Shadowing Practice: The 1% Rule to Mastering Your Life | James Clear - Learn English Speaking with Video

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James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, a book that has spent over 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list
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and has sold more than 20 million copies in 60 languages worldwide.
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He went from being struck in the face with a baseball bat in high school, resulting in a crushed skull and being placed in a medically induced coma,
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to becoming the world's leading expert on habit formation with a net worth estimated at 10 million dollars.
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And this is our take on his top 10 rules success need motivation watch the top 10 with believe nation
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if you've been here before drop a hashtag believe in the comments below
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so it can feature you here in a future video and
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if you're new welcome to believe nation the only channel
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that helps you believe in yourself daily one video at a
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time okay let's kick it off with rule number one have patience delayed gratification is a big part of life
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and i think what is it that allows people to strike this balance well
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and gracefully and what is it
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that you know kind of prevents people from doing it i think a lot of it is patience
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and persistence you know most people so
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if we kind of layer on the things we're talking about here
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so we've got you have a certain kind of lifestyle
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that you'd like to live day to day
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but you also make these promises to yourself and you realize delayed gratification
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and investing in the long term is a big part of life
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and that's how we do get better results and life is easier
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when you get better results
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and then what we were talking about a minute ago with
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leverage how do i get more output from each unit of
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time i'm putting in how do i get more out of less
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if you kind of start to layer all those things together what you realize is there aren't actually
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that many things in life that allow you to check all those boxes
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that allow you to both have a good daily life
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and generate the long -term returns that you want
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and have get you know get a great output from the effort
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that you're putting in and
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so i think a lot of people just get impatient with
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the answers they don't come up with a good answer for it right away
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because there aren't that many things that can do all that.
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And so then they kind of give up and they settle for something less.
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And I think one of the lessons is reflection and review is a really critical part of living a good life.
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You at, you need to carve out a lot of time to think about what type of day do I want?
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What type of lifestyle do I want?
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What are my opportunities and what's available to me?
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What resources do I have at hand
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and how can I piece these things together
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and align them with my personal interest in a way
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that allows me to live a good daily life
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and also get the long -term rewards that i want
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and there probably aren't going to be just like a hundred things
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that pop up as an answer to
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that question you're probably going to need to think about it
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and lean against it i mean in a sense it's something
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that you never fully get an answer to it's a it's a process it's a question
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that you continue to lean against for your whole life
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and you kind of figure out the art of living as you go.
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But by having the question, just by walking around and carrying that ambitious question in the back of your mind, you go a long way toward getting an answer.
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And I think a lot of people give up on it too soon.
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And that's why they end up with, you know, substandard answers and kind of have to settle for something, something less.
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Well, number two, develop a system.
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We're helpful for setting a sense of direction, kind of defining like what direction we're going to row the boat in.
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They're also useful as a filtering mechanism.
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If you know what your goals are and somebody comes to you with an opportunity or they say, hey, can you join me on this project or whatever, you can run it through that filter and be like, does that help me achieve the goal or not?
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And if not, then it's easier to say no. So goals are useful.
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However, they come with quite a few drawbacks, particularly if you are overfit the goal or overfocus on the goal rather than the system or the process.
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And to put a little finer point on this, the way that I would explain it is your goal, that's your desired outcome, but your system is the collection of daily habits that you follow.
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And if there's ever a gap between your system and your goal, if there's ever a gap between your desired outcome, your daily habits will always win.
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Almost by definition, your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver your current results.
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Like whatever results you have right now, it's a natural byproduct of the system, the collection of daily habits you've been running for the last three months or six months or a year or two years.
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So the current system that you have the current daily habits you've carried you to this point.
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And often we talk about, particularly in business, we talk about changing results.
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Everybody wants, you know, let's double our revenue or increase, hit this quarterly metric or reach this milestone.
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It's very much focused on position or outcome.
