VF
Victor Frye
Your friendly neighborhood developer
The year is 2025, for a few more days. At the start of the year I set a plethora of goals, including personal and professional. I've repeatedly been informed I make ambitious plans and aggressive goals, yet I also meet them. Like open-source software, I think there is value in open-sourcing my goals and progress to share the victories, setbacks, and lessons learned. My goal in this is to provide transparency, invoke feedback, and maybe inspire others to set and achieve their own ambitious goals.
I didn't document my goals publicly this year, so first we will review what was set and why. Starting next year, I hope to open-source my goal setting process to provide more visibility and accountability. We'll see how this goes. There is an element of humility and vulnerability in sharing one's goals and progress, but continuous growth requires facing fears and embracing failure.
Let's dive in.
I started 2025 with the idea of trying a goal framework to help structure and track my progress throughout the year. Setting goals is itself an art-form, and there are plenty of frameworks and methodologies to choose from. I decided to experiment with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) with an individual focus. The reason for this was creating abstract statements for what I wanted to achieve and then breaking them down into measurable goals. As an individual, fuzzy goals are more natural. They match how we think and operate. You might want to pay down debt, feel healthier, or build a habit. Very rarely are our goals naturally quantifiable. OKRs are typically found in enterprise settings, but they worked well enough for personal use.
My objectives for 2025 were:
Some quick reasonings behind each and why they were important to me:
Now we review the key results and progress made towards each objective.
Grow and certify cloud-native and DevOps knowledge expertise.
| Key result | Priority | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Achieve recognition as a DevOps specialist at Leading EDJE | High | Completed |
| Achieve Azure Data Fundamentals certification from Microsoft | Low | Completed |
| Achieve DevOps Engineer Expert certification from Microsoft | High | Off track |
| Read four books on cloud-native or DevOps topics | Medium | Off track |
| Achieve Azure Developer Associate certification from Microsoft | Medium | Off track |
For knowledge expertise, my primary key results were in internal recognitions at Leading EDJE, Microsoft certifications, and reading books. Overall, I missed a lot of these key results and still find myself calling the objective a success for the year. Setting goals like this is about stretching myself and pursuing growth, not just checking off boxes. Of the key results set, I only completed two out of five. More than that, I was completely off track on two (reading and developer certification). Early in the year I realized the DevOps Engineer certification was more immediately important to me than the Developer Associate, so I shifted my focus. Additionally, I enjoy reading books for professional development but this year never saw the drive towards this kind of reading. I trusted myself and de-prioritized this.
That leaves me with the missed DevOps certification. I started studying in the summer, but life repeatedly disrupted my plans. I was exam ready around Thanksgiving and scheduled my exam, but unfortunately I didn't pass. I missed by 27 points! While really frustrating, I plan to retake the exam in January. Wish me luck.
Be an active participant and connect with others in the developer community.
| Key result | Priority | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Meet 1:1 with six local developers | Medium | Completed |
| Attend 10 community sessions on cloud-native or DevOps topics | Medium | Completed |
| Become an organizer of a local user group | Low | Completed |
Considering where I started this year, I blew my goals out of the water in this objective. I had only attended two user groups before this year and three developer conferences in my lifetime. My first key result here is founded on a personal passion: conversation over food or drinks with others. There is true bonding that happens over a meal or coffee. I ended up building a new mentorship relationship here and get coffee with them regularly. I also met new people and learned about their lives over coffee. This is something I will continue to prioritize in the coming year. I want to do more of this and repeatedly engage with certain people. Something something making friends and something?
My other two key results were about conferences and user groups, specifically showing up and becoming invested. I wanted to go from my preexisting five sessions to over double that in a single year. I succeeded with attending eight public user group sessions, four conferences, and a plethora of internal guild meetings at Leading EDJE. Being engaged in each of these helped me find those connections to get coffee with and helped me build a network of friends at my company and in the midwest developer community. My last key result was becoming an organizer of a local user group, which until very recently was off track. I initially planned to launch my own but instead found connections with Beer City Code conference and the local West Michigan Azure User Group, both of which I will be taking a more active role in helping organize in the future. I really didn't understand what all was involved with organizing these kinds of events at the start, but I'm learning. Cheers to seeing how I can help grow these communities in 2026!
Become an active contributor in the developer community.
| Key result | Priority | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Speak at three conferences | High | Completed |
| Present three guild talks at Leading EDJE | High | Completed |
| Write six blog posts | Low | Completed |
| Present one talk at a local user group | Medium | Completed |
Here was another overachievement for the year. I was new to the speaking circuit at the start of the year. One oddity is I started speaking in the Ohio developer community before I had ever spoken locally in West Michigan. Part of this was due to my work at Leading EDJE, based in Columbus. I wanted to outdo myself and speak at at least one more conference in 2025 than 2024. I likewise wanted to present as many times internally at guilds (what we call internal sessions at Leading EDJE, often presented over lunch) as possible. But more than anything, I wanted to start speaking in Michigan and closer to home. I succeeded. I made a lot of friends in the SoftwareGR and local Azure communities. I also presented two sessions at my hometown conference of Beer City Code. And perhaps most understated was the launch of this blog. This have provided a platform to reference back to and connect with my local and online community. I started with a goal of six blog posts and actually expanded it to twelve in June. I completed that goal as well. Speaking at conferences and local user groups has been incredibly rewarding, and I look forward to continuing to do so in 2026. My first conference will be at CodeMash in January.
Build a solid foundation for a happy and healthy family.
| Key result | Priority | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Become a homeowner | High | Completed |
| Run a 5k | High | Completed |
Okay, I didn't define these key results at the start of the year. I started 2025 too focused on professional life and neglected to set goals related to my other hobbies and my family. However, I quickly rectified this informally and throughout the year accomplished a number of personal milestones. I want to do better in this regard next year. This is an area I'll probably avoid going into too much detail on a public site for respect of my family's privacy. Two huge milestones that I can share were becoming a homeowner and running a 5k.
At the start of this year, I had never run a full mile. By late summer, I was able to run 12 miles. I injured myself training for a half marathon, and since then have fallen off a bit. I plan to get back into it very soon, just like everyone says they will, starting off with the new year. I'd start today, but December has proven to be a rough month. I finished three races this year, I aim to complete at least as many again in the new year.
More importantly, I own a real asset now: a home. My wife and I started looking in the early autumn season and found a place that we absolutely love. I didn't realize how much of my time and life would be monopolized by the home buying process, but it happened very quickly and I type this from my new home office. This is the first time in over a decade I think of any physical location as a home I might come back to for years to come. I end 2025 feeling grateful for this small ounce of stability.
I accomplished a lot in 2025. I plan to do the same in 2026. This has been a year of growth, both professionally and personally, and I am grateful for the experiences and milestones I achieved. I also experienced a ton of setbacks and challenges. Family losses, injuries, professional obstacles, and simple failings like rejection letters and failed tests. It's hard to highlight everything even in the lens of goals set and met, but this year was another step forward.
I am still defining what I want to achieve for 2026. I will be attempting to include more personal goals alongside career development goals. 2025 was a year of challenge: challenging myself and resiliency in the face of external challenges. I am currently hoping 2026 will be a year of normalizing. I want to focus on maintaining the progress I made this year and turning these new achievements into lasting habits. I am a conference speaker now, so let's return as a veteran that can mentor and support others. I author a blog, so let's build a stronger presence and consistency in content. I own a home, so let's learn to maintain it properly and make it place of comfort. I want to run new personal bests and play video games on the couch.
2026 could be a year of balance and mindfulness. Or at least, that's the goal.