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in your pursuit of a goal that you care
about you are going to end up getting in
a rut in that moment most people give up
I'm going to tell you what you need to
do if you want to be part of the 8% that
actually sees their goals through if you
struggle getting up and getting your day
started early even though you want to
and know that you should be doing it
this comes down to two things one it's
all mechanism all the time what are you
doing with your night routine to make
sure that you're getting to bed on time
because the reality is if you're TI TI
you're not going to want to get up the
reason so many people lack motivation is
because of as Vince lardi said fatigue
makes cowards of us all if you're tired
you just don't have what you need to
face the day life is hard being a human
is difficult life is going to kick you
in the face the second law of
Thermodynamics makes abundantly clear
that life moves inextricably towards one
thing chaos and the only way to tame the
chaos and create order in your life is
by pouring energy into the system to
pour that energy into the system you
need energy at two levels at the
cellular level and psychological energy
now it's easy enough to get yourself
pumped up
psychologically but to get yourself
pumped up at a cellular level you have
to make sure that you are getting to bed
on time getting plenty of sleep eating
right and getting exercise and
meditating if you're not doing those
things and you're not going to be primed
at a cellular level now to get the
psychological energy we get to the
second thing you just don't want it
badly enough most people don't want the
thing that they're pursuing in their
life for two reasons reason number one
you don't realize that desire is a
process you build desire for things you
were not born with some intense and
satiable desire you do have imperatives
that Evolution has given us but you
don't have these intense desires other
than like hunger thirst sexual
drive but you certainly don't have a
drive to go to the gym you don't have
have a drive to be more successful at
work that's actually only minorly true
certainly for guys you probably do have
a pretty strong imperative to gain
access to resources but it will not
direct you towards the thing that you're
specifically going to pursue so you'll
have a vague sense of I want to do more
I want to be more I want to be admired I
want to be at the top but the top of
what that's where people get themselves
into trouble because they lack that
Clarity they lack that Clarity because
they don't realize that you just have to
pick something that you already respond
positively to naturally you encountered
it it gave you more energy than it took
you're naturally drawn to that thing you
want to do it okay but it's not going to
be like oh my God I need to dedicate the
rest of my life to this I spring out of
bed in the morning because I'm so
excited about this thing that is not how
it works you'll just be like oh that's
cool I dig that thing now if you go put
time and energy into build building
desire which is basically the process of
explaining to yourself why that thing
matters to you and as you repeat that in
an embodied way meaning you embody the
enthusiasm for that thing that you want
to feel and you loop around it and you
actually go and get better at that and
do it in the world and people are like
oh man that's so cool I love that you
can do that thing and you get that
positive feedback and it was already
energizing to you and you loop around
why it matters why am I investing in
this so much and you do that over and
over in an embodied way now all of a
sudden 6 months later a year later it
really is this raging Inferno at the
center of your soul something that you
care about and want incredibly deeply
but you have to go down that process of
gaining Mastery of really pushing
yourself around why you're going to love
this thing so much and then it actually
becomes real you become what you repeat
so if you're repeating that you're an
idiot that you don't love yourself that
will become true now self-worth is a
very complicated topic that is beyond
the scope of this conversation but just
know that you do become what you repeat
so be very thoughtful all right those
really are the two reasons that people
are going to struggle so you have to
focus on making sure that you're getting
yourself energized for this thing that
you're pursuing and then you have to
make sure that mechanistically you're
doing the things that you need to do so
you're not tired all the time but most
people fail to get enough sleep they go
to bed with such wild swings that it's
like having jet leg like everybody goes
oh yeah if I traveled to the east coast
from the west coast and I had three
hours of jet leg of course I'm going to
be tired well what do you think happens
when your bedtime swings by an hour 2
hours 3 hours you're going to experience
that same kind of disruption in your
sleep cycle also people do a lot of
things
to have poor sleep hygiene from
breathing through their mouth taking in
blue light going to bed at different
times watching TV right before they go
to bed checking their text messages
reading emails working on stressful
things all of this stuff are things that
are going to disrupt your sleep and and
and the biggest one which we haven't
even talked about how close to your
bedtime do you eat
food I have roughly 7 hours between my
last meal and my bedtime and it's
amazing and I have found that if I even
eat within 3 hours of going to bed I can
feel the difference now 3 hours is I
would say good if you got 3 hours of
distance between the last moment you
were chewing so not when you start the
meal the last moment you were chewing
and when you go to bed you're in pretty
good shape I think you will find that
you sleep better the longer that you
stretch that period out there's of
course also a lot of individual
variability I've heard some very
interesting information around
carbohydrates and if you have uh your
last meal has a fair amount of
carbohydrates that you will sleep better
now I find for me that that actually is
true if I have carbohydrates but they're
not high
