2025 Reflections: What I did & What I didn't do
2025 was about Momentum Baby!
In 2023, it was chaotic. 2024 was… overwhelming emotionally and felt underwhelming productively. But I guess that’s what happens when you “adopt” your grandmother full-time.
2025 was really about Momentum, the word I had put on the center of my vision board. It was all about taking action and moving forward despite any obstacles that came our way. It was about hunkering down and rolling with the punches no matter what life felt like throwing my way.
As I’ve done in previous years, it may be beneficial for you to review my past reflections. It’s not mandatory, but I’m the kind of person who enjoys seeing others grow, so you might want to read about my own journey. Here’s 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. If you are looking for 2020 and 2021, let’s just say those years didn’t happen.
Let’s start reflecting on 2025
My 2025 Vision Board
WHAT I WANTED IN 2025, AS REFLECTED BY MY VISION BOARD
Improve my work/life balance: Since I took over my grandma’s care in 2023, it has become a challenge for me to navigate all the new medical knowledge and responsibilities that came with caring for my grandma. Additionally, I still had responsibilities at my work at Start Grow Manage. And doctors don’t work on weekends (unless it’s the hospital), so a lot of doctors' visits overlapped working hours, and even after hours, I’d still not be ‘free’ since I needed to feed my grandma, help her up from her chair, and care for myself. So, it’s been a challenge to navigate caregiving/working, and being a married woman in my 30s. So yeah, trying to juggle all the different aspects of my life has been a challenge and a goal of mine. Two of the best quotes that I had put on my vision board to reflect this were: “For the one who needs some real rest” and “For the one who needs focus + energy”.
Build the SGM Community: As someone who has been with Start Grow Manage for a long time, I wanted to keep our goal of growing our community of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) at the top of my mind. The Crush 2025 on my vision board also reflected another aspect of this goal, as it was our community’s mantra. The MSP business owners came into the year wanting to “Crush” 2025, and I wanted to be able to support that goal of theirs.
Being a part of my own Community: Down in North Carolina, I wanted to continue developing relationships and building my own community down there. After all, it was just my husband and me against the world down there. One of the goals I set was to explore the possibility of joining or growing our own community. We already had small pockets like our ‘dog parent’ group, where we’d take our dogs out to have their own playdates, but the more the merrier in my opinion. I was also a part of the New Jersey Girls of North Carolina, which was (and still is) a great group of women that I’m still in contact with.
Become a homeowner: This has been a running goal of mine. My husband and I were already talking to a realtor, going to open houses, and going through the process of what it’d take to get a mortgage. So one of my goals for 2025 was to finally move out of our apartment and have a place we could call ‘home’. One that we didn’t need to take ‘vacations’ from. One that would lead us to the next chapter of our lives.
Create the perfect morning routine: My morning routines, admittedly, are not perfect. I did have some things down pact, like walking Freya in the morning and doing a morning routine of caring for my grandma. However, there were no parts of the morning routine that really focused on me, or gave me time or momentum to start my days off on the right foot. However, I also knew that with my chaotic life, that’d be hard, so that’s why I had the quote, “Forget the Perfect Morning Routine: How I Actually Get Things Done” on my vision board.
Start a family: The lower left-hand side of my vision board was about starting a family. My husband and I had discussed wanting to start our family, so I wanted to add something to my vision board to reflect that. That’s why I had the picture of the calendar with the happy family to reflect that.
Develop better habits: Numerous quotes on the vision board expressed my desire to develop better habits and, most importantly, maintain them. Some of them were “New Year, New Habits”, “Focus that sticks”, “Upgrade Your Productivity”, and “Every day, you make around 35,000 decisions. Isn’t that crazy?” Although I also included small things to remind myself that I don’t have to be perfect. Such as the reminder, “Life has no timeline. Stop comparing yourself to others.”
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN 2025
I got a therapist in the first three months of the year. They were virtual sessions with a man named Evan, and it felt good to have someone to talk to about the growing list of responsibilities that were on my plate and how to manage them all. There were obviously moments I disagreed with him, but overall, I was grateful for those sessions.
Co-hosted MSP Accelerator calls at SGM. In my role as Community Manager at SGM, I onboarded and attended the MSP Accelerator calls held in 2025. These were live sessions that took place on Thursday evenings, paired with an online course. Although we will continue the course in 2026, the only live sessions we’ll provide are the Q&A calls on Fridays.
I returned to Jersey. After spending late 2023 and most of 2024 transitioning my grandma from NJ to NC, we packed up all of our things and moved our entire family back to New Jersey in April. It honestly felt like a two steps forward, one step back kind of situation. However, I did have some unresolved matters to attend to, so the plan was to stay in Jersey for a year to tie up loose ends.
