The Resolution Graveyard
It’s December 22nd. In nine days, millions of people will make promises to themselves that they won’t keep.
They’ll join gyms they’ll stop visiting by February. They’ll buy courses they’ll never finish. They’ll write goals in fresh notebooks that will gather dust by March.
Why? Because they skipped Part 1.
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series, go back and do the work. Seriously. Building a goal system on top of broken productivity habits is like trying to run a marathon while smoking a pack a day.
But if you’ve spent this past week implementing the foundation blocking distractions, building focus systems, reclaiming your attention then you’re ready for this conversation.
Part 2 is about what comes next: turning your reclaimed time into a life that actually matters.
The Hard Truth About New Year’s Resolutions
Let me share something uncomfortable: I’ve written New Year’s resolutions every year since 2010. Fifteen years of goal-setting. Want to know how many I actually achieved?
About 30%.
Not because I’m lazy. Not because the goals were wrong. But because I was playing the wrong game entirely.
Traditional New Year’s resolutions fail for three reasons:
1. They’re Outcome-Focused Instead of System-Focused
“Lose 20 pounds” is an outcome. What’s your system? How will you actually do it? Most people have no idea, so they wing it and wonder why willpower runs out by January 15th.
2. They’re Disconnected From Your Actual Life
You write goals in a moment of inspiration, usually after a few drinks on New Year’s Eve or in a burst of motivation on January 1st. Then reality hits. Your job doesn’t care about your goals. Your family doesn’t care about your goals. Life keeps happening, and your resolution list sits in a drawer.
3. They’re Based on Who You Think You Should Be, Not Who You Are
Society says you should work out, eat healthy, read more, learn a language, start a side hustle. So you write all of those down. Six goals that have nothing to do with what you actually want or need.
The New Model: Life Operating Systems
Forget resolutions. What you need is a Life Operating System.
Think about it: Your computer has an operating system (macOS, Windows, Linux) that manages resources, runs applications, and handles everything in the background. Your phone has one too.
But your life? Most people are running on whatever habits they accidentally developed, reacting to whatever comes their way, with no intentional design.
A Life Operating System is different. It’s the framework that runs in the background of your life, making sure your time, energy, and attention flow toward what matters.
Here’s how to build one for 2025.
Step 1: The Annual Review (Before You Plan Forward)
You cannot plan where you’re going without understanding where you’ve been.
Block 3-4 hours on December 27-29 for this exercise. Find a quiet place. No phone. Just you, a notebook, and honest reflection.
The Five Questions That Matter
1. What worked in 2024?
Not what you wished worked. What actually worked? What projects succeeded? What habits stuck? What decisions paid off?
Write everything down. Small wins count maybe you started meal prepping on Sundays, or you finally deleted Instagram, or you had one really good quarter at work.
Why this matters: Your successes contain your operating instructions. You’re trying to find patterns in what works for you, not what works for Tony Robbins or some productivity guru.
2. What didn’t work in 2024?
This is harder. It requires honesty. What failed? What did you start and quit? What goal did you write down and completely ignore?
More importantly: Why didn’t it work?
- Was the goal wrong for you?
- Was the timing wrong?
- Did you lack skills/resources?
- Did you not actually want it?
- Was it someone else’s goal for you?
Example from my 2024 review: I wanted to post on LinkedIn every day. Lasted three weeks. Why? Because I hate performative content. The goal wasn’t wrong building audience matters. But the system was wrong for my personality.
3. What surprised you in 2024?
This question is pure gold. Surprises reveal assumptions you didn’t know you had.
Maybe you thought you hated exercise but discovered you love bouldering. Maybe you thought you needed to work 60 hours a week but your best quarter came when you worked 40. Maybe AI tools changed your work more than you expected.
4. What drained you in 2024?
Energy is finite. What consistently left you exhausted, frustrated, or depleted? Certain clients? Specific types of work? Toxic relationships? Doom-scrolling news?
