See 2026 in High Resolution

Every New Year it’s the same thing.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

How is this going to be different from last year?

Maybe you’ll follow through, maybe you don’t.

Some years I made resolutions and others I didn’t.

Sometimes I was adamant about achieving my goals, and did.

Other times, I missed the mark.

Oftentimes, my resolutions weren’t set in concrete so much as ‘nice to do’.

Honestly, if you’re going to be serious about achieving your goals, you don’t need to wait until January 1st to get started.

I was having a conversation with a friend about New Year’s resolutions, when the subject of Tai Lopez was brought up.

I’m not a huge Tai Lopez fan, but I’ve seen some of his content, and it’s pretty good.

He’s gotten better from his early videos where he’s flexing his Lamborghini and talking about what books to read.

In any case, he was saying that Tai’s New Year’s resolutions are organized into four categories.

1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Relationships
4. Other / Miscellaneous

I thought this was a great way to look at New Year’s resolutions, goals, and life in general.

In this article, I’m going to be examining my New Year’s resolutions, some of my previous ones, and will hopefully pass on some good ideas.

Keep in mind that just because we’re past January 1st doesn’t mean that it’s too late to begin something new.

You can do this anytime.

Let’s get started.

Health

This has got to be the most popular New Year’s resolution. Every year people are saying that this is the time when they will:

• Start going to the gym
• Eat healthier
• Lose weight
• Quit smoking, drinking, etc
• Run a marathon

The list goes on.

You go to the gym the first week after the holidays and it’s absolute chaos.

The parking lot is packed. Every piece of equipment is taken. Nobody has a clue what they’re doing.

Then, of course, life has its own demands. You have to work late. Your family is coming for a visit. You need to run some errands.

You get frustrated, start missing sessions, and then finally give up after a month or two.

There is no doubt in my mind that New Years is the worst time to start an exercise regimen.

I’ll admit that I’ve taken time off at the beginning of the year to avoid the crowds myself.

However, over this past year, I built my own gym.

I can exercise from home anytime I choose. My workouts will continue uninterrupted.

My health resolutions for this year have two components.

The first has to do with the workouts themselves.

I’ve had the same weightlifting program for years. It’s been effective at building muscle and giving me a respectable physique, but I’ve gradually lost other athletic abilities.

My cardio and flexibility are not where I want them to be, so I made changes.

Instead of lifting 6 days per week and doing my routine twice, I’ll be lifting 3 days per week hitting each muscle group once.

The other 3 days, I will be doing a mixture of yoga and kettlebell training.

The aim is to get about 45 minutes of stretching with an online yoga class, followed by 15-20 minutes of kettlebell training - which can be a killer burnout.

I also added 10-20 minutes of cardio to the end of my weightlifting sessions.

The second component to my health resolutions is my diet.

This is something I set out to do last year, but didn’t succeed.

I wanted to lower my body fat percentage and get visible abs.

I did little things to switch up my eating habits.

It wasn’t enough.

I didn’t track my meals and I wasn’t taking my diet seriously enough.

This year, I plan to dedicate 3-4 months to a diet that will help me achieve my goals.

The diet I found is the slow-carb diet made popular by Tim Ferriss in his book The 4-Hour Body.

I’ll be eating simple meals of protein, legumes, and vegetables, while eliminating sugar, refined carbohydrates, and liquid calories.

It’s enough to challenge me without being forced to hold unrealistic eating habits - and I get one cheat day per week.

I plan on starting this diet in April so that I can look good by summertime.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Wealth

This is the one category where I have most often failed.

Every year, I say I am going to build my business. I’m going to make money online. I’m going to strike out on my own.

And every year, I get these bursts of energy. I work hard. But then I hit a brick wall. Things get difficult. I fizzle out and give up.

This year, I’m taking a different approach.

To improve my wealth prospects, I’m going to be learning a new skill - copywriting.

For those who don’t know, copywriting is writing sales letters for business. It’s an extension of advertising.

It comes in many forms - email offers, sales funnels, YouTube ad reads, product descriptions.

It all serves one purpose - to get you to buy a product or service.

I’ll be studying material from notable advertisers and copywriters to learn from the best.

I’ll be writing my own sales copy.

I’ll be pitching my services to potential clients to get paid work.

I’m dedicating 3 evenings per week to this pursuit.

By next December, we’ll see how much progress I’ve made.

This is my goal. It’s not going to appeal to everyone.

