Will Cain Country - Will's Five New Year's Resolutions For 2024

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Following his extensive and unruly list of 20 resolutions from 2023, Will decided to keep it simple this year with only five.   Will the reworking of his list lead to more success in 2024?   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. My five New Year's resolutions for 2020. Hey, what's up? It's Will Kane of the Will Kane podcast. Welcome to 2024, officially. Last year in 2023, I published, I put on Front Street 20 New Year's resolutions. And last week here on the Will Kane podcast, we reviewed the successes and failures of those 20 New Year's

resolutions for 2023. Go back and listen to that episode. It will help explain and prepare you for my five resolutions for 2024. It promises to be an insane year. We're going to have an insane political election. We perhaps will have an insane economy. Let's hope we don't have yet another insane war. But there are things that we can take into our control, take into our own hands. Specifically, we can take our own lives into our own hands. And we can be better. And I always am gunning for better. even if you fall short, hopefully in falling short of perfection or all of your goals, you're better than when you started this process. I learned a lot from publishing 20 New Year's resolutions last year.

So for this year, 2024, I have five specific things that I want to do on a daily and weekly and by the end of this year, annual basis for 2024. So I thought we'd walk through them together as I put these out on Front Street. and perhaps you too can follow along, participate, or share with me your own at Willcane Podcast at Fox.com as we get better for 2024. Resolution number one, I'm going to wake up approximately one hour and 15 minutes earlier

than I normally wake up without an alarm clock. I want to reform my mornings. This has been hanging over me for quite some time. I want a more productive, more fulfilling. more table-setting start to my day. I just want to have better mornings. On all of my resolutions this year, I'm going to try to be specific. I don't just want aspirational goals.

I want specific action items that I can execute in service of, in furtherance of, my goals for this year. So I know that there's a lot you can do, that you can do by getting your day started. But one of my favorite things is that speech by Admiral William McCraven about starting your day by making your bed. I know that when I work out in the morning, it sets the day and actually sets my energy off in a more productive manner for the rest of the day. But I needed something specific to think about, to do. And in 2023, I had a lot of goals like, I want to focus more on God and I want to focus more on purpose and I want to get in shape. But when I set these out this year, I want to find specificity to accomplish those abstractions. And so this is what I want to do.

I want to set aside time. And I think the appropriate amount of time is an hour and 15 minutes to do these three things. I want to meditate. I want to pray. And I want to work out. This is about, honestly, if I'm thinking about the stools that make up a person's life, this is about my spirit. So one of the bad habits I have is waking up in beginning the day by reading right away. But I'm not talking about picking up long-term thinking.

I'm not talking about picking up a book. I'm talking about like news of the day. I start checking my news websites, my sports websites, and I'm off and running. And that can become habitually cyclical all day long. I'm going back around, cycling it through, like reading more of the same type of subject. What I want to do is taken from friends that have done this, it doesn't have to be long, but I want to take 15 to 30 minutes to just be quiet, to just be quiet. Don't look at a screen, don't talk, maybe read.

One of the books I think could help me in this way is Tim Keller's, the God's wisdom for navigating life. It's the wisdom of proverbs. And I think that book, which I've enjoyed, which is just like daily lessons from Proverbs, it's two or three pages, can help guide you through your mornings. But I don't think I have to do that every morning. I think you can go to direct source material, as read from the Bible. But I also think there's power in just being still, being quiet, and seeing where your thoughts take you. Just think about your day.

And your days add up to weeks and weeks out up to months and months add up to months. to lives that is just focused on like next and whatever's next is often small and that's not bad small can add up to big but sometimes you just need to be still and be quiet and see what comes into focus i want to not just try this i want to practice i want to make this my new year's resolution i figure you know by 730 the world is running 730 a.m. meaning breakfast and getting kids to school or work or answering an email by 730 and definitely by eight the world is running and so in order to do these things like take that 30 15 to 30 minutes to be quiet and then take 45 minutes to work out I will set my day off on more productivity

I will feel better I will to feel more in focus I will want to move to a morning workout. And if I add a 45-minute workout to 15 to 30 minutes of reflection, of prayer, of meditation, I think that's an hour and 15 minutes to wake up that I hope will make my day better. It's hard. It's going to be hard because I'm not, I don't have a life that lends itself to routine. You know, on Saturday and Sunday, I'm up at 4 a.m. On Monday, I'm always wiped and want to get as much sleep as possible.

