First published 10 January 2022 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel turned up to this one with a photo of himself under a street lamp at 11 o'clock at night, doing his steps. I thought it was a halo. It had rained from four till nine, he had a shopping delivery due between nine and ten, and he still needed another 3,500 steps for his million step challenge. So at quarter to ten, out he went.
His real target was New Year's resolutions. We recorded this around the 10th of January and most people have already packed theirs in. Nigel reckons the bigger problem is that you've lied to yourself, and now you can't trust yourself. Then he tried to work out on air how many days you get in 60 years. It took a couple of goes. Roughly 21,900, and he's asking for 80 of them.
I did the minutes instead. There are 1,440 in a day. Give 40 of them, or an hour, to getting better at something, say twenty minutes reading and twenty walking, and keep it up for two or three months. You'll see a difference. When I did 75 Hard in 2021 it took me about two hours a day on average, so an hour is a lot more doable. It's the consistency that does it.
We got onto excuses too. "I haven't got time" is usually the surface answer. You've got the same hours whether you do the thing or not, so the question is what you're putting first and why. And I shared an acronym I never thought I'd say out loud. SAD. Nigel guessed sexy, articulate, driven. Mine is sulky and demanding, which is what I turn into on a bad day (I don't like me much when I'm like that).
We finished with me trying to explain how to listen to next week's episode the wrong way round, and Nigel calling me a halfwit.
What stayed with me
- Most resolutions are gone by the second week of January. Make the goal smaller and reward yourself weekly.
- 80 days is nothing out of roughly 21,900.
- There are 1,440 minutes in a day. Give 40 or 60 of them to something that makes you better, and keep it going for a couple of months.
- If the excuse is "no time", ask what you're putting first instead, and why.
- Get someone to hold you to it. A coach or a group makes it harder to quietly give up.
I'm never worried about people's commitments. I'm worried how committed they are to their commitments.
Nigel Risner
The reality is, you've got the same amount of time whether you do it or you don't do it. Like, the amount of time in a day doesn't change, right?
Neil Martin