Your wealth goals may be more along the lines of:

• Save more
• Get out of debt
• Invest in the stock market
• Max out my retirement fund
• Start investing in crypto
• Start a new business or expand your current one
• Buy a rental property

There are plenty of ideas. Think of where you are and where you want to be, then start taking steps to get there, even if they’re tiny.

Relationships

Having New Year’s resolutions geared towards relationships is a little different from the other categories, because you’re often relying on other people to achieve them.

I’ve made the mistake of resolving to get a girlfriend by Christmas. Even worse, during the time when I was embedded in hookup culture, I set goals around the number of women I wanted to sleep with that year.

This is the wrong way to go about making relationship-based New Year’s resolutions, and it’s almost guaranteed to fail.

You may have a goal to find a relationship, get married, or have children.

Perhaps you want to make more friends, meet new people, or strengthen existing bonds.

Many of us could benefit by getting out of the house more.

You could resolve to join a club, group, or team.

Rather than making resolutions dependent on an outcome, base them on a process instead.

The friend I was talking with is focused on his relationship goals this year.

Rather than saying he’s going to get a girlfriend, he’s resolving to go out more frequently, and talk with more people.

He’s going to approach more of the people he comes across, build his social skills, and while he plans to do some online dating, getting away from screens is a big part of his plan.

My relationship goals are a little different.

While I am looking for something romantic, it’s not my focus at this time.

I work a full-time job. I exercise almost daily. I’m learning copywriting. And I produce content for Crossed Stakes.

My current relationship goals are to build connections and friendships through my writing and online content with Crossed Stakes.

I want to meet and connect with like-minded people, and build my network.

This means putting myself out there. More articles. More videos. Additional platforms.

The goal is to keep putting out content week after week, and respond to everyone who engages with it.

Other / Miscellaneous

So much of what we want to do doesn’t fit in with the other categories.

For example, my biggest resolution from last year was to go back to school. It didn’t matter to me what I studied.

The idea of flight school came up.

I have a couple family members with their pilot’s licence who have been encouraging me to get my own.

Flying isn’t going to make me healthier.

It’s the opposite of building wealth when you consider how much it costs.

I suppose there is a relationship component when you’re meeting flight instructors, controllers, and other pilots, but it’s not the main focus.

Last September, I started ground school.

Twice a week, I was attending classes at the airport where I was learning about flight mechanics, meteorology, navigation, and air law, among other topics.

It’s been very informative and educational.

This year, I plan to start the practical section of flight training to get my private pilot’s licence.

It’s going to require at least 45 hours of flight time.

I’ll be flying with an instructor learning stalls, spins, and emergency procedures.

Then I’ll be learning how to fly solo until I have enough experience to take my exam.

Last year, I also resolved to travel outside of the country. I haven’t been outside of Canada since 2018.

At the time, I realized that I didn’t have enough time or money to do what I wanted, so I started planning for this year.

I just booked a 3 week trip to Egypt.

I’ll be visiting pyramids, ruins, and museums.

I plan to take a hot air balloon ride in Luxor, and go scuba diving for the first time in 20 years in the Red Sea.

There’s also going to be plenty of rest and relaxation.

The other goal I want to tackle this year is renovating my bathroom.

It’s not in bad shape, just a little dated.

I’ll keep my existing shower, but replace the sink and toilet, and lay some new tile.

Last year around this time, I renovated a small utility room and repainted my spare bedroom.

I love how they both look now.

I’m looking forward to my next project.

Overall, I’m not saying that New Year’s resolutions are necessary or even worthwhile for everyone.

I find that they help to put things in perspective. You set goals for the coming year, and evaluate the previous one.

Hopefully you’re moving forwards.

Just because we’re starting a new calendar year doesn’t mean that you need to become a different person to get ahead.

That will never work.

Set goals for the person you are.

Make them easy enough to accomplish, but difficult enough to challenge you.

When I thought back on 2025, I didn’t think I accomplished much, but I was wrong.

• I’ve written over 20 articles for Crossed Stakes.
• I graduated from being a catechumen to a full member of the Orthodox church.
• I built a full gym in my spare bedroom.
• I read numerous books - at least one each month, usually more.
• I completed the ground school portion of my pilot’s licence.

None of this happened by accident.

Every one of these things started with a plan that was followed through to completion.

They all began slow and unsexy, but developed into real world results.

So if you’re starting off the new year and unsure of what you want to do, pick a goal and start moving in that direction.

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Thanks for reading.

God Bless.