Transcriptly

12 Rules To Change Your Life In 12 Months

Dan Koe37:05Added Aug 31, 2026

Try the life reset prompt: https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/a-prompt-to-reset-your-life-in-30Research, write, and schedule content with your AI strategist (gi...

Watch on YouTube →
Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

Transcript format

  1. Life Is Better With Goals

  2. 00:00I know that many of you will agree with me when I say that life is so much better when you have a code to operate
  3. 00:06by because most people in my opinion have been tricked to think that they
  4. 00:12want freedom. What they may not understand is that absolute freedom, so no limitations, no restrictions, is
  5. 00:19synonymous with absolute chaos. The only reason you think you want freedom is because you're living by a set of rules
  6. 00:26you didn't create. So when you feel like you need to escape your life, you take time off from work and go on vacation.
  7. 00:33But after a week or so, the simulated honeymoon phase ends and the tourist novelty wears off and you find yourself
  8. 00:39unfulfilled wanting to go back to structure. Now, in the long term, and for the majority of people who hate
  9. 00:45their jobs, and I know hate their jobs is like the latest buzzword, but all of in all of my videos, I'm speaking from
  10. 00:51experience. I used to hate my job. It's okay if you hate your job, but the thing there is that you can't wait to retire.
  11. 00:58And retirement in this case is a promise that was marketed to you since you were
  12. 01:04a child, like a ClickFunnels landing page with a 40-year countdown timer.
  13. 01:09Little do you realize that your idea of retirement is just another vacation that
  14. 01:15you will get bored of because that's how the mind works. The core mechanism of our brains is that they are
  15. 01:21pattern-making machines evolved to solve specific problems with limited resources, not to handle unlimited
  16. 01:27possibilities. Mihi Chickpet Mihi, the guy we always talk about cuz he's awesome and the godfather of flow
  17. 01:32psychology argued that happiness comes from taking control over the contents of
  18. 01:37our consciousness, creating what we know as the flow state, periods of complete absorption where people experience deep
  19. 01:44enjoyment, creativity, and the total involvement with life. So order in
  20. 01:49consciousness equals enjoyment. Chaos in consciousness or disorder in the mind or
  21. 01:55mental disorder equals chaos equals not enjoyment. So again you don't want
  22. 02:02freedom. You want the freedom to create your own rules of the game. You don't
  23. 02:07want to be assigned goals from parents, teachers or employers. But you mistake that for not wanting structure as a
  24. 02:13whole. So you crave the one thing, freedom, that will make your life substantially worse. So if you want to
  25. 02:19increase the enjoyment and creativity and lack of distractions in your life, you need to do what every other
  26. 02:26successful person has done, and that is to discover and create a set of principles that you operate by. You need
  27. 02:33to create your own little world and become immersed in it. Most people will try to give you the destination, right?
  28. 02:40That's what you find on social media and YouTube. Even this video, 12 months to change your life. You're attracted
  29. 02:46toward the destination. And then some other people will give you the steps in the journey. But very few people give
  30. 02:53you the navigation system to create your own destination and create the steps. So
  31. 02:58in this video, you're not going to find another guru's proven system. Instead, I want to give you a framework, a meta
  32. 03:05view that allow you to discover what your unique rules can be. So these are
  33. 03:1012 rules to change your life or 12 rules to create your own rules. Rule one and

  34. Reject the average life

  35. 03:15the thing that absolutely has to come first here because all other rules or anything else in your life is downstream
  36. 03:22of this and that is to reject the average life. Reject being regular.
  37. 03:28Reject being boring. You have to reach this point in your life where you realize that you don't want to be
  38. 03:35regular because life is a series of decisions and the single decision that determines all other decisions is to
  39. 03:41vehematly reject the trajectory you are set on at birth. When you truly despise the outcome of being like everyone else,
  40. 03:48you begin to form an anti- vision. We talk about this all the time because it's important. So, if you already know
  41. 03:55about this, it could be wise to come back to it. If it didn't work for you the first time, that's because you may
  42. 04:00not have been in the life situation where it would have actually worked. This isn't something that you sit down
  43. 04:06for 30 minutes and do and expect it to work because you're here for a quick dopamine hit and you want to feel like
  44. 04:12you have control over your life in the next 30 minutes. That's not how it works. This is a lifelong thing. So, if
  45. 04:17you want to create this potent negative source of energy that can lead you toward the positive, right? So, you have
  46. 04:23both ends. You don't just think positively and hope that you move towards it. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. It's not a
  47. 04:29sustainable tactic. But you can round that out by having a negative side too. But if you get absorbed in the negative,
  48. 04:34then obviously your life is going to end up negative. So you need both. But this is the foundation. The negative is a
  49. 04:40very very potent energy source that can push you toward the positive. Every time you experience something you dislike,
  50. 04:47write it down. Go on a walk and think about where your life is heading. If you keep doing the same things, reflect on
  51. 04:53your past and note what you never want to experience again. Gather all of the data points you skipped over while you
  52. 04:59were under the spell of someone else's structure. Once you actually do this and once this anti- vision is at least
  53. 05:05somewhat clear in your head, right? It's kind of potent, you feel it, and you will feel it. You can now stop, think,
  54. 05:12and consider whether or not you should make a certain decision in your life because now you have something to work
  55. 05:19away from. And what that means is that you can make a choice that leads to a better life. If you simply have an anti-
  56. 05:25vision and make decisions that move you away from that, you're moving in a better life direction. But now we can
  57. 05:31make that even more accurate by having something to aim towards. So that leads to rule number two, which is to commit

