JW:
Man, I am pumped. It is a beautiful Monday. Santa brought me some great stuff yesterday. I gotta tell you folks, it has been remarkable.
LF:
Okay.
JW:
Oh, hey, Lori!
LF:
Hi. Wait a second. What are you doing so jazzed up on this Monday morning after Christmas? Aren’t you tired?
JW:
No. Let me tell you, man, I stayed up all night with all the goodies I got because I thought I was not good. Apparently my stretch right there at the end – you know that sprint to goodness for the last 30 days – got me on the good list.
LF:
Oh, got you off the naughty list. No coal for Jimmy. So please elaborate and tell us what exciting things kept you up all night.
JW:
Oh, you’re gonna laugh. Here it goes. But man, this is a great one. So I have been asking, literally praying for world peace. Guess what? Last night I just sensed it. Everybody had a calm Christmas night. I just knew it down deep in my heart. Everybody had a great Christmas.
LF:
Nice. Okay, I’m all for that. But world peace, Jimmy.
JW:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and then the other thing, top that off. New underwear. Now listen, anytime you get, no. Hey, anytime you get new underwear, Lori, that’s a win. Okay? I don’t know about you, women, men, that’s a win. Am I right guys?
LF:
I was gonna say, that’s pretty exciting at my house as well. I don’t know that my guys get too excited about many things, but oddly enough, underwear and socks.
JW:
You know, I don’t wanna go too far down the rabbit hole of underwear, but let me just say this, I went through this experiment in the last few years and this is getting a little deep in personal folks, but here at Live Life by Design, we share the open and transparency that we can, you know, all trust in. And here it goes. I went on this kind of experiment. I went out and tried all these different brands and types of, of men’s underwear until I found something I thought was just rocking and rolling. Now you’re gonna laugh, Jimmy. You’re nearly 58 years old. Why is it so important? Well, think about this. It’s like a pair of shoes, but in a different location of the body. So I only buy really nice high quality shoes, usually Italian leather and stuff, and they’re kinda expensive. And I don’t say that to brag. I say that because I wear them like 18 to 19 hours a day. Now, I don’t know about you ladies. I generally wear underwear every day. And now by that I mean I need to have something I’m comfortable with. So I’m not going any deeper than that. Lori and you girls do what you wish, but we men comforts the King
LF:
Well, I mean, if you’re gonna have to wear them, you know, 18 hours, I, I don’t know, maybe I could see test driving a couple of different brands of underwear, so to speak. But what else did you get for Christmas besides underwear?
JW:
Oh, outstanding voted the Doty Award finally. It was awesome.
LF:
Okay, wait a minute. What’s that?
JW:
Oh, yeah. Hey, this is big. So there’s this little trophy that you can get, and it’s not very big, but it, it means big things. It’s only about, you know, four inches taller. So, and a placard on it that says Doty of the Year 2022. Yeah. Now, I’m not bragging Lori. I mean, a lot of guys bragging this stuff. I don’t, you know, I take it in, in very great humility, but on live life by design, we’re all about being ourselves. So I accepted this award, gave a brief two to three minute thank you speech to my children. And, I put it up on the shelf and yes, that’s the Dad of the Year award. My two daughters got it for me. Again, I’ve won now for like, about the last, oh, 25 years or so. So it’s been incredible.
LF:
Okay? That is a long tenured run. I did not know of such award, but now forever, I will now know what the Doty Award is. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve just been schooled this morning in case you were wondering. 20, how many years did you say?
JW:
About 25 years. Our older daughter’s 26. So, you know, she was not quite at the age to vote or even right. So her mother may have submitted that first couple of years on her behalf as a proxy. But yeah, hey, you know I don’t brag about it. I just got an entire wall filled of these little trophies. It’s outstanding. I don’t know of too many other fathers that can boast that. And I do write it in my journal every year on the 26th that I did get once again awarded this honor. And hey, it’s, it’s just me.
LF:
Well, you know, but the great thing is that, okay, so Christmas may be over, but, but really, honestly and truly not, the, the, the core values of Christmas are not over. So kindness sharing, I like that. And love between family members, those are things that even though Christmas is over and we tend to, you know, dot if you will and love on people a little extra, now that it’s over, that doesn’t mean that we shift our focus a away from doing those things. It just means that now we’re gearing up for that last week of the year where no one knows what day it is or what time it is or how to dress, and everyone’s still eating leftovers.