These are your energy leaks. You can’t fix them all, but awareness is the first step.
5. What made you come alive in 2024?
When did time fly? When were you energized instead of drained? When did you feel most like yourself?
These moments are breadcrumbs pointing toward your zone of genius. Follow them.
The Quantitative Audit
Feelings matter, but data doesn’t lie. Pull these numbers:
- Financial: Income, expenses, savings rate, debt (if any)
- Health: Weight, basic health metrics, doctor visits
- Relationships: Count of deep conversations, time with close friends/family
- Skills: Courses completed, books read, skills acquired
- Career: Promotions, raises, projects shipped, value created
- Time: Average work hours, vacation days taken, screen time
You don’t need perfect tracking. Estimates are fine. The point is to ground your review in reality, not just feelings.
Pro tip: If you can’t estimate these numbers, that’s data itself. It means you’re not paying attention to important areas of your life.
Step 2: Defining Your 2025 Themes (Not Goals)
Here’s where we break from tradition. Instead of writing a list of specific goals, you’re going to define 3-4 themes for your year.
What’s a Theme?
A theme is a directional intention that guides decisions without prescribing specific outcomes.
Bad goal: “Lose 20 pounds by June”
Good theme: “Year of Physical Vitality”
Bad goal: “Make $100K from side hustle”
Good theme: “Year of Building in Public”
Bad goal: “Read 52 books”
Good theme: “Year of Deep Learning”
See the difference? Themes are flexible. They allow serendipity. They don’t create the pass/fail binary that makes you quit when you miss one arbitrary target.
How to Choose Your Themes
Look at your annual review. What patterns emerge? What needs attention?
Your themes should address:
- One area that’s working (double down)
- One area that’s broken (repair)
- One area you’ve been ignoring (explore)
- Optional: One “wildcard” (experiment)
My 2025 Themes (As Examples)
Theme 1: “Year of Depth Over Breadth”
Why: I realized I was consuming hundreds of articles but retaining nothing. Starting dozens of projects but finishing few. Knowing surface-level information about everything but expert-level knowledge about nothing.
What this means: Read fewer books but take notes. Start fewer projects but ship them. Have fewer coffee chats but deeper friendships. Master one new skill instead of dabbling in five.
Theme 2: “Year of Physical Foundation”
Why: I’m 41 now. My body started sending signals I’ve been ignoring. Energy is declining. Recovery takes longer. If I don’t build the foundation now, my 50s will be rough.
What this means: Strength training 3x/week. Walking 10K steps daily. Sleep 7.5 hours minimum. No alcohol Monday-Thursday. Annual full health panel.
Theme 3: “Year of Creative Output”
Why: I’ve been consuming and learning for years. Time to create and share. Writing, building, teaching moving from input to output.
What this means: Write weekly (like this). Build one significant project. Share my process. Focus on creation over consumption.
Theme 4: “Year of Intentional Relationships”
Why: I’ve let friendships atrophy. Prioritized work over people. Been physically present but mentally absent with family.
What this means: Monthly dinners with close friends. Weekly date nights with my partner. Phone off during family time. Quality over quantity.
Notice: These aren’t specific. There’s no “lose 15 pounds by April.” But they’re directional. Every decision throughout the year can be measured against these themes.
“Should I accept this speaking gig?” → Does it support “Creative Output”?
“Should I go to this networking event?” → Does it support “Depth Over Breadth” and “Intentional Relationships”?
“Should I stay up late finishing this project?” → Does it conflict with “Physical Foundation”?
Your Turn: Define Your 3-4 Themes
Spend 30-60 minutes on this. Write them down. Make them personal. Make them yours, not what sounds good on Instagram.
For each theme, write:
- Why it matters to you (personal motivation)
- What success looks like (loose definition, not strict metrics)
- What you’re saying no to (equally important)
Step 3: The Quarterly System (Not Annual Goals)
Annual goals fail because twelve months is too long. Life changes. Priorities shift. The person you are in December is not the person you were in January.