Dream Asia Food Fest in NJ. Since I returned to Jersey, I have been able to attend certain events, such as the Asia Food Fest in March, with my friends. It was really fun (and delicious) to check out all the food stalls.
I spent a lot of time in hospitals and doctor's appointments, because not only did I need to re-establish my grandmother’s care in New Jersey, but also because literally 3 hours after we arrived in NJ from NC, she had a fall. April, May, and June were filled with these appointments, and I was exhausted and overwhelmed, already struggling with the move and work.
SGM hosted three successful summits in April, August, and December, featuring our clients at Start, Grow, and Manage. It was great seeing our clients in person, and we managed to pull off the difficult ‘hybrid’ format thanks to the venue we chose, The Inn at Villanova University. (And if you ever want to join our community, you're welcome!) The one in August was 100% virtual which was pretty interesting and kind of fun.
I attended several Start Grow Manage, and MSP events. Since I was back in Jersey, I was much more available to help out with the team's in-person events. I went to the Training Days that we hosted at The Inn at Villanova, the MSP Planning Summits, the ASCII Event in Newark, and another ASCII Event in Philadelphia.
At SGM, we launched Circle, our community platform, where I had a hand in implementing it for the company. There were three of us working on implementation, and we spent a good chunk of the year learning how to use the platform, transitioning the content from our old community platform to the new one, and encouraging our community to use Circle. If you'd like to try it out, we offer a free trial here.
Discovered Round One, which is a new arcade that they opened in Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, with a corner of the room dedicated to rhythm games. While it was no Xepher Arcade, I spent as much time as I could playing Dance Dance Revolution and StepMania.
Fun fact: on my birthday weekend, I could do 30+ songs without breaking a sweat. Then, as my pregnancy continued, my stamina took a heavy nosedive. By the time I got on the machine one more time in December (during my third trimester), I could only manage 3.
We did apartment repairs for my mom’s old apartment. On paper, it probably seemed simple. Rip off some carpet, patch some holes, give it a new coat of paint, and huzzah, you’re done. But I knew going in that since the apartment hadn’t gotten any TLC in over 20 years, there was going to be a lot more we’d discover. Some highlights included the need for a new HVAC system, uneven floors (which were really uneven), and soundproofing. Also, with a baby on the way, the office we were in the middle of setting up for my husband suddenly needed to be turned into a nursery.
I went to an in-person community event with a pool. It was not only an enjoyable bonding experience with my husband, but I also desperately wanted to go to a pool during the summer. After all, while I was living in North Carolina, I had a pool just a short walk from my apartment, so I missed being able to enjoy it. It was quite literally the only time I got into water in 2025, which was honestly a bummer.
I met up with friends and family after the chaos of moving back. Some notable highlights included meeting up with my childhood friend and her boyfriend, having Korean BBQ and an apartment tour with a fellow couple, a few visits to my sister’s apartment, and lunch with my cousin, who came to visit from Florida. Additionally, I had some relatives visit me in my apartment, including my grandma’s niece and my stepmom. These visits were great, as last year I could only do really brief visits since my trips to Jersey were so short (and usually occupied with work or family).
My husband and I went to flea markets and garage sales during the summer. We’d look on Facebook or Reddit to see what was going on and then drive to the spots to see what was being sold. Sometimes we’d even just be driving while doing errands and see signs for garage sales and spontaneously go. We got some stuff for Luna (such as Disney books), and I even bought my pregnancy work pants that I’d use at all the SGM in-person activities since none of my khakis or skirts fit anymore.
I went to the doctor instead of my grandma. Which was interesting since this meant I got to use MyChart for myself instead of my grandma. Now, while my grandma still had to go to a lot more doctor’s appointments than I did. It was still interesting (and a bit scary) to be the patient versus just the caretaker/translator for the doctor’s appointments.
Joined an in-person D&D campaign that happened over the weekends. This was my personal stress reliever throughout the second half of the year, since it was the time I could step away from my caretaking duties and actually ‘play’ and have some fun. It also worked out well for my husband and me, since if anything happened, we were less than 20 minutes away from home and could get there in a jiffy.
We had a virtual gender reveal for our little girl. It was really fun finding a way to do this gender reveal while making it ‘nerdy’ since that’s who we are. I created a short animation of a Pokémon egg hatching, and when the egg hatched, that’s when the baby’s name and gender were revealed. We also did a fun poll leading up to the gender reveal to see what our friends and family thought we were having.