JW:
Yeah, you see a lot, lot of happy smiles generally though the week between Christmas and New Year’s. And, and to me, that just warms my heart even more, to be very honest. But, you know, we go out and do those things where people are returning their gifts that they got, that they didn’t fit, didn’t want, didn’t have the right color, whatever. And I just simply watch people. Now I know what you’re thinking here on Live Life by design. We shouldn’t watch people, but get, you know, this is one of my favorite pastimes, and I love to watch how they interact with the sales representative or the person, the customer service. I just love that because they seem to be a little less harsh right after Christmas. They seem to be a little more relaxed. And, and to me, you can just see kind of a dichotomy of, Hey, pre-Christmas, Jimmy, post-Christmas, Jimmy, I’m a little less, you know not ambitious is the word, but a little less round wound up, so to speak. And Lori, this is neither caffeine nor drug-induced. This is just pure Jimmy here, okay?
LF:
Well, I can assure you mine is a hundred percent caffeine induced at this point.
JW:
She’s already had an intravenous feel of all her caffeines with lattes, espresso, whatever it takes to get her up and going. But say, Hey, Live a Life By Design folks is honored to have you this last of our episodes for 2022. Goodness, it just seems like, Lori, we started these just a month ago. I know, but here it is. Another year has transpired. We are honored on behalf of Lori and our entire team Dakota, Shelby everybody, David, everybody that works on this podcast, thank you. But most of all, thank you to our great subscribers and listeners. As I said, many times, we’re now in 58 countries. Is there a 59th country in 2023, Lori, that we are not in, perhaps?
LF:
Oh, there’s probably 59, 60, I’m gonna say 62 by the end of 2023, just overshot a little.
JW:
Okay, folks, you saw that she placed a goal on us right here at the end of the year, this is not, not something we take lightly. So 62 is our magic number. If you know of someone that’s sitting in Uzbekistan or somewhere out there that’s not listening yet, please give them the link. We’re honored to have ’em on board. Tell me, Lori, hey, you know, every year Lori is, is such a, a great organizer. She’s such a great planner and just an overall wonderful individual. So I know she has this thing called the word of the Year that she and I do, and, and I have a word but I wanna hear what Lori is your word of the year for 2023.
LF:
It’s just crazy to even think that we’re talking about 2023. I I don’t, I, it’s just wild to even wrap your head around. But towards the end of the year, I start thinking about next year, thanks to Jimmy. He’s obviously catapulted my organizational skills into a level, a whole other level of thinking and planning and wanting to know, you know, what, what’s the goal? There’s always a goal. So for 2023, my word is “simplify”.
JW:
Ooh. Now listen, that’s a big word. Tell me what that means to you.
LF:
So, it’s a big word, but it’s actually a small word. If you think about it, you can take it in giant leaps or small steps, and I definitely am going to try to take it in small steps. I just wanna go back if you, it’s crazy to think of. But I wanna go back to a simpler time. We were celebrating over the holidays, and we were looking at some pictures and going through some albums and telling stories and watching some family videos. And it just reminded me of a time where I felt like things were a lot simpler. We didn’t stress as much. We didn’t plan or cram as much into life as we have in the last couple of years. I don’t know if it’s because of, you know, post pandemic. We felt like we missed out. So we needed to try to do as many things in 2022 as we could.
LF:
But for 2023, I want my calendar, and I know this is, this is hard for me to say. I want my calendar to have less dots, less commitments, less obligations, and more time to do the things that I want to do that make me happy and fill my cup. Because as we all know, you can’t fill from an empty cup if you are trying to help motivate others or be positive for others or just live a happier life in general, you can’t give that to someone else if you are not feeling that thing inside yourself. So simplify in 2023 is the word. It’s the goal. It’s gonna take a lot to get me there, but I’m really, really, really gonna try.
JW:
Give you little bit of Jimmy-ism here on “simplify”.
JW:
Well, I think you coined that word on our podcast.
LF:
I did!
