Idiosyncratic New Year's Resolutions

So everyone is talking about New Year's resolutions and goals around this time of the year. I'm interested in what you think...

Please respond (drop me an email or message on social media) indicating your attitudes and approach to New Year's resolutions and goals...

a) I meticulously plan and outline my goals for the coming year. My goals are S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-related)
b) I outline the broad strokes of my goals, I focus more on attitudes and personal philosophies I want to adopt in the coming year than outcomes and results.
c) I don't do New Year's resolutions as my current habits and mindset is working well for me!
d) New Year's resolutions are hogwash! Just another BS self-help idea!

Here's my counter-intuitive New Year's resolution idea...

I'll suggest you come up with some more idiosyncratic New Year's resolutions.

What do I mean by idiosyncratic New Year's resolutions?

I think a lot of us are bored or cynical about New Year's resolutions because most people's goals for the new year are so bland and generic, like...

• Get a better job
• Make more money in my small business
• Lose some weight
• Go to the gym more
• Get a girlfriend
• Eat better
• Get good grades

I'll encourage you to come up with some more idiosyncratic New Year's resolutions by thinking beyond the three major domains of personal development:

1. Get paid
2. Get laid
3. Get healthy

I'll suggest you try to come up with some New Year's resolutions that...

1. Are NOT directly beneficial or profitable
2. Are fun, add some joy to your life.
3. Add some personality to your character

Why? There are a couple of good reasons...

We've all known these one-dimensional people who were myopically focused on either

Getting paid - They thought that money would solve all their problems. Whatever the negative downstream effects were of their workaholism they would fix later with their inevitable fortune.

Getting laid - We've all had these narcissists in our lives that would hurt and disregard others in the most egregious ways to get laid.

Getting healthy - People who have this religious zeal level of dogmatic commitment for a particular diet or healthy lifestyle at the expense of healthy relationships with their family or loved ones.

Just focusing on these three things makes you a boring, shallow person who's a pretty mediocre father, son, wife, brother, or friend.

It's actually good to have a little distraction in your life - things that take you away from your work or study. I hate sporadic random distractions but I'm a big fan of scheduled distractions - these force you to work smarter as opposed to just working longer.
If I have a project to complete tomorrow and my day tomorrow is wide open with 12 hours to get it done I'm going to be A LOT LESS focused than...
if I have a social activity in the evening, I want to go to a class in the afternoon and I want to spend 30 minutes reading a book in the afternoon - I only have 7-8 hours to get the project done. I'm going to be a lot more focused, I'm going to...

• Take my smart drugs.
• Listen to focus-promoting music instead of distracting podcasts or whatever.
• Ignore social media and notifications on my smartphone. 
• Ruthlessly cut out the non-essential from my work, and defy the tyranny of the urgent, yet unimportant.

I'm reading this book about this globe-trotting trio of biohackers who are also nomadic professional pickup artists. These guys are hardcore workaholics but they have a surprisingly balanced lifestyle because they spend so much time every week going on dates.
These guys will fly into a brand new city for a week; film hidden camera videos during the day, coach clients till 4 AM, and then wake up at 8 AM to work all day on Internet marketing stuff, yet they'll often spend a couple of hours going on dates with girls in the early evenings that they cold approached that week.
So they have to work efficiently, invent lots of shortcuts, and biohack themselves for sleep deprivation because they're spending hours going on 4-8 dates a week.
The globe-trotting pickup artist life is grueling and a lot less glamorous than the videos on Youtube would have you believe so I would not recommend this lifestyle highly but it's a good example of how intentional distractions can make you more disciplined and working smarter!

A lot of times people get demotivated because their New Year Resolutions are really big and require a lot of sustained willpower. You slave away for months in the gym and see barely imperceptible improvement or in a moment of human weakness you fail to abstain from a vice you swore off and you lose motivation. Smaller idiosyncratic resolutions give you a sense of accomplishment and momentum that helps you work toward bigger goals.

Some time ago, I was hosting a Lifehacker meetup in Berlin, Germany. The Berliners and I were sitting around at an outdoor cafe, enjoying the sunlight and the odd sights and sounds of the Straße (while about half the German biohackers smoked cigarettes!) I had everyone in the group go around and describe some short-term personal development goals they had.
It was pretty much what you would expect; they aimed to advance in their careers or schooling, complete some creative project, improve their diet or stop procrastinating so much.
When it came to me I answered that I wanted to improve my salsa/bachata Latin dancing skills, so that I could go out to a salsa club in any city and have fun dancing with anyone.
I think they may have gotten the wrong idea that I was so successful and healthy that my short-term goal was something other than health or advancing myself economically but the truth is that this distraction supports my more self-serving goals.

I have improved my Latin dancing skills since then and It's blossomed into a great hobby.

• It prevents my social skills and motor coordination from atrophying, while my career success depends so much on me exercising my logical faculties to solve technical problems.
• It's not exactly exercise, but it counteracts some of the negatives of spending many hours a day sitting working on my computer.
• It's added some real romance to my relationships.

Think about...

What was a thing you enjoyed doing as a child?
Or a thing that you wished you had done as a child?
What is something that you do this year just for memories or to have a good story to tell?
Could you devote some time this year to do something charitable or altruistic?
What could you do to get a little uncomfortable and outside of your comfort zone?
Is there a hobby that you had in the past but gave up?
Is there a martial art or athletic discipline you'd like to try?
If you gave up social drinking (or video games!) for 90 days and canceled your cable television or Netflix subscription could you use that time (and money!) to pursue another extra-curricular activity?
What's a hobby that would get you out of your house several times a week?
What could you do to get more involved with your church or community?

Please respond, let me know what idiosyncratic New Year's resolutions you'll pursue this year.

One thing that will definitely get in the way of your New Year's resolutions is getting sick this winter...

'Tis the season to feel a little under the weather.

Every year as the seasons pass and the leaves change colors most people anticipate getting sick but getting through it anyways.

• They will be sniffling and dabbing their runny nose frequently.
• Their stomachs will grumble with nausea.
• Their sinuses will get blocked up with mucus.
• They'll toss and turn in bed for hours before finally sleeping badly for a few hours.
• They'll be tormented by migraines.
• They'll cancel their weekend social plans so that they can sleep extra.
• If they get sick they'll double or triple dose on the dayQuil, NyQuil, or Paracetamol.
• They'll maybe even spend some long hours kneeling before the porcelain throne.

I'll suggest you can totally avoid this suffering this winter if you spend a bit of attention (and money) fortifying your immune system. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

In this article, Biohacking Immunity: For Resilience, Prevention and Performance, I'm going to give you some effective Biohacks for staying healthy during this winter. If you hate getting sick during the winter and losing productive days, you're going to want to implement these Biohacks. 

The most effective, most economically supplements are toward the top of this list. I really, really hate getting sick and losing days feeling miserable so I use all of them to stay healthy. If you have limited budget and time get the ones towards the top of this list.

If you hate getting sick during the winter and losing productive days, you’re going to want to implement these 19 Biohacks.

Counter-intuitively yours,

Jonathan Roseland