Cut The Noise | Wellness Simplified

040. Break the Cycle: Your Roadmap to Crushing 2025 Health Goals

• Ben & Lindsay Hack • Season 1 • Episode 40

Share episode

Send us a text

🎙️ Hope Isn’t a Strategy🎙️

Do you think hope is enough to hit your health and wellness goals? It’s not. This episode reveals why New Year’s resolutions fall short and how creating actionable, year-round plans leads to real, lasting success.

🛠️ What’s inside this episode:

  • Why hope isn’t a plan—and what you need instead.
  • How to reflect on 2024 to fuel a stronger, smarter 2025.
  • The secret to creating strategies that stick.

🎯 Ready to stop hoping and start achieving?

🔗 Listen now, sign up, and let’s build your plan for success in 2025. Hope is not enough—but a great plan is.

Interested in joining the free masterclass mentioned in this episode?

Join our free December 12th masterclass to build your 2025 health plan. You'll learn how to:

âś… Break big goals into small, manageable steps.
âś… Create a year-long strategy for sustained success.
✅ Stay on track with our “12 Pillars” system.

Register HERE 

📧 Email Us

đź“© Lindsay@hactivefit.com
đź“© ben@hactivefit.com

If you're interested in following us on your socials, you can find us here:

đź‘Ť Lindsay on FB
đź‘ŤLindsay on Instagram

đź‘ŤBen on FB
đź‘ŤBen on Instagram

đź‘ŤThe Podcast on Instagram

Lindsay:

Well here we are.

Ben:

Episode 40 of Cut the Noise. Wellness, simplified Lindsay, what do you think?

Lindsay:

I can't believe we're on 40. This is amazing 40 weeks We've done really well Do we celebrate every week.

Ben:

Like it's amazing.

Lindsay:

I really think we celebrate every week. But you know what? I think we have to celebrate every week because not only are people taking their time and listening to us, but we're also taking our time and making the content.

Ben:

And I love it, I love it, I do love it, I do love it when we shoot batches. You know we will often shoot once a week, or we'll shoot batches of two or three. As much as I like shooting batches, which is great, don't you?

Lindsay:

miss it? I do. I know we shot a few back to back.

Ben:

I feel like so disconnected from it at the moment because we shot a few back to back to back.

Lindsay:

We did. We shot a few and then we didn't do any. Last week I think it was in the week before, and it does I feel disconnected.

Ben:

Right, so we are actually. I mean, we don't usually say the date.

Lindsay:

No, if you listen to this real time, we want you to know that it is December 4th. 4th, yes. And what we of year to say? I don't think it's I think.

Ben:

I think we get obsessed with planning for the next year towards the end of any particular year, right like december is one of those times where we start to look to the new year. It's that natural renewal of hope and our plans and next year will be different. This year has been shit.

Lindsay:

I was going to say this year has basically gone for you, the last thing we want for anybody, including ourselves, is to be sitting here December 4th 2025, in the exact same spot as we were today, and I think that's why New Year's, new Year's resolutions you know, this idea is really, really important. But I also know that, from a business perspective, we look at our 2025 business projections. We look at what we're doing for our kids, so it's very natural to look at a new year to create a plan.

Ben:

And that's what we want to talk about. Really, I think you know, even though it's one of those situations where you can do this at any point during the year if you don't have a plan- you need to develop a plan.

Lindsay:

This is your signal. This is your sign to get a plan, whether it's December or March or January or April or June. Yeah, it doesn't matter. You can make that plan the concepts we're going to be talking about will be presented in any way. We're just right now, because it is december 4th and we all are thinking christmas, new year's, let's start and what we find.

Ben:

We tend to find a lot of people. They'll say things similar when it comes to their health, fitness, wellness.

Lindsay:

They'll say well, I hope 2025 is better right, or I hope to see different things there right.

Ben:

I hope next year is going to be better than this year and it's like we're kind of here to say that hope is not going to get you very far.

Lindsay:

Hope is not going to cut it this time and and and I always say this, and I was just talking to a client about this this morning what you typically have done, if it hasn't given you the results that you want, then typically is not going to work. And if you're typically hoping that 2025 is going to be better and that's what you hoped for in 2024, and it's not better, then it's not going to work. And so we want to make sure that this year, this coming year and you still have a few weeks left of December, but this year is going to be different, right?

Ben:

And if you constantly kind of fall short of your health goals. I mean, the true reality is, whatever you've done in the past isn't working.

Lindsay:

It's not working health goals.

