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How To Become So Self-Disciplined It Feels Illegal

Dan Koe26:59Added Aug 31, 2026

In this video Dan discusses why discipline comes from clarity, not force, and if you have to force yourself to do hard things you will lose. Discipline is a ...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Don't force discipline

  2. 00:00You know when you start thinking about
  3. 00:01something and you just get unnecessarily
  4. 00:03pissed off? That's how I am right now.
  5. 00:06So, excuse me if I yell at you for a
  6. 00:09second. It's nothing personal. I just am
  7. 00:11going to be completely honest with you.
  8. 00:13I want to start by asking you a
  9. 00:14question. And that question is, do you
  10. 00:17really think that successful people
  11. 00:20hated their entire journey to becoming
  12. 00:23successful? Do you really think that
  13. 00:26they had to force themselves to do
  14. 00:28something that they didn't want to do
  15. 00:31for a long period of time until they
  16. 00:33reached that point of success? Or did
  17. 00:36they love what they do? Did they love
  18. 00:39eating healthy? Did they love working on
  19. 00:42their business? Did they love doing the
  20. 00:44hard things? If you feel like you have
  21. 00:47to force yourself to do something to
  22. 00:50achieve your goals, you're going to
  23. 00:52lose. And there is something very wrong
  24. 00:55with the way that you're going about
  25. 00:56achieving your goals. Because for
  26. 00:58successful people, loving it, loving the
  27. 01:02pain, even though it's not pain when you
  28. 01:04love it, loving the process, the hard
  29. 01:07thing is their competitive advantage.
  30. 01:09And you don't have that. That's why
  31. 01:11you're going to lose. And that's what
  32. 01:13most people get wrong about
  33. 01:15self-discipline is they hear that word
  34. 01:17self-discipline and then like a montage
  35. 01:20of David Gogggin starts running through
  36. 01:22their mind of just like running and like
  37. 01:26reaching this point where they just hate
  38. 01:28their lives and then like dying. I guess
  39. 01:32you think that discipline is about like
  40. 01:34lashing yourself to do something that
  41. 01:36you don't want to do to achieve this
  42. 01:38goal that is probably wrong in the first
  43. 01:40place. Because if you don't actually
  44. 01:42want to achieve the goal or care about
  45. 01:44the goal, why are you doing it? And if
  46. 01:46you think about that, then you'll come
  47. 01:48to the conclusion, oh, someone else
  48. 01:50wanted me to achieve that goal. I don't
  49. 01:52really want to achieve it. Or your
  50. 01:55priorities are just completely messed up
  51. 01:57and in the toilet. And we need to that's
  52. 01:59what we're going to talk about today is
  53. 02:01like how to go through this process to
  54. 02:04make self-discipline seamless and get
  55. 02:06very clear on what it is that you want
  56. 02:09so that you can do these things without
  57. 02:11effort. And as an example, I'm a pretty
  58. 02:13fit guy, right? I eat healthy 99% of the
  59. 02:18time. I go to the gym. I work on my
  60. 02:20business every morning. I do all of
  61. 02:21these things that people see as crazy or
  62. 02:23extreme or as hard when they're not
  63. 02:26difficult at all for me. And so I
  64. 02:29thought through that. I'm like, why is
  65. 02:31it so easy for me to do these things?
  66. 02:34But for other people, it's like the
  67. 02:36hardest thing in the world. It's like
  68. 02:37pulling teeth. You just can't get them
  69. 02:39to do it. They say, "Oh, I want to I
  70. 02:42want to get jacked. I want to lose
  71. 02:44weight. I want to make more money." And
  72. 02:45then you tell them exactly what to do.
  73. 02:48You give them the complete road map and
  74. 02:49then they do nothing about it or they
  75. 02:51come up with these excuses like, "Oh, I
  76. 02:53had to go to work. Oh, I had to do this.
  77. 02:55I had to do this." What do you mean you
  78. 02:57had to? You have to go to work, but you
  79. 03:00don't have to work on the goals. You
  80. 03:02You're trying to escape this life that
  81. 03:04you don't want to live, but you don't
  82. 03:06have to do the things that lead to the
  83. 03:08life you want. That's what your
  84. 03:09psychology is in the toilet. You have no
  85. 03:11idea what's going on in your head. And
  86. 03:13once you figure that out, like we're
  87. 03:15going to talk about, you'll be able to
  88. 03:16reprogram that into loving doing the
  89. 03:20hard thing or at least what you thought
  90. 03:22was the hard thing. So if the people
  91. 03:24that you label as self-disciplined like
  92. 03:27David Gogggins or some entrepreneur or
  93. 03:29some CEO is self-disiplined, but they
  94. 03:33love doing the thing, then that points
  95. 03:36to the first insight that you really
  96. 03:38need to internalize. And this may not
  97. 03:40make sense. You are already disciplined
  98. 03:42toward the exact goals you are supposed
  99. 03:45to be because that's how the mind works.
  100. 03:47Goals are conditioned into your mind by
  101. 03:49your environment. Your goals become your
  102. 03:51filter for reality, shaping what you
  103. 03:53focus on and what you forget. Your brain
  104. 03:55helps you notice and remember
  105. 03:56information that helps achieve those
  106. 03:58goals. And naturally, you act toward
  107. 04:01those goals and your identity
  108. 04:02solidifies. So if doing the hard thing
  109. 04:06is actually hard for you, it's that
  110. 04:08there's another goal in your mind that
  111. 04:11is overtaking the goal that you actually
  112. 04:14want to achieve. And that's usually
  113. 04:16conditioned into you when you were a
  114. 04:18child. And to save you a lot of the pain
  115. 04:19of actually thinking through this, most
  116. 04:22people have the goal of staying the same
  117. 04:24because that's survival. That's just
  118. 04:26human nature. You want to stay the same
  119. 04:28and that's very important to you. and
  120. 04:30any other goal that comes in conflict
  121. 04:32with that will lose. So when it comes
  122. 04:34time to build the business or talk to a
  123. 04:37new person or get in shape and then you
  124. 04:39find yourself not doing the things that
  125. 04:42lead to achieving those goals, you can
  126. 04:44peel back the layers and realize that
  127. 04:47you are working to stay the same. You
  128. 04:50are doing everything in your power. You
  129. 04:52are extremely self-disciplined at being
  130. 04:55the same person that you're trying to
  131. 04:57change. And that's what creates this
  132. 04:59dissonance and just gets you stuck in
  133. 05:02this limbo phase for multiple years
  134. 05:04until you do what we're going to talk