  58. Commit to excellence

  59. 05:38to excellence. And now I try to say these things without sounding arrogant, but you guys only have an image of me in
  60. 05:44your head, right? You guys watch my videos and you have this idea of who I am and that's like 1% of who I am. You
  61. 05:50don't see me or talk to me on a daily basis. You just know me from my videos. And that's perfectly fine. I'm here to
  62. 05:55do what I need to do. So, I say this to illustrate a point is that I've never had a problem knowing what I want out of
  63. 06:02life simply because I knew what I didn't want from the start. My fiancew wife,
  64. 06:07I'm just going to call her my wife at this point, is getting her Pilates certification. And her instructor, the
  65. 06:14big boss Pilates girl, told uh my wife how to fix her posture over time. And
  66. 06:22the way you do that is whenever you're in a public space, you just judge people's posture because then when you
  67. 06:28notice, oh, that's what bad looks like, then you slowly correct your own. The
  68. 06:33same holds true for me. And now I know judging people sounds bad. Let's call it observation and discernment. But when I
  69. 06:40was younger, I would go to the grocery store. I would see someone who didn't look how I wanted to look or act like I
  70. 06:47wanted to act. And I could see what they were purchasing at the store, how they were shopping, how they were speaking to other people. And it was pretty easy for
  71. 06:54me to correct my own actions to not do that. I would go to school. I would go
  72. 06:59to church. And I would see it's just in plain sight. You can see things that you don't want to do. You can see mediocrity
  73. 07:07all around you just because that's the natural state of how things are unless people put effort into creating their
  74. 07:12own vision and pursuing it which most people just don't do. So judge or observe society more. You don't need to
  75. 07:19tell them these things. You simply observe and correct your own actions. So from that when I was a kid it was pretty
  76. 07:26easy for me to figure out what I had to do. I had to commit to excellence. I had
  77. 07:31to do something great. And for me, that looked like becoming an entrepreneur no matter how many times I failed. And it
  78. 07:37took seven failures so I can control how long I work and what I work on. I also knew I had to build a strong aesthetic
  79. 07:44and energetic body by making training and nutrition a non-negotiable. In other words, I had to become my own teacher
  80. 07:50and personal trainer. I had to learn all of these things. I still love studying these things. It's so fun to learn about
  81. 07:57the intricacies of your body and how chemicals and nutrients and really anything interacts with it. Once you
  82. 08:04have that understanding, your decisions are kind of automatic because when you know, oh, I'm putting this thing into my
  83. 08:10mouth. Here's all the downstream horrible effects, especially long-term,
  84. 08:15you just don't want to put it in your mouth, no matter how good it tastes. You see it as slop. And the last thing, I
  85. 08:20knew that I had to nurture a strong mind through the progressive overload of uncertainty and emotional labor. So this
  86. 08:27commitment to excellence created some form of a vision. So if I trained my
  87. 08:33mind to stay within that frame, if I didn't get distracted, that's what distracted is. It's breaking outside of
  88. 08:39your frame of reference and not bringing yourself back in. And your frame of reference, how you interpret and see the
  89. 08:44world and make decisions is formed. One half is your vision, commitment to excellence, and the second half is your
  90. 08:51anti- vision, which is moving away from mediocrity. So when you are in this little world, that's your little world.
  91. 08:57That's the outer frame of the code that you live your life by. If you can just do that, your life will end up great no
  92. 09:04matter the steps you take because the steps are going to be going from anti-ision
  93. 09:09all over the place somewhere to vision. You're not going to hit an exact spot,
  94. 09:14but you're just moving in the right direction. Makes sense? Now, my examples of becoming an entrepreneur and fixing
  95. 09:20my body and nurturing my mind, those may not resonate with you, but I have a
  96. 09:25feeling that everyone wants some form of those things. They want freedom, right?
  97. 09:31They misinterpret their desire for freedom as retirement or what the default path set them on. In reality,
  98. 09:38what they want is to grow. They want to evolve. They want to transcend and include their past self. They want to
  99. 09:44solve their own problems. Remove the limits on their potential. You know deep
  100. 09:49down that the answer to what do I do with my life is to progress in the only
  101. 09:55areas that matter. Mind, body, spirit, business. Business is also partially
  102. 10:00spirit. It's value exchange. It's community. It's contributing to the world that you take resources from.
  103. 10:07You're giving back. The problem here is that the fear of the unknown, the fear of doing something different with your
  104. 10:13life is greater than the fear of ending up like everyone else. So we need to
  105. 10:19decrease that perceived fear of stepping into the unknown. That way ending up like everyone else takes priority and

