Winning 2025: My yearly theme
It’s crazy to think that 2025 is upon us. It’s been 25 years since the dreaded Y2K fear. The world was going to reset and we were going to go into some kind of Great Depression. Looking back, it is kind of funny to think about.
Here we are though. Another year and another round of new year goals. Another round of resolutions. Promises that people will make to themselves that they will eventually break. It’s a vicious cycle. People will start back to the gym on January 1 only to quit by January 20th. People set out to read every day but get bored and pick up the phone instead of reading after day 12. We’ve all been guilty of it.
About five or six years ago, I decided to stop doing these resolutions. I decided to stop making promises to myself. Instead I adopted the yearly theme that Cortex made poplular. Well, they may not have made it popular but this is the first place I heard it talked about. I’ve had themes such as intentionality and transformation. Looking back over those years I can clearly see where those themes were prevalent in my life.
This year, though, I chose a different theme. I don’t usually talk about these. I usually just go about my business and let it happen. Nobody knows. I just do it. This year, though, I’m putting it out there. This year’s theme is Winning. It was going to be Finish. When I thought about my life, I realized I’ve become bad about starting projects and not finishing them. So I was going to use finish. But then it turned into more than that. Let me explain.
Andy Frisella has a podcast episode that I love. It’s one of my favorite podcast episodes ever. It’s all about winning the day. In it, he discusses the power list. Basically five critical tasks you do each day that builds momentum and propels you through projects, work, home, etc. These aren’t simple tasks like buying milk or brushing your teeth. These are things that will make you stronger and help build your business. Things that will make you a better human being towards others. Perhaps the list would look like this:
- Workout
2. Read the Bible
3. Plan business meeting with so and so
4. Track food/calories
5. Write in my journal
Everyone’s list is different. The idea, though, is you complete all five tasks today and you win the day. If you don’t, you take a loss for the day. The idea is to get more wins than losses. You win 4 days a week and you’ve won the week (4 wins, 3 losses). You win 3 weeks a month, you’ve won the month. What you’re doing is building a culture of winning in your life. When you successfully complete an item on the list more than three weeks in a row, it’s essentially a habit and you replace it with something different. Perhaps working out becomes walking 10,000 steps a day.
Circling back around to my yearly theme. I realized I’ve been in a funk. Not getting much done. Not just the unfinished projects but other stuff around the house that I haven’t messed with or taken care of over the past month or two. So, I decided it’s time to do something. So I changed my theme from Finish to Winning. The goal this year is to make my life a life of winning. Everyday I write down 5 critical tasks in my Field Notes journal and I carry it with me. I cross those things off when they’re complete. So far, I’ve won 3 out of 4 days in 2025. Small sample size, but that’s ok. I plan on winning this year. I’ll report back and let you know how it progresses.