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Good morning. It’s Friday, December 20th.

In today’s email:

• Focus: Setting the Right Goals in 2025

• Listen To: The Power of Regret

• In the News: Plastic

• Brain Games: Calcudoku

Stat of the Day

The percentage of people that will set a New Year’s Resolution tied to their health. Don’t be one of those people that sets an arbitrary goal that doesn’t really matter - focus on what’s most important to you right now so you can stick with it! (Pew Research Center).

Focus

Setting the Right Goals in 2025

Get ready for January 13th.

This is known as “Quitter’s Day” - it’s the second Friday in January and the day most people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions.

Change is hard - whether that’s starting a new habit or breaking an old one.

But the problem is rarely the lack of determination or not having a habit tracker to keep you going.

No - the real problem is people don’t pick the right goals or resolutions. We think we know what will make us happier - but most of the time we’re completely wrong.

The key is creating the right goals in the first place. And here’s how to do that…

1. What’s holding you back from living your best life?

Do you wake up and go to bed full of Energy, a positive Mindset, and with Joy?

Now none of us are going to feel all those every single day - but if you’re rarely or only sometimes rating high on these feelings then that’s where to start with some changes.

To answer that question about what’s holding you back - consider if it’s any of the following:

• Physical Health

• Mental Health

• Social Health

• Financial Health

• Time Health

You want these to be as strong as possible - any weak link will have a massive impact in multiple aspects of your life.

But it’s not enough to say - “I want to improve my physical health.” What do you want to change? Why do you want to change it? How are you going to do it?

Identify the specific levers that deserve your time and effort to improve…

2. What is the biggest impact on my Energy, Mindset, and Joy?

Get to what will really unlock a positive change - it’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure.

Go through each question and work down to figure out what would matter most for you.

Do I need to change how I fuel my BODY?

If yes…

• Should I change the food I eat?

  • Option #1 - I’m not eating enough good food (nutrients, satiety)

    • Protein

    • Healthy fats

    • Fiber

    • Fruits/veggies 

    • Specific nutrients

  • Option #2 - I’m eating too much bad food 

    • What is your kryptonite? (for me it’s tortilla chips)

    • When are you eating these foods?

• Should I change how I move? 

  • Option #1 - I’m not doing enough to build up my muscle (strength gap)

    • Get to the gym 1-2x per week

    • Consistent body movements (pushups, squats) every day

  • Option #2 - I’m missing that bounce in my step (fitness gap)

    • Get 10,000 steps in - no exceptions

    • Move every hour - stop sitting all day at work

    • Go all out 1-2x a week (Zone 5 HIIT workouts)

  • Option #3 - I can’t move like I used to (mobility gap)

    • Focus on functional movements for hips, back, shoulder, feet/ankles

    • Stretch and use a mobility ball or foam roller

Do I need to change how I fuel my MIND?

If yes…

• Do I need to lower my levels of stress?

  • Option #1 - I need to spend more time on Mindfulness

    • Meditation

    • Breathwork

    • Time in nature

    • Taking the Pause

  • Option #2 - I need to spend less time “on”

    • Reduce work hours

    • Lower work rumination

    • Less social media/phone checking

    • No more checking on the news

  • Option #3 - I need to reduce my own “self-pressure”

    • Silence your inner critic

    • Prioritize what matters most

Or maybe your TO DO list is just too long - what can you eliminate??

Do I need to change how I fuel my relationships?

If yes…

• Option #1 - I need to spend more time with people I love

  • Commit to time with friends/colleagues

  • Commit to quality family time

• Option #2 - I need to fire people that drain my energy, mindset and joy

  • Commit to eliminate toxic people

Do I need to change how I fuel bank account?

If yes…

• Option #1 - I need to spend less money on stuff I don’t need

  • What really matters that deserves your money?

  • What can you eliminate and won’t notice?

• Option #2 - I need to reset expectations of what is “enough”

  • What will more money do for your energy, mindset, joy?

• Option #3 - I need to make/earn more income

  • How can you push to change your position, role, company?

  • Can/should you start a side-hustle?

These aren’t small changes - it comes down to how you want to balance your time and the goal of how to better leverage money to serve what matters most to you.

Do I need to change how I fuel my calendar?

• Option #1 - Spend more time doing stuff I love

  • Commit to hobbies

  • Commit to putting “you” first

• Option #2 - Change my mindset to make what I’m already doing more rewarding

  • Be more present and grateful

  • Going from “I have to” to “I get to”

• Option #3 - Spend less time doing things I dislike

  • What can you eliminate?

  • How can you make it less awful?

For 2025, don’t create some goal that doesn’t really matter to you.

And don’t try to do everything - the point of this exercise is to pick the TOP 1-2 things that will drive the biggest change in your energy, positive mindset and joy in 2025.

Make it your best year yet!

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Listen To

The Power of Regret

Listen on: Spotify | Apple

Daniel Pink has a new book about “how looking backward moves us forward.”

In his conversation with Scott Galloway he talks about how we shouldn’t ignore our regrets in life - but confront them to get over them and help us make better decisions in the future.

In a study of thousands of people across 100+ countries he found that we all (in every country) have the same four regrets:

• Foundational - big decisions we made - e.g., didn’t take care of our health.

• Boldness - didn’t take that risk or missed an opportunity.

• Moral - made the wrong decision.

• Connection - didn’t reach out and/or neglected important relationships.

Regrets tell us what we value. It’s a quick listen that I recommend.

H&L in the News

End of Single Use Plastic: We know plastic is in all of us (and it’s not good). Maybe the world can come together and actually get rid of some of this plastic waste? (WIRED)

Embrace Every Version of You: Building bridges with your past and future selves can boost resilience, health, and purpose. Discover how self-continuity shapes your choices and wellbeing. (Knowable)

Processed Foods Fuel Cancer: A groundbreaking study confirms ultra-processed foods like sausage and ice cream drive cancer-linked inflammation. Shift to anti-inflammatory, omega-3-rich foods to protect your health. (Fortune)

Brain Games

Calcudoku

The objective is to fill in the grid with the correct digit in each cell, between 1 and 5:

• Each row contains exactly one of each digit

• Each column contains exactly one of each digit

• Each bold-outlined group (with same color) must equate the result with the numerical operation - addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*) and division (/)

Since this is only our second go at this, we’ll give you two hints.

1. See that purple cell with 3 + in the middle right side - write a 3 in that cell

2. Oh, and that 12 * block of blue directly below? Because we only have digits up to 5, the two cells must be 3 and 4 to multiply (*) together to get 12. You just have to figure out which digit is in which column…but we kinda told you which in the first hint

Ready…set…go - solve this in under 2 minutes!

Credit: Brainzilla

** For answer, scroll to the bottom of the email

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Brain Games Answer

Great job!

We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.

This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

To health!