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Turning my goals into a framework

Anurag Gulati

• 3 min read
Turning my goals into a framework

While working through my goals for 2025, I was trying to make goals which are achievable, fun and exciting. Otherwise, goals are made and then just forgotten through the rest of the year. I tried to do something different this time. I usually love structuring things, and creating frameworks; it just helps me give meaning to the things I pursue, and keeps me disciplined.

I decided to create a framework of my 2025 goals as well. There were several things that I considered while doing so. Firstly, I made sure that I take into account everything that I wish to do and just laid those out without deciding any timelines or priority. Then I decided to break them down into categories - so it does not look overwhelming. One thing I realized over time is to break down a huge task into chunks so as to feel comfortable so it looks achievable. Post that, I marked the priority for each of the item across categories and removed the tasks with low priority, because removing noise from signal has a lot of benefits.

Finally, I curated a framework which has worked for me at least for the past 2 months. The framework for my learning is super simple and is as follows:

C: Consume
C: Curate
E: Educate

Consume - first part of my learning framework

Consume parallels with learning. I have encapsulated consume part of the framework for learning, reading, and consuming knowledge. This is the first and most significant part of my learning. I believe and have experienced that consuming knowledge has very powerful role in the development of thought process and it not only helps empower the self, but also helps to learn from other people's thinking and experiences. Below are some of the examples for consume part of my goal:

  1. Reading blogs and articles (at least 3 per day)
  2. Reading books (at least 1 per month)
  3. Reading or watching geopolitical news
  4. Listening to good podcasts

Curate - second part of my learning framework

Learning is much enhanced when we curate it and try to embed it as per our projects, goals and aspirations. 'Curate' focusses on learning the tools, technologies and doing certifications which are on my list. To provide a small flavour, this segment of my goal focusses on the following in 2025:

  1. Revising and learning more of statistical analytics
  2. Go deeper into machine learning, GenAI and data science
  3. Learn how to implement GenAI - hands on exercises and POCs
  4. Fundamentals of MLOps, Sage, AWS Bedrock
  5. Certifications on ThoughtSpot, Databricks
  6. Functional courses on LinkedIn learning such as public speaking, leadership, etc.

Educate - third part of my learning framework

This is my most favorite part. Learning and curating all comes alive when we educate. Educating binds all the learnings together and helps to retain, think outside the box, and develop much better understanding of the fundamentals of the concepts. Educating for me is:

  1. writing blogs and articles on my own website, medium, and latent space
  2. I have been thinking about starting a small podcast with my partner this year, wherein, we plan to invite data and consulting professionals to talk about the industry trends, where we are headed, their past experiences and the even the world beyond work.

The biggest question then arises how to be consistent with these goals. Most of the goals typically are not followed and get lost due to busy lives. My prime objective post setting these goals was to follow them to maximum extent possible. Although, it can be really overwhelming given the busy day to day lives, super busy office, and chores, I realized over time that - it does'nt necessarily have to be too much that we need to achieve in a single go. Small elements achieved incrementally would have a greater impact instead.

Therefore, I usually make monthly goals and further break them down into weekly goals at the start of each month and week respectively. This gives me more concrete goals for each day to achieve a greater vision.

You dont have to follow my framework as is - but for your own purpose and goals, you can customize this framework that will work for you. It is just about giving more discipline and meaning to the things you wish to do!! But there is no rule: simply what works for you should be good enough :)

Wish you a successful 2025!!

One of my goals was also to travel through Europe this year and my first country of visit was Italy in January. 😄