Ben:

I mean, the true reality is, whatever you've done in the past isn't working. It's not working and that's just recognizing that. Whatever your approach has been in the past hasn't got you the results that you were looking for. Maybe it's time to do something different and we are looking at very much how to set you up for 2025 or, wherever you are, when you actually listen to this, to actually set you up to get different results outcomes, whether it's getting fitter, getting stronger, losing weight, getting more energetic, feeling more confident because you're able to follow through on some of your commitments to yourself totally and I think the most important thing and again, doesn't matter when you're listening to this the number one thing you got to start with is what went well and what didn't go well to this point.

Lindsay:

So grab a pen and paper. If you're driving, please don't, but grab a pen and paper and just do a quick update of, like, what went well in 2024.

Ben:

Right, In business speak. It's a post-mortem. Right Actually a nicer way of putting it is it's lessons learned.

Lindsay:

Lessons learned, so let's talk about post-mortem.

Lindsay:

Post-mortem is kind of hard, but lessons learned, what went well, what? What didn't go so well in 2024. And I mean, it's funny, right? I do this thing with my clients, which we do. We did this year that 24 of 2024 and next year we're doing 25 of 2025. It feels like forever ago. We did our 24 of 2024 because we did it in December of 2023. So it's hard to sometimes think all the way back to January, february of this year, but just remember, it's full 12 months. So what did go really well? And first we always say start there, because I promise you, most people are like well, this didn't go well, this didn't go well, let's just look for some small wins first. So what went really well for you this year? Let's? I'm going to ask you, ben, what went well for you this year, putting you on the spot right now.

Ben:

From a health and fitness perspective. Yes, I mean actually quite a lot, right, actually a load. I had my best training year for marathons and running that I've ever had, right. I ran more in terms of distance and time than I ever had, so I built a bigger base. I've strength trained consistently throughout the year.

Lindsay:

And I'm just going to cut for a second here, because most people who have listened to this recently are probably like I can't believe he's picking all these things out when right three, four weeks ago.

Ben:

Seven weeks ago. Seven weeks ago.

Lindsay:

Sorry, seven weeks ago, you know, something didn't go so well, but this is what I'm trying to say, right? So, even though there are things that didn't go so great, you have to focus on some of the things that did, and those things that he just said are amazing, right?

Ben:

I uh, I trialed my program for men. Um that we're also looking at for women, potentially. So what did I lose? I mean not that I needed to necessarily lose the weight, but it helped my running tremendously. I lost 25 pounds and executed that for 12 weeks.

Lindsay:

Physically, I would say your body's the best it's been in terms of strength training and changing the composition of your body.

Ben:

Yeah, so I think those are uh are really good, uh good markers and uh, you know, there's so many there's so many, and it's funny, I you know.

Lindsay:

as I say, I started doing this work with my one-on-one clients and so I picked open my 24 of 2024. And, of course, not all of it's been done, but it's really interesting to look at what you wanted to accomplish for the year.

Ben:

I would turn around and say that nothing's gone wrong this year.

Lindsay:

Well, and I again. That's a whole other mindset which is true, we like to look at it from that perspective. But let's be honest. We know people still have that conversation in their head where, if I didn't lose X or if I didn't do Y, I feel like I didn't do it.

Ben:

Right?

Lindsay:

Well, I can put it this way I think that you move on, and that's certainly what I've been able to do in terms of the marathon disaster, right, right. And I think the thing too is, when you start looking at what you did, well, right, it's really important to give yourself kudos for all of the areas. So, obviously, ben said about training and miles and weight loss. I can definitely say those things as well. Um, in terms of you know, I got back into the racing scene. I. I raced some, I raced three races this year and I'm super proud of that. I got back to running again. You know, I've myself lost 20 pounds and gained muscle. That I never thought was possible, you know, does that mean it was perfect? No, and I think it's really important to understand that when we ask to look at what went well and what didn't go well, we're not trying to beat ourselves up over this. Well, I think.

Ben:

I might take you back and turn around and say you really planned 2024 like well, I mean, you've planned previous years, but 2024, I think, was your best year of planning. Right, you think about it and it's evolved, and I think that's another thing. When we do this reflection, we have to look on the fact that you know, if you said I'm going to do these 10 things and and you only did three of them, then is it a question that you didn't do them because you didn't have a plan, or is it a question that you're pivoted?

Lindsay:

I have pivoted. I have. I mean, there was some injury involved in that, there was just some circumstance involved in that. And if I look at, you know, what went well in 2024, I wouldn't say that it was bad, it was just a pivot, it was a change, it was something that I had to do. And so I think, when it comes to this type of process, when you are doing whether you're looking at what went well, what didn't go well, and now when we move on to 2025, you have to understand that it's not going to be perfect.