Solution: Quarterly planning with annual themes.
How It Works
Every 90 days (January, April, July, October), you do a mini-planning session:
- Review last quarter: What worked? What didn’t? What changed?
- Check your themes: Are they still relevant? Do they need adjustment?
- Set 1-3 quarterly objectives: Specific projects that align with your themes
The key difference: You’re not locked into January’s vision. You’re continuously adapting while staying true to your annual direction.
Example: My Q1 2025 Plan
Theme: Year of Physical Foundation
Q1 Objective: Establish workout habit and baseline health metrics
Specific actions:
- Join gym by January 5th
- Hire trainer for 8 sessions (learning proper form)
- Schedule full health panel by January 15th
- Track workouts 3x/week minimum
- Set up meal prep system
Success criteria: By April 1st, working out feels automatic, not forced. I have baseline health data. I know what “good form” feels like.
Theme: Year of Depth Over Breadth
Q1 Objective: Implement reading and learning system
Specific actions:
- Read 3 books (not 12) but take comprehensive notes
- Implement Zettelkasten method for knowledge management
- Review and consolidate all open browser tabs and saved articles
- Unsubscribe from 80% of newsletters
Success criteria: By April 1st, I can explain key concepts from those 3 books in my own words. My notes system is working.
Theme: Year of Creative Output
Q1 Objective: Establish writing cadence
Specific actions:
- Write and publish 12 blog posts (one per week)
- Build email list (even if small)
- Share process and learnings publicly
Success criteria: By April 1st, writing weekly feels natural. I have a small but engaged audience.
See how this works? Each quarter advances your annual themes with specific, achievable objectives. But you’re not overcommitting for the full year.
Your Q1 2025 Objectives
For each of your themes, define ONE specific objective for Q1. Not three, not five. One.
This is crucial: Undercommit and overdeliver.
Most people fail because they commit to fifteen things in January. By February, they’ve failed at fourteen of them and feel like garbage.
Instead, commit to 3-4 things (one per theme). Crush them. Build momentum. Add more in Q2.
Step 4: The Weekly Operating System
Quarterly planning is great, but life happens weekly. Here’s where your operating system runs day-to-day.
Sunday Planning Ritual (30 minutes)
Every Sunday evening:
- Review last week: Quick wins? What didn’t happen? Why?
- Check quarterly objectives: Am I on track?
- Plan next week:
- Big 3: What are the three most important things?
- Theme check: Does my calendar align with my themes?
- Time blocks: When will deep work happen?
The Sunday ritual is non-negotiable. This is your weekly reset. Miss this, and the week runs you instead of you running the week.
Daily Shutdown Ritual (15 minutes)
Every workday ends with this:
- Brain dump: What’s still open? What’s nagging you?
- Tomorrow’s Big 3: What must happen tomorrow?
- Close all tabs: Literally. Don’t leave tomorrow’s work visible.
- Physical shutdown: Shut laptop. Put phone on charger in another room.
Why this matters: Your brain needs clear signals. “Work over” must be marked. Otherwise, you’re always half-working and never fully resting.
The Monday Morning Launch (30 minutes)
Every Monday:
- Review Big 3 for the week
- Time block your week
- Identify obstacles: What could derail you?
- Pre-commit: Tell someone what you’re doing this week
Accountability changes everything. Tell your partner, post on social media, text a friend. Make it real.
Step 5: The Anti-Fragile System (Planning for Failure)
Here’s what nobody tells you: You will fail.
You’ll miss workouts. You’ll break your diet. You’ll skip writing sessions. You’ll fall off the wagon.
The difference between people who succeed and people who quit? How they handle the inevitable failures.
The Resilience Protocol
When you break your streak, miss a goal, or fall back into old patterns:
1. The 48-Hour Rule
You get 48 hours to get back on track. Miss a Monday workout? Hit the gym by Wednesday. Skip your writing session? Write double tomorrow.
But if 48 hours pass without correction, you’re in a spiral. Catch it early.
