Hi, JereMaya. It's Daddy. Welcome to episode two of this podcast. Today is January 14th, 2022. And this is the time of the year when friends and family often talk about new year resolutions. So I thought I'd share why I firmly believe new year resolutions are worth pursuing, why I think new year resolutions fail for most people, and then the best way how I stick to new year resolutions.

So why am I making such a big deal over new year resolutions? I believe that new year resolutions are either the byproduct or the initial first steps in proactively advancing your life. They are often opportunities to achieve the next level in building confidence, gaining skills, meeting new folks, developing great relationships, understanding others better and recognizing the potential you have to do something great.

A new year resolution or setting a goal at any time is a powerful factor for those who strategically plan out their life 10 years in advance. And if you don't have a 10, 20 year plan, don't worry. I don't have one either. But I do think about a finishing line. It's called death.

And I often think what's on my bucket list? What do I need to accomplish experience or witness before I leave this world? And when I think about the most important projects, the most important skills I need to succeed in these projects, the most important people who can help me on completing this project, I can start to visualize what I need to do in the new year to get me started. Curiosity is also a powerful reason to start a new year's resolution.

You may not have a grand master plan, but there are certain areas of life

that you may find fascinating. You aren't committing to an entirely new career or mastering a skill? No, you're simply getting your feet wet.

Committing a few hours of research to see if something you're curious about is worth pursuing. That's what I did last year as I dabbled into music production. I bought some equipment, took some classes and discovered I can compose and produce soundtrack music. They're not Han Zimmer quality songs, but I'm learning the basics and I'm enjoying the ride.

So, if there's anything you could gain from a new year's resolution is to learn something new or experienced something you've always been interested in either way you will grow from the experience and that's worth pursuing.

So why are new year resolutions a fail for most folks? I've got four fail factors in my mind. The first is not clearly identifying what a win looks like with a new year resolution. People often treat their new year resolutions as a mere wishlist with very little thought or preparation.

For example, for too many years, I've been guilty of saying my new year resolution is to be healthier. But that is too vague and not particularly helpful. Does this new year resolution involve eating better or is that simply exercising more? And if I choose to do one or both, what is the cadence and how am I measuring better health?

Without a clear goal in sight. It's difficult to plan for. And eventually lots of folks don't feel like they're making progress and end up giving up. Even if people successfully set up specific goals and metrics for their new year resolutions, the second fail factor could come into play and that's going too big and too fast, early in the game where folks can't sustain themselves and find themselves hitting barriers. So one major mistake I did with a past new year resolution was when I started training for my first marathon back in 2020. What you're supposed to do is start gradually and build stamina over time. A good rule of thumb is not running 10% more miles than the previous week. But I was pretty naive and impatient. When I first started training, I didn't hold myself back and just ran longer distances because I can. But I learned the hard way and realized I ran too fast, too many miles too soon.

Within seven weeks, I injured my foot and was out for a good two to three weeks. So please keep in mind for this second fail factor. Don't be impatient. Don't go all out too early in the game. Instead build good habits, make incremental gains. So you don't burn out too soon in whatever your new year resolution is.

The third failed factor for new year resolutions is a logistical one, and that's not setting ourselves up for success. For example, we all have found ourselves in situations where we don't have the time, energy or resources to stay on target. Maybe we didn't set up the right boundaries at work where we find ourselves too tired when the Workday is over or maybe you're all fired up to execute, but the people you surround yourself with don't support or enable you to pursue that new year resolution.

They may not understand or care about the new goal of yours and for many discouragement and distractions can affect your performance. This can easily lead to delays. And ultimately many of us give up when we feel so far behind.

The fourth and final fail factor for new year resolutions. It's all mental it's forgetting questioning. , doubting or diminishing the why? Why did I create this new year resolution? Surely it must have been important or maybe I later realize it's not that important. Maybe something. Better or more worthwhile came up.

And that's totally okay. But if you don't remember or value the original reason why you made this new year resolution, it's not going to happen. Or it won't happen as soon as you think. Knowing and remembering the why is critical.

Okay. So if you're still with me and you're thinking of committing to a new year's resolution for the rest of this podcast, I'm going to share how to best stick to new year's resolutions. And by the way, it's a methodology I adopted from work. You might be thinking work, dad. Isn't that a bit weird that you'd bring something from work into your personal life.

Yeah, it totally is. When you admit work-life disrupts and influences family life. But this is an exceptionally awesome methodology to integrate in our personal lives. It's a framework and how we problem solve and how we define success. So bear with me.

The approach I'm talking about is something many tech companies implement to help track their goals and progress. Whether it's at the company level, the org level team level or individual level it's called OKRs. That stands for objectives and key results. OKRs. Objectives are simply the ideal goal to be achieved.

They should be concrete action oriented and inspirational key results are the metrics and the direct outcomes that show you achieved or failed your objective. Key results are specific. Time-bound aggressive yet realistic. Let me illustrate my new year resolutions or what I call now my personal OKR is for 2022. This year, I only have two last year. I had six and I wasn't able to complete all six with 100% a plus quality. So this year less is more.

My first personal OKR is what I'm doing now in this very moment. The objective is to launch and consistently publish the Dear JereMaya podcast for one entire year. The key metrics to determine if I achieve or fail. This objective is two fold the first key result is to share something valuable and meaningful in every episode. I defined valuable and meaningful as something to which I'm learning and growing. And that I think will be beneficial to you too.

The second key result is one episode is delivered every week. For now, my target is to publish on every Monday I launched last week. So if everything goes as planned, I'll have 52 episodes for your listening pleasure in January, 2023.

