I love New Year's resolutions

Here are mine. I hope you'll join me in some goal setting!

I like New Year’s Resolutions. I like goal setting in general. It has served me well over the years. One of my strengths — if not my biggest one — is that I chip away at things. I break every goal into small steps, and I do the work. Every day. Without fail. I don’t procrastinate. I work.

When I wrote my first book Chalked Up, having no idea how to write a book, I committed to writing 1000 words a day. It’s not that much, but it’s hard if you haven’t worked that muscle. So I did it. I got up early. Wrote before work and kids waking up. And I stayed up late to edit. Over the course of a few weeks, I was able to up that to 2000 words a day. The editing usually subtracted half of that. So I was netting out 1000 words a day. And I got to a first draft in about 3 months. Not bad for a non-writer with a full time job and two kids.

This is how I do everything. I set a goal. I take one step at a time. I recognize progress. And I keep going. I’m not smarter or more talented or clever than most. Possibly less, I’ll admit. But I can generally outwork my peers. And I can work at a pretty high quality level for long periods. I have some serious endurance, probably from having been an athlete where boring drills and conditioning take up more time than the fun performing and competing.

I never resort to just getting it done. I hold a high bar, always. I don’t mind being uncomfortable. I don’t mind doing grunt work. I don’t think I deserve to only do certain types of high level work. I’m happy to get my hands dirty and my mind muddled and come out the other side with work I feel proud of. That is the reward.

That’s my recipe. I’m sticking with it. It worked when I was an athlete; it worked as a corporate drone and then as a corporate executive; and then it worked as a writer — which I hesitate to call myself.

So I’m going to continue to take this approach to my business, my health and my overall mindset. And set a few goals for 2025.

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I’m winding up to my long list of resolutions. I think of them as challenges to myself. If I don’t succeed, that’s fine. If I try and I move the ball down the field, that’s a win.

In most instances, if I make a resolution, I achieve the goal eventually. Even if not in the year it is set. For many years I had it as a goal to write a second book (after my first in 2008). For many years, I didn’t do it. I started some, stopped, failed. I’ve got several half written somethings in a folder somewhere on some desktop. Some of which that were officially rejected by agents and publishers. That’s fine. I put it in a drawer and started something else.

I did eventually do it in 2022 when I published my second book. I get to everything eventually. In fact, I can’t really think of one thing I ever set out to do in earnest that I just didn’t do. I sound really annoying right now, I realize.

Setting goals and making resolutions helps me keep my intentions top of mind. I take great joy in work. Whether it is my career/job, my relationships, my marriage or my mental and emotional fitness.

So here are mine for 2025. The list is a little long this year. We’ll see how I do.

1. Work out more: I’m very disciplined about steps. Ever since I got a Fit Bit after my daughter was born in 2016, I’ve religiously walked at least 12K steps a day. Without fail pretty much. During covid’s early days, I amped up my workouts. I rode my spin bike, I stretched, I lifted weights, I even ran some days. But that’s fallen off. My joints have been a problem for the past two years and it’s all I can do some days to get my steps. But I’m going to do more. I believe in consistency over intensity. For me, too much intensity and I will eventually stop because it is too unpleasant. But I can spend a half hour on my bike and a half hour stretching and lifting. I need to keep moving at my age! Otherwise I’ll fall apart, as is already happening to some extent. I need to stave that off! (Of note: the consistency does work. My resting heart rate hovers under 60 bpm and over the time frame of walking this much and this consistently, my weight has come down by about 15 pounds. Try for consistency over intensity if you have trouble sticking with a plan!)

   I’m starting early to get a running head start.

   

2. Speak out more: You? You might say. You already speak out. I do. But I sometimes avoid the difficult 1:1 conversations in my own community. And I do think that is where influence happens. So I am not going to avoid those hard conversations on the sidelines at youth futsal games. I won’t seek them out. I won’t be annoying. But if they come to me, they come to me, and I’ll convey my perspective calmly and rationally. And maybe change some hearts and minds. At the very least, it lets folks know they can’t tyrannize us, scare us into silence thus forcing an imagined consensus. It forces a culture of open debate and dissent with (hopefully) civility attached to it. We can be friends and disagree!

