The Secret to an Unforgettable Year

A student walked up to me the other day and said, "I'm gonna be better this quarter. The old me is gone. New year, new me!" I playfully responded by reintroducing myself, saying, "Oh, okay. In that case, my name is Mr. Keefer," and shook his hand as I was meeting him for the first time.

Besides being a funny interaction, it points to something we all feel at some point in our lives: starting fresh. Not everyone enjoys the New Year's Resolution hype or falls for the gym membership deals that appear in January, but we have all wanted to reinvent ourselves. We have all had moments in life where we want to change something by moving somewhere, starting a new career, finding new friends, or finally establishing better habits.

What do we actually need to do to reinvent ourselves? This week, I wanted to summarize someone else's ideas on this, because while I might have some answers, there are a lot wiser people out there. The entrepreneur Jesse Itzler often preaches about the 3 things he does to have a successful year, and this year, I thought I'd try his method. Here is what he says to do:

1.     Choose a Misogi. This is an old Japanese ritual where you do one year-defining thing every year. That way you can look back and say, “in 2024 I started a business,” “in 2018 I ran a marathon” or “in 2021 I quit smoking.” It gives you perspective on what you did each year because the days and weeks fly by, but our years should be transformative.

2.     Follow Kevin’s Rule. This is a rule based on Jesse’s friend Kevin, who plans something out of the ordinary to do every other month. This is like a mini-adventure where you step slightly outside of your routine or comfort zone to make a memory. Instead of watching a movie or a football game, you might go camping, take a class, or travel with your family to see a monument. Anything that you wouldn’t normally do on a typical weekend day.

3.     Add a new habit every quarter. This is a small behavior you can add that would benefit your life. Some examples would be things like a 10-minute meditation practice or drinking half your weight in water. For me, I’m going to include what I started in November, which is doing 100 pushups every day.  

That’s the plan – Jesse Itzler’s process for an awesome year, every year. If you feel like you want to step up your year, join me in trying these out. Or maybe you choose one or two of them. I’m still figuring out what I want my “misogi” to be, and we need to plan some more mini adventures, but it’s all a part of the process. Whatever you do, I hope you take something from this and make this an unforgettable year.  

*Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upVzz574WA&list=LL&index=42