  106. Standards create identity

  107. 10:26then you are more likely to act. So that leads to rule number three which is that standards create identity. You aren't
  108. 10:34where you want to be because you are okay with where you are. If you are okay with having 50 cents in your bank
  109. 10:40account, you won't have the desire to change that and many opportunities to improve your health, relationships, or
  110. 10:45finances will be closed off to you. Now, if you're okay with $100,000 in your bank account, you will see anything less
  111. 10:52than that as a problem that needs to be fixed. Problems, when treated as projects, are what make life enjoyable
  112. 11:00because projects are another way to bring order to consciousness, as we discussed about. So you're more likely
  113. 11:06to live in some degree of a flow state if your life is just a series of
  114. 11:11projects that solve problems that remove the limits on your potential so that you can commit and pursue excellence. Now
  115. 11:19when you have high standards, your mind's survival mechanism notices opportunities that help you maintain
  116. 11:25those standards. Right? We don't only survive or reproduce on a physical level, but on a mental level as well. We
  117. 11:31don't have only have a physical body, we have a mental body. It's called our identity. Our mind has evolved to
  118. 11:37survive on the conceptual level as well. If your identity is threatened or your standards are threatened, then you quite
  119. 11:44literally feel stressed. Dogs don't do that. They because they don't have language, right? They don't live in the
  120. 11:49world of concepts. So, if your money in the bank is lower than the standard of
  121. 11:54what you have, you will feel that pain and that pain will push you to get back above that standard. That's where
  122. 12:00dopamine comes into play. You notice survival opportunities. Your Google searches start to change to acquire
  123. 12:06better skills. You start having conversations about money with your friends. All of these tiny choices begin
  124. 12:12to compound into results. You rewire your thinking patterns based on your intentional search for specific
  125. 12:18information relating to the problem you are facing. So, if you surround yourself with people, physical or digital, that
  126. 12:25make it seem like it's okay to be 100 pounds overweight or have zero money or work a job you hate or stay with a
  127. 12:31partner you despise or get drunk every night and the rest, how do you think your life will end up? Now, if your
  128. 12:36standards require you to eat clean, then you will look at McDonald's in disgust. And actually, let's talk about this. Uh
  129. 12:44on my last video I threw a metaphor in it where I said uh social media is the
  130. 12:50fast food of socialization. Uh blah blah blah. Video games are the fast food of entertainment. And people did not like
  131. 12:57that. But what you're not understanding is the point. I eat fast food sometimes
  132. 13:02and that's okay because I understand its overall impact on my progress and my
  133. 13:07life. Sure, there are games that aren't inherently entropic to your mind and you can play them, but for most people, for
  134. 13:15my past self, again, I'm speaking from experience here, where I'm clocking 12
  135. 13:20hours a day of World of Warcraft just ruining my life. That is not something to be defended. If you have the desire
  136. 13:28to tell me or justify why video games are good for you, then that's kind of a
  137. 13:34surefire sign that they're not. Because if you were comfortable and had a big picture and nuanced understanding of
  138. 13:40your life and where video games sat in it, you wouldn't feel the need to defend yourself because you would feel
  139. 13:46confident in what you're saying. So, back to the point where we left off. You
  140. 13:51only think this sounds stupid. Eating clean or looking at McDonald's in disgust or looking at video games in
  141. 13:57disgust because your standards are abysmal. Someone who values fitness find it painful when they don't have the
  142. 14:03option to eat clean. It's not hard for them. It's actually enjoyable to eat clean. You find it painful not to eat
  143. 14:10clean. So, those are standards. But there's also something that let's just call them anti-standards for the sake of
  144. 14:17cohesiveness. And we can consider these what you are not willing to do or
  145. 14:22sacrifice to achieve your goals. So, we're just continuing to narrow our frame so that we can't get distracted
  146. 14:29and we can become more in flow state and enjoy our lives. For myself, I have one goal out of many of building a business,
  147. 14:35but I am not willing to sacrifice my health like most people do or my
  148. 14:40relationships like most people do. And most people think that that's just a natural part of starting a business. You
  149. 14:46have to sacrifice those things. You have to work long hours. No, you don't. Because setting constraints is how you
  150. 14:52actually get creative results. Because in order to do that, it's more difficult. In order to not sacrifice
  151. 14:59your health or your relationships or how much you work, you have to think creatively so that you can build a
  152. 15:04business as an example to do those things. That requires you to figure things out on your own and come to your
  153. 15:11own insights and conclusions and really understand what your goals are. Let's say you were to commit to 4 hours a day
  154. 15:17of work instead of 12 hours a day of work like most hustle and grind entrepreneurs. Then you would end up
  155. 15:23like someone like JK Molina who left working with his agency with another
  156. 15:28person for 12 hours a day making a lot of money but he was like I can I have the knowledge and skill to make a
  157. 15:35million bucks working 4 hours a day. He he's actually working 3 hours a day. But when you do that your mind notices
  158. 15:42higher leverage business opportunities that you wouldn't have noticed when you're pursuing another goal. So for
  159. 15:48him, his offer and how he delivers it is so valuable that he can charge higher prices, work with less people, and work