JW:
So, so Jimmy-ism for simplify though, and I mean this very seriously, is that it is going to take significant action for you to learn a very small vocabulary word known as no, because you see, we feel well, we feel our lives because you’re such a great, talented person, and people want you to be involved in whatever their group activity committee organization is doing. And you know, at the end of the day, I started in 2022 saying, no more frequently. And it’s not because they didn’t have a worthy event or a cause. I love that. I love anything to do, but you know what, I have 24 hours in one day. So I went through this process of really simplifying by saying, I’m going to eliminate a lot of those things that I’m not just truly passionate about. That really drives the numbers for my brain, right? And so I’ve learned to say no a lot. Is that something you maybe have planned for ’23?
LF:
I I tried it in ’22. I tried to learn to say no, I struggled greatly with it. I definitely am gonna try to reignite that in. No, like, it’s, it’s even hard to say in, oh, it’s such a simple word, but it’s so hard to say. I, I’m gonna try, I make no promises right now as it stands that I’m gonna be able to do it. But I’m really gonna try to take a deeper look at everything individually as it comes and, and try to say the no word.
JW:
So I wanna give you another piece of kind of a tool I use when I’m deciding whether I wish to do something or not. So before I just say, oh, you bet, I’d love to. And then I realized, wow, I left myself no margin in my day for my own mindset to just relax and maybe think about the day and how it went down. What can I talk about? You know, I do a lot of journaling and I write on paper a lot to get my thoughts out. Well, I started this little tool in there now that’s kind of a schematic diagram. And, you know, yes, I’m a geek, I get that. But I write this stuff down and I actually draw the schematic triangles for decisions squares, you know, for the arrows.
LF:
I can barely draw a stick person, let alone a diagram.
JW:
Yeah. And I saw a sticker. I’m glad you brought that up, I’m digressing here. But I saw a, a sticker on the back of a van a couple of days ago before Christmas. And it was so funny. It had a dinosaur and it was chasing the stick people, you know, that everybody have on their van. And it was so cool. It’s kinda like, and then it said the little note up there, my dinosaur ate your stick people, or something like that. It was, you need one of those for your van.
LF:
I need that.
JW:
But, but here’s where I’m going with this too, is I think we have to look at purposefully deciding is that something we really need or does it warrant our energy, time, and effort? Because that’s all we have as human beings. We’re carbon-based beings. We have a finite amount of energy, we have a finite amount of mental capability and or energy on that mental side. And you have to decide, is this something that’s really worth those precious days and times and minutes of mine? And, you know, it’s not easy to say because the world is needing what we have to offer. And I believe that’s critical of all of us. And incumbent, if I may use the term on all of us as people to contribute to our fellow man. What’s your thoughts on that process?
LF:
I absolutely agree. It’s so, and I think that’s why it’s, it’s important to learn those boundaries and say no because there might be something that really triggers your heartstrings or something that you didn’t know that you possibly had an interest in that could be laid in your path in 2023. So being open to that idea, and, and w you know, being willing because there are so many needs, and there are so many interesting people in the world that you never know when your paths are gonna cross. So being open-minded to new opportunities, you know, you are capable of so much more than you can even imagine in this life. And that’s the beauty of being human being and getting to walk on the same, you know, earth as everybody else is that you never know. So that’s why I think it’s so hard to say no because you just, you know, it’s the unknown. It’s the, you know, fear of missing out. You don’t know what’s coming. So being able to simplify a little bit and say, I’m gonna, I’m gonna leave myself open to new ideas. I’m gonna leave myself open to that opportunity that might be knocking on my door, and I might not even be expecting it. I, I love the thought of that’s what’s coming next. That’s where we’re headed in the new year.
JW:
Some grace space. That’s one of my new terms I’ve been using to make the best decision for how you’re feeling at that time and moment on that project. Right? You see what I’m saying? Yeah. Don’t just immediately say, oh yeah, I’ll be glad to help. And you look at your counter and go, wow, where am I gonna squeeze this in, right? So I always tell people, give yourself some grace space and look down at that calendar. Give it some moment. I use this phrase I’ll tell you what, before I answer today on that request, may I just take a few days and let me reflect on what I’ve got planned and what’s coming up. I’ve got a pretty full schedule, I’ll be back with you. And I always do follow up with ’em, you know, and a lot of times it’s very gracious saying, thank you, but not at this time. And I never just say no, because I may wanna come back to it at some point.
