YouSaid · the spoken record

Chris Williamson

lines on the record: 179
first: 2025-12-29
most recent: 2025-12-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yes, so a lot of the time we'll trade a hidden metric for an observable metric, something that's observable would be your job title, what your salary is per year. How many people know you, your bank balance, the size of your house, the car that you drive?”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now we can start to talk about plan to do that. But you need to have a little bit of silence. It's like a problem with permanently being busy stops you from being able to listen to fleeting thoughts that are in the back of your mind? That quiet voice is usually the really powerful one. But There's a wonderful line, the answers you seek are in the silence you're avoiding. Answers that you seek are in the silence you're avoiding.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something doesn't fit, eventually it's going to hurt wearing it. And that means if you're not careful with how you design what it is that you chase after, you can spend your entire life realizing that you climbed a huge fucking ladder a very, very long ladder that was leaning up against the wrong wall. And you need to ensure that you don't do that. And this is why we need to just sit with ourselves, sit with a little bit of reflection, and that's why this time in between Christmas and New Year, I think, is a really wonderful time to do this. How do you work out what it is that you want to do? The big picture goals are going to be hard for you to get to, but if you just think one year ahead, what do I want over the next 12 months? I think that usually helps you. Maybe you want to be in a relationship. I want to be in a committed relationship with someone who really loves me.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so Three things success Regent Beater Mexican fisherman What success looks like for any individual person is going to be different, for you knowing that you really want a family? There's people out there that are like, I'm not that fast. I don't think that that's on the cards for me, and that's fine. Other people might really, really want to put the workload down and step off and go and do the dad or the mum thing. Unfortunately, you can't take somebody else's purpose or success. You can't wear it as a suit. It's a bad idea, right? Because it's going to not fit. And wonderful line, let go or be dragged.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's more like an embodied sense. You feel it. Yeah, I very much feel it. It's this striving, it's this pull. This sort of magnetism moving forward. If your life was a movie and the audience were watching up to this point, what would they be screaming at the screen telling you to do? It's usually a very reliable indicator of where you should be putting your attention.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a common sense of not enoughness, like I will be enough when, right? Because you can either run away from something you want or run towards something you fear or run towards something you want.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The interesting thing is, I never actually thought I was going to amount to much. I was just really interested in what I was doing, what was in front of me. I didn't think... This is going to lead to me achieving something or living in America or whatever. Each different step got me there. But no, of course not. Of course, the unteachable lesson has smashed me in the face, which is Won't fix your self worth, money won't make you happy, you should see your parents more, you can take a day off, like all of these lessons you have to live them to learn them, unfortunately.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“their problems, their internal void with external accolades because they're part of some cartel that's trying to pull the ladder up after they've just gotten in. Or it's the truth but it's an unteachable lesson. You will not understand that that thing outside won't fix your internal void until you get there. And I actually think, to Naval quote, it's far easier to achieve a material desires than to renounce them. Like, if you want a Ferrari, it's much easier to actually work real hard and try and get some nice car, whatever it is, so that you learn that the car isn't the thing that you want, then it is to rid yourself of the desire for the car overall. And that's not to say that getting a Ferrari is easy. It's to say that getting rid of the desire is essentially impossible.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think less striving would actually make me happier. I think that a lot of striving and a desire for success comes from a sense of insufficiency. Like if only the world recognized my brilliance, then I will be validated. And it takes a long time to realize that you don't fix internal voids with external accolades. The problem with that is it's an unteachable lesson. You try and tell people that money won't fix your happiness problem, or fame won't fix your self-worth problem. You should see a parent more. Time in a hammock is never wasted. You don't love that pretty girl she's just hot and difficult to get. Like all of these things are only lessons that you can learn once you've got there. And people who haven't yet gotten there think, well, that's easy for you to say. And then when they arrive for some reason, they seem to evangelize the same insights like somebody that's just gone through religious revelation. So either one of two things is true. People who achieve a thing are lying about the fact that that thing didn't fix.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this is again, why should anybody care about doing an annual review? Should anybody care about the new year? Well, you're busy living your life for almost the entirety of the year, and this is one moment where the urgent can just take a tiny bit of a back seat and the important can come through. Who've I been of the last year? What do I want from next year? Every single year is a chapter of your life. Next year it's chapter 38 for me. What do I want that chapter to be about?”