My 2025 Year Review; Family, Failures, Finances

One of my favourite, and most stress-inducing, days of the year is here. It’s when I look back at my calendar year, and see where I went right, or wrong, along the way.

First things first, I’m still married, Aidan (my first kid) is still alive, my mum still loves me and I made quite a lot of money this year. So, regardless of my multitude of failures this year, all’s well that ends well. And I’m grateful for that.

I cannot encourage everyone enough to do this yearly goal setting, then 12 months later, evaluating your year. I know I’m a bit autistic and ADHD. I love lists and spreadsheets, I get it. You may not love this quantified goal-setting as much as me. But I promise, keeping yourself accountable. Being able to look back a year ago (and in time, multiple years) is endlessly beneficial. You can see your growth, you become used to attacking your goals. Life doesn’t ‘happen’ to you, you lead it. It’s game-changing. Please do it! Ultimately, I know some of you guys like this content, others not so much, but this is for me first and foremost. I’ll hopefully do this until my time on this beautiful planet is up.

Now, let’s have a look at my ‘2025 Goals and Plans’ blog post that I wrote the first week of January 2025, and see what I hoped to achieve in 2025.

My 2025 goals were:

• Run my Highway to Hell Ultracycle in Turkmenistan, and my Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon events successfully (and complete them personally too of course)
• Increase my net worth by $100k
• Buy a piece of land to develop a luxury villa to sell
• Drop my body fat to the lowest it’s ever been at 41 (less than 15%)
• Donate at least $10k
• Film my whole season 1 of my travel show
• Spend more than 2/3rds of the year with my family, Jaa and Aidan, at home (or on holiday together).
• Stick to 101 cheat meals and 75 alcohol tokens
• Bring my new family, and my mum to 1 new country

My 2025 Successes and Failures:

As you can see from above, I had 9 goals for 2025. Let me work through them one by one to see how we did.

Goal 1: Run my events. Success. But not as well as I wanted.

My goal was to run my my Highway to Hell Ultracycle in Turkmenistan, and my Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon events successfully. I did that, both. There were so, so, so good! COME JOIN ME IN EITHER TURKMENISTAN OR MAURITANIA IN 2026 FOR THE 2ND EDITION CYCLE, OR 3RD EDITION RUN!!!!

I had 17 people come to Turkmenistan with me, and aim to cycle 300km from the Capital city of Ashgabat, to the iconic ‘Gates of Hell’. AND WE DID IT (albeit, we had quite a few people quit en route!).

The same fro the Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon. 9 of us ran 3 ultramarathons in 3 days, right through the Eye of the Sahara. 160km/100miles. Ouch. 9 started, and 9 FINISHED!

So why do I say not as well as I wanted. 2 things really. I’m useless at marketing. These events are SO F*CKING COOL. They can change people’s lives. I worked so hard to create them, the logistics, the planning. But I’m floundering with marketings (and sales). I want these to be huge events, yet I procrastinated and did very little sales and marketing. So yeah, they were amazing, and fun, and brutal. But I let myself down with putting the hours (and money) into sales and marketing. Still though, with 26 people across both events, I consider this goal a success.

Goal 2: Increase net-worth by $100k: Success

My one consistent goal each year is simple. Increase my net worth by $100,000USD. I first set this goal in 2012, when I started my blog. So 2025 marks 14 years of this goal. I’ve succeeded in 13 years. With a big failure in 2024 due to expeditions to climb Mount Everest, reach the South Pole, run a marathon in Antarctica and climb Antarctica’s highest mountain. They all cost me a fortune and I spent more that year than any other year in my life.

This year, due to favourable exchange rates, selling some crypto, my TV show of course, my group trips, and my SEO business coming back with a bang (as clients want to now be featured on AI search results) meant I increased my net worth by more than a quarter of a million dollars. A fair bit more. My 2nd best increase ever in a year, only beaten by when I finished building my Thailand villa. Which is a kinda fake, because I didn’t ‘earn’ that net worth increase, the final house was just worth more than I built it for.