LF:
Exactly. You never wanna close that door.
JW:
No, no, that’s absolutely right. What do you wanna know what my word for the year is?
LF:
I do, but before that, I wanna know, is it a big word and will I be able to spell it?
JW:
Oh, you’ll fill it. I’m telling you this, this word. Okay, this, this word. So here’s the thing, I always like to to find a word and I write it in my journal for the first just the very top of the year. I’ll write it on the first entry of, you know, January one. I’ll write my word in big letters. Sometimes I even make a doodle out of it and fill ’em in squares and color me. And just, just to make it, you know, really impactful. And my word this year for 2023 is abundance.
LF:
Oh, okay. I can totally spell that word. I was thinking like you were gonna come out with like, some ginormous word from Miriam Webster’s Dictionary.
JW:
Yeah, no, no big words, no polysyllabic, things that are nature. Yeah. So, so let me suggest to you why I chose abundance. And you’re gonna laugh. We came through an issue here with the pandemic where we didn’t have things when we’d asked for them, we’d ordered things and they’d say, well, you can have that. Sure, we’ll send it to you. It’s six months before you get it. Right. well I’ve, I’ve ordered a new car, for example. It’s not gonna be ready till July. Okay? I mean, this is, is just how, this is how things work. Well, it’s a, it’s a new electric vehicle. I’m just trying to do some of that to see how it works for us. I’m pretty excited about it, to be honest with you. But my wife, my wife, Dina, you know, the lovely Dina, this put up with me now 35 years.
JW:
I think she likes it more than me, cuz I think I may end up losing that car to her cuz she tells, she says I wanna pick out the trim and I wanna pick out the color and I wanna pick out. And I said, well, you know, go get your own car. No, I didn’t, I didn’t say, I did not say that. So we’re sharing that, but abundance to me means in all aspects of life, Lord. And now think about this. So if you just said, Hey, I want to give to my community, that doesn’t mean you say yes to everything, but the abundance is, is where you’re currently given in your community. Turn it up a notch. Let’s take it to 11, right? Think abundantly, act abundantly, feel abundantly and respond abundantly. Those are my areas I wanna work. And you know, you’re laughing, so you wait a minute, Jimmy, your word for 22 was elevate. So we elevated things to the nicest level we can be. Now I wanna turn it up on its end, and I wanna take it a notch fire further with abundance. Now,
LF:
I love it.
JW:
I think abundantly all the time. I invest abundantly in what I mean by that, not wastefully, but I do try to go over the top. So let me give you an example. We were at a restaurant right before Christmas. And a young man that works there went to school with my daughter in high school years ago. And he’s there as a wait staff, working him himself through college. And I just ask him, his name is Caleb. I’ll use his first name only. His name was Caleb. And, and he was waiting on our family. And this was a Sunday after church meal. There was about eight of us there lined up. And Dina and I were honored to care for everyone’s meals. So I said, just give me the ticket. So he brought our ticket to us, and he would work so hard.
JW:
The restaurant was slammed. I mean, everybody, of course, before the holiday was wanting to eat, and it’s Sunday after church, all that stuff. Caleb did an excellent job as he always smiled the whole time. But you could tell underneath, I mean, he is like the goose on the pond, right? You know, those feet are just running. He’s, but he’s smiling, right? Lori? And so anyway, we got through, he gave us our ticket, and I, I placed a, a rather sizable a hundred dollars tip on, on the ticket. It’s Christmas, you know, it’s hun, it’s Christmas. I want to be an abundant person. I’ve been blessed so well this year I want to give it back to those that are working hard, right? And so, and there’s a key phrase that working hard, I want you to work, but I I wanna help you with your work.
JW:
And so anyway, he calls my daughter after this meal and she said, he almost sound like he’s in tears. You know, he’s needing tires for his car, he’s needing gas and all this stuff. I didn’t know any of that. And he said, would you tell your dad that he’s the most awesome person on the planet? And she goes, well, he already knows that, but thank you Caleb. No, no, she didn’t, she did not say that. She just said graceless. She always does. Gabrielle’s our younger daughter. She said, well, thank you very much, but you did an excellent job waiting on our family. Now why I’m saying that for you is that I hoped, and it brought to my heart such a warm spot that I maybe have gotten through to my kids after, you know, all these years, right? And so anyway, it made me feel good to help someone else feel better. Does that make sense?