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of course, that's a human condition we habituate in both directions. So if your ancestors had been satisfied when they got to a cave, when their family grew, and they needed a bigger cave, when what? You don't just go and find one bush, you find a ton of bushes and then you expand, and that gives you additional security. But unfortunately in the modern world that causes us with an infinite amount of things that we can do and can chase after. We sacrifice the important for the urgent The urgent always in front of us, the email, the next meeting, the next”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What if that never changes? What if your problems in life are never ever going to go away? What if problems are always going to be that? What then? Oh wow. Well, I'm never going to arrive. That means I need to start living now. And I think for me there's definitely a lot of I will get there when once the tasks of today are completed, once the problems are gotten through. There'll never be a time when there's no problems in life. Problems are a feature, not a bug.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“was a mirage that sort of faded as they approached, and they were actually just running toward the end of their life. Like they're permanently putting things off. I get it. People have got realistic structural monetary requirements. They've got to get up. They've got to go to work. They've got to fucking change their nappy. They've got to walk the dog. They've got things that they need to do. That's not what I'm talking about. My point is everybody thinks, a lot of people think in one form or another that my life will begin when. They're holding their happiness hostage. They're in a holding pattern, like a plane that can't land for some reason.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're already doing enough You're already doing enough whipping yourself into submission, thinking that your happiness sits on the other side of the next set of goals that you're going to achieve. You've already achieved goals that you said would make you happy. So if you haven't made it now, if this isn't when life is going to begin. When are you going to start? This wonderful idea of the deferred life hypothesis. Deferred life hypothesis is basically the sort of common belief that our life hasn't yet begun. What's happening now is a sort of prelude, it's an intro to our life truly beginning. And upon reflection, what a lot of people realize is that this prelude that they run through.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What's interesting about those is that actually those aren't necessarily additions. The friends thing is an addition, but the executive functioning thing, the admin burden, is not. So actually that's nice because I want to do less of that thing, which should hopefully open up a little bit of time. What would I need to get rid of? I'd realistically need to get rid of some time sat in front of my computer doing boring admin stuff. I'd probably need to spend less time scrolling on my phone, less time on social media. I would maybe need to make some sacrifices in training as well if I'm going to go out with my friends a little bit more in an evening. I'm going to have to get up a bit later. So there's some of the trades that we're going to have to make.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want to be in maker mode, not manager mode. Be a way to put it. I want to spend more time with my friends. I've been solo entrepreneur grind set, you know, pick it up and lift it type thing a lot for the last forever. More time with my friends, more time connecting with people. That's two things. Like, if I can do that, spend more time with my friends and less time doing admin. Now, one of the problems that you have is, and I want to lose 20 pounds, and I want to get my bench press up to 200 kilos, and I want to do this. It's like, really? Like, do you really, really, really want that? Because when I think about it, I have much more... Gentle goals of much broader goals And that's the stuff that I think is important to me.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want to spend more time thinking about ideas and less time caught up doing admin. Admin is a drain on me. I don't enjoy emails. I don't enjoy the operations of that sort of stuff.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, this question is so fantastic. Your life was a movie, and the audience were watching up to this point. What would they be screaming at the screen, telling you to do with your life? They would be it is obvious leave the relationship. The job is not working for you. The killer's hiding in the cupboard. What would the audience be screaming at the screen telling you to do with your life?”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't like my relationship with my phone. I spend a lot of time on my phone. I don't like how my mornings aren't very productive. I've noticed that when I'm with my friends, I'm not very present. I've noticed that I spend a lot of time on my own. I tend to isolate when things get difficult. I've noticed that I've got into the habit of not telling the truth when people ask me a question. I've noticed that I've got into the habit of not advocating for my needs when I should do. I don't hold my boundaries sufficiently well. This is why the reflection part's really important. Would I do to make 85 year old me as miserable as possible? How would I spend my day? And in what ways am I already doing that? Well A lot of those are going to cross over. That Venn diagram is not going to be as far apart as you might think it is.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That would be optimal. I think one question that you really should be asking yourself. Let's go through a bunch of uncomfortable questions people can ask themselves. That could be cool. How would I spend my day if I wanted to make eighty five year old me as miserable as possible? What is it that I did over the last year that made me right now with the There's constriction.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Assume, make the assumption I can do no more than I'm doing now. I can switch stuff, but I can't add more in. Maybe you can, maybe you're going to be able to squeeze your phone time, maybe you're going to be able to become more efficient, more productive, whatever, but it's safer to just assume this is the pie that I'm playing with, and in order to pick something up, I have to put something down. That's a really important thing. Because at the moment, it's December 29th. I'm full of gusto and motivation and I can't wait. I'm going to crush it. And yeah, for the first week, maybe you've got that. But if you're using motivation and enthusiasm to work yourself through your goals, your goals are predicated largely on a fuel source that you don't have control over. You don't have a massive amount of control over your motivation over a long amount of time. It comes and then it goes. You want something that's a little bit more rigid. So in order to pick something up, you have to put something down.