I have learned a lesson, dear reader.
A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to try out a couple of simple chicken-wing recipes from a cookbook written by someone in my School of Life program.
So I needed chicken wings.
It so happens that I was driving by Gordon Restaurant Market (where I had never set foot before) in neighboring Melbourne,
Florida, and what does it say on the sign but CHICKEN WINGS, with some special price and amount next to it. The number 40 registered in my brain.
I thought: what a coincidence! The very thing I need is on a special sale!
So I parked, and in I went.
This place is a dream. It's a restaurant
supply, so everything is in bulk, but some of the things there you could imagine eventually consuming before expiration, and there are great deals.
I had an employee direct me to the chicken wings from the special deal. The whole time I was there, the employee and I were talking about what a great store it was. I was distracted.
She put the chicken wings in my cart, and off we went to the register.
I took them out and put them on the counter. "Why are they so heavy?" I asked. I mean, 40 chicken wings shouldn't weigh this much.
And that's when I discovered the terrible truth:
The deal was on 40 POUNDS of chicken wings.
Now at that point I wasn't about to say, oops, I need to go put this
back.
I was all in. Woods is bringing 40 pounds of chicken wings home to his family.
So 2026 is going to be a year of chicken wings around here, and I am hereby asking my good readers: got any recipes for me?
I'm starting 2026 with more chicken wings than I've ever had in my possession
before -- and with your help, I'm developing a plan to consume them.
More importantly, I'm starting 2026 by implementing the same system I've used for years that has made each year more successful for me than the last, in non-chicken-wing-related matters.
Dear friend, throughout 2026 you will be surrounded by friends and family who are no doubt lovely people,
but who one year from now will be in exactly the position they're in at this very moment. Nothing essential will have changed for them.
Not so for me, and not so for you, because you and I have a system. (I'm offering mine to you.)
You and I will begin 2026 with a multi-pronged mission. We will set goals that are more ambitious than we think we can reach -- whether related to fitness, finances, relationships, whatever -- and we
will systematically proceed to reach them.
Everyone else will be joking about how they abandoned their "New Year's resolutions" within the first week.
Apart from one optional live session, the whole program can be done anytime you want and at your own pace.
And remember my offer: I'm so sure this will do great
things for you that if you complete the exercises by the end of the month you can ask me for your money back and I'll return every dime you spent on it.
Who is making you guarantees like that?
When the timer on the page hits zero, the doors close for good and we get started.
Let's do great things,
together:
Tom Woods