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Language: en
morning routines are one of the most
important things that you can create in
your life and the reason is when you
start the day if you get early momentum
going the rest of the day is often going
to follow in that it's an idea called
entropy everything moves towards chaos
and the only way to combat that is to
put energy into the system you are not
going to wake up and randomly have a
good day you're going to have to
structure your day in a way that sets
you up to overcome all of the entropy
all of that chaos all of the thousand
things going to come at you in on a
daily basis that are going to knock you
off course and the easiest way to do
that is to have a routine that you
follow every morning so you don't have
to think about it you don't have to
reinvent the wheel you don't have to
wonder or think about what you should be
doing it's just right there it is baked
into the routine so by doing that now
you can actually accomplish the most
important things first so the thing to
doing your morning routine well is to
optimize for what Tim Ferriss refers to
as the lead Domino what's the thing that
if I did this it's going to make
everything else easier down the road so
number one a morning routine actually
starts the night before you want to get
plenty of sleep why because that's going
to optimize your your cognition the next
thing you want to do is either meditate
or work out typically I will work out
first the reason that I work out is
because it optimizes your cognition so
that everything else is going to get
easier it also dramatically impacts your
energy levels talk about two things that
are incredible lead dominoes if I'm
getting sleep and optimizing my
cognition if I'm working out and
optimizing my cognition and I'm making
sure that I have the energy levels that
I need to get things done now I'm really
making sure that everything that I do
after that is easier the next thing that
I do is meditate why because it
optimizes your cognition you want to
make sure that you're getting all of
your background radiation the stress the
anxiety you want to get that as close to
zero as you can that way you can think
clearly you get into what I call a calm
and creative state so the areas of your
brain that don't often communicate are
able to communicate get better ideas
that way again Lee Domino improving your
cognition lowering your stress levels
making sure that you're centered and
that you've got that energy to move
forward then I'm going to go down my
list of important things I make that
list the day before so I know exactly
what I should be doing at any one time
and again it's a lead Domino strategy
what the first thing that I'm going to
do is going to be the thing that makes
everything else on my list easier I'm
going to do everything that I can do on
the most important thing and by the way
they should always be rank ordered there
is no such thing as a tie there is a
number one a number two and number three
and number four so on and so forth there
is not two number ones there's not two
number twos there is a one two three
four five so on and so forth I do
everything that I can do on number one
once that's now where I'm waiting for
something else or you know I just have
to let it bake whatever then I'm going
to move on to number two I'm gonna do
everything I can on number two then I'm
going to move on to number three do you
set your day up like that and you're not
checking your phone and you're not
responding to other people because
that's letting them control your
schedule and what are the odds that
somebody other than you knows better
matter what you should be doing to make
your goals come true than you the answer
should be zero because if somebody else
knows better than you we already have a
problem it means that somebody else is
paying more attention to your own life
than you are that would be problematic
get that morning routine down get that
momentum going do the lead Domino
strategy make sure you're optimizing for
energy and cognition absolutely critical
your diet is one of the most important
things you can do to boost your energy
your focus and your productivity what
you should be eating varies wildly and I
will just tell you right now that while
I'm going to give you a very simple
thing that you can follow and it's going
to take care of 80 of all of your
desires and problems know that there is
massive variability at the individual
level and that you should be testing a
lot of different things to find out what
is right for you so what I'm about to
lay out is the sort of generic strategy
that I think everybody should try but
getting into the nitty-gritty is going
to require you to do a lot of testing
there there is no way around this I wish
that dieting was more simplistic but
based on your lifestyle based on your
heredity based on your microbiome all of
this stuff is going to dramatic to
dramatically vary so be very thoughtful
make sure you run experimentation having
said that what are the things that I
think are Universal number one you want
to be eating Whole Food whenever humanly
possible so you want to eat food that is
recognizable from what it was in nature
so a piece of meat should look like a
piece of meat it shouldn't be highly
processed your vegetables should look
like vegetables I mean you should be
brushing dirt off of them that kind of
recognizable from nature nuts should be
I mean ideally raw I'll be really honest
I do sometimes eat roasted nuts but if
I'm honest that's worse than if you're
just eating them raw so you want things
that are as close to their natural state
is humanly possible the less that they
have been messed with manufactured
altered in any way the better off you're
going to be I will say that heat is
something that I apply to virtually all
of my food there are some really
interesting theories about from an
evolutionary standpoint that cooking is
one of the things that allowed us to
grow the big brain because by cooking it
you not only soften the food make it
easier to chew but you also release some
of the nutrients it's beyond the scope
of this to get into that but when I say
raw I don't mean that everything needs
to be uncooked I just mean the less
processed the better things that I eat
every day I eat a lot of eggs red meat I
eat some chicken a bit of pork but I'm
eating a fair amount of meat so I get a
good portion of my calories from that
again individual variability if you're
doing a vegan thing word I'm totally
about it test for the individual
response that you get I find that the
more plant forward I go there's like a
breaking point where I start feeling
worse could be me it could be me doing
it poorly but as long as you're doing
whole food I think you're on the money
so eating whole food and making sure
that you're avoiding sugar that is like
the big thing so I don't think you can
eat fruit with impunity I think you have
to be very thoughtful about that if
you're on unsure of what fruit is going
to impact you and how I highly recommend
getting a continuous glucose monitor
that will allow you to eat fruit if you
want and see what kind of glycemic
response you have for instance I find
that I can make certain fruit smoothies
and if I eat it slowly enough my
glycemic response will go up to about
120. I prefer to keep it in the 80s but
hey if it goes up to 120 and it's sort
of even and it comes back down I don't
consider that too problematic but if I
eat it really quickly and it spikes up
to say 140 150 that to me is problematic
and I don't want to be that high so you
can play with things also what you put
in this smoothie Etc if you're going to
eat fruit and vegetables make sure that
you separate fruit and vegetables keep
those two things distinct I think you
will find by wearing a continuous
glucose monitor that you're going to
have a dramatically different response
to most fruit than you will to
vegetables again there's a lot of
variability here so the more that you
test on yourself the better but that's
really the the sort of generic response
if your or generic setup that I think
everybody should try Whole Food whenever
humanly possible avoid sugar keeping
your blood glucose below 100 I highly
recommend it for me I try to keep my
glucose in this the 80-ish range that's
sort of my default I also do
intermittent fasting I think that that
is very effective getting into things
like autophagy is beyond the scope of
what we're talking about right now but
even that I think it's going to be huge
body composition is greatly affected by
intermittent fasting again individual
variability make sure that you
experiment with this stuff for yourself
I do when you average it out I think I
went about 18 months where I was
tracking every day my average over that
extended period of time was 17 and a
half hours so on the weekends it's it's
shorter but on the weekdays sometimes
it's longer sometimes it's 19 20 21 22
hours that I'll go uh between meals but
again over a very extended period of
time it averages out to 17 and a half
hours of not eating now the way that I
do that I have my last meal around 1 15
definitely done chewing by 2PM and then
I don't eat again until the next day at
around 9 9 30 somewhere around in there
shorter on the weekends longer during
the week and it it balances out I'm
having everything from green leafy
vegetables like bok choy uh collard
greens kale broccoli
to carrot jicama I do occasionally have
some sweet potato it'll be a little
thoughtful about that one watch your
glycemic load that definitely spikes me
more than green leafy vegetables but
those are the mix that I use again I'm
eating Whole Foods virtually all of my
calories come from Whole Food during the
week in fact I'd say 95 percent of my
calories come from Whole Foods very rare
that I deviate from that but doing that
allows me to have tremendous focus a lot
of energy get the most out of my
workouts maintain my body composition
keep my fat low keep my glycemic spikes
low so I'm not getting you know blood
sugar spikes which helps me maintain my
energy through the day and also just
from a longevity standpoint I think
that's a great idea I will say go look
at David Sinclair he's got some pretty
compelling information around the fact
that Meats may not be great for
longevity so while it makes me feel
awesome it's something called mtor so be
thoughtful as you get into the complex
weeds of this stuff nutrition is a very
big complex topic again the only things
that I consider universals are whole
food and reducing sugar universals close
to a universe will be intermittent
fasting though some people can have
differing responses to that so be
thoughtful as you experiment with this
stuff but if you do that like I said 80
plus percent of your problems are going
to go away that's a nice low
inflammation diet and keeping your
inflammation low is incredibly important
the way that I found to stay focused be
productive and not get distracted is one
by auditing my time so that I know one
what I'm supposed to be working on and
then two that at the end of any task I'm
going to reflect back on how long long
it took me how much time did I spend on
task and also I have rules like if I'm
working on something I don't take out my
phone I don't look at it no matter what
I have no alerts on my computer no
alerts on my phone if somebody's calling
I would never know if somebody's texted
me I would never know I don't have
anything that pops up on my computer you
want to eliminate distractions I don't
even work facing a window I will go into
a room and I will intentionally face
myself away from a window there was one
period of my life the only reason I
stopped doing this is because I think
it's really important to get daylight in
your eyes but I was putting myself in a
dark room and literally with a stand-up
desk was the only thing between me and a
wall so even though I was in a nice
expansive beautiful room I was putting
myself facing the wall so that there was
nothing for me to even look at that I
want to be working on the thing that I'm
trying to accomplish and the other thing
is that's hugely important is to make
sure that you care about what you're
working on the number of people that
don't give about what they're doing with
their life is terrifying and when you
don't care about what you're working on
there's no meaning or purpose behind the
thing that you're trying to do then of
course it's going to be harder to stay
on track of course you're going to be
looking for that dopamine hit from your
phone from that email because working on
the thing that you're working on doesn't
give you the dopamine hit making sure
that you're pursuing things that you
care about that's a huge part of it so
caring about what you do making sure
that you're optimizing your environment
to minimize distractions and then having
rules about things like not checking
your phone not letting yourself wander
off like for instance I won't even let
myself go get a drink of water until
I've accomplished a certain thing that
I'm trying to do and I will find myself
taking like that first step to go get a
drink of water you're on autopilot you
need some drip of dopamine when you're
working on something that's boring or
difficult but then the rule kicks in and
I remind myself ah yes I'm going to
finish this thing and then I make sure
that I reward myself for doing that hard
work so when you're doing hard work in
service of something that you really
believe in that you're really
emotionally connected to your why now
all of a sudden with some rules put in
place it becomes easy to stay there and
get your stuff done and then on top of
that I know when to give a break to go
get a drink of water or something like
that to get up to walk around all of
that stuff is incredibly important to
make sure that you're able to stay on
task a big thing may be the biggest of
all is personal standards you got to
have standards I see people except the
lamest from themselves and they let
themselves get away with not being
productive wasting an entire day before
they call themselves out or Worse
staying at a job that they don't care
about doing something that doesn't mean
anything to them just to collect a
paycheck and I get how people would be
unable to stick with something but let
me promise you your life will pass you
by in an instant not only is tomorrow
not guaranteed tonight isn't guaranteed
so if you're not working at something
that you really care about that means
something to you your life is going to
pass you by make sure you're focused on
things you care about you're eliminating
