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How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions

2019-01-01 · letter vlog · John · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Projects, US politics & society) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion, civic or action cta

On New Year's Day, John says resolutions fail because they are dreams rather than goals: life is a series of trade-offs best made consciously, so he writes himself a yearly letter of SMA goals; he reviews his 2018 goals and lists 2019 ones, mostly about doing less.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hook: Congress passes a Pacific Islands resolution but cannot fund the government

00:00:29 — Resolutions as dreams; life as trade-offs; John's yearly letter to himself

  • ★★★ Like Congress's resolutions, New Year's resolutions don't require doing anything; they never last for John because they are more like dreams than goals. — 00:00:29 · United States Congress
  • ★★ John would like to spend more time with his family this year (2019), but that means doing less of other things and disappointing people, so he must be ready to make a trade-off. — 00:00:36
  • ★★★ Life is a series of trade-offs and compromises; unmade consciously, they get made in a panic or denied until the system, a body or a federal government, shuts down. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Instead of resolutions, John writes himself a yearly letter looking back and ahead, about the trade-offs and changes he would like to make. — 00:01:13

00:01:27 — SMA goals; his 2018 goals: The Anthropocene Reviewed met, Cooking History missed

  • ★★ John tries to make SMART goals; after garbling the acronym ('Roll Tide', 'Rob Thomas'), he settles on SMA goals: specific, measurable, attainable. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John met his 2018 goal of ten episodes of his new podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed, making eleven; it was more work than imagined but more fun. — 00:01:40 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ The podcast has been good for forcing John's brain into quiet contemplation amid the loudness everywhere. — 00:01:56 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ John missed his goal of a Cooking History video series with Sarah because they didn't make time for it. — 00:02:04 · Sarah Urist Green

00:02:12 — 2019 goals: no social media, fewer nights away, reading, Life's Library, podcast, Crash Course, novel

  • ★★ This year (2019) most of John's goals involve doing less. — 00:02:12
  • ★★★ As discussed in a previous video, John aims to post zero times to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook; easy in principle, but he is worried he can't do it. — 00:02:17 · Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook
  • ★★★ John wants to travel less for work and spend fewer than 20 nights away from his kids this year (2019). — 00:02:28
  • ★★ That will be hard because the Looking for Alaska Hulu series will probably film this year (2019), as will a movie of Let It Snow, which John wrote with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. (hedged) — 00:02:37 · Indianapolis, Let It Snow, Maureen Johnson
  • ★★ There is also the possibility of a Turtles All the Way Down movie, and John wants to be present for all of it. (hedged) — 00:02:45
  • ★★★ For John, parenthood is not just about quality time but also about quantity time, so he has to make trade-offs. — 00:02:48
  • ★★ John wants to read at least two books per month and be a productive member of the Life's Library Book Club community. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ Life's Library is going great; John invites those who are or want to be part of it to go to lifeslibrarybookclub.com. — 00:03:05
  • ★★ John wants to write another 11 episodes of The Anthropocene Reviewed. — 00:03:12 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★★ John wants to edit and host 46 episodes of a new Crash Course History series about Europe. — 00:03:15 · Crash Course, Europe

00:03:24 — The novel goal; viewers encouraged to write down their goals; sign-off

  • ★★★ John's biggest professional goal, which he hesitates to share given his history of missing writing goals, is to write 5,000 words a month of a new novel: started, not finished, by year's end. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John encourages viewers to write down their goals for the new year and keep track of them; sharing them is optional. — 00:03:36
  • ★ John can't do much to stop the government shutting down, but wants to do whatever he can to stop himself shutting down. (playful) — 00:03:45

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description marks the 12th anniversary of the channel's founding; John is grateful to viewers and to Hank for the conversation of the last twelve years. — video description · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: New Year's resolution · opportunity cost

Also: People: Rob Thomas · Sarah Urist Green

Projects: Cooking History · Crash Course · Life's Library · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Works: Let It Snow (film) · Looking for Alaska (miniseries) · Turtles All the Way Down (film)

Organizations: Facebook · Hulu · Instagram · Reddit · Twitter · United States Congress

Concepts: parenting · SMART criteria

Places: Alabama · Europe · Indianapolis

Events: 2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown

Only in the description or credits: Lauren Myracle · Maureen Johnson · WNYC Studios

Also centred on opportunity cost: A Video about Videos · Why Can't America Have a Grown-Up Healthcare Conversation? · This Video Is Actually Three Videos · Let's Try Radiation Therapy!

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