And sometimes I stay up too late watching sports, but I'm just going to have to make this habit. Like, this is when I wake up. And it's not that early. I mean, it's like just set my alarm for six or maybe I can even pull off 6.30, you know? And by 7.15 or 7.30 a.m., I'm good. I got behind me for reflection. I've got behind me quiet. I've focused in on thoughts and I've put a workout in. And that's what I want to do in 2024. Start my day one hour and 15 minutes earlier than I did in 2023. Number two, sign up for three to four physical challenges. Now, last year in 2023, I had, again, abstractions like, I want to get in shape. No seriously, I want to get in shape.

I had one specific item, which was I want to swim the New York City seal swim. And because that specificity was there, it required action from me. If I just keep it in, you know, the realm of vanity, I want to look good, I want to be in shape, then it's too easy to let slip and slide. When I had something that I had to be accountable before that was coming, and I know that many people already know this, that I was training for, an event, then the process just became part of the pursuit. I had to work out every day.

Had to do that, you know, because that was coming. That swim was on its way. And I'm going to have to do this. I figure three, most likely four times. the year to not yo-yo because what happened is after I did a rowing challenge last year, I let it go for a while. And definitely after I did the swim, I let it go. But if I had something else ready, like in the pipeline, maybe a small break, but in the

pipeline, well, I better get back on it because that's coming. So I figured I need something in the spring, I need something in the summer, and I need something in the winter, at a minimum. So this is what I'm thinking I'm going to do. I have three of the four things that I want to do in 2024 focused. but I actually will ask you to help me find that fourth thing. I think that early in 2024, I'm once again going to do a rowing challenge. It's about a nine-week thing, competition with a bunch of friends and acquaintances accountable to one another.

We're at the end, after a big training regiment, three times a week, difficult workouts on the ERG, the C2, you know, land rower. We race a 2K, which adds up to only about, you know, seven minutes and 25. five seconds. But it is a lung burning, thigh burning, glute maxing, seven and a half minutes. So I'm going to do that, which should start in January, I think, and end in March. Next, I am thinking, after that's done in March, I think I'm going to run, which I've never done any run. I've never done a 3K. I think I want to run a half marathon. I'm not ambitious. I think I can run a marathon.

I've always hated running. And I've tried the Maffetone method, which I may go back to, which is slow, conversational pace, zone two heart rate running. But I think that by May, I need to, and that would give me, take a little break, March, give me two months of running training. At some point in May, I run a half marathon, 13 miles. I don't know where. I don't know which one.

I'm going to have to look for it. And it can't be on the weekend because I work or has to be one that starts after 10 a.m. Eastern time in New York. But I'll find one. And if I don't let myself slide too much from the end of that row, I won't be starting from scratch, at least on cardio shape. I'll just have to get translated into running shape. I'll never get out of shape and start from scratch. I just got to roll it into a new type of thing. And then by August, number three, I'm going to do the seal swim again. I'm once again going to swim. And so that's June, July, maybe some of May. training in the pool, swimming, and I'll be doing lifting as well throughout a lot of this,

I hope. That's the plan. And once again, three-mile swim, what adds up to 300 push-ups, 66 pull-ups, and a two-mile run from Liberty State Park to the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island to the 9-11 Memorial with a bunch of badasses, Navy SEALs. It's one of the best experiences of my life. And then finally, in the winter. And it may be that I push the half marathon to October instead of May.

So maybe I do the run in October. I got to paste these out. And the fourth thing I'm going to do, I just got to figure out, this is definitely in the winter. So this is in November, December. I don't know. I don't know yet. This year I want to do the seal swim, the rowing competition, and a half marathon. And there's the fourth thing.

