What To Do With Your Life — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00This video is all about how to figure
2. 0:01out what to do with your life. This is a
3. 0:03question I get all the time when I do
4. 0:04talks and when I have conversations with
5. 0:05friends. And so, for whatever it's
6. 0:07worth, this is my three-part method that
7. 0:08I hope you can follow to help you figure
8. 0:10out what to do with your life. So, when
9. 0:11I'm exploring this question with people
10. 0:12of what to do with your life, uh there's
11. 0:14a few different directions that we can
12. 0:15take, but one of the most useful ones is
13. 0:18to start by actually just defining what
14. 0:20are your different life areas that you
15. 0:22care about. So, for example, uh work is
16. 0:24a big category of life area. We've got
17. 0:26health. We've got marriage. You might
18. 0:29have kids. We might have hobbies. We
19. 0:31might have growth. If you're one of
20. 0:32those people that want to build a side
21. 0:34business, then maybe we have an area
22. 0:36called a side business. Maybe we have an
23. 0:38area called home. Like, step one is to
24. 0:41define what are the life areas that you
25. 0:43care about. All right? Because when you
26. 0:44ask this question of what do I want to
27. 0:45do with my life, life as a whole, that's
28. 0:47like a freaking, you know, very vague,
29. 0:50enormous question of like what to do
30. 0:52with my life. And it's not very
31. 0:54specific. And when I speak to people who
32. 0:56have this question, what do I want to do
33. 0:57with my life, often what they're really
34. 0:59asking is how do I find work I love that
35. 1:01makes a lot of money and is also really
36. 1:03fun. And they often have a question
37. 1:05around if they're not yet married, uh do
38. 1:07I want to get married, have kids, like,
39. 1:09you know, that whole bundle of stuff. Uh
40. 1:12those tend to be the two primary domains
41. 1:13where people have uncertainty about this
42. 1:15sort of question. But even just doing
43. 1:16that, even just defining these life
44. 1:17areas, gives you a little bit more
45. 1:18clarity, right? Because you can then
46. 1:20answer for yourself by when you stay up
47. 1:22at night thinking, I don't know what to
48. 1:23do with my life, do you really just mean
49. 1:25I don't know how to find work I love?
50. 1:26Because that is a much easier question
51. 1:27to answer than I don't know what to do
52. 1:28with my life. Or do you really mean,
53. 1:30man, I don't know if I want to take
54. 1:31dating seriously, I don't know if if I
55. 1:32want to get married and have kids, I
56. 1:33don't know if I want to pursue career,
57. 1:34because then the family's like, is that
58. 1:36what you mean? [music] Or is there
59. 1:37something even broader? So, step one is
60. 1:39we sort of break life down into these
61. 1:40different areas. And then step two is
62. 1:42that for each of these different areas,
63. 1:44and you can define your own areas
64. 1:45however you want. For each of these
65. 1:46areas, we want to create a sense of like
66. 1:48long-term what sort of thing do I want
67. 1:51and what sort of thing do I not want?
68. 1:53So, let's just start with an easy one.
69. 1:54Let's start with the area of health. If
70. 1:55you ask yourself like, okay, in the area
71. 1:57of health, what would success look like
72. 1:59for me over the long term if I imagine
73. 2:01like a few decades from now?" Well, for
74. 2:03me I can tell you that in the area of
75. 2:04health, I'd like to
76. 2:06be in really good shape. I'd like to
77. 2:08have enough muscle. Uh I'd like to live
78. 2:10to 100 in good physical, mental, and
79. 2:12emotional health. I'd like to be able to
80. 2:13play with my kids and grandkids. I'd
81. 2:14like to have energy every day. And I'd
82. 2:16like to avoid any injuries that could
83. 2:17derail me. Great. Fantastic. It's worth
84. 2:20writing that down somewhere of like,
85. 2:21"Okay, this is what we want in that
86. 2:22particular area of life." Then we ask
87. 2:24the question of like, "What do I not
88. 2:25want in that particular area of life?"
89. 2:27Again, easy example, health. Most people
90. 2:28when they're asking the question, "What
91. 2:29do I do with my life?" they're not
92. 2:30really worrying like, "Oh my god, what
93. 2:31do I do with my health?" unless you have
94. 2:33a any kind of health issues. But that's
95. 2:34why it's like an easy one to start with.
