100 Days from Today

For the last few years I have made a plan on the 1st January to do something in 100 days that I haven’t done before. In previous years I have taken up golf, learned to snowboard, read a book a week (something I am still doing 4 years later), written a book in Cuba, got a new job, launched a climate change blog, published a podcast, driven Route 66, and cycled to Paris.

Great things can happen in 100 days when you put your mind to it.

100 days is an important number. The human brain likes round numbers and managable goals. There is also a science behind why 100 day challenges work but that's for another post. 100 days is often the amount of time leaders use to focus on a new role, build a new team or re-structure an organisation. It's also the amount of time (most) presidents take to build a meaningful foundation for their time in office.

100 day plans are the gold standard of goal setting.

At the beginning of August 2019 I decided to launch and co-host IBMs first ever climate change conference. I had no real experience of organising a conference. I had no budget, no venue, no team and no speakers apart from myself. I wanted to do it as part of my commitment to work with Al Gore for his 24 Hours of Reality project on 20th November. I didn’t realise at the time that I had almost exactly 100 days.

In that time, I became part of an incredible team of highly motivated and smart climate activists and we did it! We hosted a small conference with 150 IBMers and local business leaders, built a small website and created a punchy agenda, made up of different types of talks. Over the next 2 days we received almost 1M engagements and interactions on social media and even got a shout out from the Vice President himself.

Our budget was ￡1,600 and we knocked it out of the park.

In 100 days.

One of the highlights of that event for me was listening to climate leader Sarah Powell speaking about her 142 day journey to change her life and her career. That was the amount of days leading up to our event on the 20th November that it had been since she made a decision to become a climate change leader, so we challenged the audience to do something in 142 days where they could make an impact.

142 days from 20th November 2019 is 10th April 2020.

I planned to write something today a while ago because I believe in doing big things in 100 day cycles and I always set myself a new challenge on 1st January.

100 days from 1st January 2020 is also 10th April 2020.

Seredipity at its finest.

So whatever your motivation, maybe you want to do something in 100 days that could make a big difference in your life, to the lives of those around you or to the planet?

As for my 100 day plan, I’m working on something challenging and exciting. But instead of shouting about it like I have done in previous years, I am just going to do it. With no fanfare, no humblebrags, no updates and no “Woop Woop’s” on social media.

Maybe we could all add more mystery into our lives in 2020?

By sharing less, posting less Tweets, less Instagrams, less Snaps and no Tik Toks?

A little less conversation, a little more action please?

Because not all 100 day plans need to be public.

Just like every meal, morning routine and gym shot doesn't need to be posted (there's a lot to be said for keeping a private journal that nobody else reads).

Not all blogs need to be public.

Not all books need to be published.

But writing is important. It's one reason I LOVE Masterclass so much.

Seth Godin once stated that “Everyone should write a book [to help them make sense of their own thoughts], but not everyone should publish one”.

Good advice.

Anyway, maybe that's something you could do in the next 100 days? Write a book? Journal? Start a podcast? Or change your career? Play a new sport? Learn a new (coding) language? Get involved in a cause that you've always been passionate about?

Maybe 2020 is about saying less and DOING more?

I've started by putting 10th April in my new diary and set myself to goal of doing something special over the next 100 days.

You in?

** You can watch the recording of THINK Climate here (Sarah’s segment is 1:35:00) **