Firsts are the best time to make changes statistically because you are more likely to maintain those changes. Could be first of a day, week, month, season, semester or year. Including the new School year or sports season.
Today being the first day of 2023, Here are a few patterns I encourage you to consider.
- Switch from TXT to Signal
- Make a playlist for your year – listen to it often
- Open a Coinbase account & do their learning section over time
- Track your personal finances better
- Play a board game
1. Switch from TXT to Signal
TXT messages, no matter if it’s Apple Messages or whatever system you use is like sending a post card.
Anyone who picks it up can read it & it probably goes through many peoples’ hands.
Signal is run by a not-for-profit, or for-impact group & cannot read your messages, unlike systems run my Mr. Z.
Alternatively – consider Marco Polo for video messages.
2. Make a playlist for your year – listen to it often
Music is a meditation – the lyrics you put in your brain has an impact on your life.
Being intentional and having a few songs with the core message you want will have an impact on you.
Here is my 2022 playlist at the end … it changed over the year.
Started with a couple songs, added and took away.
My playlist is for me and my family and addresses messages, beats, and ideas we need at this time.
One example:
Highlight Reel by John Reuben
My kids are getting to a phase where tons of their friends are getting social media accounts & phones.
I want them to know that social media is just a highlight reel.
Reel life is more important.
3. Open a Coinbase account & do their learning section over time
Learning about Crypto is good.
Not encouraging “investing” because to get to the point of investing has a learning curve.
Yet, knowing a bit about Crypto, blockchain, and currencies will be more useful in the future.
Just opening an account on Coinbase, then going through their “Learning Rewards” section, where they give you a couple dollars worth of different crypto currencies. This will give you a better understanding of something I expect to be more important moving forward.
I’ve made mistakes in this. I’ve forgotten code words I really needed to and learned lessons on managing data better.
Better to make mistakes with very little than bigger amounts.
If you want to learn more on this, let me know – I have a few podcasts and friends who share good info, like Little Might.
4. Track your personal finances better
For years, nearly 20 now, my wife and I have done a monthly budget until early in 2022 when a core system broke.
It caused us to sit back and look.
What I realized is early on, those first 19 years, it was important to track every dollar. Where did the money go?
Now, we are shifting our focus a bit because our lifestyle is pretty consistent.
Yet, there were a few areas or items were were both not managing, tracking, or being as intentional on and now we are going to emphasize:
Investing
This is both for retirement, which we have done to one level, and opportunities or early-retirement. A downside of most retirement accounts set up by the US Federal Government is restrictions on when you can use the money. We are now focused on making more of our current day to day being able to be funded by investments.
Fun
One of our intentions is for our children to spend significant time in all 50 states. We are down to 20 states left, yet the time windows we can travel with school are smaller (more sports and activities) and the money for some of these are getting larger. We have to be intentional.
Giving
We have giving.
We have not always done a good job tracking.
We did not always tell our kids.
We did not celebrate the difference our giving made … though we don’t always know.
For example we gave at least 23 books in 2022. I only know that because I started tracking some of our giving a few years ago so I would not gift the same book to the same person.
5. Play a board game, regularly
Being face to face with people, having side conversations, and exploring can such a great time. There can be tears if you have children who are competitive, yet the lessons my children have learned through board games have been invaluable.
Not knowing you, and just considering what you can get at stores like Target and Amazon, here are some recommendations to look at:
Ones I’ve played:
- 7 Wonders
- Century Spice Road or Golem Edition
- Pandemic
- Space Base
- Azul
- Marvel United X-men
- Carcassonne
- Catan
- Camel Up
- Ticket To Ride
- The Crew Mission Deep
Here are some I’ve not played, yet believe them to be good
- Small World
- King of Tokyo
- The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw
- Dixit
- Canvas
- Codenames
Yet more importantly, how do you find and learn games?
Learning – go to youtube and simply put in “How to play X” with X being the name of the game.
Beyond that:
Board Game Geek – this is a place with lots of information on most every game.
Dice Tower Youtube Channel – has tons of videos about games
BoardGame Co & Quackalo are two additional channels.
IV Studios – this is my favorite game producing company, they are local to me & have this mindset I love:
“We want everyone to be interested in other players turns”
~ Austin, IV Studios
Even just getting a deck of cards and playing regularly with your family or close friends will improve your life. Spades, Hearts, Rummy, there are a ton of options.
6. Eat Less & Move more
This is the simple process to get in better shape.
It could be making sure you average 8,000 steps each day.
Intermittent Fasting.
Reduce pasta & bread.
No ice cream after 7pm.
See what gains you make & celebrate.
That really is the key to looking back on 2023 in a year and smiling.
Focus on the gains you make.
May 2023 be your best year ever, now please commit to at least one thing and tell at least 3 people who would want you to win what you are committing to.