96. 2:35So, in my case, what I don't want for my
97. 2:36health is I don't want to have to do a
98. 2:38lot of uh exercise that I don't
99. 2:39particularly enjoy. That's good to know.
100. 2:41I'm not really trying to get like super
101. 2:43super mega muscular and jacked and
102. 2:45stuff. Like, that's not really a goal.
103. 2:47I'm not really trying to become like an
104. 2:48Iron Man athlete or an ultra-marathon
105. 2:50runner or anything like that. Like, I
106. 2:51don't I don't really want that. I'm not
107. 2:52really trying to perform at an elite
108. 2:54level in any particular sport. And I
109. 2:56don't really want to devote like loads
110. 2:58and loads and loads of time to
111. 2:59optimizing my physical health. It's just
112. 3:01not the thing that I'm interested in.
113. 3:02So, that's good to know. Now I have way
114. 3:03more clarity on what do I want from my
115. 3:05life and what do I not want from my life
116. 3:06in the area of health. So, now what
117. 3:08happens if we tackle a more difficult
118. 3:09one? Let's say work. What do I want in
119. 3:11the life area of work? What do I not
120. 3:13want in the life area of work? Again,
121. 3:15we're thinking decades from now. Like,
122. 3:16what does success actually look like?
123. 3:17Well, ideally, what are the things I
124. 3:19would want? Well, I would want work that
125. 3:20feels enjoyable and energizing and
126. 3:22fulfilling and kind of fun. I'd like to
127. 3:24work with people that I enjoy hanging
128. 3:25out with. I'd like to my work to have
129. 3:27some sort of impact. I'd like my work to
130. 3:29be making a good amount of money. Often
131. 3:31very useful to to define at this stage
132. 3:33what is a good amount of money actually
133. 3:34mean to you. And putting a number on it.
134. 3:36As you get close to that number, that
135. 3:37number will change. And that's okay. But
136. 3:39it's worth defining what that number
137. 3:40looks like. Do I want the kind of job
138. 3:41that's able to make me $10 million a
139. 3:43year? Or am I all right with $1 million
140. 3:45a year? Or am I all right with 500k a
141. 3:47year? Or even 100k a year?
142. 3:49Is it like, "Man, if I could just make
143. 3:50six figures doing what I love, that'll
144. 3:51be sick. By defining these sorts of
145. 3:53things, you can just get a feel for what
146. 3:55do you want? And then you also ask
147. 3:56yourself, what do I what do I not want?
148. 3:58So in the area of work, what do I not
149. 4:00want? Well, I don't want work where I
150. 4:03have to show up 9:00 to 5:00 every
151. 4:06single day, Monday to Friday, regardless
152. 4:07of how I feel about it. Maybe. Or I
153. 4:10don't want work that requires me to
154. 4:11travel a lot. Or I don't want work that
155. 4:13requires me to go into an office. I hate
156. 4:15going into an office. Or conversely, I
157. 4:17don't want work that's just working at
158. 4:18home all day because I I actually enjoy
159. 4:20hanging out with people and all all this
160. 4:21sort of stuff. You figure out like what
161. 4:22you not want. And at this point you
162. 4:24don't need any kind of We're not trying
163. 4:26to distill it into what specific job or
164. 4:29what specific business. We're just
165. 4:30trying to understand what are the kind
166. 4:32of characteristics I'm optimizing for
167. 4:34and what are the sorts of things I'm
168. 4:35trying to avoid. It gives us a sense of
169. 4:37direction rather than trying to be like,
170. 4:39do I become a marketing executive or do
171. 4:41I try and become a partner at a law
172. 4:43firm? These job titles and the specific
173. 4:44business and the specific thing is going
174. 4:46to change so much. AI is already
175. 4:47changing absolutely everything. A few
176. 4:49decades ago, people would not have been
177. 4:50able to imagine that like Lehman
178. 4:52Brothers would one day collapse or that
179. 4:53the Fuji would like not be dominant in
180. 4:56the camera space. Right now it's so hard
181. 4:57for us to imagine that the world is
182. 4:59actually going to change. And yeah,
183. 5:00that's what everyone thinks throughout
184. 5:01time. They're like, oh the world can't
185. 5:02possibly change and then boom, the world
186. 5:04changes. All right, so if you have ever
187. 5:05wanted to start your own business, but
188. 5:06you've been unsure as to what idea you
189. 5:08should actually pursue, then you're
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239. 6:22life every day. Uh let's get back to the
240. 6:24video. So when figuring out what to do
241. 6:25with our life, we want to avoid the
242. 6:26mistake of fixating on a job title or
243. 6:29even a job area. We want to understand
244. 6:30like what are the general
245. 6:31characteristics I'm optimizing for. When
246. 6:33it comes to work, it's also really
247. 6:34useful to to think, okay, what do I want
248. 6:36in terms of the lifestyle of my career?
