Introduction 

• This won’t be yet another New Year’s Resolution blog post, I’m sure your sick of reading or hearing about them by now.  
• I don’t like making New Year’s Resolutions, primarily because it often feels like people make them purely to break them! Often people know they need to make a change but don’t really want to, therefore proclaim to everyone that it will be their New Year’s Resolution, so that no-one is surprised – and the individual isn’t disappointed – when they give up by mid-February, because ‘at least they tried’. In the rest of the year you don’t get so much sympathy.   
• Before you think I’m just being pessimistic during the January blues, the evidence supports me on this one. A study by the University of Scranton in 2012 found that only 8% of people ever go on to keep their New Year’s Resolutions, and that 80% of New Year’s resolutions don’t even last beyond January! 
• Another reason I don’t like making New Year’s Resolutions is I don’t think that having an excessive festive period is a problem, I bloody loved eating too much, drinking too much and having ‘unproductive’ time with family and friends catching up / chilling out. A phrase that has always resonated with me is, ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation’. Therefore, I don’t feel the need to cleanse myself or make grand promises that won’t last.  
• If, however you are looking for support on converting your New Year’s Resolution pipe dream into reality then there is still hope. I’d suggest reading some of my previous posts on habit formation, namely ‘Forming Habits & Routines‘ and ‘How to Break Bad Habits & Routines‘. 
• Having spent the whole of this post so far explaining what I’m not covering its probably time to explain what I will be covering. While I don’t find making new resolutions particularly useful, I do find great value in doing two things at the start of each year: 
  • Review all blog material and Coach.Me App Data as well as ‘Notes’ on my I-phone from the year, taking a holistic view of everything that was important to me and seeing how well I achieved these things, or where I fell short 
  • Categorise all of these into my pre-defined 7 ‘lifestyle’ categories, evaluate them and decide what my focus for each of these 7 is for 2018 
• In the course of 2017 there were some things which I no longer wanted to do, be it because I did more research and found that they didn’t seem as good or useful as I initially thought, or simply because my tastes, desires or preferences have changed.  
• I’ll now walk you through each of the seven in turn, I hope this will not only show you the use of the exercise but also give you some inspiration for choosing and prioritising your focus items for 2018. 

Physical Health & Nutrition 

• 2017: Through the year my gym regime was solid, I almost managed 3 times a week every week. I’m really proud of early morning gym routine I created, and the success I had implementing it. Playing rugby for the first time in more than 6 years was a great experience, I am so glad I finally played a game. However, it also made me realise that I didn’t miss playing quite as much as I thought I would. I think I’m happier being more of a spectator than playing 2 or 3 times a week, although I am still keen to play once a month in 2018. My second post of 2017 was on ‘Weight Loss Fundamentals’ and reading it again recently I was glad to see that not only have I stuck to all the things I outlined, I also still fully believe in everything I recommended. Time is often the best test of views, and given new research is always being released on the best way to have a balanced diet, I was really happy about this. The only negative in this area was, after an initial good run, I feel back into bad habits and stopped my regular stretching exercises, which I initially wrote about here. The aim was to do the 10 different stretches 2 or 3 times a week whilst watching TV, the reality didn’t last long.  
• 2018: In 2018 I want to continue the gym momentum, going 3 times a week with 1 or 2 weekday morning sessions, if my recent plateau in lifting progression continues I will consider a few personal training sessions, to help re-invigorate my exercises and put an additional financial incentive to help me bust through the plateau. Also in 2018 I want to get my stretching routine back on track, I know what I want to do, I just need to make it a habit once again.  

Mental Health 

• 2017: This wasn’t a huge focus for 2017, testing meditation / mindfulness practices was on the list to do, but unfortunately, never happened. The one area where I did improve in terms of mental wellbeing was in furthering my understanding and knowledge of stoicism. I’ve written a number of posts on it, 5 in total in 2017, all of which can be found here. ‘The Power of Perception’ was perhaps my favourite, it reminded me that perception is 9/10’s of the law, and what I focus on in my mind can not only directly influence my physical life but also make me happier and more grateful for what I have today.  
• 2018: A big priority at the start of 2018 is to test different meditation / mindfulness practices to see which works best for me. Obviously if any do help me significantly I’ll then convert that into a daily/weekly habit. In the final days of 2017 I started a Daily Journal practice which, although only a few days old is so far, is going well, a post on this is coming soon. Finally – and related to meditations and mindfulness practices – I want to research more information on Mind Sculpture, and see if I’d obtain value from adopting this interesting practice. 

Productivity 

• 2017: I’m sure you can tell by the number of posts on this topic, it was a big focus area for me in 2017, all of which can be found here. On this category I am really happy with where I’m at, getting very close to reaching my maximum productivity on the vast majority of days. I learned a huge amount converting my managerial approach into a post, if you have just been a first-time manager or want to become one soon, I’d highly recommend it. Moving from publishing a blog post weekly to ad hoc – find out more about my reasons for this here – has definitely altered my writing demands, which has allowed room for some other elements in 2018 which I’m excited about.  
• 2018: A significant theme in 2017 – which I wasn’t on top of – was ensuring that productivity enhancements were working for me. What do I mean? The whole point of improving your productivity is to do things in a faster, more effective way to either allow you to do additional things or have more time to enjoy your free time. At times in 2017 I found some of my productivity hacks were actually just adding to the to do list, instead of actually helping me get through the list faster. For this exact reason I’m being analytical and critical of new habits or productivity hacks in 2018, to ensure I only add things into my daily routine which will actually help me. Starting a daily journal and mindfulness/meditation practice – mentioned above – are a perfect example of this. Finally, now I only post on this blog on an ad hoc basis, it means instead of writing content for this blog for 30mins 6 times a week, I tend to now only do 30mins 3 or 4 times a week, which gives me more time to focus on doing the things that inspire my posts.  

