Welcome to the upgraded Building Bathhouse with Soul newsletter.
I’ll still be covering meaty topics and sharing thoughtful inspiration once a fortnight. And of course, it’s the best place to stay up to date with Rok news and developments.
“I won’t grow until my next birthday”
My five-year-old niece says it’s only on each of her birthdays that she gets taller, and then nothing happens for the rest of the year. The pencil marks on the wall chart prove it.
Society also tells you this is how growth works. You make promises at the beginning of the year, or at the beginning of new cycles - birthdays, seasons, job switches. This is when the change happens; this is the new you. At the extreme, it’s presented to you that it’s actually when you buy something that growth happens.
Except - that’s not how it works.
At Rok, we’ve clocked that real growth happens gradually, and then compounds.
When someone else’s behaviour seems astonishing to you, unfathomable even, there’s a good chance you’re discounting the time and effort they have put into building that habit.
This is me (with 80’s headband) sliding across the ice on my bum in January. For ice-cracking audio, see the 30 sec video here.
Like any good (or bad) habit, it started somewhere. Occasional visits with a friend to the London Fields lido (outdoors, heated) turned into a weekly thing for about four or five years. Then I took cold showers most days in 2020 (or was that Year 0?), and eventually every morning by early last year. Painful at first, then bearable, then comforting - but always energising. I added open water dips in Hampstead Heath once a week from April 2021, and again with friends, made that a weekly commitment some time the same year. We’re half way through our first Winter with a capital W (and recruiting new members from the end of March).
There’s ritual too. Adventure coffee on Parliament Hill after the swim, and various photos and team selfies shared afterwards. These are becoming a journal. Sometimes only one of us shows up - it has a different feel, but it’s still worth it.
The progress is built on repetition, enjoyment and company.
Real growth happens when good habits compound.
My resolution for this year is to make the gradual step from one outdoor swim a week to two. Doesn’t seem much, does it? Eventually, I want to swim wild every day (I hope you’ll join me). This might take five, or even ten years. Thing is, I’m not even a good swimmer. I’m the dude at the back of the triathlon wave, swimming with the safety canoes and switching to breast stroke. But it was never about the swimming; it was always about the water, and the people.
Fuel vs Friction
One concept that has really helped me think about working towards my swimming goals is ‘fuel vs friction’. Discussed by quite a few psychologists including Daniel Kahneman (author of Thinking, Fast and Slow), I discovered it instead via my favourite podcast Hidden Brain.
The idea is that people (and businesses) mostly try to solve problems by providing more - more subscriptions, more advertising, more fuel. Rarely do they think instead about removing the physical or psychological obstacles that are making change difficult. They underestimate the power of friction.
Removing obstacles to positive habits you already have may help you grow more than trying to take up new ones or throwing money at the problem.
Remember - habits don’t jump.
Inspiration
The Ponds on Netflix is a wonderful portrait of bathing as a habit that endures. A highly recommended watch, and only just over an hour long. Featuring the renowned East German Ladies Swimming Team.
Rok News
We’re finalising our first location and finishing up our prototype plunge pod.