249. 6:39Do I want the kind of work that's
250. 6:41flexible, where I can kind of work on my
251. 6:42own terms? Or am I okay with like a
252. 6:44high- powered corporate lawyer job,
253. 6:46where I know that work is going to be
254. 6:47the primary center of my life, and I'm
255. 6:49going to have to sacrifice other things
256. 6:50around that, like my family and or, you
257. 6:52know, home life or health or whatever
258. 6:53the thing might be. Again, there's no
259. 6:54right answer, it's just a case of
260. 6:55figuring out what you want from that
261. 6:56situation, and most people never take
262. 6:58the time to really define these life
263. 6:59areas and map out what do you want and
264. 7:01what do you not want. It's also very
265. 7:03useful at this point, again, just to
266. 7:04give you more clarity around figuring
267. 7:05out what to do with your life, is to
268. 7:07answer the question of why. This is a
269. 7:09hard one. You might think, I want a job
270. 7:11that gives me a million dollars a year.
271. 7:12But it's like, okay, why? What do you
272. 7:13think you can do with a million dollars
273. 7:14a year that you can't do with, let's
274. 7:15say, 500K? You might think, man, I
275. 7:17really want to build a business a
276. 7:18billion-dollar business. Well, the
277. 7:19question is, why? Like, what are you
278. 7:20hoping a billion-dollar business will
279. 7:21give you that you do not already have?
280. 7:22Again, there's no right or wrong
281. 7:23answers, but it's just worth asking that
282. 7:24question, right? Because if, for
283. 7:26example, you say you have to be making
284. 7:27at least a million dollars a year, man,
285. 7:29the number of careers you can do for
286. 7:30that drastically shrinks. Because almost
287. 7:32zero careers will actually make a
288. 7:33million dollars a year. You could start
289. 7:34your own business, and if you're like
290. 7:35decide to start your own business and it
291. 7:36has to be a billion-dollar company,
292. 7:38again, drastically shrinks the number of
293. 7:39businesses you can make. You can't
294. 7:41probably start the local coffee shop.
295. 7:42It's not going to make a billion dollars
296. 7:43a year. It just massively limits you
297. 7:45when you have these big goals and
298. 7:47aspirations. And so again, it's worth
299. 7:48understanding why. Generally, when we go
300. 7:50after something, it is because we are
301. 7:53seeking some kind of feeling. So, the
302. 7:55question to ask yourself is what feeling
303. 7:57are you hunting for when you say you
304. 7:59want that thing? Is a million dollars a
305. 8:00year just there cuz it's a nice round
306. 8:01number? Are you looking the for the
307. 8:03feeling of security? [music]
308. 8:04For the feeling of safety? For the
309. 8:06feeling of certainty in a world that's
310. 8:08uncertain? Are you looking for a feeling
311. 8:09of relaxation? A feeling of balance? A
312. 8:11feeling of like a stress-free life? In
313. 8:13which case, again, it's sort of like the
314. 8:14lifestyle you want related to the why
315. 8:16behind the specific [music] thing. Some
316. 8:18of these are kind of obvious. It's like,
317. 8:19why do I want to be able to play with my
318. 8:20kids? Cuz I want to cuz I want to be
319. 8:21able to play with my kids. You know, I
320. 8:23want [snorts] the feeling of, you know,
321. 8:24contentment and joy and fulfillment from
322. 8:25being able to like bounce my
323. 8:26granddaughter up and down when I'm like
324. 8:2770 years old without worrying that I'm
325. 8:29going to freaking break my back and then
326. 8:30end up in hospital and end up dying. You
327. 8:32know, that's what I'm going for. But
328. 8:33it's a lot harder to ask that question
329. 8:34when it comes to the context of work.
