What If 2024 Was the LAST Year of Your Life?

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're the type of person who wants to master your New Year's resolution, you might have missed my exciting announcement that I left on the last episode. I just created a short, to the point, 17-page ebook that is called Goals Mastery, the step-by-step guide to achieving your goals. It is the most effective way to set, plan, and achieve your goals for 2025. It's got a workbook at the end so you can get clear and plan out your goals as well.

0:42And the best part is it is 100 % free. So if you wanna grab your copy for free from me, go to goals2025.com. Once again, goals2025.com. Today, what we're gonna be talking about is living next year, 2025, as if it was your last year on earth. I've been doing this and talking about pretty much almost every single year since 2021. This has been my goal. And I've been sharing this with you guys every single year since 2021 and doing an episode similar to this because I have found that for me, this is the best way to plan out my goals, to plan out my year, to cut through all of the fluff and make it the absolute best year that I possibly can.

1:23And I want to live next year, 2025, like it is my last year alive. Which you might be like, oh my God, that sounds so sad. No, no, no, no. It's not. I want to live every day of my life next year like, I'm going to be dying on December 31st and pretend that 2026 just does not exist. And the reason why I understand why that can sound sad and morbid, but really what it is, it's more of the sense of, Hey, I'm going to think like, if, if you came in, you were at a doctor's appointment, the doctor came in and said, Hey, this is your last year alive. Your priorities would shift completely to what's most important, who you want to spend the most time with the experiences that you want.

2:06And it's like, why don't we live every single day like that? You know, I want to choose experiences. I want to choose people that I want to be around. I want to choose activities that make me feel alive, that make me feel and align with my truest self. You know, so what would I want to accomplish if this was truly like my last year alive? Who would I want to spend my time with if this was my last year alive? What would I finally let go of? What fear is what I let go of? What grudge is what I let go of? What insecurity is what I let go of? This mindset isn't about fearing death or being morbid.

2:44It's about prioritizing your life. It's about prioritizing the things that matter the most. If time is the most precious currency, which we've heard so many times, well, shouldn't it be a good idea to invest in what matters most to us, our loved ones, our passions, our growth, experiences, not doing stuff that we hate doing. You know, when you're going to die, you're not going to do this stuff that you don't want to do. And so what I always like to say is it's got to be like a hell yes. If something is not like a hell yes, then it's a hell no. And this is really like the ultimate filter. If something doesn't light you up or it's not aligned with your values or not aligned with your truest self, then it's not worth your time.

3:28And so you have to learn when you think this way that you cut out all of the filler activities that drain your energy without bringing you, all of the things that don't bring you joy, all of the things that don't feel like it brings you any sort of meaning. And so this is gonna be now my fifth year of planning out my life like this, of going through and actually seeing like, is this a hell yes or is this a no? If it's not a hell yes, if it doesn't light me up, then I've gotta figure out a way to change it, to improve it or to eliminate it. And so what I want you to do is, as you start to think about this, is what would it be like if you went through and did this on your own?

4:03Go through your entire day and ask yourself, is this a hell yes? If it's not a hell yes, then it's a hell no. Track what you do every single day. Assess each part of your routine, each habit that you have, and ask yourself if it genuinely enriches your life. Does it serve your life for the better? Or is it holding you back or keeping you in the same place? If you think of what time you wake up in the morning, if you have a morning routine. If you think about the breakfast that you eat. If you think about the route that you take to work. If you think about the car that you drive. If you think about the job that you have.

4:36If you think about the boss that you have. If you think about every single person that's in your life. If you think about the co-workers that you spend your time with. If you think about what you do for lunch. The drive home that you have. Your evening routines. means if you watch TV, if you read what you watch TV, what you watch TV, what you read when you read books, what time you go to bed, what time you don't go to bed. You go through every single aspect of your day and say, is this aligned with the life that I want to have? If you only had one year left to live, would you spend three hours watching Netflix every single evening?