So yeah, wildly successful year financially for me. If I could have 3 or 4 more years like this in my 40s, my relentless financial anxiety that keeps me up at night may finally, actually subside (yeah right).

Goal 3: Buy land to develop a villa. Success

BIG SUCCESS. And yet another thank you to my developer, and now friend, Sutast. A short backstory. I found Sutast when looking for Chiang Mai’s best developer, to build my villa. A business arrangement became a friendship, then he helped MASSIVELY when I built a house for my mum in thailand last year. I’l be forever grateful.

I spoke with him about buying land to develop a villa to sell in Thailand. I have no idea why but after trying and failing myself, Sutast stepped in, found the land, negotiated on my behalf and used his staff to help get things signed and sealed. Wild. Thank you again mate! With horror stories of people being ripped off in real estate deals in Thailand, and other countries, I can’t believe how lucky I am to meet Sutast. He’s a gentleman.

So, I am now the proud owner of 159 Talang Wah of land (640 square meters, about 7000square feet) to begin my side hustle as a property developer. As always I have no idea what I’m doing. But I spent about $120k on the land, and another $10k raising it, so I’m in it now! The plans are now done, and construction will commence in January or February 2026 all being well.

I blogged about my plans to develop a villa in Thailand to sell here too.

Goal 4: Lowest body fat ever. Failure (again)

God, I’m starting to get disillusioned. 3rd year in a row to fail this. Kinda pathetic to be honest. I can identify areas where I know I’m weak: Sugar addict, lack of discipline to go to bed early, lack of discipline to work out in the AM rather than PM.

I’m 42. But I’m fit. V02 max is 60+. Can run sub 20 min 5ks, propably close to a 3 hour marathon. I can run 100 miles no worries. Cycle hundreds of kms. I can bench my body weight. Smash hyrox/hiit/crossfit. I work out 200-400 hours every year. But I just can’t nail my body fat, my weaknesses are winning.

I had aimed to be sub-15% body fat, and to be fair to myself, I’m probably 14-15%. But still, just put down the chocolate johnny. Skip one extra episode on Netflix, and sleep before 10pm. Wake up at 7 and go run.

Facts are facts. I promised my lowest ever body fat. But I failed. So here we are.

Goal 5: Donate $10k. Success

Through my MuditaAdventures.com foundation, we ran 4 successful charity trips last year:

• Bangladesh; We were able to supply clean water filtration systems to help provide safe drinking water for over 3 years. We locally sourced school supplies, toys and mats for the classrooms and provided them with a but of a face lift
• Madagascar; We funded the renovation of an orphanage
• Pakistan; We funded food for over 100 kids, and school supplies for more than 50 in an impoverished community in the mountains of Pakistan.
• Mongolia; we funded running water and toilets for 2 families

We raised and donated over $18,000USD. A big win.

If you want to join a trip that gives back, I have charity trips coming up in 2026 to:

• Borneo and Brunei In February 2026
• Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan in June 2026
• Komodo, Bali and East Timor in August 2026
• Mongolia Eagel Festival in October 2026

COME JOIN ME!

Goal 6: Film a whole season of my TV SHOW! Success (with an asterisk!)

So yeah, 2025 was the year I got my own TV show. It’s on a pretty major international network, TRT World. It’s called WHERE TO NEXT, it’s on once a month, and then after being on TV it goes on youtube HERE.

I finished all 12 episodes, but we need to reshoot some stuff for the Istanbul episode. So it’s more like 98% finished than 100% but we’ll call it a success! I’ll discuss my thoughts on having my own TV show below, it’s been a steep learning curve.

Goal 7: Spend 2/3rds of the year with my family. Ooooph, borderline.

Ouch. I promised Jaa I would spend AT LEAST two thirds of the year with Aidan in his first year. And I love a spreadsheet. So despite Jaa’s regular protestations that I’m “barely home”, the stats are there in black and white. Not that I’m proud of them. But I did reach my goal. Just.

My spreadsheet tells me I spent 119 days away from my family this year, and 246 days with them. Meaning I ducked underneath the 1/3 of time away. Just. Still not lovely in Aidan’s first year. But I’m so worried about AI, and retirement etc, that I need to work and cover us for the future, or I’ll lose my mind.