2. The Post-Mortem (Not Punishment)
When you fail, ask:
- What happened? (Facts, not feelings)
- What was the trigger?
- What could prevent this next time?
Bad response: “I’m so undisciplined. I suck.”
Good response: “I skipped the gym because I scheduled it at 6 AM and I’m not a morning person. Solution: Switch to lunchtime workouts.”
3. The 80% Rule
If you hit 80% of your weekly goals, that’s a win. Not 100%. Not perfection. 80%.
Three workouts instead of four? Great week.
Two blog posts instead of three? Excellent.
Maintained your theme 5 days out of 7? You’re crushing it.
Perfection is the enemy of consistency. Consistency beats intensity every time.
Building Redundancy
Your system should have backup plans:
- Can’t go to the gym? Have a home workout routine.
- Too busy to cook? Have healthy meal delivery as backup.
- Can’t write for 2 hours? Write for 20 minutes.
The goal is never to have a “zero day.” Even a 10% effort day keeps momentum alive.
Step 6: The Mid-Year Audit (Essential)
Mark July 1st on your calendar right now. This is your mid-year checkpoint.
By July, six months will have passed. You’ll have completed Q1 and Q2. Time for a comprehensive review:
What’s working?
- Which themes are alive and thriving?
- Which quarterly objectives succeeded?
- What systems are humming along?
What’s not working?
- Which themes feel forced or irrelevant?
- Which objectives were abandoned?
- What’s draining energy?
What needs to change?
- Do your themes need revision?
- Do your systems need updating?
- Are you solving the right problems?
Critical permission slip: You can change your themes mid-year.
If “Year of Creative Output” isn’t resonating, and you’re energized by something else, CHANGE IT. This isn’t failure it’s learning and adapting.
Rigidity kills systems. Flexibility keeps them alive.
The Meta-System: Energy Management Over Time Management
Here’s the paradigm shift that changed everything for me: Stop managing time. Start managing energy.
You have roughly the same number of hours as everyone else. The difference isn’t time, it’s energy.
The Four Energy Buckets
Your energy flows through four channels:
1. Physical Energy
- Sleep quality and quantity
- Nutrition and hydration
- Exercise and movement
- Physical health
2. Mental Energy
- Focus and attention
- Cognitive load
- Learning and processing
- Decision fatigue
3. Emotional Energy
- Relationships and connection
- Stress and anxiety
- Joy and fulfillment
- Emotional regulation
4. Spiritual Energy (or “Meaning,” if spiritual feels too woo-woo)
- Purpose and direction
- Values alignment
- Contribution and impact
- Growth and becoming
Most productivity advice only addresses mental energy (focus, time blocking, etc.). But if your physical energy is shot because you sleep 5 hours, your mental energy suffers. If your emotional energy is drained by toxic relationships, nothing else works.
Your Energy Audit
For each bucket, rate yourself 1-10 right now:
- Physical: ___/10
- Mental: ___/10
- Emotional: ___/10
- Spiritual: ___/10
Now, here’s the key insight: Your weakest bucket determines your capacity.
You can’t think clearly when exhausted. You can’t sustain effort without meaning. You can’t focus when emotionally distraught.
Your 2025 system must address all four buckets. Not just productivity hacks.
The 2025 Calendar: Strategic Time Blocking
Now we get tactical. Open your calendar right now. We’re going to structure your year.