distractions and you're rewarding
yourself when you cry crush it then just
make sure you audit your time you should
be ready to rock if you fall into a rut
and you want to get out of it the first
thing that you have to do is be honest
with yourself that you're in a rut so
often I see people not wanting to admit
that things are not going the way that
they want them to go whether it's
because they're trying to keep up with
the Joneses or they have low self-esteem
and they're really struggling and so
they're trying to tell themselves a
story that isn't true because they're
building their self-esteem around being
right being good being talented whatever
all of those fragile things and so
they're not willing to stop take a good
hard look at whether or not they're
making the kind of progress that they
want to make now my advice is to switch
what you build your self-esteem around
so that you're building your self-esteem
around not being right or smart or good
that you're building your self-esteem
around the very willingness to look at
whether or not you're making progress
recognize that you're not making
progress and make a change and get
moving again but that's the key to
really be honest with yourself to audit
that time to make sure that you really
are making progress and deny not be
angry upset or diminish your sense of
self because you're in a rut but instead
be proud of yourself for really being
willing to assess where am I at what am
I trying to accomplish am I actually
making progress and that willingness to
stare nakedly at your inadequacies to
really be honest about whether you're
making progress to be honest about
whether you're improving enough at
something to be honest about whether
you're working hard enough at something
all of those things are incredibly
important but you'll never be honest
with yourself if in recognizing that
you're underperforming if you just beat
yourself up you want to recognize you're
underperforming and be proud of yourself
for recognizing that you're
underperforming and being willing to do
something about it if you build your
self-esteem around that now you have
that self-reinforcing engine that you're
going to need to get moving again but
first it starts with acknowledging the
problem being pristine on prepping for
bed I think is incredibly important
getting good quality sleep is is
critical so there are several things
that I do number one I wear myself out
during the day I'm going all in on the
things I'm trying to accomplish so man
at the end of the day I feel like I've
earned my sleep and that idea of earning
your sleep the idea of earning your days
off of earning a vacation something that
is incredibly rewarding remember we're
only pursuing things that we care about
that mean something to us we have the
strong why the strong attachment to not
only us but the people that we're trying
to help but then going all out for it so
that by the end of the day I've worked
out I've eaten right I've been
disciplined I've worked my ass off I
stayed focused I pushed myself I've
avoided distractions I've left
everything out on the field trying to
move myself forward going down my
important things list taking things one
at a time really pushing the ball
forward not just chasing dopamine but
actually trying to do something so by
the time I get to bed I am worn out the
next thing I do is starting about three
hours before bed so for me because I go
to bed at nine like it's a religion I'm
putting blue blocking glasses on at 6 PM
you want to make sure that you're not
even around very bright light so I start
dimming the lights towards the evening
time not exposing blue light into my
eyes really helps with circadian rhythm
in the morning I try to get outside and
actually get direct sunlight into my
eyes that does not mean staring at the
sun just means looking up at the sky
being outside letting all of that
natural light get on your skin get in
your eyes it's going to be a huge part
of setting that circadian rhythm for
about I stopped checking my text
messages usually about two hours before
I go to bed reason is that the most
stressful things in my life come in via
text message so I know better so I try
to stop that two hours before definitely
an hour before because it's going to
take me time to sort of recalibrate my
mind one thing I'm always telling people
is the reason that I'm able to work as
much as I work to endure as much stress
as I Endure as I'm very good at
compartmentalizing when I have something
stressful I take it and sort of code it
in the things that I'm going to do to
deal with that because action cures all
so earlier in the day if I get something
really stressful if I can get the ball
rolling then all is well I get things
going I know that that problem is going
to be solved my brain goes ah we're in
action mode all is well I can deal with
this as we get later in the night I'm
not going to be able to do the things
that I need to do to get it moving which
means that my brain is going to worry on
it all night so I've got to do something
to compartmentalize that to figure out
what my strategy is going to be and then
I put that thing away now it takes some
time so I'd rather not encounter that an
hour before I go to bed right so like I
said about two hours before I go to bed
I'm going to stop looking at my text
messages so I'm going to keep working
I'm going to execute on the things that
I'm working on but I'm going to try to
compartmentalize that so that I'm not
introducing new things that I have to
come up with a new strategy for the next
thing is about an hour before bed I now
only work on things that I find fun so
that that's moving my brain into like oh
this isn't stressful this is actually
enjoyable this is fun so I do a lot of
my research for episodes that I'm going
to be filming at night because I love it
that's one of the most fun things about
my job is getting to learn something new
so I can do research right up until the
moment that I go to bed so that's
something that I'll save for that time
if I don't have an episode coming up and
I want to keep working then again I'm
going to focus on something that I find
enjoyable which for me often means that
I'm working on storytelling or something
along those lines because it's really
really pleasurable and then about a half
an hour before I go to bed I'll be
listening to something but I just start
my night routine I'm going to be
brushing my teeth in sort of a
meditative fashion really relaxing I'm
not listening to anything that's going
to be stressful doing things that are
chill if I've had a really stressful day
I might even sit down and meditate for
the last 15 or 20 minutes before I go to
bed and then when I'm actually going to
bed I go into storytelling mode so the
great news is for me that actually works
for work as well but I'm putting in
headphones I might start listening to an
actual book if I don't have a story that
I'm trying to work on I start listening
to a book a fiction book puts my brain
in a different space and if I've worked
right up until the moment I go to bed at
that point I will still put a fiction
book on right as I'm going to sleep and
I have learned an incredible technique
that allows me to deal with stress and
not necessarily suggesting that people
push themselves this far if you find
yourself at night having a hard time
falling asleep this works unbelievably
well I don't have a trick that works
better than this this is the closest
thing to Magic that you're gonna get I
put my air pods in I put on a fiction
book A book that doesn't have murder or
anything like that because I don't want
to hear screaming and yelling I made
that mistake so I've run that test it
does not work well I will put a book on
it's usually sci-fi a great narrator and
I turn the volume down so I can just
barely make out what they're saying just
a little bit of pressure to my ear in
order to clearly hear what they're
saying and then I apply that pressure
and I leave the book Running I don't put
a timer I let it go and then I fall
asleep and then the pressure comes off
my ear and now I can no longer make out
what they're saying so as I'm drifting
off to sleep I lose the words that are
being said but my brain has gone out of
problem solving mode into story mode
narrative mode I'm able to relax and
fall asleep all by listening to that
story I forget about the things that are
stressing me in the day then if I wake
up in the middle of the night I will
swap out my headphones so that the
battery doesn't die because that little
beeping noise telling you that you have
low battery will wake me up again
learned that the hard way and then again
it's just as I'm trying to fall back
asleep I put a little pressure on my ear
so I can hear it and then uh the story
takes me back into Dreamland and I sleep
I went through a phase where I was
really struggling to sleep man I tried
everything and finally figuring that
system out works like a charm I use 1.4
X everybody knows I like to listen to
things at 3x but I can't do that if I'm
trying to fall asleep I found the
perfect rate where my brain doesn't have
to struggle to listen but the words are
coming in fast enough that the pauses
don't irritate me put it in pressure
good story good narrator boom I'm off to
sleep if you do all of those sleep
hygiene things
you ought to sleep like a baby oh and
keep your room cool get a chili pad if
you don't have AC
they're not the cheapest thing in the
world but they are worth every penny
making sure that your room is cool or
that you are cool on a chili pad makes a
huge difference so make sure that you do
that and then get your room as dark as
possible when you're sleeping personally
I know this is going to freak some
people out I sleep with the blankets up
over my head to ensure complete darkness
so my wife and I don't share blankets
which is another thing that I recommend
which everybody thinks that I'm crazy I
forget now that that's even a thing
because I told my wife from the jump
we're never going to share blankets hope
you're okay with that forever we have
slept with separate blankets that way I
can wrap myself up in mine I never have
to worry about her stealing them or me
stealing them from her and all of those
things allow me to sleep like a baby
night after night even in the middle of
stress won't say that it never happens
where I'm so stressed that I wake up
it's pretty rare because of all the
things that I do for Sleep hygiene if
you're not going in the right direction
in your life and you want an action plan
that you can use you can just try it for
the next seven days it's going to change
everything in your life it goes like
this follow the morning routine plan
that I laid out before plenty of sleep
perfect sleep getting up working out
meditating intermittent fasting
important things absolutely critical
getting your diet right the number of
people that are in pain that don't
realize that they have brain fog that
don't realize that there's just a
general sense of suck in their life
because of their diet once you clean
that up get that right get your
inflammation down get your Stress and
Anxiety down which is also majorly
impacted by your diet getting your sleep
right your energy levels are going to
feel awesome because your diet's there
because your sleep is there meditation
changing the game so you're going to do
all of the things that I talked about in
that morning routine and then the next
thing that I will add to that human
connection
find a loving relationship and put time
into it find a loving relationship and
put time into it even though I have a
rule Monday through Friday if I'm awake
I'm either working or working out but
you will note I'm involved in
storytelling so I'm around things like
anime and manga and I'm talking about
stories I'm interviewing incredible
people so my job even though it's hard
even though it's a lot of hours it's
doing things that I love and care about
in service of people that I'm trying to
help 92 percent of people that set a New
Year's goal fail to achieve it which is
why I've created a 90-day challenge
designed specifically to ensure that you
hit your goals you really can radically
transform yourself just click the link
below to join me and the entire impact
Theory university community to kick off
2023 right with the impact 90 challenge
alright guys now back to the episode
and I'm doing it with my wife my best
friend the person that I care most about
in the world everything that you're
striving for everything that you're
trying to do and accomplish if you don't
have people that you love and care about
and that you're spending time with it's
all for naught we are a social creature
so optimize your sleep optimize your
diet optimize your exercise and all of
that is going to take care of your
cognition and your energy levels and
your general feeling of well-being which
comes largely from your diet exercise
and sleep and love and if you're doing
all of that in a package and the thing
that you're working towards really
matters to you and to the world
it's about as good as it gets yes a
negative mindset is going to have an
overall impact on your mental health so
anxiety is the easiest one to talk about
because I've experienced it but I think
depression is also going to be hugely
affected by what you allow yourself to
repeat so one core mechanism of the
brain is to understand that while we are
a very active species that's meant to go
out and explore and master our
environment there's a secondary
evolutionary Force pushing on us which
is that we also want to conserve
calories to make sure that we survive
a famine so we have this dual competing
thing of wanting to go out and do cool
hence the Big Dreams and wanting to sit
on the couch and eat a bag of potato
chips hence why we procrastinate why we
feel lazy and the
way that the brain as a physiological
organ has dealt with this dual impulse
challenge over evolutionary time frames
is that it's a process called
myelination and what that does is it's
wrapping fatty tissue around neurons
that fire together at the same time
frequently so this is why they say
neurons that fire together wire together
they are literally getting optimized for
the efficient transmission of these
signals across those synaptic gaps and
the reason that they do this is that it
becomes easier from a caloric
perspective to do those things so now
you've made whatever you repeat whether
it's something empowering or
disempowering whether it's something
that makes you anxious or feel like you
can do anything it's going to make
thinking those thoughts and feeling
those feelings easier from a caloric