I ask you, what should it be? You know, I'd be up for a hike, a ruck. You know what I've thought about doing? Walking, hiking, the entire island of Manhattan. I've thought about doing that. Maybe I ruck that. That's really far, though, for a ruck. That'd be hard on your knees carrying a heavy backpack around.

But I would love to walk the circumference of Manhattan. But I don't know. I ask you, I'll do the half marathon. I'll do the New York seal swim. And I will do the rolling competition. I'm asking you, what do you think the fourth thing should be? And then I'll set the calendar. I know two of them are set.

Rowing competition ending in March, seal swim in August. I got to fit the half marathon and a fourth thing into the spring and fall slash winter. Wilcane Podcast at Fox.com. What should be the fourth physical challenge? This is the stool that is my body. We'll be right back with more of the Will Kane podcast. Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday.

Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam.

Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the TradeGatty podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together. hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. Resolution number three, I've gone back and forth on this. How to do it. But I think that the way to do this is no phone.

Specifically, that means no social media, no streaming, television show or series. from the time that I get home from work till the end of dinner. I want to reform my evenings. You know, last year I put on, I want to spend more time with my family, less time on my phone. And that's an abstraction.

That's a goal. How do I make that a specific task, an accomplishable thing that I can do? I thought, well, how about no phone from like six to nine at night? And again, no social media, no streaming. But then I started setting caveats that are legit for me, like,

well, what about, sports. I got to watch sports. And I'm going to watch sports. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. So that breaks it a little bit. What if there's a debate? What if I'm working? And I got to prepare for a TV hit, you know, in prime time or something like that. Well, then I'm going to be on my phone. What if I'm sitting at a soccer practice, you know, for an hour and a half while someone's on the field? And I watch practices a lot. But, you know, I will scroll my phone sometime while I'm watching practice. And that's not, I think that's okay. I'm still present. I'm still watching my kids. So those aren't bad the bad parts. The bad parts are when we're all in the house

together right before dinner. Sometimes I think that 30 minutes before dinner is the best time to be present. And that's sucked into your phone so you're with your family. So the way this one is, I thought about 30 minutes before dinner, 30 minutes after dinner, and during dinner. But dinner floats. And sometimes not all of us get together for dinner because we have practices is in the middle of dinner. My thought is, when I get home, and sometimes that's metaphorical, but when work ends at the end of the day, set the phone down until after dinner. That's for my family.

That's the stool along with spirit body that is now family. Number four, for 2024, I want to read 10 books. Now, this isn't the books that I get assigned or I have a guest on the program here that I have to read their book for the show. Nope. These are 10 books that I'm reading instead of streaming a television show, instead of scrolling Twitter, 10 books that make me more curious, more interested, more well-rounded, out of the news cycle, perhaps, deeper.

Sometimes it'll be fiction. It's okay to read fiction. Fiction's good. Sometimes it's nonfiction. Sometimes it's literary fiction. Sometimes it's historical, you know, narrative novelization. It's fine. It doesn't matter.

And here's what I think. I don't have my list yet. I'm going to publish it. I'll put it on social media. See Wilcane on Instagram, Wilcane on X. I've got to come up with my list of 10 books. And I'm open to your feedback of what those books should be, Wilcane Podcast at Fox.com.

But I do know number one. So in January, or maybe even before, I want to start Musk, the Walter Isaacson biography of Elon Musk. So again, I'll publish this list. We're going to do 10 books. That's less than one a month. I think it's doable.

As long as you don't have any big lulls. That's the thing. No big lulls. Roll from one to the next. Ten books in 2024, starting with the book about Elon Musk from Walter Isaacson. Number five. That was mind, by the way.

Body, spirit, family, mind. Don't go anywhere. More of the Will Kane podcast right after this. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive? by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era.