3. Make friends or at least try to: Ever since covid I’ve lost trust in people. My friends of over 30 years drop kicked me and haven’t invited me back (with one notable exception. I see you Lance and I love you). I’m pretty happy with my work colleagues and my family so I avoid social interactions. But a girl needs friends. So I’m committing to making plans with one friend, once a month. That’s it. Just a little bit of socializing. I think it will lighten me up. I can lean towards not that light. Probably not so great for the spirit.

4. Read a book a month: That’s not a lot. I used to read all the time. A LOT. But for the past 5 years, my attention span is poor. Covid fucked me up. I find it difficult to sit and read for long stretches. I read articles. Loads of articles. But not so many books. I can do a book a month, at least. It’ll stretch my brain in necessary ways. Less outrage, more ponderous thinking.

5. Call my parents more and see my older children more: Family is what we got. If I’m not calling my parents — and visiting — and seeing my adult children, what am I doing? That said, I do both. My kids live in New York and I saw them at least 6-7 times this year. And I saw my parents about that many times as well. Pretty good! I’d like to maintain that cadence and call more. With my children I try not to be annoying and pester them all the time. But short check ins are good. My parents are happy to be pestered with calls so I’ll do that.

6. Continue driving momentum with my business. This one kind of goes without saying. We have amazing days and slow days and we/I need to push through them all with aplomb.

7. Ignore the haters. Currently they don’t stop me from speaking my mind. But they do needle me. I’m going to stop looking at the hateful comments and keep my eyes on the road, straight ahead. Maybe it’s time I delete my alt account which I use to lurk? Why bother lurking over the accounts that block me? It’s dumb. Who cares.

Ok 7 resolutions is a weird number but that’s what I have. Lucky 7?

What are yours? You have 5 days to come up with some good ones. Just one is fine! Tell me in the comments!

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On a separate note, at XX-XY Athletics we want to end the year strong! Have you tried us yet? If not we’ve got great deals right now. An extra 20% off of final sale items to clear the way for all the new stuff in 2025. And you can get 50% off velour track pants when you buy the jacket. Plus I’m stocking up on basics — tossing the old ill-fitting stretched out leggings from 10 years ago — in favor of great fitting, great performing lettings and workout tees. Look cute, work harder? Maybe.

And as a reminder, as my friends, you can use my code JenSey20 for an additional 20% off your purchase.

Anyway, there’s much hullaballoo right now about the end of woke-ness and DEI. Maybe. It’s perhaps the beginning of the end, but not the end of the end. It took well over a decade to get this crazy, non-merit based, lie furthering bullshit to get embedded into the culture — our institutions, our media companies, our corporations, our universities. It’s not going away in a day because Trump says it should. The acolytes will fight for their ideology and their livelihood which is based on all of this. There’s an entire DEI industrial complex in play.

Just this week the Associated Press nominated Imane Khelif — a male who won gold in women’s boxing at the Olympics this past summer — as the 3rd best female athlete of 2024.

You think they are walking away from sex is fluid and non-binary and some men get pregnant and some women have penises? No they are not.

The way we win is we push back with the cultural force that the woke-sters have been using for the last decade plus. We wrest the power back. We buy brands like XX-XY Athletics. We reject Nike. We say no to the mainstream media which says things like a woman caught fire on the subway or a car drove through a market.

Or those that somehow engage the idea that maybe the United Healthcare CEO deserved what he got.

You have to reject it all. And show your support for those who are out there offering an alternative. It proves the alternative — the reality based alternative — is the viable path and not the parallel economy or parallel media but the REAL way forward. The mainstream normie capitalism, objective media way forward.

Thank you. Good luck with your resolutions. Drop ‘em in here in the comments. And check out our new performance cap from XX-XY Athletics.