LF:
I love that. And I think it’s important. I mean it, and I love it, especially at the holidays, because typically we don’t know what people are going through. We don’t know what struggles other people have. And it’s so important to have those open lines of communication that just if, if someone, you know, an extra smile, an extra mile, someone goes and does above and beyond ha having that recognized sometimes can really make a difference in somebody’s life. And I have no doubt, Jimmy Williams, you are a thousand percent abundant when you do anything and everything. So you are gonna crush the word abundance in 2023, no doubt. Hands down. I can’t wait to like revisit in 30 days when, you know, everybody technically fails their New Year’s resolution, they give it 30 days. I know that you are gonna have a litany list of people and things that you’ve done to create abundance in the world. And I, I’m, I’m here for it. Let’s, let’s
JW:
Do it. So you’re gonna laugh. I’m having some t-shirts made up. Ooh.
LF:
It’s gonna say I love good
JW:
T-Shirt. It’s, it’s, yes, it’s gonna say abundant at the top is my thinking. I’ll have to give our marketing director, Ashley will tell me if I’m wrong. But anyway, it’s gonna say abundant at the top, abundance at the top, and then it’s gonna say dot and it’s gonna say in mind, heart, soul, whatever, you know. Oh,
LF:
Cool.
JW:
I thought it would be nice to have some t-shirts made up. Now, I know that sounds silly, but hey, you know what? We’re gonna give ’em away here on Live Life by Design as well. Some things we’re gonna have come up through the year. So we’re gonna have some t-shirts made up. I will get you one. So I know you’ll help there. So tell me what happened for you at Christmas? What’s going on that’s big? How’d it go? Did you get a paper cut and wrapping, like thousands of gift? And I know you got
LF:
You know, it’s so funny. The thing that I love about Christmas is, I mean, obviously we’ve talked about this before, but our son has been a huge dinosaur fantasy since he was just itty bitty tiny. And I love, the thing that I love about Christmas is that people have now started to kind of figure out that that dinosaurs, that’s like our family crest, or our family emblem, if you will. I, I love it because I, people show up at my house and, and drop things on my porch, like a dear sweet friend of mine with out shopping and she found dinosaur wrapping paper for Christmas. You know, people send cards and photos and links to opportunities for us to take and, you know, go and experience more dinosaurs. And so it’s a dinosaur Christmas. Every year we find a way to incorporate or add. This year we put another inflatable dinosaur in our yard. It was epic. We now have four. We started with one. I have people that come by, you know, they’ll text and say, we drove by your house. Our kids love your dinosaurs. Or, you know, we were out driving around and we know it’s your house because of all the dinosaurs in the front yard.
JW:
You mean all the neighbors in your housing edition don’t have dinosaurs? That what you’re trying to tell us? No,
LF:
No, they don’t. I mean, we’re trying to get ’em on board, you know, turn it into a prehistoric winter wonderland. But so far, no, nobody’s biting. And so every year at Christmas, I think that’s my favorite thing. Every year we build on it. It’s either an ornament a cup, a t-shirt a toy just some type of significance to celebrate what is so important to our family. And I, I never knew that that was what it was gonna be. I assumed it would be something else. I don’t know what I thought it was gonna be, but we’ve learned to embrace it. And I think that’s my favorite thing about Christmas. I now have a dinosaur necklace that I wear. I have a dinosaur tote bag that I carry, and all of these great things have come as Christmas gifts to me, and I absolutely love them.
LF:
I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s funny to laugh about, but it’s, it’s incredibly significant to us and it’s important. And I hope it never stops. You know, our son says he is gonna be a paleontologist. His dad’s always asking like, what is the backup plan? Because we’re gonna have to make smart financial decisions until he finds or unearthed that one dinosaur, and then he’s probably gonna be set for the rest of his life. But I love that one sign insignificant thing triggered a lifelong passion and love and interest for our family. And it’s great all year long, but especially at Christmas time.
JW:
So awesome. So I see, I see the first, I see the first working title of your son’s book, how I prove My Parents Wrong. I discovered An Unknown Species from the Jurassic Period. Yeah. So
LF:
True story. And he’ll definitely get that dig in wherever he can. But, you know.
JW:
Is that a pun? Is that a pun? Ok dig. Ok.
LF:
Yeah. See, I you’re a wordsmith Jimmy Williams. I’m telling you,
JW:
This is neither drug nor caffeine induced. As I said, I’m on top of my game every day. But you see, I work with people that are so much more talented and more wise than me that are called experts and a professional. So I have to really stay on my game. Yes, yes. So, you know, hey, I think that is outstanding because what you’re doing is unique for your family. And, you know, I I will say we’ve started tracing our family history back, doing some genealogy. Lori has done her, she didn’t know that I was gonna talk about this, but she’s done hers. She went back to the, the period of the neolithic man. And she knows it’s her family because some of the cave women then at that time were carrying designer bags that they designed themselves unique. Yes. Only one of a kind,
LF:
One
JW:
Of a, and Lori said, well, that’s gotta be my family. They got designer bag, so made out of leopard or whatever, or something, you know, Tyran-
LF:
Wooly mammoth?
JW:
That’s right, wooly mammoth. Yes. In the wintertime, you carry that one, right? Yeah. Yes. So, so we’ve talked a little bit about your word of the year. Now, Lori, I need to ask a big question. So you talked about resolutions. What’s the big difference that I really don’t like about resolutions versus goals?
LF:
Oh, well, I mean, resolutions are just, sometimes resolutions are knee jerk reactions. So they’re not really thought provoking. They’re not really processed, for lack of a better word. And we, and we do after 30 days. I mean, typically what people say is you forget about you know, a resolution versus a goal. Jimmy, you’re a goal guy. Like when you set a goal and it’s reviewable every 3, 6, 9, 12 months, and it’s a progression. So that’s why Jimmy likes goals versus resolution
JW:
That you got that. Right? So here’s the thing with resolutions too. A lot of people go, I’m gonna lose 40 pounds in January. And I go, okay, it took you 13 years to put them on. Why do you think 30 days is gonna kick them off in a healthy way? In a healthy way? I’m not saying you can’t lose 40 pounds, but you won’t be very healthy doing it in 30 days. So, so, you know, I always tell people, no, let’s don’t call them new Year’s resolutions. Let’s go straight to those things that can be documented, we can follow up on, and we have the reasonable opportunity to achieve them. And that’s called a goal, right? So I need one of your big hairy audacious goals before we close this episode out for the year for 2023. Lori, what’s that? B hag that’s just on your mind for 2023. And I’ve got about well, don’t laugh. I got 12, but anyway, yeah, you give me, you give me one. Oh
LF:
Goodness. Okay. Yeah. Well, okay, so for 2022, my BHAG was financial literacy. Yes. And I have to say I did, well, I did so well in 2022 with financial literacy. So I’m super proud of myself for that. Awesome. So, and if Jimmy has one for every month, that’s a whole other podcast episode. One per per month. So my BHAG for 2023, and you’re gonna, you’re gonna laugh, but I wanna get then in 23, I, I, that’s the thing. I I, I don’t know if it’s gonna be through yoga. I don’t know if it’s gonna be through meditation. I don’t know. My brain is like a squirrel running across a busy highway. And so learning how to do all those things, I have friends of mine that like, they, they meditate and they learn to breathe and they do all these things. And I want a piece of that. I want to learn, I want to be a student, if you will, of all these great masterful mind thinkers that get in their happy place and they just learn to take a minute. And I, I feel like I need that. So the word the goal, the BHAG, is to be more zen. I know you’ve heard it be more chill, be more whatever. But in 2023, I wanna learn, I wanna be more zen.
JW:
I love that. Hey, that’s a great one. And you know, to be very honest with me, that’ll make Lori change, grow, adapt. So you’re gonna have to do some different things in what you’ve done in the past. What’s just the one, what, so I call it a kickoff. What’s the one thing I can do to kick this off in the right direction for me to be more zen? What, what would that be for you on January the first?
LF:
Coffee.
JW:
So give up, give up coffee, or gain more coffee.
LF:
Well just have it on January 1st, period. Oh, okay. That’s, I mean, we don’t start a new year without, you know, the important things.