Goal 8: 75 alcohol and 101 cheat meals; Failure

Very closely aligned with my ‘lowest body fat ever’ goal, I failed my 101 cheat meals. Although I did pass my 75 alcohol tokens task.

Each year I assign 75 alcohol tokens, meaning I can’t drink on 290 days of the year. I can add to my 75 tokens by either doing a 2000 calorie workout (+1 token), or achieving a big physical goal (3 ultra marathons in 3 days, 300km cycle etc, both +5). I actually drunk on 85 days, but I had my 75 tokens, plus 15 more earned, meaning I came in 5 under.

The cheat meals though? 3rd year in a row it was an abject failure. I kept track until about February, then was a disaster. Each cheat meal is 1 token (pizza, or chocolate, whatever). 101 is basically 2 times a week I can be a pig. It should be enough. But I just can’t stick to it. I will try again in 2026.

Goal 9: Bring family to a new country. Success 2/3.

Two-thirds success here. I took Aidan to Vietnam, Turkiye and the Maldives.

And I took my mum to Turkmenistan to see the Gates of Hell, before they shut it down (JOIN MY OCTOBER TOUR TO TURKMENISTAN IN OCTOBER TO SEE IT IN 2026!).

But, sadly for Jaa, no new countries for us together in 2025. Hectic schedules, and family trips to Maldives, Turkiye, Vietnam were great. But no new countries. I’ll fix that for my wife in 2026, promise!

My 2025 score:

9 goals.

• 5 successes
• 2 failures (body fat, and my alcohol/cheat meal tokens)
• 2 up in the air (new counties for Aidan, my mum but not Jaa AND 2/3 of time with my family was statistically a success, but not great truth be told)

My 2025, MONTH-BY-MONTH:

A super, super busy tear. Normally I finish the year feeling like I could have done more, but this year was the first year ever I didn’t feel like that. I worked like a crazy man, trained hard, and still tried to be there for Aidan, Jaa and my mum. Let me have a look at the month by month.

January;

Start as you mean to go on I guess?! The TV show was greenlit. So January 3rd, I flew to Turkiye to fill episode 2 in Erzurum, and episode 3 in Kars.

-25 degree, filming my first ever show. It was challenging. But a beautiful team helped me through it. I skied with the Turkish champion, ice climbed and visited parts of Turkiye I had never heard of and by January 18th, I was back home in Thailand.

The 2nd half of January had my Uncle and Aunt visit us in Chiang Mai, and my best buddy Duff and his wife come stay with us. Josh even swung up north too. A lovely January.

February

The weather is gorgeous Dec, Jan and Feb in Chiang Mai, so it was family time at the start of Feb, as Aidan turned 2 months.

I FINALLY did what I had promised to do for 3 years. 5 in-depth interviews with my mum, over 5 nights, and 5 bottles of wine. Over an hour each. Asking her questions about her life, from childhood until today. Emotional, intense, eye-opening. I have it all on permanent video for future generations too. Very grateful for my mum to agreeing to it. I learned so much about her.

I highly recommend you guys do this with your parents. We never know when they’ll be gone. They’re so selfless, it’s hard to get them to talk about themselves at length, but this format means they have no escape! haha.

Jaa, Aidan and I then roadtripped to Bangkok. And spent some time in our condo there (I bought it way back in 2012, never sold it. It’s tiny for the 3 of us, but so lovely to be able to visit Bangkok anytime we want!).

Late feb I used my airmiles, and flew business class to Tunisia. From there I’d be running an EPIC group trip to Libya with loads of friends.

March

Libya ran into march. And apart from witnessing an actual SHOOT-OUT in Tripoli (!) the trip was a big success. So much so, that I’m running another one in February 2026 if you want to join, just ONE SPOT LEFT!

From Libya, I connected to Syria, via Jordan for another one of my wild group trips. Damascus, Aleppo, Homs. With a banging group of people (and plenty of smuggled booze!). Although thanks to Amanda, we managed to get the Sheraton in Aleppo to crack their secret stash anyway.

