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I KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT DON’T DO IT. The Neuroscience Behind Why & How to Fix It — Transcript

by Evan Carmichael · 11,386 words · 1,636 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00At the University of South Carolina's
0:01graduation in 2009, Arnold
0:03Schwarzenegger said, "None of my rules,
0:06by the way, of success will work unless
0:09you do." Knowing what to do and not
0:11doing it has a name. Psychologists call
0:14it the intention-behavior
0:15gap, the space between what you plan to
0:18do and what you actually do. In a 2016
0:21review, Paschal Sheeran and Thomas Webb
0:23of the University of Sheffield found
0:24that plans turn into action only about
0:26half the time. So, if you feel stuck
0:28between knowing and doing, you're in
0:30good company, and brain [music] science
0:32shows real ways to close the gap. I tell
0:34entrepreneurs all the time to ask for
0:36help, but still my biggest weakness.
0:37When I'm stuck, I tell myself, "I'll
0:39figure it out myself." There are people,
0:40though, who could help me [music] if I
0:42just let them in a little bit more. And
0:45in one of my recent calls, I said I hope
0:46to watch it back as a reminder to
0:48myself, "Carmichael, ask for help." So,
0:50I wanted to make this video because
0:52procrastination doesn't follow logic.
0:54You can know the right move and still
0:56not make it, and for me, it always comes
0:58back to [music]
0:59belief. get an idea, I do something with
1:01it right away because the longer I sit
1:03on it, [music] the more my brain gets in
1:05the way. So, once you know what your
1:07brain is doing when you put something
1:09off, you can work with [music] it and
1:11get moving. And if you don't, a year
1:13from now, you'll still know exactly what
1:15to [music] do and still not be doing it.
1:17There are 10 ways to get yourself to do
1:20what you already know you should do, and
1:21I'm [music] going to cover them today in
1:22this video. If you've been here before,
1:24drop a #believe in the comments below so
1:26I can feature you here in a future
1:27video. And if you're new, welcome to the
1:29Believe Nation, the only channel you
1:31believe in yourself daily, one video at
1:33a time. Believe.
1:37Number one, launch before you feel
1:38ready. When you're about to put
1:39something new out there, your brain
1:41lists what could go wrong. In 2018,
1:43researchers at Ruhr University Bochum in
1:45Germany scanned the brains of 264
1:47adults. The people who struggled to
1:49follow through had a larger amygdala,
1:52the part of the brain that warns you
1:53about bad outcomes. It was also less
1:56linked to the area that helps pick what
1:58to do next. One of the researchers
1:59suggested those people may worry more
2:01about what could go wrong, so they
2:03hesitate and put things off. In 2002,
2:06Reid Hoffman started LinkedIn in his
2:07living room, and it launched on May 5th,
2:092003. The team wanted a feature called
2:11Contact Finder ready on day one, but
2:14they decided it was much more important
2:16to launch sooner. On week one after
2:18launch, LinkedIn had 2,700 members.
2:20Hoffman later wrote, "If you're not
2:22embarrassed by the first version of your
2:24product, you've launched too late."
2:272016, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for
2:29$26.2 billion.
2:30So, pick the one thing you've been
2:32polishing for too long and show it to a
2:34real customer this week. And I'm not
2:36immune to this, either. I opened my
2:38channel in
2:39October or November of 2008 and didn't
2:42publish my first video until April of
2:452009, somewhere around there. So, I sat
2:47on my channel, too. I had this idea, I'm
2:48going to start a YouTube channel, it's
2:49going to be great, and then I did
2:50nothing for multiple months. I am not
2:53above this by any stretch, and it's why
2:55I try to go from idea to action sooner.
2:57As soon as I get the idea, find some
2:59small way to just get started, because
3:01usually the thing you're missing is just
3:03momentum.
3:06Number two, go towards the thing you're
3:08avoiding. When a task makes you
3:09uncomfortable, putting it off makes you
3:11feel It makes you feel better right
3:13away. It reduces the anxiety. In a 2013
3:15paper, psychologists argued that
3:17procrastination is largely about fixing
3:19your mood in the short term. The cost of
3:22that relief, though, is your future self
3:24is not so happy, right? Weeks or months
3:25later, you still haven't done the thing.
3:27Successful founders learn to walk
3:29straight at the task that scares them,
3:31and Ray Dalio built the world's largest
3:33hedge fund this way. So, in 1982, when
3:36Ray Dalio was 33, he bet that the
3:38economy was heading into a depression.
3:40He was wrong, and the stock market took
3:42off. He lost so much money that he had
3:43to let go of his employees at
3:44Bridgewater and borrow $4,000 from his
3:47father. He said the loss taught him to
3:49find the smartest people he could
3:51disagree with, so he could stress test
3:53his thinking. One of his written
3:55principles says, "Go to the pain rather
3:57than avoid it." So, write down the one
4:00conversation that you have been dodging
4:02and have it done this week.
4:06Number three, stop waiting for the quick
4:08reward. Your brain gives a reward you
4:10can have today far more weight than a
4:12bigger one you'd have to wait for in the
4:14future. In a 2004 study, researchers
4:16scanned 14 Princeton students while they
4:19chose between gift cards now and bigger
4:22ones two to six weeks later. Choices
4:24with the reward right now lit up
4:25emotional areas tied to the brain's
4:27dopamine system. The planning areas of
4:29the brain were active for every choice
4:31now or later. This is called present
4:34bias and James Dyson built a company by
4:37pushing past it. So, for 15 years, James
4:39Dyson kept building new versions of a
4:41bagless vacuum cleaner and it cost him
4:43nearly all of his savings. In 2007, he
4:45told Fast Company, "I made 5,127
4:49prototypes of my vacuum before I got it
4:51right, but they were 5,126
4:53failures, but I learned from each one."
4:56By then, Dyson made the best-selling
4:57vacuum cleaner by revenue in the United
4:59States. So, choose one goal that might
5:01take years to pay off and start giving
5:03it some focused time every single week
5:05even if nothing shows for it yet. This
5:07is something I still struggle with all
5:08the time. Like, this entrepreneurs,
5:10people, we struggle with this constantly
5:12because we want the instant results and
5:13the gratification. When I'm making a
5:15video, like I make the video, I might
5:16film this and it doesn't come out for a
5:18couple weeks or month because we have to
5:20edit and research and do more work to
5:22actually launch it. Like, what do you
5:23mean it's not up yet? How is it not I
5:24want to see the results.
5:26Also, YouTube versus Instagram or
5:28TikTok. A lot of times the content on
5:29YouTube might take longer to take off.
5:31The videos I made from five years ago
5:34are getting views still today, but when
5:35I'm making this video, it's really hard
5:37to think about, you know, in five years
5:39this video is going to do super well.
5:41But, it is a mental model, it is a
5:43choice, it is understanding that you're
5:45yes, doing things right now to build
5:47your business and achieve your goals and
5:49some of these things do take longer and
5:51we're planning for the future and that
5:53is okay. And reminding yourself why
5:56you're doing the thing tied back into
5:57your mission, I think really, really,
5:59really helps or at least it helps me.
