Ah, the typical New Years post. This year, I pledge to do X, Y and even Z… But what good is it if there’s no accountability? Or in my case, a blog post to go with it. Even though this one is slightly belated – being more than halfway through the first month of 2025… But we finally got here, and I have many more posts planned, so hopefully this is the year of reviving KyleDunkerley DotCom. One can only hope…
As stated last year (or was it the year before?), goals that remain unachieved in the previous year get rolled into the new year. Like a never ending To-Do list, which grows, and grows, and grows the more you get distracted. This time, I have taken a different approach – treat my To-Do like a river. If that sounds interesting, then check out this podcast for a full explanation about why you should too.
Back to the topic at hand – this time of year is great for reviewing at past goals, and reconsidering how important they are to you. If they are no longer as important as they were back in January 2024, well then it’s easy to put them in the discard, or “one-day” pile. A very Marie Kondo-esk approach to your growth as a human – does this spark joy? Or in the case of personal goals, is this still worth attaining?
As 2025 is ramping up to be the busiest year yet, I am going to take this opportunity to look back and realize just how much I ended up accomplishing last year. So, before we dive into the plan for 2025, let’s get the warm fuzzies from looking back at what I accomplished in 2024. And if you’re looking for the whole list – then here’s last years post!
2024 Accomplishments
✍️ Writing
I started the minimum-once-a-month blog post plan all well and good with my Apple Music Monthly Wrapup posts. And things were going swell. Then my site went offline for a few months… Yeah, when your site is offline you stop getting views, strangely enough. And there went that habit. The stress of getting my site back up and running caused a few grey hairs, I can tell you. All this to say, the plan of doubling my lifetime views fell short.
However! They did go up by over 50% – from 2,991 visitors and 5,725 views to 5,046 visitors and 8,604 views. I also wrote my 300th post! What a nice feeling that was.
Also, and I am totally counting this as a win, is accepting that the Vietnam Travel Blog is just not going to happen. Sorry to all three of my fans that were hanging out for that. I have some photos to the tune of 2100ish I could show you… But acceptance is key to moving on… So
💼 Career
I managed to come up with a study plan, get my company to agree to it, and even have them pay for my exams! I am now a Microsoft Certified Azure Architect Expert! If you don’t believe me, check out my DotPro site. Studying part time and working mostly full time is its own challenge, but it’s one I think I navigated very well, so I am patting myself on the back for this.
Another win is that Simone was finally able to hand in her resignation and become a full time stay at home mom. While not my victory to celebrate, we both believe this is way more important than any extra income, so its counted as a win for sure.
🔥 F.I.R.E
This past year, I got (stole) the idea of investing in dividend paying ETF’s as a way to supplement the monthly income, and boy has the proof of concept worked! I am now earning about $90/month in passive income from my (very) modest investments. Not too bad considering I still have shares in New Zealand that I need to sell and move over.
On the topic of move over, I finally got around to transferring my KiwiSaver to Super as well. What a hassle that was. So much admin! But the money got moved, and I can now see it in my Super. And I get the warm fuzzies knowing the Australia government will be taxing me on money I never even earnt here. Thanks Albo!
❤️🩹 Health & Wellbeing
I managed to go through and complete 75 Hard without failing a single day! If you’re looking for an in-depth look into what 75 Hard is, the process, and the result, I blogged through the beginning, middle and end. In my mind, this was going to be the hardest thing I have done, but once you work out the schedule and accept that some days are going to be lacking any downtime, it’s pretty easy to go through. Just stick to the plan!
And as for mental health – well I completed The Lord of the Rings series. I really should read this every year. It’s such a good adventure, and one of the best stories ever told, in my opinion. I cannot wait to read this to the kids one day when they are old enough!
🦖 Life
The big trip to South Africa with a one year old. International travel is hard at the best of times. Add in a very exited and busy one year old, and Simone and I were super grateful that Jess joined us on this trip. I can’t even imagine how to travel with more than one child!
My first sermon! I kept saying 2024 was going to be the year of hard things, and this was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I had a message I wanted to get across, but how do you do it when you’re not a public speaker, or don’t like attention? I invited some friends as a means of support, most came. Some gave me excuses, some just didn’t even reply to my invite. Fair enough – now I know where I stand with them, so it’s a win here too. Finding out what you mean to people instead of playing any guessing game is always a net positive, even if the outcome is negative.
The apartment became more liveable with more plants, a terrarium (which needs urgent care), HomePods and a home for said HomePods. One of our friends was giving away a forest worth of plants, so there was little need to go out and spend the money on plants to inevitably kill. Now we have plants everywhere! And speaking of HomePods…
I listened to more music! One of my goals is always to listen to more music. I find the addition of music to your day, no matter the activity, just makes things better. Especially the heavier and deathlier it is. Something about double bass, indecipherable vocals, and squealing guitars makes me happy. If you’re looking for any recommendations, check up my Replay Wrap Up for 2024.