Ben:

We'll talk about this for a moment, because one of the reasons we're talking about this is because we're doing this with a lot of our clients. Yes, so we're also um well, you're leading something in uh, december that's really designed to support people to actually put something down on paper. In other words, rather than going into 2025 with hope, it's actually helping people put a structure in place, much like you were a business plan for the upcoming year absolutely so.

Lindsay:

December 12th at 6 pm eastern, I am running a workshop, but it's actually going to be a working workshop. This isn't you just coming and listening, you know half-heartedly. You're going to bring your pen, your paper, your calendar and we're going to plan out your year. And it's going to be a high level plan and, as we just said, that doesn't mean it has to be set in stone and perfect. But the goal is is we don't start looking at your year as a whole from a high level perspective? How can we break it down into smaller sections, right? Right, in business we talk about q1, q2, like quarter one, quarter two, quarter three. It's the same with our health. We want to be creating, you know, smaller, bigger, larger chunks of of time so that we can look at those things, because we know it takes time to to put this, to put this into place Right.

Ben:

And it takes some thinking about. Actually, what is your goal? What is your objective? It might it might not be one thing, it might be multiple things over the course of next year, right? In other words, you know you might have a plan that let's just take something super simple Um, I want to lose 40 pounds by the end of 2025. Right, and I'm just going to keep that wish for 12 months and hope for the best. By December this time next year, I'll have lost 40 pounds. What we're really trying to do, or what you're trying to do, is guide people to actually put a structure in place that says this is what that path is going to look like.

Lindsay:

Right, and the idea behind it is that you start with the end in mind. So, in the case of Ben's example, if you wanted to lose 40 pounds, that's the end in mind. How do we move backwards throughout the year? Right, because there's nothing worse than November 15th, hitting 2025 and being like, oh shit, I haven't lost this 40 pounds. And then what do you do? You go straight back to your quick fixes and your bullshit, and then you enter into 2026 in a completely bad spot. So we're trying to make it work throughout the year so that we're not trying to catch up, right? So if you're right now, december 4th, thinking I haven't done anything I needed to do for 2024, newsflash, it's not going to happen because we don't have enough time to really make some dents, and that's why we want to start next year.

Ben:

We're trying to break this pattern. Next year we're trying to break this pattern. I mean, it's really what we do in general is like this idea of like quick fixes, this idea of magic pill, this idea of 30 days to achieve this or 60 days to achieve this. What we're trying to do effectively is help people put a plan in place to basically execute over the 12 months to stop this cycle of hang on a second I was here last year hang on a second, wait a minute, and it's boring right and I mean, we talk about this, even with our own goals and and things that we talk about.

Lindsay:

It's just, it's so boring if you're doing the same thing and having the same excuses and turning around and saying the same thing and it's like when are you just gonna just do it? When are you just going to make the change? And, interestingly enough, one of the things that I know both Ben and I work with our clients with, but what we're trying to even kind of present in these episodes for you is that I believe that a system is a really, really valuable thing. So a system being maybe it is showing up for your personal training session with Ben on a Thursday morning at 5 am after your vacation, or maybe it is using our app and focusing on what you have to do for your daily tasks. But once you have that system in place, it doesn't feel as hard, it doesn't feel as bad. So we're trying to create a system for you.

Ben:

So one of the things you just said there was the idea of excuses, and we talk about that a lot in our podcasts, and I mean it's true, but it's also a little bit harsh, because it's more complicated than that right, of course. It's not just a case of I'm making an excuse, even though we do talk a lot of shit to ourselves.

Lindsay:

I think what's more important is this plan is going to help people prioritize. Prioritize because we hear a lot.

Ben:

I mean again it sounds like we talk about the same things time and time again, because we do yeah, we do time and time again.

Ben:

But if you think about prioritizing it. So now we are making time like versus finding time. So you've got a plan and that plan says, okay, on this day or in this week you're going to do these things. We're breaking the big goal down and we're saying, okay, this is the path towards that. So this is about prioritizing and calling out the things that we need to be doing at different points during the year to actually reach our goal.

Lindsay:

Right, and the part of this masterclass that I'm really trying to create is this working session. So you're not coming and listening to me talk for an hour and then you're supposed to go back and do your own thing at some point, which you probably won't do. It's actually doing the work to prepare for the plan.

Ben:

So tell me about a masterclass. I mean, I hear that all the time. What the hell does it mean?

Lindsay:

People are probably sat there year the same way as you would plan your business and so we're going to break it down quarterly, monthly, and we're going to start with the end in mind. So everybody's going to bring their own goals. So, for example, if somebody wants to run a 5k race, if somebody wants to lose weight, they're bringing their goals and we're going to break it down all right, I want to come, but I don't know what my goal is.