6:03Number four, make your future self feel
6:05real. So, putting something off doesn't
6:07feel like a big deal because it's not
6:08you who's paying for it, it's future you
6:10who's paying for it, right? The you in a
6:12few months or a few years is the one
6:13paying for it. So, Hal Hershfield, a
6:15psychologist now at UCLA, and his team,
6:17they scanned people's brains. They had
6:19them think about themselves today,
6:21themselves 10 years from now, and then
6:23other people. Thinking about your future
6:25self looked more like thinking about a
6:27stranger than thinking about the person
6:29today. The people whose future self
6:31looked the most like a stranger were
6:33also the least willing to wait for
6:35bigger payoff. So, on a bus from Boston
6:38to New York, Drew Houston realized he'd
6:39forgotten his USB drive, so he opened
6:41his laptop and started writing the code
6:43that became Dropbox. By 2012, Dropbox
6:46had passed 100 million users, and one
6:48night after he moved to San Francisco,
6:49he couldn't sleep, and he read online
6:51that there are 30,000 days in a life. He
6:54multiplied 24 years by 365 days, and saw
6:57he was almost 9,000 days in. And Houston
7:00said, "That night, I realized there are
7:02no warm-ups, no practice rounds, no
7:04reset buttons." Dropbox went public in
7:05March 2018. So, write down how many days
7:07you've lived, write that number
7:09somewhere that you're going to see it
7:10every morning, and decide what it is
7:12that you really need to go off and do
7:13today. Whenever I'm struggling with a
7:15decision, one of the most helpful things
7:16is thinking about Evan in the future.
7:19It's what led me to be an entrepreneur
7:20in the first place. Eight I would
7:21imagine 85-year-old Evan sitting in his
7:24rocking chair, you know, it's too late
7:26now to take all the actions that I
7:27wanted to take, and looking back on this
7:29moment, it's like, "What would I do to
7:30make myself proud?" It's the Jeff Bezos
7:32regret minimization framework. Imagining
7:3585-year-old Evan as present-day Evan,
7:38trying to connect as much to that person
7:40as possible, because if you just see it
7:42as, "Yeah, sometime in the future, I
7:43don't care," then yeah, you're going to
7:45you're going to put off the things
7:46instead of doing the difficult thing
7:47right now today. And also, if you want
7:48to take real action after this video, I
7:50made a free worksheet just for you. It
7:52covers the top lessons from today, gives
7:53you space to write your biggest
7:54takeaways, helps you build a simple
7:55action plan. It's 100% free. Just click
7:58the link in the description below to go
7:59grab it, and I'll see you there.
8:03Number five, decide exactly when and
8:05where you'll do it. So, a goal like
8:08working on your marketing, it gives you
8:10the choice to do something in a moment
8:12and then in the next moment go pick
8:14something else. Peter Gollwitzer, a
8:15psychologist in Germany, calls the fixed
8:17an implementation intention. It's a plan
8:20that actually lays out when, where, and
8:23how you'll actually act to follow
8:24through on the goal instead of just an
8:26idea. He reviewed 94 tests of these
8:28plans in 2006 and found they made a
8:30medium to large difference in people
8:32actually reaching their goals. In
8:33November 2011, Jack Dorsey was running
8:35Square as CEO and also serving as
8:37chairman of Twitter, the company that he
8:38co-founded in 2006. He said, "The only
8:41way to do this is to be very
8:43disciplined. I theme my days. Mondays
8:45were for management, Tuesday were for
8:47product, Wednesday uh for marketing and
8:49growth, Thursday for development and
8:50partners, and Fridays for company
8:52culture." He said, "There's
8:54interruptions all the time, but I can
8:56quickly deal with an interruption and
8:58know it's Tuesday. I have product
9:00meetings. I have to focus on product
9:02stuff." So, give each weekday one theme
9:05for your business and make sure that
9:07it's in your calendar. I've been doing
9:08this for a bunch of years. I didn't know
9:10Jack Dorsey actually had that plan. It's
9:12It's super cool. I wish I learned about
9:13it sooner where every day is a different
9:14thing. For me, Monday is my team day,
9:17Tuesday is my YouTube filming day. I'm
9:18filming this. Wednesday is my project
9:21day, Thursday is my public facing day,
9:23do uh interviews and podcasts, etc.
9:26Friday is my what would the CEO of my
9:29business be, so CEO day. Saturday is my
9:31family fun day, Sunday is my family
9:33admin day, and then I start all over
9:34again with team day on Monday. And I
9:37find that it's just so helpful to stay
9:39in one zone of thinking instead of
9:41jumping from one thing to the next. And
9:43it's how I've been able to stay so
9:44consistent on making content for however
9:46many years because I know Tuesday I'm
9:48making I'm making content and I'm not
9:51stressing out of when I'm going to do
9:53it. And if I didn't have it blocked off
9:55in my calendar, other things would find
9:57their way into my calendar and then I
9:59would not have consistent content going
10:00up on the channel. So, having one day
10:02per week is such an amazing way to be
10:04able to schedule your day or at least
10:06like half a day a week or 3 hours on
10:09different days per week As you're moving
10:11into building a system for yourself,
10:13maybe you don't control all of your
10:15calendar every day, but doing that
10:17allows you focus time to get real work
10:19done.
10:22Number six, put an end time on the work.
10:24So, a task with no end, like you're
10:27writing a book, it can feel like it's
10:28just going to go on forever, so it
10:29becomes hard to start. When it feels
10:31like it's so far in the future to
10:33finish, you don't actually start.
10:35University of Cambridge neuroscientist
10:37Wolfram Schultz found that dopamine
10:39cells in the brain respond to a reward.
10:41They also respond to a light or picture
10:43or sound that tells you that the reward
10:45is coming. They fire more when a reward
10:48is better than expected and drop when
10:50the reward is worse. So, a clear finish
10:52line gives you a reward that you can see
10:54coming from the moment that you sit
10:56down. In 2012, Jerry Seinfeld told The
10:58New York Times that he still had a
11:00writing session every day, years after
11:02the show finished its nine seasons and
11:04180 episodes on NBC. His one rule for
11:07that session is that he doesn't have to
11:10write, but he can't do anything else. On
11:13Tim Ferriss's podcast in 2020, he said
11:15he told his daughter, "You have to have
11:16an end time to your writing session. If
11:19you're going to sit down at a desk with
11:20a problem and do nothing else, you've
11:22got to get a reward for that. And the
11:24reward is the alarm goes off and you're
11:26done. [clears throat] So, you can try
11:28it. Set a timer for 60 minutes on a task
11:30that you have been avoiding, get to work
11:31and don't stop until the alarm goes off.
11:34Part of having different days for
11:35different things is that I need to rush
11:36to get things done. There is a timeline
11:39for getting it done. So, for making
11:40videos, I need to get the videos done on
11:42the Tuesday or everybody on my team is
11:44like, "What happened? Where's the
11:45content? We got to get it up." And
11:47knowing that I have to squish it into
11:48one day allows me to have a focused day
11:51just doing that instead of, "I don't
11:52know.
11:53Maybe we should pick a different topic.
11:55Maybe we should do something else." And
11:56then videos don't get released. So,
11:58knowing that I have specific things for
12:00different days also gives me hyperfocus
12:02on that task that day because I'm not
12:04going to touch it again for another
12:05week, so it has to get done today. Often
12:08I think entrepreneurs are really bad at
12:09setting self-imposed timelines. When you
12:11have a boss, when you have a customer
12:13demand, you're probably really good at
12:15following through on those things. When
12:16the commitment is only to yourself, it's
12:18really hard cuz you just let yourself
12:19off. You can say, "Ah, I'll I'll film
12:21tomorrow. I'll do I'll do that on the
12:22next day." And then the next day comes
12:24and you still don't do it. So, giving
12:26yourself deadlines for things and having
12:27days for different tasks I find just
12:29extremely helpful
12:31as an entrepreneur who would love to
12:33procrastinate and put things off.
12:37Number seven, count every rep. So, big
12:39goals can feel really far away, so it's
12:41hard to tell whether today even
12:43mattered, right? This is a challenge. If
12:44you woke up and felt like today didn't
12:45matter, you're not likely to follow
12:47through. Harvard Professor Teresa
12:48Amabile and Steven Kramer write about
12:5012,000 daily diaries from 238 workers at
12:54seven companies. They found that the
12:55biggest boost to people's mood and drive
12:58was a sense of making progress on work
13:00that they felt mattered. They also found
13:03that setbacks hit two to three times
13:05harder than progress, so you need to see
13:07your wins. Arnold Schwarzenegger learned
13:09to do this while he was in the gym.