All this to say, 2024 was a pretty full on year. International travel, sermons, studying, #75Hard, and all the other small things I have missed. Now onto 2025!
Goals for 2025
2025 is going to an even bigger, busier, 75 Harder, year. The theme for this year is simple – “Get jacked. Make money.” To cater to the year’s theme, I’ll be re-ordering the sections around a bit, based on how close, or far, they align with the general sentiment.
❤️🩹 Health & Wellbeing
- 75 Hard Part 2 x Two
By the time you read this, I’ll be in the midst of doing 75 Hard again! Starting on January 13th, the goal here is to do two back-to-back 75 Hard challenges for a new challenge I creativity named 150 Hard. Is this too daunting? Only time will tell. The main goal here get to day 75 at least. If I feel good, then continue it with maybe day 76 pushed back by one day, allowing me to eat a burger before diving straight back in. When I get time, I’ll write a more in-depth look into this year’s 150 Hard, and my motivation for wanting to do it.
- The Great Ocean Road Half Marathon
Calling this a half marathon is misleading. You see this is 23 kilometres. Not the typical 21. The only drawcard here is that the run is over some amazingly beautiful, yet punishing terrain. I don’t know why I signed up for this, apart from the fact that I wanted to say I have completed a half marathon before I turn 40. A stupid reason? Maybe. A noble goal? No. Something I am going to do anyway? Yes.
💼 Career
- The Last Two Exams
In order to finish my training plan, I have 2 more exams to do – AZ800 and AZ801. I am still debating whether these qualifications are needed, but hey, if work is going to pay, then why not? The sooner I knuckle down and do them, the sooner I’ll be able to…
- Increase Earnings
Three years without a raise, and excuse after excuse has tired me out. It’s time to put up or shut up. Either way, I’ll be throwing the cat amongst the pigeons this year when I actively peruse this. The age old adage is “never stay with a company that only gives you a raise when you threaten to leave”. So I’ll be taking this to heart and going down the route of raise first. And to show my value I have to
- Publish Scripts On DotPro
Pretty self-explanatory, really. I have a bunch of PowerShell scripts I have made over the years. All do various things, and all are pretty custom from what I can tell. Well, now it’s time to put them in front of the public eye, and who knows, maybe help someone the way they could have helped me in the past. In doing so, I hope to catch the eye of my next employer. This is both fantasticality altruistic and self-serving, just like all good motives.
🔥 F.I.R.E
- Kyle’s Guide To Soft Retirement While Becoming A Home Owner
I can’t think of a better title for this one, and can’t break it down into different sections, because it’s a house of cards made from imaginary dollars. This goal has basically tied our home ownership into my FIRE journey, and is quite convoluted. So let me explain the basic premise…
We’ll be selling up our property in New Zealand, borrowing, and scraping together, to get as big a deposit as possible. This will allow us to buy a home here in Melbourne. Once we have the house, we’ll then sell our second property in New Zealand, and use that money to invest in dividend paying shares. Then, through a combination of debt recycling and dividends, have our mortgage paid for by our investments, while also rapidly increasing our share portfolio.
It’s a big plan, but one that if we pull off, could see us owning our home a lot sooner. Should this plan come to fruition, well, then I envision being able to drop down to 3 or 4 days of work a week and “soft” retire before I am 50. But as we have seen since 2020 – best made plans and all that…
If you’d like me to go more indepth with this one, then let me know in the comments!
🦖 Life
- Australian Citizenship
That’s right – I am about to embark on my endeavour to get the most expensive passport in the world. This way I get to contribute to the country I have chosen to make home with more than just taxes. I get to vote – no more taxation without representation, finally! This also affords me the ability to be able to enter the political arena. Step one to becoming Prime Minister has to start somewhere.
- Learn Affinity Designer & Publisher
For reasons not yet disclosed, one of my goals this year is to teach myself the Affinity suite of programs. From PC to iPad, I think these products will be much better suited for me to learn instead of Photoshop. And because it’s not my career to know, then it doesn’t really matter that it’s not Photoshop either.
✍️ Writing
- Write More
Ah, the ever ambiguous “write more”, but what does this mean? To me, it’s more blog posts, more work on my longform stories (which I sadly neglected last year), more short stories and just in general more writing. But not everything will be digital. You see, I have bought myself a dot journal as a way to reduce my screen-slash-phone time. Thoughts, ideas, random bits of writing and maybe even some blog post drafts will go into the journal. It’ll be my compendium – a place where I can write without judgement or public scrutiny as I work through my thoughts, ideas and general inner dialogue.
And there you have it – my goals for 2025. While most are rolling over from last year, some have been let go in favour of new ones. There’ll be more challenges this year – from doing 150 days of 75 Hard, to running half a marathon. Boy, I sure know how to pick them…
I’ll have some surprises along the way. Projects that are still being formulated, hashed out and circled back on. I chose to exclude them from the list for a few reason – the main one being that I just may not have time this year to get to them. But they’ll be percolating away in the background, ready to be put into action once I am ready.
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