  160. Project based learning

  161. 15:54less time on it. Now that's enough for that. So let's talk about rule number four, which is just projectbased
  162. 16:01learning. Because you know what you don't want out of life, and you have an idea for what you want out of life, and
  163. 16:06now you need to acquire the skills and knowledge that bridge the gap between both. So how do you start moving into
  164. 16:11the unknown? By having a way to order any potential chaos along the way. personal projects because the best way
  165. 16:18to learn is to build a real world project and only search for information when you need it. How much you learn is
  166. 16:25directly correlated with how much progress you make on the project. When you do something like watch endless
  167. 16:31tutorials, you just fill your mind with excess noise. Most of that information goes to waste because you don't apply
  168. 16:38it, right? We've all experienced this. You learn all you read a book and then when it comes to talk to your friend
  169. 16:44about the actual concept or what you learned, you're like stuttering and you can't articulate it because most of what
  170. 16:50you learned went to waste because you didn't apply it. Now, am I saying that reading books is bad? No. Am I saying
  171. 16:56that watching YouTube videos is bad? No. What I'm saying is that that's not learning. That's entertainment. It's for
  172. 17:03another domain of your life. Maybe it's for uh mental clarity or calming your mind or stress relief or something of
  173. 17:09that nature. But is it for learning? No. And I mean, sure, it can be for learning, but it's a very ineffective
  174. 17:15way to learn. But the other thing with that is if you're reading a bunch of books for the sake of learning and for YouTube and or and watching YouTube for
  175. 17:22the sake of learning, you're filling your mind with endless options. You're just creating more chaos. Now, a project
  176. 17:29can be anything. Your health can be a project. Your business can be a project. An image in Photoshop can be a project.
  177. 17:35A project is simply a structured way of achieving a goal or making progress toward a goal. A project is when a plan
  178. 17:41and a strategy meet action. So don't focus on a plan. Don't focus on a strategy. Those are byproducts of a
  179. 17:48project and then you act and build the project and iterate on the plan and the strategy because the plan and a strategy
  180. 17:54without action and without iteration are just a list of things that aren't going to happen. The bridge between where you
  181. 18:00are and where you want to be is a series of projects that reflect the value you've developed in yourself. And if
  182. 18:06you'd like, you can turn that project into a product because you've solved the problem in your own life and can now
  183. 18:12help others do the same. A project is the only qualification you need to start
  184. 18:17earning an independent income. Now, if you're struggling to think through all of these things, your anti-vision, your
  185. 18:22vision, and now your projects or plan, I would recommend going through the life reset prompt. I'll link it in the
  186. 18:28description, but it helps you. It questions you. It converses with you to come up with all of these things and it spits out a document with kind of your
  187. 18:35entire life plan that isn't static that you can iterate on and improve. Now, rule number five after projects is daily