13:11After earthquake in 1971, Arnold
13:13Schwarzenegger and his friend Franco
13:15Columbu got hundreds of calls for their
13:17small brick laying business. He saved
13:19$27,000 from brick laying mail order and
13:22seminars, and in 1974, he bought a
13:24six-unit apartment building in Santa
13:26Monica for $215,000.
13:29And 2 and 1/2 years later, he sold it
13:30for $365,000.
13:32He has written that he became a
13:33millionaire from real estate before he
13:35ever starred in Conan the Barbarian. In
13:37the gym, he made a chalk line for each
13:39rep and decades later, he still put a
13:41tally mark on every new speech each time
13:44he practiced it. Arnold said, "There is
13:46no shortcut. The only way you get
13:48confidence is by doing reps and getting
13:50good at what you're doing, and that's
13:52what gives you the confidence." So, put
13:55a tally mark on a sheet of paper every
13:57time you do the task that you've been
13:58avoiding and look at the sheet at the
14:00end of each week. I was just filming
14:02some content yesterday with my
14:03videographer Justin, and he wanted to be
14:05able to share more of his story and
14:07confidence and courage, and wanted to
14:09make daily content on his own Instagram,
14:12short form, just easier to get going and
14:14create some content. And he's like,
14:16"Well, how often are you doing it?" And
14:17he's like, "Uh couple times a week." And
14:18how much did you actually show up with
14:20courage and confidence? Like, "Uh not so
14:21much." Okay. We've talked about this
14:23before. Now we need to get consistent on
14:25it. Put Put a sheet on your fridge that
14:28you're going to see it every day and go
14:30through, check off, like did you make a
14:33video with courage today? Yes or no. And
14:36it's going to bother you every time you
14:37see a no. And so just check it off. When
14:39it's in front of you, when you get the
14:41reward for checking it off, it sounds
14:43silly, but it works. It's effective and
14:45you will follow through. So take the
14:47goal that you've got, the thing that you
14:48know you need to do, that you've been
14:49putting off, not the stuff that you're
14:51already good at and consistent at. The
14:52stuff that you know you need to do, that
14:54you're not doing a good job of, put it
14:56on your fridge, one thing, and make sure
14:58that gets done.
15:01Number eight, expect the setbacks before
15:04you start. Daydreaming about the finish
15:06line always feels good, where you could
15:08go, right? And that good feeling
15:11often replaces you actually doing the
15:12work. In a 2011 paper, psychologists
15:15found across four experiments that the
15:16positive daydreams about the future left
15:18people with less energy. What works
15:21better is pairing your goal with the
15:22thing most likely to stop you, and then
15:25making a plan for it. This is called
15:27WOOP, which stands for Wish, Outcome,
15:30Obstacle, Plan. In a study of 34 medical
15:33residents, the group that used WOOP
15:34spent a minimum of 4.3 hours studying
15:37towards their goals compared to 1.5
15:39hours for the group that only set goals.
15:42In 1899, Thomas Edison started working
15:44on a new alkaline storage battery and it
15:46became the hardest project of his
15:48career. Months in, his associate Walter
15:50Mallory found him at a bench covered
15:52with hundreds of little test cells.
15:55Edison had run more than 9,000
15:57experiments and none of them had worked.
15:59According to a 1910 biography, Edison
16:01said, "Results? Why, man, have I gotten
16:04a lot of results? I know several
16:05thousand things that won't work." It
16:08took him 10 years to make a practical
16:10alkaline battery, and by the end of his
16:11life he had over a thousand patents to
16:13his name. So, before you start your next
16:15project, write down the three things
16:17most likely to go wrong and what you'll
16:19do when each one happens.
16:23Number nine, read your goals every night
16:25and every morning. A goal that you wrote
16:27down once and never looked at again,
16:30you never think about it. It does not
16:31happen in your day. Researchers at
16:33University College London had 96 people
16:35repeat one eating, drinking, or exercise
16:37habit every day for 12 weeks. On
16:39average, it took 66 days for the habit
16:41to become automatic and one person was
16:44on track to need 254 days. Missing a
16:46single day though didn't really hurt the
16:48process. Damon John started reading his
16:49goals twice a day at about 16 after he
16:52read Think and Grow Rich. Around 1989,
16:54Damon John and his friends in Queens
16:56were selling ski hats on the street for
16:58$10 each. Three years later, he was
17:00waiting tables at Red Lobster when his
17:02mom's house in Queens was mortgaged for
17:05$100,000. Half of the house became a
17:07factory floor for FUBU and in 1994, he
17:10and his partners went to a trade show in
17:11Las Vegas and came home with $300,000 in
17:14orders. He said, "I would write my goals
17:17down and read them every single night
17:18before I go to bed, every single morning
17:21when I woke up." He said FUBU grew into
17:23a brand worth $6 billion. So,
17:25write your top three goals on one page,
17:27read it before you go to bed, and again
17:29as soon as you wake up.
17:33Number 10, protect your sleep. Cutting
17:35sleep to get more done, it feels like
17:38you're being productive. It also changes
17:40how your brain handles stress. In a 2007
17:42UC Berkeley study, 26 healthy adults
17:45either slept normally or stayed awake
17:47for about 35 hours. Then they looked at
17:49upsetting images while their brains were
17:50being scanned. With the people who
17:52hadn't slept, the brain's emotional
17:53centers were over 60% more reactive.
17:56Their amygdala was also less connected
17:58to the front of their brain that
18:00normally helps your brain calm down. On
18:02the morning of April 6, 2007, Arianna
18:04Huffington was lying on the floor of her
18:06home office. She had started The
18:07Huffington Post 2 years earlier and she
18:09was working 18-hour days. She wrote, "On
18:12my way down, my head had hit the corner
18:14of the desk, cutting my eye and breaking
18:16my cheekbone. I'd collapsed from
18:18exhaustion and lack of sleep." In 2011,
18:20AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315
18:23million.
18:24She later left to start Thrive Global
18:26and she calls her collapse the best
18:28thing that ever happened to me. So, pick
18:30a time to stop working tonight and keep
18:32that bedtime for the rest of your week.
18:34I am working so hard to improve my
18:36sleep. I think sleep is a force
18:38multiplier.
18:39I do not set an alarm in the morning
18:41unless I have a flight that I'm trying
18:42to catch. It is still a work in
18:44progress. I'm still not where I want to
18:45be, but I am making dramatic progress
18:48and
18:48>> when you have even decent sleep, you
18:50feel more confident. You feel like you
18:52can take on the world. You can solve all
18:53those big goals that you've got for
18:55yourself, no matter how hard. And on the
18:57days when you feel really exhausted and
18:59tired, you still show up because you're
19:00that kind of person, but it's not with
19:02the same energy. It's not with the same
19:04passion. It's not with the same
19:05conviction or belief in yourself that
19:07you can follow through and do it. So,
19:09focus on sleep. It is a force
19:12multiplier.
19:15Do what you already know. It's easy to
19:17look at these people and think that they
19:19never struggle to get started, right?
19:20Jerry Seinfeld said his old writing
19:22sessions felt like pushing against the
19:24wind in soft muddy ground with a
19:26wheelbarrow full of bricks. His son told
19:29him he couldn't meditate for 15 minutes.
19:31Seinfeld told him to do 10 and he said,
19:33"That's where you start everything." So,
19:36launch before you feel ready, go toward
19:38the thing you're avoiding, and stop
19:40waiting for the quick reward. Make your
19:42future self feel real, decide exactly
19:45when and where you'll do it, and put an
19:47end time on the work. Count every rep,
19:50expect the setbacks before you start,
19:52read your goals every night and every
19:53morning, and protect your sleep. Pick
19:56one of these and use it this week on the
19:58thing that you have been putting off the
19:59longest. And each time you follow
20:01through, the next time gets a little bit
20:03easier and that's what you know turns
20:05into money coming in and your mission
20:08growing. Congratulations, you're one
20:10video closer to who you're meant to be.