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And a focus on the goal is more about focusing on, or sorry, a focus on the system is more about focusing on the trajectory, on the process rather than the position.
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Rather Rather than saying it's about how much weight is on the scale right now, it's much more about the process and the trajectory of am I showing up to workouts?
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Am I on a good path?
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Or rather than how much money is in the bank account right now, it's much more about the process of am I making sales calls?
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Am I showing up and like performing and building those habits day in and day out?
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The key here, I think, is that we all so badly want our results to change, but the result is actually not the thing that needs to change.
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It's the habits that precede the result.
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Fix the inputs
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and the outputs will fix themselves most of your results in
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life are sort of a lagging measure of the habits that precede them, right?
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Like your bank account is a lagging measure of your financial habits.
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Your physical fitness is a lagging measure of your eating and training habits.
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Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your reading and learning habits.
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Even something as simple as like the clutter on your desk at work
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or in your garage at your house is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits.
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And so what we need to adjust is the collection of daily habits, the system, and not necessarily the goal.
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There's also one final thing which I should add here, which is that in most domains in life, the winners and the losers, so to speak, have the same goals.
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If you have 100 people apply for a job, presumably every candidate has the goal of getting the job.
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The goal is not the thing that makes the difference in their performance.
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Or if you have 25 Olympians competing for the gold medal, presumably every athlete has the goal of winning the gold medal.
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It's not the goal that separates them.
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It's the system that they follow, the habits that they're building, the way they train, the way they prepare, the things they do day in and day out.
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That doesn't mean goals are totally useless, just that maybe they're good as check -ins to make sure that you're moving in the right direction.
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But I think much more of the time and focus
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and attention should be spent on the system and the habits that lead to that outcome rather than the goal itself.
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Rule number three, follow the law of attention.
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You know, people talk about the like the law of attraction.
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You know, it's like you want more money, think about money, you want more whatever.
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But I think actually we should call it the law of attention, because all it really is, is when you start thinking about something, once you start paying attention to it,
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you naturally notice opportunities for it and areas where it pops up.
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And this is like that, you know, you pick stillness and you start seeing areas where, you know, that can apply in life.
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You pick, you know, like one thing I'm thinking a lot about recently is like leverage
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or how do I get more out of each unit of time
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or how do I get more of each unit of effort?
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And when you have that frame, it gives you a different way of thinking about that, seeing the things that you face each day.
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Rule number four, start with the identity.
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Usually when people start the process of changing a habit or changing their behavior, they start by saying something, well, what outcomes do I want?
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They're like, oh, I want to lose weight.
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Okay, that's the outcome that I want.
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So I'm going to change my habits to do that.
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So usually it's like you pick some outcome.
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All right, I want to lose 40 pounds.
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So now I'm going to come up with a process or a plan.
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I need to go to the gym four days a week and change my diet or whatever.
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And typically it stops there.
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The kind of implicit assumption, although people don't usually say it, is if I follow this workout plan and I lose 40 pounds, if I do this thing and I get this outcome,
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then I'll be the person I want to be.
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We sort of think that the identity will come as a side effect of that.
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Oh, if if I make this many sales calls and I hit that revenue number, then I'll be the salesperson I want to be or the executive I want to be or whatever.
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My argument is to invert it.
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And instead of starting with the outcome, let's start with the identity.
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So to use the workout example, you'd say, well, who is the type of person that could lose 40 pounds?
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Maybe it's the type of person who doesn't miss workouts. And
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so now actually your focus shifts from the number on the
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scale needs to change to I need to build the identity of someone who doesn't miss workouts.
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I need to master the art of showing up.
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And the focus on being that kind of person, I think that it lends a little light hints at what I think is the real reason that habits matter.
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We usually talk about habits as mattering because they provide external results.
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Oh, they'll help you be more productive or double your income or lose weight or reduce stress.
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And it's true.
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Habits can do all those things.
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It's great that they can provide those outcomes.