perspective it also begins to move it
into What's called the default mode
Network so the default mode network is
responsible for
anything that we'll call automatic
thinking if you've done something a
bazillion times you don't think about
brushing your teeth you just brush your
teeth you don't think about driving to
work oftentimes certainly before the
pandemic you just drive to work and
there were times where you would show up
at work and be like whoa I almost don't
remember the journey getting here and
the reason is that what ends up
happening is your cognition can be put
onto basically something else you're
thinking through daydreaming whatever
and the thing that you do in a
repetitive way is Just Happening
automatically super efficiently and it's
a thing that happens to the brain where
you can scan somebody and go up they're
in the default mode Network right now
and if worry anxiety Panic fear stress
if that's what you're doing all the time
then that's what's going to be moved
over made calorically easier to do moved
into the default mode Network so that by
default that's where you go and this is
where most people spend the majority of
their lives is living in that default
mode network of these emotions that
they've created these very well-worn
paths to looping around over and over to
feeling those feelings over and over and
so you can understand since the body
responds to your
the mental states that you're constantly
in that each of those mental States is
characterized by hormonal and
neurochemical states and the body will
have different long-term consequences
based on what you're feeling so for
instance if you are constantly stressed
or constantly anxious your cortisol
levels are extraordinarily High cortisol
levels begin to damage the um
the elasticity of your blood vessels is
one of the vectors of attack on your
body and so you don't want to stay in
these chronically elevated levels
because it deteriorates the Integrity of
the lining of your blood vessels and
this is the kind of thing that leads to
stroke or coronary heart disease so
being incredibly thoughtful not to loop
on those things which doesn't mean that
there aren't bad things going on in your
life but it does mean that when you
allow yourself to bloop that there is
this hormonal and chemical Cascade as a
response to that that your body will
have negative consequences to or
positive consequences if you're in a
loving calm State a lot and that's the
thing that becomes the default mode
Network that becomes the easiest thing
for you to think and you're in this
really calm and creative state a lot of
times then you're gonna prolong your
life
um so I I hesitate only to say that
because of course there are other
extenuating circumstances like if your
diet is terrible but but you're in that
column and creative state a lot I think
you're still going to run into issues
and quite honestly if your diet is
messed up then the odds of you being
able to stay in that calm and creative
state are very very low because of the
communication that happens between your
brain and your guts getting into
dysbiosis is a whole nother thing but
anyway you want to be very careful the
things that you allow yourself to think
now how do you train yourself to get out
of that
get out of a negative default mode
Network and into a positive default mode
Network so one is something called
pattern interrupting this comes from
cognitive behavioral therapy it's
extraordinarily useful and I highly
encourage you guys to get very deaf to
this and this is simply not allowing
yourself to think certain thoughts and
every time you catch yourself doing it
to pattern interrupt and you remind
yourself you don't do that so for
instance one of the reasons that I don't
get overwhelmed is because I don't allow
myself to be overwhelmed that doesn't
mean that I can carry an infinite load
what it means is every time I can feel
that escalation I can feel like oh my
God this is overwhelming I say to myself
ah you don't do overwhelm and saying
that thought interrupts that pattern and
breaks me out of it brings my conscious
control back in right Victor Frankel
between stimulus and response there is a
gap we want to mind that Gap we want to
get in there insert something like this
statement I don't do overwhelm which
then puts me back into conscious control
and I decide what I want to insert in
terms of the emotion that I want to feel
which of course is more calm more
relaxed able to handle more things
now I also remind myself that doing less
is always an option so if there's just
too many things happening at once 99
times out of 100 even if I'm really in
something busy and there's a lot
happening if I feel overwhelmed coming
on Boom pattern interrupt I don't do
overwhelm and then I'm gonna sit down
I'm gonna deep breathe from my belly
and I'm going to slow things down
and I'm going to let that stuff go and
that's exactly how I'm actually able to
end up doing more because I don't let
that become a runaway process
I pattern interrupted I breathe from my
diaphragm I slow down it doesn't take
long to reset
to get yourself focused and then
typically what I'll do at that point is
shift back into an aggressive mental and
emotional posture which then helps me
push through anything that might
potentially feel overwhelming
and that is the training so you're doing
that pattern interrupt you're doing the
physiological things that you need to do
to shift your state and then you're
inserting yourself back into that Gap
and you do that over and over and over
and over never wasting time being angry
with yourself that you start to feel
overwhelmed but instead being proud of
yourself that you do the pattern
interrupt that you slow things down
and when you reinforce that behavior
that's what begins to wire together and
now over time it becomes this very easy
Loop that happens automatically you
don't even think about it when you start
to feel that sense of overwhelm you
don't get lost in the overwhelm boom you
stop you slow down breathe insert the
aggression in this case I'm just giving
you an example from how I deal with it
but whatever you're going to do to deal
with it
I do something exactly uh similar to
that for anxiety I start to feel the
anxiety build up I'm not going to allow
that to become this runaway process I'm
going to slow down it happens again that
I'm going to breathe from my diaphragm
I'm going to relax I'm going to close my
eyes I'm going to start some sort of
visualization of things going well
instead of going wrong you only get
anxious when you imagine things going
wrong so now I'm going to force myself
to imagine them going well
I'm going to breathe from my diaphragm
doing the physiological work of making
sure I'm shifting State and just do that
over and over and over do you know what
the best way would be to accelerate the
electrical neural Connections in my
brain so I can learn faster change
habits and improve exponentially in my
life working with the neuroplasticity
that you know so well thank you okay so
this is a game of repetition and
understanding that for the reasons that
I just outlaid in the previous question
it just comes down to what you repeat
whatever you repeat then you're going to
get better at that thing better meaning
more efficient from a brain wiring
standpoint it gets easier to do and so
as you think about trying to learn
faster a lot of this is going to be
practice learning you're going to be
learning as much as you can and one
you're going to lay down those neural
Pathways but two and maybe more
importantly is you are going to learn
tips and tricks along the way that will
optimize for exactly you so I'm giving
you all the things that work for me I
think it'll probably work 80 to 85 five
percent exactly the same for you but
there's that 15 percent that's going to
be optimized just for you where you're
like you know what that thing like I'll
give you an example from my own life box
breathing so to meditate
people will typically tell you to
breathe in four equal parts I found that
that didn't work for me so I found by
optimizing for the pleasure cycle of
those four parts of the breast cycle
that it worked perfectly so it was like
85 percent of it was just sitting down
meditating understand how to come back
to the thought understanding how to
breathe from my diaphragm all that that
was by far all of the heavy lifting but
then that little tweak at the end made a
big difference and so by practicing
learning by repeating learning by doing
it over and over by finding out do you
do better when you're reading a physical
book do you do better when you're
listening to audio do you do better on
YouTube videos do you do better on
audiobooks do you do better when you can
take physical notes do you do better
notes handwritten or typed all of these
things so it's it's all the same stuff
but there are going to be little nuances
that are different for you and so
getting in there and doing them over and
over and over that's going to be the key
to learning faster increasing the speed
and then just overall getting better at
that by doing those things over and over
and over so that you get the hard wiring
that you're looking for
next is it possible to train your brain
to control dopamine addiction especially
with things like YouTube games and nfts
that are so all-consuming and addictive
how can you redirect your brain to focus
on your goals all right let's talk about
time management so I am very grateful
that while I have a very obsessive
personality I don't have an addictive
personality and what that means is that
I find it relatively straightforward to
create rules in my life and I highly
encourage anybody to do this whether you
have an addictive or an obsessive
personality or anything else to create
bright lines in your life rules that you
simply don't violate that way there's no
question like imagine if you say
something like
this is actually true for my childhood
my mom would say I don't remember the
exact number but it was something like
13. we could have 13 Doritos
so you're eating your 13 Doritos but
like Dorito number nine was kind of
broken so that doesn't really count as a
full Dorito but then the next one maybe
only has a tiny bit of a corner missing
so you take that when you're like well
they were both broken and so you end up
eating you know the equivalent of more
or maybe you lost count and so you don't
want to cheat yourself of course so you
know at number six maybe you start the
count over so there are all these ways
where you end up in taking more than you
mean to versus saying I only eat Doritos
on a Saturday that way if it isn't
Saturday I'm not eating Doritos and then
if you find well what I end up doing is
on Friday night I stay awake until 1201
so I can eat Doritos go to bed wake up
eat more Doritos if that isn't the
outcome that you want then you say cool
I don't eat Doritos until I've woken up
on a Saturday morning after you know at
least seven hours of being in bed
whatever you need to do to make sure
that you're not getting up in the middle
of the night or only sleeping for hours
because you're so excited to go eat
these are sadly all real things from my
past and so figuring out all of those
things and understanding how you have to
refine your rules so that you can be
very clear about what you do and what
you don't do once you do that now you
can start breaking that dopamine Loop
that people can get into so one area
that I do find that I get into it and I
have to be really thoughtful about this
is this weird loop around checking uh
WhatsApp checking uh Twitter checking my
text messages if I'm moving something
forward in the business so I never do it
just like in my personal life but there
are times where I'm trying to move
something forward in my business I need
to see what the team is doing some
people on the team communicate via
WhatsApp some for text and then on
Twitter if I'm trying to promote
something and so I'll get in this Loop
of just like going going going and each
thing leads to the next and you know
getting to sort of inbox zero and
WhatsApp triggers me to go get to inbox
zero on my text messages triggers me to
go get to inbox zero on Twitter triggers
me to go back to WhatsApp to text and
and I get in this weird crazy loop and
so what I do to end up breaking that
Cycle One becoming aware of it is hugely
important and understanding how that
dopamine cycle works and then two to
make sure that I put confines around it
even if I have to set an alarm normally
I don't because my day is so busy
that I've got to get on to the next
thing but recognizing okay this is
something that I'm prone to and that I
need to have a hard stop because if I
don't have a hard stop that I know that
I'll end up in this Loop and it begins
to not feel good like at first it feels
like I'm making progress I'm pushing
things forward and then at some point it
begins to start to feel really
uncomfortable and like that I have a
compulsion I have to check again I have
to go back and so recognizing that
that's a thing and then instituting
rules so for instance I don't care about
inbox zero I care about moving a project
forward I care very much about time
management I care very much about having
my priorities in order and going down my
list of priorities and once that thing
is no longer a priority even if I see
that a notification comes in and now
there's a message waiting or five
messages waiting or ten messages waiting
I train myself that I'm not even going
to look at that I know that there are
people waiting for a response I've
already moved it forward as much as
makes sense given my time allocation
given my priorities and therefore I'm
going to be completely fine with that
and so one thing I've done is
on almost everything it's not on
everything everything but on almost
everything I've turned off all visible
notifications so that if you were to
pick up my phone it looks like I have
nothing waiting for me there's nothing
in my email nothing in my text nothing
um but there are but I force it so that
I have to go in to check it so there
aren't these little things dripping on
my mind so being very careful about
doing that and then things that are just
pure fun like games or nfts or something
like that again it's it's knowing that
I'm going to allow myself to spend this
much time so for instance having a
bedtime that you stick to is incredibly
important I'd be lying if I said the
nfts haven't led me beyond my bedtime a
few times but I really do try to be
religious so if once or twice out of the
week I end up going say 20 minutes over
my bedtime I'm okay with that we'll call