Annual Anchors
Block these dates now:
Quarterly Planning Weeks:
- Jan 1-5: Q1 planning
- Apr 1-5: Q2 planning
- Jul 1-5: Q3 planning + mid-year audit
- Oct 1-5: Q4 planning
Vacation/Recovery Weeks (minimum 3 per year):
- Pick them now
- Block them
- Protect them like your life depends on it (it does)
Theme Review Days (one per month):
- Last Sunday of each month
- 2-hour deep review of your themes
- Adjust, refine, recommit
Weekly Template
Don’t leave your week to chance. Create a template:
Monday: Planning and admin (catching up from weekend)
Tuesday-Thursday: Deep work blocks (your most important work)
Friday: Finishing, reviewing, communicating
Saturday: Personal projects and recovery
Sunday: Planning and preparation for next week
Within each day, block:
- 9-12 PM: Deep work (no meetings, no email)
- 12-1 PM: Lunch and movement
- 1-3 PM: Meetings and collaboration
- 3-4 PM: Admin and communication
- 4-5 PM: Wrap-up and planning
This is a template, not a prison. Adjust for your reality. But having structure prevents decision fatigue.
The “Meeting Budget”
Here’s a radical idea: You get 10 hours of meetings per week. Maximum.
More than that, and you have no time for actual work. Track it. If you’re consistently over, you have a boundary problem, not a time problem.
How to enforce:
- Block “deep work” time on calendar (mark as busy)
- Default to 25-minute meetings (not 30)
- Decline meetings with no clear agenda
- Ask: “Could this be an email?”
The Accountability System
Systems without accountability drift. Here’s how to stay on track:
The Accountability Partner
Find one person friend, colleague, coach who will check in monthly. Not to judge, but to witness.
Share your themes. Share your quarterly objectives. Report progress.
The magic: Knowing someone will ask about it makes you do it.
The Public Commitment
This feels scary, but it works: Share your themes publicly.
Twitter thread. LinkedIn post. Blog post. Email to friends. Doesn’t matter where. Make it real by making it visible.
Why this works: Social pressure is powerful. You’re not just letting yourself down you’re letting others down. That external accountability fills gaps when internal motivation fails.
The Weekly Score
Every Sunday, rate yourself 1-10 on each theme.
- Physical Foundation: 7/10 (worked out 3x, but sleep was poor)
- Depth Over Breadth: 8/10 (finished one book, great notes)
- Creative Output: 5/10 (published one post, skipped the other)
- Intentional Relationships: 6/10 (had great dinner with friends, but was on phone during family time)
Track this in a simple spreadsheet. Over time, patterns emerge. You’ll see what’s working and what needs attention.
The Common Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)
Let me save you from the mistakes I’ve made:
Pitfall 1: The Shiny Object Syndrome
Mid-February, you’ll see someone crushing it at something you’re not doing. You’ll be tempted to abandon your themes and chase theirs.
The antidote: Your themes exist for a reason. Trust past-you who set them during clear-headed reflection. Wait until July 1st to make major changes.
Pitfall 2: The Complexity Trap
You’ll be tempted to add more more goals, more tracking, more systems.
The antidote: Complexity kills execution. Every addition should replace something, not just add to the pile. Simplicity scales.
Pitfall 3: The All-or-Nothing Thinking
One bad week and you’ll think, “Well, I’ve already blown it. Might as well quit.”
The antidote: Remember the 48-hour rule. Remember the 80% rule. Progress, not perfection.
Pitfall 4: The Isolation Trap
You’ll try to do this alone. It won’t work.
The antidote: Share your journey. Find your people. Community isn’t optional it’s essential.
The Integration: Bringing It All Together
Let’s connect all the pieces:
Your Annual Themes → The “why” and direction
Your Quarterly Objectives → The “what” you’re working on
Your Weekly Planning → The “when” and “how”
Your Daily Rituals → The execution and consistency
Your Energy Management → The fuel for everything
Your Accountability → The tracking and adjustment
This isn’t seven separate systems. It’s one integrated operating system for your life.
Each level supports the next. Daily rituals feed weekly planning. Weekly planning advances quarterly objectives. Quarterly objectives manifest annual themes.
And your themes? They’re expressions of who you’re becoming.
The Ultimate Question: Who Do You Want to Be in December 2025?
Forget the goals for a moment. Close your eyes and imagine:
It’s December 31st, 2025. You’re reflecting on the year. What would make you proud?
Not what would impress others. Not what would look good on LinkedIn. What would make YOU proud?