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But I think the real reason that habits matter is they can reshape your sense of self.
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And what I mean by that is your habits are how you embody a particular identity.
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Any morning that you make your bed, you embody the identity of someone who is clean and organized.
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If you study biology for 20 minutes on Tuesday night, you embody the identity of someone who is studious.
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If you do one push -up, you embody the identity of someone who is an athlete.
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And the way that I like to summarize this is to say
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that every action you take is like a vote for the type of person you want to become.
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And so the more that you cast those votes, the more you build up evidence of that identity.
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So no, doing one push -up does not transform your body, but it does cast a vote for I'm the type of person who doesn't miss workouts.
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And no, writing one sentence does not finish the novel, but it does cast a vote for I'm a writer.
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And the same thing could be said in many business contexts.
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No, making one sales call does not radically transform your book of business, but it does cast a vote for, I'm a salesperson, or I'm the type of person who does this every day.
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And that, I think, in the long run, really means a lot because it reinforces that desired identity.
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Ultimately, like the real goal is not to run a half marathon.
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It's to become a runner.
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The goal is not to read 30 books.
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It's to become a reader.
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And so once you adopt that identity, once you take pride in being that kind of person.
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it becomes much easier to stick to the habit.
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If you sign up for a half marathon, you might run because you have the race.
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But somebody who identifies as a runner, they'll train whether they have a race or not because they're like, this is just part of who I am.
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It's what I do.
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And that's ultimately, so in that sense, true behavior change is really identity change.
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And I think to bring a full circle, it comes back to building small habits because you are casting votes for that new identity.
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You're reinforcing being that kind of person.
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You don't usually talk about habits in that way.
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You don't usually hear people discuss them in that way.
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But ultimately, I think that's why they matter, is that they can give you this new narrative for talking about yourself.
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And if you can do that, if you can cast enough votes and build up evidence, then you have every reason in the world to believe it.
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And that's a little bit different than what you typically hear, which is like, fake it till you make it.
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You know, like fake it till you make it is, I don't necessarily have anything wrong with it.
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It's asking you to believe something positive about yourself.
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But it's asking you to believe something positive without having evidence for it
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and we have a word or beliefs that don't have evidence.
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We call it delusion, right?
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Like at some point, your brain doesn't like this mismatch between what you're saying or what you're doing.
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And so my argument is to let the behavior lead the way.
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Start with meditating for one minute or making one sales call
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or writing one sentence and let that be evidence
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that you are a meditator or you are a salesperson or you are a writer.
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And eventually, you'll actually come to believe it because you cannot deny that in that moment, you were that person.
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Also, if you want to take real action after this video, i made a free worksheet just for you it covers the
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and helps you build a simple action plan it's 100 free
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just click the link in the description to go grab it
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i'll see you there rule number five know what you are
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optimizing for one of the questions i try to ask myself
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a lot is what do i i approach it in different ways
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but you could say one version of the question is what am i optimizing for
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so sometimes you optimize for free time or time with family sometimes it's for making money Sometimes it's for creative freedom, but the answer changes for not,
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not just across people, it will change within you.
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You know, like I'm optimizing for different things now than I was five years ago or 10 years ago.
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So that question I find helpful.
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Another question is what season am I in right now?
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You know, sometimes you're in a season where the work burner is cranked on high and you're really focused on, you know, performing well there.
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Other times the friends or family burner is cranked up.
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But when your season changes, your emphasis or your habits often need to change, you know, what value you're emphasizing is going to shift.
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And then the, the last way that I think about it is what it basically the question is, what do I want my daily lifestyle to look like?
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Not do I, what do I want my results to look like?
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Because if you do it based on results or you do it based on the opportunities that come your way, that's when it's really easy to get into talking yourself into, Oh, let me do this because it's a cool thing.
