Journal #1 Embracing Growth and Goals: A Year Storytelling, and Self-Improvement

I'm Tevin McGee, your navigator on the Clever Angle podcast, and I've set some soaring goals for this year that I can't wait to share with you all. Imagine hitting play on 100 meticulously crafted episodes, each one a journey through upgraded soundscapes and vivid video storytelling. Our new digital roost, thecleverangle.com, is ready to complement this audio adventure with 52 thought-provoking blog posts that mesh seamlessly with our bi-weekly episodes. And books! They say leaders are readers, so I'm challenging myself to devour 25 diverse titles, drawing on your recommendations to bring fresh fiction into the mix. 

2024 Goals

• Consistency in all areas 
• 25 books read. (Drop your recommendations!)
• Upgrade my podcasting microphones
• 52 Blog Posts (MAYBE MORE)
• Adding Video to the Podcast 
• Build a better brand on social Media.
• Fall in love with the process. 
• More time outside and less screens
• To be a more romantic husband to my wife
• To listen more and talk less
• To Be a better communicator
• To learn to cook; Focusing on Steak, Chicken and Breakfest
• To maintain my weight and diet 
• Level up my tennis game
• More intentional time with family and friends 
• To go deeper on my spiritual walk 

Chapters

• 0:19 2024 Goals for Clever Eagle Podcast
• 12:21 Decluttering, Loved Ones, and Personal Growth

Transcript

Tevin McGee: 0:19

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Clever Angle podcast. I'm your host, tevin McGee, and today we're going to be doing something a little bit different. I'm going to be talking through my 2024 goals, what's going to be coming up on the show and some things that I want to get better at personally in 2024. So, if you are not subscribed to the show, go ahead and hit that subscribe button If you're on Apple podcast or wherever you get podcast, so you can make sure that you see this episode in all future episodes as soon as they drop. So let's start with our podcasting goals. So just a update for those who have not seen my latest Instagram post my word of the year is consistency. So with the podcast it's, I want to be consistent. I started this podcasting journey going on a little over three years ago now, and one thing that I've lacked is consistency. My goal is to make 100 episodes in 2024. So that's almost two episodes a week. We're looking to publish every Thursday and then I'm going to try to get that second episode in on Tuesday. So we've got a lot of guests lined up. So I'm excited to share these experiences with you guys. So you guys are my accountability partners. If I miss a Tuesday or a Thursday, don't hesitate to call me out on social media. So yeah, 100 episodes. It's a daunting task, but it's something that I am committing to and I'm going to see it through.

Tevin McGee: 1:57

Another thing that I've started in 2024 is the website. The website is up, the clever anglecom. It will be in the show notes for the direct link. You know, I just wanted to get it out there. It's not perfect. It's forever evolving. It's not something that I've been the most skilled at as far as websites go, but it's something that I wanted to make progress on and I will refine it as we go along. So the website is up, which kind of leads me into my next goal, which is 52 blogs, so 100 episodes. Every other episode I'm going to be releasing a blog post, and who knows if I ended up, if I end up liking the blog, maybe I'll do it for every episode, but I'm going to set the goal at one blog a week and that will be available on my website as well.

Tevin McGee: 2:52

The next goal is going to be to upgrade my microphones. Now I am very happy with the sound quality that I get from the Samsung Q2U that I've been using since I started, but I really want to go all in on the audio and the sound of the podcast. So my goal is to upgrade to one of the Sure mics I'm not sure which one that I will be upgrading to, but I will be upgrading my mic for the remote podcast and for my mobile setup to one of the microphones in the Sure line. So be on the the the lookout for that, and whenever I mark one of these goals off, I'm going to share it on social media, moving around along with the podcast and goal.

Tevin McGee: 3:47

The next goal that I have for 2024 is to consistently put up a video portion of the podcast. I want to grow my brand. I want to grow this podcast, too, on social media. So adding video is the next aspect of that. I don't know exactly when I'll add video. I'm actually breaking a video editor on in the next few weeks. You'll probably hear it in two weeks. I will be interviewing him on Monday. So I'm going to get all the tips and tricks for a simple video setup and some tips and tricks on how to get started in that. So I really want to use it for YouTube, youtube Shorts, instagram, tiktok X wherever we can put out video content is where I want to improve on. So that's another one of my goals to kind of get the basic understanding of video editing and how I can be more consistent online.