that a margin of error but if it started
to be a problem then I would put bright
lines then I would say something like I
cannot stay up past my bedtime more than
twice in the seven day period and you do
something like that
and again bright lines are incredibly
effective at making sure that you don't
end up in a behavior pattern that you
don't want to be in
all right and then go look at Andrew
huberman and his work on dopamine and
all the things that he's discussing uh
it's really powerful to understand how
dopamine works and that it isn't
actually rewarding you for getting the
thing it's rewarding desire so dopamine
is the anticipatory neurochemical that
feels good it's exciting to want
something to pursue something and so
once you understand that dopamine is
actually triggering the desire to pursue
it then you're more likely to be able to
break that pattern because you realize
that doing whatever Behavior playing the
games looking at nfts all of that it's
never going to satisfy it you're never
going to be like oh cool now I've had my
fill and I can go stop dopamine is
specifically making you want to do more
of something to pursue it to go after it
to repeat that behavior so be very
thoughtful about that next should you be
hard on yourself or soften yourself how
can you tell if someone's brain is
geared towards hearing negative
affirmations or needs negative
persuasion to get things done okay so
there's is moving towards and there's
moving away and once you understand what
your Baseline personality is are you
more likely to move towards something or
more likely to move away from something
I'm a move towards kind of person so the
vast majority of my life is spent moving
towards the things that excite me call
it 80 and then 20 of the time I find
that moving away from something is very
powerful and what the person asking the
question is referring to in the gym
because I hated it so much and it was so
exhausting it felt like such a waste of
time I had to think about protecting my
wife and that if I wasn't able to get
strong and not be able to protect my
wife that something bad might happen to
her and so that was a real motivation
but if I'm honest as I get into the
Nuance of that it was really the thing
that I would imagine was just ruining
the person trying to get after my wife
and so that it was about me winning in
that scenario being able to dismantle
them and even that was like a move
towards it was moving towards getting
stronger but there's no doubt that there
was some negative impulse air but it's
figuring out from yourself what
motivates you what scenarios does you
imagine them walk through them push you
to do more and then recognizing that
nature has only given us two things
Pleasure and Pain and so the more you
can optimize them both the better now
part of the optimization cycle of
pleasure is understanding that when you
think about the Beautiful Things the
pleasurable things that you want to
bring into this world that you could
soak there you could spend all of your
time there and it would feel wonderful
the negative stuff I think is actually
higher in amplitude in its ability to
incentivize Behavior
but is corrosive and so
um
there are video game references coming
to mind there is a gun in Destiny 2 and
the longer you use it the more it
overheats and it will actually end up
damaging you as you use the gun and so
you have to be careful not to use it too
much because it starts taking away your
own life so that's negative energy all
day so as you are using that negative
energy it works at first and gives you
this real boost
then if you stay there too long it
begins to become a problem both
physiologically and just from a is it
fun living my life perspective so you
want to be really thoughtful I find that
an 80 20 balance is roughly right find
the right balance for you I would be
startled if it was ever more than 20
percent but in my darkest times where I
am just exhausted and cannot bear the
thought of going on any longer
to get that like reinvigoration I need
to only think about the people that are
waiting for me to fail and that gives me
the juice that I need but I try not to
spend a lot of time thinking about that
so be thoughtful in your own life but
both are powerful and I would learn how
to wield both tools
how do you stay up and positive when you
keep getting kicked down things get
worse and before you know it uh you're
buried neck deep and completely lost as
to what to do how do you get back to
Center and Beyond can you break down
step by step how to train your brain to
move past how you see yourself
yes I can so here is how to think about
yourself
number one
recognize that you are hopelessly
average
that way you don't have to think of
yourself as special because that
negative voice in your head is going to
constantly tell you that you're not
special so now just admit you're average
and given the distribution curve the
odds of you being average are
extraordinarily high so your average you
meet what I call minimum requirements so
if you're asking this question you are
smart enough to do all of the amazing
things you want to do in your life you
may not be the best in the world at them
but you'll be able to do extraordinary
things that are going to Dazzle yourself
and other people so step one recognize
that you are average
Step 2 recognize that you're an average
human and the average human has become
the apex predator of all apex predators
because of one simple principle it is
not the strongest of the species that
survive nor the most intelligent but
rather the most adaptive to change as
the average human you are the most
adaptive creature the world has ever
seen so now even being an average
adapter you're going to be able to do
things that are incredible it's what I
call the only belief that matters the
only belief that matters is that if you
put time and energy into getting better
at something you will get better
the second part of this idea is that
skills have utility so you're putting
time and energy into gaining skills and
those skills let you do something in the
world that other people can't do when
you can do something in the world that
other people can't do that the world
values you will always be able to make a
living if you get good at something that
the world values that other people can't
do and you love it now all of the sudden
you're optimizing for a life that fills
you with joy and if you're optimizing
for something that the world values that
other people can't do that you love and
it serves other people as well you now
have the magic formula for fulfillment
and the harder you work to gain that set
of skills that serve yourself and others
you will begin getting feedback from the
world because they value it and you're
out there doing something that lifts
them up so you're lifting them up in a
way that they recognize and value and
inevitably they're going to thank you
for doing that thing thing and that
makes you feel good which makes you want
to go get better at that thing and so
now you go gain more skills in this
thing that was hard that the world
values that you're getting better at
than other people and doing things other
people can do and elevating people in
ways that other people can't Elevate
them they're thanking you for that and
now you're in a virtuous cycle and so
that was the Breakthrough for me was
recognizing I did not need to believe
that I was different or special because
I was having a very hard time doing that
life was showing me that that just
wasn't true that there were so many
people that were better than me and so
dealing with that was emotionally very
difficult in the beginning so that big
First Step was recognizing oh I'm just
hopelessly average but that's okay I'm
the hopelessly average adaptation
machine and now it's a question of what
are my goals what do I love doing what
do I love doing even when I'm failing
even when it's really difficult and as
long as I'm doing something that I find
exciting okay it has to be fun it's got
to be exciting and it elevates other
people now the harder I work at that
thing the better it is for everybody
involved and it becomes this really
magical thing
brain optimization I am joining you from
the gym which is my least favorite part
of brain optimization but it's an
absolutely critical part there are many
things that you can do to get your
cognition at the highest level possible
and I often hear people thinking that
they can grind their way to a better
performance and while working long hours
is certainly one of the strategies that
you can run to get ahead in life I will
say you have to be very careful not to
spend extra hours
in a sub-optimal cognitive State and
that's what most people do is they think
the first thing to go is sleep the
second thing to go is exercise the third
thing to go is Diet things that we're
going to be talking about today and the
reality is that the first thing you want
to do is optimize your cognition so that
all of the hours that you're spending on
your chosen Pursuit are things that are
done at the highest possible level from
a cognitive standpoint now nobody wishes
more than me that you did not need to
pay attention to the body that you could
simply live this entirely cerebral life
and get everything going that way but
the reality is that you cannot separate
the organ of the brain from the rest of
your body this all works in concert much
to my dismay so if you want to be
thinking quickly if you want to be
thinking clearly if you want to be at
your best feeling good operating at a
high level the reality is you must focus
on cognitively optimizing that's we're
going to talk about today
oh
one of the most important things that
you can do is to get yourself in shape
now
I am not a fan of working out in fact it
is very fair to say that I really don't
enjoy working out but when I think about
getting my brain in shape one of the
most important things you can do is get
your blood pumping now I'm also not
going to lie there are cognitive
benefits psychologically if nothing else
to also being strong and looking good
none of those are going to hurt your
feelings but the real reason that I
spend my time in the gym is that you're
sending a very particular signal to your
brain when you're working out and so you
increase the production of things like
bdnf
brain derived neurotropic Factor if I
remember all the letters correctly but
basically you're sending Miracle Grow to
your brain to make sure that you're
creating the optimal neurochemical soup
that you need in order to be performing
at a high level it really has big
impacts on memory and so getting in the
gym getting your blood pumping getting
yourself in good shape is going to be a
critical part of getting rid of brain
fog making sure that you're incredibly
Sharp and making sure that you're
creating the growth factors in your
brain that you need to enhance your
memory and that's going to be a big part
of it so I personally go into the gym
roughly five times a week there are
definitely times where I might miss a
day and there's some weeks where I might
add a day but on average it comes out to
be about five times a week you can do
any kind of different split that you
like but I personally find that weights
over cardio is one it's far more
pleasurable for me and the best workout
is the one that you will actually do and
so I'm far more likely to stick with a
routine that is revolving around weight
lifting now I will often do the weights
at a cardio pace so I'm moving very
quickly in the gym from thing to thing
to thing not a lot of rest between
periods which has a two-fold Effect one
I'm going to move quickly through my
workout so the amount of time that I
need is very low and then the other part
of that is that I'm actually getting
that cardio video workout my heart is
pumping it's a very intense workout and
that way it allows me to basically
combine the two things but some people
prefer to do cardio and certainly
getting yourself in cardio shape can be
very advantageous as well certainly for
heart health for your vasculature all of
that stuff is incredibly important to
maintain well diet exercise and sleep
are going to be the magic Trifecta of a
little bit of meditation thrown in we're
going to cover all of that but then
finding if you're going to do that split
how much can you mix it up now I am
particularly bad about mixing up my
workouts I'm just going to be really
honest but
having some sort of split so you're not
doing your full body every time is going
to be better so the way that I break it
up is for me I do a push pull legs ABS
split so it's a three day cycle that I
rotate through so I typically start with
my back and biceps so that's going to be
your pull and then I go to chest
shoulders triceps on the following day
that's going to be your push and then I
do legs and abs on a separate day and
that's the basic split that I use in my
gym I work out roughly 45 minutes
sometimes an hour sometimes I might be
able to get out a bit faster sometimes I
have to get out faster if I've got a lot
going on for the day but that is the
basic cycle put in the work you will
definitely get the results
all right meditation is one of the most
important things in my life it would be
very fair to say that it changed my life
that is for sure it might it's a little
bit of an exaggeration to say that it
saved my life but it certainly saved my
sanity and I resisted doing it for a
long time and I'm very glad that I
finally met Mark Devine who told me to
stop being ridiculous and to start
meditating and it really was a game
changer so managing your neurochemistry
is one of the single most important
things you can do and understanding how
to shift back and forth between the
sympathetic nervous system and the
parasympathetic nervous system so
sympathetic is the fight or flight
response so many of us that are hard
charging you're going to spend so much
of your time there and it really does
have some sort of cumulative effect so
that after a while you just feel on edge
all the time the sense of you know
something is wrong you just feel
anti-unsettled and and that can get
really unbearable in your life and
meditation is a magical way that nature
has given us where you can reset that to
absolute zero to where you feel
completely calm and creative and
anchored it is truly a phenomenal gift
of evolution that simply
staying in a comfortable position which
I'm literally sitting exactly how I sit
when I meditate I breathe from my
diaphragm down at your belly and that by
bringing your thoughts back only to the
breath back to your breath nice and
simply back to the breath it's going to