JW:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I,
LF:
I dunno what, I dunno what it’s gonna take. I don’t know what the, I don’t know what the light switch is. I don’t know what the trigger is gonna be. I just, I don’t know if it’s gonna be, you know, reading a book. I don’t know if it’s gonna be watching a movie. I, I don’t know. I, I just, whatever it is on January 1st, I just want it to be a calm day to set the tone for the rest of the year.
JW:
I gotta tell you what I think might help. And here it goes. I’ve been using this all year. It’s helped me tremendously in the car. I do not listen to any news. I don’t listen to any news. Oh, in my home, I don’t watch any news. Now this comes across very badly cuz my daughter, older daughter’s an actual professional journalist. But what I’m saying to you is, is don’t fill your mind with those negative things first thing in the morning. So leave the TV off. I would on the other hand, recommend listening. One of the great courses. I’m big about that. They don’t pay me to say that. But I love listening to something I can learn this’s positive for today. I get my word of the day from my word
LF:
Of the day
JW:
At. Yeah. And none of that’s drama, man. So I can relax and just feel like, hey, I’ve got my day started. Right? You know? And so I highly encourage you think about changing one habit you have of your morning ritual and see if that helps you kick it off in the right gear.
LF:
I love it. I’m gonna try it. I’m gonna try no news in the car, no news at home, no outside distraction. We’ll see how far I get. I’m a little bit skeptical, but I am, I mean, that’s the goal, right? So we’ve gotta have a big, hairy, audacious goal and that’s
JW:
It. I’m just asking for one day, January the first, right? So if you say to yourself, I gotta do this for 30 days, it’ll never happen, right? One day I just want one day, one day. And then on January 2nd I’m gonna say, give me one day on January 3rd. Give me one day.
JW:
It sounds very easy, man. It’s hard to break life’s systems and rituals and, and habits, right? Yeah. It’s so hard to break them. So I’ve got one that’s gonna be tough for me. And I’m just gonna be upfront with you every time I say this. Don’t advertise your go up goals, advertise your give up goals is what I say. So here I’m advertising. Here we go. Here we go. I’m going, I’m going to give up sweets. Yes, it is going to be, yes, it’s gonna be hard. You know, my mother, my wife, everybody is, they’re great bakers my daughter, older daughter, a great baker. But so what I’m wanting to do is give up any refined sugars, give up sweets, and just see how I feel about that. So a buddy of mine did this, and it was such a refreshing feeling in his body.
JW:
So his overall body, now, he’s a little older than me. And, and admittedly he had got some bad report from his blood sugar issue. So he’d said, well, I just need to do this. And he said, Jimmy, I would’ve done this had it not even been for the doctor’s report, because I felt so much better after only a couple of weeks. Oh, you know, just, just cut out the refined sugars in your life, right? The fructose and all that. Cut it out. And so I’m going to work on that starting January one, and that’s my kind of a BHAG for 23 is to get to that either no or very limited amounts, just so I can head off a potential health issue in the future. But not more than that. More than that is to say that I feel better about my workouts and all that.
JW:
So that’s just a thought. And, and you know, after I accomplished the great underwear search of 2022, this has got to be easier than that. I mean, don’t laugh. I ordered stuff from all over the world going, well, that’s not gonna work. And so I donated a lot of underwear to the men’s shelter, which you shouldn’t do that. But I never really tried them on when they got here. I just knew Hmm. That that’s not for me. So somewhere out there, some gentlemen feeling pretty good down under, I’d think. But anyway you know, I digressed again, didn’t I? Yeah, sorry
LF:
About that. That no, it’s, it’s, it’s totally appropriate at this juncture.
JW:
Well, anything we can do to cover it up, and that’s a pun, is, is the key to this episode. Hey folks, listen, Lori’s gonna take us out with our challenge, but on behalf of Lori and me, we do thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Share this with your friends. We have a lot of fun. Today was a very lighthearted subject because we believe that life is full of balance. We have some fun stuff, we have some more serious stuff. But at the end of the day, we want you to leave with a smile on your face and go on and take your world in a bigger, better, and bolder you.
LF:
Absolutely. So this week’s challenge is even though it’s after Christmas, remember that kindness, sharing and love shared between friends and family is still the ultimate goal going into the new year. Set goals, make goals, crush goals. That’s what we’re all about here on Live a Life By Design.