Tevin McGee: 4:55

Staying on the social media aspect of my goals, I wanna get at least a thousand followers on Instagram. So I'm gonna be posting my updates on where we're at each month at the end of each month. I'll be logging where we're at and I'm just trying to fall in love with the process and get this podcast out to as many people as possible. I wanna be a better speaker and delivering my message on the podcast. It's another one of my goals and it's just doing the work. Consistency and just doing the work goes back to just my overall word for 2024. So I wanna grow on social media and 1000 followers on Instagram and really all of the platforms is the goal.

Tevin McGee: 5:47

So this next one it relates to the podcast, but it really is more just personal development. I wanna read 25 books. So a quick backstory I don't think I have successfully read an entire book not an audio book, not some kind of YouTube book or a Kindle like a physical paper book in probably 10 years. So I am on the verge of finishing my first book in probably a decade and it feels good. It's a self help book called Essentialism and I recommend everybody read it. It's the pursuit of less but better.

Tevin McGee: 6:30

And one thing that reading has really opened my eyes to is that you start to think differently when you're exposed to different thoughts. I know that sounds kind of self-explanatory, but I never realized how many days in a row I would go thinking about the same things, and then it just kind of gives you ideas and opens up your mind to things that you might necessarily have thought of if you weren't consuming that content. So just being very particular about the content that I consume is another one of my things that are on my list. So reading is definitely gonna help with that, and I want it to be a mix of fiction and nonfiction. One of my favorite book series when I was a kid was the Maximum Ride Books by James Patterson. I just remember being so immersed in the fantasy aspects of that book. So if you have any recommendations for books that are fiction, drop them in the comments on Instagram or TikTok or wherever you guys follow me, and I would love to knock out some of those books this year. So 25 books is on my list and I'm almost done with one. I've got about five or six other books that I am reading slash listening to, so I really I'm still a fan of Audible, but I wanna mix it up. So that's 25 books total as far as reading and listening to books. So I wanted to do like at least 15 paper books, another 10 to 15 on Audible. So send your recommendations.

Tevin McGee: 8:15

Moving on to some personal goals of mine, I want to learn how to cook more. Quick backstory everybody in my family knows how to cook extremely well my brother, both my sisters, my dad, my mom, my twin brother they can all throw it out in the kitchen. So one of my intentional goals is to be a better cook. I want to perfect chicken steak and breakfast. Those are the things that I'm gonna focus on Chicken steak and breakfast and once I get those down I'll start moving into some other recipes of different things. But yeah, I wanna be able to cook more. I want to get less processed food in my diet and cooking more is a surefire way to be able to do that. Health goals I just wanna maintain kinda the weight that I'm at. Last summer I was about 40 pounds heavier than I am now. So I'm at a healthy weight that I really want to maintain and that starts with diet. Coming from a health promotion background, diet really is the main thing that is going to drive your health and fitness goals and I noticed immediately, once I started getting large amounts of protein in my diet, really being particular about the things that I enter into my system, I started to see a huge difference with, honestly, not really that much added exercise, but exercise wise.

Tevin McGee: 9:59

I wanna get better at tennis. I started a tennis journey about a year and a half ago and me and my brother were able to move up in the rankings. For those of you that are listening that are tennis fans, we went from a 2.5 to a 3.0, so that was really exciting. We actually won our local league in 2.5 men's, so we ended up going to state and winning state in Arkansas, so we were super excited about that. We had the opportunity to go to sectionals for the adult league, but it didn't line up with all of our schedules so we didn't end up doing that. But I've had a blast playing tennis. My brother plays tennis, my wife plays tennis and it's just been a bonding thing that I'm looking forward to getting better, getting that exercise in and doing something that's fun. I want more fun in my life in 2024.

Tevin McGee: 10:57

This next one is something that I didn't really ever think would be on my list, but I want to spend more time outside. Me and my brother talk all the time about the good old days when we were kids. I've officially entered that error when I referred to my childhood, as I sound kind of like that old adult hit 30, and now you are just all of a sudden in this middle ground of there's so many people that are younger than you that you're around, whether that's at work or in social gatherings. 10, 12 years difference could be on either side. I've got a lot of people that are friends with through tennis that are older than me, and then I've got people that are friends with through tennis that are quite a bit younger than me. So I'm kind of in that middle ground and I want to spend more time outside. Some of the best memories that I have is being outside, and I want that to be part of the daily routine with me and my family Once it gets a little bit warmer more walks outside, more outside activities, more going to the park with the dogs. I want that to be a part of 2024.

