Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over!

Chris Williamson (0:00)

Stop taking life so seriously. No one is getting out of this game alive, and in three generations, no one will even remember your name. And if that doesn't give you liberation to just drop your problems for a moment and find some joy, I don't know what will, because there'll never be a time when there's no problems in life. And that's why this time in between Christmas and New Year is a really wonderful time to plan big dreams and goals for the year.

Steven Bartlett (0:21)

So let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_3 (0:22)

Chris Williamson is one of the world's leading podcast hosts and thinkers, and now he's back.

SPEAKER_4 (0:27)

Educating us on how to build discipline, turning goals into results, what's stopping us finding love, and what makes a good man in today's society.

Chris Williamson (0:34)

The single best question to work out what you should be doing next year. What would have to happen by the end of 2026 for me to look back and consider it a success? And it usually comes down to only a few things. The first one is in order to pick something up, you have to put something down. So setting the bar unrealistically high does not increase your performance. Like you probably lose 20 pounds and get a boyfriend. You can't do that and move cities and start a new business. So make the assumption, I can do no more than I'm doing now. Second thing, if your life was a movie and the audience were watching, what would they be screaming at the screen telling you to do with your life? It is obvious, leave the relationship. The job is not working for you, the killer is hiding in the cupboard. Because if you're not careful with how you design, what it is that you chase after, you can spend your entire life realizing that you climbed a huge ladder that was leaning up against the wrong wall.

Steven Bartlett (1:20)

And is there anything else?

Chris Williamson (1:22)

So there is a wonderful upside in trying to conquer. And trying to achieve mastery, trying to really drive yourself to go and do stuff. But I'm not like, f*** your feelings, just hustle and grind until your eyes bleed either. Because one of the biggest lessons I've taken away from this year is, suppression isn't the same thing as strength. And it's a good thing for guys who feel their emotions, to show that they feel their emotions, right? Like I've been at some of my lowest points over the last 12 months. It felt like my better self was slipping through my fingers. I realized my emotions are legitimate.

And denying myself that is not helping anything at all.

Steven Bartlett (1:57)

What happened?

Just give me 30 seconds of your time. Two things I wanted to say. The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning in to the show week after week. It means the world to all of us, and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place. But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started. And if you enjoy what we do here, please join the 24% of people that listen to this podcast regularly and follow us on this app. Here's a promise I'm gonna make to you. I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future. We're gonna deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're gonna continue to keep doing all of the things you love about this show. Chris, my audience care a lot about changing their life for the better. And I think at this time of year, change is front of mind for everybody. Everybody's thinking about New Year's resolutions, who I want to become in 2026 But when you look at the stats, 23% of people quit by the end of the first week of January, their New Year's resolution, the thing they aimed at. Roughly half of people will quit their New Year's resolution, the change they sought by the end of January, and only about 9% of people will keep their New Year's resolution for the full year. So I guess my opening question to you is, does this time of year matter at all? Is it a useful, productive time to be thinking about change in your point of view?

Chris Williamson (3:30)

I think the world is split into two camps. One camp says there is no difference between January 1st and December 31st. Like why wait? It's December 10th, just do it now. And the other camp likes the idea of there being a culturally appropriate moment to stop doing something and start doing something else. Most people need to realize that they're already spending tons of time worrying about the future and the past. They're going back to this thing that they regret. I wish I'd done this differently. Oh, I have rumination about something that occurred. I have a sense of wistfulness for something that I maybe missed. I'm grief for something that I've lost. Then they're concerned about the future. They think I'm uncertain about this thing that's going to happen. I could plan, I could try and come up with a solution for this. So you're already worrying about the past. You're already doing reflection and planning just in a very unstructured way where you don't get to choose when it hits you in the face. This is a culturally appropriate moment, like a scheduling appropriate moment. For you to just step in and think, OK, in between Christmas and New Year, people that work in retail, God bless you, people that have got to go back to work and do that thing, but usually there's a bit of downtime.