The Anti-New Year’s Resolutions Policy with Gary Gamp #20

After all, all art is experience. Hello and welcome to The Company Doctor, as we begin another year of lively bi-weekly episodes to help you enhance and navigate your professional prospects and career paths. Today, Gary is well and truly laying down the gauntlet, daring you to shrug off the irksome shackles of the unrealistic New Year's resolution and instead join us on the 23-day challenge. What is the 23-day challenge? Listen on to find out. Hello, Gary.

Hey, George. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go first or—

No, that's fine. There's no sort of rehearsal, is there?

So it's just— Well, actually, no, we want people to think that we really do plan this, don't we?

Oh yeah, true. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I meant you to go first.

The secret's out. Yeah, we meant to clash.

Yeah, this is nice.

Despite the content of today's episode, am I allowed to wish you a happy new year?

You can do it. I don't want you to be, you know, sensitive, but should we throw out the title? Because I think people will like it or they won't like it. Anti-New Year's Resolution Policy.

Yeah, it's good. It sounds very governmental, doesn't it? It sounds like Boris is going to get up and start talking about why we shouldn't have New Year's resolutions.

Restrictions.

Yeah. Yes.

Well, exactly. When I gave you that title, what was your immediate thoughts?

Well, I started thinking about, you know, the classic New Year's resolutions that people make. Not drinking, going to the gym, all that sort of stuff. Yeah. And I wondered why you'd be anti it. So I'm interested to know why would I be anti it?

Exactly. Absolutely. We'll talk about that before we get into the topic. I did want to say, because I think it's worth saying, the last year we've been doing the podcast for about 14 months, I think we're on kind of 18 or 19 episodes. I don't know how many it is now. Yeah. But last year the interaction from people was amazing, wasn't it? Yeah. The number of— yeah, I think we hit the kind of top 10 to 15% globally of downloads, which sounds awesome, doesn't it?

It does, yeah. And it's a real surprise as well, because it's just little old me and little old you just sort of having a nice chat every couple of weeks. But no, the fact that, you know, the results have been terrific, and yeah, I guess thanks to everyone for sticking with us.

Definitely thanks to everyone. And just one quick shout out, because last year the top download was Nick Walker's fantastic inside track on how to get promoted. So I really recommend people have a listen to that. And then the next kind of episode below that was how to get promoted without being a jerk. So I guess people care about being promoted. So yeah, well done, Nick. Great episode.

And I guess one New Year's resolution we can advocate is listen to more podcasts, specifically The Company Doctor.

Well, you're trying to break into my message. I'm not sure if I can do that. So, so here's the reason for this podcast and this episode. In the newspaper today, a quarter of people who wanted to do Dry January have already quit by the 9th of January. That's a fact. Yeah. It's in the paper. It must— it's in the Daily Mail. It must be real, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Okay. How amazing is that?

Yeah, well, that's— I mean, it's almost— it's sort of— it's not surprising, but also surprising in a way.

Yeah, I guess. But isn't it? Isn't it? So there's 3 parts, weirdly, to this episode. I know, it's a bit of a shocker, right? How about that? And the first part, I want to talk about what's my beef, and for vegetarians out there, what's my kale, kale.

Yeah.

With New Year's resolutions. And I've got a bit of a rant.

Am I allowed to do a rant? You're allowed to do a rant. Yeah. I'd like to hear the rant because as I said, from what I imagine, New Year's resolutions can only be a good thing. So I'm interested to know what your beef can possibly be with them. And also I wanted to know whether you've ever made any, but maybe that's for later on.

Or broken any.

Yeah.

I mean, this is going to be interesting for people. I thought goals were a good thing, right? Yeah. Didn't you think goals were a good thing?

I thought this would be the sort of time of year to set goals.

And I'm all about setting goals, George, you know that, right? Yeah. But this is my rant. And by the way, I do think goals are a good thing, but this is my rant. The most people join health clubs in January and February. And my wife goes to the health club and she gets a bit— she rolls her eyes because loads of people are turning up and she knows what's going to happen. What's going to happen next?

It's all going to empty out again by February 1st.