20:12Believe. Now, let's learn how to delete
20:14your old self. You can't just plan your
20:16way into being a different person. You
20:18change who you are one small habit at a
20:20time.
20:21>> The thing is is that we become creatures
20:23of our own habits.
20:24>> You can have any habits
20:26any any patterns of behavior that you
20:28wish. It's simply a question of which
20:30you decide.
20:31>> In a study published in the Journal of
20:33Personality and Social Psychology,
20:35researchers tracked people hour by hour
20:37through their days and found 43% of what
20:40they did was habit, the same action in
20:42the same place almost every day.
20:44>> Habits account for 40 to 50% of our
20:47daily behaviors and this is all the
20:48stuff that you're just doing without
20:50even thinking.
20:50>> If you want to get your life together,
20:53you have to start with small boring
20:55habits to fix the loops that create 95%
20:59of our problems.
21:00>> Which means almost half of your day is
21:01already on autopilot and your weight,
21:03your bank balance, and your marriage are
21:05mostly running on autopilot. So, here's
21:08how you delete your old self and upgrade
21:11your autopilot.
21:12>> think about it, everything we do, almost
21:14everything we do in life is autopilot.
21:16>> Your brain is always developing habits.
21:18So, it's it's happening whether you want
21:20it to happen or not. And the question
21:21is, can you take control of the process?
21:23>> George Foreman did it all in public and
21:25it started in a locker room in Puerto
21:26Rico in 1977. Before that night, George
21:29Foreman, he was the villain and he
21:30enjoyed being a villain.
21:31>> The first time I'm running, I was angry
21:33and I just didn't care. I mean, people
21:35booed me and it was great because they
21:37were booing the right guy. I was a bad
21:39fellow.
21:39>> He was the heavyweight who scowled at
21:41people, said almost nothing, and scared
21:43everyone around him. And that was his
21:44whole persona and it worked. He was
21:46terrifying and he was famous for being
21:48terrifying. But then in March 1977, he
21:51lost to Jimmy Young in San Juan.
21:53>> I fought Jimmy Young and I just lost the
21:55fight.
21:55>> Afterwards, in the dressing room, he
21:57collapsed from exhaustion and started
21:59hallucinating. He describes it as a
22:01near-death experience.
22:02>> I went back into the dressing room and I
22:04was just cooling off. And I started
22:06walking and cooling my body off and I
22:07was just overtaken with that I was going
22:09to die.
22:10And I experienced a death in that room.
22:12>> He walked out of that room a born-again
22:14Christian and he quit boxing at 28 years
22:16old.
22:16>> When I left that dressing room, I was
22:18screaming the name of Jesus. I start
22:19screaming words like, "Hallelujah, I've
22:21been born again."
22:22>> Then he spent 10 years doing something
22:23nobody talks about.
22:25>> What do you think 10 [music] years you
22:26spent away from boxing from
22:29what I guess from [music] '77 to '87?
22:32When was that? '77 to '87? What did it
22:34take out of you? What did it take away
22:36from you?
22:36>> You know, it gave me an appreciation
22:38more than anything [music] of life. It
22:40made me a better man.
22:41>> He became an ordained minister. He
22:43preached. [music]
22:43>> I became a preacher.
22:45Full-time evangelist with the Church of
22:46the Lord Jesus Christ. Gave me something
22:48I never had before, peace [music] of
22:50mind. Like I like being who I am.
22:52>> He opened the George Foreman Youth and
22:54Community [music] Center in Houston,
22:56Texas and spent his days with kids who
22:58had nothing. A decade of that out of the
23:00spotlight doing small repeated things
23:02that had nothing to do with who he used
23:04to be. [music] He started deleting his
23:06old self.
23:07>> I dropped everything I was doing to tell
23:08the whole world that Jesus Christ is
23:10alive. God took me all over the country
23:12fighting in [music]
23:13Africa, Puerto Rico, uh
23:16Europe, everywhere. And I was just
23:18trying to exalt George Foreman.
23:20Now I'm going all over trying to tell
23:21them about Jesus.
23:22>> By 1987, the youth center needed money
23:24badly. So at 38, an age when every
23:27expert said it was ridiculous, he went
23:29back to boxing to pay for it and it
23:30started one of the most famous comebacks
23:32in sports history. I decided right then,
23:35I know how to get money. I'm going to be
23:36heavyweight champion of the world again.
23:38That's how I was getting money for my
23:40youth center. And on November 5th, 1994,
23:42at 45 years old, he knocked out Michael
23:44Moorer and became the oldest heavyweight
23:47champion in history.
23:48>> The winner
23:50And once again, HEAVYWEIGHT
23:53CHAMPION OF THE WORLD,
23:56BIG
23:57GEORGE
23:58>> [screaming]
23:59>> FOREMAN.
24:03>> BUT THE TITLE WASN'T EVEN WHERE THE
24:04MONEY WAS. A grill company put his name
24:07and his face on a small kitchen
24:08appliance, the George Foreman Grill, and
24:10it sold more than 100 million units. In
24:121999, Salton paid $137 million to buy
24:16out Foreman and two of his partners
24:18>> [music]
24:18>> for the exclusive rights to keep his
24:19name on that grill forever.
24:21>> This thing sold over 100 million.
24:24>> Right. And to give the check some
24:26context, too, you end [music] up being
24:27bought out, I think for something like
24:29$140 million
24:31after what you had already made. Is it
24:33true?
24:34I mean, at one point checks were coming
24:36in for upwards of like $4 million
24:39monthly?
24:40>> $5 million.
24:41>> He'd made about $5 million for fighting
24:43Muhammad Ali. He made an estimated $200
24:46million from the grill. Salton didn't
24:47pay the $137 million for an angry boxer.
24:50[music]
24:50Nobody was ever going to buy a family
24:52kitchen product from the terrifying 1974
24:55version of George Foreman. [music] He
24:57deleted his old self and the man America
24:59met in 1994 was the one those 10 quiet
25:02[music] years had built and the boxing
25:04comeback is what put him in front of
25:06everybody again. Now, you're not going
25:07to collapse in a locker room in Puerto
25:09Rico, but that night wasn't what changed
25:12him either. The 10 years of preaching is
25:14the actual story. Everything that made
25:15him somebody else, everything that
25:17allowed him to delete his old self
25:19happened in small consistent habit
25:22changes [music] in a church and a gym in
25:24Houston with nobody watching, which
25:26brings us right back to that 43%. Almost
25:29half of what you do is already running
25:30on habit, the same thing in the same
25:32place. So, to delete your old self like
25:34George Foreman did, you need to change
25:36the things you already do every single
25:38[music] day. Here are the six things
25:40that actually rebuild who you are. Do
25:42them and you'll be a different person.
25:46Number one, decide who you are before
25:49you decide what to do. So, you've been
25:50taught to do the reps, then you get the
25:51muscles, then you call yourself an
25:53athlete, right? You wait years before
25:54you'll let yourself say, "I'm an
25:56athlete." We need to turn that around.
25:57Being leads to doing. So, wake up and
25:59decide who you are today and what you
26:01actually do after that changes
26:03automatically. When you tell yourself,
26:05"I'm an athlete. I'm a great dad today.
26:07I'm a leader today." It might feel
26:08ridiculous for about a week, then you
26:10notice that you're doing things that you
26:12never scheduled because an athlete
26:14doesn't skip the workout. A great dad
26:16shows up for family dinner. A leader
26:19speaks up when it would be easier to
26:21stay quiet. A list of to-do's gives you
26:23tasks, but no reason. If you decided
26:26that you are a leader today, you already
26:28know what to do when a choice shows up,
26:30including the hundreds of small choices
26:32that were never on any to-do list.
