A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Dear January, Stop Catfishing Our Willpower With Silly Resolutions!! S:2E:15
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New year energy fades fast when goals are vague and life gets loud. We decided to flip the script and design changes that actually survive February by shrinking ambitions into small, repeatable actions you can fit into a busy week. With a mix of humor, real failure stats, and lived experience across generations, we map out how to protect your time, guard your energy, and build momentum without going all or nothing.
We start by tackling the health triad—sleep, hydration, and food—and why sleep is the quiet lever that moves everything else. From shift work struggles to insomnia, we share tactics that reduce friction: wind‑down windows, caffeine cutoffs, and anchor habits that make drinking water and eating less processed food automatic.
Then we zoom into personal growth and boundaries. Instead of big, hazy resolutions, we pick one learning lane and put it in a tight daily container: ten pages, fifteen minutes, one micro‑project.
We round things out with digital wellness and decluttering. That means pruning notifications, archiving stale chats, cleaning a single surface at a time, and using reset points to keep order without a weekend purge.
If you’re ready for a year built on tiny, sticky wins instead of big promises that melt by mid‑January, hit play and make your first change today. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to tell us your one small goal for the week.
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
Welcome everyone to today's show, Boomer and Gen X are walking to a bar. Coming to you from the Rabbit Run studio, where you as our listener will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart answering. And this mother and that daughter questioning, are we even related? My name is Jane. My co-host is my daughter Bobby, and for the next 10 of 20-25 minutes, we're here to entertain you. Bobby, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_02Oh, just recovering from the after uh Christmas uh sickness that we usually get and the snow squalls we're having here. What is a snow squall? Well, from my understanding, it's when the snow bands come across and it has gusts and winds so bad that it creates white out conditions.
SPEAKER_03Ah, and those little tornado type things, too, I think. Um, yeah, so the weather is not so good here. What about down south there, Dr. Domain? How's the weather down there?
SPEAKER_00Very pleasant. How sunny? Very pleasant. Yeah, very pleasant.
SPEAKER_03You even went uh motorcycle riding yesterday, isn't that correct?
SPEAKER_00I did.
SPEAKER_03Must be nice.
SPEAKER_00It was fun. Yeah, it is nice.
SPEAKER_03That's not something we have the ability to do up here, is it, Bobby?
SPEAKER_02No, no, my motorcycle barely starts in this weather.
SPEAKER_03So, as you mentioned, we are just now coming out of the holiday season. We are recording this just before New Year's. And so people will probably listen to it after New Year's. And um, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at New Year's resolutions for 2026. Now, I don't know who gathers this information, but no one's ever asked me to complete a survey to say, hey, what's your New Year's resolution gonna be? Has anybody ever done that to you, Bobby?
SPEAKER_02No, could you imagine them coming to your door with a little clipboard, like the census takers, and be like, yeah, we just want to know what your new year's resolution is. Oh, and by the way, what's your favorite brand of soda?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think the door would close faster than on a Jehovah's Witness. Boom! That was not very nice. Anyway, um, I think that uh how do they gather this information then? I'm not really sure how they gather it, Bobby.
SPEAKER_02I think a lot of it is just, you know, the AI technology, the social media. I think a lot of it is what we search for, you know, what gyms are nearby, or you know, how to stop smoking or things like that.
SPEAKER_03I think you're probably right. So for 2026, we're gonna talk about some of the popular New Year's resolutions that people have been searching for because I did pull up stuff from AI, pulled it up from Health and Wellness Magazine, from Personal Growth and Learning, and then some relationships and community information that was available to us. So one of the things that people, well, first of all, I just wanted to say that one of the top resolutions is to work out more, is to lose weight and to work out. And so how many New Year's resolutions do you think go south? Um you know, before they even get off the off the ground?
SPEAKER_02God, I would guess at least like 80% of them.
Why Most Goals Fail So Fast
SPEAKER_03You're oh, you're like spot on. So a huge major a huge majority of people don't even keep them. And with most sources showing online that around 80 to 90 percent fail immediately, they're often quitting the first few weeks, and only about 10% actually succeed. So, how many days in do you think it takes somebody to start filtering out of the gym? When do you think that they start dropping?
