Will Cain is the co-host of FOX & Friends Weekend (Weekends, 6-10 AM/ET) on FOX News and host of The Will Cain Podcast, which recently expanded to three episodes per week. In his own words, these are his five goals.
1) Do Something.
One of the statements that’s really resonated with me as I’ve gotten older in life is: Do you want to be something, or do you want to do something in life?
This week I’m getting to host FOX News Primetime and I’m excited about that opportunity. But whether or not that manifests in a permanent job and whether or not the Will Cain Podcast as a digital platform becomes my outlet, I want to have a place where I can create something. Do something.
I want to hold a conversation with the audience that pushes towards positive values in this country. I don’t just want to be anti. You know, everything in our industry is conflicts centered around being anti. Anti-racist or anti-anti-racist, always positioning what you’re against.
I think most Americans largely agree on some positive values that we’ve forgotten. Whether or not it’s FOX News Primetime, or another primetime slot, or a digital platform, I don’t care — as long as I can do something about shining a light and advancing those values.
2) I want to live on the beach.
My wife and I *will* live on the beach. I love the mountains. I lived in Montana for a year. I love the country. I want to own a ranch. I want to spend time outdoors. I want to hunt and fish with my boys.
But I know, at some point in my life, and it’s probably after my kids are out of the house, my wife and I fully intend to live on a beach — in Hawaii or Florida or California.
(RG: I interrupted, laughing, that I don’t see him as a California guy.)
When I lived in New York, I went to the beach all the time in Long Island. You forget that you’re an hour away from the beach when you’re walking around Midtown. We would go to the beach all the way through the Fall. I like all kinds of places. Make no mistake, I’m a Texan, but I don’t think Texas beaches will satisfy my requirement.
There’s something about looking out over that massive body of water. It’s just perspective. I think I have an exploratory part of me where I love going somewhere that it feels like no one has been before.
There’s a line in Lonesome Dove where Gus says, “There’s nothing like riding a fine horse into new country.” I love that line. There’s something about the ocean, when you’re standing on the beach, it just looks endless. It’s not unexplored, but it feels unexplored. It’s always changing. It’s always moving. There’s just the great unknown there as you’re looking out over the ocean and that appeals to my exploration instinct.
3) I want to become a proficient surfer.
This is totally against the cast type you have for me, but you know there’s those things in life that people love but they’re just not great at but they do it anyway. People should have those things. For a lot of guys, that’s golf. They just keep doing it no matter if they’re any good at it or not. Golf just never did it for me.
This is tied to living on the beach; I’m not any good at surfing but I do it any chance I can. I love surfing. Fun is not the right word. I understand the spiritual nature of it when you’re out there. You can’t conquer the ocean. You can’t tame it. All you can do is try to ride along with it. And even if you’re not, just sitting out there waiting is so spiritual. I want to become a proficient surfer.
4) Swim from Lanai to Maui again.
This is very Hawaii-centric; I did just come back from there. We go there for vacation every year.
Here’s the thing. I’ve done this swim before. I did it when I was 39; I wanted to do it before I turned 40. It’s a swim, nine miles, across the channel between those two islands. It’s a relay, with six friends of yours. It was an awesome, humbling experience.
All my friends and I talked about going into it was who’s going to get eaten by sharks. That’s all we thought about, were sharks. But once you’re out there, swimming, you forget about sharks almost immediately. All you can see is deep blue sea and you realize there’s nothing you can do about it anyway — and you’re fighting the ocean.
I want to do more than one physical accomplishment before this life is over. I don’t really want to run a marathon. I hate running. Maybe hike a peak somewhere, but I haven’t really set that out as a goal. But the one thing I know I can do, and I have done, is open water swims.
I don’t love open water swimming, because it’s usually cold. Like, Alcatraz or the English Channel, which is not something I intend to do. I want to the Lanai to Maui swim with my buddies again; that’s going to be my placeholder for more than one physical challenge that I want to do again in my life.
5) Purpose.
I don’t want this to sound too much like my first goal, but I’ve learned the difference the last few years between careerism and purpose. But, I have two sons, my wife, and myself. If I can do something, beyond all my other goals in life, it’s for all of us to find our purpose. What we’re doing here.
Without that, we’re just aimless. I think a lack of purpose is the major source of depression and anxiety for almost everyone in society. I don’t even think it’s if you have a job or not. I think it’s Why do I wake up every day and do what I do? What actually matters?
Your career can only be loosely tied to that. Maybe more so if you’re lucky or if you’re purposeful in how you create that. But — money, advancement, promotion, fame, platforms … they’ll all quickly lose their allure. They really will, and they’ll show themselves to be hollow. If you can find a purpose, and I do think religion is probably a necessary component to that search, then I think you’re going to find a fulfilled life. That’s what I want for myself and my family when I raise these two boys.
6) Bonus sports goal: I’m torn between whether I want to see, along with my sons, another Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl or the Texas Longhorns dominating the SEC.
The funny thing about sports is, they’re not my goals how can I have a goal that someone else will accomplish? (RG: I mentioned that seeing a championship before you die is a multi-variable equation in which we do have some control, and that he could eventually gain access to future Dallas Cowboys owner Stephen Jones and/or become a Texas booster funding NIL endorsements.)
Whatever Arch Manning’s son’s name is, playing quarterback for Texas, sponsored by the Will Cain Show on FOX News. That’ll make him popular, too (laughing).
The way I figure it, if you win the SEC, you win the national title. It would be so vindicating after I’ve heard that Texas is going to be a mediocre team. Maybe they will at first, but they won’t be for long. I want to prove that Texas belongs.
Ryan Glasspiegel is a contributor for BSM. He has previously worked for Outkick, The Big Lead, and Sports Illustrated. In addition to covering the sports media business, Ryan creates promotional products for brands and companies including t-shirts, hats, hoodies, and various types of swag. For business inquiries email him at Glasspiegel.Ryan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @sportsrapport.
Will is the man! The world is his oyster.