Not sure that I am going to do this every month but we are (somehow) already into February almost 10% of the way through 2023 so I figured I'd give an update on my personal S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-sensitive) Goals for 2023 with some thoughts on each of the goals:
- 325 days of filling out my WHOOP journal: I did this every day in January. The cheat code on this is that if I miss a day, I can always go back to fill in the journal but memory fades after a few days so if I don't fill out the journal within two days, I can go back to fill it in but that doesn't count as me filling out my WHOOP journal.
- 300 days of taking a multivitamin: I also did this every day in January as well and hope to continue. In a total Progressive commercial "you are becoming your parents", I've started to use a seven day pill box that I put right next to where I put my keys/wallet each night. I am also considering doing Athletic Greens so if I do that, I will revisit whether I take the multivitamin or just rely on Athletic Greens.
- 250 days of doing two separate 4-7-8 breathing sessions: I did this only 9 of 31 days, which is a rough start to 2023 but thankfully purchased these (way over-priced) but slick daily tracker so will have a way to see this every day and honestly checking something off, even if it is super small, really helps me so fingers crossed the daily tracker helps with more than just my 4-7-8 breathing twice a day.
- 200 full keto days: speaking of rough start, I didn't get a single keto day so far in 2023 and TBD if I will in February since this is either a totally on or totally off thing for me, which make me think this is my worst (or best) S.M.A.R.T. Goal of 2023.
- 175 green WHOOP recoveries: 19 green, 10 yellow and 2 red recoveries. I took a true full cut at it with my Uncle Tony and cousins Benny/Philapito for a casino night at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, MI on Sunday, January 8th into Monday, January 9th. We watched the NFL playoff games and threw dice on the craps table, despite having a couple nice runs on the craps table, it was very kind of me to leave a bunch of money at the Blue Chip Casino. Remember kids, the casino always wins. I only got a few hours of sleep on the big family casino night and had to work the next day so I was honestly surprised that I didn't have more than one red day as a part of that casino trip. Aiming to keep that ratio of green, yellow and red recoveries but to work out more, which brings us to Peloton.
- 100 Peloton workouts, at least eight per month: I did "eight" of these in January, which were mostly meditating, stretching and low impact rides so that is why I technically had "eight" but didn't really have eight true workouts so going forward, I am only counting workouts that make me sweat towards my 100 Peloton workouts in 2023 but also have found that I like the mediating and stretching offerings in the app so I am going to up my workouts to at least 15 workouts per month with at least four meditation sessions and four stretching sessions. It seems like I am overcomplicating this but honestly part of this is to do more than one session when I workout and generally just use the Peloton app more often because I think that will be a net positive for me.
- Make 50 birdies on the golf course: haven't played a single round of golf in 2023 and with my good golf buddies heading to Charleston this weekend to play three amazing courses (Country Club of Charleston, Yeamans Hall Club and Charleston Muni), I am more than officially jealous. Fingers crossed we get some nice weather between now and April, otherwise I won't play a real round of golf until I head to Chattanooga, TN for NewClub's Spring Meeting at Sweetens Cove in late April.
- 35 Mondays through Thursdays of not drinking any alcohol: I did this four of five weeks to start January (bleed a few days into February) and have to say this is one of my favorite so far with the only drawback being that I've taken some extra full cuts on Fridays through Sundays knowing that I got through Monday through Thursday or am staring down the barrel of another Monday through Thursday. The ultimate goal will be to take less of a full cut on Fridays through Sundays as well as actually taking some of those days off too.
- Lose 23 pounds in 2023 with at least 12.6 pounds coming off by May 1st, weighed 182.6 lbs on 01/01/23: I am going the going the wrong way on this one given that I weighed 185 lbs on February 1st so until I get cracking on the keto days, I don't see this improving so it is going to be a race to get down to 170 by May 1st at this point.
- Read 23 books (finishing at least one every other month), including (at least) 3 novels: I finished my first book of 2023 literally a few minutes before the end of January to preserve the one book a month for at least the first month of 2023, I better read (at least) two books in February or I will have a hard time getting to 23 given that I usually don't read as many books when the weather is warm in Chicago.
- Write 12 blog posts: with this post live, two down and ten to go. It would be easy to just post running updates of my S.M.A.R.T. Goals each month so I can only count one more S.M.A.R.T. Goal update towards my 12 blog posts for 2023, which means I need to write (at least) nine substantive blog posts.
- Complete Landscape of Leadership online course by Paul McGinley and four other online courses through Pluralsight or The Great Courses: haven't done a thing on this so far so need to get cracking on this ASAP.
- Play four of my current Midwest bucket list private golf courses for the first time: Black Sheep (IL), Blue Mound (WI), Bob O'Link (IL), Camargo Club (OH), Canterbury (OH), Cedar Rapids (IA), Chicago (IL), Crystal Downs (MI), Davenport (IA), Exmoor (IL), Inverness Club (OH), Kirtland (OH), Knollwood (IL), North Shore (IL), Old Elm Club (IL), Pine Hills (WI), Scioto (OH), Shoreacres (IL), The Country Club (OH), The Harvester (IA), The Lido (WI), Wakonda Club (IA) or White Bear Yacht Club (MN): it is currently -1 degrees here in Chicago right now so since I haven't played a single hole of golf outside in 2023 (don't worry, played a TON inside at 5iron but don't count playing a course digitally as working towards my goal), I can report that there has been no progress on this goal and won't be any progress for some time.
- Complete the entire SuperSpeed Golf Training System before the end of 2023: I still have to watch a webinar that will help me track my SuperSpeed training as efficiently as possible. I've been procrastinating on watching the webinar for literally months so my new goal is to complete that webinar before Valentine's Day and start on this program before March 1st.
If you've stuck around this long you are either my parents or have a fair amount of free time on your hands so here is a little bonus content. I've been kicking around doing a long post on Aaron Rodgers since I am the Aaron Rodgers apologist with all of my Cheesehead spots buddies but my thoughts are pretty straight forward thanks to the salary cap implications of keeping Rodgers on the roster thanks to the great work by Joel Corry and Ken Ingalls flushing out that the dead-cap hits actually go up the longer that Rodgers plays in Green Bay, which is truly mind-blowing. Whether the Packers are ready to move onto Jordan Love as their starting quarterback is honestly neither here nor there because the Packers signed Rodgers to a contract where Rodgers holds the cards and the dead cap charges associated with him go up every year starting with this off-season. If Rodgers retires or the Packers trade him this off-season, the Packers will have to deal with a ~$40 million dead cap charge. If the Packers bring back Rodgers for 2023 and then Rodgers retires or the Packers trade him next off-season, the Packers have to deal with a ~$60 million dead cap charge. If the Packers bring Rodgers back for 2023 and 2024 then the Packers have a ~$70 million dead cap charge to contend with after the 2024 season. The more I learn about the contract that the Packers signed Rodgers to last off-season, the more I think it was organizational malpractice by the Packers. If I had to bet today, it is more likely that Rodgers gets traded to another team this off-season with the Jets the most likely team to keep this Favre reincarnation simulation going and the Raiders a close second than Rodgers plays for them Packers in 2023 but no matter what, I think Rodgers will play football in 2023.