SPEAKER_02Well, from my experience, I know it's within those. Well, I would say probably the two-week mark. Two-week mark, and it starts to the the herd thins very quickly.
Health Priorities: Sleep, Exercise, Food
SPEAKER_03So by the first week, it says that the failure rates are about 23%. By the end of January, about 43% have given up. And this is on any news New Year's resolution, so this isn't just the gym, but these are called quitter's days. And February estimates uh or estimates suggest that 80% have failed. How wild is that? Yeah, that's been that long. And so one, like I said, one of the most popular is to get into shape, to lose weight, to exercise more. You know, you think about the failure rates, and I think back at COVID, and I looked at the number of people that actually stayed home during COVID and couldn't work. It wasn't like, oh, I'm working from home. It's I'm at home, I can't go to work, I'm not working from home. And people have always said, hey, listen, if I had the time, I would work out. Apparently not, because a high percentage of people actually gained weight during COVID. And one could argue, well, I couldn't go to the gym, but you had other things available to you, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know uh a lot of people argued about walking around outside with the mask on, and you know, or even trying to, you know, the few places that were open, like that had the big tracks and stuff, you'd see them running with the mask on, and they'd be like, Well, I can't breathe. You know, and it's like, yeah, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_03According to AI, roughly 30% of Americans. Now I'm only talking about Americans because that's all I got stats on, uh, typically make New Year's resolutions. And most of those are younger adults, significantly, and they're significantly more likely to set goals than resolutions. And so, you know, some of the things, like I said, the New Year's resolutions that people focus on, the first one being health, which would include exercise, hydration, and sleep. Now, I know you've got a sleep issue. I have I can't sleep, I'm an insomniac, and I know that you work double shifts on a regular basis, which screws up your circadian rhythms really bad. And so it's really hard to not only sleep, it's hard to lose weight, it's hard to have mental uh awareness and wellness, and so your sleep habits really do kind of screw with almost everything. And then the second one was personal growth. What do you think personal growth means, Bobby?
SPEAKER_02Improving on yourself, like personally, whether it be like, you know, maybe going to a therapist or you know, learning something.
Personal Growth Through Skills And Hobbies
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so personal growth, some of the categories there were learning, reading, and hobbies. You know, learn a new skill, learn a new hobby, learn to do something, you know, like if there's something that you want to learn to build, something you want to learn to repair, those sorts of things fall under that category. Another one is to improve your relationships, which would include family time and kindness. Kindness. Now I just saw your eyes roll back in the back of your head, Bobby. So I know that that's not one of yours.
SPEAKER_02Hey, listen, uh, I'm the nicest asshole you'll ever meet, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03Well, I do know you're dead inside most of the time, but uh family time is really important and building relationships. And I think coming out of the holidays, some people probably realize, hey, my relationship with my family is pretty screwed up, and I probably need to work on that. You know, maybe being more kind to one another, maybe that's where that comes from.
SPEAKER_02Could be, and you know, I know a lot of people come out of the holidays going, thank God that's over because my family is screwed up, and I don't think I want to be around them for more than five minutes.
Relationships, Boundaries, And Kindness
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and some people make a commitment never to do it again, right? It's like, okay, I'm cutting those people loose. Um, another one is digital wellness, and that is detoxing from your computer, detoxing from your phone, and decluttering. And one of the things that I found out going through my phone was going through my contacts, how many people, names of dead people I have in my phone, and that's not funny, but but I will say some of these names I kind of went, man, they've been dead for like 10 years, and they're still on my phone. So it's probably time to kind of you know filter that stuff out, don't you think?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I have on my social media, I do have friends that have passed, you know, all the way from back in gosh, 2010, you know, when they passed away. And I still have them on my Facebook. While I do think it is, you know, kind of a good thing to kind of you know declutter things, I won't do that because there's times, even just the other day, a friend of mine had passed. Gosh, it's been like, I don't know, eight years ago now, and it just kind of hit me. And I thought about him, and I went to his Facebook page and I was able to, you know, kind of go back, relive some things. And so, yeah, I I'm gonna keep those people, maybe exes, you know, erase their phone numbers so that way when they text, you know, you can be like, Who's this?