  188. Daily levers

  189. 18:42levers. Every single day, complete at least one to three priority tasks that
  190. 18:47move the needle toward completing your project. That is the only piece of productivity advice you will ever need
  191. 18:53in your life. Now, a good rule of thumb for this is this. After two weeks, if you haven't made any noticeable progress
  192. 19:00toward your goals, you are not moving the right levers. You are doing something wrong. Most people won't admit
  193. 19:06that or they will intentionally do busy work to avoid making progress because secretly they want to fail. And that's
  194. 19:12an even bigger problem. Your mind notices opportunities to achieve your goals. That's what it does. And most
  195. 19:18people have this deep and unconscious programmed goal of staying the same. So
  196. 19:24that's what they work toward and they don't even realize it. So far our frame,
  197. 19:29the thing that is going to bring enjoyment to our life, the code that we operate by is composed of anti-vision,
  198. 19:34then vision, then standards, then projects, then levers that lead to progress away from mediocrity and toward
  199. 19:40excellence, creating a tight feedback loop that makes life an enjoyable game for the most part. That's the
  200. 19:46foundation, and that's what pushes you deeper into the unknown. But how do you actually navigate the highs, lows,
  201. 19:52emotions, and uncertainty along the way? So, rule number six is to become a deep

  202. Become a deep generalist

  203. 19:58generalist. Let's start this with a quote from Daniel Schmenberger that I've said before. Traditional education and
  204. 20:04hypers specialization is a way to make people subservient to the dominant paradigm or system. Study the
  205. 20:10generalized principles of nature and be a deep generalist. Because humans are
  206. 20:15natural generalists. We don't thrive in a specific niche like a polar bear thrives in Alaska. If it were go to if
  207. 20:21it were to go to the savannah where a lion thrives, it would die. And if a lion went to the Alaska, it would also
  208. 20:28die. But humans, we go to Alaska because we built tools. We built a coat. We
  209. 20:34built air conditioning and heating. We go to the savannah and we have a car with air conditioning or we have a water
  210. 20:40bottle, which animals don't have. So, humans build tools. You're a tool
  211. 20:46builder. Humans build tools to adapt and thrive in any environment. And this extends beyond physical tools. Humans
  212. 20:54invented mental tools like language, culture, concepts, religion, and stories so they could adapt, build, and acquire
  213. 21:00the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in any situation. This is the ability that makes us unique. This is
  214. 21:07the ability that most people have lost. You see, as children, we love to adventure. We love to discover. We love
  215. 21:13to figure things out. We make mistakes and we learn from them. We touch fire. We take risk. But then our learning
  216. 21:21stops being about real mistakes. It starts being about the traits our parents and teachers dislike in us. The
  217. 21:27traits they find annoying or univilized. The traits they don't think will lead to the version of success they were
  218. 21:32conditioned to believe is the only one true path. And they haven't opened their mind to the discovery that there is
  219. 21:38never only one true path. And what is that one true path? What's the default path? It's the reason you feel so lost,
  220. 21:46confused, anxious, overwhelmed, and the rest. It was the path that was supposed to be safe and secure, but was the least
  221. 21:52safe and secure. You were plopped in front of a government-trained expert, trained by government-trained experts
  222. 21:57who are clearly not doing what you want to do in life for 6 hours each day, being told what to learn and how to act
  223. 22:03while constantly being prodded toward the status symbol of a job and degree. And if you understand how the mind
  224. 22:08works, you understand that the goals that compose your worldview, fancy degrees, and high-paying jobs determine
  225. 22:14your mind's potential development and freedom. Your aim determines what you see. So give yourself permission to
  226. 22:21study and pursue multiple interests. You have the internet. You have AI. Go and learn something. Now, rule number seven

