What I'm about to share with you is a dumb but relevant vanity metric. In 14 months I grew my social media accounts from near zero to over 325,000 followers on three platforms.

My original goal was 50,000.

I'm sharing this because this email is about setting goals.

Since we're coming up on 2025, most people are going to have some type of health and fitness goal.

Almost everyone fails every single year though. By February, 43% of people have given up. Only 9% of people actually make it.

Because most people don’t have a strategy, they can’t execute, and they fail

In this email, you’re going to learn about:

• My Goal-Setting Approach
• Annual Themes
• When It’s Okay to Quit

As I tell you about my journey, I want you to imagine that you’re taking yourself on your own journey. Think about how this all relates to your goals and what you want to accomplish. This is critical.

My Goal-Setting Approach

Why Do This?

I vividly remember the morning that I decided to start posting short-form content. I was working with one of my clients and it was about the seventh time that she told me I should get on social media. For some reason, it just stuck that day. I have no idea why, but I’m grateful that it did.

The biggest thing for me was identifying why I would want to do such a thing though because… I kind of hate social media. At that time I probably hadn’t been on social media for five or six years. Determining my purpose was step one.

Answers started to fall into place though:

• I thought I could create valuable content
• I know how to edit videos
• I’m not a horrible presenter
• I’m tired of waking up at 4 AM and this could be a way to change my and my family’s lives in numerous ways (This one is the most important. My family is my “Why”)

It all just made sense. There’s never a good time in life to start something new though. But as Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”

Now that I identified my “why”, it was time to execute.

So What’s The Plan?

Now that I figured out my purpose, I needed to set some rules for myself:

1. All videos need to provide as much value as possible in less than 60 seconds
2. All videos need to be the highest quality I can make
3. I have to create a consistent schedule and take action
4. I need to invest in myself: Learn, get better, and continue to grow

Based on my research, most social media “experts” said to post three times a day, every day. WTF?!

That's absurd - not sustainable at all.

Despite not wanting to post three times a day, I still wanted to put myself in an uncomfortable situation and post one video a day in November; a 30-day sprint.

So I committed.

It was kinda brutal actually. There was no downtime in my life, especially with two kids, work, and vacation time (which always seems to be less relaxing than regular life).

I was able to get through those 30 days unscathed. Checked the box.

Once that was finished, it was time to scale back. Four days a week felt a lot more manageable and as December flew by, I made the decision to keep this schedule in 2023.

Now that I created a plan, I needed to make sure that I could hold myself accountable.

Annual Theme?

Because I had been posting consistently for about eight weeks now and the new year was right around the corner, I needed to stack the cards in my favor.

I have a history of starting things and then never finishing. It might actually be my worst quality. I pretty much do all the hard work and then just stop when it’s 90% done. I hate it. But how was I going to fix this huge flaw?

I’m not sure how I thought of this, but an idea came to mind that might help me follow through. It was to link a theme to the entire upcoming year.

Now there’s a famous strength coach named Charles Poliquin. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s trained 100’s of Olympic athletes; a bit of a legend. He once said, “You can’t achieve 100% of the results by only doing 80% of the work.”

So the theme that resonated with me the most was “Consistency.” Commit 100%.

Once I figured this out, I was really excited. For some reason, I was oddly able to envision something special happening.

When It’s Okay to Quit

Halfway through November, I was ready to take a break. I had just gotten hand, foot, and mouth from a flight that I was on (I think) and I was in bad shape. HFM is no joke. My skin is actually still recovering from it.

I needed a breather though. Plus I felt like I was just running out of steam with generating content ideas. Even just taking a week off would be nice.

Did I hit the pause button though?

Nope.

Why? Because if I did, then I’d go back to my same old routine of stopping right at the finish line. The funny thing with this is that if I had stopped at that point, I would have been consistent through 88% of the year; right on target with my 90% track record.

There’s nothing cooler than accomplishing a goal and reflecting on the journey. So I told myself to stop being a bitch about it and just finish the year. Excuse my French.

So for me, it wasn’t okay to quit, ever. I spent the time to give myself a goal and see what I could accomplish. If you want to change your life, you have to change who you are.

Had my physical or mental health suffered or there was a life-altering event, then yes, I would have made some adjustments. Would I have completely quit though? No. Never.

What You Should Take Away From This Post

When it comes to goal setting: 

1. Understand your “Why”
2. 91% of people will fail. I determined what I thought was a sustainable approach. It’s also good to be uncomfortable too. Do both of these things.
3. Set a few rules that you live by. These are non-negotiable.
4. Pick a theme. I still love “Consistency”.
5. Commit to the full year and don’t give up.
6. I believe in you.

Actionable Tips for 2025:

⭐️ Have unrelenting belief in yourself ⭐️

⭐️️ Be consistent ⭐️

Whenever you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:

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One-on-One Coaching: Work with me and I'll help you implement a fully customized fat-loss program, catered to your unique lifestyle, needs, and challenges.