Digital Detox And Decluttering
SPEAKER_03I don't know who this is. Right. I don't recognize this number. That's always been mine is I don't recognize this number. Please advise. And you know, another one when we talk about decluttering, isn't just your your digital devices, right?
SPEAKER_02Right, yeah. A lot of it is, and I I'm a firm believer on the fact that your environment it reflects your mental status at the time, your mental state. So even going down and, you know, like let's say your living room is cluttered after the holidays because you have decorations, you have, you know, leftover gifts you haven't opened, you have dishes everywhere. That's kind of a reflection of what's going on in your head right now. And and once you clean that up, it makes you get into a better state mentally. Um, you know, I was telling you the story about my older daughter, uh, who still lives with me. She got what we call the the the Yaya tornado the other day. Um explain that. Explain that right there. So uh Yaya is my mom, Jane, you know, my co-host here. That's what my kids call hers, Yaya. And uh growing up, you know, we we didn't have a lot of room for dirtiness, I guess you would say, for uncleanliness in our rooms and things, because you know, every Saturday morning we'd hear that vacuum and we'd hear it outside the door in the hallway and hit the door, and we knew we were screwed, you know, 6, 7 a.m. in the morning because here she comes ready to throw everything away that's not put away. Uh so uh yeah, I did that on my older daughter, and I went down and I saw that she was having issues mentally, um, just just organizing things and keeping things picked up. So I just went down there and I didn't ask permission and I didn't warn her, and I just walked right in and just started cleaning.
SPEAKER_03So decluttering is very uh what do I want to say? It releases so much energy off your shoulders. And yes, I did do that. You can call it the yah yah hurricane or whatever you want to call it. I do have this thing where I am a little bit, what do I want to say? I want everything in its place.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say you act like it's like a quirk, it's like a mental illness. My mom has a mental illness that is undiagnosed, where she can't have a piece of dirt on her floor for 32 seconds, otherwise, at that 33rd second, she's like, oh my God, pick that up.
Environmental Habits And Shopping Local
SPEAKER_03Whatever. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. I think that's a false statement, but I do like to have things I can't even say that with a straight face. I do like to have things put back where they're supposed to be. And so if I walk into the kitchen and there's something on the counter and there's people standing there, and I go, you know, I mean, it is not uncommon for me to say, what's going on here? Who got this out? Where does this go? Who who's what what's what's what's the deal here? And so I do like to have things put back, and I am a quick grabber, like if somebody sits something down, I do grab it pretty quick and and put it away. And so, but decluttering, like you said, does kind of say where you are psychologically. Now, there are people who are hoarders or are semi-hoarders who have a difficult time with separation anxiety or with just getting rid of things in their lives. They hold on to them, it's an insecurity, it's a psychological uh issue with them, and so it's very difficult for them to get rid of things. I am not that way. I am a thrower. As Bobby mentioned, Saturday mornings. I mean, it's not like I didn't warn you in advance. I mean, you know I'm coming, you hear the vacuum, and I've always said, listen, if it's on the floor, that just tells me you don't want it anymore. So I am gonna throw it away. And I didn't warn them, I threw it away, and I didn't care what it was, I threw it away. I am a tosser of things, I do throw things away, and sometimes to my own detriment, but I do throw things away. So, but decluttering can be very uh releasing for someone. There is also environmentalism, which is to reduce the number of plastics or help the environment, or even shop locally, and so those things are things that people have set as New Year's resolutions. I am a big advocate for um supporting local. If you've got local shops in your town, they are not big box stores. I say go go patronize them because you want you want those people to stay in business. I know sometimes some of my steps are kind of all or nothing, but uh, did you set any type of resolution this year, Bobby?