wander your mind is going to wander
you're not doing anything wrong when
your mind wanders that is the nature of
the human mind so don't worry that you
have what they call the monkey mind that
your mind is constantly bouncing around
to all these thoughts many of them
negative
just when you realize that your mind is
wandered come back to the breath now I
use headphones when I meditate and I
play the sounds of nature typically my
favorite is a thunderstorm there's
something about hearing the rain and the
occasional crack of thunder that just
keeps bringing me back to the present
moment right there with the sound of
that rain the sound of that Thunder the
rhythm of my breath and then I find when
I maximize the pleasure of each part of
the breath cycle so there are four parts
to the breath cycle there's the inhale
the inhale hold at the top
the exhale
and the exhale hold at the bottom and
then you just repeat that cycle over and
over and I'll do a couple Cycles here so
you can see now oftentimes people will
talk about making each part of the
breast cycle four equal parts I have
found that
optimizing for the pleasure of each part
of the breast cycle is a far more useful
way for me everybody needs to try for
themselves but a far more useful way for
me to get what I call that background
radiation that anxiety that stress all
of that down to zero and so this is what
it looks like for me I sit cross-legged
just because I find it comfortable you
don't need to whatever's comfortable for
you I put my hands in my lap I have
found there's something weird about
touching my hands together ever so
lightly that I don't know if it creates
like a circle of energy I don't know it
sounds cheesy but that's how it feels
and then I close my eyes and again I
would normally have my headphones over
my ears listening to the sound of a
thunderstorm and then I just start my
breath I breathe in through my nose and
out through my mouth but whatever feels
right for you so this is what it looks
like for me
foreign
can't help but be relaxed doing that
even just right now here on camera and
the key thing is you'll notice that for
me I hold at the top of the inhale for a
very brief period of time but then I
hold the exhale for a much longer period
of time and the only reason that I do
that is that it feels better and so
finding that Rhythm for you is going to
be the key and then I meditate for the
exact amount of time that it takes me to
get completely calm and creative so that
I have no background radiation no sense
of stress no sense of anxiety sometimes
it takes two minutes sometimes it takes
45 minutes now it's never taken me
longer than 45 minutes even at the most
stressed out and anxious I've ever been
in my life which is extraordinarily
stressed uh it's never taken me more
than 45 minutes to get to pleat
Equanimity and
that is worth its weight in gold now my
wife does not enjoy meditating but she
does enjoy drawing where she gets into a
very meditative State now I think that
if she let herself off the hook and stop
thinking that there's ever going to be a
time where her mind doesn't wander off
onto things and just realize that's part
of it and you just come back to the
breath and you're going to get better at
it over time that you would get
additional benefit from traditional
meditation but
something anything in your life that's
meditative maybe it's the gym maybe it's
drawing maybe it's cooking whatever your
thing is finding something that makes
you feel absolutely calm and creative
find that thing at a biological level
it's going to help you and few things
will help you optimize your cognition
better the meditation so develop that
practice I promise you'll reap the
rewards the truth is hitting your career
goals is not easy you have to be willing
to go the extra mile to stand out and do
hard things better than anybody else but
there are 10 steps I want to take you
through that will 100x your efficiency
so you can crush your goals and get back
more time into your day you'll not only
get control of your time you'll learn
how to use that momentum to take on your
next big goal to help you do this I've
created a list of the 10 most impactful
things that any High achiever needs to
dominate and you can download it for
free by clicking the link in today's
description alright my friend back to
today's episode
all right welcome to where the bottle is
won or lost now all of the things that
we're talking about today are important
for cognitively optimizing but very few
will have the deleterious effect of
failing to get your diet right as
somebody who went through a brief period
where I could not understand what was
going on I had brain fog I was tired it
literally felt like I had lost my will
to fight it was crazy it was the
weirdest period of my life as it relates
to diet that is for sure and the culprit
ended up being pecans I still can't
believe that that is true but I know
that if you're not feeling good in life
at a physiological level the first thing
you should do is ask what am I eating a
lot of and then cut that out it is
shocking how much your diet impacts your
cognition so now what I'm showing you is
basically everything that I eat now full
disclosure if I make any error in my
life it is that I don't eat a wide
enough variety of foods but I'm going to
be honest with you about what I eat so
this is my Monday through Friday diet in
its entirety with the exception of
jicama I don't have any jicama but I do
eat a fair amount of that all right so
the vast majority of my calories so I
eat a lot of meat and the vast majority
of my calories this is a sponsor but
they're a sponsor because it's real so
Lisa and I in trying to fix her gut
needed a good source of grass fed and
grass finished Meats so we get our Meats
almost exclusively from butcherbox again
they're a sponsor but that is not why I
eat them uh I eat a lot of eggs so
intake calories a fair amount from eggs
and then between the different meat
sources that we get I have found that
consuming a lot of vegetable matter does
not sit well with meat I'm perfectly
willing to accept that if I were to
transition my microbiome slowly over
time that it may work but I have not
found that advantageous but I do eat a
fair amount of green leafy vegetables
three of my favorites right here you've
got bok choy you've got kale and collard
greens are ones that I particularly
enjoy I also eat a lot of carrots and
then for a snack I'll have berries so
it's something very sweet almost always
either blueberries raspberries sometimes
blackberries but those are the ones that
I eat
olive oil extra virgin olive oil is the
um the only oil that I use so be very
very thoughtful about getting vegetable
oil so
vegetable oils a they rancify even just
sitting on the shelf and then they have
a very low flash point or smoke point so
you can damage the fats in cooking I use
olive oil largely because it has a high
smoke point so it doesn't tend to get
damaged in a normal cooking process of
course if you cook it too high or too
long it can
um and I probably get about I don't know
60 to 65 of my calories
um from meats and
if you throw in the eggs maybe it goes
closer to 70 75 of my calories
um and that's all that I eat Monday
through Friday now on the weekends I eat
differently so on the weekends I have a
fair amount of sushi uh but it's mostly
what I'll call clean sushi so it's
things like baked crab hand rolls so
it's basically crab rice and avocado
and that helps me mix things up I'll
also get some of the things you see here
or maybe like a beef burger I don't eat
the bun or anything like that it's
literally just the Patty which I tend to
mix with eggs or bacon and
yeah that's my diet now in terms of what
I drink I'm not sponsored by these guys
uh just so happens that I mix
cold brewed coffee because I don't like
hot liquids
and again no sponsorship or anything but
I drink Perrier water and I mix them
together and that's very weird for
people but I don't like the idea of
being addicted to caffeine so I like to
keep my caffeine intake very very low so
what I do is I take one of these and I
normally have an empty one and I'll pour
some from the full one into the empty
one so that I get about a third of the
coffee that I mix with the water and I
continue every drink that I take I add
more water until it reaches a point
where I can sort of just barely taste
the coffee and the only reason I do that
is that when you don't drink anything
other than water it gets a little bit
tedious so one I like the sparkling
water and two I like to mix it with the
coffee just to get a little bit of a
different flavor and the reason that I
chose coffee is I didn't want to drink
anything that humans haven't been
drinking for thousands of years that was
the idea and that actually made a big
difference in my anxiety levels once I
cut out all of my
um
artificially sweetened beverages so I
was drinking a lot of zero calorie
monster and a lot of Diet Coke and I
missed them and they're amazing and to
anybody that drinks them I get it but I
had begun to notice a tie between having
that and feeling anxious and so I
decided to cut it out and just see if it
would help and it helped massively I'll
say it probably reduced my anxiety by
about 70 percent which is massive so um
that's been a big win so
this is it now on the weekends on a
Saturday I may have a full-blown cheat
meal I don't do it every weekend but I
absolutely do it when I'm in the mood it
tends to be something like Cold Stone
ice cream which I absolutely love
um so I'm very thoughtful about how
often I do that very thoughtful about
monitoring my blood glucose levels in
fact literally just off camera is a new
blood glucose monitor that I'm excited
to try out a continuous glucose monitor
and I think it's really important to
understand what your average glucose
level is like where are you spending the
most of your time and then another big
part of my strategy is intermittent
fasting and so I will intermittent fast
seven days a week there literally isn't
a day even during the Christmas season
where I'm totally off the chain in terms
of my normal diet even then I'll do
intermittent fasting and I do that one
for cognition it is hugely valuable to
staying sharp to have these long periods
of time without eating and then usually
one to two times a year I'll do an
extended fast and some of them might
only be 24 hours other times it might be
up to 72 hours I've done a full five day
fast before that was miserable though
and I don't plan to be repeating that
unless some new evidence comes out that
really shows that there's a huge
difference between a 72-hour fast and a
five-day fast I just found that it was
like having the flu I couldn't pay
attention it was just horrible and I'm
somebody who's keto adapted so for me to
really struggle at the five days like it
it negatively impacted my business which
is something that I don't like to do and
certainly had a negative impact on my
cognition I find a 24-hour fast it's
pretty amazing longer than that and I do
find that it has negative impact on my
performance so I do limit that but every
day literally every day my average is
probably about 17.5 hours so that means
there are some days that I'm doing call
it 19 hours and then other days in the
weekend we're all due typically 16 ish
hours but in the wash it comes out to
about 17.5 when you factor it over the
course of a year but that intermittent
fasting is something that I do all the
time every day it's just a natural part
of my life and the way that I do that is
I have my last meal around 1 15 2 p.m at
the latest and then I don't eat again
until the following morning and then
I'll usually eat somewhere between eight
and nine sometimes a little earlier
sometimes a little bit later
depending on what I'm doing that day but
making sure that I get that average of
17.5 hours has been incredibly
beneficial so there's all kinds of
health benefits but in terms of its
impact on body composition and cognition
it really can't be beat especially when
your diet consists of whole food and
that's the thing other than the olive
oil everything that you see here on this
table
is the thing that you would see out and
about so the bacon looks like the Flesh
of a pig as it is and the eggs obviously
are just whole eggs the carrots carrots
the berries berries the vegetable
vegetables and so not eating processed
food eating Whole Food where during the
week I'm going to guess 95 percent of my
calories even including a week where I
cheat
92 to 95 of my calories are going to
come from Whole Food and that's that's
been a huge win in terms of how I feel
how I sleep
cognition all of it is vastly improved
by whole food so that's my easy advice
to people is to eat whole food whenever
possible and that's my diet
all right let's talk about the Big Daddy
of all things related to cognitive
optimization and that is sleep if I were
going to say the two most important
things that you can do to optimize your
cognition is sleep and eat right those
are the big ones but sleep is the one
that will impact you the fastest you
could mess up your diet for a day two
days maybe even a week before it really
starts to hammer you but man you miss
one night's sleep and there is a
catastrophic Cascade of biological
problems that will present themselves
rapidly so somebody that gets I think
less than six hours of sleep a night
shows the same kind of blood glucose
response as somebody who's pre-diabetic
so that gives you an idea of missing
only part of one night's sleep can have
that kind of massive cellular impact so
being incredibly thoughtful about
getting your sleep is super important
now as somebody who loves hustle porn
and being hardcore and working an
amazing amount
I do all of that with precious little
negative impact to my sleep I won't say
that it never happens especially not
since I've gotten into nfts it is there
has been some wobble in my perfect sleep
record
um but it's really minor and the reason
that I do that is to me being tired is a
unique ring of hell I do not understand
people who are prepared to go their
entire lives fatigued it makes
everything worse your ability to enjoy
your life goes down you're likely to
being depressed goes way up your
likelihood of having metabolic
disturbances goes way up there there's
just so many things go wrong and then of
course the most traumatically impacted
is your ability to think clearly and
think quickly if you've ever gone even
one night with bad sleep let alone two
or three nights you can feel yourself
declining rapidly in performance in fact
if you take somebody that hasn't gotten