From Syria, via Egypt, I ran my 3rd and final February group trip. This time to one of Africa’s least visited countries, Eritrea. It’s a beautiful country, but tough to get in, and tough to manage the logistics, but we managed to do it. The visas are now much harder, so I’m delighted we managed to get this done when we did. Big shout out to Pav who joined me on all 3 trips, back to back to back, with a death wish!

Back in Bangkok in time of St Patrick’s day with my half irish/half thai Son 🙂 and from Bangkok, Jaa Aidan and I flew to Vietnam.

I’m a big credit card hacker (using my mum’s UK address). With my amex platinum, I get gold status with the Melia hotel group so we used that for some luxury in Danang.

Back to Bangkok for a michelin starrred dinner with Jaa (free with my Amex platinum , DON’T TELL JAA!) haha.

April

April had me back in Turkiye to film our 4th episode. This time in the gorgeous city of Gaziantep, home of BAKLAVA, the greatest desert on planet earth. And then the 5th episode in Mardin, beautiful old city in Mesopotamia.

Also, I ended up meeting some really cool actors whilst filming, as guests on my show. Wild life.

Back to Bangkok for mid-April and back to dad-mode. Also a quick visit to the ridiculously expensive Dior Cafe in Bangkok too, check it out if you’re in the city. Then I took Jaa’s mum to Pattaya for a nigth at another Melia property. Pattaya is a sh*thole in general, but if you stay in a luxury hotel and are selective with where you eat and drink, it can be a great escape from Bangkok to be honest.

Smokey season in Chiang Mai was at an end, so we returned home. I finally bought the land that I want to develop a luxury pool villa to sell on. An expensive month!

May

I had a last minute trip to Cyprus for the loss of an old friend. So 4 flights there, 2 days there, and 4 flights back was a punishing schedule but we have to do what we do for the people we love.

Back on May 4th, and then on May 7th I had to fly to Turkiye to speak at a conference. My schedule was so busy that I said no. But the lovely lady working for the operation offered to fly Jaa and Aidan, all in biz, if I said yes, so I did!

Back to Chiang Mai to work on the villa development, and start training properly for the Highway to Hell ultra cycle in Turkmenistan. We had some visitors in Thailand too. Tobias, and Josh both popped up.

We had a great time. I spoke on a panel with some super inspiring people, and met some other legends at the event too. I should really do more of this.

June

My buddy Selim flew to Chiang Mai to film the final scenes for my upcoming documentary about my mum. We snuck into a hospital and filmed. And got caught. But we got it. Sorry!

After that, Manu Josh and I flew to Pakistan and China for one of our charity trips. Going through Kashmir was AMAZING. A dream trip. Roadtripping through the mountains, on the Karakoram highway. Crossing the world’s highest border crossing at the Khunjerab pass, and then exploring Xinjiang, China. All with a brilliant group. I LOVED IT.

Back to Chiang Mai for family time, training and work.

July

Back to my second home, Turkiye! More filming. This time in Kas, and Antalya. Home to Saint Nichloas. Kayaking, paddle boarding, scuba diving, coasteering and filming filming filming.

Back home to Thailand directly after filming, this time to Bangkok. Another michelin star restaurant courtest of my Amex platinum with Jaa.

Also had an awful medical issue this month. Cycling past construction, I got a piece of iron in my corneo. Had to go to the eye hospital, get it removed and get the RUST SCRAPED OUT OF MY EYE. Eurrrgh grim.

Other than that it was domesticated home life. Aidan’s swimming lessons, work, friends, training and date nights.

August

August mean the Highway to Hell ultracycle first edition in Turkmenistan. I created this event to help show ‘normal’ people that they can do so much more than they think. 300Km cycle through the desert, to the gates of hell. Epic trip. And I brought my mum along for the ride. I even bribed the flight attendant $200 to let us upgrade the flight to Turkmenistan unofficially!

I went directly from Turkmenistan to film more episodes of my show in Turkiye. This time on the beautiful Black Sea coast.

September

Back to Thailand for family time. Jaa’s birthday. My friends Gareth and Max joined us in Chiang Mai for a few runs and a few beers. I had a whole month (almost) in Thailand!!