sugar wear a glucose monitor it's very
enlightening but if I have something
that doesn't Spike my glucose massively
so think about um doing a lot of greens
things like that leafy greens that I
actually will sleep better but I need to
have a pretty big distance still between
between my last meal and when I go to
bed you going have to experiment with
the stuff when it comes to diet there is
so much individual variability it's
absolutely terrifying so try it run that
but I find that most people eat within
an hour maybe 90 minutes before they go
to bed that's going to disrupt your
sleep massively so be very thoughtful
about trying that and experimenting once
you get all of that down and you hold
yourself accountable to doing all of
this stuff then I think you're going to
find getting up is very easy but if you
don't address how badly you want the
thing you're getting out of bed
for and your physiology it's going to be
a struggle forever and last but not
least I'll throw in a little bonus here
and that is you have to have standards
I'm angry with myself if I don't get out
of bed in 10 minutes or less I'm angry
at myself if I don't go to bed on time
because I really want the things that
I'm pursuing so be really thoughtful of
about that don't do it because you ought
to find a way to get excited about it
then build rules in your life around
that and so you're doing it because it's
what you want for yourself and so the
reason that you're upset with yourself
when you don't do it isn't because
you're worried about disappointing other
people it's because you really want it
and you're not acting in accordance with
that that's it get after it if you have
a goal to get up early and you find that
you don't and you're feeling badly about
yourself you have to be very thoughtful
about how you react in that moment I may
big fan of rewarding and punishing
yourself but you have to be very good at
how you go about that so when you do
what you're supposed to do of course you
want to Pat yourself on the back you
want to give yourself that
emotional uplift of recognizing a job
well done and when you don't you
definitely want to face Square on you
said you were going to do it and you
didn't do it and that is a black mark on
your day now the problem is that when
you continue to beat yourself up now
you're going to begin to diminish sense
of self I advise you never do anything
that diminishes your sense of self you
want to hold yourself accountable you
want to have a standard you want to live
up to it I think that's incredibly
important and I think so many people
fail to get where they want to go in
life because they fail to hold
themselves accountable so you want to
set a standard you want to hold yourself
accountable to that standard but you
also want to make sure that you only do
and believe that which moves you towards
your goals I have a rule in my life that
I only do that I'm not trying to live in
a post-truth world this isn't isn't me
just deciding that I'm going to believe
in whatever I want to believe in in fact
I Define truth as the thing that most
efficiently moves you towards your goal
I think that you're most closely aligned
to what is true when you're able to
predict the outcome of your behaviors
and when you're able to predict the
outcome of your behaviors I think you're
on to what is true so we're not going to
sit there and belittle ourselves and
tear ourselves apart we're going to
acknowledge that what we did it breaks
our rule that we had that rule in the
first place because it is the set of
behaviors that most effectively moves us
towards our goal so we want to get back
on track because we actually care about
our goal and we want to do the thing
that's moving us towards our goal we're
not going to get back on track because
we think we're a bad person or we're
worried what the world is going to think
this all needs to be intrinsic
motivation you need to care you need to
have some reason why you want this thing
so badly that you've put all these rules
around s in the first place all the
rules that I have the amount of work
that I do how hardcore I am the standard
that I hold myself to rewarding myself
punishing myself it's all in service of
what I want so make sure that you want
something that is legitimately exciting
to you make sure that you've spent the
time to build that desire in yourself
and then make sure that you recognize
that the most important thing that you
can do to bounce back is to bounce back
right away to not beat yourself up any
more than is useful to bouncing back to
getting back on track and then when you
get back on track and you say okay cool
this happens to me all the time I have a
rule I get out of bed in 10 minutes or
less and sometimes uh my feet will hit
the floor right as it clicks over into
the 11th minute now I never miss it by
much but when I'm due one I confess I
tell my wife I'll go on camera I'll tell
people ah I didn't make it today I like
to hold myself accountable and I feel
good when I hold myself accountable
because I'm willing to stare nakedly at
my inadequacy IES I didn't do it today I
said I was going to and I didn't but my
willingness to own that to admit it to
not lie to myself to not lie to other
people to say hey I didn't do it today
that act makes me feel good because I
know how effective it is I know how much
I've gotten out of my Life by being
honest when I don't do the things that I
wanted to do by reminding myself why I
want to do them by reminding myself why
I have these rules in place and then
living in accordance with that and when
I don't to give myself that reminder
that hey you said you were going to do
it and you didn't not making excuses
owning everything completely and
reminding myself that my life is an
exact reflection of my choices and that
I made my day a little bit worse by not
doing what I said I was going to do but
at the same time that if I just sat
there and beat myself up on what a loser
I am that I'm not going to get done the
things that I need to get done in order
to make meaningful progress towards my
goals so I do it just enough to kick
myself in the ass and then I stop I get
back on track I reward myself for
getting back on track and boom it's all
systems go the most important thing that