The Anti‑Resolution: Protecting Time And Energy
SPEAKER_02Uh I did kind of an anti-resolution where it wasn't really something that I was going to, I don't know how to put it. Um, so let me just explain it and then maybe you'll understand. So I I do a lot of things, um, I'll say recreationally, uh, that involve, you know, volunteering, uh, donating my time, donating my resources, things like that, that um take away from my time with my kids. They take away from my time to work on myself, to, you know, um, if I'm having sleep issues, I kind of ignore those if I if I've had prior commitments. But I think this year I'm gonna step away from that a lot more and I'm going to be more focused on myself and my children and my home rather than what can I do for other people. Uh and I know that sounds bad. That's uh that sounds really selfish. I mean, I'm gonna continue to donate and volunteer and things when I can, but I'm not gonna be jumping at the chance of you know doing things even though it's my last dollar or it's the only hour that I have before I go to work rather than spending it, you know, with my kids or working on myself.
Give Without Emptying Your Cup
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I I understand where you're coming from on that, on that. And like you said, you know, yeah, you continue to help the community, you continue to focus on kindness and generosity. And, you know, I I I truly believe that you know, you surround yourself with people, whether it's your friends, your community, whoever you hang with, that we all need somebody because we're we're helping other people fill their glass, we're helping other people to fill their cup. And whether that's emotionally, uh psychologically, or financially, we're helping them, and we surround ourselves with people who can help us back. That's what giving is all about, right? Is to help each other, and that's what we want to do. Now, I agree with you that if you have donated a lot of time to people who have added no value to you, it's okay to say Sayanara Joe. You know, get out of my life. I'll be kind, I'll be, I'll be courteous to you, but I have no reason to keep you in my life. And just like I am a tosser of things and a declutterer, I am very good at saying scrape your shoes and move on. I don't hang on to relationships, I don't need to hang on to. If I'm not adding value to you and you're or you're not adding value to me, we can we can separate and we can move on. And that has nothing to do with not supporting your community or being kind to one another. We are here on this planet to help each other. We're not here for selfish reasons, we are here to help each other. You know, that means giving when we sometimes when when we don't want to of our time or our energy, you don't do anybody any favors. I'm just gonna say this: you don't do anybody any favors by giving your last dollar when you can't make your own bills to somebody else. Your responsibility is to pay your bills, take care of your family, and help as you can, right? So all you're doing is causing yourself to be a burden to someone else. So take care of your own business and help others as you possibly can. Now, when you kids were growing up, you know, there were times we just didn't have money, and so we we gave our time. That's what we did. You kids, you kids worked at the mission on Thanksgiving numerous times. Um, we helped deliver meals, we did what we could because we didn't have the money to give at that time, so we gave of ourselves, and other people can do that too, right?
SPEAKER_02And you know, uh you talk about cutting people off. I tell you what, my cutoff game is strong because you know, I'll have known you for five years, and then you do me wrong, and I I act like you're a stranger on the street, I'd be like, I don't know that person, I don't know what you're talking about, you know. But I I think a lot of volunteerism and things like that, it does go to people who can never pay you back, and I think that's kind of the point. Um, but when you find yourself sacrificing your own needs, your own family's needs in order to help someone else when you know that you you know your family needs those things. I think that that's that's not serving anybody. That's not serving you, that's not serving them, that's not that's not helping anybody. And it's definitely not teaching your family that this is a good thing because now. They're suffering because you decided to give, you know, your last bit of food to someone else, and now your children are hungry.
SPEAKER_03Right. I totally agree with you there. So I do understand where you're coming from, and that's a that's a great goal for you. And so, Dr. Domain, what about you? Have you thought about any type of maybe goals or New Year's resolutions for 2026?
SPEAKER_01No, I'm I'm perfect. I've got everything.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Um and modest.
SPEAKER_03He's very humble.
SPEAKER_01He's very humble.
SPEAKER_03He is, yes, he is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, just uh health, I think, is is the big thing. Becoming more and more conscientious of that, trying to take care of myself.