And because I'm nerdy, I'm going to analyze this personal OKR and see if it holds against the four fail factors. So, if you remember the first fail factor was not putting enough specific thoughts and identifying the goal. Notice from my personal OKR. I'm following exactly what an objective is. It must be a concrete action oriented and inspirational.

And that's to launch and consistently publish the Dear JereMaya podcast for one entire year, but I don't stop there. I apply key results, sharing something valuable and meaningful in every episode. This first metric is qualitative, but it's still measurable. This will push me to be disciplined and forward-thinking. This key result prompts me to plan and prepare on what would be the most compelling thoughts, stories, and advice I can share with you. And with the second key result, I have to publish one episode every week. And anything short of that is a fail.

The second fail factor for new year resolutions is going too hard or too fast. And you might think dad launching a podcast every week seems abrupt and maybe too much to handle. Lucky for me, I've been fortunate enough to already have podcast experience with a podcast I created with some friends three years ago. It's called Drek Happens. It's D R E K happens. It's definitely for adults. And it's for fellow mature nerds who like tabletop gaming. I don't recommend checking it out until you're at least 18 years old.

Anyway, Drek Happens, had three seasons, and I learned so much about creating podcast productions and it gave me realistic expectations of how much time and energy is required to produce an episode. So I'm not a complete newbie when committing to this new podcast, I'm dedicating to you. And I feel confident that I'm not going too hard or too fast.

The third fail factor was not setting up for success and allowing your environment and those around you to distract or discourage you. For this podcast, OKR. I've made explicit boundaries for myself, especially when it comes to pursuing too many hobbies. I'm not planning to draw or play as many video games as I used to, to be clear. I'm not completely abandoning these fun activities from my free time.

But just making sure I dedicate the right amount of time and energy to deliver on this podcast. Key results. I've also been surrounding myself with people I trust and respect by running this podcast idea with them to see if it's something they think you two would find value in someday.

They've been helping me with brainstorming the format and the topics of upcoming episodes. This support networks, positive energy, creativity, and generosity. Is validating and will only make this podcast better.

And lastly, the fourth fail factor is forgetting questioning, doubting or diminishing the WHY.

Fortunately. My WHY for this podcast OKR is something I see every day. And that's two wonderful children who live in my house. There's just so much to talk to you about in person and on this podcast. You two are learning so much every day. Whether it's in school or at home. You're as nerdy as your daddy. Probably even nerdier since your mom and I have somehow brainwashed you to love school and get excited when we challenge you both with math problems or trivia from Harry Potter and star wars.

My prayer for you is to never stop wanting to learn and grow to be the loving man and woman, God intends you to be. I hope that even when I'm long gone, This podcast will be here for you and be a helpful resource and a reminder to be the light for others. So that's my first personal OKR for 2022 and how I intend to stick to it.

My second objective for 2022 is to have my best year of running yet. The key metrics for this is threefold. First key result is run and complete. My second marathon. I'm scheduled to run the Eugene marathon in Oregon on May 1st. The second key results. Is to beat my first marathon time, which was four hours and 34 minutes.

The third key result is to run a total of 1000 miles in 2022. So let's see how this personal OKR holds up against the four fail factors.

The first fail factor is being too vague. So by only knowing my objective one can arguably ask what does having the best running year yet mean? There are three very specific metrics. One complete the second marathon to beat my first marathon time, which is four hours and 34 minutes.

And three running a total of 1000 miles in 2022. The second fail factor is going too hard, too fast. You already heard earlier about not training too hard, too fast. But this also applies to the race itself. I remember my first marathon back in 2020, I was so pumped up to see literally thousands of runners running the same race as me.

I felt so much adrenaline and ran way too fast in the first half of the marathon. And as predicted, I ended up hitting a wall at the 23rd mile and ended up walking a small portion. I just had very, very little energy. It was demoralizing. So for this upcoming Eugene marathon, not only will I start slow and steady, I will do my best not to hit that wall like last time.

Fortunately, I've grown considerably stronger since the Napa marathon. So hopefully I'll finish the second marathon sooner.

The third fail factor is not setting myself up for success. So with that in mind, I prepared a spreadsheet of how many miles I need to run every single day leading up to the May 1st race. That way I don't have to use any mental energy to calculate or plan out each day. It's all set to go for every week, leading up to the race day. But even with the best planning, my biggest worry is getting injured, which would lead to failing this OKR. But I have to trust my research and my marathon plan.

I also need to be surrounded by people who can inspire me and keep me accountable. In this pandemic, it's a bit tough to join a running club, but I'm fortunate that I'm on Strava, where I can see all my runner, friends, and we also connect and cheer each other on in our running slack channel. I also have mommy and you two to root for me and give me the space and flexibility to schedule these runs.

And finally we're at the fourth fail factor and this comes down to forgetting or diminishing the Y. My daily mental reminder and inspiration is U2 and mommy. Three years ago, I was diagnosed with severely high cholesterol. It was a wake-up call for me as both grandpas from my mom and dad's side have died of heart issues. That's when I created the bucket list item of attempting a marathon before turning the age of 40.

And by going vegan for the next two years with the marathon training. I'm at very healthy levels today. I want to live a long, high quality life. And if running and restricting me from high cholesterol foods is the way to do that– then so be it. Plus it wasn't until I was halfway through training. And especially when I crossed the Napa marathon's finish line.

I never felt so victorious and alive. That feeling is addicting and I'm really looking forward to May 1st. So JereMaya, there you have it. You've heard why I think new year resolutions are worth pursuing, why I think people fail new year resolutions, and how to best stick to new year resolutions.

It's a lot to digest, but I hope I encourage you to start thinking about your personal goals. Whether it's part of a long-term strategy or simply out of curiosity, I encourage you to create your personal, OKRs.

And enjoy the journey. Love you.