It’s the first day of the rest of your life - here's to it 🍻💪🏻🎬
🍾 In today’s inaugural issue:
Mindset action: Most resolutions die in 30 days or less. Here’s how to guarantee that won’t happen this year.
Health action: The easiest change you can make in 2026.
Real Life Inspiration: Older guy changes the world (again) - the most inspiring old dude you’ve never heard of (until today)
The Year of Small Changes - how it’s going so far
Mindset Action
💪🏻 You’re not lacking willpower - it’s good planning you need
Forbes did a study in 2023 showing that as many as 92% of people don’t make it beyond four weeks with their New Year’s resolutions.
Honestly, I’m surprised the rate is only that low.
Even worse, by the end of a full year, only 1% have survived.
Plenty of other studies support our dismal consistency when it comes to bettering ourselves in the New Year.
But there is a way to guarantee you’ll stick to those goals, and it’s far easier than you think.
I’ve even included links to some simple (but highly effective) tools that will help you do it.
It’s not rocket science, but it does take more time than the traditional, slurred, December 31st midnight note to self - ‘will run three times per week from Jan 1st.’
And therein lies the problem.
Most of us half-ass it, conjuring up a bland resolution based on what we think other people are doing, and then we jack it in days later at the first sign of cold weather or an early start.
If you want to keep your goals, the first step is to make sure they are the right ones.
Here are all the steps:
Set aside time to think about what your goals should be. Do this now and for the entire first week of Jan 2026.
Start big and start ‘essential’. What I want at the end of 2026 is to wake up every morning, literally thrilled by the day ahead. Do that for yourself and then work backwards. This takes time, and that’s why you need an entire week.
Embed everything with meaning. Viktor Frankl said, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’” Without a good reason to get out of bed, you won’t do those early morning runs for long.
Plan it. Map out the whole year ahead, week by week, day by day. That way, when you’re not feeling it, all you have to do is look at your calendar, shut off your brain and all the lazy voices telling you to skip it, and carry out your plan for that day.
Here’s my goal planner: Plan 50X Goal Setter
Here’s my 12-month plan for 2026: The Year of Small Changes
Now go ahead and get started. You’ve got most of the week to do this. Take your time.
Meditate on it and make your 2026 start an authentic one based on what you really need in your life.
Viktor Frankl
“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’”
Age differences
People over about 55 are both less likely to set resolutions and less confident they’ll maintain them, with their good intentions lasting less than 2 months on average.
Young adults start more resolutions but tend to drop off heavily by late winter, usually sometime in February.
Neither of these are you because you will define your goals clearly and make a full plan that you will stick to for 12 months or more.
Gender differences
Women slightly outperform men in consistency, according to self‑reported surveys. Especially when social support is involved.
Men tend to maintain resolutions longer when they are specific and outcome‑focused (e.g., “lose 1 pound a week”).
You don’t need the validation of others, and you don’t need to self-report your success for further validation. You need objective measurable goals to keep you on track. Remember that.
Health Action
⛅💊 The Easiest Change You Can Make This Year
Over 30% of Americans are deficient in this vitamin, more than 40% of people in Ireland, and as much as 57% in the UK. For African-Americans, the level of deficiency rises to as much as 82%
The worst thing is that the threshold for deficiency is likely far off the truth, and in reality, even more of us are lacking in this low-cost, widely available vitamin.
Every cell in your body is a receptor for it.
It contributes to bone metabolism, mood stabilization, cancer prevention, and lots more.
The UK recommends 400 IU per day, Ireland 600 IU, and the US 600 IU to 800 IU, depending on age.
As doctors increasingly point out, though, these are recommendations for bone health only, not for everything else Vitamin D does for your body.
The reality is that you probably need orders of magnitude greater than this.
What counts more than your daily IU intake is how much you are absorbing.
This is measured in nanograms per milliliter of blood and shows up in standard blood tests.
20ng/mL is considered fine in most countries.
But is it really? Or are we all running on deficiency levels?
Supplement trade bodies like the Council for Responsible Nutrition in the US and the UK claim that far higher doses are not only entirely safe but also required for health.
They recommend 10,000 IU daily to reach optimal blood levels. Many doctors agree and recommend at least this amount when you are building up a depleted reserve.
Beyond even the amounts recommended by trade bodies, doctors have used doses of 20,000 to 60,000 IU daily for years at a time to reverse chronic disease.
Here’s an example of this:
These ‘mega’ doses have been used to treat symptoms of depression, alzheimers, dementia, anxiety, autism, autoimmune conditions, allergies, hypertension, and more.
Now, of course, I’m excited to read things like this, but while always keeping an open mind, healthy skepticism is a thing too.
The reality is that we are all different, and factors like stress levels, inflammation, exposure to sunlight, genetics, and many others play a role in how much each person needs.
The best way to find out what works for you is to test different levels and see what works best.
If you suspect any medical issues, you’ll need to speak with your doctor first, of course.
The main risk factor that most people fear is hypercalcemia, or, in other words, too much calcium. Particularly when it accumulates in blood vessels, with all the negatives you can imagine.
The way to reduce this risk is by combining Vitamin D3 with K2 in a single dose.
D3 is the more absorbable version of the vitamin, and K2 helps to distribute calcium to where it should be - in your bones, not in your arteries.
I take between 5,000 and 10,000 IU daily, combined with K2, and have been doing that for quite a while with only good effects.
If you’re going to make any changes, remember to always speak to your doctor first, because I’m not one.
But Dr. Nick Zyrowski is one, and you can learn more about his opinions and recommendations below.
Inspiration
🤲🏻 Lost his legs at 47, still fighting at 84 years old
S. Brian Willson was already 46 years old when he lay down on train tracks to block a shipment of military weapons from California to Central America.
The drivers obeyed their orders to drive over him, severing both legs at the knee and giving him a severe brain injury.
Then they sued him for the alleged trauma he caused by ‘forcing’ them to drive over him.
He countersued and won.
Then he went on to start or expand multiple peace organisations, write books, create documentaries, and speak internationally on his experiences.
The peace activist and Vietnam vet. is still campaigning for peace today at age 84.
Brian’s last Facebook update was 14 hours ago as I write this newsletter.
Here’s the trailer for his 2018 documentary:
The Year of Small Changes
🤔 How’s it going so far
If you saw my post last week about The Year of Small Changes, then you’ll know that week 1 is all about goal setting.
As soon as I started, I realized this wasn’t a single step but a whole process that would require time, thought, and intention.
In short, if you want your intentions to last, whether they are health-based, financial, spiritual, or otherwise, you need to think them through.
If you hit a brick wall on your ‘big why’, I recommend a daily 5-minute meditation.
You don’t need to sit for this, and you don’t need to focus directly on the goal. Just set aside those 5 minutes daily to be aware of what happens when you take the time to consider what your biggest motivating force in life is right now.
Here’s my goal planner: Plan 50X Goal Setter
After a couple of days, you can start writing things down and make your plan for the whole year.
For me, the single clearest thought I had was to want to wake up every day, literally thrilled to go about my business.
After that, it was easy to work back from this to concrete daily action.
As Stephen Covey says, ‘Begin with the end in mind.’
🙏🏻 That’s it for this week.
Let me know how it was for you all.
Anything at all - from colour scheme (or lack of it), to content, length, format, etc.
If you liked it and found it useful, don’t forget to pass it on.
Liam KB.
PS Watch out for posts on social media if you’re that way inclined.