  135. Discipline is a feature of identity

  136. 05:06about. So the first part of this out of
  137. 05:08four parts that we're going to talk
  138. 05:09about is that discipline is a feature of
  139. 05:13identity. As an example, someone who
  140. 05:15deeply identifies whether they know it
  141. 05:17or not as a good student, which is
  142. 05:20usually the process of conditioning when
  143. 05:22you're a kid. your parents just force it
  144. 05:24into you that you need to go to school,
  145. 05:26get good grades, study, and that's the
  146. 05:28only thing you know. Those good
  147. 05:30students, the students that you know in
  148. 05:32school that you would consider a good
  149. 05:33student, it's not hard for them to study
  150. 05:35for 12 hours a day, right? Their
  151. 05:37survival is at stake. Their their
  152. 05:39parents goals implanted in their head
  153. 05:42are at stake. There's a lot of
  154. 05:44psychology going on here that makes it
  155. 05:47easy for them to study for 12 hours a
  156. 05:49day, but you can't because that's not
  157. 05:51the goal that is intertwined with your
  158. 05:53identity. Now, I want you to think of a
  159. 05:55bodybuilder who had this shift in their
  160. 05:58life where they went through a breakup
  161. 06:00or they were really struggling with low
  162. 06:03self-confidence. They don't struggle to
  163. 06:06show up to the gym every day and eat
  164. 06:08healthy. It's actually a part of their
  165. 06:10life. It's a part of who they are. It's
  166. 06:12not painful for them to do so. In fact,
  167. 06:15it's the other way around. It's painful
  168. 06:17for them not to do so. I was on a
  169. 06:19podcast with Mike Thirsten the other day
  170. 06:21and we kind of resonated or related on
  171. 06:24this fact that when we travel somewhere
  172. 06:27or we go to or we don't have options to
  173. 06:31eat healthy, that's painful. That's what
  174. 06:34throws our mind off because if we don't
  175. 06:36eat healthy, then our mind or our
  176. 06:38identity is threatened. our survival is
  177. 06:41threatened. I've talked about this
  178. 06:43multiple times, but humans don't only
  179. 06:46survive or reproduce on the physical
  180. 06:49level. We don't only have physical sex
  181. 06:52and have kids. We survive on the mimedic
  182. 06:55level, the conceptual level, our
  183. 06:57identity, what we associate with, what
  184. 06:59we consider who we are. And if you're a
  185. 07:02bodybuilder and then that identity, your
  186. 07:05mental body is threatened, then you feel
  187. 07:08that stress, you feel that survival
  188. 07:11response that makes you work in the
  189. 07:13opposite direction. So, closer to the
  190. 07:15end of this video, we need to understand
  191. 07:16how to redo that process, how to change
  192. 07:19who we are because that's going to
  193. 07:21determine how difficult it is to do hard
  194. 07:24things or achieve the goals we want.
  195. 07:26Now, one more example to make it very
  196. 07:28interesting is that a gamer doesn't find
  197. 07:31it difficult to stare at a screen and
  198. 07:34perform perform like you would as an
  199. 07:37athlete playing a sport. They don't find
  200. 07:39it difficult to perform for 12 hours a
  201. 07:42day sitting down staring at a screen
  202. 07:44playing video games. It's very easy to
  203. 07:46them because that's who they are. And if
  204. 07:49it's threatened, if their identity as a
  205. 07:51gamer is threatened, you see what
  206. 07:53happens in that case, right? You
  207. 07:55threaten a gamer and they just use all
  208. 07:56of this lingo on you and start trolling
  209. 07:59you and whatever. That's a survival
  210. 08:00mechanism, right? And they don't
  211. 08:02understand that because they don't want
  212. 08:04to understand that. Their mind doesn't
  213. 08:05care. And this goes for little things,
  214. 08:07too. Like a person who loves a specific
  215. 08:09TV show will go out of their way to be
  216. 08:13self-disciplined, arguably, in staying
  217. 08:16up late and binge watching the episode.
  218. 08:18And someone who procrastinates their
  219. 08:20work or what they're studying because it