October

Into Q4. That meant I got to tick off a huge bucket list item for me, the Mongolian Golden Eagle Festival. Also, we’re going back in 2026 so come join us!

Watching the nomads show their skills in the freezing cold winter of Mongolia. Sleeping in gers. Doing it all with friends. Dream come true.

Back to Thailand for Loy Krathong, Oktoberfest in Chiang Mai and a visit to some waterfalls in Northern Thailand

November

BUSY MONTH!

Started the month in Thailand and we celebrated Aidan’s 1st birthday at home.

Then I was back to Turkiye once more to film episode 11 of my show. This time in beautiful Bursa.

I flew from Turkey to speak at the Most Traveled People conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was terrified to speak on stage, but it went well in the end thank god. I don’t love Addis Ababa at all, but the people I met at the event were nothing short of amazing.

I flew back to Thailand, picked up Jaa and Aidan and we flew to the Maldives to spend 8 days at the Sun Siyam. AMAZING TIME. So relaxing, exactly what I needed. But after the 8 days, I had 24 hours before I flew back to Turkiye to film my 12th and final episode of WHERE TO NEXT.

December

From Turkiye, I flew directly to Mauritania to run/organise the 2nd edition of my Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon. 3 days, 3 ultras. 160km/100miles. I had 2 groups, one running and one without the run.

Both groups would meet and ride the iconic iron ore train together. AND WE DID IT!

I ‘won’ the race, although I don’t officially place as I’m at a big advantage considering I know the route/terrain etc, although it was nice to push myself a bit.

And then the iron ore train was epic as always

I’m running both these events next year too, in November – COME JOIN ME, either with the run, or the train, or both!

• Iron ore train 2026 group trip
• Eye of the Sahara 2026 Ultramarathon

Back to Thailand, where Jaa and I had a chance to get away to the mountains for anight, then Christmas at my house with my sister and the family. WHAT A WAY TO END THE YEAR 🙂

Aaaaand….. relax Johnny. You need to recover.

2025 look at finances/business, health, family, travel

Ok, let me look at the 4 aspects that dominate my life, and give a score out of 10 for how it all went this year.

Family; Still married, Aidan and my mum still alive!

I won’t lie. It’s been tough with me and Jaa considering how much I’ve been away, with her looking after Aidan a lot. But we made it. More arguments for sure. But all worth it for the insane amount of extra love Aidan has brought to our lives. I honestly cannot describe the love I have for him. Every cliche that every parent tells you is true. But you never know it until you have a kid. Thank you for what you do for him Jaa. And a special thanks to Jaa’s mum for helping so much this year.

My mum is good too. I’m proud of all I’ve done for her this year, and I’m proud of her for pushing herself to come to Turkmenistan with me. Parkinson’s continues to take its toll, but she’s loving life in Chiang Mai and all-in-all life is good.

Friends? I’ve been lucky to travel a lot with friends this year. With Anthony, Josh, Manuel, Max, and my onestep4ward friend trips have been a welcome release. So all good. One thing though is how busy I am when i’m home in Thailand. With Aidan here now, I’m seeing much less of my friends that ever before in Chiang Mai. Which is sad of course, but not likely to change. And that’s a sacrifice that I’m happy to make, however sad it may be.

So yeah, family is good, Aidan is great, friendships are tight. Can’t complain.

Finances; $421k NET. Wildly good year financially.

Crazy good year for me, where I almost net half a million dollars. My 3rd best year ever, but I consider it my most successful year ever due to the other 2 years having extenuating circumstances.

That being said, I worked so f*cking hard this year. The TV Show, SEO business making a big comeback, public speaking, coaching, my blog and social media and my group trips. As well as the 2 events I launched in Turkmenistan and Mauritania. Combine that with trying to develop this new villa, being a new dad, taking care of my mum, staying on top of my training, it’s been a lot.