any sleep and put them in a car they
have the same sort of delays that
somebody who's intoxicated has so the
impacts on cognition cannot be
overstated so
be very careful if you're trying to be
at your best and really perform at an
elite level the thing that you must do
is get sleep so make sure that you're
prioritizing your sleep now how do we do
that how do we get sleep done in a high
quality way number one is you want to
make sure that you're sleeping in a
completely dark environment so no Night
Lights hopefully no even like charging
lights or things like that now one way I
do to make myself absolutely bulletproof
not only do I have blackout curtains but
I sleep with the blankets completely
over my head now admittedly it didn't
start for reasons of light pollution but
now as I get older I'm actually grateful
and have my whole life I've had this
pattern of sleeping with the blankets up
over my head which I know for some
people is a just nightmare scenario but
for me it's like I mean if I'm honest
it's like sleeping in a womb it's just
to be completely encased is so wonderful
and it makes me feel so relaxed
absolutely incredible uh and then the
other thing that I do is I use white
noise and so to make sure that there are
no little noises that are going to wake
me up in the middle of the night I have
white noise basically sounds like a fan
um but from a little machine that plays
that consistent sound and that helps me
sleep incredibly well and then because
my mind is so frequently in problem
solving mode what I've found is that
about 30 minutes before I go to bed I
switch into narrative mode and so I'm
going to be reading a book I use Audible
but I'm going to be listening to a book
that shifts my mind out of problem
solving mode into narrative mode and
then if I wake up in the middle of the
night I keep next to me three pairs of
iPod Pros so that I can put them in I
listen to the book it makes sure that I
don't go into problem solving mode that
I can can stay there in narrative mode
and I turn the volume down just to the
point where a little bit of pressure on
my ear is required to hear them
perfectly and so I'll put that bit of
pressure listen to the story and then as
I fall asleep that pressure comes off my
ear and now I can barely hear it and I
fall right back to sleep now I will give
you the advanced tip which is don't pick
an audiobook that has a bunch of murder
in it because then you wake up to the
narrator screaming and yelling and that
was waking me up so I had to learn the
hard way that there's a certain type of
book that's a good engaging story but
doesn't have narration where you know
there's yelling and screaming at any
point in the story and yeah the last
thing that I will say about my sleep is
that I go to bed at the same time every
night which is 9 p.m I treat it like a
religion I go to bed every night at that
time sometimes a few minutes earlier if
I can convince Lisa
and then the second part of that is that
I don't set an alarm so I haven't set an
alarm for the last 16 17 years at this
point so trust me you can do amazing
incredible things in your life without
needing to set an alarm I get as much
sleep as I need now I don't have kids so
that is no doubt a big part of how I'm
able to maintain that but the more that
if you do have kids you can sleep closer
to their sleep rhythms to make sure that
you're getting as much sleep as you need
and let me tell you if I had kids and I
needed to go to bed at 7 pm I would go
to bed at 7 pm so I'm gonna go to bed at
whatever time I need to in order to get
all the sleep that I need if you need
nine hours get nine hours your brain
shrinks in the middle of the night which
basically the inflammation is going down
so that the glial system can flush
everything out get rid of any toxins
that might be building up in the system
get rid of the amyloid plaques which are
very present in people that have
Alzheimer's probably doesn't cause
Alzheimer's but nonetheless lets you
know that it's doing some something that
we don't necessarily want sticking
around and I said the glial system and I
think I mean the lymphatic system
somebody will have to fact check me on
that because I'm actually not sure which
but the brain shrinks nonetheless and
allows you to clear out that system so
being very thoughtful to get as much
sleep as you need so that you can enjoy
your life
so that on a biological cellular level
that you're able to run all your
processes so that you're able to do all
the memory consolidation all the things
that go along with the ancillary effects
to sleeping and then making sure that
you're able to think
as clearly sharply and quickly as
possible and all of those things come
down to the quality of your sleep
the quality of your diet
the quality of your exercise and your
ability to manage your psychological
life which we can do most easily through
meditation
so
that in a bundle my friends is how you
take care of yourself cognitively to
make sure that you can deliver an elite
level of performance day after day week
after week month after month year after
year let me tell you why so many people
procrastinate and experience laziness
number one the most important reason is
people just don't want it badly enough
that is the hard truth that not a lot of
people want to face but the reality is
when you're struggling to get something
done you have a desire problem there is
a very famous story that I think
perfectly encapsulates what you have to
harness if you really want to accomplish
something difficult think of somebody
drowning being held underwater and
desperately wanting that next breath of
air is the person lets them up and being
dunked back under and held back up and
dunked back under every time that
they're under and they're being held
under think about how badly you want
that next breath of air you would Claw
at their flesh you would tear at their
eyes if you could get a hold of it you
would flip yourself over you would go do
deeper into the water to try to push
yourself back up you would do anything
including kill the person that is
holding you underwater to get your next
breath when you want success that badly
you will find a way and when it comes to
being an entrepreneur when it comes to
being successful that's what I always
tell people success is a game of problem
solving but you have to really want to
solve that problem and the only way to
really want to solve that problem is to
build your desire so people have to
understand everything in life is a
process love
is a process you go on dates I don't
believe and love at first sight lust
sure Evolution took care of that for you
but nobody loves at First Sight you
don't know the person well enough you
haven't done the Reps you haven't gotten
to know them you haven't spent the time
with them you haven't developed love
that's why we have dating that's why
first it's dates and maybe not a lot of
commitment it's just getting to know
them and then it's like whoa we're
getting a little bit more serious and
then it's an engagement and then it's
the wedding and then it's the actual
life live together it is a process love
even changes colors and textures as you
go so that in the beginning it's a very
lustful all-consuming drug-like effect
you can actually put somebody
in an fmri machine and scan their brain
and at the beginning in that passionate
love phase there is no difference on an
fmri between somebody who is in love and
thinking of the person that they're in
love and somebody who's on cocaine they
are identical scans
but over time that changes into
something more mature and I would say
more wonderful more sustainable more
incredible now once you understand that
desire in and of itself whether it's for
another person whether it's for a goal
is a process of building desire then you
realize that you can go through that
process you can build up that desire so
when you think about that person having
their head held underwater you can build
that level of intensity in your life to
want something so badly the only way
that you're going to do it the only way
that you're going to escape laziness is
by attaching meaning and purpose to that
thing that you want you have to want it
for a reason as Simon sinek would say
you have to start with why why do I want
this thing and you're tapping into the
evolutionary drivers that you have
embedded in your brain that are going to
compel you to get better
that's a huge part of this whole process
to serve not only yourself but the group
and get to the point where you can
translate your potential into usable
skill set so when you're doing those
three things when you're transferring
your potential making it usable skill
set that's allowing you to actually make
progress at something that you care
about and serving not only yourself but
other people now you're going to get
into this positive feedback loop that's
light falling in love you're going to be
building that desire because you're
getting good at something progress is a
foundational pillar to human happiness
if you're progressing okay this is
evolution embedding something in your
brain you have a desire to progress
period end of story if you are a human
being you have an embedded deeply
embedded desire
to get better you will never feel a
sense of progress you won't feel good
about yourself you will have a profound
sense of disease if you're not improving
why because that was Nature's Way of
ensuring that you went out and did the
hard things that you would need to do to
feed your family to keep the group
intact to protect yourself from the
devastatingly vicious nature of nature
nature is doing its best to kill you at
all times okay whether it's from
starvation exposure to the elements or
being attacked by a predator we were at
risk constantly throughout our
evolutionary past and all of those
directives that nature had to give us
and implant deep in our brains to make
sure that we went out of the safety of
the cave to go get that next meal to go
find a mate to fight to raise our kids
to make sure that they had kids all of
those things that nature had to embed in
our brain still exist in us today and
they govern our wants desires Behavior
so if we don't take the time to build
add up to Fan those Flames to get us
hyped about this thing that we want to
do for whatever reason if we don't do
that then the laziness kicks in which is
the flip side of the evolutionary coin
so side number one you better get out
you better go do something you better
hunt you better take these risks you
better protect your family you better be
a tough nut that is going to contribute
to the group otherwise you're going to
get ostracized you're going to get left
behind and you're going to die laziness
is about yo this is hard finding
calories is tough you've got to go out
and forage hunt kill Chase
defend yourself against this thing that
you're trying to take down and once you
get those calories it was a lot of work
and oftentimes you had very little to
show for it especially if we're talking
plant matter which from a caloric
standpoint is not very dense and it's
not like it is today where we have Farms
everywhere you had to literally hunt and
forage in dangerous spaces in order to
get those calories so you had to have a
competing desire to chill so you've got
this desire pushing you forward to make
sure that you do hard things to make
sure that you're progressing
contributing getting better but then
over here you've got this weird ass
completely contradictory desire to chill
because the brain if nothing else there
are two things that just goggle calories
and that is muscle and brain and your
brain by far is the hungriest thing in
your body it's something like two
percent of your body weight and takes up
20 to 25 of your caloric intake just to
run your brain so you can imagine if
you've got muscles gobbling calories
even at rest you've got your brain just
mowing through calories to keep you
alive to leverage your intelligence then
you better have a directive embedded in
your brain that once you've gone out and
done the thing whether it's hunt protect
mate whatever that you then relax so
you're always going to have these two
competing desires it is a very weird
part of The Human Experience so to
overcome that laziness you've got to
have a very compelling reason to go out
and Hunt especially when the grocery
store is right down the street and for
very cheap you can get plentiful
calories you can swipe left or swipe
right and decline or find a potential
mate right everything has gotten so easy
you have to have a compelling reason to
go out and do these hard things but if
you don't then you have this profound
sense of disease because again progress
is a foundational pillar of human
happiness so people procrastinate
because nature is telling them to
procrastinate they are lazy because
nature is compelling them to be lazy and
if you don't build the desire to
overcome those things if you don't build
that up walk that process do the things
that you need to do to Fan the Flames of
Desire then you won't you will chill
you will relax
because that's how nature designed you
so you have to go down the process of
building desire now the process of
building desire is very simple and I
will walk you through it it goes like
this you're going to tell yourself your
why I am doing this for this reason I
want this goal for this reason for me I
want to build this Mega Media Company
because I believe that the only way to
break the relationship between your zip
code and your success is through ideas
that it is a mindset problem a belief
problem a value system problem it is not
a money problem you can actually just by
where you live dramatically increase the
likelihood that somebody will remain
poor generationally okay that's an idea
problem that's a mindset problem it's a
it's a way to think about the problem
problem it's not an IQ problem plenty of
smart people it's an idea problem since
I believe that and I believe that the
best way to get ideas across is through
story I'm building a media company to
help people people like the people that
I have known and loved that did not
succeed because they had the wrong frame
of reference now the idea of frame of
reference is beyond the scope of today's
video because I've known extraordinary
people smarter than me that did not end
up having success that they could have
had if they had that right set of ideas
I have dedicated my life to building
this Media company that gives me a
pretty compelling why they're people
that I know and love that I can think of
when it gets hard and I'm exhausted I'm
tired and I do not want to keep going I
