'Waking up at the same time every day is the best way to reset your circadian rhythm.' Photo / 123rf
'Waking up at the same time every day is the best way to reset your circadian rhythm.' Photo / 123rf
OPINION
The Dragon’s Den investor on what he’s learned about living a successful life from interviewing nearly 400 guests on his podcast.
1. Keep goals small
“When people try and focus on 10 goals at once, the probability is that all of them are destined to fail. Willpoweris like a muscle, and if you’ve exhausted it too much [the theory is] it kind of collapses,” says Steven Bartlett.
“So my goals are small goals and they are all based on consistency.”
To help ensure that your New Year’s resolutions are successful, he recommends choosing open-ended goals, removing what he calls “completable goals” from your list. “A completable goal might be ‘I’ll get a six pack for summer’, but when you’ve ticked that box and summer’s over, you lose your motivation. Instead, choose incompletable goals, such as ‘I want to be consistent in the gym’. That’s something that you have to show up for every single week.”
2. Sleep is the foundation that everything else rests on
“The science is very clear – if you’re well slept, you’re much less likely to make amygdala [the emotional centre in your brain] based decisions.” Optimal sleep, says Bartlett, revolves around our circadian rhythms.
“Your body has this internal clock, and it’s releasing chemicals at certain times. So, melatonin [the hormone that prompts us to fall asleep] is produced when the lights go out, for example. And when we start violating those prompts, our circadian rhythm gets out of sync and we have dysfunctional sleep.”
Bartlett suggests avoiding drinking coffee after 12pm, not looking at a screen a few hours before you go to bed, and to cut out snacking, especially sugary foods a few hours before sleep. “But honestly, waking up at the same time every day is the best way to reset your circadian rhythm,” he says, before adding: “Sleeping in bed with somebody is not always the best thing, particularly if they have a different cycle to you. So if my girlfriend gets up at 6am and wakes me up, I could lose 50 per cent of my restoration.”
“I had gut problems for three to four years and just assumed I was broken. I had this pain in my gut and this bloating almost every day,” he admits. “I’d come up with all the BS that I’d chosen to believe, like, I’m gluten intolerant. Turns out [after using Zoe for two months], the things I was eating just had a bad relationship with my particular gut microbiome.”
Bartlett likens his gut microbes to his French bulldog, Pablo. “I feed him the right things and I think about his nutrition [so] now I think about my gut microbiome as if it’s a Tamagotchi, like this organism that’s inside me that’s responsible for my serotonin and all these other wonderful things.” For Bartlett, those things include protein with “at least 30 plants” a week; the magic number professor of genetics and founder of Zoe, Tim Spector, says is “the single most important dietary factor we found for better gut health”.
“When I went through the Zoe process I got to understand glucose spikes. Now, when I need to be cognitively on my A-game, I avoid high glucose, high carbohydrate foods from my diet beforehand.”
Prince William, Pano Christou (left) and Steven Bartlett. Photo / Getty Images
4. Being fit is about consistency, not intensity
“My exercise routine is messy but consistent. The goal is not perfection, it’s to have empathy for myself, and then try and be consistent. I used to aim at intensity, now I aim for consistency. Which means if I go to the gym and I do a 10-minute run because I’m too busy [to stay longer] or I don’t feel good, I’m much more proud of myself for just getting there and doing the 10 minutes. Whereas before I would aim for amazing workouts every time and that sets you up to fail.”
5. Happiness is a direct result of managing expectations
“Happy is an interesting word, because it’s actually a certain mood that we’re after. A better word is fulfilment or contentment – I’m not happy all of the time, sometimes I’m sad, upset or annoyed or whatever. But I am always exceeding my expectations.” Bartlett is referring to his favourite podcast episode with happiness expert Mo Gawdat and the one he’s most proud of.
“Mo is the guest that’s changed my life the most. He taught me that we’re happy when our expectations of how our life is supposed to be going are met. And we’re unhappy when our expectations are not met. 10 years ago I was shoplifting Chicago Town pizzas to feed myself, and now I have the privilege of being able to eat really nice food.
“It’s very easy to see how, after a few months of eating really nice food, I’d just be meeting my expectations – unless I keep hold of all of the memories. That allows me to realise that everything [I now have] is exceeding my expectations.”
