Immeasurably Change Your Life in 66 Days

Internalize this one message and a new way of living can be yours for the taking

Photo by Mitchell Ng Liang an on Unsplash

So you want to change your life. You’re tired of the every day that grinds you down to a nubbin of a human who can’t muster the energy to do much more than binge Netflix at the weekend.

66 days. According to James Clear, author of the incredibly popular Atomic Habits, that is the average length of time it takes to form a habit.

In other words, you can change your thinking in just over 2 months.

I’ve talked to and observed hundreds of people during my time on the road, people who don’t just let life happen to them but who have taken control of how they live. And I’ve noticed that all of them have one single thought in common.

They know that it’s never too late to start again.

Don’t let sunk cost fallacies get the better of you

So you don’t like the trajectory of your life but you’ve invested too much time and effort into crafting it. If you made big changes it would be like all those efforts have gone to waste. All that money, all that time.

And the older you get, the harder it becomes. It’s the sunk cost fallacy in all its glory.

Even worse, it takes time to change a life. Not only have you sunk all that time into a life that doesn’t work for you, but it’s going to take even more time to take control of it.

Yeah, I feel you.

It all starts with this first step, really believing that it’s never too late to start again. I was 36 when I sold everything and hit the road; I was no spring chicken. And on my travels I’ve seen people change everything at 40, 50, even 60.

But I would never have done it without forming a new habit, changing my thinking from “I’m way too deep down the suburban rabbit hole,” to “I’ll regret this if I don’t do it, so I’m going to do it.”

Whatever age you are, 66 days is not that long.

Here’s what I did (and what you can do)

I sought out people who had also made big changes to their life

I probably wasn’t going to find them hanging out in my local pub, so I went online.

I wanted a huge change so I found extreme examples of people who had successfully changed up their life, like Jessica and Will of World Towning who travel the world with two teenage kids.

I listened to podcasts about people who successfully reject useless societal norms. Podcasts like The Minimalists, Paula Pant’s Afford Anything, and Become Nomad.

I pumped inspiring stories into my brain for hours a day.

It didn’t matter if these people were living a life I wanted or not, it was more about understanding that I was not alone in my desire to switch it up.

I looked to my own parents for inspiration

I lived in 4 different places before I was 13. My parents made mistakes, choosing to live in regions of the UK they thought they would love but it turned out they hated. They once bought their dream house, an old stone cottage, just to find that it was a money pit that nearly bankrupted them. They changed their jobs and their lives multiple times over.

They were in their 50s before they finally found a place where they love to live. But as they always tell me, if it that changes, they will move again, despite now being in their late 70s.

They’re not afraid to start over when the life they make for themselves doesn’t work anymore.

I played the ‘would you rather’ game with myself

When you want to make a big change, the first thing your primitive brain wants to do is to keep you in your place. It tells you that the unknown is scary.

The barriers your brain comes up with can be overwhelming. What if it doesn’t work and I’m worse off than I was before? What if I fail and everyone laughs at me? My friends are all buying houses and having kids and I plan to do the complete opposite? What is wrong with me?

So I played ‘would you rather.’

Would you rather not make a change and stay in your current situation?

Would you rather be on your deathbed saying man, I’m so pleased I took a risk, or man, I wish I’d done more in my life?

Playing would you rather is a constant reminder that however scary the unknown is, it probably isn’t any worse than what you have now.

How do you want your life to look?

Next week marks a year of freedom from my Old Life. The one with a bricks-and-mortar business that sucked the life out of me and a house smack bang in the middle of suburban hell.

I’m writing this in the middle of a co-working conference in Montenegro. Tonight, I return to Croatia where I will spend 2 more weeks before collecting my 100 or so items and hitting the road. It was going to be Milan. Now it’s going to be Sarajevo.

This is exactly how I wanted my life to look.

Yours will no doubt be different to mine. Maybe you want a new job, or to get out of debt. Perhaps you want to craft a life with more freedom to spend with your family or friends. You want more time for hiking, cooking, travel, or whatever other activities make your heart sing.

Whatever it is, and whatever your age, it’s never too late to start again.

66 days to internalize that message. 66 days to change your life.

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A Montenegrin thank you - or hvala! - for reading.

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