Let’s talk about non-negotiables. I believe that to be successful in ANYTHING, you must have non-negotiables. THEY ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE! You do them regardless of what is going on in your life, how you feel, you think, or anything. You. Do. Them.

That is an ideal thought…  “Well, what if… x?” Sure, there are some instances where you just CAN’T, such as being in the hospital and having a non-negotiable of going to the gym, which makes it tough to complete. Everything in life has some nuance about it. But for 99% of the time, you will have the ability to do the thing.

For 2025, I will be continuing to have my non-negotiables this year. Let’s go through the Objectives, Key Results (OKRs), and the WHY.

Technology

Objective 1: Become a better educator for technology

Key Result 1: Create video content once a week on what I know and become better at relaying that information to a wider audience

Key Result 2: Create blogs, like this, multiple times a week to expand my vocabulary and knowledge back to what it was before. Relaying education on technology using my communication skills and enhancing them.

Why: I have always felt a draw to being an educator. Falling in love with tech and having the ability to teach others is something fulfilling and expands the profession.

Health & Fitness

Objective 1: Do something active every day

Key Results 1:  Weight Training 4x a week

Key Results 2: Cardio (walking, running, swimming, etc.) 3x + a week

Why: To keep my physical and mental health well, I need to ensure that my body performs at the optimal level. I love working out. I have been working out for 18+ years. It is what I do and it’s a part of me. BUT, I need to be more focused on the key results to achieve my goals. Don’t fall off the wagon.

Objective 2: Maintain an 80/20 relationship with diet

Key results 1: 80% of the time I will adhere to a maintenance level of calories following my needed Macros based on real foods.

Key Results 2: 20% of the time I will allow myself to enjoy food. Restaurants, Home cooked fun food.

Why: To keep my weight at a healthy level, I need to not give into my love for food, especially fatty foods. Who DOESN’T love French fries? I need to be more aware of what I am eating and adhere to my 80%+ in healthy foods.

Personal Life

Objective 1: Maintain quality time with my wife

Key Results 1: Plan and make time for date nights once a month.

Key Results 2: Every night turn off my phone and be present with my family

Why: Need to maintain a health relationship with my wife and she comes before anything else. All other OKRs are second to this one. If my wife needs me, then everything else I have listed is dropped. No questions asked. This is the main priority of my life.

Objective 2: Play with dogs everyday

Key Results: Whatever time I have between after work and dinner belongs to the dogs

Why: As we get older and busier, I don’t want to leave my dogs out of it. Especially if kids come along, I need to ensure that they are still being exercised and loved. They didn’t ask to be a part of this family and they shouldn’t be neglected because I am tired or anything.

Objective 3: Keep “boys night’ a priority

Key Result 1: Keep 85% of Friday nights open to play games with my friends.

Why: These are the few hours that I get to unwind and be with my friends. I am giving myself grace to neglect other places in my life for this. For example: in order to keep this a priority I am willing to sacrifice a couple of hours of extra sleep.

Education

Objective 1:  Listen/Learn Spanish every day

Key Result 1: Spend at least 30 minutes every day listening/learning Spanish

Why: My goal has always been to be fluent in Spanish and I slacked off last year. This year will be different. If I don’t have 2 hours, do I have 1 hour? If I don’t have 1 hour, do I have 30 minutes? I can do something EVERY DAY!

Objective 2: Learn something new every week

Key Results 1: Go out of my way to learn something, surrounding technology or health, every week using YouTube, Books, or something like a podcast.

Why: I don’t ever want to be stale in my learning. I love technology and health and dedicating time every week/day to get 1% better is a top priority.

Now there could be people thinking “how in the world are these all non-negotiable going to happen?” One thing that helps, is that I work from home, so I have no drive and I can accomplish more because I have more time in my day.

I’ll show you how I can accomplish this all by giving you a couple of example days to accomplish my goals:

Monday:

Wakeup: 4am

Gym: 445 – 545am

Start of day (breakfast, shower, etc): 6am – 7am

Write Blog: 7 – 730 am

Work Day: 730 – 430 pm

Play w/ Dogs and listening to Spanish: 430 – 530 pm

Read: 530 – 6pm

Time with Wife: 6 – 730pm

Sleep: 730/8 – 4 am

Saturday:

Wakeup: 6am

Gym: 7 – 8am

Start of day (breakfast, shower, etc): 8am – 9am

Write Blog: 9 – 930 am

Video brain storming/ Creating: 930 – 12 pm

Play w/ Dogs and listening to Spanish: 12 – 330 pm

MISC (shopping, etc..): 330 – 5pm

Time with Wife: 5 – 830pm

Sleep: 830 – 6 am

These are some of the examples of how I will shape my days around my non-negotiables. When we sit down and look at how much time we waste throughout the day we can find the X amount of time needed to accomplish X. Some things only need 30 minutes of your time, and you HAVE to win that battle. I LOOOOOVE being lazy. I have been exhausted for 10 years doing DUMB stuff, I can be exhausted now to bring forth new life into my life.

Now if you are thinking “Where are the things you have to do like: mow the lawn, shovel snow, clean the bathrooms.” There are times where you have to move around items to get your essentials done without giving up your non-negotiables. What if you have to mow the lawn after work? I would mow the lawn after work and I will shift or modify the times with my dogs and skip reading for that day. I can still listen to Spanish while mowing and then get the dogs outside and play with them until dinner. There are ways. Find them!

Too many goals to accomplish and not enough time to do them. I pick and choose how and when I get things done. Life in 2026 could be VASTLY different and these non-negotiables could and probably will change. But, what I love thinking about is the fact that if I do follow these guidelines 95% of the time, I could need less time to maintain what I built this year and use that time for, kids.

Do the hard things now, so you have time to do the easy things later. A few years of sacrifice will be greatly rewarded in the future when you have the time to relax…

What are your non-negotiables this year? Let’s help each other succeed in life.

Take care and live life fully!

Joe