26:34Should you send that message? A leader
26:36would. Should you have that drink? An
26:38athlete wouldn't. You stop arguing with
26:40yourself about every little thing, which
26:42is exhausting, because you've already
26:44decided who you are. Watch a salesperson
26:46at a Ferrari dealership. They don't
26:47scramble to pull up a website and prove
26:50how many races that the company has won.
26:52They stand there knowing that they are
26:54selling a Ferrari, and that means
26:56something. You're a Ferrari, too, when
26:57you decide that's who you are. There's a
26:59line on the t-shirt I own that I go back
27:00to constantly. A bird sitting on a tree
27:02isn't afraid of the branch breaking
27:04because her trust isn't in the branch,
27:06it's in her wings. Who you decide to be
27:08today can change the rest of your life.
27:10So, decide who you are before you worry
27:13about deciding what to do.
27:17Number two, go outside before the world
27:19gets to you. If you took every habit
27:20away from me and let me keep just one,
27:22I'd keep this one. It's my belief walk.
27:25Here's how it goes. You wake up and get
27:26outside within the first 15 minutes of
27:28your day. Then walk for 15 to 20
27:30minutes. Your phone comes with you for
27:32one job only, which is audio. No email,
27:35no messaging, no scrolling, no reacting
27:37to anybody else's demands. Go for your
27:39belief walk and just listen to something
27:41that makes you believe in yourself more.
27:43There are mornings when your own belief
27:45just isn't there. And on those mornings,
27:48you can borrow somebody else's belief.
27:50You're going to spend the next 15, 20
27:52minutes listening to something either
27:53way, and if you don't choose with
27:55intention, you'll probably just pick
27:58whatever is convenient or social media
28:00algorithm recommends. And now you've
28:02entered doom scrolling mode, which is
28:03probably not how you want to start your
28:05day. So, instead, put on a speech, a set
28:07of rules, an interview with someone
28:08who's done what you're trying to do.
28:10It's why I make these videos every
28:12single day on my channel, so there's
28:13always something new for you to put on
28:14if you want. And when you do that every
28:16morning, you come back from your belief
28:18walk with a belief that you didn't wake
28:20up with, and that's the whole point. Do
28:21that for 30 days and it'll change your
28:23life. A bonus tip is the second you get
28:25out of bed, put a stopwatch on. You need
28:27to be outside within 15 minutes. Go to
28:30the bathroom, brush your teeth, get
28:31changed, drink some water, feed the
28:33dogs, get outside. No more drifting or
28:35doom scrolling. You have now claimed
28:37your day.
28:40Number three, answer these three
28:42questions. You need something written
28:43down because your memory of who you
28:45decided to be will not last all week,
28:47especially when you get stressed. So,
28:50sit down tonight and answer three
28:51questions. Who do you want to become?
28:53Why are you here? What other things you
28:55actually want in your life? Spend an
28:56hour with it and give yourself
28:58permission to let yourself dream. For an
29:00hour, don't worry about the stresses,
29:02the mortgage, the family drama, the
29:05health issues, the responsibilities,
29:07your past trauma, and everything else
29:10that is creating pressure on you right
29:12now. Those are real and you will fix
29:14them, but just for an hour, let yourself
29:16dream again because you can't delete
29:18your old self by living in the problems
29:21of your old self. So, three questions.
29:23Who do you want to become? Why are you
29:25here? What other things you actually
29:28want in your life? Who you want to
29:30become is how you behave when things go
29:32wrong. Why you're here is the one people
29:34skip because it feels too big, but write
29:36down a bad answer. A bad answer is
29:37better than no answer. And on what you
29:39want, be specific, even if it's
29:41embarrassing. The number in your bank
29:42account, the money for selfish reasons,
29:44a break from responsibility, more
29:46friends, a weight goal, looking good
29:48naked, traveling to a specific
29:50destination. This list is just for you
29:53so you don't have to worry about someone
29:54else's judgments or expectations, just
29:57write. That page is what you check
29:59yourself against, not a mood, not a
30:00feeling about how the month went. A page
30:02that you can hold up next to your
30:03calendar. So, a week later, if you're
30:05spending time on something completely
30:06different from what you wrote down, you
30:08don't need to argue with yourself, you
30:10just pull out the page. You wrote it.
30:12You can see the gap yourself in 15
30:14seconds. Keep it to one page. If it's
30:16too long, you will not come back to it,
30:18it won't be as valuable, and keep it
30:20somewhere that you physically pass, not
30:21just in some folder on your laptop. If
30:23you have to keep looking for it, you
30:25won't, especially on tough days. So,
30:28keep it visible as a reminder of who you
30:30are becoming and why it matters. Bonus
30:32tip, read that page every Sunday with a
30:34coffee and a fresh perspective. If the
30:36page says you're building a business and
30:38last week you had 2 hours on it and 14
30:41hours of other people's meetings, the
30:42page isn't wrong, you aren't lazy, your
30:45calendar just belongs to something else
30:47and that's what needs to change. The
30:49goal is to catch the drift while it's
30:50still just 1 week wide and 1 week is
30:53easy to fix. If you skip the Sunday
30:54read, you'll wake up 6 months later as
30:57somebody that you never chose to be.
31:02Number four, expect the moving cost. You
31:04are going to stall out around week three
31:06and this is why. Changing who you are
31:08has a moving cost and it works exactly
31:10like if you're moving a house. The big
31:12items are easy, right? You know where
31:14the couch goes. What kills you is the
31:16small boxes of stupid things that you
31:18forgot existed. Same thing happens to
31:20your identity. Deciding is just the
31:23first part. Then you find the bio line
31:25that still describes the old you, the
31:26link in your profile that points to
31:28something that you don't even do
31:29anymore, the auto responder written by
31:31person that you no longer are, the photo
31:33from 4 years ago back when you were
31:35somebody else, the friends who only ever
31:38ask you about the old thing. None of
31:40those little things are hard to change,
31:42but all of it combined it just slows you
31:44down and being slowed down is what makes
31:46you quit. So go clean out those small
31:48leftover things on purpose. Give
31:49yourself 1 hour this week and do it in
31:51one pass because spread over a month
31:53you'll get stuck halfway and just live
31:54between the two versions of you. Rewrite
31:56the bio, fix the links, delete the old
31:58automated messages, change the photo,
32:01unsubscribe from the 20 emails that were
32:03meant for the person that you used to be
32:05and expect the people part to take a
32:06little bit longer because they're not
32:08trying to be difficult, they met a
32:10version of you that made sense to them
32:12and that is comfortable and familiar to
32:14them. Keep showing up as the new you and
32:17most of them catch up inside a few
32:19months. The ones who never come around
32:21only liked you the way you were before
32:23and that's worth knowing. And you don't
32:25need to announce any of this either.
32:26Announcing invites a debate about
32:28whether you've really changed or not.
32:30Just answer differently when they ask
32:32what you're up to and set the new
32:34standard for what you will no longer do.
32:39Number five, set a baseline for
32:40yourself. So, you do the belief walk for
32:429 days. Day 10, you sleep through your
32:43alarm. And instead of walking on day 11,
32:45you decide that the streak is broken, so
32:47the whole thing is off, and you'll
32:48restart properly on Monday, right?
32:50Monday becomes the first of the month,
32:51the first of the month becomes never.
32:53Sleeping in wasn't the real problem.
32:55What stopped you for good was deciding
32:57that you had blown it. So, instead, set
32:59a baseline that you'll almost never
33:00miss. Not the perfect version, the
33:02version that you can do with a fever, on
33:044 hours sleep, on a day that started
33:07with some emergency. If the belief walk
33:08is 15 minutes, your baseline is walking
33:11to the end of the street and back with
33:13one song on. If it's the gym, the
33:15baseline is walking in and doing one
33:17set. If it's writing, the baseline is
33:19writing one paragraph. Write the
33:21baseline down next to the real version
33:23tonight before you actually need it. You
33:25can't set a fair baseline at 6:00 a.m.
