The Power of Setting and Declaring a Goal

—Wong Yu Liang—Getty Images In September 2022, I set myself a very public personal goal : to run a 5-minute mile.

It was a completely mad idea.

I was 58 years old, and, although in reasonably good shape, the fastest I could then complete a mile was in just over six minutes.

I had given myself only eight weeks to cut around 70 seconds off my time—a massive improvement that most people familiar with running thought was unattainable.

The appeal of the mile is that it is neither a sprint nor a marathon, requiring a combination of sustained speed and endurance—strong legs, strong lungs, and mental fortitude.

In my quest, age would be a factor.

The fastest known mile by a runner over 60 is 4:49, set in 2020 by 61-year-old Dan King , a former University of Colorado athlete.

While I am disciplined about my exercise and run seven days a week, my training is casual in its duration and intensity—and critically, I am no athlete.

Yet I would be trying to run just 11 seconds slower than the record for someone roughly my age.

I hired a coach and—to make everything transparent and public— announced my goal on LinkedIn.

I also approached running experts for their opinion and advice.

I encouraged followers of my LinkedIn page to engage with my journey and set stretch goals of their own.

Why would I do this? Why would I set myself up for potential failure in such a public way? As founder and CEO of Discovery, a global financial services organization started in South Africa with the goal of making people healthier, the challenge was an opportunity to improve my own health while demonstrating the importance of physical activity and encouraging others to lace up their running shoes.

Data from Vitality—a business model we pioneered for health and life insurers that tracks over 60 million life years of health and wellness data to reward positive health choices—shows this compellingly: moving from no exercise to just one physically active day per week reduces the risk of death by 36%, with positive knock-on effects for other healthy behaviors and mental wellbeing .