I made a lot, but I truly believe I earned it this year. No imposter syndrome anymore. Also, I added over a quarter of a million to my networth. Perhaps even beyond $300k. Maybe the most I ever saved/invested/increased in 1 year. I’m proud of it. I want to ‘retire’ at 49, and a few more years like this would be needed in order to do that. Although, to be frank, I don’t think I can keep this workload up.

Health; 3 ultra marathons, 77kgs, 300km cycle, 250 hours of exercise

I’m healthy. 2025 is my 8th year vegetarian. I weighed in at 76kg post-Eye of the Sahara ultramarathon. The lightest I’ve been as an adult (apart from when I finished rowing across the atlantic). That means I’m super fit, but the aesthetics suffer with that, due to muscle loss thanks to all the cardio I’ve been doing. I’d like to increase my protein and creatine intake, and be more disciplined with that. But I’m happy with my fitness.

I exercised over 250 hours this year, although that’s a decrease from 2024, it’s till enough i think. Over 45 minutes a day across the year. Considering how much I travel, I’m ok with that. Although I think I could have done a bit more to be honest.

Mental health? Financial anxiety, no better. Sleep? Marginally better, thanks to my Oura ring. Still awful relatively speaking though. Stress? No better. Worse if anything. I did nothing this year to work on any of these, and that’s both shameful and regretful. I always feel I could be doing more. And I probably could. I have no idea how people let days/weeks/months get away from them. I lose my mind when I don’t maximise my opportunities. I know I can do more.

Travel; 83 flights, 37 business class. 20 countries visited.

The most flights I’ve ever taken in a year. And easily the most business class flights. I’m ADDICTED to business class. It’s almost my favourite thing about travel. No idea why Im so obsessed. I feel like I’ve cracked the travel hacking from a UK perspective so that’s great.

I spent over $15k on flights, that excludes all my TV show flights that the network pays for. Including that, it’s probably more like $40k.

But 37 biz class flights in a year? That’s so sexy!

Countries visited:

Amongst those 83 flights, I visited the following countries. That means I’m now on 75/197 on my second round of visiting every country!

1. Thailand
2. Turkey
3. Qatar
4. Tunisia
5. Libya
6. Jordan
7. Egypt
8. Eritrea
9. Saudi Arabia
10. Vietnam
11. Greece
12. Cyprus
13. Pakistan
14. China
15. Turkmenistan
16. Mongolia
17. Ethiopia
18. Maldives
19. Mauritania
20. Morocco

Highlights were Turkmenistan (with my mum and the 300km cycle), Mauritania as always. and the Mongolia Eagle Festival. And my first visa back to Libya in years. And the Pakistan trip. And Maldives with the family. Ok a lot!

My final thoughts on 2025:

I worked hard, probably a little too hard. Made a lot of money. Just about kept my marriage on track, took care of my mum, and my son. I traveled too much and flew too much. My fitness was very good, but not good enough to be called great. I reached a lot of my goals, but I’m left frustrated at how I handled my sleep, and my sugar intake. And my general stress levels.

As always, it was a wild year. Thank you to everyone who helped me, with special thanks to Selim, Aliyoune and Jaa’s mum. Couldn’t have made it through the year without you guys.

Now let’s get down to planning for 2026. 2026 goals incoming….

My Past 10 years of recaps and goals:

If you like this kind of thing, you can see all my goal, failures and successes all the way back since 2014.

• 2025: My 2025 goals, and NOW YOU’RE READING MY 2025 RECAP RIGHT HERE.
• 2024: My plans for 2024, and then my 2024 year-end review.
• 2023: My 2023 Goals and plans for the year and my 2023 year-end review
• 2022: My 2022 Goals and Plans for the year and my 2022 year-end review
• 2021: My 2021 Plans from the start of the year and my 2021 Year-end review.
• 2020: My goals and plans for 2020 at the start of 2020 and then at the end of 2020, my 2020 review.
• 2019: My 2019 goals from January 2019, and then my 2019 year review from December 2019.
• 2018: My 2018 goals from January 2018, and then my 2018 review at the end of the year.
• 2017: My 2017 year review.
• 2016: My 2016 plans. And my 2016 year in review.
• 2015: My 2015 year in review.
• 2014: My plans and goals for 2014