33:28when you feel terrible, right? That
33:29version of you is looking for a reason
33:31to skip, and it'll take any reason that
33:33you give it. Hit the baseline and you
33:35kept the promise. That's the rule. The
33:37baseline isn't there to make progress.
33:40Some mornings it does nothing at all for
33:42your fitness or for your business, and
33:43it still counts because what it protects
33:46is the promise you made to yourself.
33:49You're building evidence that you're
33:50somebody who does what they said they
33:53do, and evidence is built by showing up
33:55again, especially when it's hard.
34:00Number six, sit down with yourself. I
34:02want to give you two more exercises, and
34:04both of them take 5 minutes. The first
34:06one, imagine a park bench. You sit down
34:08on it next to yourself from 5 years ago.
34:10You get 5 minutes with them, and then
34:11they're gone. What do you tell them,
34:13younger you, to change their life? For
34:15me, it would be that I need to believe
34:17more in myself. Write your sentence down
34:19word for word, then realize that you're
34:21not just talking to the younger version
34:23of you. Whatever you tell them, younger
34:26you, you still need to hear it right
34:27now. Future you is also saying that same
34:29message to you right now. 8-year-old 11
34:32is telling me to believe more in myself,
34:33too, right now. The second one, and I
34:35got this from Jeff Bezos,
34:39is picture yourself at 80 looking back
34:41at this exact week. What do the choice
34:43today that the 80-year-old version of
34:45you would be proud of. Both of these
34:47work because they get you out of the
34:49current version of yourself for a
34:50minute, and the current version is the
34:52one making all of your excuses. So, do
34:54the park bench exercise tonight. Do the
34:5680-year-old test before any decision
34:57that scares you. They cost you nothing,
34:59and the answer you get is almost always
35:01the one you really needed to hear. It's
35:02a thing that deep down you probably
35:04already knew, but your fear was
35:06preventing you from hearing it.
35:10Your old self was a rough draft. George
35:12Foreman spent 10 quiet years preaching
35:14in Houston and running a youth center
35:16for kids who had nothing. That's how he
35:18deleted his old self, and years later
35:20the whole world trusted him in their
35:22kitchen. Nobody heard from him for those
35:23years or cheered him on. He built it
35:26himself. You can do the same. Tomorrow
35:28morning, do your belief walk 15 minutes
35:30outside and make a decision about who
35:32you are today. Your purpose comes from
35:34your pain, and the old version of you is
35:36the one who carried it. You carried it
35:39long enough. Now, go be the person who
35:41does something with it. Now, let's learn
35:44how a true workaholic works. Outworking
35:46the people around you still works, and
35:49it's never been easier to do.
35:50>> Need to work super hard. And I mean, if
35:52you do the simple math, you say like,
35:53okay, if somebody else is working 50
35:55hours and you're working 100, you'll get
35:57twice as done as much done in the course
35:58of a year as the as uh the other
36:00company.
36:01>> If you don't work hard every single day,
36:03you will perish. [music]
36:04>> Gallup found that full-time American
36:06employees worked 42.9 hours a week in
36:092024, down from 44.1 in 2019.
36:12>> I begin each morning by doing my highest
36:14priority work first. I have a very clear
36:17priority list, and I start from the
36:19highest priority work first. Before I
36:21even get to work, my day is already a
36:23success.
36:24>> If it's not in the calendar, it won't
36:26get done. It's not really a priority,
36:29right? You have to make sure that it's
36:31in your plan. It's in your day.
36:34>> That gap is 62 hours a year, and that's
36:37a new skill, a finished project, or the
36:39side business that you keep saying that
36:40you're going to start one day.
36:41>> You have to prioritize your time really
36:43carefully.
36:43>> The way that I found to stay focused, be
36:46productive, and not get distracted is
36:48one by auditing my time so that I know
36:51one what I'm supposed to be working on,
36:53and then two that at the end of any task
36:55I'm going to reflect back on how long it
36:57took me, how much time did I spend on
36:59task.
37:00>> So, here's how a true workaholic
37:02actually works. Jensen Huang runs
37:04Nvidia, and he works 7 days a week. The
37:06reason goes back to 1996 when the
37:08company came one chip away from dying.
37:11>> You're getting ready to ship the Riva
37:13128, and you guys have about 6 months of
37:16cash left.
37:17>> In 1993, three engineers sat in a
37:19Denny's in San Jose and started a
37:21company with $40,000. Jensen Huang was
37:24one of them. Chris Malachowsky [music]
37:25and Curtis Priem were the other two.
37:27They make graphic chips, and for the
37:28first 3 years they made them badly.
37:30>> At the time that we started the company
37:32in 1993, we were the only consumer 3D
37:35graphics company ever created. By the
37:37time that we realized we had gone down
37:39the wrong road, Microsoft had already
37:41rolled out DirectX. It was fundamentally
37:43incompatible with Nvidia's architecture.
37:453D competitors had already shown up even
37:47though we were the first company at the
37:49time that we were founded. So, the world
37:51was a completely a different place.
37:52>> By 1996, the company was nearly dead.
37:55Huang laid off about half the company.
37:57Everyone left had one chip to bet on and
37:59not enough money to build it the normal
38:01way.
38:01>> Our backs were up against the wall. We
38:03were running out of time. We were
38:04running out of money and for a lot of
38:05employees running out of hope.
38:07>> So, here's how building a chip normally
38:08goes. You design it, you pay a factory
38:10to make a small batch, physical samples
38:12come back, you test them, you find the
38:15mistakes, you fix the design, and you
38:17pay for another batch.
38:18>> The plan that companies normally go
38:20through, which is, you know, build a
38:21chip, write the software, fix the bugs,
38:24tape out the new chip, so on and so
38:25forth.
38:26>> Every round costs months and money.
38:28Nvidia could afford one production run
38:31and nothing after that. So, Huang made a
38:33bet that should have killed the company.
38:35He spent a big piece of the money he had
38:37left on an [music] emulator, tested the
38:40entire chip on that machine, and never
38:42held a [music] real sample in his hand.
38:44>> And we also made a decision to use this
38:46technology called emulation.
38:48>> Then he ordered the full production run
38:50on a chip that nobody on Earth had even
38:52touched. If the emulator was wrong about
38:54one detail, there was no second batch
38:56and there was no company.
38:58>> You decide [music] to do the entire
39:00testing in simulation rather than ever
39:03receiving a physical prototype. You
39:06[music] commission the production run
39:07sight unseen with the rest of the
39:09company's money. So, you're betting it
39:10all right here on the Riva 128.
39:13>> Yeah.
39:13>> The chip was
39:14>> the Riva [music] 128 and by the time it
39:16shipped, there was enough cash left to
39:18cover one more month of salaries. It
39:21sold a million units in four months.
39:24Nvidia lived.
39:25>> Was everybody telling you you were
39:26crazy?
39:27>> No, everybody was clear we had no shot.
39:29>> [laughter]
39:31>> There's
39:32not doing it would be crazy.
39:35Because
39:35>> Otherwise, you might as well go home.
39:37>> Yeah, you're going to be out of business
39:37anyways.
39:38>> Well, it worked.
39:39>> Yeah.
39:39>> And for years afterward, Huang opened
39:41his presentations by telling the room
39:43that the company was 30 days from going
39:46out of business. He still works like a
39:48man who believes that. He has around 60
39:50people reporting directly to him and he
39:52holds no scheduled one-on-ones with any
39:54of them.
39:55>> Nvidia's leadership team is 60 plus 60
39:58people.
39:59>> Yeah.
40:00>> And they all report to you?
40:01>> They Yeah, they all report to me.
40:03>> 60 direct reports?
40:04>> 60 direct reports, yeah.
40:05>> I don't do one-on-ones. I give you
40:06feedback right there in front of
40:08everybody.
40:09>> Here's how he describes his week.
