How To Have a Great 2019 (it’s not too late!)

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Happy New Year!!  Welcome to 2020!

2019 was a nice respite from political news, and 2020 promises more of the same. 

But seriously, though…

How was 2019 for you? Did you get all of your goals accomplished? No? Well, lucky for you, I met one of my primary goals. I developed a process which can send you back to March 2019 for a sort of do-over. No, I can’t get you the whole way back to January 1. Are you really that greedy?

Anyway, Would you like to go back or not? Yes? Ok, press this button and hold on to something!

My wayback machine…

Whew! I feel a bit nauseous. You ok? Good.

Now, with a little more than nine months left of 2019, how do you make it a great year?

I suggest two things–just two:


Not Immortal Action Step

Since I know I’m not immortal and need to make the most of my time, I will:

  • Set up some micro-habits
  • Find a tribe

Micro-habits

Micro-habits are great because there is just no valid excuse not to do them. They’re just so manageable! If you want to lose weight or change the way your body looks, you may feel overwhelmed by the things you think you need to do. The way to avoid this is to do small things consistently.

There are a lot of days in a year. If you do something every day, it really adds up.

Number of days left in 2019: 275 or so

What if you did one pushup per day? That’s 275 pushups in 2019! How many pushups did you do in 2018?

I recently saw a video where the author’s plan to lose weight was to weigh himself twice daily and do a pushup. That’s it. Seems pretty doable, right?

What if you removed the caloric equivalent of one candy bar from your diet each day? That’s 250 calories per day, or 68,750 calores in the remainder of 2019! Each pound is roughly 3500 calories, so the “skip the Snickers” plan would result in a 20 pound weight loss in 2019.

What if you added in a walk for 20 minutes each day? That’s roughly 100 more calories, and now you’d be down 28 pounds!

Notice I didn’t mention expensive gym memberships, intermittent fasting, or keto.

Micro-habits are great because they’re, well, really small. But they can have a huge impact with the benefit of time.

Find Your Tribe

We all need people. Yes, you too.

When we’re young, there are built-in social structures. School, sports, college, and the like. Once you are in the full throes of adultness, the opportunities to make new connections start to diminish. It’s easy to get lonely and isolated.

The slightly scary but necessary fix for this is to put yourself out there.

Sign up on Meetup.com. Find something and go. Yes, you will stand outside the door or sit in your car and an impulse will tell you to turn and run back to your couch.

Don’t.

Just throw yourself in. I promise you’ll come out completely glad you did.

Perhaps volunteering sounds good. Do that. Another great way to find your people.

Here’s a personal example. I joined a local running club here in the DC area about seven years ago. I remember feeling super apprehensive as I arrived for that first group run. What if I’m the worst runner in the whole club?

All the angst was for nothing. The people were uniformly amazing and I learned there is no such thing as “best runner” and “worst runner”. Just runners.

There is still plenty of time to make 2019 a terrific year. And you’re welcome for the do-over. Don’t squander it!

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