  227. Entrepreneurship is spiritual

  228. 22:27is that entrepreneurship is spiritual. And here's my prediction with this. I've talked about this a few times, but in
  229. 22:33brief, the future of work will consist mostly of entrepreneurs and if not entrepreneurs, elite employees who have
  230. 22:40entrepreneurial traits in increasingly rare positions. The entry level will go extinct. AI isn't replacing the bar,
  231. 22:48it's raising the bar. So, this leaves us with two options. Rely on government support with a marginal chance at a good
  232. 22:54life or take full responsibility and become an entrepreneur. Now, unfortunately, entrepreneurship and
  233. 23:00business have become dirty words. People believe entrepreneurship is reserved for talented people with a lot of money and
  234. 23:06a lot of time. So, let me redefine it really quick. The difference between employee and entrepreneur is the
  235. 23:12difference between low agency and high agency. High agency individuals create their own goals and pursue them without
  236. 23:19permission. Low agency individuals are assigned goals and pursue them because their programming doesn't allow them to
  237. 23:24see other options. Industrial style schooling and employment breed complacency and are dangerous for your
  238. 23:31psyche. It goes against your nature of needing uncertainty and challenge and
  239. 23:36constant improvement to thrive, growth, evolution. That's what the universe is
  240. 23:41doing. That's what you're doing. And you trying to stop it to stagnate and become comfortable is making your life worse.
  241. 23:48People climb ladders like the corporate ladder because their mind craves challenge. But eventually they get so
  242. 23:54used to it that it becomes boring, right? Vacation, retirement, you're going to go into it, you're going to
  243. 23:59like it for a bit, then it's going to become boring. You need that next challenge. And usually that involves
  244. 24:04work. But that's the other thing is that most people hate their work. So they don't think that there is good work.
  245. 24:10They don't think that they can create their work. They don't think that they can pursue their life's work and actually enjoy work and control it. So,
  246. 24:16it's my belief at least that entrepreneurship is the only logical option for long-term thinkers. It's the
  247. 24:22path of uncertainty requiring skills not taught in schools. You must be okay with failure, rejection, and slow progress.
  248. 24:29So, stop thinking of employee and entrepreneur as titles. Think of them as
  249. 24:35states of mind. Employees are passive individuals told what to learn. Entrepreneurs are assertive individuals
  250. 24:41who set their own vision, learn by curiosity, and create solutions that push humanity forward. The secret is
  251. 24:47cultivating a skill set so impactful that you can't help but share it. You solve your own problems, sell the
  252. 24:53solution, and improve humanity. That's entrepreneurship. Employment isn't our natural state. Your psyche is wired to
  253. 25:00hunt. But today's threats are psychological and spiritual, not physical. Nobody wants to be a monkey in
  254. 25:06a cubicle. And everyone feels that pull to achieve something greater. That leads into step eight, which is to become a

  255. Become a "creator"

  256. 25:14creator. Because for millions of years, creativity was reserved for the gods.
  257. 25:19Humans didn't know how things worked. We didn't create things. We didn't build tools yet. And then we slowly started to
  258. 25:25figure it out. We realized, oh, we can create fire, and then down the road, we can create planes, and now we can create
  259. 25:31AI. It just evolves. It's insane. We built tools that allowed us to survive in any environment, harnessed energy and
  260. 25:38transformed the earth. Humans took over the role of creator, but so many have lost their path. And so many are giving
  261. 25:44up their role as creator to AI. The entire key to using AI well is to
  262. 25:50maintain the role as the creator. Now, we don't know what the future holds when it comes to AI and other things. It's
  263. 25:56probably not going to be as drastic as many people made it out to seem, myself included. But we know two things. One,
  264. 26:02problems are infinite and two, problems are soluble. No matter how developed we come, there will always be a new problem
  265. 26:09to solve because complexity the the evol or one evolution creates more complexity
  266. 26:15just like how AI allows us to access more information that's not better to an
  267. 26:20extent that's more chaotic that introduces more problems and those problems create jobs or opportunities to
  268. 26:27become an entrepreneur that allows for more solutions building on top of the current ones. And that can go on forever
  269. 26:33and ever and ever until the sun dies out unless we solve that problem. Now, here's an excerpt from my book. It's
  270. 26:40free to read, purpose and profit on my Substack, but I think it gets the point here of becoming a creator across quite
  271. 26:46well. If happiness or enjoyment is the combination of progress being made and
  272. 26:51contribution to something greater than yourself and both are accomplished by solving problems for yourself and others
  273. 26:57and problems are solved through creativity, then the only logical and fundamental aim for your future is to
  274. 27:02embody creativity by becoming a creator. In other words, you find the intersection of purpose and profit by
  275. 27:09creating solutions to problems you deem interesting, passing on those solutions to contribute to the progress of
  276. 27:15humanity and repeating the process when the next set of more complex problems arise. Although problems become more
  277. 27:21complex, you become more equipped with knowledge, skill, and experience to solve them. Life gets better as problems
  278. 27:27get harder if you learn to keep chaos at bay, which is a problem within itself. With every problem comes the opportunity
  279. 27:34to reach a new level of purpose. Now, becoming a creator or adopting the role
  280. 27:39of a creator has always been possible, but it's never been so accessible. We're in the second renaissance and it's
  281. 27:45happening on the internet everywhere, faster than before. A digital society where anyone can be the next Einstein or
  282. 27:52Shakespeare. So, the path to becoming futureproof is this. Shift from consumer
  283. 27:57to creator. Solve your own problems. Distribute your solutions in the global town square, which is the internet.
  284. 28:03Attract people who share your vision. Even with just a thousand true fans, you'll find the power to create a good

