- Are you wondering why I'm holding a penguin?
Well, you know what day it is?
(sequins crunch)
How did I do that?
That's not magical editing!
Check this out.
Pa, pa, pa, pa.
Come on, look at this.
You go half, bwah.
You'll think I'm a magician.
(laughs)
Come on, this is so much fun.
How about we just leave the hat on him?
I like the hat.
But I kinda like the stomach, too.
Wow, it looks even cooler on camera.
(static buzzes) - In all seriousness,
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,
no matter what holiday you celebrate.
I know we've accomplished
some pretty amazing things together.
We picked up two and half million subscribers together,
we've educated the world, 200 million views this year.
But I wanna do it even bigger for 2020.
So, I sat down and wrote 10 epic goals
that are actually S.M.A.R.T goals.
Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic
and have a time component.
You ready?
(mimics computer beeping) (upbeat music)
For the third consecutive year, I do not wanna miss
a single YouTube posting date.
I mean, it's really hard to post
on Wednesdays and Sundays
without missing a single video.
But we've been doing it since April 2017, Dan and I.
And I wanna continue that into 2020.
I wanna make sure that even if I take a vacation
or I get busy, I have videos pre-filmed
so you always have quality fun, educational videos
to watch and check out.
That's on me.
So if I fail, you know where to yell at me.
Goal #2, I wanna finally complete
Bear's hospital training/certification.
It's taken forever, I had to wait until he turned two.
Now, I just got him neutered.
He's ready to go, he's primed.
I'm starting to take him where there's crowds,
there's noise, so he gets used to it.
And the more exposure I can get him,
the more comfortable he's gonna be
when he actually spends time with me at the hospital.
Not only do I wanna have Bear with me
when I see patients, but afterwards,
I wanna volunteer some time and take him
into the Supporting Paws program
that we have in my hospital
and visit the Pediatric Ward or even the Adult Ward
where patients are staying for an extended period of time.
Bear cheers me up and I know
that if someone's sick in the hospital,
where they can get lonely pretty easily,
it's nice to see a fluffy, friendly face just like Bear.
Ooh, by the way, look how pretty he is.
He just got groomed, he's lookin' so spiffy.
Bear, you're lookin' awesome!
Look at him.
I don't know if you can tell,
but he's super well groomed and he smells
like the Downy bear or whatever, the Cottonelle.
God, I'm messing that up.
Give me five for goals for the New Year.
Whoa, that was a good high-five.
What is this, Bear?
Gross.
Goal #3, I wanna read at least 24 books next year.
I guess that technically means I could listen
to 24 books next year, 'cause you know I love Audible.
I wanna read two books a month.
I normally do one, I wanna step it up.
I wanna go into overdrive, I wanna expand my mind.
Because I feel like when I read more books,
I can better transfer you more knowledge,
better knowledge, more interesting facts and quotes
and things like that.
So, I'm really gonna make it a mission
to step outside my comfort zone, read more, listen more
and be an all around knowledge sponge.
(slurps)
Goal #4, I wanna connect more with you.
I've tried to answer as many questions as I can
in the comments and in my "Responding to comments," videos,
even on my Reddit page.
But I wanna step it up and really form a community
around everything that we're doing.
I think you and I have the same mission.
Learn as much as we can about ourselves,
about the mind, the body, health, medicine.
But do it in a responsible way where it's fun,
but we're still putting evidence-based facts first.
The way we're gonna do this,
is I'm gonna give you my number.
Literally, this is my number.
917-336-4906.
Now, a lot of people, when I put this on Instagram,
freaked out and were like, "Oh, my God!
"I can't believe Mike's giving his number,
"it must be fake!"
It is absolutely not fake.
Here's my messages that are all coming in.
When you text, you're gonna get
an automated message from me.
That's not me.
But then everything after that, is gonna be me.
Now yeah, sometimes I send out a mass text,
which is fine.
Sometimes, I'll text you individually.
Sometimes, I'll wish you a Happy Birthday
on your birthday with a dedicated video.
I think that's pretty cool.
There's a lot of great features in this app.
And if I wanna notify you about merch
or a new cool video concept
or poll you on a specific question,
this is a great way to do it.
I promise I won't be texting you like crazy.
And sometimes, I just get bored
and just start answering questions
or just chatting with people.
So, definitely text me, 917-336-4906.
You have my number, it's your move.
Goal número cinco, I wanna bring in
new faces to the YouTube channel.
Specifically, 'cause the goal's gotta be specific,
10 new faces this year.
YouTubers, celebrities, even interesting people
with interesting stories,
like I did before with Pam or Dr. Espina.
I actually have a few collabs lined up early in the year
with industry-leading doctors, the top of their fields,
to not only educate you, but to educate me.
In fact, I just had an awesome collab with Juanpa,
who is absolutely wild and hilarious.
He's about to throw my out of a plane.
If you don't know what I'm talking about,
the link's down below in my description.
Goal #6, I wanna give away at least, at least
$50,000 in 2020.
Whether that means to charity
or through giveaways, whatever.
And maybe we could even hit the 100,000 mark.
Before I tell you goal #7, please don't judge me.
(laughs) Goal #7 is to launch my merch line.
Oh my God, has this been a heartache and a headache!
First, I went ahead and created all the designs
for the merch myself and I was so excited about it.
This was early summer.
I get a company, I partner with them,
they approved my samples, they send me samples.
One sample comes in broken,
second sample comes in flawed,
third sample has an issue.
I can't have that.
God forbid they start sending you the merch
and you're gonna be upset with me and you should be.
And that all started happening
towards the end of November and December.
Now, I feel rushed to put out poopy designs.
I'd rather give you the most epic, amazing designs,
'cause 2020's gonna be an epic year.
So, be prepared for some awesome merch.
I mean, really awesome merch.
Goal #8, is to do something I shoulda be doing
a long, long time ago.
I wanna play tourist in New York City,
my hometown, where I've lived 20 plus years,
and visit five famous landmarks.
I'm pretty embarrassed to say
that I've lived here for so long,
never visited the World Trade Center,
now the Freedom Tower, the Empire State Building.
There's so many cool places
in New York City I haven't seen.
I'm making it a mission that I'm gonna see
five places by the end of 2020 and I wanna vlog it.
Goal #9, Meatless Mondays!
In 2019, I went vegan.
I just finished up Whole 30, video coming soon.
And I realized I'd been eating a lot of meat.
So, I'm trying to cut back a little bit.
Not only for animals' sake, but also for the environment.
There's a huge benefit to cutting out meat
at least one day of the week, it's a good start.
So, I'm gonna make the pledge for 2020,
I will not eat meat on Mondays.
Goal #10, my final goal is to continue
battling misinformation, but on the TV front.
I wanna make at least 60 TV appearances in 2020.
This year, I did 40, 50.
But I wanna take it a step up and do more.
I'm so sick and tired of news organizations
getting the medical stories wrong.
Either getting us overhyped for some preliminary research,
or telling us about some miracle supplements
or some miraculous diet trends, they don't exist.
It doesn't exist!
My job is to go out there on the news
and give you the true stories about what's going on,
what's actually important for your health.
The same thing that we do on this YouTube channel!
And maybe if we get our own show,
that could be quite fun, too.
Let's see what 2020 has in store for us.
I wanna challenge you at home.
What are some things you wanna accomplish for 2020?
Again, they have to be a S.M.A.R.T. goal.
Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic
and have a time component.
Drop 'em down below in the comments in addition,
in addition to what you think I should do
to celebrate my milestone of hitting 5 million subscribers.
Come on guys, that's crazy.
A doctor having 5 million subscribers?
That's only possible because of you
and I have to give you a huge thank you.
Without all of you watching at home,
this channel is nothing, I'm nothing.
So, thank you for taking a stand
for responsible, accurate medical information
where we could all laugh and have a good time,
prove that doctors are human, too,
and really change the way we talk about medicine and health.
It's because of you this channel is so awesome.
Check out this playlist of my favorite videos from 2019!
All for you.
Make sure when you're watching them,
you stay happy and healthy.