Every year, my wife and I fly down to see family and friends before Christmas in both Southern and Central California. We spend a lot of time with family and I also get a lot of time for some introspective writing.
Before we left this year, I met with a good friend of mine to go over our 2018 goals. We are focusing on five pillars;
- Health
- Business and passion projects
- Family
- Finances
- Relationships
You start with the ultimate goal for a given category, then break it down into quarterly goals. After this is broken down, I then asked: “Is this goal attainable?”. Then, “What are the potential setbacks?”.
It was a really fun process and I will definitely do it again at the end of this year.
He and I will meet once a month to go over how we are coming along with each pillar’s goal. An accountabilabuddy, if you will.
Here’s a breakdown of my goal for each pillar this year:
Health:
Lose 30lbs and have less than 10% body fat
How am I going to do this? I’ve tried every diet under the sun over the years and there has only been one that made me feel great and helped me lose weight when I stuck with it. It’s a ketogenic diet. High fat, moderate protein, and low carb. I don’t believe there is one “superior” or “optimal” diet. EVERY BODY is different. I’ve done 23andme and have uploaded my raw data to a couple of different websites to understand what types of foods work well for MY body. I’m genetically gifted with unsaturated fats. Here’s an excerpt from one of the sites, “When it comes to your response to unsaturated fats, your variation of PPARD is associated with better metabolic activity and a lower increase in weight and body fat percentage.” I’ll be eating more of a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables, olive oil, fatty fish, nuts, and lean protein sources.
Business & Passion Projects:
Spend 10-20 hours per week working ON RicketyRoo and 4 hours per week working on a passion project. Working on RicketyRoo could include, but is not limited to;
- Pitching conferences to speak at
- Writing content
- Conducting research
- Finding and pitching guest post opportunities
- Lead prospecting
How am I going to do this? SCHEDULING. When it comes to marketing my company, or “eating my own dog food”, I’ve always procrastinated, felt guilty when I COULD be working on a client project, or felt that I’m not good enough. For the past couple of years, I’ve developed relationships with some of the brightest minds in the digital marketing industry. I recently even got a mentor that has helped me more than he will ever know. I’ve always felt that these people were “On another level” compared to myself, when in fact I’m just like them. I started asking them questions and have written A LOT about my fears. I’m ready and am excited to see what happens.
Family:
Call my parents and my siblings every week. Spend QUALITY time with my wife (watching TV doesn’t count).
How am I going to do this? SCHEDULING. Simply adding a weekly calendar reminder will help me in developing the habit of calling my parents and siblings every week. My wife and I moved to Bend, Oregon more than 3 years ago and I haven’t been as present in my family’s life as I should be. Bree and I are planning a weekly blocked set of time where we either go for a walk (weather permitting) or go to a coffee shop to connect.
Finances:
Keep saving cash so we can buy our next house, so we can then rent out our current house, and max out our Roth IRA contributions.
How am I going to do this? ZERO impulse buys. When the new iWatch came out, I really wanted to get one. I was gung-ho about buying one for all about 2 days, then it faded, quickly. For any purchase over $200, I’m going to write it down on a piece of paper and wait 30 days. If at the end of 30 days, I still want the item and can justify it, then I can purchase it.
Relationships:
Keep building friendships and help other people where I can.
How am I going to do this? I have a pretty small circle of close friends and I intend on expanding that, a bit. Instead of waiting for them to call to see how I’m going, I’ll be calling them more often to see how they’re doing. I also like doing random acts of kindness. Something I may or may not have done is pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant. The key to doing this is to seek no credit for it. Pay for someone’s meal then immediately leave. The joy I may or may not have received from doing this is something you can’t really write about, you just have to try it.
There it is…
This is what I’m focusing on this year. Now that I’ve put it out there, I HAVE TO stick with it. There’s a saying that I like and can be considered my theme for the year;