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And my stomach is going to expand to be able to fit it. That's not the way that our stomachs work, and that is not the way that our workloads work. So, first rule, in order to pick something up, you have to put something down. Don't assume that just because you've loaded more onto your workload plate, your work capacity will expand to be able to fit it into your stomach. That's not the way that it works.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very overwhelming. If you realize wow, I can do anything I want. I could look at my entire life. That's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. One thing I would say This is your opportunity to change anything behaviorally you can change anything you want, not everything you want, right? That's the problem. You can become anything you want behaviorally, but you can't be everything you want, so you need to pick a small number. The single best question to work out what you should be doing next year, what would have to happen by the end of 2026 for me to look back on 2026 and consider it a success? I think that really helps to just give you a bit more perspective. And it usually comes down to only a few things. You don't usually have so much in your mind when you do that. Setting the bar unrealistically high does not increase your performance. Imagine this. Imagine that you went into a buffet and you made your plate as big as possible. You said, I want all of these things. I'm going to put all of this stuff on my plate.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work time is a little bit more slow. And you're already doing this. You're already thinking about the past and the future. And this is just a good structured opportunity to check in and do it.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“is a culturally appropriate moment like a scheduling appropriate moment for you to just step in and think, okay, in between Christmas and New Year, people who work in retail, God bless you, people that have got to go back to work and do that thing, but usually there's a bit of downtime. It's a little bit slower. It's boxing day, chilling out in the couch. And you're kind of thinking, wow, I was here again at mum and dad's house or with the in laws or whatever. What was I doing last year? What was it like last year? You're already in a little bit of a reflective mode. There is no special magic super secret squirrel sauce in January 1st. But it is a good moment to check in because life tends to slow down a little bit.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the world is split into two camps. One camp says there is no difference between January 1st and December 31st. Why wait? It's December 10th. Just do it now. And the other camp likes the idea of there being a culturally appropriate moment to stop doing something and start doing something else. Most people need to realize that they're already spending tons of time worrying about the future in the past. They're going back to this thing that they regret. I wish I'd done this differently. Oh, I have rumination about something that occurred. I have a sense of wistfulness for something that I've maybe missed. I'm grief for something that I've lost. And then they're concerned about the future. They think I'm uncertain about this thing that's going to happen. I could plan, I could try and come up with a solution for this. So you're already worrying about the past. You're already doing reflection and planning, just in a very unstructured way where you don't get to choose when it hits you in the face.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, there is a wonderful upside in trying to conquer and trying to achieve mastery, trying to really drive yourself to go and do stuff. But I'm not like your feelings, just hustle and grind until your eyes bleed either because one of the biggest lessons I've taken away from this year is suppression isn't the same thing as strength. And it's a good thing for guys who feel their emotions to show that they feel their emotions, right? Like I've been at some of my lowest points over the last 12 months. It felt like my better self was slipping through my fingers. I realized my emotions are legitimate. And denying myself that is not helping anything at all.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The single best question to work out what you should be doing next year. What would have to happen by the end of 2026 for me to look back and consider it a success? And it usually comes down to only a few things. The first one is in order to pick something up, you have to put something down. So setting the bar unrealistically high does not increase your performance. Like you could probably lose 20 pounds and get a boyfriend. You can't do that and move cities and start a new business. So make the assumption. I can do no more than I'm doing now. Second thing, your life was a movie and the audience were watching what would they be screaming at the screen, telling you to do with your life. It is obvious. Leave the relationship. The job is not working for you. The killer's hiding in the cupboard. Because if you're not careful with how you design what it is that you chase after, you can spend your entire life realizing that you climbed a huge ladder that was leaning against the wrong wall.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Stop taking life so seriously. No one is getting out of this game alive, and in three generations no one will even remember your name. And if that doesn't give you liberation to just drop your problems for a moment and find some joy, I don't know what will. Because there'll never be a time when there's no problems in life. And that's why this time in between Christmas and New Year is a really wonderful time to plan big dreams and goals for the year.”
2025-12-29 · The Diary of a CEO · Chris Williamson: If You Don't Fix This Now, 2026 Is Already Over! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT