It’s the end of another year, and as I’ve done many times before, I’m sharing a personal reflection on how the year went: what I achieved, where I fell short, and what I’m planning for the next one.
This year had many faces. My job wasn’t easy, but outside of work things became much easier — especially in the second half of the year. More on that later.
Let’s look back at what happened, and as always, let’s focus on the gain, not the gap.
Review my 2025 goals
As usual, I’m reviewing my goals across three categories — plus a few notes on family life.
Work
- Want to settle down, become familiar with my team’s codebase and be a useful member of the team. That’s the most important goal for the year.
I didn’t fully meet this goal — or only partially. I moved again (maybe the 4th or 5th time in a bit more than a year), and now I’m in a big project that interacts with code and systems across the entire company. I’m certainly not familiar with everything yet.
Am I a useful cog? Yes. Not as much as I wanted to be, but things are improving steadily.
- Gave to double down on what I started around the end of the year. I attend meetings standing and often from a treadmill. This improves my focus a lot.
Hard to evaluate — mostly because it wasn’t a well-phrased goal. Let’s say it was partially met, but more importantly: it taught me to set better goals for the upcoming year.
- Also want to keep being active beyond the team and continue being an instructor.
This one, I absolutely met. And I think I can deepen my involvement even further.
Work outside work
- Want to get into 2 on-site conferences. Preferably with one technical (obviously C++) talk and with one that is more about a soft topic[…]
Met! As you may have read in my trip reports, the whole experience was amazing. Traveling to the other side of the world for CppCon was special. Presenting in my hometown, Budapest, was also special but in a completely different way. C++ On Sea and Meeting C++ were similiarly great!
I’m grateful to everyone who invited me — and to my family for supporting my travels.
- It was not well-phrased, but I wanted to do some better marketing for my books
Done. I wrote and talked about my books more often, moved to Amazon KDP, and now have a small but steady royalty income. It’s far from life-changing, but it proves that these kinds of books can generate revenue. It gives me both hope and further motivation.
- Want to publish my first fiction book.
The Collapse of Care is out. It’s not a best-seller (yet! :)), but I’m proud of the book itself — and that’s what matters most. It’s not only on the market; it’s also out of my mind, which frees me to focus on the next projects.
Lifestyle
- Take better care of my body
This was important because my physical shape began to slip after our move almost two years ago.
I think I nailed this one. It took about half a year to really get going, but once I did, I became consistent and intentional.
I started to track my weight (in the spirit of what you measure gets better). The numbers didn’t improve at first, but the data motivated me. After a May vacation — which gave me a new negative record — I got serious.
My goal isn’t rapid weight loss. I want consistent, sustainable progress while still enjoying life. And that’s exactly what I achieved. I expect it will take 1–2 more years to get where I want to be weight-wise, but lifestyle-wise, I’m already there.
When I’m not traveling, I’m in a constant calorie deficit yet I eat food that I enjoy and I exercise enough. Every evening, I either go for a walk or I hit the gym. When I’m traveling, I eat and drink what I feel like and I usually walk a lot.
- Take good care of the garden.
Partially met. I spent more time outside, did useful things — much to the kids’ joy — but it still isn’t enough.
I also realized something important: I love structure and habits, but gardening is seasonal. Light, temperature, and weather change — meaning my routines have to change too. I’m learning to accept this.
- Learn a song every day on the guitar.
This one I clearly failed. I kept it up for the first few months, but then other things took priority and the habit faded.
Family
I never set explicit goals here, but here’s what happened.
We continued settling into our home and shaping it to our taste. We installed solar panels — whether they pay for themselves within the advertised timeframe remains to be seen. Since installation happened in September and we spent half of October away, it’s too early to draw conclusions.
We took an amazing family trip to Southeast Asia. Cambodia impressed me far more than Vietnam (more on both in my books). I’d go back anytime — both to Siem Reap for the temples and to Koh Rong for a beach holiday.
The kids are fully settled — the best metric being the sheer number of birthday invitations they receive. It’s both an organizational and financial burden, but it’s also a reminder of why we work hard.
As I mentioned last year, we continue to raise readers. While I’m the more avid reader at home, the credit goes to my wife. She curates their books, takes them to the library (sometimes twice a week), and even started driving again after ten years — mostly to take the kids to sports and to the library.
What’s next in 2025?
Enough about the past! Let’s see what I expect from myself next year!
Work
My overarching goal is simple: When I look back at 2026, I want to be proud of my work.
How to get there?
The most important thing I can do is to be transparent even in a noisy environment. It’s better to overshare progress and blocking points even questions and concerns, than not to share them. Even if no one replies, it’s a good idea to share. It might help to others or at least you put some light on what you do.
I want to slow down and focus. I often feel rushed, I want to take the right time to make sure I think through what’s going on and commit code I’m proud of.
Focus on internal trainings as an instructor. Make existing content better before each iteration. If I have that as a goal, it ensures that I don’t just try recite and get over with it, but I’ll actually think about what we present in a bit deeper way.
Work outside work
In the last year or so, I stopped writing book reviews. I want to restart that. I want to post at least one book review every two months. It will help me reading more attentively.
I have a more ambitious one. I enjoy sharing knowledge and I think there is a high value in doing so. I want to develop a training, but not a C++ one. It will focus on so called soft skills, which are often quite hard for many. My goal is to have the content ready.
I want to create some non-IT related products. One a quarter. I already started with some low-content books, I published different formats of flight log books. Those are things that we also use during our trips for the kids. I want to keep experimenting and creating similar products.
Lifestyle
I want to keep up the changes I made to my diet and my activities and also to see the results. Which I certainly will, I trust the process. I need to pay attention to what I eat, stay in a calorie deficit and exercise my body.
I might be boring, but my second goal also stays, which is about gardening. I have to invest time both in maintenance and development. The key is the right mindset and planning.
Last, but not least, I want to read more. I’ve noticed that someitmes I’ve skipped my reading sessions. I want to read more and sometimes it might mean that I don’t finish books. I think I don’t progress with some well and then I tend to skip some days. It’s better to put them aside and start something new.
Conclusion
2025 was a two-faced year: difficult at work but deeply rewarding everywhere else. I realized that many of my goals weren’t clear enough — or depended too much on others. Now I’m correcting that, and I’m looking forward to a great 2026.
I wish you a Happy New Year!
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