you can do to wake up early is to get
your night routine on point my night
routine really begins at 2: p.m. this is
all true so what I found was the number
one thing that disrupted my sleep was I
would wake up in the middle of the night
to pee and then my mind would start
worrying around all the problems that I
have to solve and I would be up for two
2 and 1 half hours in the middle of the
night every single night and so I was
like okay what would I need to do in
order to make sure that I never wake up
to pee and at first I thought well if I
just stop drinking water in the you know
late afternoons Orly evening I should be
fine that didn't work and then I
realized ah this is a food problem if I
stop eating food earlier then I can kill
two birds with one stone one I can
elongate my intermittent fasting window
which is already incredibly powerful but
two I'm also not going to have a bunch
of water being extracted from the food
as I lead up to bedtime so what I do is
I have my last meal I start eating at
about 1:15 I'm usually done chewing by
about
2:00 then by the time I go to bed at 900
p.m. I've had 7 hours without eating and
I also I don't drink I have one sort of
final sip right at right before I go to
bed at call at 850 855 but from 2 to
then I don't have any water so I'm able
to sleep through the night perfectly
well I'm able to drink as much water as
I need during cuz I wake up at say 3:30
to 4:30 somewhere in there so I'm able
to get a ton of water on my system
before 2 p.m. and so everything works
perfectly so that's the first thing that
I start doing the next thing I do is uh
going to the food thing I want to make
sure that I have a minimum of 3 hours of
not eating before I go to bed for
reasons of digestion so even if I didn't
have the water problem not eating eating
not having food in my digestion is
hugely important now the reason that I
know that this actually makes a
difference is if on the weekend I'm
having a cheap meal I can actually drink
water I don't have to stop drinking
water because the carbohydrate intake
will cause me to retain water so I'm not
going to have that problem even if I eat
close to bedtime and keep drinking
throughout the day it's actually
wonderful I love it I can pound water
right before I go to bed something about
water at night tastes so good uh I don't
have to worry about that if I've had a
high carbohydrate meal so what I found
though is that even by eating let's say
3 hours before I go to bed I can still
tell the difference in my sleep but 3
hours is sort of that maximum where it's
not truly disruptive so no matter what
whether you have trouble uh with peeing
at night or not you want to make sure
that starting 3 hours before you go to
bed you finished all of your food intake
that's really important also 3 hours
before I go to bed I will avoid blue
light so I wear blue blocking glasses
and I make make sure that my computer um
shifts over into night mode so that it
actually turns the screen uh warmer
colors I dim the lights I try not to get
bright lights in my eyes all of this
stuff makes a really big difference also
I don't do any stressful work at least
an hour before I go to bed so even
though I'll keep working up until I go
to bed at 9:00 as I get later into the
evening I do things that are far more
predictable and less stressful so for
instance I have um an episode to prepare
for today and so tonight as I start
getting ready for bed that will be one
of the last things that I do literally
right up until I go to bed because it's
something that isn't about problem
solving it's not stressful I'm not going
to be surprised by some problem that
exists in the business right as I'm
about to go to bed I realized you know
huge Spike of adrenaline and cortisol
because oh my God I just realized we
have some problem that needs to be
solved so it's something that's based
around learning in it's usually exciting
it puts my brain in a different mode and
so that is really useful to helping me
begin to um move my brain out of problem
solving mode and get into a mode that's
going to allow me to fall asleep also I
tend to 30 to 40 minutes before I I fall
asleep I'll get into bed now I know a
lot of people say don't take work to bed
with you I have not found that to be
problematic at all as long as it's a
certain type of work like doing research
as my go-to for being in bed so I can
really begin to relax and calm down I
will also if I've had a particularly
stressful day in that last hour I might
do some meditation to really make sure
that I'm calming myself down and then
right as I'm about to lay in bed and
this is the one thing that I'm
conflicted about recommending to people
um is I put headphones in and I begin
reading a book right as I go to bed so
uh as I lay down to fall asleep I put
headphones in and I put a book on I've
used fiction in the past I'm using
non-fiction currently but it's a certain
type of book one it's a very long book
so often biographies about a moment in
time or a given person I guess
technically a biography is about a
person uh or a moment in time and the
books often are like 20 hours 30 hours
so you know that you're not going to get
woken up in the middle of the night by
the book ending which has happened to me
unfortunately with shorter books and so
I will um listen to those books they're
not where I'm trying to learn something
so it's just something that's
interesting and that puts my brain into
a certain Zone and I tend to fall asleep
very quickly I'm talking like five
minutes quickly or less I'll wake up in
the middle of the night and I'll rewind
the book back to a part that makes sense
but because it's such a big topic it
tends to be something where ah whether I
get exactly to where I was was or not I
can still get the gist it's not like a
story where man if you miss anything
you're going to be completely lost what
happened it's disorienting so that has
been really really useful and then the
last thing that I do is I tape my mouth
closed because if you breathe through
your nose it can actually dry out your
throat disrupt your sleep there's a
whole book on this called Breathe by
James Nester if I'm remembering
correctly and it's really been
