Episode Details

(This article is the introduction to my brand new Design Yourself series intended to help you properly set goals that you will achieve, get important sh*t done in your life, and design the optimized version of you) It’s officially the time of year when life has kicked back into full gear. The holidays are long gone yet summer vacations are months away, every day is “crazy busy!” and unfortunately the chances are roughly 91%¹ that whatever New Year’s Resolutions you set for yourself have failed...again. The worst part is you are most likely blaming yourself:

“I just don’t have the willpower to eat a healthier diet.”

“I don’t have the energy or the motivation to exercise regularly.”

“There aren’t enough hours in the day to learn new skills...my job is crazy enough.”

“Meditating every morning requires too much discipline.”

“I’m just not the kind of person who achieves difficult goals.”

But the good news is it’s not your fault. You have not given up on your New Year’s Resolutions because you are a weak or lazy person who lacks motivation, willpower, and discipline. The system is rigged, and it feeds off your failure in order to survive. Luckily all you have to do is stop following the system society has provided and introduce a different system into your life specifically designed to help you achieve your goals. The key is to stop chasing after the next shiny object and start playing the long game. It’s time to stop playing checkers and start playing chess.

The Myth of the “Get Healthy Quick” Scheme

We’ve all been up late on a Friday night hypnotized by the glistening human specimens pushing themselves “To the extreme!” in infomercials for programs such as P90X, Insanity, or the latest miracle contraption as we mindlessly murder the (third) bag of Doritos draped across our chest. Maybe it was the self-loathing, the upbeat motivational music, or perhaps it was the promise of rock-hard abs in as little as 60 days that got you to drop $100 or more on whatever program or tool was advertised....only to let it remain unopened because opening it will inevitably lead to failure, more self-loathing, and another late night date with the next infomercial (and another bag of Doritos). We’re all guilty of buying a diet book, exercise program, online learning course, or workout app that went unused, or at best that we tried for a few days or a few weeks before going back to our old habits. We wanted to believe that this one single purchase combined with “a little bit more discipline” would finally allow us to achieve our goals. Yet we fail year after year hitting the reset button every January expecting to get different results despite repeating the same behaviors over and over. As much as we’d like to place the blame elsewhere, the problem is not the tools, the apps, the diet books, or the exercise programs. P90X is the most successful home workout program of all time for a reason - because it’s awesome. The problem is we’ve never been taught how to set goals properly.

Take a look at the top 5 New Year’s Resolutions of 2017¹:

1. Lose Weight 21.4%
2. Self improvements 12.3%
3. Make better financial decisions 8.5%
4. Quit smoking 7.1%
5. Do more exciting things 6.3%

And here is a list of the most popular resolutions based on over 150 million Google searches from January through October of 2016²: