Everybody wants to save the Earth;
nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.
- P.J. O’Rourke
Reflecting
PJ’s line is funny but it also attacks the problem with overly grand goals: they are impossible so they excuse the goal setter from actually doing anything about it. Be careful with big new year’s resolutions; self-reported success is 55% and objectively measured success is far lower. Here’s a smaller way to organize resolutions: whatever you’re shooting for, measure daily, but analyze it only monthly (my smart scale records to my app each day but I don’t even look more than once a week and don’t analyze it more than once a month). Commit / recommit quarterly. If it is going to work, you have to allow yourself some short-term positive feedback (monthly progress pictures, food that’s healthy but also tasty). You need to give yourself wins most days. Fine to have one or two lapses per week, but more than that and it will ruin the resolution, making the entire topic so grim and discouraging that it could be counterproductive.
Most importantly, your resolutions should help guide you towards egolessness. If they’re too audacious for you to stack up some small Ws along the way, you’ll just look at the scale or weights or fridge and think “you suck” – sooner or later you’ll turn against the goal and against yourself. Have as much compassion for yourself as you would for a friend. Progressively overload for gains, but the progress should be in small increments.
Training
2025: Lift 5k tons, run 2.5k miles, improve my skills as a jiu jitsu player, boulderer, ice climber, and backcountry skier. Be prepared with an instant "yes" to any invitation to any type of challenging expedition that I want to join. I want to have the fitness, time, and money available so that I can join up when adventure calls.
Fueling
I’m excited to test this new filtered milk with 20g of protein and 0g of sugar. I’m loyal to Core Power but find their supply too frequently disrupted. I want to love Jocko Mölk out of loyalty to a great teacher, but don’t like the flavor as much (I still happily gulp it by the gallon at jiu jitsu camp where it is free and available by the barrel).
Supplementing
What’s a simple way to get hormones on track in 2025? Amazon’s (AMZN) One Medical offers the comprehensive blood panel you need to see where you are. You can send that report to Reboot Wellness to get a topical testosterone prescription. This avoids injections but can immediately get total testosterone above 1,000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL), hitting the high end of the range for healthy 18-year old males. There are other ways to go, but this is a convenient and effective way to get started.
Measuring
Don’t be neurotic about minutiae. Just get these about right. Literally within an order of magnitude, men are on the right track with the right number of digits:
Criminal/civil charges/restraining orders: 0.
Percent body fat: 1.
Months of emergency savings and supplies: 2.
IQ/Credit score: 3.
Total testosterone: 4.
Steps per day: 5.
They’re worth work but not worth worry.
Recovering
A problem with getting offtrack on fitness goals during the holidays isn’t what happens on December 25th or 31st. The problem with getting offtrack is staying offtrack. The solution to stumbles (here and almost everywhere else) is
Don't worry about it and
Just get back on track.
Closing
The phrase E Pluribus Unum or out of many, one was put on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782 referring to the union of the thirteen colonies into one nation. But it suits us more broadly – a raucous bunch from all around the world (many of whose countrymen were happy to see us leave) speaking a cacophony of different languages with big plans for pioneering a new world. Then in doing hard things together, our superficial differences faded and common cause united us. We are at our most united in war. We get a modest approximation of that esprit when we push ourselves to physical limits in battles against nature and against each other in sports.
In the first quarter of this century, there was a growing antagonism towards the symbols of our national unity such as our flag. This combined with an endless cycle of disingenuous tribal complaints met with disingenuous tribal apologies for our past and our culture. It was all fake and made everyone miserable. Marinading in this grim endless cycle brought back the very antagonisms that it was purportedly claiming to address, endlessly reminding us of our superficial differences instead of common cause.
But things seem to be changing abruptly as we face the end of this century’s first quarter. I see it most clearly at the gym at 5 AM each morning. We are definitely out of many – every conceivable type of American from all over the place geographically and socially. But no one cares. Literally one of the common CrossFit refrains emblazoned on shirts is
No one cares; work harder.
What matters is our common cause. We’re there to do hard things, get stronger, and be better. We see each other at our most stripped away. There’s no pretense when you’re collapsed on the floor drenched in sweat and snot and sometimes blood, heaving uncontrollably after giving everything you have. There’s unity and common cause. There’s respect and admiration for those who gave everything that they had to give. I hope we replicate this nationally, dropping the endless fretting about the pluribus and reconnecting with what makes us unum.
The strongest of Amens to the closing thoughts.