209: 2025 Wins, What We’re Working On, and What’s Next

Scot: I'm curious, I'm looking for your one-word reaction to this phrase. Are you ready?

Dr. Smith: Ready.

Scot: I'm just going to start with you, Mitch. New Year's resolutions. One-word reaction. Go.

Mitch: Bleh.

Scot: New Year's resolutions, John, one-word reaction. Go.

Dr. Smith: Overrated.

Scot: Okay. This is "Who Cares About Men's Health," with inspiration, information, and a different interpretation of men's health. And today we're going to, again, rethink the New Year's resolution. I think this is a formula that's really going to work. I love this formula. We're calling it Wins, Working-Ons, and What's Next? And we're doing it for 2026.

My name is Scot. I bring the BS, and I'm really excited to share this framework with you. We've talked about it before, but putting it to New Year's just kind of takes it to the next level, I think. The MD to my BS, Dr. John Smith.

Dr. Smith: Yes. I am so excited to be here for this episode.

Scot: And he's an "I Care About Men's Health" convert, Producer Mitch.

Mitch: Hey, there.

Scot: All right. So traditional New Year's resolutions tend to be, "What am I going to fix next year?" They tend to go, "What am I failing at? What dramatic change will I make on January 1st that makes me look nothing like the me on December 31st?" So what you're doing is you're kind of setting yourself up for failure.

And what I'm proposing is, instead, let's look at, "What's working, what's a work still in progress, and what direction am I heading next?" I think it's more honest, more sustainable, and more aligned with how health actually works.

And it's not about motivation, it's more about orientation, because resolutions assume this clean slate or this huge dramatic pivot, or willpower as the main tool. "Starting on this day, I'm going to eat better." The framework I'm proposing assumes continuity, imperfect progress, and reflection as the main tool.

So today we're going to talk about wins, working on, and what's next for 2025. We're going to go down the line here and share at least one. If you've got more, you can share more. And then I think just kind of discuss them as we normally do and see what happens. You guys ready?

Mitch: Yeah.

Dr. Smith: Of course.

Scot: All right. So I've got to tell you, I'm going to go ahead and go first with my wins. And I didn't realize it until I sat down and actually carved out a little time to do this, which is lesson number one why this is such a valuable little exercise for us guys, how good of a year I kind of had. It didn't dawn on me until I started putting together what I considered wins.

So my wins this year: consistent exercise, strength training two times per week, and missed sessions don't derail me anymore. If I do miss a session, I'm right back on it with the next session. So that's a huge win, right?

I rediscovered some motivation at work and in my personal creative pursuits. I'm energized, which has been something I've struggled with for a long time. I'm better at self-understanding. I have a better awareness of my energy cycles, when I do my best substantial work, my shortcomings and pitfalls, and common traps that I fall into so I can avoid them and actually create systems to work around them. I'm pretty excited about that.

I've implemented some improved productivity systems to get meaningful work done. And my relationship with alcohol has been really good this year. Overall, my consumption is still lower than the past. The first six months, I had none. But now I will have some if it's a social interaction or if I just feel like having one or two on a Friday or Saturday night, and after that I can quit, which was something I never used to be able to do. So it's not automatic or habitual anymore.

Mitch: Congratulations.

Dr. Smith: That's huge.

Scot: And less time on my phone. I actually spent less time on my phone this year.

Mitch: Wow.

Scot: So those are my wins. I hope I didn't shame y'all.

Dr. Smith: Yeah. He's like, "I'm going to start and put you guys in the dirt before you get going." Thanks, man.

Scot: Right. But all of this is to say, when I sat down and I took 10 minutes to think about it, I was like, "Wow, I actually accomplished something." And with the traditional resolution formula, I would've only focused on the things I did not accomplish. Where would that leave me feeling, as opposed to where I'm feeling right now?

