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

2025-12-29 People & Blogs
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The Diary Of A CEO
The Diary Of A CEO
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Designing Goals, Embracing Vulnerability, and Resisting Life's Inevitable Urge to Settle

Learn crucial frameworks for setting and achieving meaningful goals by subtracting distractions, embracing necessary discomfort, and understanding that lasting fulfillment often lies outside conventional measures of success.

Short Summary

  • Define success using personalized, long-term metrics rather than immediate external accolades.
  • Implement the "put something down to pick something up" rule to manage finite energy and time resources.
  • Counteract "productivity dysmorphia" by focusing on small, consistent actions rather than punishing yourself for perceived shortfalls.
  • Understand that life’s major growth moments often follow periods of severe challenge and loneliness.

This discussion provides frameworks for purposeful yearly planning and behavioral change, emphasizing that motivation is unreliable, while discipline, structured reflection, and self-compassion are essential for long-term success. Readers gain actionable perspectives on managing ambition, personal vacuums, and cultural inertia, especially during times of reflection like the year-end period.

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Description

Are you planning 2026 completely wrong? CHRIS WILLIAMSON, Modern Wisdom host, breaks down goal setting errors, procrastination psychology, stress overload, dating mistakes and the ONE strategy that works! Chris Williamson is the host of the Modern Wisdom podcast and a leading voice on men’s development, productivity and the challenges of modern life. He is also the creator of the 3 Minute Monday newsletter, where he shares weekly insights on discipline, focus and meaning.  He explains:  ◼️Why your goals keep failing you no matter how motivated you feel ◼️The SINGLE question that decides if 2026 is a breakout year ◼️The real reason PROCRASTINATION protects you from success ◼️Why doing less beats trying harder every time ◼️How stress and dating confusion hold men back 00:00 Intro 05:05 Choosing a Productive New Year's Resolution 11:58 The Real Thing You Should Be Doing 19:05 The Idea That "I Will Be Enough When..." 20:00 How to Find Success 23:09 The Hidden and Hurtful Metrics of Success 39:11 The Cost of Alcohol on Your Habits 41:54 If You're Not Okay, You Won't Choose Healthy Habits 46:25 The Biggest Learnings to Stay Consistent 48:29 Burnout, Imposter Syndrome, and Anxiety 53:11 The Two Main Reasons for Procrastination 01:00:43 America and UK: The Differences in Success Approaches 01:05:57 I Wish Britain Celebrated the Success of Its People 01:07:27 Ads 01:08:29 I Never Thought I'd Amounted to Much 01:18:06 How to Know What You Really Want in Life 01:33:41 Modeling What It Means to Be a Good Man 01:38:55 Ads 01:40:57 The Lonely Chapter in Everyone's Lives 01:47:02 Problems Are a Feature of Life, Not a Bug 01:53:06 Psychological Stability in a Partner 01:55:35 The Dating World and Finding a Partner 01:58:27 The One Thing That Will Make You More Attractive 02:02:17 Why You Shouldn't Wait for Anything 02:12:09 The Hardest 12 Months of My Life 02:18:59 The Pleasure in Small Things Follow Chris: YouTube - https://bit.ly/4j1xhIh Instagram - https://bit.ly/3XZ9QFS X - https://bit.ly/3YDcCAJ Follow Chris: YouTube - https://bit.ly/4j1xhIh Instagram - https://bit.ly/3XZ9QFS X - https://bit.ly/3YDcCAJ You can find out more about Chris’ 2026 template, here: https://chriswillx.com/review You can find out more about Chris’ episode with Naval Ravikant, here: https://bit.ly/3MNNyoj The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors:  Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO  Adobe Express - https://Adobe.Ly/OneBetter  Ketone - https://ketone.com/STEVEN for 30% off your subscription order

Top Comments (10)

@KeshiraV 2025-12-29

Highest ROI of my life: getting a dog. I don’t have a garden. I live alone. No friends. No family. Lil puppo forced me outside. Forced me to walk. Forced me into sunlight, movement, routine, and responsibility. Forced gentle social contact with other humans. Forced me out of screens and into the present. I’ve lived with depression, anxiety, psychosis, schizophrenia.. the kind that makes you hide from the world just to survive. The unconditional love of a dog unlocked a version of life I genuinely didn’t believe existed. I went from chasing death… to chasing LIFE. She’s 3 years old now & because of her I have real friends, real connections, and the beginnings of family where none existed before. If you want a reason to live: take responsibility for life. For me, that started with a dog. She then taught me how to be responsible for my own life, and thus, I can be responsible for any ❤ Thank you for taking the time to read ❤

5.8k 178 replies
@brajaknun 2025-12-29

My biggest ROI this past year was to call my mom every Sunday just to chat.

2.8k 74 replies
@willcoconuts 2025-12-29

Biggest ROI this year: Quitting drinking (6 months sober) Quitting vaping (11 months without it) Quitting drugs (7 months sober) Reading every day (11 books this year) All-but quitting insta and X (went on Christmas Day to message some friends and instantly felt more miserable) Ditching my ‘friend’ who does nothing but smoke weed and play video games every day and got me into coke (it’s a long story, it was actually a falling out, but it’s been for the best. I’ve actually been able to save money for the first time in 3 years) Honourable mention: skincare twice a day, increasing amount of sleep from 7 to 8 (only recently done this, but I’ve felt some positive changes already) I want to start walking more (currently average 6k steps/day - might add in a morning walk like Chris suggested here), and meditating. Edit: also expecting a baby boy in February and getting married this year. Happy new year everyone! 🎉

2.3k 72 replies
@randomtraveladventures 2025-12-29

I am 77 years old. I 'm the Mexican fisherman. I'm happy.

2.2k 37 replies
@Eyrowyn 2025-12-29

My biggest ROI resolution happened in 2013. I was 24 and working as a cashier. I had a boss that was constantly putting me down and my self-esteem was super low. So, I made a resolution to make it my year of self improvement. That fall I started taking business classes at the local community college. Nobody in my family had went to college. I kept going, and those classes turned into a BS in Economics and then a MS in Business Analytics. Now I am a leader in a Fortune 500 company. All from a New Year's resolution at a time when I felt like shit about myself.

1.8k 47 replies
@TheDiaryOfACEO 2025-12-29

The year is almost over and in this episode, Chris shares all the to-dos for a very successful 2026! 👊🏾 If you like this episode, please hit the like button on the vid - that’s the best way to vote for more like this ❤ also, would be doing me a big favour if you could subscribe - its free 🙏🏾appreciate you - SB

876 70 replies
@kawalsingh3226 2025-12-30

“The answers you seek are in the silence you avoid.”

647 12 replies
@charlottewilliams8095 2025-12-29

My ROI this year: Completely quit alcohol. Ditched people who drained me and finally found people how actually care. Quit vaping Quit drugs Survived to celebrate my 2 year suicide attempt anniversary. Started Uni. I call my mom every day. I'm so very grateful to be here after everything I've been through. To anyone going through it right now, know you are stroger than you think, get to know yourself, and know anything is possible as long as you believe, you will get to where you want to be❤.

312 7 replies
@dannygriffin4933 2026-01-06

Never ever hit the snooze button. You kept the promise to ur self and will be able to have the time for what you planned that morning. Its a great start to the day

25 1 replies
@jean-pierremunz51 2026-02-05

Biggest ROI of 2025 was giving my life for Jesus Christ. Salvation is happiness wrapped up for us all and supercedes the material as it is eternal. This is our blessed hope

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