transformative to my sleep because I
used to wake up with a dry throat and
it would pull me out of sleep and you
know your lip smacking you need like
something to drink it's terrible so by
taping my mouth I'm able to sleep
through the night much better really was
a game changer I highly recommend that
you guys try not only that but all of
the things that I just talked about I
think that they will radically improve
your sleep hygiene which will allow you
to sleep much better you will be far
more rested and able to get to the Holy
Grail which is not setting an alarm so
you wake up naturally right at the
perfect part of your sleep cycle having
gotten as much sleep as your body needs
if you find that despite having really
good sleep hygiene that you're still
getting tired later in the day a lot of
people wonder if they can take a nap or
if they should avoid it and to be honest
I think that it's completely up to the
person there are times where I'm so
tired that if I don't allow myself to at
least completely let go meaning I lay
down I close my eyes and I give myself
permission to sleep I just I can't focus
I can't concentrate and I have found
that sometimes even just letting myself
go like that even though I don't fall
asleep for 10 or 15 minutes can be
extremely
rejuvenating other times I find that
falling asleep for 10 or 15 minutes is
completely rejuvenating and other times
I have no idea why I feel super groggy
and even sleeping for an hour may make
me feel worse than just staying awake
that that's always super bizarre where
you lay down you don't set an alarm you
just give yourself permission to sleep
as long as you need you wake up one
would think that you got a full sleep
cycle but for whatever reason man when I
wake up I'm like God I just feel awful I
feel sluggish I have a little bit of a
headache the just the whole rest of the
day I feel off so to be honest it's
pretty rare that I take a nap even times
where because if I get five hours of
sleep that I hate that I I can get by if
it's one day but I really really really
don't like doing it I would much rather
get 6 hours 6 hours is magical seven is
unbeatable so if I've gotten five I will
give myself the chance to lay down and
take it nap but I often find that it's
like man the whole rest of the day just
never feels like I quite get back on and
if I've gotten 5 hours of sleep the only
time I will give myself a chance to take
a nap is before 700 a.m. so that I'm
still getting that sleep early the sun
typically for most of the year is still
down and so so I'm able to sleep while
it's still dark cuz remember if I only
got 5 hours of sleep chances are I woke
up around
2:30ish so I can by that point I have
gone worked out I've started working for
a few hours and then I find that just
wave of fatigue really hitting me then I
will lay down but if the Sun is up and
my day is going the odds of me taking a
nap are virtually zero again there's a
lot of self-experimentation that you
should do figure out what works for you
learning those rhythms figuring out what
are the times like can you notice a
pattern when you end up getting sleepy
and and are unable to bounce back for me
it's like if the day is really going and
the Sun is up and if I've had caffeine
or anything like that the odds of me
feeling better after I take a nap are
very very low but this really is
something that you should experiment
with because there are going to be times
where you may have gotten so little
sleep that the only way to function is
to get that rest is to allow yourself to
lay down and take a nap so I certainly
don't have any moral judgment on taking
a nap I think some people do I don't
like for one if I'm flying there's
something about flying if I'm flying and
I'm just like I cannot keep my eyes open
I'm like I'll take a nap I've heard
people like oh my God like I'd never
take a nap that's crazy to me you want
to cognitively optimize you want to make
sure that you are performing at your
best and if taking a nap is going to be
the thing that lets you perform at your
best then take the nap you're far better
to if you let's say you're going to work
for three hours you're far better or you
have three hours to work I should say
you're far better napping for an hour
and a half and being really sharp that
last hour and a half than you are just
like struggling through not being at
your best and trying to get something
done now everything is on balance I work
so hard I leave everything out on the
field I just don't think twice about
taking a nap if that's what I need
because I know that I'm not doing it out
of laziness and I think that's where a
lot of people get conflicted is they
know that taking the nap is something
that they do as a way to avoid doing the
work and that they do that kind of thing
a lot and that they probably were
feeling tired because they stayed up too
late watching something on Netflix or
playing video games or hanging out
whatever or they had a few too many
drinks they've done something dumb that
is counter to the goals if those things
are your goals by all means do them I
don't pass any moral judgment on
watching Netflix playing video games get
as drunk as you want if that's your goal
but if it's not your goal and you did
those things something tells me that now
you're beating yourself up over being
lazy and part of the reason that you
don't want to take the nap is because
you feel guilty if you play all out all
the time and you know that you've earned
that respect with yourself then taking a
nap is a no-brainer if that's going to
be the thing that cognitively optimizes
you just a reminder PSA enjoy your life
and if taking a nap is going to let you
enjoy it do it if it doesn't and it's
going to mess up your Rhythm then don't
just grind it out if you let me control
your life for the next 7 days here is
exactly what I would have you do I'm
actually thinking about turning this
into a challenge because I think that
this would be amazingly impactful for
people and it goes like this our goal is
to get up early and really attack the
day so that we can get a lot of momentum
going so that we can outperform other
people remember I am super competitive
when it comes to doing the things that I