Well, by March. All right. So it's a known fact that people go January, February, and they leave by March. People do dry January, Veganuary, January, whatever. There's a whole bunch of fat things. And by the way, I'm not knocking anything that anyone does. I think it's fantastic. In people's jobs, the top 5% of people earn $160K+. There's kind of an 80 percentile, a 95 percentile. And then the interesting thing is, if you listen to the radio or you read articles right now, people are talking about— some people say things like, I don't have a New Year's resolution. I was listening on the radio, they were saying, what's your New Year's resolution? Which ones did you break? And most people who are— they think they're kind of cool, they'll go, well, I don't have a New Year's resolution. You know why? Because I don't want to be disappointed, right? So therefore I'm not going to have one.

It's quite a defeatist way of looking at things, I'd say. A bit bumbug, yeah.

Well, I think it's more like to show I'm cool, you know, like, what's your New Year's resolution? Well, I just don't, I don't have one, you know, because why would I have one?

Yeah.

And I kind of half get it because what's the point of having one if you're not going to do anything with it? I kind of get that. So this is my rant. The world is made up of 80/20. The podcast, the top 10 to 15 podcasts get quite a small number of downloads. There's millions of podcasts in the world. Which makes us look good, by the way. There's millions of podcasts in the world that people don't follow through on. Yeah, people will listen to this podcast and maybe they won't listen to the end, God forbid. And you know what's really ironic? That most people won't make it to part 3 of this podcast. But in part 3, you know what? I've got the secret. Okay. Yeah, you're going to hold out. It's only in part 3 because the world is littered with people that— and again, I'm not being disrespectful because I am absolutely one of those people, right? But the world is littered with people that start and don't finish, start and stop.

Yeah. So the people that don't set themselves these New Year's resolutions, they're doing it because they know that they're not going to go through with it, which is actually quite a sad state of affairs.

It's sad, right? But it's definitely not the answer. I'm not saying don't have a goal, don't have a resolution. I'm saying, what are you doing? Why would you— why are you going to have something you're not going to do? If you know you're not going to do it, then in a way, don't do it. Don't bother. What about if you could do it? Right. What about if you could do it, George? Here's my little story, and my family will always roll their eyes when I tell this story. But there was this dog, and it was in the lounge by the fireplace looking really comfortable. You know the story, you're rolling your eyes as well. And every now and then the dog would howl, and people came around and said, why is your dog howling? And they're saying, because it's sitting on a nail, and the nail's digging into the dog and it's making it howl. And they go, well, the obvious question is, well, why doesn't dog just get off the nail? And the answer is because it doesn't really care that much. It doesn't hurt it that much. I think most of us go through life a bit like that. It's like, it's okay. I mean, does it matter if we reach our goals or not, our New Year's resolutions or not? I don't know. Maybe it doesn't matter that much. Are you with me on my rant?

I'm with you on the rant so far. And I think that's an apt analogy as well. I have heard the story of the dog before, but I think you're right. You know, people do just sort of trundle on through. You know, if something's annoying them, they just sort of let it happen rather than trying to do anything about it.

Yeah, and so that, and that's my thing. So it's like, I'm just trying to think about— I don't have a beef with New Year's resolutions. I have a beef with starting and stopping things.

Yeah.

And the world is littered, unfortunately, with people that start and don't finish.

And so what we're going to do is, is tell people how to, to be a finisher.

Well, hopefully we are. I'm trying to give, you know, people a way, because actually, when you, when you get down to it, we're going to talk about a bit later, a lot of the reason is, is a reason why, which we do talk about a lot, but it's also about action. And, you know, psychologically it's half of people to take action. But I'm going to give you in part 3, if you hang on that long, I hope you will, George, because you're my co-host.

Well, we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

See how it goes.

Yeah. But my rant is that, yeah, I'm not anti-New Year's resolution. I'm anti-stop-start. And I'm also anti-people that go, I'm not having one because I'll get disappointed. Yeah, of course you will. If you decide not to do it for that reason, that would make sense. I went to someone's house the other day. At the beginning of the new year. And it was really interesting, actually, because it was a great— we had a great time and they were great hosts and they'd written down last year's resolutions for people that attended last year, which I've forgotten about. Yeah, I won't tell you how many got to me. And basically they went around the room and there was 20 people in the room and only one person did a little bit of something they said they would do. Really? Yeah.

One out of 20.

