Just like a guitar gets out of tune after a while, so do we with our goals. Personally, I seem to cling to 2 or 3 goals and lose sight of the others after a few months. I would not say they are more important; some goals need more attention and daily commitment so they are on my mind every day.

This post is to take information from Michael Hyatt's book Your Best Year Ever along with Warren Buffet's 5/25 Rule, which seem to compliment each other. If you do not know Warren Buffet's method and you have never written your goals down, my post Setting Goals (Warren Buffet, Jordan Pederson) is more for you. Michael Hyatt's method of revising/assessing goals compliments Warren Buffet's method nicely. Hyatt recommends realigning your goals every quarter and either rejoicing, recommitting, revising, removing, or replacing your past goals.

To be honest, yesterday was the first time I tuned my goals since July of last year but I feel Hyatt gave me the tools to do this the right way so I would like to share it with you:

Even if you have them written down somewhere else, write them down again. As you write them down, you will start assessing in your head how you've progressed on that goal, especially if it is a goal that was not being addressed daily.

This is possibly the most crucial step. Take each goal that you listed in Step 1 and evaluate in a short paragraph whether you reached your goal, still making good progress, if that goal is still an important one to you, etc. Maybe that goal is no longer even relevant. This step will get you thinking on what you can adjust - maybe you need to take things up a notch or maybe that goal was unrealistic.

This is the most exciting part, at least for me, and there are many ways to go about this. As I mentioned before, I take Warren Buffet's 5/25 and Michael Hyatt's method and throw them in a blender. The biggest difference is that Buffet's method has 5 different categories (health and fitness, career, lifestyle, relationship, and education while Hyatt uses 10. They are similar, Hyatt's categories are just more specific.

So yesterday, I started by using Hyatt's LifeScore Assessment. This 5-10 minute quiz is a great way he created to help you realize what areas of your life you are doing well in and what areas need improvement. Here is what mine looks like (ignore the Parental section, I purposely failed because I am not currently a parent and so it does not apply to me).

I took this information and realized that I should be working on the Avocational (hobbies), Social, and Spiritual areas of my life and brainstormed ideas for how I can bring improvement to those areas. For example, one goal idea was to find a gym that I enjoy going to or a club that includes one of my hobbies - this would improve both Avocational and Social. For Spiritual, one idea was to add more reflection to my morning ritual. Currently, I read the daily reading from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday but I could add a minute or two to reflect afterward.

This is where you take Step 2 and Step 3 to compile your new goals. Write down all your revised goals and all your new goals in one list. My full list included 9 goals. Half of these goals have a deadline (like the end of this year) and the rest are things that I could work on in general like re-establishing old relationships and improving the relationships I currently have (this is generalizing, my goals are more specific than that).

It's important to take a seriously look at the list you created in Step 4 and figuring out what goals matter most. I wish that I could accomplish all 9 goals but some I had to say "maybe next year" to. Experts advise not spreading yourself too thin - personally, having 5 or 6 goals is plenty for me.

This overall process took me approximately 2 hours to complete yesterday but it was time well spent. I plan to take Michael Hyatt's advice of assessing goals quarterly - I may just do Step 1 and 2 if things are going well and I don't see myself setting new goals and do this full process at least once per year. I also decided to write down my finalized list of goals and place it in the book I read each morning so that I spend a minute to look at all of my goals each morning and think of what I can do that day to get closer to reaching them.

If you find this approach helpful, please let me know in the comments! With the COVID-19 situation we have currently, this is a fantastic time for reflecting and setting goals for your future. 

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There are a few things that I do every day - just like I make sure to brush my teeth, take a shower, kiss Taylor goodbye, and take my supplements in the morning. I feel routine is definitely important and I'm always working to improve my routine so I can make sure my energy level and mood is consistent.

This was brought to my attention mainly by Shawn Stevenson. He shares a lot of great health tips and one episode worth listening to on The Model Health Show is the Hydration and Water Masterclass. I always aim for around a gallon of water each day (about 130oz), and one reason why I drink about 30oz before I head to work is to get a jump start on that. A couple other reasons are because it is very refreshing and I think it is good to flush your system a bit first thing in the morning.

Mainly from Dr. Gundry's books, Diet Evolution and The Plant Paradox, I realized how important vegetables are as a daily staple in order to keep a healthy gut. Every day, I try to make sure to have at least 1 cup of vegetables with my lunch and 1 cup with dinner. Usually my dinner includes leafy greens like lettuce and spinach while my lunch includes veggies like onions, peppers, corn, carrots, etc. Multiple health experts have explained that vegetables are MUCH more important than fruit even though we usually stick them together as "fruits and vegetables." Most fruit is overloaded with sugar and lacks much nutrition, so you should not have more than 1 serving a day (this is advice from Dr. Gundry, Dr. Cate Shanahan, Ben Greenfield, and Shawn Stevenson).

Mike Matthews and his book Bigger Leaner Stronger really pushed the point that, while nutrition is important, it is important to know your calorie intake and make sure it is aligned with your goals. If you are trying to cut weight, you need to make sure you are not overeating and if you are trying to gain muscle, you need to make sure you are eating enough calories to do so. From playing around with my diet just over these past 10 months, I've learned how to be comfortable whether I want to do either - when I want to gain muscle, like right now, I aim for at least 3,500 calories per day and when I need to cut some of the fat off, I will go back down to around 1,800 calories per day. By just counting calories and macros for a month, I learned where my macros should be and how to easily keep track of both calories and macros.

Take these habits as you will - I'm sure there are ways I could improve them. For instance, I could write a reflection after each daily reading or possibly increase my number of vegetable servings. There really is no excuse not to include these daily habits or your own version of them into your routine - they don't take much time and if you try it, I'm sure you will find it's time well invested.

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Discussion Question:
What are your daily habits that you swear by?

I spend a good amount of time researching health/fitness experts. I usually immerse myself in information on one expert I am interested and spend time reading their books, listening to their podcasts, reading their articles, and watching their conferences on YouTube and get a good picture of their background before moving to the next expert I want to research.

Thinking back to experts I have done deep research on in the past, here are things that resonated the most when I think of their work...

These tips give a decent look at the information these experts have to share. Almost all of my other posts are related to the experts above so you can find more information on other posts or go to my Recommended Books page to find books from them.

Here are some examples of related posts:

• ​Comparing Diets (Ben Greenfield, Dr. Gundry)
• ​Nutrition Tips (Mike Matthews, Dr. Gundry)
• Favorite Podcasts (Shawn Stevenson, Ben Greenfield, Mike Matthews)

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