most want in life now I do that from a
place of joy and abundance think
everybody can have what they want but
it's actually fun to go hard to compete
against other people and really see how
far you can push your life all right it
goes like this this is the ultimate life
routine number one we're going to go to
bed at 9900 p.m. like it's a religion no
if hands or butts and we're going to as
you see as we go through the day when we
wake up we're going to do a lot of
things to make sure that we are ready
for bed at 9:00 p.m. but we go to bed at
9:00 p.m. like it's a religion we do not
set an alarm clock you can have an
emergency alarm clock if you've got a
meeting or a flight to catch or
something like that so that you just
don't have it on your mind cuz I know
some people are so paranoid they're
going to over sleep it actually
interrupts their sleep by all means set
an emergency alarm but the goal would be
to have at least 9 hours before our
emergency alarm would have to go off
most people are not going to sleep for 9
hours unless they've been chronically
sleep deprived so no alarm go to bed at
9: or eight if you have kids or seven if
you have kids whatever but we're going
to go to bed early enough that we don't
need to set an alarm for me that's nine
you're going to go to bed at that time
you're going to wake up when you wake up
you get out of bed in 10 minutes or less
your feet are on the floor next to your
bed is your gym clothes you're going to
put your gym clothes on immediately you
don't have to go to the gym you can work
out at home I don't care we can do all
body weight workouts or we can go to the
gym and go ham whatever works for you
but we are going to work out we are
going to get our blood pumping no one
and I mean no one hates going to the gym
more than me I don't whatever the
endorphin rush is that other people get
I don't get but it does allow me to
cognitively optimize if you haven't read
the book spark read it study show that
if you have a hard problem to solve you
want to tackle that hard problem
immediately after working out they did
all these crazy studies where they had
kids go in and uh do like these
incredibly hard workouts where your
grade was based on your heart rate so it
was like you didn't have to run a mile
in under 6 minutes but you had to get
your heart rate up to whatever 140 150
and maintain that for I forget how long
let's call it 15 20 minutes and then if
they had their hardest class immediately
following that so for me it would have
been like Calculus if I had had that
immediately following gym class where I
got my heart rate up into that ideal
Zone I would perform better there
because you're cognitively optimizing so
I'm going to work out I'm going to get
my heart rate up that is key I'm also
going to be intermittent fasting so
we're going to get to when I clock that
change but I'm not going to eat before I
work out so I'm going to work out fasted
then I'm going to go and I'm going to
meditate by the way I work out for about
30 to 45 minutes by all means work out
longer I wouldn't work out a lot shorter
I'm going to sit down and I'm going to
meditate I'm going to meditate for about
20 minutes I'm trying to get myself into
a place where I'm completely relaxed no
stress no anxiety it is very possible no
matter what is going on in your life to
get to the point where you have no
stress no anxiety now if you're really
going through something and you the
thought of trying to sit down and
meditate is just unbelievably torturous
give yourself 7 Minutes of Doom
scrolling cats it will put your brain in
a certain place it's very interesting it
is the art of distraction there is a
reason from an evolutionary standpoint
that distraction exists go for it 7
minutes only at the end of the 7 minutes
then we're going to go into meditation
and you're going to meditate if you did
s minutes of Doom scrolling cats and you
just don't have extra time fine 13
minutes of meditation so be it but I
think you're better off making it 27
minutes 7 Minutes Doom scrolling cats
and then 20 minutes of meditation the
goal of meditation is to just breathe
you're not trying to have any Grand
epiphanies you're just trying to breathe
your mind is going to wander like crazy
and it's going to happen a lot to the
point where it's going to distress you
and you're going to think you're doing
something wrong you are not the whole
point is to just come back to the breath
come back to the breath back to the
breath back to the breath getting
yourself in that calm creative state no
stress no anxiety lengthening the period
of time where you can focus on the
breath incredibly powerful now if you
haven't done this for an extended period
of time yet the next thing I want you to
do is take a cold
shower we're doing all of this to
accomplish two goals you can reboot your
life your health even your career
anything you want all you need is
discipline I can teach you the tactics
that I learned while growing a billion
dooll business that will allow you to
see your goals through whether you want
better health stronger relationships a
more successful career any of that is
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today toughen up
buttercup and cognitively optimized so
working out as much as it's good for the
brain it's also to show you that you can
do hard things because in your life you
need to be doing hard things the other
hard thing that you're going to do
that's also good for your brain and good
for a whole host of other things
including
anti-inflammatory um getting uh all the
effects of longevity that come from cold
exposure you're going to get in the cold
shower now the amount of time you need
to stay in the cold shower is going to
depend on the time of year and where you
live because let me tell you Minnesota
in February is very different than La in
August the cold temperature in La in
August not that cold so and compared to
and I've actually done this was it in
Minnesota no it was Chicago I did
Chicago in the winter I can't remember
exactly what month and the water hitting
my forehead gave me a headache I was
like damn this is a whole another level
of cold so doing that versus in La was a
world of difference but in La I would