5:15Because over the next year, That's over a thousand hours watching Netflix. You wouldn't spend a thousand hours watching Netflix if this is your last year alive. And so it really starts to cut out all the bullshit. If something isn't like an enthusiastic hell yes, ask yourself, like, why is it still part of your day? And then as you go through each and every parts of your day, every single thing that you do, the way that you speak, the way that you speak to yourself, the way that you speak to others, every action that you take. Ask yourself, if you don't have, if it's not a hell yes for this thing, can it be changed?

5:53Can it be improved? Or can it be eliminated? That's it. Three different things. If it's not a hell yes, can it be changed? Can it be improved? Can it be eliminated? Go through your entire life and make it like spring cleaning. You got to just clear everything out. What is not a full hell yes? Your job. If you have a job that you work, and obviously everybody has to pay the bills. And I understand, you can't just quit your job and put yourself a hundred thousand dollars in debt and go travel with your family and then be like, well, let me see what happens at the end of the year. I get it. But what I'm trying to make you understand is like, if you start to have this filter of, is it a hell yes for me?

6:34Does it feel aligned? Does it light me up to do this? It'll start to make you realize what you should make adjustments for in your life. So your job is something to think about. Every single one of your relationships is something to think about. Your hobbies are something to think about. How you spend your time every single hour is something to think about. The friendships that you have around you are something to think about. And what you want to do is you want to start to identify the hell knows. But more importantly, you'll realize that there's a lot of gray areas in your life, the parts of your life that you tolerate, but you don't love, right?

7:09There's definitely some people in your life where you're like, yeah, they got to go. Easy decision. There's other people that are like gray area. You're tolerating them, but you don't really want them around anymore. You spend time with them because you feel like you're supposed to, but if it was your last year of your lives, you'd be like, no, I'm not spending two hours with this person because I've got better stuff to do because I'm dying at the end of this year. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. These are the places that I want you to focus on shifting more than anything else.

7:38The gray areas, because it's easy to say no, and you definitely will say no to the things that are like the hell notes, but these gray areas, the things that you're tolerating, these are the things that you want to really focus on shifting. Oh yeah, you know what I do for work. I don't hate it. It's okay, but I'm tolerating it. Okay. For each one of those gray areas that you have, can it be changed? Can it be improved? Or can it be eliminated? Cutting out all of the lukewarm connections or uninspiring commitments that you have opens up space for new meaningful experiences, new relationships. And you look at everything and once again, you just say, can this be changed?

8:17Can it be improved? Or can it be eliminated? What are you doing now that you don't want to do? Like when I asked you that question, what are you doing now that you don't want to do? There's things that immediately pop up in almost everybody's head. What are people that you surround yourself with that you don't want to surround yourself with? There's people that immediately pop up in your head. Write all of those things down. Let me ask you another question. What are you tolerating right now? Write down everything that pops up. And so you write down all of these things. What are you tolerating?

8:47Who are you spending time with? What are you doing that you don't want to do? And track everything that you have throughout the course of the day. And once it's on paper, you'll have a clearer picture in front of you of what's weighing you down and what needs to go. Once again, if this was your last year alive, it cuts through all of the bullshit. And so you can start to clear out everything that you need to clear out. On the other side of that is what are you not doing that you want to do? Like what are the things that you have been wanting to do for a year, two years, three years that you're still not doing?

9:23If you're like, you know what? I've been wanting to create a podcast for a long time. You know what? I've been really wanting to start traveling. I've been saving up money for a couple of years now. I haven't even left yet. I want to go, you know, do a road trip around America. I want to get a new job. I want to start my own business. I want to get into a new relationship. I want to get out of this relationship. I want to make more time with my family. And you start to think about like, okay, what do I need to clear out? And then now that I have more space? What do I need to put in? You know, consider the dreams that you've like put on the back burner and imagine what it could be like if you actually decide to start running after fulfillment, the things that make you fulfilled.

10:04What would your life look like if you stopped waiting and just decided to take that first step towards whatever it is that you want? And you start clearing out the things and start adding things in. You start removing anything that's not a full hell yes in your life. And then you get rid of all of those things and you start adding whatever it is that is a hell yes in your life that might not currently be in your life. Like, what are you interested in learning about? You know, maybe you stopped playing guitar five years ago and you're like, damn it, you know what? I need to start picking up the guitar again.

