New Year Goals

Hey team! All right, so here we are Wednesday Workshop. You’re probably sitting there looking at the background and you’re going, “22 year? Happy New Year? Does Chad know it’s the 12th?” I do. I know what day it is. The purpose of this is to talk to you about the new year.

How you bring the new year in. So many people run out and they go, “New Year resolutions, New Year resolutions, New Year resolutions. I’m gonna be a new person in 2022.” A new you in ’22. For 39.95, I’ll tell you how to do that. Three payments of 39.95. Come to me, I can tell you how to have a new you.

We’ve seen all the memes. We’ve seen all the posts. Heck, I’ve ventured to say that there are a few people watching this message right now that set a new year resolution and here we are at the 12th and you’ve already discarded it. It’s already gone by the wayside.

Now sometimes that’s because we always have good excuses, right? I mean, well, if they didn’t put the ho hos so close to the kale I probably would still be on my diet. Chances are it’s not got anything to do with the location of the ho hos or the kale.

It’s got to do a lot with us and our discipline and our focus and our ability to do a few things that help us maintain that discipline and stay that course and maintain consistency. So Wednesday Workshop, how to maintain ’22. The new you in ’22. Sounds pretty cool but how are you gonna get there? Well, here are a couple of things that I’ve learned in the 246 years I’ve been alive.

Number one: write it down.

If you’re going to set a resolution goal, if you’re going to set a goal, it needs to be written down. Did you write your goal down, did you do that? Did you tell people about it? Right, it’s one thing to tell somebody about it and write it down. Compared to just saying you know what, you’re talking to the mirror. I think I’m gonna lose 30 pounds this year. Well, you’re not going to lose 30 pounds by talking to the mirror. I guess you could get one of those mirrors that slim you down. I mean go spend some time in one of those houses of mirrors, the funny mirrors. You can do that but you’re not going to do it for yourself by just telling yourself that you want to do it.

You need to write it down and you probably should tell somebody. More importantly, tell somebody that will become an accountability partner. Now you could say I have an accountability mirror. My accountability partner. Some of us are pretty hard on ourselves so we can do those kinds of things. I set goals and missions and deliver on those things many times over. I don’t have to tell anybody about my goals necessarily all the time but it’s still a good thing to do. And I deliver on them because I write them down. That’s the biggest thing for me personally. I write down my goals.

Number two: follow through.

I then follow through with my goals. So if I want to lose let’s say 57-58 pounds which is what I’ve done last year. I decided on April 1st, no fooling, I didn’t do it on January 1st, I did it on April 1st. I got tired of being, well, let’s just call me what I am, fat. Call yourself what you are. That also can help. What am I? I’m fat. I was way overweight. 57 pounds significantly overweight. I still think I got another 15 or 20. Most of you know I had cancer surgery, had a meniscus tear, and surgery. And now just recently, last week literally, not 10 days ago, had hernia surgery.

So as soon as that’s healed up, I am so excited about getting back on the rowing machine and the treadmill and dropping another 20 pounds. It’s gonna be awesome. I’m super excited about it. But I set that goal on April 1st and I started on April 1st. I started walking on the treadmill because running was not going to happen and I started losing weight. I lost almost 30 pounds then I tore the meniscus.

If you have to, adjust but follow through.

So I also had to have something else in there because I was not going to continue losing weight if I didn’t have something else. So I changed my diet and I went to an intermittent fast and I did that and have done that. I also eliminated sugar from my diet so I’m not eating cake and ice cream. I haven’t had cake, ice cream, candy, or anything like that since April but I lost 57 pounds. I’ve gone through three surgeries and I’m continuing to maintain a weight and looking forward to being healed up and back on the treadmill to lose the rest.

I also read 50 some books last year. I almost read a book for every pound I lost, like 57 books last year. Some of them were audiobooks while I’m on the treadmill. Some of them were audiobooks while I was on the rowing machine and some of them were actually piece of paper. I was flipping through the book highlighting and so on and so forth. I’ve read a ton of books.

I set a goal, I wrote it down, and then I started following through and I held myself accountable.

So having an accountability partner is good. Having a coach or mentor. Somebody to help you and keep you accountable is good. Maybe you want to exercise like I did. Maybe you want to do something else different but you’re not going to have a new you in ’22. You’re not going to make the resolution and fulfill the end result of the resolution without having a goal written down. Without taking steps and then you make bite-size chunks of those steps. You take those steps, you bite-size chunk them, and say “This is what I want to do.”

If you want to read a book a month, well, you need to divide that book up. Whether it be by chapters or pages, you need to say okay, there are this many pages. Maybe there are 436 pages. You divide 436 by the 30 days in that month and bam there you are. You have to read that many pages a day and guess what? You’ll get to the end. It’s simple as that, it’s simple math. It’s really simple to do.

At some point, as you keep doing it you name and then make progress. Then the next month you read another book and then another book. But at the end of the month, maybe you read or maybe at the end of the year, you read 12 books. Well, that beats your goal of no books last year. 12 versus zero. You’re 12 books smarter than you were yesterday or last year. That’s how it works. So if you want a new you in ’22, write your goals down.

If you have already missed the mark on your resolution don’t give up and quit and be done.

Imagine me quitting on June 3rd as soon as I tore my meniscus. I’d lost almost 30 pounds. Imagine me throwing in the towel. Do you think I’d be sitting there looking at you in January of ’22 57 pounds lighter than I was on April 1st? No, I would probably be up four or five or six pounds. I might literally instead of weighing 265, I might weigh 270-275 because poor old me, I tore my meniscus, and I got a hernia. Poor old me, I lost weight and I was going so good, and then…Nobody else cares. Nobody cares.

None of you care about me losing weight or being healthy. None of you care nearly as much as I care about myself. Now my wife probably cares. My kids might kind of care. They don’t really understand it yet but if I die of a heart attack when I’m 57. They surely would care. Wouldn’t they? If I get diabetes, they might care when they’re in their teens and I can’t walk up the stairs. That would directly affect my children’s life.

I’ve made some changes to my life but I didn’t make a resolution.

I didn’t hope for change and I didn’t pray for change. I made change happen because I wrote goals down I got accountable and I stayed the course by taking bite-sized chunks out of my goal and mapping it out over a period of time. As I said, in about two weeks, give or take, two weeks I’ll be back on the treadmill. Walking, reading, studying, and getting better. You guys are gonna see a little bit thinner me. Becca might have to trim my beard because it’s getting a little long. I think it’s outside company policy. I might have to work on that. You guys are going to have to keep me accountable for that.

All right. I’ve been talking a lot. I’m just having fun, I am enjoying this new year and I want you to have the new ’22. The new you in ’22. That’s what I want for you. Get an accountability partner. Write your goals down. Put them in bite-sized chunks. You can do this.

I’ll see you next week. Be valuable because nothing less will do. All right. See ya!