A Different Kind of Resolution Post
Happy New Year!
It’s that time of year, again. We are all gonna get in shape, go to bed on time, eat better, reach out to friends we seldom see, write in a gratitude journal, drink less, read more, quit smoking, get a better job, and whatever else we all put on our resolutions. New Year, New Me right?
Maybe you partake in making resolutions and maybe you don’t. I, personally, engage in some new years resolution activities. I like to reflect on things this time of year and try to make new habits. However, I am like everyone else too and I don't keep many of them.
One thing I do that I don’t hear many talk about is taking stock of the things they are already doing well and/or consistently and make sure to keep doing them. These are already in place, so the incremental energy required is minimal but you will need to put some guardrails in place to keep these. For the sake of holding myself accountable, here are some of the things I want to keep on doing. I put these into 4 different areas to help me compartmentalize. The items in bold are things I tried to do, but was inconsistent in 2024.
My List of Things I Want to Maintain
Work
Write each work day. Each work day I write for at least 30 mins. Most of it is not worth publishing, but the habit has produced some decent articles. It also keeps my network maintained.
Stay up to date on each of my holdings by publishing quick updates on them after they report something.
Research at least one new company per week. This isn’t a deep dive, but it takes 2-4 hours of dedicated work on a company before I know if I’m going to take a deep dive into the business and management team.
Fitness
Continue to train 4-5 days per week on a specific program.
Debrief after each training block to see what is working and what isn’t. This feedback loop helps me find what is working and what isn’t. I also do a premortem on the next training block.
Zone 2 cardio 2x per week for 20-25 mins. VO2 max style training 1x per week for 20-30 mins.
Track my food more consistently. Success here is tracking 19/20 days or 95% of the time.
At least 10 mins per workday of prehab or preventative exercises.
Relationships
Each week that I have my kids, I spend dedicated time alone with each of my boys. This is something we do together. No life lessons, just me being present in their world for a short time.
Dedicated date night at least once per month.
Time with a friend at least once per month.
Dedicated time with my parents at least once per month. This is just me and my mom or my dad. I have come to realize that I don’t know that much about my parents’ childhood and upbringing as I thought I did. In order to truly appreciate where they came from, I want to better understand their journey.
Creativity/Mental Health/Self-care
Read at least 10 pages per day. This is the minimum. Many times I read for an hour or two per day.
Integrate reading non finance books. This is something I can do better. I think expanding my perspective may make me a more empathetic and flexible person.
Do something creative for an hour at least once per week. This could be coloring, woodworking, building Lego, working on my display cases in my office, painting, creative writing, etc. This is something that I will schedule each week.
Closing Thoughts
I have the same desire to make these huge audacious goals for the new year. This year, I’m going to first focus on maintaining what I’m doing well, button up some things I can do better with minimal effort and then I will let the universe take me where it does.
Do you have any goals for 2025? I would love to hear about them. How about things you do well that you want to keep doing?
Thanks for reading my work.
Dean
I wish you a great 2025 Dean!