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but if you do it based on what you want your daily lifestyle to look like
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and then you say i'm going to draw a box around what i want my day to look like
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and inside of
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that box how can i make the most money reach the most people make the biggest impact you know
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and so on but not if it's outside of it
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but most people start the other way around
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which is they say how can i make the most money
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or reach the most people or make the biggest impact
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or you know get the result that i want
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and then they kind of draw the box around that
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and convince themselves oh i would be okay with living
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that lifestyle and what you end up with is talking yourself into a lifestyle
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that you don't actually enjoy that much just because you were chasing the outcome.
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Rule number six, master your choices and strategy.
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Broadly speaking, I think there are kind of three main things that impact your outcomes in life.
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The first is randomness or luck.
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The second is your choices and your strategy and then the third is your habits and your behavior, the actions that you take.
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Now by definition you don't have control over luck or misfortune good
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or bad you can't influence it but if you can master the other two
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which are in your control
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if you can master your choices in your strategy make sure you're focusing on the right thing
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and you can master your behavior
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and your habits make sure you're taking actions on those right
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things then i think what happens is you increase the surface
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area for good luck to come your way you know you don't it's not totally in your control
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but you're like increasing the odds that some that the domino falls in your direction
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So I sort of see those two pieces of the puzzles working together.
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You got your habits and that action, and then you've got your strategy and the choices.
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And collectively, they can put you on a really solid path.
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Rule number seven, build momentum.
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One of the most effective feelings, one of the most motivating states is the feeling of progress.
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Yeah.
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And if you're focused on feeling guilty, blaming yourself for not improving,
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feeling like, oh, I'm not able to build better habits because something's wrong with me, that's not a very productive state to be in.
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Whereas if you shift it and say, all right, the problem is not me.
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The problem is the system.
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And if I'm going to change the system, then I can do X, Y, and Z.
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And we can talk about a variety of those strategies.
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But each time you do that, you take action.
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and you build progress and momentum.
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And so I think it is a much more productive way to approach the process of change
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because it gives you something to actually work on.
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I mean, all the rest of these strategies, a lot of the time it's about stuff like, you know, think positive or fake it till you make it or stuff like that.
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And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
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Like certainly if you want to think positive, it sounds better than thinking negatively.
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But my focus is much more on practical action steps.
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How can we make the process of behavior change actionable
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and give you something that to do to design a system where you're more likely to succeed
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and so i think that's just a better place to spend your time and energy number eight
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prioritize long -term rewards if you take a bad habit
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or an unhealthy habit like eating a donut
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or something the immediate outcome is favorable it's sugary it's tasty
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it's enjoyable in the moment that's how it serves you that's the reason why you repeat it the ultimate outcome
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if you repeat that every day for the next three months
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or year or whatever is you end up gaining weight or you're less healthy or so on.
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For good habits, it's often the reverse, right?
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Like sometimes, you know, the benefit of going to the gym in many people's eyes is the immediate outcome is unfavorable.
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Sweat, I have to work, it's effortful, it's hard, I need to sacrifice, I don't get to watch TV, I got to go there instead.
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So the immediate outcome is unfavorable.
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The ultimate outcome, if you repeat that habit for two months or a year or whatever, is you're fit and healthy.
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And this is one of the key challenges of building good habits and breaking bad ones,
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is figuring out ways to take the long -term consequences of your good habits
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or of your bad habits and pull them into the present moment
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so you feel a little bit of the pain right now
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so it serves you less and to take the long -term rewards of your good habits
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and pull those into the present moment so it feels good.
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And this is one reason why, you know, it's great to choose, like, what's the best form of exercise?
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Well, maybe it's the one that you enjoy because if it feels good in the moment, now it serves you and you have a reason to repeat it.
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Well, number nine, build keystone habits.
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Is there such thing as I guess central habits that can help to shift and transform other aspects of your life?
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Because that's something that I've noticed a little bit where
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if I start eating better or
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if I start going to the gym every day it's almost like a domino
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or ripple effect where these other habits start to pick up naturally because I'm starting to feel better.