don't think about money I don't think
about adulation I don't think about
recognition all I think about is those
people having a better life or their
kids having a better life and that is
what propels me forward or I flip to the
dark side and I think about the people
that want me to fail again this may be
outside of the scope of what we're
talking about today but I have these
things that I tap into that fan the
Flames of my wanting that make me want
it
badly and when I can capture that sense
of wanting the success the way that a
drowning man wants that next breath of
air then I have the willingness to fight
to keep pushing to do the thing so I'm
going to tell myself I'm going to tell
other people that I want this thing I'm
going to repeat it I'm going to be
saying it internally I'm going to be
saying it externally Fanning those
flames and most importantly and you've
been watching me do it this whole time
I'm going to embody the emotion that I
want to feel so when I say it I don't
say it like this
I want to help break the relationship
between your zip code and your future
success instead I say there are people
that I know and love that are smarter
than me that haven't achieved half of
what they could have achieved because
they had the wrong ideas as I embody
that and somewhat act out the emotion
that I want to feel there's a part of my
brain that everybody has that goes why
are we getting so hyped up about this
we're getting this hyped up about it for
some reason oh that's right because
people that we know and love have
struggled in life because they didn't
have these ideas and as my brain relates
that feeling to that story they begin to
get intertwined and now I can trigger
that emotional state simply by
remembering the people that I'm trying
to help so that's a part of the brain
that you really want to leverage so that
as you think about this you can
recapture that physiological State and
when you can change State at will simply
by remembering the kind of people that
you're trying to help or the goal that
you're trying to achieve the reason
behind it now when you get tired when
you're procrastinating when you feel
lazy you can tap into that the desire
kicks in and now you've got the juice
that you need to push forward take the
time it's a very simple process take the
time to build that desire tell yourself
tell other people repeat it like crazy
and then make sure that you embody the
emotion and then just repeat repeat
right if you're trying to accomplish
something extraordinary in your life
there's one thing that can really become
a problem and that's burnout now I think
that most people if I'm being quite
honest are spending way more time giving
into laziness and burnout is probably
not the thing that they have to watch
out for but they are two sides of a coin
so you want to be very thoughtful about
pushing yourself not allowing yourself
to be lazy not accepting that or
tolerating that in yourself which most
people do and it has become very
fashionable to be anti-work and I'm
telling you right now if you're
anti-work if you're looking for ways to
be lazy you are going to get your lunch
Eden you are going to get mowed over
because there are people out there who
understand one immutable truth skills
have utility skills have utility okay as
Kobe Bryant used to say booze
don't block dunks people can hate you
all they want but if you can outperform
them they can't stop you they cannot
stop you there were people very
talented highly paid people that scouted
the entire Globe looking for people that
could play basketball better than Kobe
Bryant they were paid millions of
dollars every night and their sole job
was to stop Kobe Bryant from scoring and
yet despite that he scored 81 points in
a single game because he got better than
they were and if you get better than
somebody else you can outperform them
you can do things they can't do skills
have utility now if you remember that
and you really put that at the core of
your existence and you push yourself and
push yourself and push yourself then you
can accomplish extraordinary things now
on the journey to doing that if you know
that you are leaving it all out on the
field now you can earn The credibility
with yourself to check to make sure that
you're not burning out burnout is a
totally separate Beast burnout happens
when you become pathological about
getting better about pushing yourself
and it no longer is about what it should
be about which is an end mental state
because you are playing a game of
neurochemistry make no mistake about it
the sole purpose of life is to be
fulfilled to work really hard to Garner
a set of skills that serve not only
yourself but other people if you are
doing that if you are pouring your guts
out every day doing everything that you
can to get better at something that
matters to you so that you can serve not
only yourself but other people and yes
you should serve yourself as well but
you also need to be committing
contributing to the group if you're
doing that if you are going all out
every day and achieving that level of
fulfillment then life is going to be
amazing if however you're not focusing
on that and you're living by a set of
rules that like for instance I have
rules in my life Monday through Friday
if I'm awake I'm either working or
working out that is a rule that I live
by unless I'm burning out unless it
stopped being fun unless
through all of this I'm pushing myself
too hard and even though I'm doing all
of the things that I just laid out I'm
working my ass off to Garner a set of
skills that allow me to serve not only
myself but other people but I hate my
life then I know that I'm burning out
and then I need to back off and let me
tell you the reason that I can have a
rule in my life that Monday through
Friday if I'm awake I'm either working
or working out is because I trust myself
to do two things one leave it all out on
the field I play to win and I play to
win every day and number two if I'm
burning out I do less I cannot tell you
the number of times I've seen incredible
people not be able to do less if you
don't trust yourself that's a whole
nother issue that needs to be dealt with
but if you're leaving it all out on the
field and you don't have a release valve
you will burn out and you will stop and
you will actually get less done this is
like people that don't prioritize sleep
as hard as I go you'll notice I say if
I'm awake if I'm awake because I pray
prioritize sleep I get as much sleep as
I need it is rare I may work up wake up
to an alarm 10 times in a year I mean
it's really a vanishingly small number
of times that I will wake up to an alarm
most of the time I'm able to just sleep
as much as I want and I have built
several successful businesses all
without needing to set an alarm you
prioritize sleep you can get efficient
so you got to prioritize your mental
health I don't understand people who
don't do that you're living for the
wrong thing you're living for external
validation other people's praise you're
trying to impress your parents you're
trying to make a certain amount of money
you're mistaking something as the punch
line of Life the punch line of life is
not money it's not fame it's not
recognition adulation it's none of those
things it's just fulfillment that's it
it is a neurochemical state you will
respect yourself if you're fulfilled you
will have self-worth if you're showing
up every day playing to win in a way
that serves you and other people if you
follow that fulfillment formula
everything else is going to take care of
itself unless
you don't know when to quit one of the
rules that you need to have in your life
is if you are unable to achieve
fulfillment because you're burning out
because you don't recognize that Tuesday
that you just need a day off because
you've been going too hard you've been
pushing yourself too much you're
starting to get poor sleep whatever the
triggers are for you depression is a big
one overly anxious not being able to eat
or eating too much depending on how you
deal with stress not being able to enjoy
your life not being able to enjoy the
smile of a loved one not being able to
enjoy your favorite song all of the
things like that where you can't shift
your state where you're locked in that
negativity all of those are signs that
you're burning out if you've been
working hard because you can have those
same symptoms by being lazy so you are
going to have to structure your life
build rules be accountable to yourself
to make sure that you're actually living
up to your end of the bargain what's
your end of the bargain you have a goal
and that goal is something that you
believe passionately about you have
started with why you're trying to do
something that matters that serves not
only yourself but other people if you're
doing all of that going all out and
you're not feeling good you're either
pointed in the wrong direction or you're
burning out so be very thoughtful but
remember most people
fail on the lazy side they never get to
burnout what are some practical steps
that I can take to introduce discipline
into my everyday routine all right the
key when it comes to discipline one you
have to know what it is that you're
trying to achieve and why
and why you want to achieve it once you
know what you're trying to do and why
you're trying to achieve it then we're
going to put rules in place so when you
have rules and you know these are the
things I do these are the things I don't
do they are bright lines in your life we
can start to create some routines and
habits that are going to take us where
we want to go so I'll give you some
rules in my life especially at the
really it's the night before and the
morning of so that every day is set off
for Success so rule number one I go to
bed at 9 00 PM like it's a religion so
that way I'm going to get as much sleep
as I need I almost never wake up to an
alarm
because I just want to make sure that I
get plenty of sleep so rule number one
brightline go to bed at nine rule number
two I'm out of bed in 10 minutes or less
so from the moment I realize I'm awake
I'm getting out of bed in 10 minutes or
less now the reason I need that rule
even all these years later because I
first put that rule in my life in my
early 20s the reason that I put that in
place is because I was laying in bed
four to five hours a day every day and
getting absolutely nothing done and so I
realized that if I didn't have that rule
if I didn't just have a mandate a bright
line a non-negotiable that I got out of
bed in 10 minutes or less I was never
going to get anything done now
you have to have that goal and that
reason otherwise you're not going to
stick to your goal and so a big part or
you're not going to stick to your rule a
big part of your discipline is knowing
why you're doing all of this so I had
all these big dreams and quite frankly
had shame because I was at that point
engaged to my now wife and I felt like I
was letting her down the family down
because I wasn't
actually taking steps to make my dreams
come true so trust me when I say that if
you don't build the desire if you don't
really want something that makes it
worth having these rules you're not
going to stick with it so out of bed in
10 minutes or less next thing is I sat
beside my bed my workout clothes so it's
not like a big debate whether or not I'm
going to work out I put my workout
clothes on I give my dog his medicine
long story and then I go and work out
and it just makes it easy when the very
thing there next to your bed are your
workout clothes
the next thing I do is I make sure that
I always have an important things list
so that I don't have to think or wonder
what should I be doing I know exactly
what I should be doing with the next 15
minutes of my life because I keep that
list of important things that I would
need to do in order to take meaningful
steps towards my goal and because I
really want my goal I've built all that
desire it becomes very easy for me to
stick with it
so those are some really simple
practical steps that you can put in
right now
know what you want
build the desire to get there put in
rules that optimize your time and get
rid of any and all excuses and sort of
weak moments because I find people that
have to hmm what should I be doing they
get distracted they end up living by the
law of accident so go to bed at the
right time have rules about getting out
of bed put your gym clothes or whatever
is important to you right there if you
know the first thing you want to do when
you wake up is get to work or whatever
make sure that whatever work implements
you have your laptop whatever this is
not what I advise but I'm just saying
whatever that thing is is important to
you grab it and get going and then keep
an important things list that's in order
so that you know exactly what to do
first what to do second third fourth so
on and so forth and if you do that
and you have those bright lines you'll
be off to a very good start
all right
what tools do you use to keep yourself
dedicated and focused on your main
priority on a daily basis all right so
much of what I do and how I'm able to
accomplish the things that I'm able to
accomplish is because I've taken the
time to actually build the desire to
want the thing that I'm chasing now a
big part of that is assigning meaning
and purpose to your goals your goals
should not be random they should not be
designed to make you rich even if that's
a second or third order consequence
great but the primary goal should be
something that gives you meaning and
purpose now when you have meaning and
purpose you will be willing to fight
through the lame the boring the
difficult okay I've said many times
boredom kills more dreams than fear than
failure it's you get in there and to get
good enough to do the thing you want to
do it's really boring you have to do a
lot of stuff that you do not want to do
over and over and over and so the only
way for you to have the stamina to see
that through is to really want that
thing you're pursuing now if you really
want that thing you're pursuing and
you've tied meaning and purpose so back
at Quest
it's real boring being under the
equipment trying to fix it
but I was there fighting for my mom and
my sister I wanted to end metabolic
disease I wanted to make sure that they
lived long enough that I could enjoy
their company for decades and decades
and decades to come but to do that the
price for that if you will was I had to
create food that they could choose based
on taste and it happened to be good for
them
at impact Theory I am trying to make
sure that nobody gets to the age of 15
without encountering a growth mindset