- How do you feel in your body?
- What have you created?
- What relationships have deepened?
- What have you learned?
- What have you contributed?
- How have you grown?
Write this vision down. In detail. As if it’s already happened.
This is your North Star. Your themes and systems exist to move you toward this vision.
The 7-Day Launch Plan
Okay, enough theory. Here’s your action plan for the next seven days:
December 23-26: Reflection Phase
- Complete your annual review (5 questions + quantitative audit)
- No planning yet, just honest reflection
- Let insights simmer
December 27-28: Design Phase
- Define your 3-4 themes for 2025
- Write why they matter
- Share them with one person
December 29-30: Planning Phase
- Set Q1 objectives (one per theme)
- Plan your January calendar
- Set up your weekly template
December 31: System Setup
- Install any needed apps or tools
- Set up tracking systems (simple spreadsheet is fine)
- Write your first weekly plan for Jan 1-5
January 1-5: Launch Week
- Execute your first week following the system
- Adjust what doesn’t feel right
- Celebrate small wins
January 6: First weekly review. How’d it go? What needs tweaking?
The Permission Slips You Need
Before we close, I want to give you explicit permission for things that feel taboo:
Permission to start small. Three themes is enough. One objective per theme is enough. You don’t need a complicated system.
Permission to change your mind. If something isn’t working, change it. Adaptation is strength, not weakness.
Permission to say no. To opportunities, to requests, to things that don’t serve your themes. “No” is a complete sentence.
Permission to rest. Rest isn’t failure. Rest is how you sustain effort. Recovery is when growth happens.
Permission to be imperfect. You’ll mess up. You’ll have bad days. You’ll fall short. You’re human. Keep going anyway.
Permission to want different things than others. Your themes don’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
Final Words: The Long Game Revisited
I started this series talking about my 2014 article on procrastination. That was eleven years ago.
Eleven years.
You know what I’ve learned in that time? The people who win aren’t the most talented. They’re the most consistent.
They’re the ones who keep showing up. Who adapt when things change. Who build systems that work for them, not against them.
Most people will spend 2025 the same way they spent 2024 hoping for change but not changing their systems.
You’re different. You’re here, on December 22nd, doing the hard work of building your foundation and designing your year.
That already puts you in the top 5%.
But here’s the real test: Will you do the work in June when motivation has faded? Will you do the work in September when life gets chaotic? Will you do the work in November when you’re tired and want to coast into the holidays?
The answer depends on your system. Not your motivation. Not your willpower. Your system.
Build the system now. Trust the system later.
Your Next Steps
- If you haven’t read Part 1: Go read it now. Foundation first.
- Complete your annual review: Block time this week. No excuses.
- Define your themes: Write them down. Share them with someone.
- Join the conversation: Comment below with your themes. Let’s support each other. Accountability starts here.
- Set a reminder: July 1st, 2025. “Mid-year audit.” You’ll thank me later.
The Commitment
I’m doing this with you. My themes are public (see above). I’ll be sharing updates throughout the year wins, failures, adjustments.
Follow along on my blog. Hold me accountable. Let me hold you accountable.
Because here’s the truth: We’re all making this up as we go. Nobody has it figured out. But we figure it out faster together.
2025 isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being intentional.
It’s about designing a life instead of defaulting to one.
It’s about becoming the person you want to be, one small decision at a time, one week at a time, one quarter at a time.
The year starts now. Not January 1st. Now.
Let’s make it count.
This is Part 2 of our Pre-New Year Series. Part 1, “Stop Procrastinating in 2025: Building Your Foundation Before New Year’s Resolutions,” covers the essential foundation work.
Looking back at my 2014 journey of fighting procrastination, I realize that beating distraction was only step one. Building a life that matters; that’s the real work. That’s what this series is about.
What are your themes for 2025? Share them below public commitment is powerful. Let’s build our Life Operating Systems together.
P.S. – If this resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to read it. Systems work better when we build them together.