keep myself in the shower I think my
record was like oh God it was somewhere
between 12 and 17 minutes I can't
remember but for uh what was it 13
months I did this every single shower
weekend no weekend actually that might
be a lie every shower Monday through
Friday that's correct I think on the
weekends I allowed myself a warm shower
don't hold me to that I can't remember
but for 13 months
I took so many cold showers it was
horrifying in fact I stopped I promised
myself I'd do it for 30 days I did it
for 13 months I began to resent my
shower but it is extremely powerful for
doing things that are difficult so we're
going to do the cold challenge expose
yourself for the cold as long as you can
possibly bear extend that period of time
you should be shivering before you get
out of the shower like uncontrollably
shivering that is a good way of knowing
if you've been in long enough now again
Minnesota in February it's going to
happen a lot faster than a warm climate
later in the year but get cold exposure
after that we're going to go to our
important things list and we're going to
work our way down the most important
things that we could be doing in order
to make meaningful progress towards our
goals once we finish all of that I know
you're going to have to do a lot of work
to pay bills and all that good stuff
fair enough go to your job crush it
then we're going to get into the
intermittent fasting zone so there are
two ways to handle this way number one
is that you can stop eating really early
and then you're going to eat breakfast
or you can stop eating a little bit
later call it 5 6:00 at night but then
you can't have your first meal until
much later in the next much later the
next day the rule of thumb is 16 hours
of fasting is about right I try to push
that to on average about 17
172 hours when averaged over a full week
but during the week that tends to mean
that I'm um not having a meal for about
18 to 19 hours and then on the weekend
it's closer to 15 16 hours so I tracked
that over a year and a half and that's
what it came out to be on average if you
do all of those things your life will be
unrecognizable and I hope that if you do
that for seven days that you're not
going to want to quit because it really
will transform your entire life once you
get initially started in the pursuit of
your goal of trying to improve yourself
and become something more something
better the key is consistency and follow
through consistency and follow through
you become what you repeat the reason
that anybody successful becomes
successful is because to quote Winston
Churchill they can go from failure to
failure without a loss of enthusiasm the
problem is the human animal has chosen a
tactic of using culture in order to have
generational progress so a horse will
come out doing all the things that a
horse can do in 20 minutes but horse
culture doesn't progress because they
come hardwired with everything and they
have for thousands of years and they
make no progress whereas humans a
generation 10,000 years ago invented the
wheel and we're all still using it now
but in taking that strategy what ends up
happening is that you really do become
the thing that you repeat the thing that
you do consistently and if you begin
slacking off of that then you don't end
up making that progress you certainly
can't maintain that progress so you have
to be very very thoughtful about what
you repeat because it is going to have a
profound impact on your life now the
vast majority of people end up just
breaking they end up quitting the reason
that I've had the kind of success that
I've had in my life is simply because I
understand that iteration is how we make
cultural progress it's what I call the
physics of progress most people when
they're running the physics of progress
when they get to the point where they
have to evaluate their results they end
up lying to themselves and making it
somebody else's fault now the physics of
progress are really simple it's the
scientific method recontextualized for
whatever goal goal you're trying to
achieve and it goes like this you come
up with a hypothesis if you have
information that can inform that
hypothesis that is much better but if
you don't when you're beginning call it
your best guess you're taking your best
guess as how you go from where you are
to achieving your goal there is
inevitably going to be an obstacle in
your way and your best guess is about
what do I need to do to overcome that
obstacle to make meaningful progress
towards my goal then you're going to
turn that hypothesis into something
something that you can actually do then
you're going to turn that you're going
to actually go do that thing and then
you're going to get a result from that
thing it is almost certainly going to
fail to some extent which is fine
because failure is the most
information-rich data stream on planet
Earth but you have to learn from the
failure to learn from the failure you
have to be willing to admit that you
made one most people will not admit that
they made a mistake and so they get
stuck at that level and in that moment
they say it was the world it's because I
was born in the wrong time my parents
were dumb the world doesn't want
somebody who looks like me to succeed
whatever excuse they use to make it
somebody else's fault now remember the
most terrifying thing about excuses is
that they are valid I'm not saying that
those things aren't real I'm not saying
that the world isn't trying to hold some
people back I'm just saying it doesn't
matter you have to overcome it no matter
what so in the moment where you tried
this thing and it didn't work don't
spend your time and energy Focus on how
something else stopped you even though I
will grant you it's true the world is
trying to stop everybody from doing
everything it just is the reality
accomplishing something meaningful is
freakishly difficult so don't focus on
that it's more difficult for you it just
doesn't matter you're just going to have
to work harder you either want to
accomplish that thing in your life or
you don't and you're going to give up
that's the reality the people that get
what they want are the people that
absolutely demand that they're going to
keep going until they get that thing so