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So like because I've been going to the gym five days a week so now
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when I come home I don't feel like binging out on junk food I feel like eating better food
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or if I wake up early
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is that something you've noticed in your research yeah sure
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so there are two ways to answer this question
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so the first way is what you're describing is often sometimes called a keystone habit
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and the idea is you do one thing
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and it like ripples into other areas of your life and
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so for me it's exercise like
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if I go to the gym then I get the benefits of exercise
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but I also tend to eat better I like for some
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reason I just don't want to waste it I also focus more so I have sort of that like post workout high, uh, after I, after I work out.
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Uh, and then I sleep better because I'm tired from the workout, which means I wake up the next morning and I have better energy.
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Um, and at no point was I trying to build better sleep habits or energy habits or focus habits or nutrition habits, but all that kind of just came as a side effect of doing this one thing of going to the gym.
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Some other common, uh, keystone habits are budgeting.
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Sometimes people say when they pay off debt, you'll, then they'll like start to get in shape or they, um, you know, build, but they're more social and have better relationships or like, there's all kinds of things that kind of come out of that.
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Um, going for a daily walk is a really big one.
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It's very common one among creators in particular.
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There's a book called daily rituals by Mason Curie.
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And he basically just writes down like what, I don't know, it's a hundred or 150 famous like creators and scientists and whatever, what their daily routines were.
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And a lot of them were raging alcoholics and on amphetamines and all kinds of other stuff.
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But the ones who, uh, were more healthy daily habit, a daily habit, like walking was a really big part of their routine um
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visualization is a big one especially for performers like a comedian
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or something they'll often visualize the same kind of result
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or professional athletes uh before they step out on the stage
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or step out on the court
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and remember 10 the last one before a very special bonus
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clip is master the art of showing up people have heard things like this before start small small steps whatever
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but even when you know you should start small it's still really easy to start too big
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so uh you know say you want to get in shape and you're Like, all right, I want to run a couple days a week, but I know I should start small, so I'll only run for 15 minutes.
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But even that is, like, way bigger than what I'm talking about.
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I mean, it should be so small that you, in the book I call it the two -minute rule, but you should downscale any habit to fit within two minutes.
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So it's like, all right, I want to go for a run three days a week.
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My habit is I put on my running shoes and I step out the door.
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Anything else that happens after that is just bonus.
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It's a success.
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now sometimes people resist that
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because they're like well this sounds kind of like a mental
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trick right like i know the real goal isn't just to
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put my shoes on i know the real goal is to go for a run
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so if you feel
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that way my suggestion would be only do the first two minutes for the first few weeks
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because what you need to do is master the art of
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showing up like i had a i had a reader who ended up losing over 100 pounds We'll be right back.
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And one of the things that he did was he went to the gym, but he wasn't allowed to stay for longer than five minutes.
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So he would show up, be there, do like half an exercise.
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Five minutes would go, he'd leave.
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He did this for like six weeks.
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Wow.
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Now, it sounds ridiculous.
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It sounds silly because it's the opposite.
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You just work out for a half hour.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But what he was doing was mastering the art of showing up.
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And a habit must be established before it can be improved.
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If you don't establish the habit, there's nothing to optimize.
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If you're not showing up at the gym every day, who cares about what workout you're doing? you're not even there don't start running an hour a day
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if you've never run in a long time be the person who shows up
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and puts their running shoes on every day before you worry
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about how far you're running what kind of workout you're doing and all
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that type of stuff your concept of getting one percent better is much more believable for most people
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and so just address that for a second why why one percent better every day
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and how does a habit do that sure
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so first of all i think there's no reason that you can't be really ambitious, right?
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Like I consider myself to be a very ambitious person.
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I think it's just that you're oscillating or switching between these two modes, you know, like when you're in planning mode, when you're in strategy mode,
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sure, you can be very ambitious and be very aggressive and, you know, stretching yourself and reaching.