10:37You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get lessons every single week. I'm gonna commit to myself to getting lessons every single week. I'll have 52 weeks over the next year to get better at guitar. That's something I want to work at. And it's about being more intentional with our lives. The life that you have now, you have to understand, it didn't just come to you. You have built this life that you have now. Most of us unconsciously build our lives until one day we wake up and we're like, what the hell happened? This isn't what I wanted. You know, what could your life look like from this moment forward if you built it intentionally and said, I don't want this anymore.

11:12I do want more of this. and you build your life with intention from this moment forward, not unconsciously, not just letting it happen, not just acting like, oh, I'm in a sailboat and I'm just going to go with the winds and go with the tides and hopefully I end up in a good place. It's like, no, I'm going to steer this ship to where I want it to go. This is what your life is all about. It doesn't happen overnight. This is a key part is we all want, once we decide, like once you write down your goals and your new year's resolutions, you're like, ah, shit, why don't I have it yet? It's not about that.

11:44It's about figuring out what it is that you want and taking steps towards it every single day. You know, we get one life. Like, I don't, as far as I know, we get one life. Maybe after this, there's somewhere that we go. Maybe there's not. Maybe we get 5 ,000 rounds of life in different bodies. I don't know what the answer is, and I'm not trying to pretend that I do. There's a lot of people out there that'll tell you they know what happens and what, I don't, I don't. I'm not smart enough. But I do know that I am right here. I do know that I am sitting in this body as Rob Dial right now. And this is my one life.

12:16I'm going to make it as amazing as I possibly can. Like you have to ask yourself, like, are you living fully or are you just existing? Something to think about. Are you like living fully the way that you want to, or are you just kind of existing? And that really should make you understand like, okay, yeah, I'm kind of just existing. And you might not immediately, it's not like January 1st, you're going to be immediately fully living. But if you start making these adjustments of clearing out what you don't want, adding things that you do want, you're going to start slowly, fully living the way that you want to.

12:54And then you start to prioritize your life and think to yourself, why would I do anything that doesn't light me up? It's time for me to make a transition in my life. Give yourself permission to evolve. Because transition doesn't just happen overnight. It starts with a choice that you're going to be different. A choice that you're going to start to act differently than you ever have before. And you can use this as an opportunity to pivot towards a life that you want to, pivot towards a life that is fulfilling to you. And one that you actually put intention into. And what you can do is you can start to create habits and rituals or practices that help keep you on track for what it is that you're trying to create so that you don't fall back into old patterns.

13:41And this is a really important thing. Like there's so many people that I've come across in my life and I thought this for the longest time as well. It was like, well, I hope life just works out for me. I hope that I get a great life at the end of the time that I'm here versus being like, you know what? Screw that. I'm gonna step into the driver's seat. I'm going to get myself to go exactly where it is that I want to go. You have to understand the life that you built, as I said a little while ago, you, the life that you have, you have built it. Most of us unconsciously, if you're listening to this and you're 20 years old, you're 30 years old, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old, from this moment until the day that you do actually die, you can decide to step into the driver's seat and live intentionally.

14:26Because eventually every single one of us, myself included, we are going to die. Hopefully it's not next year. Hopefully we have another 70 years in front of us. But all I know is that if we live through the lens of, what if this was the last year of my life? What if I knew December 31st was going to be the absolute last year of your life? If we knew that, we would make way different choices. And those choices would be choices that would have us stop doing the things that we're tolerating, stop doing the things that we don't want to do, and to start doing the things that actually fully make us feel alive.

15:01And if we're here and we are alive right now, why don't we do the things that make us feel alive? And so my goal for 2025, and you can steal it if you like, is to live my life as if it is the absolute last year that I'm gonna be alive. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode and you want to just share it with the world, go ahead and do me a favor, share it on your Instagram stories, tag me in at RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And once again, if you do want to master your New Year's resolutions, go ahead and go to Goals 2025 to get my free 17-page ebook to show you how to set, plan, and achieve your goals for next year.

15:38Once again, goals with an S, 2025.com. And with that, I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.

15:52Okay.