  220. 08:22doesn't align with who they are will
  221. 08:24endlessly scroll on their phone because
  222. 08:26their goal is to not achieve the goal.
  223. 08:29These people, the gamers, the
  224. 08:31procrastinators, the binge watchers, the
  225. 08:33people that are doing the mediocre
  226. 08:35habits that everyone talks about,
  227. 08:36they're not lazy. They're actually
  228. 08:39arguably self-disciplined because that's
  229. 08:41what self-discipline is, right? It's
  230. 08:43persistent effort toward a goal. And
  231. 08:46most average people are extremely
  232. 08:49persistent toward the goal of a mediocre
  233. 08:52life. And the simple fact that they
  234. 08:54aren't aware of that is why they're
  235. 08:56doing it. And I'm not talking about a
  236. 08:58surface level awareness here of like,
  237. 09:00oh, I don't like my life. I'm talking
  238. 09:01about a very deep and painful experience
  239. 09:04that makes you so disgusted with the
  240. 09:07mediocre life that you're heading
  241. 09:08towards that that just stops becoming an
  242. 09:10option. When you look at any successful
  243. 09:13person, you realize that they went
  244. 09:14through this. They hit this rock bottom.
  245. 09:17They may not have been like poor or
  246. 09:19struggling to survive or whatever it is,
  247. 09:21but a psychological rock bottom. Not a
  248. 09:24physical psychological rock bottom where
  249. 09:26they hit that. They just hated the
  250. 09:29thought of ending up like everyone else.
  251. 09:31And then they changed in an instant and
  252. 09:33they loved doing the thing that people
  253. 09:36consider to be self-disciplined. Now the
  254. 09:39objection here is like, "But Dan, those
  255. 09:42things are comfortable. Playing a game
  256. 09:44is comfortable. they don't take effort
  257. 09:45to do or there's the immediate
  258. 09:47gratification and sure but writing every
  259. 09:51morning is very comfortable to me. It
  260. 09:53gives me immediate gratification. You
  261. 09:55just haven't turned the goals you want
  262. 09:57to achieve into a game. It's more
  263. 09:58painful for me not to write every
  264. 10:01morning than it is to write every
  265. 10:03morning. It's more painful for me not to
  266. 10:05go to the gym or get 10,000 steps a day
  267. 10:08or do whatever it is than it is to go to
  268. 10:10the gym or get 10,000 steps or eat
  269. 10:12healthy. And even as an example of this,
  270. 10:15I've tried to play video games like I
  271. 10:17did when I was a kid. Like I'm not
  272. 10:19judging anyone here who plays a bunch of
  273. 10:22video games. Like I was the same person.
  274. 10:23I hit 10th prestige in Call of Duty
  275. 10:26Modern Warfare 2 because I was out sick
  276. 10:28from school for a week and had pneumonia
  277. 10:30and was that's all I did all day and
  278. 10:32just had 12-pack of Dr. Pepper near me.
  279. 10:35I tried to do that again a few years ago
  280. 10:37because the new Call of Duty came out. I
  281. 10:39downloaded it. I started playing it, but
  282. 10:40it was just too much. like I was there
  283. 10:42and it just wasn't fun. I would play a
  284. 10:44match or two and then it's like I have
  285. 10:47something better that I could be doing.
  286. 10:49So most people have it backwards. They
  287. 10:51start working on their goals and then
  288. 10:53they think I have something better that
  289. 10:55I could be doing. You're missing the
  290. 10:57psychology of skill and challenge here.
  291. 10:59When you turn your goals into a game,
  292. 11:01you don't just take on a level 50
  293. 11:03because you get overwhelmed, but you
  294. 11:05also don't play a level one because then
  295. 11:07you get bored. You think you have
  296. 11:09something better you could be doing.
  297. 11:10Human behavior is teological,
  298. 11:14cybernetic. The mind is a goal achieving
  299. 11:16machine. We interpret the world with our
  300. 11:19identity as the lens and the goals
  301. 11:21conditioned into our mind shape the
  302. 11:22behavior that forges who we are. If we
  303. 11:26can understand this process or reverse
  304. 11:28engineer it, we can leverage it to
  305. 11:30achieve nearly impossible goals. The

