Chris Williamson: British podcaster and host of Modern Wisdom, one of the world's biggest podcasts and a former nightclub promoter turned personal-development thinker now based in the US.
What this episode covers
Steven Bartlett and Chris Williamson use the week between Christmas and New Year as a frame to discuss how to set and keep goals that actually stick. They cover why subtraction matters more than addition (you must put something down to pick something up), habit rules like 'never miss two days in a row,' productivity dysmorphia, procrastination, and the region beta paradox. The conversation widens into dating advice, what makes a good man, declining birth rates, and the 'lonely chapter' of personal growth. It closes with Williamson's candid account of a debilitating year of mold poisoning that wrecked his energy, mood, and memory, and how it humbled him into valuing small pleasures.
Recommended on this episode
Atomic Habits
James Clear
“James Cle has been on my show. I think he's been on your show too. Uh best habit book of all time, Atomic Habits.”— Chris Williamson
Getting Things Done
David Allen
“People want a really really great productivity strategy. Getting things done by David Allen is is about as good as you can get.”— Chris Williamson
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
“it's the same lesson as Paulo Qua's The Alchemist, which is this young boy goes on a huge big journey and he finds out the thing that he was looking for was in the back garden all along”— Chris Williamson
The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins
“Here is a passage from Richard Dawkins book, The Blind Watchmaker. It's about a basic fact of biology.”— Steven Bartlett
The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz
“You know the paradox of choice by Barry Schwarz. Do you know this? Okay. So Barry Schwarz uses this wonderful example of people buying jeans 50 years ago”— Chris Williamson
Big reveals from this episode
- Williamson says drinking three glasses of wine after a year sober ruined three days of his life via a domino effect on sleep, diet, and training.
- Recounts quitting Social Chain 10 days before its IPO roadshow with no plan B, despite the company later being worth 400-500 million.
- Says it took him until two or three years ago to stop being scared of having a family.
- Hints he is doing 'everything in my power' to have kids soon and expects to be a dad within 12 months.
- Admits he has to work hard just to be in a good mood and previously had depression and anxiety in his 20s.
- Reveals he got mold poisoning from a toxic-mold house in America that impaired his energy, mood, and cognition.
- Describes a day he forgot how to tie his shoes and was forgetting friends' names due to the illness.
- Says 'this year has definitely broken me' and rates himself a 7-8 now versus a 3 a year ago.
Worth remembering
- Only about 9% of people keep their New Year's resolution for the full year; roughly half quit by end of January.
- James Clear's rule 'never miss two days in a row' - one missed day is an error, two is the start of a new habit.
- A 10-minute 'postprandial' walk after meals regulates glucose and aids digestion via contralateral arm-leg movement.
- No caffeine within 90 minutes of waking because the adrenal system, not adenosine, dominates the first 90 minutes.
- 'Productivity dysmorphia' - the inability to see your own success, sitting between burnout, imposter syndrome, and anxiety.
- Williamson invokes Ryan Holiday: 'Self-belief is overrated. Generate evidence.'
- South Korea's birth rate is so low that about 4 great-grandchildren result per 100 people; K-pop celibacy rules cited as a cultural factor.
- In Georgia a rock-star pastor offered to personally baptize any family's third child, spurring couples to have more kids.
- Williamson's 'dropped handkerchief' update: NYC women steal finance bros' salads to find their Instagram and message them.
- The 'shame of small fears' - our nervous system has been repurposed 'from bears to boundaries' and can't tell the difference.