You’re receiving this email because you signed up to the What Counts newsletter. We send weekly emails about the science of self-improvement—if you haven’t already, please move this email to your ‘primary’ folder to help ensure you get future editions.
I apologise that this email is being sent late.
I was supposed to write it earlier, but I got so fired up by the topic of today’s email that I dropped everything, laced up my shoes, and ran a mile as fast as I could. (5:25 today—I can go faster though.)
So with that detour out of the way, let me get back to the topic that got me so energised in the first place…
In this email, I want to share what I’ve learned by studying some of the world’s most resilient and determined people, and what we can learn about making and following through on our own goals as a result.
Nedd Brockmann, 4000km, and How To Achieve Anything You Set Your Mind To
Nedd Brockmann is a 25-year-old endurance athlete from Australia. A couple of years ago, he did the unthinkable: with no real prior background in endurance sports (compared to others in his field) he announced that he was going to break a long-standing record and run across Australia in 43 days, 12 hours. That’s a distance of about 4000km.
Many people doubted his ability to complete the distance—pointing to his lack of experience and training. They cited scientific reasons he wouldn’t be able to do it, like the fact that bones take far longer to adapt than muscles, and as a 23-year old, fairly new runner, he just wouldn’t have the skeleton to handle it.
They actually weren’t wrong. At least, they weren’t wrong about his body not being up to the task. Within days, he was dealing with injuries that would be enough to lay most of us low for weeks—while he kept grinding out 100km days.
What they underestimated was his mind.
Nedd was raised to believe that a decision, once made, is final.
In his book, he says that the Latin root of the word ‘decision’ is ‘to cut off’ or ‘cut away’. In other words, to make a decision is to literally cut away any other option but the one you have selected.
Nedd takes this concept very, very seriously.
While reading, I genuinely got the impression that Nedd meant it when he said he was cutting off all alternatives to completing the distance. He was either finishing it, or…well, I don’t need to spell it out, but it’s not pretty.
In fact, I almost hesitate to recommend his approach to others because clearly this approach verges on insanity. Not all causes are worth sacrificing beyond a certain amount.
But perhaps some are.
And if that’s the case, Nedd’s mindset is powerful. And perhaps, when applied to contexts that aren’t so physically punishing, the risk for catastrophe is not so high.
Nedd eventually completed his run in about 45 days. The record wasn’t quite his, but that wasn’t really the point: the point was that he had committed to run from one side of the country to the other, and so he did beyond the point that all reasonable and even most unreasonable people would have quit.
“I have been asked what I mean by word of honor. I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls—walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground—there is a possibility that in some way or another I may be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I’d die first!” - Karl G. Maeser
I’ve been obsessed with the pursuit of figuring out how to make decisions and stick to them for a long time.
I think some people are like Nedd by nature, and others are not. But to describe it like that makes it sound binary, when in reality it’s more of a spectrum.
The truth is, most of us do most of what we say we’ll do most of the time—because otherwise taxis wouldn’t show up on time, homework wouldn’t get handed in, and society would sooner or later cease to function.
But the difference between ‘most of the time’ and ‘all of the time’ compounds over time, and will lead to vastly different outcomes over a number of years and decades. If you want extraordinary results, better to put yourself in the latter camp.
Like most things I write about here, I don’t think figuring out how to do so is necessarily a mystery. Like anything, ‘grit’ is an attribute that can be tracked and improved. Here are three approaches…
1. Track
I personally keep a record of everything I say I will do each day, and then the next day, check how many of those things I got done. The idea is to introduce some personal accountability and measure my level of ‘follow-through’ over time. I don’t panic if it’s not 100%. The only goal is to see it increase over time.
I also think that no matter how committed you think you are to something, it’s always possible to move the needle even further.
2. Take it more seriously
Each year, I set monthly goals, and I would say I’m generally very committed to them. But this year I tried something new: I decided my goals would be absolute non-negotiables in a way they’ve never been before.
As Nedd says, I took the word ‘decision’ literally. In my head, I have cut off any alternative to achieving these goals. No other path exists. No other path is allowed to exist.
The boats have been burned.
Interestingly, this year has been our best yet as a result of this attitude.
3. Tell others
Nedd taught me another powerful principle. When you have an audacious goal, it’s sometimes smart to tell other people about it in order to leverage your own desire to protect your reputation and image.
Here’s what Nedd said about posting about his challenge on Instagram: “Once it’s out there, you have a date, and you have to honour it, no matter what obstacles get in your way.”
On that note…
As I mentioned in last week’s email, I’m planning to run the length of the UK this summer. It’s not as far as Australia, and I probably won’t be doing the daily mileage that Nedd did, but it’ll come with its own set of challenges. Not least of which is the fact I’ll be continuing to run my own online business as I do so (running the length of the country isn’t cheap…).
If you want to stay updated on how I’m training each week and see the play-by-play of it all, I’ve taken a leaf out of Nedd’s book and decided to use my Instagram account to document the journey. I’ve put a couple videos up already showcasing what a week in the life training for this challenge looks like. Click here to check it out and follow for more.
If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, feel free to share it with a friend!
If someone shared this with you, go to whatcounts.io to subscribe and receive weekly emails like this.
Your friends,
Benji and Jacob