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Number five, relationships. I want to be better at relationships. You know, in 2023, I talked about give it away. Give away love, give away money, give away time. I also said I want to play golf with my buddies. I want to go duck hunting. I want to go on trips. Yes, that's all good. And those are even more specific than maybe what I'm saying now. But I feel like as I grow, as I grow older, and maybe, just maybe, get a little wiser, you know, forget intelligence. What's more valuable and definitely comes with life experience is wisdom. That relationships are what you give, not what you get. It's about outflow, as we've talked about, instead of incoming.

And they're richer when they're that way. They get better. I know it sounds really, you know, I don't know, self-help or religious for me to say, but if you can refocus your relationships, and I'm not telling you I do this, I'm just telling you that I've slept at a holiday and expressed last night. I'm telling you that I've analyzed it. That's what I'm good at. This is the point of this, turn it into action,

is you can refocus relationships on how can I serve? So I'm talking about strangers. I'm talking about charity, I'm also talking about your friends. I'm talking about people that are part of your life that we all too often let fade away because we don't return a text or we don't return a call or we don't serve in some way for what they may need. And I don't want that.

I don't want that for me. I don't want that for you. I don't want regrets. So this one was tough. Like how do I turn this into a specific action item? And so this is what I think. I'm going to try to do. Every day there has to be one person.

one, that I send a note, a text, set a lunch date, set a breakfast date, check in with. And, you know, you say, one person, there's a lot of people in your life you're not keeping up with, I think if I do this, if we do this, if you can do this every day, one, I mean, that's 365 days. And there's a lot of repetition in there. I mean, some people that you do a lot, you know, but that's a lot of opportunity. That's 365 chances to connect. connect to serve. Hey man, just want to check in.

How are you? I was thinking about you this morning. Maybe when I got up and I focused and I sat quiet. Maybe there was somebody I wasn't thinking about that I hadn't thought about in too long, that it reoccurs to me. Hey, I need to send them a text today. I need to call them today. I need to see them.

I need to serve them. I need to help them. Whatever. I don't know. At a minimum, I send them a note every day, one person. That's my New Year's resolution. I'm going to try out for 2024. There are other things that I'm going to do.

I am thinking about, my wife is discouraging me from, once again, doing 75 hard. You know, five things every day for 75 days. Read 10 pages, work out twice a day, drink a gallon of water, follow a diet, post a picture. She's like, your schedule doesn't allow for that. There's no way you can do that. You are on hours of flights multiple times a week. You can't get all that done every day. Maybe she's right.

And I think it's in service of some of these other goals. so it doesn't double up them a lot. But there's other things I want to do. Like I said, you know, I still want to duck hunt. I still want to surf, take a surf trip. I still want to do a getaway with my wife. These are things that I had on my resolutions for 2023. I still want to do those things.

I want to be ready to say yes more. Just yes, yes, I can do that. Yes, I'll do that. Charity, give away, socialization, yes. But I do think if I can connect with one person a day, if I can sign up for three to four big physical activities, if I can read 10 books, if I can set my phone down and be present with my family in the evenings, and if I can take an hour and 15 minutes to get ahead of my day, I think a lot of the 20 things I thought about trying to accomplish in 2023 will be byproducts. I think those things will come if I can do these things. Again, one more time, just to put myself on Front Street. One, wake up an hour and 15 minutes early to work out and sit quiet and meditate or pray.

Two, sign up for three to four physical activities, three of which I know is a rowing competition, a half marathon in the New York City seal swim. three, no phone from when I get home to after dinner. Four, read 10 books. Five, reach out and touch someone once a day. That's my resolution for 2024. I always am up for your feedback, especially in the places where I need some gaps filled. Wilcane Podcast at Fox.com. I appreciate our relationship sincerely.

And I can't wait. We have other goals. I had other goals last year. Professional goals. what I want to happen in my career, what I intend to create in my career, and a lot of that is going to be revealed in the coming days and weeks about and on right here on the Wilcane podcast. That is a whole other category, and that is a certainty that is coming. So stay tuned, as together we get better in 2024.

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