2025 Quarterly Review – Q3 into Q4

Never easy to do this, but it’s time to look back on my New Year’s Resolutions and Long-Term Goals and with 75% of 2025 in the books … assess how I’m doing. Adjust. Add some things. I think there’s more positive than negative here, so let’s goooooo….

I review these things quarterly (here’s my Q2/Mid-year review).

MAKE MY WEBSITE AND BLOG A REAL THING

• This is taking longer than I thought, but it’s coming along. I spend about an hour every Saturday morning just tweaking things … categories, making some Blogs into Pages. It’s a hobby. And I like it. I feel good I’ll be done with this by Christmas

DON’T GET ALZHEIMER’S

Good news is, I don’t have it. My wife and daughter might say I show signs. No. I should’t even joke. But being serious for a minute, I’m probably hurting myself more than I’m helping. It’s the sugar. I am weak. The list below are all health related and will help with other things like cardiovascular health … buy my #1 fear is memory loss and I want to control all the factors I can control.

• Weigh 155.  I’m holding at 175 … down 10 pounds this year. I think I can get to 155 by end of the year
• Walk (exercise) for a minimum of 30-minutes per day … almost every morning
• Sleep for a minimum of 6.5 hours per night (but 7 hours – 11pm-6am is better) … been much better since mid-year …I’m in my bed at 10:30 most “school nights” (Sunday thru Thursday)
  • In-my-bed by 10:30 p.m. each night, reading a book
• Start using my Rucking Vest … 100%. Actually “rucking” 4 out of 7 mornings by design
• Get my hernia fixed and start exercising again by end-of-February …surgery schedules for December
  • Burpees, Sit-Ups, and other exercises that “engage the core”
• Floss Daily … 95% success; it’s truly a habit now and I can tell when I don’t and don’t like it
• DO NOT EAT in the evenings after dinner Sunday-Thursday … in the past 90-days? Terrible. Time to restart
• Lift Weights Min. 3x Days Per Week … let’s just say I’m gonna end the year strong and I’m starting this this week
• Learn Polish … no progress
• Learn a min. of (3) songs on the Ukelele … no progress

50 HOURS AT WORK EACH WEEK

• I’m over-achieving here. I’m working too much. Or working slowly and I need to work more quicly and efficiently as I’m starting to work 60+ hours. On the positive side, I love my job and can’t remember the last time I was more “excited and energized” about work than I was “anxious and stressed.”

CREATIVE LIFE … mostly still failing. I’m stuck. In a rut. Or have writer’s block.

• Blog Daily + Fix and Organize My Blog … 10% success …in the past 90 days … 9 Blog entries
• Journal Daily    …50% success …that’s up from 25% mid-year
• Homework for Life Daily (and get better at it)  … 0%
• Finish Writing My Book  … 50% …that’s up from 0% at the mid point of the year
• Get An Article Published   … 0%
• Attend 1x Moth StorySLAM Per Month (with a goal of being picked to tell a story) … 0%
• Create a Family Tree … a Story-Based Family Tree  … 75%, and I’m really happy about this. I’ve got it all mapped out and now I need to get pictures and stories

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Cold Showers in the Morning and Quick Warm Shower at Night Before Bed … 100% … so many benefits and I’m proud of myself, but it’s easy in the summer because the coldest water is still not painfully cold. It’s about to get colder and colder in Michigan and the coldest water coming outta the pipes is about to get painfully cold.
• Read :30-Minutes Per Day … 100% for the second straight Quarter
• Journal Daily … 50% … see above … up from 25% at the mid-year point
• Meditate Daily   … I’m gonna say 25%, but I’m not tracking … but I’ll count my stretching time …up from 10% at mid-year
• Memorize Things   … 0%
• Complete a 15-Minute Chore Daily  ….  still 100%. It feels REALLY GOOD to accomplish something daily
• Kiss My Wife Before Bed … 100%
• Kiss My Wife Each Morning Before We Head Out to Work  … 100%
• Stop Getting Mad … this is all gonna depend on who you ask … I’ll start tracking
• Stop Gaslighting  …. I think I’ve fixed this bad habit. I’ll say 100%
• Stop Hurtful Sarcasm   … still 100% …and I know I must be getting better because a good friend recently told me, “you’re too nice” . . . which I don’t think is possible and if it is, I don’t think it’s a flaw

HOME IMPROVEMENT

• • Garage makeover … COMPLETED AT MID-YEAR
  • Adopt minimalism … home desk, check. Work desk, check. Car, check. Definitely way less cluttered and still room for improvement
• Miscellaneous
  • Clean my bathroom every morning … 100%
  • Don’t destroy my AirPods … still 100% 

ADDING THINGS FOR Q4

As the year unfolds and I read things and think of things, or decide I want to try things, I’m adding them. For example, my social media algorithm knows I’m 50+ and interested in exercise, so I’m getting ads for Tai Chi. I’m gonna try it for 90-days and replace my meditation. And the BIG THING I want to get back to is … less phone time. The video below from Simon Sinek is spot on and I was horrified when, right after I watched the video, I looked at my iPhone’s Screen Time reporting and on Monday of this week … I logged 8-hours of screen time. Ugh!  I can try and justify that was mostly texting my kids or maybe listening to Podcasts as a YouTube video or actually watching YouTubeTV on my iPhone but any way you slice it … 8-hours of screen time in a day is TOO DANG MUCH. This is a big Q4 goal for me.

• Tai Chi for 90-days
• Way Less Screen Time and “Phone Time”

And there you have it. Feeling pretty good about where I am in 2025 compared to what I said I wanted back at the start of the year. Now, it’s the home stretch. I’m gonna make this stuff stick and I’m gonna make a spreadsheet (similar to my “Resolution a Day” project) and treat this like a research project.

Wish me luck.