2025 Goals Check-In, Month-1

I’m totally stealing this from author, speaker, storyteller, teacher, all-around-great-guy and guru, Matthew Dicks. I envy him and idolize him. For years, he publicly lists all his goals and then, equally publicly, updates his progress. Good and bad. Successes and failures. It’s what makes him unique compared to so many other gurus and coaches that offer advice …he ain’t perfect and he’s not too proud to admit it.

But …he’s pretty incredible and good at stuff and great and getting stuff done. So that’s kind of annoying.

Below (and here) are my 2025 Goals and my 30-day progress and update.

MAKE MY WEBSITE AND BLOG A REAL THING

• Categories Finite and Sensible  <- I’ll say A+ on this. I feel very good that if some rando goes to my website, they’ll be able to figure out what I’m about and if you know me and are looking for something specific, you can find it.
• Build it for 2 Specific Audiences In Mind, and those audiences are…  <-  B+ … it’s a slow process to take all my old Blog posts and Pages and organize it so I can proudly tell, say, my co-worker, “hey, if you want to order salsa, just go to my website.”

DON’T GET ALZHEIMER’S OR DEMENTIA: <-  A+ …I don’t have Alzheimer’s.

• Weigh 155.  I’m starting the year at 175.   <-  D …I’m heavier
• Walk (exercise) for a minimum of 30 minutes per day  <-  B- … I like to walk outside. We had multiple days in the dangerously cold zone (ie real feel below zero)
• Sleep for a minimum of 6.5 hours per night (but 7 hours – 11pm-6am is better) ... B-  …for some reason, I’m waking up before 5:30 a.m.
  • In-my-bed by 10:30 p.m. each night, reading a book … <- A+ …I look forward to this, but I’m sleepy and barely get through 5 or 6 pages of “Pillars of the Earth” so it might take me the rest of my life to finish
• Start using my Rucking Vest … <– F …haven’t even brought it in the house and cleaned it up and set-up the weights
• Get my hernia fixed and start exercising again by end-of-February … INCOMPLETE, but I did see a Dr., my hernia is normal, and I gotta figure out where it fits on my calendar
• Floss Daily   …  <– B-  …I’ll say 5 out of 7 days I floss
• DO NOT EAT in the evenings after dinner Sunday-Thursday … <– F … startiiiiiiing NOW
• Lift Weights Min. 3x Days Per Week  … <– F  … blaming the hernia, but that’s just an excuse
• Learn Polish … <– F  …but I’m following the Podcast that will teach me
• Learn a min. of (3) songs on the Ukelele  … <– F … haven’t picked up the thing, yet

WORK

• Fully Commit 50-Hours Per Week to My Day-Job   … <– B … I could do better. 
• Have Fun! Love the Challenge! Play the Game! Be joyful!  … <– B+ … I do like my job. I get excited about things and ideas and I hope that becomes contagious

BE CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN DOING IT

• Blog Daily + Fix and Organize My Blog  … <–  A+ …I’m really proud. I’ve spent time every day on this
• Journal Daily … <– B-  . . . I journaled 14 out of 31 days in January
• Homework for Life Daily (and get better at it)  … <– F … haven’t started. I’ll start tonight.
• Finish Writing My Book … <– C+ … I’m noodling with two books, both about half-written and both needed some editing, rewrites and above all, to be finished
• Get An Article Published  … <–  B- … I have someone who asked me, yes, please submit an article …now I gotta write it and submit it. I’m obviously afraid of rejection and the best way to avoid rejection is NOT put myself out there. 
• Attend 1x Moth StorySLAM Per Month (with a goal of being picked to tell a story)  … INCOMPLETE … hasn’t been a Moth to attend, yet
• Create a Family Tree … a Story-Based Family Tree … <– A+ … this is complete. It was fun and quick and fascinating. Now I gotta organize it and expand it. Also, turns out, it’s a bad idea to keep your entire family tree along with names and maiden names on a website for all to see.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT and BETTERMENT

• Cold Showers in the Morning and Quick Warm Shower at Night Before Bed ... FAIL … cold showers are torture …I’m weak and a scaredy cat
• Read:30-Minutes Per Day  …   B+
• Journal Daily     …  B-
• Meditate Daily   …   C+  … I mediate while shaving, but can do better
• Memorize Things ... A  … I started with memorizing my family’s mobile #s
• Complete a 15-Minute Chore Daily  ... A … pretty easy … and feels great. Just a quick chore every day
• Kiss My Wife Before Bed … B-/C+ …. I forget sometimes
• Kiss My Wife Each Morning Before We Head Out to Work …  B+ … mornings are hectic
• Stop Getting Mad ... C+ … I’m thinking about it as I get mad, so that’s a positive
• Stop Gaslighting … B+ … I can do better
• Stop Hurtful Sarcasm  … B+ … I’m working on it

HOME IMPROVEMENT

• Adopt Minimalism   … I need to define this better
• Garage Makeover … INCOMPLETE … it’s been wicked frigid and this is a Spring project

MISCELLANEOUS  … A+ … I’m treating them like a Faberge egg and so far so good

• Don’t destroy another pair of AirPods …below is my second pair after going through the washing machine and then dryer, but also after having been dropped numerous time and unable to make phone calls and the left only worked “some times.”