Tevin McGee: 12:21

Decluttering is the next thing that is on the list. I need desperately to have time to declutter my house. You watch these episodes of hoarders and you're like man. I cannot believe somebody would live like that. And then all of a sudden, after a Christmas, after a birthday, you get something sentimental from your family, you get something from work. Things just start to pile up and you turn around and you don't even realize where all this stuff has come from. And it's so hard to part with things that we have owned for a long time. But intentionally trying to find the things in my life, in my house, that spark joy in getting everything else out of here, I've desperately got to do that and my wife, luckily, is on board with that. We actually spent quite a bit of time going through our closet this past weekend and it's looking better. It's looking better. We got some stuff in the donate pile to take to Goodwill and now the next step is just actually getting it out of here. So, baby steps, this is good for us. You know, just start one area of the house and move on to the next area of the house until we've simplified our lives. So decluttering is definitely on the list, more time with friends and family.

Tevin McGee: 13:52

So, reading this book, essentialism it's basically about cutting out the things in your life that are trivial and not essential. One thing that I have found in my life to be essential in this stage of my life is having a good support system. So I cherish the time that I get to spend with my friends and family so much more now than I ever did when I was a teenager or in my 20s. You know, when you're in your 20s and you've got three or four roommates and you guys get to see each other every day, and or you're growing up in a house with your parents and they're there every day, you don't realize that there's gonna come a time when those things aren't gonna be so often all the time.

Tevin McGee: 14:48

This past year I took a trip to New Orleans with some of my best friends. All of them were in my wedding. It was a couple's trip, so my brother's my best friend, so my brother was there and his fiance, my buddy TJ, and his girlfriend and my other buddy granted his wife for all there and it was one of the best times that I can recall in the last five years was just this trip with this group of people and we did a lot of fun things there. We ate probably the best steak and eggs that I've ever had in my entire life. We went and did an escape room, which was really cool. We went on a swamp tour. We experienced some of the Cajun food and the nightlife and some of the art. But some of the moments that I remember the most were just the quiet moments, getting to hang out with my friends again, kind of like we were in junior high and high school.

Tevin McGee: 15:49

We sat at this Airbnb and there was a Super Nintendo there and it was a Super Nintendo emulator. So it had a lot of Super Nintendo games on it, but it wasn't like a full Super Nintendo because it didn't really have a memory card. But anyway, they had Super Mario 3, which for those of you who grew up in the 80s and 90s know that Super Mario 3 on the Super Nintendo was a classic game. So we found this game. We were there for three nights, I believe. Every morning we would get up and before the girls would get up, before we were hitting the first thing on our itinerary, we would try to completely beat this game, and we knew that we were never gonna have enough time to be able to beat it. But just sitting around in a living room, each of us taking turns playing this Mario game, bonding, really engaged with one another, was one of the best moments, friendship wise, I had in 2023.

Tevin McGee: 16:53

And I need more of that. I need more intentional time with the people that I wanna spend time with. So more time with friends and family is on the list as one of the essential things. Listening more and judging less. So doing a podcast. I get to listen to so many different stories from people from all different types of walks of life, but I find the hardest time in my personal life listening before I react. So, whether that be an argument, whether this is just me talking to somebody in a casual conversation, it's like I get so excited about my response that I'm not listening to what the other person is saying. So definitely have to get better with that within my marriage listening more and then actually taking that information in. You know, making space for somebody else to be heard. So anyone that is married knows that communication is a struggle over, no matter how long you've been married. So one of my goals is definitely to be a better communicator and to give that to my wife and the people that are around me. So I want to listen more and I want to judge less on things that I might not necessarily agree with.

Tevin McGee: 18:29

Being more romantic so this is something that my wife intentionally asked of me, tevin, I need more romantic gestures and, for those of you that know me in real life, I'm a very logical, practical person. The things that I want and the things that I enjoy are very practical. I am going to be overjoyed that if you go and get me a gift, it's like a gas card or something that I can use like man. This is going to make a practical impact. So it's good in some areas. But being romantic is not always my first thought. So I want to be more romantic, be more intentional, focus on the relationship with my wife. More is something that I am focusing on in 2024. So I guess you'll have to be the judge of that, but that is something that I am intentionally trying to work on is being more romantic.

Tevin McGee: 19:39

And the last thing, but not the least important thing, probably the most important thing actually I want to have more quiet time. I want to have more meditation, more prayer, more time reading the word. I have a great church community here in Arkansas and me and my wife have been attending for going on eight years now, but I really want to make that one of the focuses of taking that time to slow down, to be grateful, to have that connection with the Lord and to learn and grow in my spiritual journey. So this has been another episode of the Clever Angle podcast. If you liked this episode, give me a five star review on Apple podcast. Another one of my goals is to have at least 10 solo episodes, so this is one. I hope you enjoy this journal style episode that I put out, and I appreciate everybody who listens, no matter if it's for one second or one hour. So until next time, peace.