in that moment when you're very tempted
to focus on how other things have
stopped you you're not going to what you
need to do is be consistent so in that
moment you're going to say what could I
have done differently to get a better
result and that's when the physics of
progress Loops now you come up with a
more informed hypothesis you learned
your lesson you figure out what you need
to do that's going to be a little bit
better than last time you turn that into
a thing that you can do you do that
thing it will fail to some extent you
stare nakedly at your inadequacies you
figure out what you need to do
to make it a little bit better and the
process begins again that is why you
have to be consistent but the reality is
that most people break most people
cannot go from failure to failure
without a loss of enthusiasm they end up
breaking they end up thinking that
either there's something wrong with them
or that the world is against them and
because they don't want to deal with the
pain and suffering of having to face
their own inadequacies or they give up
because they just think that the world
is against them they don't make progress
because you have to be able to fail a
lot to learn from those failures if I'm
right that humans as a species have
chosen culture as the learning mechanism
then you have to run the loop that
culture demands which is to try
something it fails you iterate and you
get better that works at the societal
level over Millennia and it works at the
individual level in an acute thing where
you just have to figure out why didn't
that work and keep going but the truth
is difficult
boredom struggle pain breaks almost
everyone that it touches and I will
remind us all 92% of people fail to
achieve the goal they set for themselves
and the reason is that all of that
difficulty just stops people because
they don't have the right mindset they
don't realize that they need to fail
they don't realize that failure does not
make them a failure so you're going to
have a ton of failure in your life you
have to Contex talize it as the most
advantageous thing that could happen to
you so when I fail it stings it sucks I
hate it I want everything that I do to
work the first time and I want to make
maximum progress as fast as humanly
possible but once I realized that just
isn't the way that things work and even
people like Elon Musk who I think are
abnormally intelligent they realize oh I
have to fail a lot I have to try things
and see what works and what didn't there
is no way around being in the messy
middle there's no no way to think or
hypothesize your way to what's going to
work the best you have to get in there
and try things even somebody that's
thinking philosophically has to be able
to get in there and battle their ideas
and take their ideas out to other people
even Einstein went out and made sure
that his ideas were battle tested not
only through experimental physicists but
also just his friends that were other
people that were able to beat up his
ideas and poke holes in them and if
you're not willing to put your ideas to
the test if you're not willing to try
things and see what fails then you you
will forever be stuck thinking and not
making any progress you really want to
be doing be a doing machine somebody
that's out there trying but that means
you have to risk embarrassment and
embarrassment is one of the things that
destroys so many goals because people
don't want to admit that they were
struggling people don't want to admit
that they were having a hard time and so
they either don't tell people about the
goal which is a huge mistake you want to
tell as many people as you can it's part
of the process of building desire you
want to tell people I'm going to do this
thing and it really matters to me and
I'm going to accomplish it by this date
now all eyes are on you but that's one
of the ways you're going to stick to
what you're doing and if the whole point
is that you have to repeat repeat repeat
be resilient be gritty stick with it try
fail try fail over and over and over as
you get better at overcoming those
obstacles then you have to be willing to
push through all of that difficulty to
know why you're doing the things you're
doing and to understand that that's just
the process so guys I'm telling you if
you really want to achieve something
absolutely powerful in your life you've
got to be persistent if you haven't
already be sure to read the book grit by
Angela Duckworth it's an amazing expose
on how to be gritty if you're not
already the process that I use for
achieving my goals is really simple
first and foremost you want to make sure
that you cognitively optimize I cannot
stress said enough so much of my life is
about doing things to make sure that my
brain is working well they look like
this number one get sleep do not use an
alarm most people set an alarm stop I
built three multi-million dollar
companies one of those being a billion
dollar company all without setting an
alarm do I occasionally set an emergency
alarm for something like a 4 a.m flight
yes but for the most part I don't use an
alarm I'm talking like
99% of my days I do not set an alarm I
want to make sure sure that I get all of
the sleep that my body needs why because
I'm able to be more efficient people
mistake grinding around the clock and
becoming less efficient because they're
tired with actually getting more done
what you want to do is make sure that
you have a very high output of
achievement per waking hour so I check
in with myself about every three hours
to make sure that I'm being productive
if you're not being productive nothing
else matters so go to bed early I go to
bed at 9:00 p.m. I don't use an alarm I
typically sleep 6 to 7 hours that's
changed if you've heard other content
where I say 5 to 6 hours right now I'm
in a cycle where I'm sleeping closer to
my average is probably just under seven
hours so I never know what that's going
to be it tends to be regulated by the
amount of stress in my life so I'm
getting roughly seven hours of sleep so
that means that if I go to bed at 9:00
p.m. I'm up at 4:00 a. I have a rule in
my life that if I'm awake Monday through
Friday I'm either working or working out