SPEAKER_03So and we have focused on that in 2025. Um, we have focused on not eating processed foods as much as we have in the past, not eating out as much as we had, uh, really just limiting our intake. You know, we're focused. I I know uh we have been because I've kind of pushed this too, is you know, let's eat to live, not live to eat. You know, let's focus that way and make sure that we're not.
SPEAKER_01Sorry. Can you excuse me one second? My DoorDash is here. They're delivering Waffle House.
SPEAKER_03Now I'm jealous. I love Waffle House. Oh my gosh, Waffle House. That's funny.
SPEAKER_02Wow, maybe Dr. Domain should work on uh learning his uh IT trade there a little better on the soundboard. All I'm saying is, you know, make sure the red lights on.
SPEAKER_03Uh oh, that was hurtful right there. You know, he could he could silence us with one finger. He can hear you, you know that, right? Yeah. Um, so just uh to kind of bring this home, you know, when you make goals, and I would say don't focus on resolutions, when you make goals, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You know, you can set goals for certain periods of time. Um, you know, let's say that you want to lose 50 pounds, start with 10 and see where you get and how successful you are there, and then just keep going. And uh if you, you know, if you want to start exercising more, maybe start with a smaller goal, go for a week, then go for two weeks, and it's a little bit more attainable, and you have that acknowledgement that you've actually succeeded in something. So again, exercising more, hydrating that's a big one for me because I have a real problem with hydrating. Quitting smoking, quitting smoking, yeah. Well, you know, at least reduce the drinking.
SPEAKER_02Hey, I'm not looking at anybody here, I'm just saying is this is uh some common goals, you know.
Gratitude, Outdoors, And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, I get it. Um, mindful eating, you know, on what you want to reduce there. I just we just happen to have that we don't want to eat processed foods. Uh we don't we don't need any of that. Maybe read more or learn something. We talked about that for personal growth. And then practicing gratitude. Do you have anybody in your life that they just bitch and moan about everything? I mean, you can call them and say, Hey, how you doing today? And they go, they sound like Eeyore. It's like, oh, well, you know, I guess I'm okay. I had said something, I was at pickleball one day, and one of the pickleballers said, Hey, how you doing today, Jane? And I said, I am doing fabulously. And she said, You know, you've had a broken arm and your elbow is bad, and no matter what, you always say that you're fabulous or you're really good. And I said, You know what? I was on God's wake-up list today. So I woke up, I was in a warm home, and I had food in my belly, and you know, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for everything. My kids are safe, my grandkids are safe, and I'm I'm just very, very grateful. And so practicing gratitude is really very uplifting. Um, get outdoors, go hiking, go walking, go camping. Okay, if you've listened to one of our podcasts about pettiness, uh, you'll find out that sometimes camping is not what it's cracked up to be, but that's something that you'll have to take a look at uh or listen to on one of our other podcasts. And then relationships and community. Bobby, what are your famous last words for that?
SPEAKER_02Hey, listen, don't pour from a cup that's empty. That's all I can say. You know, it's good to have to give a helping hand, but stop giving that damn hand if it keeps getting bit.
SPEAKER_03Digital detox, uh, organization, decluttering, wash your environmental folks, wash your feet and wash your hands, for goodness sakes. Uh, that's the one thing that we all learned from the from the pandemic is, you know, thank God those scientists told us that we needed to stay out of each other's faces and wash our hands. Boy, we learned all that. Thank you so much for that. Anyway, that's pretty much all I have for today. How about you, Bobby?
Sign‑Off And Listener Invitation
SPEAKER_02That is all the insanity that we have for you for today. Hey, listen, we appreciate you joining us through the new year at the Rabbit Run Studios. So be sure to follow us because we look forward to spending time with you each and every week. Please like us. And if you have positive feedback for us, or if there's a topic or a question that you have for us, drop us a short email at Boomer and Genxter at gmail.com. If you have hate mail, well, my New Year's resolution is to uh send it back. So until next week, I'm Bobby Joy and I'm Jam Bird.
SPEAKER_03And you're stuck and you're stuck with us.