Are you ready?
We asked 2,000 UK adults how ready they actually feel. The answer is a nation running well under capacity — and not believing it can train its way back up.
What we found
2,000 UK adults · OnePoll · Nationally representative · 27 August – 2 September 2026
The UK is running at two-thirds of itself.
On average, people rate their own capacity at just 66% on any given day. 1 in 9 couldn't even put a number on it.
76% think energy levels aren't trainable.
47% of Britons feel low on energy three or more days a week. Only 24% think they can improve it with training.
We'd rather avoid stress than build for it.
Only 22% of people said they'd rather build their ability to cope with stress. 36% would rather avoid it.
The dread is worse than the doing.
50% expect to feel anxious before going out of their comfort zone. Only 5% come out of a comfort-zone challenge feeling less confident.
Download The State of Readiness Report
Why now?
Anxiety is building. Readiness isn't.
Anxiety is now the most common mental health condition on the planet. The World Health Organization puts the number at 470 million people worldwide — around 5.8% of the global population, with only one in four ever getting treatment. In the UK alone, the Health and Safety Executive puts the cost at 22.1 million working days lost in 2025 to stress, depression or anxiety.
The response is almost entirely about calming down. Breathwork. Meditation. Sleep tech. Even the watch on your wrist now has a number telling you to take it easy today. All good. All soothing. None of it rehearses anything.
It's no surprise readiness has come to the fore: the Global Wellness Summit's 2026 trend report says "ready is the new well," and Apple has just put a readiness score on its watch. A readiness score on your wrist is useful — but as an overnight reading of your heart-rate variability, it tells you about your night, not whether you could get better at meeting whatever the day throws at you.
Sources:
WHO Anxiety Disorders Factsheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/anxiety-disorders
Global Wellness Summit: https://www.globalwellnesssummit.com/2026trends/#trend-ready-is-the-new-well
FAQ
What is the State of Readiness Report?
A study of 2,000 UK adults, commissioned by Brass Monkey and carried out by OnePoll, measuring how ready the UK feels and what's stopping people from believing they can train for it.
How many UK adults feel ready every day?
Just 12% — for 88% of people in the UK, readiness isn't a given every day.
Can you train your ability to handle stress?
The report's argument is that the same principle behind physical training — getting better at hard things by doing them on purpose, in the right dose — hasn't yet been applied to stress. Whether cold water training specifically carries over to other kinds of stress is the open question Brass Monkey's study with Coventry University is in design to answer; it isn't a settled result.
What happens to your body during cold water immersion?
Noradrenaline lifts to two or three times its normal level and your heart rate spikes — then, as you exhale for longer, your heart rate comes down and you feel calmer. It gets easier with repetition: by about the fourth session, the gasp on entry goes and breathing settles sooner.