Mitch: And that's something that I've really appreciated the last . . . Being on this show and all of the New Year's episodes and how it's kind of evolved over the years, it's just what a wonderful, different approach to, "Okay, what worked? Where are we headed?" etc., rather than, "Ugh, I've really slacked off all year, and starting Jan 1, I'm in the gym and I'm going to kick butt and blah, blah, blah." Oh my god, that just sets you up for failure if it ever slips, right? And you just get stuck.

I remember a stat that we had pulled that it was something like 70%, 80% of New Year's resolutions failed by March. It's heinous.

Scot: I think it's greater than that, actually.

Mitch: Yeah. So not holding yourself to that and instead just reflecting. I don't think we do. I know I don't as often as I probably should.

Scot: Well, I think that's one of the big lessons I've learned over the few years of doing this podcast, is actually carving out some time to reflect and think about things in our lives, whether it's our health or something else. Actually, it's a very powerful exercise.

All right. Who wants to go after that?

Dr. Smith: Mitch, I can take that one for you if you need me to. I can lower the bar real nice and low for you.

Scot: All right. Go ahead, John. Let's hear your wins this year.

Dr. Smith: All right. Fine.

Scot: And don't be shy. Share them all.

Dr. Smith: I apparently only took 3 minutes to think about mine if Scot took 10. I will say, though, New Year's resolutions, here's the one good thing. If you're looking to pick up exercise equipment in March, it's a great thing.

Mitch: Oh, absolutely.

Dr. Smith: I've been the benefactor of a few of those New Year's resolutions gone wrong over the years.

But no, I think when you look at wins for this year, I have been consistent with working out with a friend of mine, where we've done it and we've been consistent and it's been good. It's been helpful. It's helped me both mentally as well as physically, because it's something to get me up, get me motivated.

Recently, we added a third member to the crew several weeks ago. And so it's nice because we're building, which is a win for me.

I had a goal this year to try to be a little bit better of a parent, because I find myself having very high expectations for my kids, which I don't think is a bad thing. But I've tried to just kind of peel back and say, "Hey, let the kid be a kid for a minute and just see how this plays out."

Scot: I like that.

Dr. Smith: And so I feel like I've done better at that this year than I have in the past. And I think that's something I'm going to continue to work on as well. That's a still-in-progress thing that I'll . . . something that I took a win on.

I think at work this year I was more efficient, when I sat down and thought about my efficiency at work and how much work I brought home. There were times where I was better at that during the year than others, but I was more efficient at work.

And so those were the main ones. I tried to keep to three or four things that I felt were positives this year.

Scot: I like it. That is a good list there. I especially love, as a parent, just letting the kid be the kid, because I could see if I had kids, I would struggle with that, right? Society has that expectation, or at least we think society has an expectation, of how kids are supposed to act, and maybe that's a little restrictive at times. I don't know. Is that what you found? What was the main thing with that for you?

Dr. Smith: I don't know. For me, I just have these high expectations because I see my kids and I see them just being lazy and slacking and . . .

Scot: Oh, okay.

Dr. Smith: And I think back about myself and part of me wishes that I had someone to push me to be better and do better when I was a kid because I didn't. I was kind of a latchkey kid. And so I think part of it is me having some of that seeing myself in that of, "Hey, I see what you're doing and you can go further. You can, I promise. I know you don't want to, but . . ."

Yeah, I don't know. It's a personal thing that I've had to figure out, too. It's me kind of putting that stuff out there, things that I wish would've happened. That's why all my kids have to play the piano, because I didn't get to. Things like that. And I think I'm learning more about myself as I've become a parent, which is good and bad.

Scot: Well, that's cool. So you're trying to find a balance there. You're trying to still push them a little more maybe than you were pushed, but you're also just realizing sometimes being a kid means just slacking off or playing games or just doing stuff that isn't as meaningful to us adults as we'd like to see.

Dr. Smith: Or I just look the other way for a little while and just say, "I get it. I can't . . ."

Scot: There's a strategy.

Dr. Smith: I have to take a step back.

Scot: Got it. All right.

