what is this?
“I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
Since leaving sport, I’ve been thinking a lot ab out the habits I’ve inculcated over the years and how to create new ones to facilitate the next stage of my life.
To this end, I’ve tried a few different experiments detailed below and have written a Habit Handbook. If you’d like to read it and tell me what you think, email me.
“We won’t make ourselves more creative and productive by copying other people’s habits, even the habits of geniuses; we must know our own nature, and what habits serve us best.”
habit handbook – the first one is in draft form at the moment and with some test readers. If you’d like to read and give feedback on the early draft then email me.
experiments run
The Pact – 3 week habit challenge. We worked in a group with daily checkins and a group knowledge database with theory, answers to common questions and curated content for the group. We kicked off with a prerecorded explanation of the basis for the 3 weeks, then introduced everyone via WhatsApp which was used to facilitate. Everyone made their Pact and checked in each day with a picture message indicating if they’d completed their habit or not. The group were 96% adherent over 3 weeks, with most of the group persisting with their new habit 3 weeks after the end of the experiment.
fitness email series – running a 3 week fitness challenge for a client let me test some of my habit budding theories and ideas about consistency ini service of their mission. I also got to practice my storytelling skills and adopt their voice to run the challenge. It was really successful with 60% finishing it and overwhelmingly positive feedback. I’d certainly be interested in running events like this for other clients while also using a similar process to keep a cohort on task in pursuit of a scholar athlete paradigm.
creative coaching – this was really fun. Over a period of a couple of months, a client tested my content, exercises and ideas out while taking a personal journey into a new creative discipline with the eventual goal of changing career. Creating a body of work in Notion, the client is now set on a new direction and has a system of creative habits to use when engaging with her new field of interest. This felt much more like the direction I’d want to pursue and gave me the opportunity to leverage my curiosity and research skills in the service of the client while learning loads about something I’d never considered in depth previously.
healthy eating app – an app designed to help people improve their eating habits through introducing high leverage, scientifically backed habits common to the healthiest cultures in the world. Designed in tandem with students from Bristol University’s computer science course, this was a fascinating exercise into how to think about app design and implementing ideas for a customer. In the end, the product was simple but better done elsewhere while the content was too impersonal – something we all agreed on. Although the principles were sound, it seemed like people needed to be understood during a journey like this. It also just wasn’t much fun for me – the main reason I lost interest – but much of the research and content is still useful to me.