One out of 20.

Yeah, that's not great.

Yeah. So it's not great, but most people, like, did maybe did a little bit. So that's my kind of my lead-in. And so I just didn't want to start in the same way as everyone else. I wanted to kind of give people some ideas about— and by the way, I'm not saying I'm super smart and I do everything I say because I absolutely don't.

I don't think it's about being smart though, is it? It's about, I think, as you say, it's about if you're going to set yourself a target, strive towards it. At the very least, try and hit that target, try and achieve that goal rather than set yourself something, you know, be sad and sort of annoyed about the fact that, you know, you're not going to achieve it. And then inevitably you don't achieve it.

Yeah, you get what you expect, right?

So it's a mindset change.

Oh yeah, I like that. You're getting to the right thing. Now here's another side of this. I was going to cover this at the end, but for those of the people that won't make it to the end, I'm going to give it to them now.

That's nice of you.

Yeah, I'm kind of like that. Here's an alternative thought. What about things you could stop doing? There's something that you're already doing rather than something new. Stop something that you shouldn't be doing or you don't want to be doing. That's using up your time, or because you don't want to not do it, and maybe stop that rather than do something new. How would that be?

You're not talking about bad habits here, you're talking about, you know, wasting your time on things which, you know, could be better spent on other things.

Well, yeah, or maybe the other side of a New Year's resolution is to do a New Year's resolution about things you're not going to do. Yeah, it sounds a bit negative, but here's some ideas, right? I'll give you 5. Okay. Just off the top of my head. Yeah. The first one, stop letting things go past you without speaking up. Okay. Stop letting things go without speaking up. Maybe stop saying yes to everyone, being a people pleaser. I'm not picking on you, but I'm talking generically.

This does sound very much like it.

Yeah. Stop being a people pleaser, George. I mean, stop being a people pleaser. Maybe stop living on social media. There was an application, an app a few years ago called Second Life. Do you remember that?

Yeah, I do.

And Second Life was where it was another life, but it was like a virtual life. You know, get a life, for God's sake. Why would you want to live in Second Life? Why don't you live in your first life?

Get a first life.

Yeah, first life. Stop giving yourself excuses. Not you. And, and finally, stop procrastinating. Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution. Yeah, but here's, here's the issue, and I'm going to talk to about part 2. You talked about mindset. I think the starting point of resolutions is a performance mindset, right? What do you think I mean by that?

Well, as I was saying, it's sort of— it's how the goals that you set yourself in terms of performance.

Am I on the right lines? Absolutely. I think, you know, the way I would put it is move away from these kind of very generic, unattainable goals. Yeah, look, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get thin in 2022, or I'm gonna get fat in 2022 in my case. Yeah, yeah. Or, you know, just these, these are kind of big generic, not that exciting goal. I mean, they're not specific enough, and it's, it's a one-off thing. Yeah, that doesn't necessarily have a bit of an on-ramp. It doesn't give you a path, right? It's not, not surprising why you wouldn't— I want to be thin in 2022. I mean Wow, okay, where do I start?

So it's too vague, it's too, you know, and it's the sort of thing that you can just put off until November and then think, oh, I should probably go to the gym a few times, and then that's the end of it.

Yeah, imagine this, right? I mean, I'm sure this doesn't happen, but can you imagine someone in their job going, right, I've got a whole bunch of tasks to do. I mean, I've set them this January, so this is what I'm going to do this year, and then they just don't look at it again. Yeah. I mean, actually, I've met people that don't look at it again, but No, it wouldn't be a great way to run your job, would it, if you just went, right, I'm just gonna set a goal, it's January, and let's hope it all works out. It's not really, no one would do that, would they?

No, and if you're not doing it in business, then why would you do it in your own life?

Yeah, I don't get it. So when you stand back from it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And I think the starting point is, and you'll know that I'm gonna say this, but if you wanna have a performer's mindset, you've got to make performance part of your DNA. Yeah. If you make it part of your DNA, it's not something you do once.

It's not something once a year that comes along and you think, oh, I need to do this. You're constantly reviewing.

It's kind of the way I do things around here. I think that's a good example. If I use myself, if my mantra is I do what I say, then if I'm going to do what I say, then I'm going to find something that really matters to me and I'm going to make sure something happens in the right direction. It doesn't mean I have to achieve that big goal. I think that— I think people make it too big. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So the resolution could be to set yourself achievable small goals throughout the year all the time.