Dr. Smith: That kind of thing. It's been good, and it's been helpful, and I've learned a lot more about my kids watching them that way because I get to know their personality better. Rather than them trying to be more, "Hey, I'm doing this because it's the framework," it gives them a little bit more to be creative. And I've really enjoyed seeing that, too.

Scot: Mitch, what I'm hearing there, too, is also this idea of just reflection, right? It could be easy as a parent to go into parent mode the way you were raised or the way you think that the kid should be raised, as opposed to observing and kind of paying attention and then being reflective about it. So, John, I love that.

Mitch, what's your wins list look like?

Mitch: Oh, I'm going to say that this was a "mid" year, but there are some wins, some things that I'm pretty proud of.

One of the big ones is I really feel that I . . . especially after hearing what John and you had shared last year about being present with other people and wanting to be open and more positive and being excited for other people, etc., I'm proud to say that I feel that my relationships with my family, my friends, and my partner are better than they've been in a long time.

And part of it is that I am willing to be more present, that I am willing to check in, that I'm willing to kind of let some of the negative, old paradigms and stuff not sabotage me from just being there for the people in my life that I really care about.

And so there have been a lot of really cool opportunities and things that have happened this past year. I mean, still doing the Kung Fu nights with my dad, still doing lunches with my mom, having my monthly movie nights with friends, and being able to start doing date nights again with Jonathan. All of those things have been extraordinarily meaningful, and they're things that I had kind of let go by the wayside over the last year.

Scot: Cool. That's awesome.

Mitch: But the other thing that I am crushing is sleep. I do not know what happened, what stray hair came into my subconscious this year, but I'm in bed, I've got the best sleep hygiene I've had in my entire life. I am tooth-brushed, moisturized, in bed, reading a book at 8:30, 9:00.

Scot: What?

Mitch: Yep.

Dr. Smith: That's baller.

Mitch: Even if I'm not asleep until midnight or so, I'm at least calm. I'm doing a crossword. I'm doing something. I have a little chit-chat with my partner. I put all my gear on, because I have ears and I have a big old thing over my eyes, whatever.

After years and years of little Fitbit data . . . and I know, it's whatever, right? But the Fitbit data being like, "Hey, you don't sleep enough. Hey, you should sleep more. Oh, hey, you don't really get to bed at a reasonable time." I am now on top of it, and I'm feeling a lot better because of it.

Scot: That's awesome.

Dr. Smith: That's huge.

Scot: Yeah, that is huge. What do you think turned it around? Can you point to anything in particular that all of a sudden now you have a little discipline there? It sounds like you're not on the phone at night, which used to be a thing, right?

Mitch: No. I think part of it is having a partner who also valued that. And so it was something like, "Oh my god, Mitch, we don't sleep well enough." And I was like, "Yeah, you're right. What can we do?" and kind of helping push each other a little bit.

And then also, I don't know, being a little old and starting to be more comfortable in my skin and myself, and being like, "You know what? I don't need to be up at 3:00 a.m. at some Beto's parking lot to feel fulfilled in my life. I can just get some sleep and hit the next day even better than I did the day before."

Scot: Cool.

Dr. Smith: Those 3:00 burritos taste the same at 11:00.

Mitch: Oh, really? I love that.

Dr. Smith: Just FYI.

Mitch: Oh my god, and I found . . .

Dr. Smith: They taste the same.

Mitch: We were in Colorado this past summer, and there is an event company that has started doing what they call millennial raves. And so they get these EDM artists who start their set at 8:00 p.m. And so you can go and do your late-night jumping around, there are glow sticks, the whole nine yards, and you're in bed by, like, 10:00.

Scot: Nice.

Mitch: It's the best.

Scot: Yeah. It's so interesting. There are a couple things you said there that really stood out to me. One, having somebody that can support you in whatever health endeavor it is. Having a partner that also is like, "Hey, we should get more sleep." "Yeah, we should. All right. Let's make this happen." When you don't have that, it can be really hard.

