LIVE DEliberately (As a Reader) in 2025

Warning: Today’s post is rosy-eyed and overly optimistic. If you would rather be in a bad mood, then skip this one.

Call me romantic or even naive, but I love a fresh start, so the New Year is my favorite holiday. I giggle (yes, giggle) over the prospect of designing the next 12 months of life.

You and I have choices to make. Let us approach the next 365 days like Henry David Thoreau and not Shakespeare’s Macbeth. When Thoreau went to live at Walden Pond, he wrote “Every man (and woman) is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour” (80). He goes on to describe that his goal was to live deliberately and front the essential facts of life. Compare that to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who was also in the throws of making decisions about his future, albeit bad ones. When contemplating the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth says, “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly” (Shakespeare 39). Macbeth knows he’s about to do wrong, and wants the act to be finished without consequence. He wants to pursue ambition and greed at the expense of his sanity.

There are no actions without consequence. I think that’s exciting! It means that if I plan well and work hard, I too can front the essential facts of life. I can live well.

What can we do with our physical, mental, and emotional energy in 2025? Who will we become and what will we create? Will you and I find our versions of Walden Pond and live deliberately or will we struggle with our Macbethian shadows?

Live Deliberately

I choose to live deliberately. If you’re on the same page, here are a few prompts to get you thinking:

1. Choose one book that will make a HUGE impact on your life this year. Commit to reading it slowly, taking notes, and applying its ideas. Here’s my selection:
   • My book: Beyond Good & Evil by Frederich Nietzsche
   • Why I’m reading it: I’m heading into my second year of a philosophy degree and it’s time for me to start digging in deeper to specific philosophers. I love Nietzsche, and given my recent break from organized religion, this is a great opportunity for me to explore epistemology, the origin of morality, and more. Plus, I love his boldness. Nietzsche wrote for shock value.
2. What is one thing you want to learn this year AND why? Get specific about a learning outcome that you can measure. Try to get away from YouTube University, and instead, enroll in a course that requires real commitment on your part.
   • My learning objective: I will become conversational in basic French settings.
   • Why I am doing this: I want to study the French philosophers in their native language, and I want to own a small vacation home in southern France within the next ten years. J’apprends à parler fraçais parce que j’adore cette langue.
   • How I will measure it: I will use the Common European Framework (CEFR) to measure my progress. I am currently level A1.1 (beginner) and will complete, test, and certify for at least level A1.2 by year-end. This means taking two to three courses a week with native French speakers via the Lingoda platform.
3. What is one additional project that will support your literary life? For example, you could create a reading room, volunteer for a literacy program, build a bookcase for your local bookstore, etc.
   • My additional project: In 2024, I launched my online bookstore at www.edgewaterbookstore.com, and now I’m saving every dollar of profit for a brick-and-mortar location. I’ve saved $8,000 and need to reach $250,000 before I can research real-estate options. My goal this year is to grow the savings account from $8,000 to $50,000.
   • Why I am doing this: My lifelong dream is to have a real bookstore. It feels great to make progress towards that goal.
   • How I will measure it: I will create a poster for my office that shows my progress from $0 to $250,000. Seeing it grow will motivate me to keep working hard.

Now, let’s talk about reality. 😂

Life is hard, there are distractions, and work won’t leave us alone. Damn it! I don’t know about you, but I despise distractions. I suffer from them daily, which is why I love setting goals. Look, I’ve set and failed at many goals (especially health-related ones), but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying.

Imagine being so excited about your goals that you can’t help but ignore distractions! Think of Carl Jung, the great psychoanalyst, who was locked in an intellectual battle with Sigmund Freud. To achieve his goal of separation from the master, Jung had to define his own school of thought and defend it. There was no way possible for him to do that given his busy schedule meeting with patients, so what did he do? “Jung built a tower out of stone in the woods to promote deep work in his professional life-a task that required time, energy, and money” (Newport 3). You can do the same. Perhaps it’s not a stone tower in the woods, but you can use the coming year to get serious about what you want for yourself.

So, again, let us live deliberately. Let us go into the woods to front the facts of life rather than ignore our true calling and live in the shadows. It all starts with reading great books. Drop me a comment and let me know what you’re excited about this year. It doesn’t have to be fleshed out. A simple, “I want to get a library card this year!” is a great start to thinking about your goals. Let’s hear them below. 👇🏻 Merci, et bonne journée!

Until next time, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.

-Eddy

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Works Cited:

Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. First Edition, Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

Shakespeare, William, et al. The Tragedy of Macbeth. An updated edition, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2013.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or, Life in the Woods ; and Civil Disobedience. First Vintage Classics edition, Vintage Books, a division of Random House LLC, 2014.