Personal Finance 

• 2017: Many of the core components of my financial strategy and financial habits were sorted in 2016, so 2017 was more a case of implementing and tweaking. I finally got a daily spending tracker that worked for me, a full post on that in current in the works. I was really proud of the fact I managed to increase the diversification of my investment portfolio, not only with an ethical fund for some of my pension pot, but also an Asia facing fund for other savings. One of biggest posts I did in 2017 was on ‘How to Retire Early’, it was such a beast that it ended up being a two part post – Part 1 & Part 2. Early retirement was something I was already very conscious of, but creating a detailed blog post really helped me consolidate my view and realise the exact steps I needed to take to reach my goal of ‘retiring’ aged 57.  
• 2018: The first major thing I did of 2018 – apart from deal with a terrible hangover – was pay off my remaining Student Loan balance and I couldn’t be happier. It was the only debt I’ve ever had and it is nice to get it off the books before a mortgage comes around. As highlighted already, I’ll be sharing my daily spending tracker story and how I got it right for me soon, so, watch this space. Finally, in 2018 I’m expecting the first stock market wobble – or potentially even a crash – of my investing career, so I’m excited and nervous about that. And of course, I’m ready to be proven completely wrong. 

Technology  

• 2017: Last year wasn’t really a year of technology for me personally, more a case of watching what was going on. The one area that I was focused on, and wish more Millennials were also focused on, is future-proofing your career given the rise of technology & automation in the workplace. I wrote my perspective on this in June 2017, http://jablifestyle.net/2017/06/18/future-proof-career/, and as it’s a prediction I’m sure some of my thoughts will be wide of the mark. A lot of automation is inevitable and the important thing is to be actively thinking about it. Make decisions and actions today to ensure you remain relevant and employable in the future.  
• 2018: Roughly the same as 2017, although my I-pad is now very old and might need replacing. I’m waiting with baited breath for augmented reality to really enter my daily life, although I don’t expect 2018 to necessarily be the year for that. Given the recent news from Apple on the mini battery-scandal I’m resigned to the fact I’ll need at minimum a new battery for my I-phone 6, although I may just get an upgrade instead. 

Books 

• 2017: It was another great year for reading for me, I loved so many of the books I read and got a good variety of different books. Historically, I’ve found that I wasn’t reading as much as I wanted because I always put off my reading time for more ‘important’ tasks. This meant I’d read 4+ books whilst on holiday and then not finish one book in the next 5 months. That is why in 2017 I started the habit of reading for 30mins at least 4 times a week, and following that I have definitely seen an up-lift in the number of books I’ve read. While I may have only uploaded 9 Book Reviews this year, all of which can be found here, I read 16 in total.  
• 2018: I definitely want to maintain my reading habit in 2018, I love reading and find real value in reading books over articles, as I find retaining their content and key messages much easier. The other thing which I started doing towards the end of 2017 and want to continue in 2018 is reading more fiction – especially science fiction. I used to only read non-fiction – be it financial, auto-biography, productivity etc – and didn’t see the value of reading fiction, it seemed a waste of time. How wrong I was. Reading fiction not only helps me escape from the stresses or frustrations of real life, they massively help my creativity in real life and my ability to think up out-of-the-box ideas or concepts. I got a huge stack of new books for my birthday and Christmas which I’m excited to get started on, the reviews of many I’ll be posting throughout 2018. 

Travel  

• 2017: The biggest trip I took in 2017 was the incredible one to Singapore & Malaysia, you can read about my top 10 tips from Singapore here. The other significant trip in 2017 was Lisbon & Sintra, another trip I loved and you can read all about it here.  
• 2018: The biggest travel decision facing my fiancée and I in 2018 is choosing the location for our honeymoon. My initial preference was Central America, I’ve done extensive traveling around South America and some in North America, but Central America is so far untouched. However, due to the time of the year we will be going, Central America is out of the picture, I’m not sure hurricane season is particularly romantic! After extensive research we current have got down to two primary options: Borneo or Kenya & Zanzibar (Safari & Beach). Watch this space. I also want to spend more time having ‘UK Adventures’, this was something vaguely in my radar for 2017, however that didn’t really happen so I’d like to do more in 2018, however I am already pessimistic on that given how busy I already seem to be! 

Conclusion 

• I hope reading this has helped you think about why and how you might want to do this exercise, it has definitely helped me in three key ways:
  • Appreciate all the things I achieved & learned in 2017, realising that there were far more than I initially thought 
  • Understand which things I want to continue doing in 2018 
  • Prioritise the things which I want to start doing in 2018 to help me be happier and healthier 
• So instead of beasting yourself in January and then falling straight back into old ways in February, actually use January to understand and prioritise your focus areas and spend the whole year achieving them. Good luck! 

 

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