At SGM, we initiated our Pro Trainings and Webinars, for which I played a significant role in coordinating calendars, communicating with the individuals or teams we were collaborating with, and providing support for any challenges that arose. However, due to my impending maternity leave, once I had mastered the parts of the process, I also had to document it thoroughly and train someone else to complete the entire process from start to finish.
We had an in-person baby shower at the place where I grew up. Which was admittedly not only convenient to ensure I could bring my grandma, but was also a bit emotional for me since that’s where I grew up and had a ton of memories. So it felt like a perfect place to start the first chapter of my baby’s life. It also meant a ton to me to have my friends and family come to me so I could see them all. Because of being my grandma’s caretaker, I always have to keep in mind how far I’m going from home whenever I meet up with anyone. So it was a relatively stress-free way for me to see everyone.
I accompanied my husband to his private dog training classes. At the end of the year, I was able to accompany my husband to his dog training sessions over the weekend, which was interesting since I had taken a few classes earlier in the year, in March. If you are interested in learning more, be sure to check out his Instagram.
UNEXPECTED EVENTS IN 2025:
Surprise, I’m pregnant! After wishing on my candles in May for my birthday to get pregnant, I found out a week later that my wish had come true, and we had actually managed to achieve one of my goals from my vision board. We weren’t really trying since we technically wanted to move back to NC. Still, we were delighted that it happened, mainly because I wanted to have my first pregnancy BEFORE it would be considered a geriatric pregnancy.
I slept… A lot. My husband says that during my first trimester, I was basically in hibernation. At any time, one could find me passed out on my Yogibo bean bag, right in front of my computer. While the movies and shows boasted about nausea and morning sickness, no one prepared me for the fatigue that never ended, no matter how many naps or hours of sleep I got.
Lots of unexpected house repairs. Whenever there was a lull in the doctors' appointments, and I thought we’d get a breather, something would happen to my grandma’s house. Whether it was a leak that needed to be handled, a water tank that needed replacing, or a hole in the wall that needed to be patched… Surprise repairs came up in the second half of 2025.
Grandma’s falls happened while I was away. When I say ‘I was away’, I mean these falls occurred at the tail end of the year, when I attended various events for SGM. Almost without fail, the first day I was away, everything would be running smoothly, but then on the second day, she’d have some fall which would result in me needing to rush to the ER when I was a state away (PA). I’m not going to say she intentionally did this, but the timing was always inconvenient, and it usually meant that I was even more exhausted after work trips since I wouldn’t be able to go home and rest. I’d be in the ER for hours, and then I’d go home and rest (before you know… having to go to the hospital for the following days because I’m the primary caretaker).
WHAT I DID NOT DO IN 2025:
Go house-hunting (again 2x). Since we needed to go back to Jersey, we put a pause on house hunting. After all, it would be much more difficult for us to tie up loose ends in Jersey if we ended up buying a home in NC. And we weren’t willing to do another stunt of having my husband stay in NC while I handled everything in NJ by myself.
Developing better habits. Due to how much changed from month to month, hell even from day to day, I really couldn’t solidfy a proper morning routine for myself. I started the year pretty structured, but that structure fell apart as soon as I moved from NC to NJ. As I reflected on my calendar, I was pretty disciplined in the first half of the year, but as soon as we moved and then I got pregnant, my energy and willpower took a nosedive.
Morning routine. So I’ll count this as ‘half-complete’. After all, there are some things that I needed to start doing for myself in the morning to prepare for Luna. I had to take the prenatal vitamins I needed every morning, as well as follow a skincare routine to minimize stretch marks. And these things were admittedly habits and routines I included in my morning that were for me, versus for my grandma or dog. I can also say that I got pretty disciplined about reading my email in the morning, reducing the clutter, and moving the majority of my newsletters to MailBrew. So if you have a bad relationship with your inbox, you should consider trying MailBrew for free (like I still am).
FINAL NOTES ABOUT 2025:
Honestly, having a vision board that I was forced to look at every day really did make a difference this year. I had it on my phone wallpaper, my iPad, and my desktop. And while I didn’t spend hours meditating on the things on it, I do believe that having the visual reminder of what my goals were really did help me push through 2025.
The theme of the year was Momentum, and I believe I was able to take things one day at a time and move forward despite the challenges. Was I able to do everything? Absolutely not. As I read on the pregnancy thread on Reddit, when you’re pregnant, you do have to be okay with dropping the ball on some things because growing a human is a life-changing and energy-draining process.
However, I was still able to accomplish a great deal. I was able to keep my grandma alive and well. I was able to meet my own milestones for my pregnancy. And really, that’s what matters.
For 2026, I intend to change my wallpapers on all my electronic devices to reflect my new vision board.
Feel free to share how your year went or what your goals/plans are for 2026.