Yeah, I like it. It was not a bad place to start. So I think the starting point is you, you still need a reason why. And I always talk about having a reason why. It needs to be important enough to you, but it doesn't have to be that big. I mean, this is counterintuitive because when people talk about setting goals, they say make them big and hairy. I think I even said that. Make the goals big and hairy, which I think you should have big and hairy goals. Yeah. But for making it part of your DNA, I think you need to have endurance-based goals. Yeah. Things that can go the race, they can go the long term, and they ladder up to the big hairy goals, don't they? Oh, I'm loving it. It's a visual there, isn't it?

It is a visual. That's how I'm seeing it.

There's a ladder, he's leaning against that big hairy goal.

Goal. Yeah, yeah, that's sort of how I'm seeing it. You've got two levels, haven't you? You've got the big sort of lofty targets and goals, and then you've got the small little incremental things that you can do on the way to get there.

Yeah, okay, I like it. That's a good way to put it. I think the main thing is you need a reason why, and then you've got to be a complete finisher, and then you've got to take action in between, so you've got to keep momentum. And the problem is that when you make it too big and too generic and you just decide to do it in January and not as part of your life,— then, you know, by the way, I'm not saying you shouldn't stand back and review. I mean, I do that quite often. I do that at Christmas time because you can sit down and relax a little bit. The wine helps a bit, to be honest. And then, you know, I just think about what worked well last year and what I could do better. But I try to do that once a month.

Yeah, well, that's the difference, isn't it? And I think your resolutions are monthly, whereas most people's are yearly, and it's a yearly thing, and it's often based on lessons learned or regret from the year before. And it's like, why? I've done this and I'm never going to do that again. Or, you know, I didn't achieve this, so this year is definitely the year that I'm going to do it. I mean, you know, you were talking about social media, the amount of posts that you see sort of saying, you know, you, new year, new me, like there's no way I can— I will relive the mistakes from the year before. And I mean, talking about big hairy goals, that's almost, you know, you can't completely change your personality and the way you live your life.

Yeah, no, I agree. I think I'm getting used to that now.

I quite like it.

Sorry. Yeah, because the— no, it's good. But there's a phrase, isn't there? New year, new job and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Why? Why new year, new job? Yeah. Why not? Yeah. Get a new job. But why would new year, new job? So it's almost like it feels like an excuse. And maybe this is the chance I've got to do something, which is great. I don't— I'm not knocking that because there's plenty of people that do something. I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to be annoying. Well, I probably am being annoying, but I just want people to think I want to not to be the— don't be the 80%. Be the 20% or be the 10th percentile. That's what I'm trying to get people to think about. Yeah, because 80, 85, 90% of people are comfortable. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not talking about financially, I'm just talking about, you know, doing what you want to do. It's down to you, not down to anyone else. So it doesn't have to be, you know, whatever's important to you is important to you, right? So one of the things to do is, and I'm going to give the secret in part 3, which I am, I'm just hanging on because I just want the people that in the 10th to make it.

Make them earn it.

Yeah, they've got to earn it. So you get to the last bit, and it's quite an interesting challenge that we're going to find in a minute. But for those of you still with me, this is the way I would do it. Think of it as focus themes. Think of focus themes and what focus things are, and maybe pick 3 things that are really important to you, but not just for January. I want you to think maybe let's do quarterly. Let's see if we can just do every 3 months. Think of 3 things, be specific. But one of the ways to think about these things is things that will make you feel joyful, not things that make you go, ah, for God's sake. Yeah, I know that might be hard because if it is something like I want to lose weight, but think about it will make you joyful because of the result rather than the effort you've got to take to get there.

Yeah, that's good. So I could say I'm going to spend the next 3 months playing more piano. Because I know that'll bring me, you know, I hardly ever play piano anymore, but it's something which I love to do.

You love it and you're bloody good at it, George. I heard you over Christmas and I'm in awe of you.

Oh, thanks very much.

Yeah, it's nothing. But yes, exactly. So maybe, or it might be something you need to solve that doesn't have a good thing inside it, but think if it's not a good thing, think about the outcome. And if it makes you feel joyful, you're more likely to do it. Yeah. I was watching a program on TV yesterday, not intentionally, I just add that as I explain this TV program. But it was about people going on diets. There was 10 different people with 10 different diets, and then they looked at them a year later to see if they kept it going. And the response from every single person— they all lost weight, not everyone kept to it— yeah, was that made them feel really good. They felt, they felt good because they did it, and they felt good as a result. So, you know, I think it— and whatever that goal is, if it's to get back into the career that you really wanted, to play the piano more, or to stop doing something. It doesn't really matter what it is. Make it specific, pick only 3, and make it feel joyful.

Yeah. And I think based on the TV show, the name of which you won't mention, but whatever it was, the message from that is setting yourself a target or goal and then doing it, whatever it is, that does make you feel good.

Definitely does.

I don't think that's— and I've noticed that and learned that on the few occasions that I followed through on stuff, I feel really good about it.

Well, you know what's interesting? So with those 10 people, the 10 people all followed it through. And the reason they all followed it through is because what happens in part 3, can you believe it?

Ah, whoa.

I didn't steal it, but it was, it was in good reinforcement for what happened. What do you think?

Yeah, well, I, I said, yeah, yeah, I want to fast forward to part 3, but I know that's not an option.

Yeah, we're almost there. I just want— so you've got these 3 things and then then we've got to, you know, try and keep the momentum. And one of the ways to do this, before I give you the true secret, is to spend— I usually say 20%, but I think it's too much for people to bite off— spend 10% of your time planning, thinking, change. 10% of your time. So that's what, half a day a week, is it? Yeah. No, I don't mean— I mean, maybe you do book an appointment with yourself, or maybe you do on the weekends, you know, give yourself a couple of hours to to think through, you know, what are you going to stop doing? Because I do quite like that. What are you going to stop doing?

I do as well, actually. When we were chatting and discussing that earlier, I made a mental note of that as something which I think is some really sound advice. So that would be a good, a good one to spend a bit of time on.

Yeah, it's not a bad one. And then, and then finding those 3 things which, which again, you can adapt and change. But I think if you get into, you want to get into a habit. So if you can do it on a regular basis, Give yourself, even if it's just once a month, then you're in a better position. Have I sold you on the idea?

Yeah, definitely. It's something which I know that I need to do, and I know that even the act of making these plans will make me feel better about myself in general. So yeah, I think it's a hugely valid practice. And a lot of people will say, oh, I haven't got the time for it, or I always forget to do it. But you don't forget to brush your teeth. You know, I think that these sorts of things are as important for your personal but also obviously for your professional life. Yeah.

And your family life. I agree with that. So now, before I get to the secret part, here's my question for you. You came into this call and this episode thinking anti-New Year's resolution. It's a bit negative, isn't it? Aren't we supposed to be, you know, what's your beef? Yeah. What's your beef with your vegan sausage roll, your kale, New Year's resolutions? You don't have to say yes just to please me, but kind of, are you kind of getting in my space?

Yeah, I'm definitely within the space of, you know, I've never been a huge person. I've never been a huge setter of New Year's resolutions. I have done Dry January, or at least tried. I usually make it till sort of the 12th or 13th, but I've never been a huge lover of them. But that's because I was that character that you were describing who is too sort of cool to do it, but really just knows deep down that they're not going to succeed. So I think, yeah, I'm definitely on board with the idea of rather than setting New Year's resolutions, set regular resolutions that are achievable.

That's good. I'm pleased. So, so, you know, because here's the challenge, right? If you decide to swim across a river and you only swim 95% of the way, what's going to happen? You'll drown. You're going to drown. And that's it. So my objective of this episode is to convince a small number of people that you've got to be a completer finisher and you've got to do it on a regular— you don't have to. And I'm trying to help you do it on a regular basis because you will reap the rewards and you won't believe it. And it makes you feel good. It'll give you confidence, it will give you a sense of achievement. And most important of all, you'll get closer to what you want.

Have you got an example of when this has happened to you? Or when you've set, you know, you've sort of, I guess, you've needed to do something and you've maybe put it off, or you've known that this is the sort of path that you need to take, but you haven't done for a while, but then you have and it's made you feel terrific, or it's, you know, you've reaped the benefits?

I have actually, and it's probably not a great example, but it's a good example because when I was working in corporate life, I really wanted to work for myself, but I'm not a risk taker and I didn't have the guts to do it, to be honest, for 25 years. But I really wanted to do it. And every year I said, this year I'm going to do it. So what I did is one particular year, and I decided to just get on with life, I set up a company, and I've mentioned this before on the podcast. I went to find some work while I was still working, and I forced myself into it. And then when you're in your own business, which I did, and it was, yeah, it successfully worked. When you're in your own business, if you don't do that on a regular basis, you, you're not going to make it.

Yeah.

If I, if I decide to coast 'Now I'm in my own business, then either go backwards or stop.' Yeah. You have to do it. And that feeling of having to do it is what I'm trying to create, where you burn some bridges and you can't go back.

Yeah, no, that's a good example. And I've spoken to many freelancers in the world that I'm in who have felt the same thing. They've wanted to do it for so, so long, and then when they eventually do it, you know, it's a scary feeling, obviously, because you're getting to the stage where you could drown. And you're sort of, you're there for a while. But, but as soon as you make that final little push, you know, I think the rewards are endless.

It was interesting, actually, a couple of years ago, or quite a few years ago, I went swimming when the black flag was out and when I was on holiday and, and the, the undercurrent was pulling me in and I was, I started off paddling and ended up in the deep and I'm not a very good swimmer and I was really struggling to get back and someone grabbed me. It was when I was much younger. Yeah. And so it put me off swimming. And a couple of years ago, I went out with some friends and I decided to swim to— there was like a little island. And bear in mind, I'm completely petrified because of that experience. Yeah, I decided to do it, but I knew once I started, I had to keep going. Yeah, I did have someone next to me, to be honest, who could have helped me probably. But that feeling— and when I, when I made it, it wasn't that far. You would have laughed if you've seen it, really. But, but for me, it was a really big deal.

Yeah.

And, and that's really, that's really what I'm trying to build here. That's right. Okay, so far, have we got anyone left? Do you think we got to the last?

I think so, right? Yeah, we've got to have at least 10 people.

For both of you that are still listening, part 3, here's the title, George. It's the 23 Day Challenge. Okay, here's my question. Do you accept the 20— and this is for everyone listening as well. I can't see anyone else nodding, so I'm looking at you, George. Do you accept the 23 Day Challenge?

Yes.

Fully.

Really? Yeah.

Without knowing what it is?

Well, I have an idea as to what it might be, but, um, okay.

Well, for those of you listening, uh, by the way, I do this a lot. There's an 80 percentile in everything. There's an 80 percentile in this. So when I've done this before, most people won't do this. I probably shouldn't say that, but most people won't do that. Out of the people that do this, half the people won't carry on. And 20-25% of people do the 23-day challenge really, really well. Yeah. And it changes the habit because the goal for being an anti-New Year's resolution policy is to change a habit. Yeah. So my 23-day challenge, if you're up for it, I've got a little game for us to play, but it's going to be worth it. Okay. And this is for everyone listening, but I'm talking to you because I can only see you.

Is that okay?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The challenge begins. My game is called the 23 Day Challenge, and the idea is I want you to either find someone you really trust, or for those listening, and same for you, you can use me. You may not trust me, but you— the goal for this challenge to work is you need to be held to account by somebody. Okay? Okay. So either someone you trust, or you can use me, and I'm going to give people the chance to use me. I'm going to tell you how to do that in a minute.

That's good.

And I want you to think about 3 things, 3 things you want to do or stop doing over the next few months. We'll start with 3 over the next 3 months. Let's do the first quarter, the next 3 months. Yeah. And I want you to write them down. And at the end of each day, I want you to think about what went well, what you could have done better. And I want you at the end of that day to write the plan for the next day.—

So within the context of the things that you——

You want to do this year. Just for the next quarter, for the next 3 months. And then when you've done it, I don't want to know what you've done. I want you to send a text to the WhatsApp group I'm going to give you or to the person that you've agreed to, otherwise they'll think it's a bit weird if you just send them a random text. So tell them you're going to do it. Don't bore them with what you've done. No one cares. But just, it's the fact you've held to account And when you register with me, I'm going to guess how many days out of the 23 days you're going to do this. We're going to do this every day for 23 days. Okay. And I'm going to make a guess about how many days I think you'll do it. And for anyone that registers with me. Yeah. And at the end of it, I'll share with you what I put. Right.

And what you're going to do this based on the people who sign up?

Yes. So either anyone that's— I'm going to give you the details if you're still on as to where you can sign up with me, or you can speak to someone you trust and tell them what you're doing. But Every day, whether you did it or not. If you did it, send a message. If you didn't do it, don't send a message. And it's every day, including weekends. Okay. 23 consecutive days. Why am I choosing 23 days? Uh, I don't know. Because it becomes a habit, right? The goal of this is to make something a habit. Here's my example, right? If you had a house full of furniture and the furniture wasn't very good and you wanted to change it, so you put all your furniture in the garage. So now you— and you've ordered your new furniture and it takes 6 weeks to come, right? So you're now in your house and you've got no furniture. What are you going to do? The furniture is not coming for 6 weeks. What are you going to do?

Um, bring it back out again. Bring it back out again.

That's what people do every day. Yeah, they put the phone, you know, they— unless you make it a habit, unless you replace the bad stuff with the good stuff, then nothing will change. Oh, I like that. Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Right, so here's the details, and then I'm going to the takeaways. Okay, if you want to register for this challenge, I just want you to send an email to gary@gamp@gmail.com, Gary Gamp, and I will introduce you to a WhatsApp group. It's just you and I, and every day at the end of each day, you find the 3 things you want to do. At the end of each day, you just review what was good, what you could have done better, and the plan for the next day. And then send a text. If you did nothing, then don't send a text. And I want you to do it for 23 consecutive days. I do this with people all around the world. When I do it, I know what's going to happen, right? 80% of people won't make it. 20% of people will do it every day. It's fascinating.

So if you send nothing, does that count as you still being involved, or is that you're out?

Yeah, you can still be involved. No, you're not out, but it's just one less day out of the 23. 'Right, I see what you mean.' So over the period of time, yeah, I'm going to count how many days out of 23. That's what I'm going to do. Here's the thing, for the people that do it, it's life-changing. Yeah. And what's the difference? They've just been held to account and they've set themselves to it. So it's a way of forcing yourself into doing it by some stupid method that— because you've agreed to someone you're going to do something. But some people like to do what they say, right? Yeah, yeah, I like that. So there's, there's my, there's my challenge. What do you think?

Yeah, well, I'm in.

Count me in. Do you accept my challenge?

Yeah, I do. I was hoping there'd be something like this because I'm someone, as you probably have worked out by now, that needs a little bit of accountability when I say that I'm going to do something.

We all do, George. You know what? We all do. I've done this myself, by the way. And when I did it, you can guess what happened. I did it every day for 23 days, whatever happened. Yeah, I was going to do it. When I do something, I'm going to do it. Okay, brilliant. Should we go to the takeaways? Yeah, please. Brilliant. Okay. Number 1. Decide what's important throughout the year, pick 3 things, and be a completer finisher. Don't be in the 80 percentile, be in the 10 or 20 percentile. Stand up and be counted. Secondly, focus on having a performance mindset. You're going to pick those 3 things, but make them enduring goals so that they're not so big and so unspecific that you're not going to see progress and you might as well not even get started. And finally, don't be the 80%. Find a way to make yourself accountable until it becomes a habit. Make it a habit. You'll be amazed what happens. And with that, I'd like to say thank you all for listening. For those of you who are going to do the challenge, I'm excited to hear. And maybe in the next episode we'll give an update. That'd be good.

I already have my 3 things lined up. I don't know if you can win this challenge, but I'm planning on winning.

You've already won, George, in my mind.

Thanks very much, Gary. And thanks to all of you who've remained with us to hear these secrets and to Sign up for the challenge and we will see you next time.

Thank you. See you soon. Bye. Thank you for listening.

And remember, if like me, you're keen to take part in Gary's life-changing 23-day challenge, just email gary@thecompanydoctor.com with an enthusiastic yes and the number you'd like us to reach you on. If you don't fancy giving us your number, You can always use that same email address as your way of checking in over the 23 days. Good luck and see you next time.