330. 8:35And then you start doing the same for
331. 8:36like the home stuff, the kid stuff, the
332. 8:38marriage stuff, growth, hobbies, side
333. 8:40business. Like, if you want to start a
334. 8:41side business, that becomes this whole
335. 8:42other category. Uh if you already have a
336. 8:44business, I mean, that basically becomes
337. 8:45a category of work. But again, we're
338. 8:46just mapping out what do we want and
339. 8:48what do we not want? And why do we think
340. 8:50we want the thing? At this point as
341. 8:51well, this is where it can be helpful to
342. 8:53create a kind of vision board, which is
343. 8:54basically you put some pictures on it.
344. 8:55Often, the words themselves of the kind
345. 8:58of lifestyle that you want are unlikely
346. 9:00to move you to take action. But if you
347. 9:02post if you have like a picture of it, I
348. 9:04have a vision board we'll flash up on
349. 9:05screen that I have as like my desktop
350. 9:07wallpaper. So, there's like, you know,
351. 9:08this nice house, there's like this
352. 9:10random one with three kids, you know, it
353. 9:11signals that I want to have like at
354. 9:13least three kids, I think. There's this
355. 9:14like guy who's like a jacked dude doing
356. 9:16martial arts, where it's it's less that
357. 9:18he's jacked than it's more like he's a
358. 9:19very flexible and mobile, and so that's
359. 9:21something I'm optimizing for with
360. 9:22health. There's like a squash player,
361. 9:23I'll be like, "Oh, I really enjoy
362. 9:24playing squash. Probably never going to
363. 9:25do it professionally, but it's a cool
364. 9:26thing to do." There's this like app
365. 9:27screen, like, you know, I like the idea
366. 9:29of like making apps and designing apps
367. 9:30and stuff cuz it's cool. I like tech,
368. 9:31you know. These sorts of images, when I
369. 9:33see them on my vision board, gives me
370. 9:34much more clarity around what I want to
371. 9:35do with my life because whenever I think
372. 9:37of that question, I just look at my
373. 9:38desktop wallpaper. I'm like, "Oh, okay.
374. 9:40Does that seem like it's still generally
375. 9:42aligned with what with what I think I
376. 9:44want?" So, we're defining life areas.
377. 9:45For each one, we're asking ourselves,
378. 9:46"What do I want? What do I not want? Why
379. 9:48do I want the thing that I want? And can
380. 9:49I put some pictures on it just to make
381. 9:51it feel a little bit more like vibey?"
382. 9:52This is not easy. This takes a long
383. 9:54time. It takes probably a few hours of
384. 9:55like really sitting down and journaling
385. 9:56about this. When I do this, I like to do
386. 9:58it on an airplane because I don't get
387. 10:00the Wi-Fi. I just open up blank Apple
388. 10:02Notes document. I use a little airplane
389. 10:03emoji to be like, "Yeah, I'm flying from
390. 10:05from Hong Kong to London and I'm doing
391. 10:06some journaling about figuring out what
392. 10:07to do with my life." And I'll just write
393. 10:08out the different life areas and write
394. 10:09out, "What do I want? And what do I not
395. 10:10want?" Immediately, if you just do that,
396. 10:12you'll get way more clarity around
397. 10:13figuring out what to do with your life.
398. 10:14By the way, random thing. If you've
399. 10:16enjoyed the video so far, my team and I
400. 10:17are actually working on a productivity
401. 10:19app to help you figure out what to do
402. 10:20with your life. It's called Superfocus.
403. 10:22It's currently in private beta, but
404. 10:24there'll be a link down below if you're
405. 10:25interested in a you know, an app that
406. 10:27actually helps you answer all of these
407. 10:29questions. There's more details down
408. 10:30below. Now, let's move on to step two.
