to increase my market value as a talent by 50% compared to 2024.
• For English skills as a capability, I want to set an output goal for this year: my aim is to create a total of one hour's worth of video content where I speak in English.

Reading & Writing

• This year, I will definitely finish more than 26 books.
• This year, I will post Money Machine articles on at least 10 business models.

Health

• I'll build and maintain 23kg of skeletal muscle mass. (I set a slightly more realistic target than last year because I really want to hit it 😉)
• For running, I'll add about 100km to my 2024 result and aim for 365km.
• I want to bring the tennis 🎾 I started last year to a level where I can rally consistently. I want to make it a lifelong hobby.
• Since late last year, I've become very interested in blood sugar and fasting. My goals are to keep fasting blood sugar below 100 and to practice monthly hormone-cycle-aligned fasting throughout the year.
• I'll get a thorough (?) comprehensive health checkup for the first time in my life.

Wealth

• The goal of building a foundation for non-employment income continues this year. To dramatically increase my follow-through, I've set an action plan of launching one project per month.
• I'll aim to generate over ₩3M/month in sustainable non-employment income.
• A friend's words really resonated with me: "If the result exceeds your target return, it's 'investing'; if it falls short or results in a loss, it's 'speculating.'" This year, I'll aim to increase my asset valuation by 30% through investing.

Relationships

• This year, I want to focus on increasing the depth within my existing relationships. I'll cut back on meetings that simply rehash past memories, and instead build more relationships with people I can share and move forward with.
• I want to be more proactive and intentional about building good relationships.

Closing (or rather — truly beginning 2025!)

As I wrote these 2025 resolutions, the keyword that came to mind was "step up." So I even added a ladder 🪜 icon to my personal Notion. There wasn't a particular trigger for this keyword, but I think it reflects my desire to stop letting thoughts like "I'll put off the things I really want to do because of this or that" hold me back — and instead, to start stacking up the things that truly matter for my life, one by one. As the title of this post suggests, I want to shed my old skin and build up each day of this year as a wiser one.

To everyone who read this far: I sincerely hope that everything you've resolved to do comes true in 2025 🙇🏻‍♀️