40:10>> I work from the moment I wake up to the
40:12moment I go to sleep and I I work 7 days
40:14a week.
40:15>> Now, that's a true workaholic, but he
40:16isn't just putting in more hours. He set
40:19his whole company up so that those hours
40:21count. And right about now, you might be
40:23thinking, "Okay, that sounds like the
40:24fastest way to burn yourself out." And I
40:25hear you and it doesn't necessarily have
40:27to be how you run your company, but when
40:28somebody joins me, I ask them a
40:30question. How many hours do you want to
40:32be working [music] and how many are you
40:33working right now? Then I write a
40:35contract to match it. Some of the people
40:37on my team work 25 hours [music] a week,
40:38some are at 70. Both work fine because
40:41the hours aren't what usually breaks
40:43people, the wrong work is. Hours on work
40:46that matters make you good. Hours on
40:48work that doesn't matter will wreck you
40:49whether you're 25 or 70 hours a week.
40:52And Jensen Huang isn't spending his
40:53[music] week on boring paperwork. He
40:55built a company with no managers between
40:57him and the information. So he spends
40:59his hours deciding, making important
41:01choices. [music] You can set up your
41:03week the same way. So here's how a real
41:05workaholic spends a day.
41:09Split your week into building days and
41:11meeting days. So my week splits into
41:13building days, maker days, and manager
41:15days, which are meeting days. So
41:17Wednesday and Friday, those are my maker
41:19days. Wednesday is my creator day and
41:21Friday is my CEO day. And on both days I
41:23don't have anything booked. Monday and
41:25Thursday, those are my manager days. I
41:27stack them with calls. Tuesday is a
41:29maker day on paper as well. It's my
41:31YouTube day. So nothing gets booked on
41:32it either. Here's why I'm strict about
41:34it. 160 minute call dropped in the
41:36middle of a building day does not cost
41:39you 60 minutes. It costs you almost a
41:41whole day. You spend the morning knowing
41:42that it's coming so you don't start any
41:44deep work. Then you spend the hour on
41:46the call doing the thing. Then you spend
41:47the afternoon getting your head back and
41:49by the time you're thinking clearly
41:51again it's already 4:00 p.m. I mean you
41:52built nothing. A meeting day and a
41:54building day are two different jobs. On
41:57a meeting day you're reacting, you're
41:58answering, you're trying to make
42:00decisions quickly with people. On a
42:01building day you go down into one thing
42:04and stay there for 4 hours. Try to do
42:05both in the same morning and you'll be
42:06wiped out by Friday with nothing
42:08finished. So pick one day this week and
42:10close it. Start with whatever you can
42:12book off and then grow it to a whole
42:13day. Move every call off it even the
42:15good ones. Then take everything you
42:16moved and jam it into one other day. So
42:18I use two meeting days for meetings
42:20because of the size of my team and what
42:22I'm working on. But start with one and
42:23on that day you might get through six,
42:25seven conversations in a row and you'll
42:26still have the next whole day free to
42:28actually go build something. Even half a
42:29day is a good start then you grow it.
42:33Give every day one job. So inside those
42:36days I give each one a single theme. So
42:38Monday is my team day and I spend the
42:40whole day mentoring and talking to the
42:41people on my team. Tuesday is my YouTube
42:43day. I'm filming this video on a
42:44Tuesday. Wednesday is my creator day or
42:46my project day. Thursday mornings I do
42:48my group trainings and Thursday
42:50afternoons I save for friends and
42:51friends of friends and podcasts. Friday
42:53is my CEO day. The reason why I have
42:55different days for different things is
42:57switching. Every time you jump from a
42:58sales call to editing a video to a
43:00hiring decision to support emails,
43:02it takes a while to get your head into
43:04the new thing every single time. So, you
43:06feel busy all day and you finish your
43:09week with like four and a half things
43:10finished. A theme day means you never
43:13have to catch up. So, on Tuesday, I'm
43:14not taking calls, I'm not taking
43:15meetings, I'm just locked in on my
43:17YouTube. My tools are open, my camera's
43:19ready to go, my head is already there
43:21and I'll film a stack of videos on
43:23Tuesday that keeps my channel fed for at
43:25least a week. I can only do that because
43:26I'm not bouncing between things and the
43:28bouncing is what creates most of the
43:30chaos and mental fatigue. So, look at
43:32last week and count how many different
43:33kinds of work you touched on your worst
43:35day. If it was more than three, that's
43:37your problem. You're not lazy, the
43:38problem is you're just switching too
43:40much between different kinds of tasks.
43:41Then name your own day. So, for me,
43:43Monday's people, Tuesday is making
43:45YouTube videos. Like whatever fits your
43:46business, write it somewhere where you
43:48will see it and when somebody asks for a
43:50Tuesday sales call, tell them Thursday
43:52works better. They will almost never be
43:54offended. That's the part that most
43:55people worry about and it hardly ever
43:56happens. So, they book on the Thursday
43:58and they start treating your calendar
44:00like it's worth something because you
44:01treated it that way to begin with. The
44:03people who take your protected days
44:06almost always are not doing it on
44:07purpose. They take it cuz it's
44:09available. So, stop making it available.
44:11You made it available. And listen,
44:12you're going to have real emergencies,
44:14so you can decide right now what the
44:15rule is going to be for emergencies. For
44:16me, I'm training my team so they know,
44:18if you are calling me on a Tuesday, if
44:20you are interrupting me, you're sending
44:21me something, I'm in the middle of
44:22making videos, so it better be
44:23important. And people respect that
44:25boundary and there are almost no
44:27emergencies that ever pop up. So, the
44:28first few weeks,
44:30that's going to be a little bit harder.
44:31People are used to your old calendar,
44:32they might test the new one a handful of
44:34times. The more you hold steady, this is
44:37my calendar, the more they respect it.
44:41Shrink the block and move it off your
44:43morning. Every meeting I run is
44:45scheduled to end five minutes early. So,
44:47a 25-minute call instead of 30, a
44:4955-minute instead of an hour. That gives
44:51me five minutes to go to the bathroom,
44:52to get some water, to get my head
44:54straight before the next thing starts.
44:56So, you never know when you're going to
44:58have to go pee. And a day with no gaps
44:59is also where you can feel frazzled at
45:01the end. That's the smaller version, and
45:03here's the bigger one. I used to check a
45:05whole list of websites every morning,
45:07and it would take me a while to get
45:08through all of them. It felt very
45:09productive. It also was the first thing
45:11I did every day, which my best hours
45:13went to reading other people's work. So,
45:15I wrote a writing experiment. I
45:16condensed it into half an hour at 1:00
45:18every day. And in that half hour, I have
45:20to get it done. And look at that, I get
45:22it done in half an hour instead of 90
45:24minutes in the morning. If you give a
45:25task 2 hours, it usually takes 2 hours.
45:29So, you can start doing this today. You
45:30can take the task that is eating your
45:32mornings, you can cut the time by 2/3,
45:34move it to the afternoon, set a timer.
45:36When the timer goes off, you're done,
45:38whether you're finished or not. The
45:40first 2 days, it'll feel a little bit
45:41rushed. By day 3, you'll notice the work
45:43was never actually filling that whole
45:45block anyway. Your mornings are your
45:46best hours, so don't spend them on small
45:48stuff.
45:51Kill the work before you speed it up.
45:52So, I have a formula I use for this, and
45:54the order is the whole thing. It's
45:56eliminate, automate, delegate. That is
45:58the order. It's a particular order.
46:00Eliminate comes first, and almost nobody
46:02starts there. You'll buy software to
46:04speed up a task that you should have
46:06just deleted. Now you're paying every
46:08month to do something that doesn't
46:10actually matter. Or you'll hand it to a
46:12person, which is worse, because now
46:13somebody's week is filled with work that
46:16was never worth doing in the first
46:17place. So, eliminate first, then
46:19automate what's left. A tool can
46:22automate, whether it's a software,
46:23whether it's AI, etc. This isn't only a
46:25business framework, it's a framework for
46:26anything in life. Anytime you're feeling
46:28stressed out or overwhelmed, that
46:30feeling is a signal that you need to go
46:32eliminate a few things from your life.
