New Year's Resolution
- Grant Wiese
- Dec 29, 2025
- 5 min read
NW Call to Action
New Year's Resolution
If you didn't know this about me yet I'm big into goal setting, which I suppose counts as a new year's resolution.
Having a road map for the direction you are heading helps send you in the right direction. This is why I make goals every year, write them down, and track my progress. Could you imagine driving to Nipawin, Canada if you have never been there before and aren’t given directions? You would never make it! The same with goals and making progress in our lives. If we don't know where we are headed, we will never get anywhere of importance.
If you don’t care where your life ends up, it doesn’t matter whether you have goals or what you do in your day-to-day life.
HOWEVER…
If you can dream bigger and want to get better, goal tracking might be just what you are needing.
Where to start
I've been tracking my work and personal goals in an excel spreadsheet since 2017. It is saved to my desktop and labeled goals. I'm able to easily access it and make updates to it around 8 biweekly basis. The evolution of my goals has changed significantly in the last eight years. Here's how:
1. In 2017 my goals revolved around what daily and weekly tasks needed to be done to reach my desired outcome. For example: Can I meet and introduce myself to 250 new people? For my tracking I had every work day of the week broken out in excel and would right now down the names of every single person I met throughout the year to try to reach my goal. This was very helpful when we moved to a new area and I took on a new sales/banking role.
2. As life got busier, daily and weekly goals became very difficult to accomplish. In 2019 I got behind on my goals for the year and was never able to catch up. Once I fell significantly behind, I gave up on my goal and never picked up the slack again. Daily goals were extremely helpful for meeting you people and developing skills to help me in my sales role, but a new approach would be needed.
3. Around that time I read the book, “The 12 Week Year” by Brian Moran. Now I was already aware that often humans significantly overestimate what we can accomplish in 1 year (annual goals), but we drastically underestimate what we can accomplish in 5 years (long-term vision).
This book opened my eyes into breaking down your 1-year goals into smaller sprints, essentially getting a 1-year goal done in 3 months and then moving onto a different goal or priority for the next 3 months. It is essentially using the pomodoro effect to get more done in less time.
What is the pomodoro effect? Have you ever found yourself with 1 30-minute job that needs to be done, but you get distracted and at the end of the day you didn’t finish the 1 thing you set out to do? On the flip side, on the last day before you leave for vacation you get 5-days’ worth of work done as you get serious about the job at hand and focus the entire day?
This is the pomodoro effect. Forcing yourself to FOCUS on a task for small segments (30-60 minutes) without any interruptions, taking a small break, then diving back in. I use this frequently to get several days’ worth of work done in a few hours, distraction free. I started using this with my goals, cramming in a 1 year goal into 3 months, accelerating the turnaround on my laundry lists of goals and priorities in life.
4. Diversification is key for a financially stable business, and I added this to my goalsetting next. Instead of 1 annual goal to strive for, I made various 3-month goals in different segments of my life to propel myself forward. Instead of just a work and reading goal, I started to incorporate fitness, date nights, and time with the Lord into my goals. This way, I could include my real priorities in life into my weekly focus. Spending the right time with family and the Lord instead of chasing the almighty dollar.
I made goals to attend retreats, book special moments with family, and have more frequent date nights with my wife as the number of kids in the house grew.
5. What changed in 2025 for my goals? Well for starters, here’s what they were:
a. 5k Farm640 subscribers
b. Farm640 gross $XXk
c. Weekend getaway with my wife
d. 6 date nights
e. 12 adoration hours
f. Read 30 books
g. Run 50k Ultramarathon
h. Net worth $XXX
And how did I do? I came up well short for several of these:
a. 5k Farm640 subscribers =YES!
b. Farm640 gross $XXk =NO
c. Weekend getaway with my wife =YES!
d. 6 date nights =YES!
e. 12 adoration hours =NO
f. Read 30 books =NO
g. Run 50k Ultramarathon =YES!
h. Net worth $XXX =NO
The thing is though, I’m finally okay with being flexible and not reaching all these lofty goals this year. My life has changed SO much in the past 12 months, it felt stupid to hold myself to some number or plan that I had 12 months ago. Not all these goals fit my life anymore.
Be willing to change
As I started to see some 2025 goals slip away, I began a new list right next to my goal list. This list became all the accomplishments I completed in 2025 that were NEVER on my radar. I never meant to do any of these things, but 2025 has been the best year I’ve ever experienced in my life. All these were worthy of being on my goal list:
Went on Disney Cruise with kids
Starting consulting work
Booked my first public speaking job
Completed a 100 Day 4:30am/Run-Ruck/Write Challenge
Bought ethanol stock
Attend weekday mass
Worked with paid business coach
Created Cash Flow+ to help farmers with margins
Was promoted at work
Ski trip with family
Goals are fantastic. My evolution with goals has been an 8-year project. I started with 1 goal per year and can safely say I’ve 10x’ed my annual accomplishments now. At least for me, none of this would be possible without a roadmap.
Conclusion
I’m curious about what your goals are. Feel free to write them down and send them my way if you like (I’ll be sure to keep them between us). Written goals have a much higher success rate. Shared goals’ success rates go through the roof.
My 2026 goals? I haven’t nailed them down yet. But I promise you’ll see them come into focus if you keep following along.
Happy New Year!
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Have a great week!
Grant
