[0:08] Welcome to Do Something Different, a leadership podcast. I'm Rusty Gaillard.

[0:13] This is a podcast for high achievers. This is for a podcast for people who are striving, ambitious, who want to achieve a lot. And these people, and I know because I'm one of them, we tend to rely on our past habits because we have a good work ethic. We're really good at getting stuff done and we're smart and ambitious. We often get things right, but those habits can become a liability because we keep repeating the same thing over and over again. This is the New Year's edition. I'm recording this and publishing it right around New Year's at the end of 2024.

[0:47] And I want to share with you some reflections on goal setting for 2025 because I want you to do it differently than you've done it in the past.

[0:57] My thoughts around this were really sparked because I got a Christmas letter this year, just actually earlier this week. And I was reading this Christmas letter and I often have a couple of different reactions. One reaction oftentimes is, oh my gosh, it's so great to hear from this person and see a picture of them and get to know what's going on in their life. But sometimes when I read these letters, it's a little bit like looking at social media and I feel inferior because the people around me are doing such amazing things. And this person in particular retired a number of years ago. His kids now are off in college, and he writes this letter that is full of amazing experiences. Travel that they've done, local things that they've done, concerts he's been to, volunteer events that he's done. I mean, it just goes on and on. This endless list of amazing experiences. And I came out of that saying, I want to do more. I want to actually get out there and have more of these experiences in the world.

[1:56] In a different situation. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a conversation with someone who I haven't seen in a while. And he was asking me, well, what do you do for fun? What are your hobbies? And I kind of stumbled over that question, to be honest, because it's like, I don't really know what are my hobbies. But just this past weekend, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my son, who's now a senior in high school, my one and only son. He's going to be to have a good relationship and connect with him in these last remaining months before he launches and starts a whole independent life of his own. What we did over the weekend was cook. We made cookies together. We made pasta together from scratch. And he's the kind of, he's very creative and he's willing to experiment and mess things up and get them wrong and be messy and all that. And I'm much more about like perfectionist. I want to get it right and I don't want to make mistakes. So it's really fun to cook with him because in some ways it's permission for me to not worry so much about how it's going to turn out because it's much more about the experience than it is about the results.

[3:04] That realization that it's more about the experience than it is about the results brought me back to this Christmas letter that I had read and to this idea of thinking about the coming year. And I want to bring all of these things together because I want to give you some a framework or some questions or some things to think about as you're planning for your new year. It's very easy to think about your new year and think about these are the things I want to do. But that's very doing-oriented. It often can be very results-oriented. And I'm really leaning into this place of enjoying the journey as much or more than the results. So as I thought about this and I reflected on my life and I reflected on this past year, 2024, I started to think about what are the characteristics of the year and what did it feel like? It actually felt like quite a busy year. There was a lot going on and I felt busy and most of the time during the week, I feel busy. And I often find myself with this feeling of anticipating the weekend or anticipating a break. I'm looking forward to getting past all of the junk that I'm doing so I can relax for a minute. And when I think about that, and when I actually realize what's going on, I'm wishing my life away. I'm waiting for these experiences, which are life. That is the journey. I'm waiting for those experiences to end so I can have something different.

[4:23] So as I'm looking forward to 2025, and I invite you to think about it this way, think about what is the nature of the experiences that you want. Not necessarily what the experiences themselves are, but what do you want them to be like? What do you want it to feel like when you're in the midst of that experience? So think about that for a moment. As I thought about it, the things that resonate with me are I want connection with people. Because it's the people around me. It's family, it's friends, it's co-workers, it's even people that I don't know well. But that's where the spark of life comes in getting to know someone and connecting with them and having a nice conversation with them. So leaning into this place of connection with others. That's one thing that I want in the coming year. I also think about experience over material items, especially around the holidays. There's a lot of gift giving, but study after study after study shows that accumulation of things does very little to your happiness. And in fact, it might even over the long run be a detriment to your happiness because all those things that you accumulated require some amount of attention and care.

[5:30] Experiences is a much richer way to find pleasure in life. It's leaning into experience.

[5:37] There are two other things that I've been thinking about, which is to lean into personal growth and to lean into joy. So to look for things that are experiences where I might be able to grow, experience some joy and connect with people. Now I'm starting to come together, come up with these criteria or characteristics of the things that I want in my coming year. So I'm sharing my own journey with you from the standpoint of giving you a way to think about this, encouraging you to think about what are the characteristics of the kinds of things that you want in the coming year? Not necessarily a new car or a promotion or this vacation or that trip or that kind of thing, but to think about what are the characteristics of what you want more of in the coming year. One way to clue into that is to look at your emotions and as you reflect on the past year. That was the process I went through, which I described to you because I looked at the past year and I said, oh man, I felt busy. I was running from one thing to the next. And it lacked some of that joy and connection and personal growth. Those things often come with a slower pace of life. So it raises the question for me, can I have a little bit of a slower pace of life, even in the midst of all the things that are going on?