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But when it comes time to take action and execute, you have to scale it down to something you can achieve that day.
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You know, like the, in one sense, the biggest unit of time you could ever do something is about a single day
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because then you got to go to sleep, you know, and then you have to wake up again and do it the next day.
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So unless you're playing, you know, at some point there's a limit, you can only stay up for 48 hours or 72 hours, like, you know, and then you break.
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So that's the largest possible unit that you could ever do a single thing in.
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And I think more realistically, most of the time, the truth is, you know, you got about an hour, maybe you got two hours to work on this and then got to go move on to something else.
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So we don't have big chunks of time available to us.
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We need to scale things down into pieces that we can actually work on and execute.
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So the way that I think about it is when making plans, think big.
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When making progress, think small.
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And getting 1 % better each day is a way to encourage that.
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Excellence, a lot of the time, maybe we can even say most of the time, is not actually about radical change.
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It's about a commitment to accruing small improvements day in and day out.
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Secondly, and I think this is also crucial, it encourages you to focus on trajectory rather than position, right?
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There's a lot of discussion about position in life.
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How much money is in the bank account?
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What is the number on the scale?
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What is the current stock price?
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What are the quarterly earnings?
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There's all this measurement around our current position.
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But what getting 1 % better each day encourages is to focus on your trajectory instead.
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Am I getting better?
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Is the arrow pointed up and to the right or have we flatlined?
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Am I getting 1 % better or 1 % worse?
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Because if you're on a good trajectory, all you need is time.
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right if you have good habits time becomes your ally you just need to let time work for you
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but if you have bad habits time becomes your enemy
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and every day that clicks by you kind of dig the hole a little bit deeper
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and so it's very much at the core it's about encouraging you to focus on trajectory rather than position
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and congratulations you're one video closer to who you're meant to be believe
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for 10 more amazing rules from simon sinek check the video right there next to me i think you'll Love it, continue to believe and I'll see you there.
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You don't have to prove yourself because you've already been vetted.
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Somebody else has already said, and you see this in new employees all the time.
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The company Chanel, they have this rule that I absolutely love
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that new senior executives are not allowed to speak in meetings for the first 90 days.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 365 sentences and 5273 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:47. The speaker talks fast, about 222 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
habit noun/ˈhæb.ɪt/An action performed on a regular basis.
outcome noun/ˈaʊtkʌm/That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process.
workout noun/ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/An exercise session; a period of physical exercise.
lifestyle noun/ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.
trajectory noun/tɹəˈd͡ʒɛktəɹi/The path an object takes as it moves.
lag verb/læɡ/To fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind.
encourage verb/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
ambitious adjective/æmˈbɪʃ.əs/Having or showing ambition; wanting a lot of power, honor, respect, superiority, or other distinction.
necessarily adverb/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/Inevitably; of necessity.
reward noun/ɹɪˈwɔɹd/Something of value given in return for an act.
productive adjective/pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile.
athlete noun/ˈæθ.liːt/A participant in any of a group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country running and racewalking.
transform verb/tɹænsˈfɔɹm/To change greatly the appearance or form of.
naturally adverb/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/In a natural manner.
lesson noun/ˈlɛs.ən/A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordPronunciationMeaning
show up verbTo appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
wake up verb/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/To stop sleeping; to awake.
build up verbTo erect; to construct.
come up with verbTo manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
end up verbTo bring to a conclusion.
figure out verbTo come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
pop up verbTo come up with a "pop" sound.
push up verbTo make (something) higher; to increase.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhas spent · has sold · you've been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itbeing struck · should be spent · could be said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thinghere, which is · person who doesn · someone who doesn

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 111 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

  • The “th” sounds: athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/
  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/
  • Long words — get the stress right: trajectory /tɹəˈd͡ʒɛktəɹi/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/, presumably /pɹɪˈzuːməbli/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like habit, outcome, workout.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →