Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] It's the 17th. It's February. It's 2025. You've had six weeks to make some decisions about your 2025. Made some yet, maybe not want to make more. Here we go. Hey, I'm Bradley Charbonneau. It's the 17th of the month. That means I'm writing a newsletter today. This is an example of a decision I made, I can't remember how many years ago now to write a newsletter every 17th of the month, if you must know the secret. Well, you know what? I'll tell you the secret later about the 17th. If I forget, I'm gonna forget. Ready? The 17th is just a secret special number for me, Noel. Not so secret anymore. I think I've lived at two, maybe three addresses in my life. I think it was Amsterdam and then San Francisco, where I had the number 17 as my address. And then I was married on the 17th. My mother in law's birthday is on the 17th, and it's just always been my number. So that makes it easy for me to choose which day of the month I'm going to do this monthly thing.
[00:01:08] That's what we're talking about today. It's February 17, 2025. I'm not such a New Year's resolutions guy. I'm more a calendar guy. That sounds really boring. But what can you do daily, weekly or monthly? Or if you want to get crazy, quarterly and annually? I don't totally do that, although I really like the people who do the annual stuff. But what can you do on a daily basis that you can decide right now? Well, I'll already give you the slack of the February 17th thing because we're already six weeks into 2025. What can you do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis for the rest of the year that's a little challenging while at the same time cool or fun or interesting or something you'd like to do? Some examples from my world. Come on, Pepper. Pepper's eating the roots.
[00:02:07] Some examples from my world are this the 17th. I write a newsletter to my newsletter list every month. And remember, there is no. There are no excuses. There's no oh, but later. Oh, next time. Oh, I don't have any content. Oh, I don't know what to say. Nope, I do it. And that's actually key. The key is making the decision. And that's why I'm big on the word decision more so than choose or something. I think choose is a little lighter, a little softer. I want to choose. Do I want chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Right But I want to make a decision whether or not I'm going to do this thing on a regular basis. So here's my challenge for you. And the reason I'm doing this in February, not January, is I want to give you some time to let the year sink in. How are things beginning for you? How. How are things going so far? We're six weeks in and are things going as you had hoped? Are you. Is it like, oh, wow, it's already the 17th of February. Holy smokes. Jane Cowles. Darn it, Cletus.
[00:03:12] So that's a bit where I am. Part of me is like, whoa, this year is sneaking up on me already. Right, so what are you gonna do?
[00:03:21] What decision can you make now? And here's the key. This is the. The key moment here that I want to get across. What decision can you make now that you then no longer have to make for the rest of the year? Let me know if that makes sense. So, for example, I decided to make a newsletter every month so I don't have to make that decision again for the rest of the year. That frees up time. That frees up sort of mental energy and power. That frees up anxiety about whether or not I'm going to do it and frees up my creative brain. Because I don't have to decide if what I should do. Well, I have to do that. But because I'm going to do it, it makes it easier because I know I'm going to do it anyway. Some more examples, just from my personal world and my business world. I think it was last year I started doing a YouTube short every single day. And so I. And I did it. And remember, pick tiny things, especially for the daily. I mean, think about the toothbrushing thing. You don't. Well, you probably didn't make the decision. You're. Hopefully your parents made it for you back in the day when they said you have to brush your teeth every day. In fact, two or three times a day is even better. Right?
[00:04:39] And now it's just built into your system. So what can we build into your system? What can we build into your process?
[00:04:47] That it becomes normal, that it becomes a habit. So that's really what I'm getting at here, is I'm deciding to build a habit for the year. And if this is sounding painful or like, oh, you're groaning and moaning about, oh, man, what do I got to do all year? I've got to go to the gym every week or whatever, I get it, and I want a bit of that. For you, I want a bit of, oh, I got to do this thing. But I also want something that's exciting or fun or different or challenging. Because if it's too easy now I've got to eat a donut every week. Well, then what are the. What are the benefits? Well, if donuts are yummy, I'm going to really enjoy that donut for five minutes.
[00:05:27] Although, frankly, I'm probably going to be not happy for the following five hours. So what kind of thing could you do on a daily basis? Okay, I'm going over the bridge here holding my phone in one hand. What could you do on a daily basis that you can make the decision right now to complete or do for the rest of 2025?
[00:05:54] And did I have a week? Weekly is my Thursday Thunder. So I do a weekly video. I'm in season six of Thursday Thunder. That means I've been doing it for five full years. A video less than 10 minutes every single Thursday for five years. All of this happened because I made a decision, I remember it on January 1, 2020, to record a video every Thursday. And I said, I'm gonna do it for the year. So what happens is that some of these, the stronger ones, the ones that you like, the ones that you want to do, they'll continue. So my recommendation is to say it, you're gonna do it for a year. And also, if the numbers. Remember, I'm a numbers guy. I'm a calendar guy, right? I'm a regular habits guy. I'm a daily, weekly, monthly kind of guy. So what could you do that you're actually gonna do for the daily, weekly, monthly, right? And if you're. If you're feeling gung ho, then pick a daily and a weekly and a monthly. If you're thinking, oh, it sounds like a lot, pick one. You know what the easiest one is? The monthly. What if you picked a really, really easy thing monthly, and then you'd think, and let's. Let's just say you're gonna do catch up for January and you created something or you're doing something or something. Ideally, it'd be cool if you could sort of measure it or collect them, right? For after the year. And then you saw, okay, now I have 12 of these things. What could it be? Okay, writer guy comes out. What if you wrote a chapter of a book once a month, and after the year you'd have 12 chapters, right?
[00:07:39] Easy peasy. Or a chapter a week, whatever it is that's going to work for you. So you got to feel that Balance of the difficulty, but also joy. And also here's the key, really, the key is the emotion, is the positive emotion of the celebration of having succeeded at this thing.
[00:08:06] Greater than the short term pain or suffering or effort or whatever to do the thing.
[00:08:15] So is my 15 second YouTube short. Remember, like my YouTube shorts, I don't edit them, I do them. It probably takes me 30 seconds, maybe a minute total, right?
[00:08:24] It cost me 30 seconds a day. And I do it. And I've been 13,000 YouTube followers. It's amazing. And it's. It's really the practice, the consistency to practice is progress. There's no. Did you hear the word perfection in there? No, no, no word procrastination. Nope, nope, nope. Why? Because I've already decided to do the thing. So I don't procrastinate. I just do it every day and I make it tiny so that it's accomplishable. It is finishable.
[00:08:54] So I can see I'm about nine minutes here. I also, I keep limitations, I keep boundaries. I don't do these longer than 10 minutes. This isn't even a Thursday Thunder. This is a bonus 17th episode right here.
[00:09:06] So what daily thing can you think to do for the rest of the year? Or weekly or monthly? So how many of these things do you want to have at the end of the year? Do you want 365 of them? Do you want 52 of them? Or do you want 12 of them? What is this thing that you'd like to do that remember me, I'm create, Right? I want you to create something. What are you gonna create? What are you gonna do that you can kind of count and kind of assemble at the end of the year and be proud of? And something that you're gonna be happier that you did that's gonna be greater than the pain that you didn't? Right? Because that's the only way it's gonna get done. Let me know in the comments up here in this YouTube video or in the podcast or just shout out and I'll see you next week. Cause I'll be here. I'll be here next month. Have a great month. See you next time.