And two, society. Just the way society is set up and the things that we like to do, sometimes there's this idea that they have to start at 11:00 p.m., but your rave starts at 8:00 or 9:00 . . . Actually, what time? Seven? Eight? I don't know.

Mitch: Like 7:00, 8:00, yeah.

Scot: Yeah. I mean, that's great that maybe society is starting to see more value in that. So that's really cool. I love it.

Dr. Smith: And they charged twice as much for the tickets because it's prime time.

Scot: It's worth it.

Mitch: What did they call it? They called it a . . . There was a comedy show that we did a couple weekends ago at Wiseguys that was a pre-matinee. It was 3:00 in the afternoon. It was dinner and a show. Jammies and in bed by 9:00. And I do not feel any less of a man that that's the best weekend for me.

Dr. Smith: That's an amazing weekend, man. I love getting to bed at a reasonable hour, and you wake up and you're like, "Oh, yeah. I remember what this feels like. This is great." So good for you. That's awesome.

Mitch: Thanks.

Scot: All right. Moving on to still working on, I'm going to go ahead and segue that I'm still working on my sleep. I'm doing okay, but I need to start winding down a little bit earlier.

I had this insight because I got an Apple Watch as part of my way to not be as dependent on my phone. Because I can listen to music on it, I can leave my phone at home and still make emergency phone calls on it. But it has a sleep app on it that tells me my sleep deficit for the week, and I'm pretty consistently 15%, 20%. So I need to work on my sleep still.

I'm still working on my diet. That's been an ongoing challenge my whole life. I'm inconsistent between not eating at all, eating crap, and then eating good, and then not eating well. I have good intentions, but I never can quite make it work out.

And I'm still working on decluttering my house and my life. We had an episode about decluttering, and I took a few steps, but I just have too much that's attached to an older version of me that takes up space. It's not only emotionally draining every time I see it, but it takes up room in my house. So it's emotionally draining because just the recognition of clutter stresses me out.

Those are the things I'm still working on. I still have some things to get after. John, how about you? What's your still-working-on?

Dr. Smith: Man, this was the list that I had that was really long. I'm not going to put you guys to shame on this one, but . . .

Scot: This is kind of the typical, right? This is getting to be the typical New Year's resolution list right here.

Dr. Smith: Well, these are things like . . . Obviously, I've been good with working out. My diet has kind of laxed a little bit. I think I've talked about that on a few other episodes, is I'm working on getting back to the habits of more healthy eating, as well as portion control.

And that's something that's always been a thing for me. When I was younger, I could eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted, and it didn't matter. Now that I'm getting older, it's like, "Well, you can't do that anymore."

My wife is really good at . . . she can take a bite of something and just walk away from it after that. She's like, "I tasted it. I'm good." She could eat two Pringles and be done. She's that one person.

Scot: Who is this woman?

Mitch: She can pop and stop.

Dr. Smith: Yeah, exactly. So it's one of those where I need to take a page out of her book because she's done well with that. So that's something I'm working on.

Obviously, continuing to work on parenting. I joke with my friends . . . We all have kids the same age, and it's like, "None of these kids came with a book." Our parents obviously didn't do it right, or we would've done it like they did, right? And so tongue in cheek there, but just trying to be present for my kids, I think, is something that I think is meaningful to me.

I think mortality has set in as I've gotten older, and loss of parents and things like that over this last year as well has been something where it kind of hits home a little bit, and you're like, "These are the things that I want to make matter and make those memories."

And then the other thing that I'm still working on is just continuing to be present. I think I've done a good job of that this year in some capacities, but there have been other arenas in my life where I haven't been as present as I'd like to be.

Scot: All right. That's a good list there. Mitch, what are your thoughts, still working on? What do you got to work on this year?

Mitch: So stuff that's still in progress is mental health. I mean, this year for myself, and I know a lot of people, has been really rough. The world is kind of in an uncertain time, etc. I'm finding myself needing to go back to things like journaling, going back to gratitude, to checking in, taking breaks, etc., to kind of make it through the day.