[6:55] So as you plan and think about the coming year, that's the first way to start that exercise, to reflect on what are the characteristics that you want.

[7:05] The second thing I want to share with you is many of us often approach a coming year at looking ahead and saying, what do I want to do in the coming year? And I want to give you a paradigm shift so that you can actually turn your perspective around and think about the year differently. Instead of sitting here at January 1st of 2025 and saying, what am I going to accomplish this year? I've got the whole year ahead of me. What do I want to do?

[7:29] Instead of doing that, which by the way is totally natural because when you're starting something new, there's always a new energy. Instead of starting at the beginning, looking ahead, put yourself in your imagination at the end of the year looking backwards. Somehow it's easier to look backwards and gain a better perspective. We all know the saying hindsight is 20-20 and I think that applies here as well, even if it's in your imagination. Imagine yourself at the end of 2025 new year's eve 2025 looking backwards and saying what will have made a good year what characteristics what experience what feelings what kinds of things will have happened this year that when it hits new years i look back and i say that was a great year it's looking in the rearview mirror that somehow seems to work really well that's the second idea that I want to share with you today as you're thinking about planning ahead for the new year. So the first idea is looking at characteristics as much as it is the specific things that you want. The second idea is to look backwards. Assume that you're at the end of the year looking back rather than sitting at the beginning of the year with this blank slate and looking forward.

[8:43] And then the third idea is to be proactive about it.

[8:48] So many people set New Year's resolutions. And it's this goal, it's this idea, it's this thing that I want, but it doesn't necessarily come with a commitment to do it. And I encourage you to be proactive about that kind of commitment.

[9:04] Some of the things that I have had on my list as I started the year included going on a silent retreat, writing a book, which I did a number of years ago.

[9:13] Organizing a rock band to come together and play. And for each one of those things, There was a point in the year where I looked down at my list because I write it down and I have it near my desk so I can see it. I looked down at that list and I said, I haven't done anything on this yet.

[9:30] And when I have that realization, I haven't done anything on it, it grazes a question for me. And once again, I jump ahead to the end of the year and I say, how will I feel if at the end of the year, I don't do it? Because I'll be honest with you in that moment, when I look at that list and I look at that thing that I said I wanted to do, but right now I'm busy and I'm in the midst of everything else. I'm looking at it. I'm like, I don't want to do it. It just feels like another thing. I don't have time. I don't have energy. It's not worth it. I just got to focus on the things that are right in front of me. I get to that mindset all the time, but I have to pull myself out of it. And that's when I jump ahead to the end of the year and look back. And I say, how will I feel at the end of the year if I did not accomplish this? Because I wrote it down. I said it was important to me. It said it was something that I wanted to do. If I get to the end of the year and I don't do it, how will I feel? And it's not that I just forgot about it. I looked at it and I consciously decided I'm too busy to do this right now. How will I feel about that? And the answer was, I'll feel rotten. I didn't want to do that. So that's what I mean about being proactive. It requires some discipline. It requires a willingness to choose your long-term growth and benefit over the short-term discomfort of doing it even when you're busy.

[10:47] So three ideas to share with you as you start your planning and you're thinking about what you want to do next year one focus on the characteristics as much as on the experiences or the things themselves two look backwards don't sit here and look forward at a blank slate imagine yourself at the end reflecting what will have made a good year and three be proactive schedule it make time to do it, prioritize your long-term growth and your long-term satisfaction over, being busy in the short-term discomfort of satisfying that itch, if you will, doing the things that are keeping you busy rather than the things that will make it a great.

[11:31] Take advantage of this time of year because there's something magical about starting a new year. We all have this sense of inspiration, of freedom, of possibility that often comes with something new. Take advantage of that, but don't do it the same old way you've always done it before. Use these three tools that I gave you and do something different. Think about your year in a different way because when you do that, you will get a different result. and then decide, make a decision to actually follow up on your plan. Because the reality is, if these things matter to you, they're worth doing. They're worth tolerating some discomfort in order to accomplish them. Find a partner, find some accountability, find some inspiration, because of course, you all know that you're way more likely to be successful when you're surrounded by people who are also striving and trying to accomplish something important to them.

[12:26] But honor yourself honor this time honor this place of being creative and go for it because you are infinitely creative there is so much that you can do in this world if you simply decide you're willing to do it so take that do something different and have a great.