46:34Not to work faster, to have and do less.
46:37All progress begins, I think, with
46:38telling the truth. And the truth is
46:40usually that a third of your calendar is
46:42there because it was just there last
46:43month. So, here is the assignment. Open
46:46last week's calendar and find the
46:47recurring thing that you'd be a little
46:49embarrassed to defend, right? The
46:51report, the check-in, the updates that
46:53people are not replying to. Skip it on
46:55purpose. Say nothing. If a week goes by
46:57and nobody notices, skip it again. Do
46:59that for a month and it's gone for good.
47:03One number, three drivers, and nothing
47:05else. So, I have a brain that wants to
47:07chase everything, right? Left alone,
47:08I'll start six projects on a Sunday. So,
47:10I keep one Google Sheet and I have what
47:13I call my wildly important number. At
47:15the top, there's one number. It's not a
47:17feeling, it's not a theme, it's a
47:18number. And under it, there are exactly
47:20three drivers and each one is also a
47:22number. Something I can count at the end
47:25of the week to see my progress. That's
47:27the whole document. Three is the limit
47:29and it matters. Two and you're not
47:30really running a business, you're
47:31running a project. Four or more and you
47:32just have no priorities at all. You just
47:34have a list of to-do's that almost never
47:36get done. So, to put it in a rhythm that
47:37makes it work, every time I'm uh
47:39checking with my team, that number gets
47:41updated before the check-in. So, you can
47:43see in a glance whether it's moving.
47:44But, the number itself and the three
47:46drivers underneath it, they don't get
47:48swapped out because some shiny idea
47:50showed up on a Tuesday afternoon. The
47:52numbers hold for months. So, if a driver
47:53turns out to be wrong, you change it
47:55deliberately, not because you're just in
47:56a mood to change things. That saved me
47:58more time than any app I've ever bought.
48:01The new project isn't the problem. The
48:03problem is the old one sitting
48:05half-finished for 6 weeks while you play
48:07with this new idea. So, write your
48:09number down tonight. Write your three
48:11drivers underneath it. Then, look at
48:13tomorrow and find the block that doesn't
48:16move your number or any of your three
48:17drivers. There's always one. That's the
48:20block that goes away.
48:24Do three a day while they do one a week.
48:26So, here's where your extra hours now
48:28should go. When I was young and part of
48:29an agency, I was the least skilled
48:31person on the team. That's not me being
48:32humble, I was measurably the worst. So,
48:35I did homework. Everyone else was
48:36putting out a video a week, I made three
48:38a day every day including weekends. One
48:40in the morning, one at lunch, one at
48:42dinner. And my agent was looking at
48:44them, giving me feedback. So, if we
48:45count what that does, in a single week,
48:47I got 21 reps and a piece of feedback on
48:50each video I made. The person next to me
48:52got only one rep. Over a month, that's
48:5384 corrections against their four. I
48:55didn't catch up to them because I was
48:57smarter, I wasn't. I would not naturally
48:59more gifted. I caught up because I've
49:00been wrong 84 more times than they had
49:03and every one of those got fixed. So,
49:05that's what the extra hours are for.
49:06More attempts at the thing that you're
49:08trying to get better at. And after every
49:10attempt, somebody tells you what you did
49:12wrong. So, find your rep. If it's a
49:13salesperson and you're taking calls. If
49:15you're making videos, then it's videos.
49:17If you write, then it's pages. Count how
49:19many you did last week, then do that
49:20many in a day and let the quality drop a
49:22little while you do it. You'll be
49:24embarrassed by attempt number seven and
49:25you'll get better by attempt number 15.
49:27And find out how it went as fast as you
49:28can. If nobody tells you what you got
49:30wrong, then you're not getting better.
49:31You're just practicing the wrong things.
49:33You're just staying busy.
49:36Start your day before the work starts.
49:38So, every workaholic I admire protects
49:40the first stretch of the day and spends
49:42it with intention on purpose. So, back
49:44to Jensen Huang from Nvidia, he gives
49:45his time to his email stack. I give mine
49:47to a walk. So, I call it the believe
49:49walk. It's it's one word hashtag and
49:52it's three steps. Step one, wake up and
49:53get outside fast. Put a stopwatch on.
49:56I'm out the door within 15 minutes. That
49:58part matters more than the walking
49:59because the alternative is picking up
50:00your phone. And the second you do that,
50:02you're starting to hand your life, your
50:04day to whoever happens to be
50:06overwhelming you with email or
50:07Instagram. Step two is the walk, right?
50:09Fresh air. Move for 20 to 30 minutes.
50:11Some mornings I'll throw a rucksack on,
50:13extra weight, but that's that's an extra
50:15point. You don't have to do that. You
50:16just have to get outside. And then step
50:17three, listen to somebody who's already
50:19done what you're trying to do. So, I'll
50:20put on Steve Jobs or Howard Schultz.
50:23You're borrowing their belief until
50:25yours show up. So, this is not about
50:27trying to have some productivity hack.
50:28It's about who you are when you sit
50:30down. I think being leads to doing. So,
50:32do your believe walk. Get outside, walk,
50:35put something in your ears that helps
50:36you believe in yourself more. And if
50:37you're tight on time, 10 to 15 minutes
50:38is enough. That's the baseline. And it's
50:40more than enough to change your life.
50:41You have 15 minutes.
50:45Make the information come to you. So,
50:47working hard only pays off if you hear
50:49about problems quickly. Huang has about
50:5160 people reporting straight to him.
50:53Like I said, no scheduled one-on-ones,
50:55nobody filtering what reaches him. When
50:57he gives feedback, he does it in front
50:58of the group. So, everyone hears the
51:00same reasoning at the same time and he
51:02never has to say it 60 times. And every
51:04morning he reads a stack of short emails
51:06from people all over the company, each
51:08one listing the five things that matter
51:11most to them right now. He gets through
51:13about a hundred of them. So, look at
51:15what that design does. A normal CEO
51:17waits two weeks and sits through four
51:19meetings to hear the same thing. He
51:21reads it first thing in the morning in
51:23five lines. So, he spends his day
51:25deciding and not just chasing people all
51:28day for updates. You can build that at
51:30any size. If you have a team, you can
51:31cancel your next status meeting and ask
51:33for five lines instead. If you work
51:35alone, you're still losing time just
51:37hunting for information. It's spread
51:39across all of your different apps. Every
51:40extra app you have to open is another
51:42place to go looking and lose time. One
51:44inbox, one task list, one document where
51:46the plan lives. If you have to check
51:48four apps to find out what you're
51:50supposed to do today, you'll spend your
51:51best hour just finding it out and get
51:53nothing done. A bird sitting on a branch
51:55isn't afraid of the branch breaking
51:56because her trust isn't in the branch,
51:58but it's in her wings. So, build the
52:00system so the information reaches you
52:02and then trust yourself to decide.
52:07You have more room than you think. So,
52:08nobody gets more hours in a day than you
52:11do, right? The people who beat you work
52:13the hours everyone else gave up and they
52:15spend them on fewer things. So, close
52:18one day. Name your days. Cut a block by
52:20two-thirds. Delete the reports nobody
52:22reads. Pick your number. If you can do
52:24that, then you must. Where you are next
52:26year comes down to what you do with this
52:29week. To learn the 10 books to become
52:31dangerously self-educated, check the
52:33video right there next to me. I think
52:34you'll love it. Continue to believe and
52:36I'll see you there. Nobody builds a big
52:38company on their ideas alone. Look at
52:41the founders that you follow, Steve
52:42Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, to see
52:44where their thinking came from and
52:46they'll name a

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