Happy New Years!

2022 can't be any worse than 2021 right? [Insert nervous laughter]

Happy New Years everyone!

Thank you so much for subscribing to diabolical and sticking with me this year as I tried (and often failed) to figure out how to run this Substack while also reviving my YouTube channel and keeping up with my Forbes blog (gotta pay the bills and this newsletter isn’t—yet, anyways!)

It’s been a hard year. I won’t bore you with details.

Just one of those years that makes you feel five years older. Greyer, fatter, more exhausted, more defeated. I’m sick of it and I’m sick of blaming it—sick of making excuses.

And what better time to stop making excuses than New Years. Here are a few of my resolutions—and yes, I’ve made them before. But I have a feeling that now, older and wiser, I mean them just a little bit more.

Get fit and lose weight.

I’m overweight. I’ve been overweight for years. I was on a really good trajectory in 2019 and early 2020 but the pandemic threw all that into disarray. Of course, I could have exerted more willpower and kept on the path of physical fitness and self-care, but I tossed that out the window in a bag of excuses. Time to turn that around. I’ve been really on the ball all December with the gym and getting exercise. Now it’s time to get back into cardio and stop eating all this heavy, unhealthy Christmas break food. My weight fluctuates between 260 and 280 lbs (thank god I’m 6’3” and muscular!) but I want to get down to around 220 lbs and get much stronger at the same time. Not an easy goal, but one I’m determined to achieve.

Stay off the sauce.

I like beer and whiskey but beer and whiskey have bad side-effects like making you want to smoke cigarettes and eat the entire damn pizza not to mention hangovers, depression, laziness, mood swings and so forth. I want to see what life is like without all that. I think this will also help me with my first resolution. There are a shocking number of calories in alcohol!

Throw myself into the work.

I want to write more reviews, write more in general, keep making videos and make some better, long-form video essays. I want to get some stuff published in other publications—not just Forbes and here on my newsletter. I’ve published elsewhere in the past, like The Atlantic, The National Review and Mother Jones. I should do more freelance stuff and get outside my comfort zone (assuming people will publish me!)

I also just want to be more organized and consistent, with a better work/posting schedule so that readers and subscribers will know what to expect. More timely and consistent reviews of games, movies and TV shows in 2022!

Oh, and revive my floundering podcast. When I get into my head too much, when I get into my depression, I become deeply anti-social. The thought of doing a podcast, and having to talk to strangers for an hour or two, is at times paralyzing. I need to get over this shit because I think I’ve done some pretty entertaining podcasts and I want to really make the diabolical podcast a viable thing in 2022. I have a few recorded already. Look forward to more of this a bit further down the road.

Not lose hope.

I think 2021 was defined for me by a lot of hopelessness. A lot of crushing self doubt. Things kept happening that screwed with my head and my well-being and gave me excuses not to take care of myself the way I needed to. There has to be a balance between realistic expectations and hopefulness, between reasonable self-criticism and faith in oneself. Balance in all things, yeah? I have not felt very balanced lately. Or focused.

So I guess it’s all of this at once: Get healthy, stay focused, work hard and find balance in all things, and not rely on shitty crutches when times are hard. Easier said than done, but at least saying it helps make it real.

You can watch my New Years video below:

Read about some of my favorite 2021 stuff—games, movies, TV shows, books etc.—right here.

What are your New Years Resolutions—if any? Let me know in the comments and I hope you have a terrific New Years Eve! I really appreciate the likes and comments also, so don’t be shy!