And so I want to kind of make sure that I'm continuing to do that and maybe even recommitting to it in a couple of different ways. Building some systems for when I have bad brain days. Building some strategies for when some news event comes across my feed, and it doesn't completely derail me.

So, yeah, that's the thing that I'm doing okay on. I'd like to do a little bit more. I'd like to recommit to a bunch of it.

And the second is that nutrition thing. I mean, I got a nutritionist now, trying to get back down to a healthy weight before the wedding and just for the rest of my life, etc. The holidays, it gets kind of meh, and so trying to make sure that I continue to meet with the nutritionist, continue to count my calories on a semi-frequent basis, continue to measure and make sure I'm actually moving towards my goals.

But yeah, those are the two things that . . . They're going pretty well, but they should continue and they should get even better.

Scot: We should maybe even do a show . . . We did one show on your diet already. How's the nutritionist thing going? Are you finding that to be a useful tool? And in what way is it useful?

Mitch: He's been identifying some stuff that I never would've thought of. And not only that, with my most recent visit, he actually identified a liver condition that we're now investigating that my primary care provider kind of missed. He actually listened to some old episodes about one thing or another of this show, and he was like, "I had a suspicion."

Scot: That's so funny that . . .

Mitch: I know.

Scot: . . . he's using that as information to diagnose you. That's great.

Mitch: Yep. And so we're looking into that, and that's something . . . I've been going to my PCP, I have a good relationship with them, etc., and it's like, "Yeah, maybe this guy is onto something."

And I do know that my partner's also going to a nutritionist, and he's starting to lose a lot of weight. He's starting to look real good. And so I'm like, "Okay, let's keep working with the guy. Let's see what we can do next." Yeah, those little insights.

I help run a men's health show, and so I read all sorts of things about stuff, but there can still be a blind spot in your own life, and that's when you need a specialist to kind of point those things out to you.

Scot: Let's do that for a follow-up episode. Let's find out as you go on a nutritionist in 2026. I mean, I think a lot of us think that the nutritionist is just going to dial in what we need to eat, but I bet you you're making some discoveries that they contribute in ways that maybe you didn't expect, like this liver help.

The other thing I want to really comment on is your mental health. I think that's interesting because we just did the min-max episode, and in trying times, you've discovered that your min has to be a little higher. You might have to go back to journaling and being more intentional of taking some breathing breaks or something like that. Whereas in good times, your min could be a little lower, and you don't need journaling as a tool.

So I think we think if we're going to do something like journaling or anything, we have to do it all the time. But sometimes, if things are going well enough, we don't have to. And sometimes we have to go back to that. So I love that observation. And I think combining that idea with the min-max that we talked about helps me understand that a little bit better.

All right. What's next? What next? However you want to put it.

I want to add more cardiovascular exercise. So this idea here is I'm going to build on my existing two weeks of exercise of strength training, and I want to do some cardiovascular. So a couple times a week, cardiovascular.

I'm going to do it for a few reasons. For heart health. Because I genuinely enjoy it. I like breathing hard and feeling worked and sweating, which I know is strange, but I actually kind of like that.

Also, in one of our previous episodes, we learned that when you get your heart pumping, it really helps your circulation and gets that blood around the body a little bit better, which is beneficial. That was in our "Do Blue-Collar Guys Need to Exercise?" episode. So that was a little bit of an insight for me.

I want to improve my nutrition. So not only is it working on, but I'm coming up with a plan in my "what next." I want to focus on my fiber intake, making sure that I'm getting my 30 to 40 grams a day, my protein targets, and then having my primary food sources be nuts and seeds, legumes, healthy fats, whole grains. So stuff we've talked about this year on the podcast is inspiring that.

And the big thing I'm working on is seeing the world from other people's perspective. So that means getting better at understanding how other people experience and process the world. I have some people in my life that I lose my patience with, and I don't like it when I do because I care about these people.

And I think that a big primary part of that is I have frustration when their perspective or the way they're experiencing the world does not match the way I think they should react in the moment. As a result, I sometimes get short with them, or I tell them what they need to do.