Lindsay:

Okay, so one of the things leading up to the masterclass is I am going to kind of share some things on how to find and work through exactly that, what your goal might be, because that could be a real challenge.

Lindsay:

It is a real challenge, and I know for a fact that people have, even when we do our 24 and 24 or 23 and 23,. People are like, well, how am I supposed to know what I want to do? So there is going to be some some pre-work that we can do to kind of get to that. Now some people are like I know exactly. I have a client I've done this with already. She's literally done her 24 of 24, sent it to me. It's done. Then there's other clients that are going to struggle with that, and so we're going to work on what that looks like. So, if you are not sure what you want to do, you know, watch my social media, watch my linkedin, my facebook and instagram, because there are going to be some things we can support you on that. And then, when you come to the master class, you are then going to do the work right.

Ben:

So I'm sat here, I'm listening to the podcast and I'm thinking to myself that sounds interesting. I've kind of been here before where my years got away from me and I haven't done the things that I had planned. Well, not even not even planned to do I'd hoped to do.

Lindsay:

Right.

Ben:

And you know, I'm not quite sure of my goals. So there's a lot of things that I'm just not quite sure of. But I'm drawn to this. There's something about this that's kind of speaking to me. I should come right.

Lindsay:

You absolutely should come. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, is it fair to say you should come anyway? Yeah, I mean, obviously I am biased, I think I'm amazing and I think I can offer lots of great things, and I know that this is going to be a really valuable masterclass. But the thing is, whether you have been here before or not, the biggest piece of the piece that I would say to you is if you haven't made any plans, if you've always just worked on that idea of hope, if you've always just worked on that idea of hope, if you've kind of said, I'm going to make some plans and then new year's resolution kicks off and you have 10 things on your list and by February 10th that you've completely lost, because that's what normally happens. This is different than that and that's why it's going to be successful for people.

Ben:

So two questions for you. First of all, how much does it cost?

Lindsay:

It's free, 100% free. Can we just repeat that? So it is a free event that I'm putting on December 12th at 6 pm eastern time. You do need to register, though, so on my socials and you'll put it in the in the in the show notes here you can register for the web, for the master class, through a link and you'll get an email that basically gets you registered and stuff. And one thing you will also get, which is an email directly from me, is I'm asking you some questions about what you want to see from this class, because, honestly, the whole idea is that I want to make sure it's very personalized to each and every person. So if you register, you'll get an email and check that email for some questions that I ask.

Ben:

Perfect, that's the answer to my first question. My second question. You know I forget these things pretty quickly, so my second question is this is an amazing podcast, right? I'm sat here and I'm absolutely loving it, but it's February. Are we going to put something together for people so that they can do something that's maybe you know? Um, what's that beautiful word that you know that I dislike as well? It's called diy.

Lindsay:

So we are going to record the, the class um. It is going to be up for recording for anybody who's registered up until december 31st.

Ben:

So if you don't can't make it, or maybe you lost a pen, or maybe you just didn't literally listen to this. People are behind me believe it or not, people are actually behind on this.

Lindsay:

They are they definitely are. I mean, even you and I we've had this conversation. I feel like I'm a little behind on on on my my own goals for 2025. So, yes, if you're behind, it is going to be recorded. It will be available for until december 31st for those who are registered. But if you are listening to this and it happens to be february 10th, just send me a message and I will send it to you.

Ben:

I was gonna say that's the big thing, right? If you're not 100, sure, and you listen to this in the new year and you feel like there's something in this and value, just reach out. We are so happy to be able to support you 100 I will send you.

Lindsay:

I mean, I even offer you to sit down and do it yourself. You can do a strategy call with me. It is not a one-time thing only, but the goal for us really is to go into January without that hope but with that plan.

Ben:

Perfect. So what am I going to get out of this?

Lindsay:

So I want you to walk away with your plan. I want you to walk away with a clear understanding of what you're going to be doing in each quarter of 2025. And again, it's going to maybe evolve change. I mean, I always said, when I first started my plan for 2024, I was doing, I think, two races a Spartan race and uh, I don't know, a 35 K trail run or something. That was my plan. I didn't end up doing the second Spartan race and I didn't end up doing the 35K. But here's the thing I have done so much more in that time. So we create the plan because that's how we want our year to go, and then we really focus on Q1.

Lindsay:

So that's the idea of what's going to happen when you walk away. So you have your over your umbrella plan and then in Q1, what are you focusing on? Because here's the most important thing. Let's say you have 10 things you want to accomplish in 2025. You can't do them all in January. That is what usually we get set up for failure when we try to do all of our New Year's resolutions in the first month of January. So we're going to break it down in realistic chunks so that it becomes much more manageable.