  285. Uncertainty is signal, not noise

  286. 28:09life. Now, rule number nine, and an important one, is that uncertainty is signal, not noise, because you're
  287. 28:15supposed to feel lost. You're supposed to feel overwhelmed. You're supposed to feel like you have no idea what you're
  288. 28:21doing. Everyone feels that way. What do you expect to happen when you're trying to change your life or learn something
  289. 28:27new? Did you just think that all possible knowledge and skill would just be deposited into your head the second
  290. 28:33you started something? When you commit to excellence, you commit to a life of uncertainty because you commit to a life
  291. 28:40of learning. Your potential is determined by the amount of uncertainty you're willing to embrace. But the thing
  292. 28:45is, the most successful people don't even flinch at this. They don't perceive uncertainty as something dangerous. How
  293. 28:52do they do this? because they realize that all outsized gains lie in their ability to embrace, manage, and extend
  294. 28:59uncertainty. They realize that the certain life is the least rewarding. A job is certain. Your paycheck reflects
  295. 29:05that. A business is uncertain depending on what level you're operating at. Starting out with a local business or
  296. 29:10agency work or freelancing or even information products is level one. It's uncertain, but it's simple. And you have
  297. 29:16a cap of about 1 to five million a year before you need to increase the stakes even further by hiring a team or
  298. 29:22expanding the business model into something like software or physical products. And the same goes for investing. You can invest your savings
  299. 29:29in a certain 401k. That's level one. And you can invest in the stock market.
  300. 29:34That's level two cuz it's kind of predictable and you'll probably make more than in a 401k. And then level
  301. 29:40three is that you can invest in businesses or crypto or even more uncertain assets. Naturally, those have
  302. 29:46the highest returns on investment, but it requires the ability to navigate and
  303. 29:51understand risk. So, you need to hedge against risk as much as you can, especially when you're just starting to
  304. 29:57change your life. So, you punch just above your weight. You go from level one to level two to level three. And you
  305. 30:03don't take on a challenge you can't handle. If you can handle a level three challenge, then take it. And if you want
  306. 30:09to go further and take the level three challenge anyways, then you need to hedge against that by changing your environment and how you live. You need
  307. 30:16to move into a cheap apartment. You need to live on beans and rice for a year. The more responsibilities that you adopt
  308. 30:23before you've had a chance to take risks in your youth, the more difficult it is to justify changing your life. That's

  309. Engineer enthusiasm

  310. 30:30the horrible trap of the default path. Now, rule number 10, a unique one, is to
  311. 30:35engineer enthusiasm. Because we hear all the time that you need to be obsessed.
  312. 30:40You need to be obsessed with your goal. Because this is how people describe successful people with a a an intense
  313. 30:47spirit. And if you are intense, you have that intense spirit. You have that kind of obsessive personality that can really
  314. 30:55hurt your life unless you learn to direct it away from people and toward
  315. 31:00other things like a skill or an interest or a business. But the real word for this is enthusiasm. That's what we
  316. 31:07should aim for. That just doesn't feel as cool or edgy as obsession. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word
  317. 31:13enthusiasmos with the literal translation of having God within or God inspired. It referred to being possessed
  318. 31:20or inspired by a divine spirit suggesting that true creative or spiritual power came from beyond the
  319. 31:26individual self. The master key to the good life is to fill your average day
  320. 31:31with that which makes you enthusiastic. So, one of the most important things you can do is to reverse engineer where
  321. 31:38enthusiasm comes from in your life and then eliminate, outsource, or accept all
  322. 31:44of the things that don't align. Notice which activities make you feel energized, which distort time, and which
  323. 31:50make focus effortless. Notice what makes you excited, curious, and open-minded. Especially notice when you can't sleep
  324. 31:56because you are having too many ideas. Do everything in your power to fill your day with more of these and remove things
  325. 32:03that prevent you from doing so. Literally block off one to two hours a day to pursue your enthusiasm. And that
  326. 32:09leads into rule number 11, which is self-experimentation. Because self-experimentation is the only way to
  327. 32:15solve your problems for good. People can diagnose and prescribe solutions to your problems, but they often lack regard for
  328. 32:22the difference in perspective, goals, and experience from the person with the problem. As an example, here's two
  329. 32:27different approaches for a person who's wanting to make money. Person A follows exactly what a guru says. They play it
  330. 32:34safe, follow the rules, and downgrade their lifestyle based on someone else's blueprint. Person B pulls advice from