409. 10:32Step two when it comes to figuring out
410. 10:33what to do with your life is that it's
411. 10:34really really really helpful to define
412. 10:36what are your dreams. I first did this
413. 10:38exercise when I was at a Tony Robbins
414. 10:41five-day seminar thing, which was
415. 10:42literally like actually it was six days
416. 10:43called Date With Destiny and it was
417. 10:45literally all about how to figure out
418. 10:46what to do with your life. And this was
419. 10:47one of the most powerful exercises for
420. 10:48me cuz basically what he did was played
421. 10:50some like inspiring background music and
422. 10:51stuff. And everyone had to write down
423. 10:54for like a solid 20 minutes as much as
424. 10:56you could about what do you want from
425. 10:58life? And it was things like, "What do
426. 10:59you want to have? What do you want to
427. 11:01do? What do you want to achieve? What do
428. 11:03you want to try? What do you want to
429. 11:05learn? What do you Where do you want to
430. 11:06What do you want to visit? Where do you
431. 11:08want to go? Uh what do you want to
432. 11:10experience? And the whole schtick was
433. 11:12you just writing down this enormous list
434. 11:14of stuff."
435. 11:15And again, this is really helpful to in
436. 11:16terms of figuring out what you want to
437. 11:17do with your life, right? Because we
438. 11:19almost never just actually sit down and
439. 11:20define these things. Uh we do variants
440. 11:22of this exercise once a year when I when
441. 11:24I run my annual productivity summit.
442. 11:25People get a lot of value from this as
443. 11:26well. You know, in the have column,
444. 11:27you're allowed to be as materialistic as
445. 11:29you like. If you want a private jet,
446. 11:30you're allowed to put private jet on the
447. 11:31list. If you want a yacht, you're
448. 11:33allowed to put yacht on the list. A lot
449. 11:34of people don't want those things,
450. 11:35that's also fine. What do you want to
451. 11:37do? What do you want to achieve? What do
452. 11:38you want to try? What do you want to
453. 11:39learn? For me, I want to learn Japanese.
454. 11:40I want to learn Mandarin Chinese. I want
455. 11:41to learn snowboarding. I want to visit
456. 11:43the Maldives. I want to visit Timbuktu
457. 11:45cuz it seems like a cool place. What do
458. 11:46I want to experience? I want to
459. 11:47experience more psychedelics. Where do I
460. 11:49want to go? You kind of make a list of
461. 11:51all these all of these different dreams.
462. 11:52And generally, you can chuck you can
463. 11:54lump some of these dreams into different
464. 11:55areas into the different areas that we
465. 11:57have already defined. So, we are
466. 11:58defining our dreams. Crucially, we're
467. 12:00trying to define our dreams without
468. 12:02limiting ourselves. A lot of the time,
469. 12:04people are like, "Oh, I really want to
470. 12:05learn Japanese. Oh, no, I'm not going to
471. 12:06put it on the list cuz it's going to be
472. 12:07too hard." It's like, we we want to drop
473. 12:09the "This is going to be too hard. It's
474. 12:10not going to It's not going to be
475. 12:11realistic." Any of that sort of stuff.
476. 12:12Again, we're just thinking thinking big,
477. 12:14thinking broad, thinking, "If I could do
478. 12:16whatever, like what would be cool?" For
479. 12:18me, there's a bunch of other things on
480. 12:19that list cuz I you know, each year I
481. 12:20want to organize a ski trip with
482. 12:21friends. I want to organize a co-working
483. 12:23trip with friends each year. I want to
484. 12:24organize a cruise with friends. I think
485. 12:25that would be fun. I'd like to hike to
486. 12:26the the whole like Machu Picchu stuff
487. 12:28cuz I've seen pictures of that and it
488. 12:29looks cool. I'd like to live in a van
489. 12:31for a month and I'd like to sort of
490. 12:32remodel my own like van and like learn
491. 12:34about the electrics and the plumbing and
492. 12:35stuff to do the van life thing for a
493. 12:36bit. Yeah, then we're just making a list
494. 12:37of dreams. And again, the more we think
495. 12:39about this stuff [music] and write it
496. 12:41down somewhere where we we've then
497. 12:42bookmarked it on our web browser and we
498. 12:44can find it whenever we want, the more
499. 12:46whenever we get this question of like,
500. 12:47"What do I want to do with my life?" Cuz
501. 12:48you know, even once you figure this out,
502. 12:50you'll still have that question probably
503. 12:51at least once every 3 months. You can
504. 12:52just look at your list. You can look at
505. 12:54your life areas. You can look at your
506. 12:55life vision. You can look at your
507. 12:56pictures of your vision board. And you
508. 12:57can ask yourself, "Does this still feel
509. 12:59aligned?" Cuz really to be honest, what
510. 13:00you want is always going to change over
511. 13:01time. And so, at the time you're asking
512. 13:03that question, it is only ever going to
513. 13:05be a snapshot. Like right now, I'm 32
514. 13:07years old. If I ask myself what I want
515. 13:08to do with my life and I do all this
516. 13:09stuff, it'll just be a snapshot. It's
517. 13:11very different to when I asked myself
518. 13:12that question at 22. And it'll it's
519. 13:14probably quite different to when I'll
520. 13:16ask myself that question at 42. But some
521. 13:18things will be fairly constant and some
522. 13:19things will have changed. Uh back when I
523. 13:20was 22, I still wanted to be a doctor.
524. 13:22And so, quite a lot of the work stuff
525. 13:23was like about medicine, about
526. 13:25anesthetics, maybe emergency medicine,
527. 13:26maybe plastic surgery, maybe working
528. 13:27part-time, all this sort of stuff. And
529. 13:29then once I left medicine and realized
530. 13:30that that's no longer what I wanted to
531. 13:31do, all of that stuff just dropped away.
532. 13:33And now what I want in the work front is
533. 13:35mostly focused around building a cool
534. 13:36lifestyle business, working with people
535. 13:37that I enjoy hanging out with, being
536. 13:38able to teach people and help them
537. 13:40improve their lives, and help them learn
538. 13:41the skills for financial freedom and
539. 13:42stuff. And maybe 10 years from now I'll
540. 13:43stop caring about that, and maybe we'll
541. 13:45do something else. But that's okay
542. 13:46because right now it is a snapshot. And
543. 13:48the point of the snapshot is not to give
544. 13:50you a clear destination, it's actually
545. 13:51to give you a direction. If I know that
546. 13:53roughly that's the destination I'm
547. 13:54aiming for, what matters is the
548. 13:55direction, not the destination. It
549. 13:57matters that my ship is going this way
550. 13:59rather than that way. If If the
551. 14:01destination I'm painting is I want to
552. 14:02build a $10 billion startup, the actions
553. 14:04I would take in the here and now are
554. 14:05very different than if the destination
555. 14:07I'm painting is I want a chill lifestyle
556. 14:08business where I can work 3 days a week
557. 14:10and make 100k doing what I love. Those
558. 14:12lead to drastically different ways of
559. 14:13building a business. And the destination
560. 14:15is almost irrelevant, but what matters
561. 14:16is the direction.
562. 14:17Final thing we do is we're really going
563. 14:19to zoom out and think like really big
564. 14:22picture life vision. So, you define the
565. 14:24areas you define some of our dreams. Now
566. 14:26we're going to go even even broader, and
567. 14:27we're going to do a bunch of journaling
568. 14:29prompts that will help us get out of our
569. 14:32current mode of operating and move into
570. 14:35like just exploring different potential
571. 14:37paths that we might have. One of my
572. 14:39favorite exercises for this is called
573. 14:40the Odyssey Plan. Basically, the idea is
574. 14:42that you're asking yourself three
575. 14:43questions. Number one, you're asking the
576. 14:44question of like, "Okay, if I continued
577. 14:46down my current path, 5 years from now
578. 14:48what does my life look like?" And you
579. 14:50write out in detail what your life looks
580. 14:51like 5 years from now. Then you ask
581. 14:52yourself, "Okay, what's the alternative
582. 14:54path? Let's say I'm not allowed to go
583. 14:55down that path, and I have to pick a
584. 14:56completely different one. What does my
585. 14:57life look like 5 years from now down
586. 14:59that path?" And then you're all right,
587. 15:00cool. Come back to today. And then you
588. 15:02ask yourself, "What does my life look
589. 15:03like 5 years from now if I take a
590. 15:05completely different path where I don't
591. 15:07care about money, and I don't care about
592. 15:08what people think of me?" I've done this
593. 15:10exercise a bunch of times over the
594. 15:11years. My wife literally did it like 2
595. 15:12days ago when she was grappling with
596. 15:13this question of figuring out what to do
597. 15:14with her life as it relates to certain
598. 15:15work projects, and it's insanely
599. 15:17helpful. I've been recommending it on
600. 15:18the internet for years, and sometimes
601. 15:19when I'll do events and stuff and people
602. 15:21will ask me this question of like, "I
603. 15:21don't know to do with my life. I'm like,
604. 15:23"Oh, have you come across the Odyssey
605. 15:24Plan?" They'll often say, "Oh yeah, I
606. 15:25heard you mention it in a video or an
607. 15:26Instagram reel." And I'm like, "Great,
608. 15:28have you done it?" And they're like,
609. 15:28"No, I haven't done it." So, my
610. 15:30suggestion would be
611. 15:31if you're at this point in the video and
612. 15:33you're genuinely struggling to figure
613. 15:34out what to do with your life, it's the
614. 15:35sort of thing where you don't get
615. 15:36clarity by just watching a YouTube video
616. 15:38and hoping for the best. You get clarity
617. 15:39by watching a YouTube video, getting the
618. 15:41insights from it, and then actually
619. 15:42doing the work of this inner exploration
620. 15:45and journaling to explore these
621. 15:47different life paths. The benefit of the
622. 15:48Odyssey Plan is that it forces us to
623. 15:50think outside of our current like
624. 15:52paradigm, and it forces us to really
625. 15:54articulate, what would I do if I didn't
626. 15:56give a about money, and if I really
627. 15:58didn't care what society or my parents,
628. 16:00my friends, my cousins, if I really
629. 16:01didn't care what any of these people
630. 16:02thought of me. And often it makes us
631. 16:04realize that actually we are remarkably
632. 16:06limited by the need to make a certain
633. 16:08amount of money and by the need to
634. 16:10please the people around us. It's not
635. 16:11saying you have to follow any of these
636. 16:12plans, but it's just a good way to sort
637. 16:13of think a little bit broader. Another
638. 16:15prompt I really like is the TED Talk
639. 16:16prompt. Let's imagine 30 years from now,
640. 16:19I've been invited a talk at TED. Uh TED,
641. 16:21the main conference, not TEDx, the
642. 16:23smaller ones, but like a proper TED
643. 16:24Talk, and it gets a standing ovation,
644. 16:26and it gets tens of millions of views on
645. 16:27YouTube, and everyone's like all the
646. 16:29comments are like, "Oh my god, this is
647. 16:30incredible. It's so inspiring, etc.,
648. 16:31etc." What would you be talking about 30
649. 16:33years from now? What would be cool to be
650. 16:35talking about 30 years from now? Hard
651. 16:37question to answer.
652. 16:38You're probably thinking, "Man, I have
653. 16:39no idea." But if I were to say, "Do you
654. 16:40think it would be cool to talk about how
655. 16:43I became a partner at big law at a big
656. 16:46law firm as a TED Talk?" Would that be
657. 16:48really cool and really exciting? You'd
658. 16:49probably be like, "Uh, not really."
659. 16:52Would it be really cool and exciting to
660. 16:53talk about how I won gold medal at the
661. 16:55Olympics four times in a row?" Maybe. If
662. 16:58you're a person into sports, you might
663. 16:59think, "Woah, that sounds really cool."
664. 17:00If you're a normal person, you'll
665. 17:01probably be like, "Uh, no, it wouldn't
666. 17:03be that cool." So, you either start like
667. 17:04throwing these things out and asking
668. 17:05yourself these questions of like, "What
669. 17:07are the sorts of things that if you were
670. 17:08giving a TED Talk about 30 years from
671. 17:09now, you think it would be kind of cool
672. 17:11to potentially talk about?"
673. 17:13Then there's another one which I really
674. 17:14like, which is, let's imagine you've got
675. 17:16all of the time and money in the world
676. 17:17and so you don't need to worry about
677. 17:18making money. You've already made it
678. 17:19etc. etc. But the catch is you have to
679. 17:22spend about 40 hours a week using your
680. 17:25skills and talents to serve other people
681. 17:28in some kind of way. What sorts of
682. 17:30things might you do if you had all the
683. 17:31money in the world, you had all the time
684. 17:32in the world, but you had to use your
685. 17:33skills to serve people in some kind of
686. 17:35way. Would you be teaching about stuff?
687. 17:38That's often my answer. Would you be
688. 17:40building cool things? Would you be
689. 17:41saving the environment? Would you be
690. 17:42solving the refugee crisis? Would you be
691. 17:44helping homeless people in your local
692. 17:47community? What sort of stuff would you
693. 17:48be doing if you had to spend 40 hours a
694. 17:50week serving people in some way? This
695. 17:52often helps us get to the thing of what
696. 17:53kind of work do you actually want to do?
697. 17:55Especially if you're like trying to
698. 17:56figure out like, oh man, how do I figure
699. 17:57out what to do with my career? Ideally,
700. 17:58the more we can remove the veil of I
701. 18:01need to make money. I need to worry
702. 18:02about what people will think and the
703. 18:03more we can step into that spirit of
704. 18:05service. Like like work is helping other
705. 18:08people in some way in some kind of way.
706. 18:09So if I had to, what would I actually do
707. 18:11to help other people? And then often you
708. 18:13can try and find a way to make money
709. 18:15from that thing if money is the thing
710. 18:17that you need. Not saying it's possible
711. 18:18in 100% of cases, but it's often more
712. 18:19possible than if you hadn't thought
713. 18:21about the question. Then there's a fun
714. 18:22one which is what would you want people
715. 18:24to say at your funeral in your eulogy
716. 18:25which is the thing that someone, you
717. 18:26know, the speech that someone gives
718. 18:27about you at your funeral or what would
719. 18:29you want written about you in your
720. 18:30obituary which is the thing they write
721. 18:31about you once you die. This is sort of
722. 18:33the true sense of beginning with the end
723. 18:35in mind. Generally in a eulogy, they
724. 18:36don't really talk about your
725. 18:37achievements or any of that kind of
726. 18:38stuff. They generally talk about what a
727. 18:40nice person you were and the impact that
728. 18:41you had on your like local community and
729. 18:42your friends and family and how great a
730. 18:44guy or great a guy you were etc. etc.
731. 18:45And then generally in your obituary,
732. 18:47they'll do some of that, but they'll
733. 18:48also talk about your achievements and
734. 18:49the impact you had on the world or the
735. 18:50people that your work so served and
736. 18:52stuff. And again, when we do our annual
737. 18:54productivity summits, we sometimes do
738. 18:55this exercise where we get people to
739. 18:57write out their own eulogy or write out
740. 18:58their own obituary and we get people in
741. 19:00the Zoom chat being like, oh my god, I'm
742. 19:01crying. Oh my god, I've never done this
743. 19:02before. Oh my god, I feel so much
744. 19:03clarity. Oh my god, I'm getting so
745. 19:04emotional. It's great. So 100% if you're
746. 19:06up for it, I'd recommend writing your
747. 19:07own eulogy and or your own obituary as a
748. 19:09real sense of giving you a feel of what
749. 19:12do you actually want to do with your
750. 19:13life? Because when all is said and done,
751. 19:15we're all going to die. You know, few
752. 19:16decades from now, neither of us are
753. 19:18going to be here. A few decades after
754. 19:19that, no one is going to remember me, no
755. 19:20one's going to remember you. And so,
756. 19:24you know, keeping that like, you know,
757. 19:25that idea of memento mori, keeping in
758. 19:26mind that we are going to die, can often
759. 19:28give us a sense of how [music] do we
760. 19:31actually want to live. Now, all of this
761. 19:33stuff is way easier said than done. It
762. 19:34is genuinely a difficult question to
763. 19:35answer what to do with your life. Um but
764. 19:37if you're interested in more of these
765. 19:39sorts of journaling prompts, I can help
766. 19:40you figure this out. I've got a video
767. 19:41right over here, which will explore
768. 19:43those in a bit more detail. So, thank
769. 19:44you so much for watching. Hope you got
770. 19:45value out of the video, and I will see
771. 19:46you in the next one.