I'm really trying to get over that and just slow down and try to meet people where they are so I can be more patient and more present and have a better relationship with them. And I think that matters for my health, not just theirs.

And then the last thing is nagging issues, imbalances. I have a winging scapula that I'm trying to work on right now. My glute mediuses, I know, are weak and tight, and I need to work on those.

I remember a very early episode we had where we talked briefly about this Hollywood trainer, the guy that trains people like Chris Pratt or whatever. And the first thing he does is he makes sure that imbalances or any old nagging injuries are taken care of because that is the base that everything else is built on. And if you don't do that, you never build that.

I've had some frustration with my strength training, that I'm not making progress, and I think it's due to these imbalances and these nagging issues that I need to address. So I need to do the work there. Rehabilitative exercises, corrective exercises, stretching, that sort of thing. That's my "what's next," guys.

Mitch: I like it a lot. So what are you going to do to . . . I think it's interesting that both you and John have talked about letting people be their own people and not being frustrated. Do you have a strategy for that? John, do you have tips for what you've done with your kids that might help Scot out?

Scot: Yeah, you might've uncovered a whole . . . We could talk about this for a while, huh, John? Maybe this is another episode. Put a pin in that one, Producer Mitch.

Mitch: I will.

Scot: Let's put a pin in that and talk about that more fully. I think that is worth exploring. Do you, John? Do you think that's worth exploring?

Dr. Smith: I love that idea because anything I can get to get better at figuring life out, especially with these kids . . . I mean, they're people too, right?

Scot: Right. Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that soon in January.

Dr. Smith: These kids, they start doing stuff and . . . Yeah, it'd be great. It'd be a fun episode.

Scot: I have a lot on my mind about that, and I'll try to flesh those ideas out.

All right, Mitch. What's next for you?

Mitch: So the things that I'm going to be focusing on, I kind of mentioned a little bit. I do want to double down on getting to a healthy weight. And so I'm doing okay with the nutrition. I'd like to do even better, be a little stronger with that.

But I do want to get back into getting more physical activity. Over the last couple of months, my ankle has been acting up again, and it just kind of threw another wrench in, and it kind of got set back a little bit, and I'm starting to feel weaker. I'm not able to be on the treadmill as long as I used to now that it's cold, etc.

And so I really want to focus on not only continuing to strength train pretty regularly, but also weave in a little bit of cardio. There are days that it's just like, "Man, these flights of stairs are suddenly steeper than they've been in forever." And I don't want to do that as I continue to age. So I want to really kind of recommit to that.

Then the second one, and the one that I really want to kind of focus on, is something that you brought up last year, Scot, about just being a more positive person in general, being willing to have a fun conversation with someone at the grocery store that you run into or something like that, and looking for those little positive moments.

It's something that I've kind of started the last couple of weeks and months. If I see someone in the hall at my little condo complex, I'm like, "Hey, so nice . . ." I'm getting better at remembering their names, not just their dog names.

Dr. Smith: Hey, it's Bruce and Bruce's owner.

Mitch: That's 100%.

Scot: Bruce's dad. It's Pickles and Pickles' mom.

Mitch: You got it. And so I'm working on, "Who is Moose's dad? I know who Moose's dad is." But between that and just seeing people in the hallway when I'm teaching classes, when I have students and stuff, and saying, "Hey, how are you doing today?" etc.

Just doing it a little bit over the last little while, kind of being more mindful and active in doing that, it feels great, and it feels like I'm part of the world. I'm actually participating. And so that's something I'd really like to do this next year, is really kind of double down on that.

Scot: I think the ankle thing sounds like a nagging issue, maybe.

Mitch: It sure is.

Scot: Maybe you're taking a page out of what I said, is how do you get that ankle rehabbed so you can start building on the things you want to build on.

And number two, Mitch, I want to . . . Hey, guys, I want to add one more to my wins.

Dr. Smith: Wow, this guy is just piling it on.

Mitch: Look at him go.

Scot: But Mitch just reminded me of it, because I forgot that I said that interacting with the world and being more positive. I've done a really good job finally of just accepting who I am and my quirkiness and just letting people see that. And it's worked out really well for me. I've really enjoyed it. I think other people have enjoyed it.

Mitch: Who cares?

Scot: But I forgot about that, and it's been very freeing just to kind of be myself and be true to who I am as opposed to pretending who I think I need to be.

I used to be in radio, and I used to be wacky and kind of goofy and whatever. And when I got into the corporate world, I kind of dialed that back. But I've kind of let that come out again, and it seems to have been received well. So I'm going to throw that in the win. Thanks for reminding me about that.

All right, John. What your "what's next"?

Dr. Smith: So what's next for me this year? I plan to read physical books this year.

Scot: Yes.

Mitch: Good for you.

Dr. Smith: I have a couple books that I've had for a little while. One of them, I listened to as an audiobook.

Scot: That "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" is really good. I'm glad you liked that one too.

Dr. Smith: "The Cat in the Hat," I can't wait to finish that one this year. I'm super excited.

Scot: I'm sorry, man. I took a cheap shot on your account. What are you reading?

Dr. Smith: No, it's fine. Everybody knows I'm more of a picture guy than a reader. It's fine.

Scot: What are you looking forward to reading?

Dr. Smith: I don't know. I had a couple of buddies who mentioned a couple of books, kind of self-help books that they were like, "This is really a cool book." One of them was called "Soundtracks." Just how we get into these modes in our life. This is how he explained it to me. I haven't read the book yet. We get in these modes in our life where we just play the same soundtrack, and maybe it's the same soundtrack from when we were in high school, and we just kind of get into . . .

Mitch: Oh, interesting.

Dr. Smith: Our mind just continues to do these things. That was one that he recommended, and so I bought it.

I had a friend when I was in medical school who worked for this company called ThriftBooks, and I bought a lot of my medical textbooks from there. They're used books. It's a used book seller, like a thrift store for books kind of a thing. Obviously, ThriftBooks.

And so I went on, and I found three or four of these books that I had friends recommend that they really were like, "Yeah, this is a really cool book." And so I bought three books that I have, and a couple of them are parenting books.

Scot: Cool.

Dr. Smith: One of my friends was like, "Dude, I read this, and it changed how I'm going to parent my kids." And I was like, "Oh, that sounds kind of cool." He's like, "And it's not that kind of parenting book that . . . whatever." And I was like, "Okay, I'm totally down with that." So that book called "Soundtracks" is one of them, and then there's another one. I'm trying to remember the name of it.

Scot: While you work on that, why physical books? How have you been consuming books up until this point?

Dr. Smith: I haven't. I've been listening to podcasts and doing things like that. It's not that I don't like that. It's just that I find that I want to stimulate my brain a little bit more.

Scot: I ran into that same thing a couple years ago. Podcasts were like the fast food of . . . I mean, they're better than a lot of things, right? But compared to a well-researched, well-thought-out book, they can't compete with that. So I went through a similar thing. That's cool.

Dr. Smith: Yeah. And the other book is an old book, and it is what I thought it was. It's a book called "Generations." It's from 1992. A buddy of mine, he read it, and he's like, "It's a really cool book that kind of goes through the history of generations and why these certain generations acted the way they did, because of the societal conflicts that were going on in the world versus wars that were happening," and this and this and this.

I started reading that one. I read the first four or five pages before bed one night, and I was like, "I'm really going to enjoy this, this year. I'd like to finish these books." That one's pretty long. I think it's 500, 600 pages, and it's small print. So that one is probably going to take me a minute to get into that.

But I really enjoy learning and doing a lot of those things where . . . Like a lot of Malcolm Gladwell stuff where he brings me information that I can use. And then Peter Zeihan is another one who's written books with a lot of . . . they're data-heavy books, but I love it. I feel like I'm learning things, and that's what I really like.

I've never been a huge fiction guy like, "I just want to read a story." I'm like, "I want to read for you to teach me something that I can utilize and have more useless facts in my brain."

Scot: That's cool. I like it. Do you have some other things you're working on this year? I like that, reading books. That's good.

Dr. Smith: So that's one that I'm working on, or that I'm planning to do. Another one is I have a weight loss goal for this year to try to get down to 195, where I've been in the past, where I'd like to kind of sit. That may sound heavy to some, but hey, I'm working at things here. But no, I think I'd feel a lot better that way.

And then I have a goal to strengthen relationships with some of my family members and friends. Like I said, this year we've had some loss of family members that just kind of has pulled that mortality ripcord to make me think about that. Those are the things that I plan on doing this year and kind of putting into effect.

Scot: All right. That's a good list of what's next. Do we have any final thoughts as we wrap this up? This was a great conversation. I learned a little bit about you guys. You've inspired me with some of the things that are working for you, and it was fun celebrating the wins together.

Dr. Smith: Yeah. I love this idea. As my final thing, when you sent this out, I was like, "Dude, I like this way better," because this is something you can do any time of the year, right?

Scot: Yeah.

Dr. Smith: You can do it at a birthday. If your birthday is in June, you could do these things at a birthday and just reevaluate and do the thing. You can do them at the end of the year. You can set it up at the end of the semester after you get done with a semester of school, or after you finish a project at work. These are things you can tangibly do and put into effect whenever you need to.

Scot: You can do them on a June 23rd if you want to. There doesn't have to be any special day to it.

Dr. Smith: Right. And that's what I really like about this. New Year's resolutions happen, and then, like Mitch mentioned, they kind of get blown out of the water within 30 to 45 days, and you're like, "Well, I kind of suck." And this kind of gives you a little bit more upbeat to it, as well as staying power and an ability to make new goals. I think it's great.

Mitch: And for me, the thing that I've really appreciated in this little conversation is that we've been kind of giving each other ideas, and it's been kind of improving each other's lives.

And so I'm just going to double down moving forward to dudes talk to each other, guys listening. We can have conversations about these sorts of things. Who knows? You might really . . . I don't know. Hearing you guys being really excited that my sleep is doing better, that's so validating and it feels so good. And so, yeah, doing more of that and seeing how else we can help other guys out there.

Scot: I didn't know what I was going to say until you just said what you said, and I heard my name mentioned a couple times of stuff that stuck with you that I had forgotten that I even said I was going to do. So that was a good check-in back to me to say, "Hey, that's right. That was something that was important to me."

It allowed me to give myself a second to think, "Am I executing on that?" And then just to remind myself that, "Yeah, that is actually a good idea, and maybe it did have more merit than I thought because, wow, it stuck with Mitch 365 days."

So I dig that about this conversation. That's really piggybacking off your idea of "Guys, just talk to each other." Through conversation and sharing ideas, that's where good stuff really happens.

So anyway, as you head into the new year, we'd like to invite you to try this instead of resolutions. So the simple version is the min version. Write down one win from this year. And if you're like, "I don't have any," pick the smallest thing you can that's a win. Even if it feels silly, it's fine. I bet you've got one.

Then what's one thing you're still working on? And that's something that maybe last year you kind of set out on, and then for whatever reason, you got off track. But it's without judgment. You can't judge yourself on it. This is still a work in progress.

I love the idea of yoga practice, the fact they say the word "practice" afterward. This is like life practice. This is habit practice. Keep working on it until you get better at it.

And then ask, "What's next?" What's something you'd like to achieve this year? Start putting things into motion that will help get you closer to that. Again, without judgment, without expecting perfection.

And if you can write down more than one for each category, especially the wins, I think that can be really motivating to work on the other two then. So wins, working on, and what's next for 2026.

Thank you very much, guys, for being on the show. If you'd like to share something with us, you can email us at hello@thescoperadio.com. Thanks for listening. Thanks for caring about men's health.