  331. Self experimentation

  332. 32:39multiple sources to make decisions based on the patterns they notice between all. They use how-to advice, but only to
  333. 32:46discover principles that can be integrated into the pursuit of their goals. Eventually, with education and
  334. 32:51effort, it clicks and they know how to make it work in their own unique way. As an example, with nutrition or weight
  335. 32:57loss, person A is in a much more dangerous position because they find a guru preaching veganism, then clean up
  336. 33:04their diet, then follow their advice as law, see results, and then attach to that ideology and become a prophet for
  337. 33:10it. This is dangerous and the definition of low consciousness. You lost weight and felt more energetic, but from a lack
  338. 33:17of understanding decided that only the vegan diet can do that. And I'm just using the vegan diet here as a punching
  339. 33:22bag. I don't really care which diet you go with. If you're going through problems in your relationship, hire a therapist, binge watch YouTube advice,
  340. 33:29go on a retreat, and experiment with options until you find the right solution. The first one you try probably
  341. 33:35isn't the best way. If your business isn't growing, buy a course, hire a coach, test a new software, zoom out, or
  342. 33:42create a new strategy. There's always a way to solve your problems, and you strip yourself of that power when you
  343. 33:48latch on to one solution that probably won't solve the problem for good. Now, rule number 12 is how to live a unique

  344. How to live a unique life

  345. 33:55life. And that is that the greatest mistake is not making mistakes. Because the thing with all of this, the reason
  346. 34:01you've made it so far in this video is that you're different. You don't want to live the default life. You're aware of
  347. 34:07this. You're observant, maybe a bit quiet, afraid to speak your mind because they won't listen anyway. But that
  348. 34:13silence is killing you. You tried to fit in. You tried to trust others with your future. You tried to demonize money,
  349. 34:19success, and the rest because you don't need it to live a good life. But you need to build because that's how you
  350. 34:24contribute to others, connect to something greater than yourself, and embark on a unique journey that brings
  351. 34:29an end to robotic living because you have the money to remove your dependency from that robotic living. The thing is,
  352. 34:36you're still looking for that one true path. And I'm here to tell you that there isn't one. You aren't where you
  353. 34:42want to be because you're afraid of making mistakes. I cannot express that enough. If there were one true sentence
  354. 34:48in which to orient your life, that would be it. Mistakes are nature's compass. If
  355. 34:53happiness can't exist without sadness as a reference point, success can't exist without failure. It's a universal law, a
  356. 35:00pattern of reality, a phenomenon that has been around since the first sign of life because something can't exist
  357. 35:05without nothing. You can make mistakes on the conventional path, schools, and jobs, but you are still working toward a
  358. 35:12narrow goal. The mistakes don't lead toward a new, better path. They simply lead to you feeling sorry for yourself.
  359. 35:18Now, when you decide to be free and reject the goals assigned to you at birth that made you think small and
  360. 35:23trapped you in this negative bubble of thoughts, your mistakes are your light in the dark. But you don't know what you
  361. 35:29want. That's the problem. You don't realize that you will never know what you want. It's in the future. It doesn't
  362. 35:35exist. It's imaginary. Life changes. What you want now could and will absolutely be different tomorrow, the
  363. 35:41next day, or the next decade. But you'll never embark on this process of refinement and purification because you
  364. 35:47can't seem to allow yourself to fail. What you want out of life becomes clear when you realize what you don't want out
  365. 35:53of life and work in the other direction. Since you haven't made any mistakes on your own path, it's obvious why you
  366. 35:59don't know what you want out of life. Now, here's my advice. Do what you want without permission from someone else. Go
  367. 36:05to the party, get drunk, start the business, scroll on your phone all night, do whatever your little heart desires. Seriously, because denying
  368. 36:12those desires is only going to bind you to them. But there's a catch. You need to be able to realize when those things
  369. 36:18are a mistake. Getting drunk every night isn't a mistake if you don't have meaningful responsibilities to wake up
  370. 36:24to every morning. It's not hurting your ability to achieve the goal. Managing parties and alcohol becomes a lot easier
  371. 36:31when it impacts something more important than parties and alcohol. Since your schooling and job aren't more important,
  372. 36:37you don't care and you do it anyway. You need your own goals. And you can only generate those goals by getting
  373. 36:43absolutely fed up with where you are and rejecting everything you thought was true. You need to start from scratch.
  374. 36:49Thank you for watching. Subscribe to my Substack for two letters a week on harsh truths around human potential and
  375. 36:55psychology and AI and business and all of that fun stuff. It's free to sign up. Like, subscribe while you're here. It's
  376. 37:01just a button click. Thank you. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
12 Rules To Change Your Life In 12 Months — Transcriptly