Like most years, I didn’t set any specific resolutions for 2024.
I’ve never been a believer in the traditional New Year’s Resolution. Thinking that transitioning from party mode to monk mode in just a few days is a good idea is not only improbable; it is, quite frankly, delusional.
My approach is a more considered phased strategy over several weeks. I typically fully commit to any new endeavours I want to explore around the beginning of February.
This year, I found February to be an excellent starting point, as it was the month when Freelance Friends launched the first Morning Accountability Group.
I’ve praised Morning Accountability countless times this year and attribute my near 100% record of being at my desk by 8am every weekday morning to it.
As Jim Rohn once said “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”
Kicking off each day with a 30-minute chat with others on a similar path has been the most motivating and consistent element of my entire year. It has kept me productive, happy and sane for the past 10 months.
“Conquer the morning, and the day takes care of itself.” This quote by Hal Elrod has become my early morning mantra and led to the next habit I adopted in 2024 – strength training.
Side-note: It has just occurred to me that these two habits fit James Clear’s definition of ‘habit-stacking’.
Since my late teens, I’ve always wanted to be a consistent runner, the trouble is, I don’t enjoy running. It has always appealed to me for the quality of life improvements it can bring and has been my brains default ‘exercise’ activity.
As a young schoolboy, I remember creating a running chart and sticking it to the back of my wooden headboard. I managed two runs around the block before two girls screamed, “Run, Forrest, run!” This quickly drained the joy out of it.
Despite some additional attempts at building a running habit, including joining a running club, coming dead-last in a cross country race and competing in two half-marathons, I’m yet to give up on my running dreams entirely (maybe I’ll just magically enjoy it one-day).
I also have an unfulfilled goal of completing a 20-minute Parkrun. As I get older, that goal feels increasingly distant. My current best time is 22:35.
My point here about running is that I’ve always excluded any other fitness activity as an option to ‘keep-fit’ on a consistent basis, until (you guessed it) February this year.
An off-the-cuff comment from my brother after a forced weight-training session – “I can see you really getting into this” – tweaked something inside me.
“Maybe this is what I need”, I thought. It turns out that lifting heavy things is easier than running. You don’t have to wear skimpy clothes, go outside, or sweat if you don’t want to. Tick, tick, tick to all the things I hated about running.
And the biggest upside to strength-training vs running is the visual changes to your body. Seeing my body become physically stronger over time has been the greatest incentive to keep going, something I never saw from running.
Taking on two huge changes to my routine in the same month was quite enough for me to be getting on with.
Side-note: For those thinking “but what about cardio?” – In about May I moved fully to using Kettlebells which mixes strength training and cardio. It is one hell of a workout if you want it to be.
Fast forward to July and I’ve been reading and consuming a lot of books/content from Ryan Holiday ‘the modern day Stoic’.
For almost as long as I’ve been attempting the running life, I’ve also been dabbling with Journalling. Inconsistency would be an understatement here. A bullet journal and countless iPhone apps later, I find myself watching one of Holiday’s YouTube videos in which he discusses his years long commitment to the ‘One Line A Day’ journal.
This A6 diary contains lines for five-years worth of writing. Each day you can commit up to six lines of words. When you’re restricted to just six lines to summarise your entire day, it helps you to stick to the highlights.
I’d been familiar with the format for a while, but seeing Holiday with the diary gave me the incentive to make the purchase. I’ve been here before with daily event logging so my expectations for a long-term commitment were limited.
Having a clear goal and an obvious prompt (‘what did you do today’) with a specified limit has led to me sticking to this daily journalling habit for the past six months. In just two-minutes, I can summarise the highlights of my day. While I’ve occasionally missed a few days and needed to catch up, it’s quick and easy to do so.
My main motivators to continue are:
- Better recall of memories – I can skip to any day, read my summary and with decent accuracy remember about that day. I’ve been plagued with a bad long-term memory my entire life, this is a genuine help.
- Once I’ve hit 12 months I can start to read about what I did on this day last year, then the year before and so on. In two decades I’ll have filled four of these books and have a well documented history of my life.
According to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes an average of 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic. Getting to this all important number has always been my downfall.
Now that I’m hundreds of days into these new endeavours, they feel integral to my life. Whilst they continue to serve me and align with my current goals and values, I will continue.
I’ve learnt to be flexible with my new habits, adopting the ‘don’t miss twice’ rule. I’m never hard on myself if I slip up, I simply get back to things as soon as I can.
Illness has paused my workout routine for the past week, but I now have the confidence that I will pick up where I left off as soon as I’m able.
2024 has been a challenging year for me, but these three habits have helped me stay grounded.
I have never in my life ended a year with three habits adopted that year still intact. I owe it all to my Freelance Friends who show up for each other every morning. Without that foundation, nothing else would have come so easily.
Thank you. ✌️