Ben:

Right. So this is kind of a tricky question to ask because I actually don't know the answer to this, so this actually might be something that you either give me a kick later on or we have to do but say, for example, you do attend, or when you attend in December, december the 12th, you put together your plan. Plan's awesome. Like all plans, we need to execute against them. So are we going to have like touch bases throughout the year where we can kind of keep people on plan?

Lindsay:

Yeah, absolutely. So what I'm actually looking at doing is creating 12 what I call pillars, which will be a live event every month where it will be a bit of a check-in for your plan and it will also be another learn, it will be another teach and, if you're like, well what is that going to be?

Lindsay:

I don't know yet, guys I don't know exactly what those are going to look like. I have my 12 pillars, I think, organized. That will be something that we'll talk about in another episode, but every single month we're going to touch base to see how you're doing right, and that is going to be part of your massive success with this. Because, again, we all know, when we get gung-ho in January, we're feeling good, everybody's in the spirit, everybody's doing great, and then by February 15th, the gyms are empty. The food that you were thinking about doing is out the window, because that's where the hard part starts. It's the plan first the execution, and we have said this over and over and over again on this podcast. It's not the big whoa oh my gosh. Moment, it's the small micro moments throughout the year that are going to make the biggest impact again.

Ben:

You know we often refer to clients, but I was chatting to a client the other day and, um, she was saying to me that she's she's reading a book. She actually really gets shit done.

Ben:

So I mean she may be listening to this podcast hey, you know who you are and she'd also read, or at least purchased, extreme ownership, which is a book that we've mentioned here as well, and I just said to her that's amazing, but just a reminder. There's a lot of people out there with a ton of knowledge that have read a ton of different books. Right, and that's, that's the whole purpose.

Lindsay:

Action, action, action and I mean this is so interesting that you should say this, because I was just talking about this in my business group is how many books do you have started and haven't finished? How many courses have you started and haven't finished? How many things have you said you're going to do and haven't finished it? So we all know this. You to listen to these podcasts, and we want you to come to the masterclass and we want you to be a part of this community. It's not knowledge that we struggle with. There is plenty of knowledge. Youtube is a wealth of information, tiktok, instagram, whatever you can find the knowledge. It's the action that is important and you need to take that action. So part of why I decided to do this masterclass was because I want you taking action with me on that night so that we can see results moving forward. So, yes, there's going to be some information, but it's more about working action to get it successful for 2025. Awesome.

Ben:

Yeah, I'm pumped for you. Can I come to this? Of course you can, can I?

Lindsay:

be just a participant. Yes, you can you actually it's better that you're a participant sometimes, wow, well, I think, think on that note, I think we might want to wrap this podcast up.

Ben:

I feel like I need to explore that question off off camera off camera.

Lindsay:

We had our community hour every month with our clients.

Ben:

We do I got some abuse from a client this morning. You were talking smack. Well, wait a minute. Who was it?

Lindsay:

because I told them not to say anything to you. So we have our community hour every month the first Monday of every month, and Ben happened to be away because he was taking his mom back to Mexico City to go back to England, and so he wasn't there. It was just me and we were talking and we were doing all of our things.

Ben:

You were talking smack.

Lindsay:

It wasn't smack. It wasn't smack. What I did say is I was actually struggling with something, and if I even say it, he's going to go off on a rant.

Ben:

So I'm not even going to say it. It was to find some shit that you've written in your book. Oh yeah, I thought that was totally.

Lindsay:

We were talking about who writes things in notebooks versus who uses electronic, and luckily, most of the people on the call were very much in my corner. However, I did spend about 10 minutes searching through my notebook to try to find the information and then I threatened everyone to not tell Ben that because that's what he always says to me. He's like electronic would mean you put a search word in and you want to say map and it would come up and yeah, and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah and so, anyways, she's in trouble. I I threatened life for that. I'm like nobody's allowed to tell ben, so yeah hilarious.

Ben:

Well, that is episode 40. I would say get signed up for the course, yeah, the master class, sorry, the link will be in the show notes.

Lindsay:

Get uh signed up there. If you are not technically savvy and can't find those notes or whatever, send me a message.

Ben:

Send ben a message send you a letter or send you a message. Do you deal with letters or do you deal with electronic messages?

Lindsay:

shut it anyways, guys have a fantastic week. We will see you as always next week.

Ben:

Enjoy the day speak to you soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Ben Hack

Co-host
Head Shot

Lindsay Hack

Co-host