through story at scale and so all the
boring things dealing with finance and
contracts and all of that stuff
I do it because I really believe in the
people that I'm trying to help and I
have deeply personal connections with
the with people that I've encountered in
my life that because they didn't
encounter a growth mindset in those
years they have struggled needlessly in
their lives and so that really matters
to me so when it gets hard when I get
bored I can stay focused because I
really have this deep spiritual quite
frankly connection with what I'm trying
to do it isn't about making money it's
not about getting famous it's about
helping people that I love and care
about and so when you have that you're
going to be able to keep yourself
focused and on your main priority and
then if you actually believe that you
can accomplish it that helps and so uh
you need to believe that you can get
good enough you don't have to believe
you already are good enough but you need
to believe that you can get good enough
in order to achieve this
how do you decide on what you want to
dedicate yourself to how do you keep
yourself focused on that goal while
other opportunities are opening up to
you or unforeseen obstacles come up okay
here is how life works if you're trying
to achieve something great with your
life right now I know exactly what's
happening to you you are metaphorically
standing in a room with a thousand doors
there are many things you're excited
about many things you could do so many
opportunities before you
the hard part isn't finding opportunity
the hard part is standing in a room full
of opportunity and knowing out of those
thousand doors that are open to you how
to close
999 of them and have the courage to walk
through just one most people are so
dazzled distracted so worried that
they're going to choose the wrong one
that they never step through one and so
my advice you is just run around closing
doors like crazy walk through one with
Reckless abandon knowing that you can
always come back the other side and try
something else and also
if you're young don't prematurely
optimize go through a bunch of doors
come back go in come back out go in come
back out try a bunch of different things
find the things that excite you the most
find the things that the more you engage
with it
the more interested you become
if you engage with something and over
time it starts to lose interest for you
that's not the right door
if on the other hand the more you learn
about it the more you engage with it the
more you're like man this is so fun
that's what you're looking for you're
looking for something that gives you
more energy than it takes if it's taking
more energy than it gives this is not
the door for you so you want to find
that thing where the more that you
engage with it the more fascinating it
becomes now if you do that
and the only thing that you pursue is
the thing that's giving you more energy
and again it's going to give you more
energy because there's something innate
about it that's fun and you did what we
talked about earlier where you figured
out why you wanted it you started
assigning meaning and purpose I'm doing
this to save my mom and my sister
whatever the case may be but you're
assigning something to it that is deeply
personal that really makes sense with
that thing
and now when an unforeseen obstacle
comes your way you know why you're
fighting for this and you will push
through that boredom because it's
something that you know on balance you
love anyway and you're fighting for
something that matters to you when you
get that magical cocktail as Frederick
Nietzsche said a man with a strong
enough y can endure any how
so you need that strong y to keep you
focused to ignore all the other
obstacles and opportunities to really go
after that thing and to have tested
you've tried a lot of things you did not
prematurely optimize so I know that this
one is good for me I know that I'm not
because a lot of people they end up just
they like the beginning and so in the
beginning
I know I'm here I'm ready to fight this
is good and then as time wears on
laziness kicks in
they like distraction maybe they have
ADHD they want the next dopamine hit
they pick up their phone and suddenly
they think it's oh well this Tom said to
only do the one that gives me more
energy this doesn't give me enough
energy I'm gonna go try something else I
would say once you've done the early
exploration you know of 15 20 different
things and found some to give you more
energy than they take then if more than
three times you find yourself starting
only to stop and want to start over
again that is you're lacking grit Angela
Duckworth has a book called grit where
she addresses this but basically you
have to at some point draw a line in the
sand and say look I know that in the
early phases of this I loved it now I
just need to push to the boring stuff by
knowing why I'm doing this and having a
desire to progress in my life which is
incredibly important and I'm going to do
that by gaining Mastery in the skills
that I would need to master in order to
be good at this thing and then you
commit and you go
all right that's how that's done next I
struggle with the consistency aspect of
discipline what advice do you have for
someone like me all right
so first of all
you want to set yourself up in the way
that we were talking about earlier to
make consistency the default answer
so we go to bed at the same time we have
our meal plan prepped out so we don't
have infinite ingredients in the house
and a bunch of junk food it's like we
have the ingredients we need to make the
food that we want to make our gym
clothes are right next to the bed all of
that stuff
so we are setting ourselves up so that
the right answer is the easiest answer
and the pantry is an easy way to explain
that if you don't know what you're going
to eat you don't have rules around what
you eat and you've got a bunch of junk
food in the house the odds of you
sticking to your diet are basically zero
because you don't have things laid out
you have not said this is what I eat for
breakfast this is what I eat for lunch
this is what time I eat this is what
time I stop eating all that stuff put
rules in your life
by according to that
live according to that and then keep
that list of the things that you know
that you're supposed to be doing okay
it's very important for you to make the
right choice the Easy Choice as you do
that in multiple areas of your life and
just start ruling things out and this is
again where bright lines really come in
handy you have to have things you don't
do as much as knowing what you do do and
a lot of people get themselves in
trouble because they don't have these
bright lines there aren't things that
are off limits so for instance Monday
through Friday if I'm awake I'm either
working or working out so you can
imagine if I start goofing off I start
playing with the dog I play video games
I would know immediately that I'm not
doing what I'm supposed to be doing
because is it Monday through Friday yes
am I working or working out no cool then
you're doing the wrong thing and so by
having these rules and writing them down
can be really useful having these rules
writing them down knowing exactly what
you're trying to accomplish and why
you're trying to accomplish it remember
you don't want to live the way that I'm
describing unless it's in service of
something you love that you're excited
about that you believe in that you want
it
because when you want that stuff none of
what I'm describing is a pain in the ass
you're excited to have these rules
because they're actually allowing you to
get done the thing you want to get done
and the more you engage with it the more
exciting it is the more your passions
are ignited because you're getting good
at something you're making progress and
something we haven't talked about
make sure your goals are exciting and
honorable they're exciting you just want
to do it it's fun this is an area that
you like to be in
and it's serving people in a way that
elevates not only yourself but other
people
okay when you're working your ass off to
gain a set of skills that allow you to
serve other people in a way that's fun
now you've really got something if you
hear me talking about all this and I'm
saying apply it to a thing that you hate
that doesn't make any sense
but when you apply to something that you
believe in and you have to do that work
you have to decide to attach that
meaning and purpose to that thing
but when you do that now all of a sudden
working hard and being a badass and
seeing who you're becoming
that is amazing as Tony Robbins says
progress is a foundational pillar to
human happiness
make progress
make progress and you will feel amazing
discipline isn't meant to make your life
suck
as Jocko willing says discipline equals
freedom
the point of these rules and all of that
is to know you're not going to quit and
you're not going to quit on something
that you care about something that
matters to you something that you're
building towards that is improving your
life and giving you a sense of joy
unfortunately Joy is not easy to come by
all of the default answers are going to
lead you somewhere negative and the
reason they lead you somewhere negative
is because Nature has hardwired you to
work really hard to gain a set of skills
that allow you to serve not only
yourself but other people Nature has
hardwired you for that so if you fail to
do that you sit around just playing
video games all day and I love video
games but I don't sit around playing
them all day so if you're just sitting
around staring at the wall getting lost
in a book uh working out all day and you
never do anything that allows you to
serve other people I promise you as much
as you don't want this to be true
you will not feel fulfilled
okay nature only has two levers to pull
Pleasure and Pain and if you're not
doing the things that nature has deemed
you need to do in order for you to live
long enough to have kids that have kids
you will have a profound sense of dis
ease
and the only way to combat that is that
formula for fulfillment working really
hard to gain a set of skills that allow
you to serve not only yourself because
it should be fun for you
but also serve other people
how you get consistent
next what makes you keep pushing towards
your goal after you've already had some
level of success
nature
you're having a biological experience
Nature has those two levers Pleasure and
Pain
I think a lot of people make the mistake
of thinking well as long as I don't do
things that create a problem I don't do
bad things I'll be fine what could
possibly be wrong with sitting around
in my apartment all day
goofing off
watching TV
playing video games
all that stuff all individually
wonderful
but when you put it together
suddenly it does not give you the life
that you want and you start to feel
disease
you don't feel good something's not
right something's off
I don't know why I don't feel good and
then by the way you're probably eating
terrible food
and each bite individually is amazing
but it adds up to inflammation
dysbiosis meaning your gut
bacteria your microbiome is out of whack
and it's sending
signals to your brain that alter your
brain chemistry and make you not feel
good something isn't right
but why don't I feel good I'm doing
things that are awesome
this food is awesome playing video games
is awesome
relaxing awesome
reading a book awesome
but life in total
not awesome
and how is that possible
because Nature has implanted directives
in your brain to ensure that you work
hard because you grew up on the The
Plains of the Savannah
and life was hard and life was scary and
if you weren't a part of the group you
were going to get eaten by something you
were going to die of exposure you
weren't going to make it
and so nature
by way of natural selection has made it
extremely pleasurable
to work really hard to gain a set of
skills that are unique and exciting to
you
that allow you to serve not only
yourself but the group makes that really
feel good even though it's hard even
though each step of that way is
difficult
and yet it adds up to something
extraordinary
okay it's it is the most
counter-intuitive weird thing in the
world that if you do all of the
individual things that are fun it ends
up where you feel like crap and if you
do individually all the things that are
hard and a struggle and are difficult
you end up feeling awesome
as a reality of life so I knew that so
even as I became successful I never
thought hey why don't we just retire it
won't work it won't work meaning work
because I won't be able to feel the way
that I want to feel I want to feel good
about myself I want to make progress in
my life I want to feel like I'm
contributing I know all of that because
I understand how the brain works I
understand how nature embeds these
directives in your brain and it isn't
enough to not do something bad you have
to be pursuing something that matters
meaning purpose that's it that's the
game it isn't success it isn't wealth it
is an adoration it's not trophies it's
not goals it's nothing other than
fulfillment and fulfillment is work
really hard
okay if it comes easy it won't work work
really hard to gain a set of skills that
you care about that matter to you don't
worry about what everybody else thinks
skill set that matters to you and that
skill set could be playing video games
that could be how you're going to reach
and touch the world and Elevate people
and show them what's possible and
entertain them absolutely great
you're doing something for other people
but you work real hard to gain a set of
skills that matter to you that are
exciting to you
but they don't just serve you they serve
other people as well
eat your baby you're having a biological
experience and nature will with
your neurochemistry if you don't follow
that pattern
so no matter how much success you have
you still need progress you still need
to be moving forward in your life you
still need to be gaining skills there is
no retiring not if you want to be
fulfilled
not if you want to enjoy your life
you need to go after something
now make it fun Should Be Joyful
should be the joyful Pursuit
of something that matters to you
but man
if you do that life is amazing it's hard
but it's amazing
but if you don't do that it's easy
but it sucks every time something goes
wrong in my life I am asking myself one
simple question what is it that I suck
at I suck at something there's something
I'm doing wrong by definition if I were
doing it right then I would be getting
the outcome that I wanted