I give myself only 10 10 minutes to get
out of bed why because I struggle to get
out of bed just is a thing it's always
been a thing for me from the time I was
a kid my dad would have to drag me out
of bed in the morning to there was a
period in my early to mid 20s where I
was laying in bed four to five hours a
day and just could not bear to get out
of bed it's absolutely ridiculous even I
am completely scandalized by the reality
that to this day despite all of the
things that I've accomplished I have to
fight myself just to get out of bed so
that's a ity I accept that so I gave
myself a rule that I had to be out of
bed in 10 minutes or less right next to
my bed I keep headphones so I put my
headphones on I begin researching the
second I wake up so I'm researching uh
technically this gets into a long thing
right now I'm in a phase where I
actually read while I sleep long story I
don't think you get things subliminally
that's not that but I do find that it
helps me stay asleep I don't necessarily
recommend that for everybody but just by
way of being completely transparent in
terms of what my routine looks like for
achieving my goals from the second I
wake up I am researching something that
matters to me I immediately put on my
gym clothes I head to the gym right away
I work out I then meditate after I
meditate I do something I called think
itating the reason that I do these two
things one meditation is a good way to
get your stress and your anxiety down to
zero the reason you want to do this is
cognitive optimization if you are
feeling frantic if you are constantly in
fight or flight your brain is not going
to function as well as it could what is
happening when you go into fight or
flight is the blood is literally leaving
your prefrontal cortex the prefrontal
cortex is the seat of higher level
cognition it's where you future plan
it's where you maintain your discipline
and so when you're in that fight ORF
flight stage you don't have the blood in
the prefrontal cortex in the way that
you need to which is why people end up
cheating on their diet it's why they end
up not sticking with their goals and
persevering so you want to make make
sure that you're taking the time to
meditate to lower your stress lower your
anxiety and then there's a hidden
benefit to meditation which is why I
follow that sort of almost seamlessly
into think itation which is where I stay
in that meditative posture I keep my
meditative breathing going I'm staying
in that cognitive space because when you
are meditating if you're just coming
back to the breath very simple practice
my meditation practice is dead simple
it's literally what I call just breathe
so as my mind wanders I remind myself to
come back to the breath to just breathe
my mind wanders again back to the breath
wanders back to the breath wanders back
to the breath it's tragic how rapidly my
brain begins to wander but I just keep
bringing it back now when I do that
enough I get into a calm and creative
state when I'm in a calm and creative
state unique areas of my brain begin to
talk to each other and so I will come up
with very interesting solutions to
problems that I won't get when I'm not
in that state so this is why people will
often say I need to sleep on that
problem because your brain goes through
that cycle that's very much like a
meditative State as you're falling
asleep and then waking up again you pass
through a very similar state so I will
call that calm and creative so once I'm
in that calm and creative state now I
begin to get these I give myself a
problem to solve before I sit down to
meditate so I know what I'm working on
it's tied to my import important things
which we'll get to in a minute but I sit
there and I know what the problem is
going to be that I'm going to start
working on when I'm in that calm and
creative state and then I'll will allow
myself to take notes as interesting
ideas come up I'm going to journal on
that which I would not do during the
meditative part where I'm just coming
back to the breath back to the breath
back to the breath and I do that for as
long as I need to to get to zero stress
zero anxiety calm creative once I'm
there maybe 5 minutes maybe 20 minutes
maybe 45 minutes if I'm really stressed
out but once I'm there then I move over
into think itation and I begin noodling
on those hard problems once I finish
that then I'm going to go into my
important things now how do I know when
to stop thotting and move on to
important things I have found that at
some point I begin running out of really
fruitful novel ideas and once I feel
like I'm kind of trying to force it then
I'm like all right let's just now move
into executing on my important things so
now that I'm in my important things
which is a list that I keep constantly
maintained so I know what the top things
are that I should be working on so I'm
not spending that time thinking about
what I should be doing I just go
straight into execution mode so then I
start going down the list doing them in
order now the way to execute on
something is very much in order so first
thing you're going to do everything on
that thing that you can do until you've
pushed it as far as you can go and now
you're waiting on other people and then
you're going to move on to the next
thing you're going to do everything that
you can on that until you're waiting on
other people and then you're going to
push it off so on and so forth down your
list now my important things list is
predicated on my goals so the very
important thing to understand about the
nature of goals is that they make
demands if you want to win a
championship in swimming then you need
to do the things that a swimmer trying
to win a gold medal by a certain date
would need to do it's going to dictate
how you eat how you sleep how you train
who you talk to how you think all of
that stuff and so you have to one get
good at identifying what your goals
demand and then two you have to be good
at actually sticking to the things your
goals demand which this is where most
people fall down because it gets boring
it gets difficult so you've got to be
able to push through all right so I work
my way down my important things list
once I finish doing that then I because
I'm the CEO o