Michael B. Clegg breaks down why 90% of New Year's resolutions fail within a month. He outlines four steps in strict order: commitment, courage, capability, confidence. Clegg is 25 days into a 66-day cold-plunge experiment in mid-40s water to build the neural pathways for doing hard things.
Questions this video answers
"less than 10%" (he states most people don't keep them).
"half" (50%).
"like 90%".
Commitment → Courage → Capability → Confidence.
Daily cold plunges for 66 days; at time of recording he was on day 25 of 66.
Chapters
Hey, welcome back to the inner circle. This is the second week in December and we are very close to the end of the year. And what most people start thinking about New Year's resolutions. What do we know about New Year's resolutions? Well, most people don't keep them. I think it's less than 10% actually succeed, half quit inside the first two weeks. And inside of 30 days, like 90% of the people have quit. So what does that say to you? It says we have a commitment issue. And in my future you program, actually, week seven of the program, we dive into what we call the four Cs, which is something that Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach came up with. And it's one of the most impactful things that I personally have used inside of the world of commitment. And most of us as humans, we sit back and we are very uncommitted to doing something that's different. We're very suspicious of making changes, trusting other people. And that is a human nature. It's a mechanism in our brain designed to keep us out of discomfort and pain and designed to keep us in the confines of safe and the known, not the unknown. And so when I think about New Year's resolutions, one, I don't participate in that. I, I have commitments that I'm doing all throughout the year. I've certainly got some goals in 2025 that I want to achieve, but it's not really a New Year's resolution.
I'm doing things like that all throughout the year, and I just never bought into that for whatever reason. However, when we look at commitment, if you choose to commit to something in the new year, one of the things that is important to understand is that inside of the four Cs, which are commitment, courage, capability and confidence. When you look at that, and it has to be in that order, most people want to invert that. Most people want to feel confident, to have the capability and the know how to do something before they commit to it. But that's wrong. It's backwards. First you have to fully commit. Fully commit. You're all in. You burn the boats, then you get the courage. Now, having courage doesn't mean that you lack fear. In fact, I heard something once that.
Courage is overcoming fear. Fear is wetting your pants because you do something, but courage is actually doing what you're doing with wet pants. And so those that are successful, and I've interviewed and had lots of conversations in some of my mastermind groups with very successful people, they have the same fears that you and I have and they just choose to overcome them. They choose to have courage. They choose to have the confidence that is earned at the end, not at the beginning. And we have to understand that is, that confidence isn't something that happens on the front end. It's something that happens on the back end. And that is critically important for you to understand. Because if you're waiting for that good feeling to. To get something started and commit to it, it's not gonna happen. So as we work to build inside of whatever it is that you're looking to accomplish, first think about the four Cs. Be all in, burn the boats. Commit, commit, commit. Then identify all of the obstacles and the fears and the things that you have in place and really work towards building the capabilities. If it's something that you don't know how to do, go find a who, as we call it, go find a who to help you out with that. Once you get through all of that and you're making progress, that is when the confidence shows up and then the cycle starts all over again. Like I can tell you, one of the things that I'm doing right now. I've committed to cold plunging every single day. I want to do it for 66 days. And at the. At the time of this recording, I am on day 25 of 66. By the time you watch this, I'll be inside of day 31, day 32, somewhere around that. And so I will almost be halfway through that commitment. Now. This is the second time that I've tried this commitment. The first time, I got derailed after 13 days, kind of fell under the weather, and then it became less important. And in reality, I should have continued doing that. It probably would have helped my immunity or my immune system. But with that being said, I am trying to condition myself to do hard things. And I'll tell you. And this week, it's been extremely cold. The water temps have been in the mid-40s, and that is extremely cold. My thought on this is, if I can't do this for 66 days, why go out and spend the money on one of those big cold plunges? Instead, I use my pool. And right now, at the time of this recording, it's December, and it's quite frigid outside here in the Carolinas. Unseasonably cold. But the point is that I am creating new neural pathways in my brain by doing hard things. And that is what commitment brings. And I will tell you, every time I stand above that water, right before I get in, I am thinking of every excuse in the book of not to do it. But I committed. I'm doing it, and I'd be damned if I'm not going to do it. So I go ahead and jump in. And whatever it is that you want to commit, whether it's January 1st or whether you want to commit this week, commit, have the courage, develop the capabilities by either learning yourself or hiring someone else, finding another who to help you out, and then the confidence will come. So until next week, have a great one. I hope you guys had a fantastic holiday season and we'll talk soon.