  306. Limbo is the laboratory

  307. 11:32second part to this that we need to
  308. 11:33understand is that limbo is the
  309. 11:36laboratory. feeling lost, being stuck in
  310. 11:39limbo, just like you're floating off in
  311. 11:41space. You're not working towards the
  312. 11:42life you want, and you're not you're
  313. 11:45kind of tired of the life that you're
  314. 11:46living. The reason you want to be
  315. 11:48disciplined is that you've exhausted
  316. 11:50your current stage of life. You're
  317. 11:52starting to notice that you've stalled
  318. 11:54out. You're starting to notice that
  319. 11:55every day is the same as the last.
  320. 11:57You're starting to notice that if you
  321. 11:58keep doing the same things, you won't
  322. 12:01achieve the life you want. You're in
  323. 12:03limbo, and you don't want to be there
  324. 12:05anymore. It's painful, but you
  325. 12:07misinterpret that pain and think of the
  326. 12:09first solution that comes to mind. Be
  327. 12:11more disciplined. This is where most
  328. 12:13people get stuck in a loop of forcing
  329. 12:16themselves to do something they don't
  330. 12:17want to do, just to quit 2 weeks later
  331. 12:20and go back to the life they swore
  332. 12:21against. Pain is the signal that change
  333. 12:25is happening. So, the way out of this is
  334. 12:28to lean in. You have to become hyper
  335. 12:31aware of how painful your current
  336. 12:33situation is. What you're trying to do
  337. 12:36here is you're trying to make the pain
  338. 12:38of where you are outweigh any other pain
  339. 12:42in your life. And once you do that,
  340. 12:44discipline as you define it is no longer
  341. 12:48painful because you don't have to force
  342. 12:50yourself to do it. It's the thing you
  343. 12:52want to do. When you see no other option
  344. 12:55but to do that thing and you have
  345. 12:57complete clarity that it will take you
  346. 13:00away from the life that you are now
  347. 13:02disgusted with. That's how you change
  348. 13:04your identity. So step one is to write
  349. 13:07out everything you hate about your
  350. 13:09current life. And I don't want to hear
  351. 13:10about positive thinking right now
  352. 13:12because you're wrong. And exactly what
  353. 13:14kind of life you will have if you don't
  354. 13:16change those things. So you have this
  355. 13:19paper, you have this note, you have this
  356. 13:21document of everything that you could
  357. 13:22come up with about the experiences you
  358. 13:25don't want to experience again. The job
  359. 13:27you hate, things in your childhood that
  360. 13:29you don't want to experience again. All
  361. 13:31of these things, anything that can come
  362. 13:32to mind, put it on paper. Now, you're
  363. 13:34doing this at once. This is going to
  364. 13:36take 15 to 30 minutes, and that's not
  365. 13:39enough time to really dig deep and
  366. 13:42excavate the the painful experiences. So
  367. 13:45when you have this paper, keep it
  368. 13:47somewhere on your desk, wherever, on
  369. 13:49your phone. If it's accessible, perfect.
  370. 13:52Then you take a week and you just
  371. 13:54contemplate it. You think about it all
  372. 13:57the time. You go on a walk, even during
  373. 14:00conversations. You go about your
  374. 14:02everyday life and you notice things from
  375. 14:04that life that you don't want to be
  376. 14:06there. And you really dig deep into
  377. 14:07them. You research them further. Where
  378. 14:09is this leading my life to? what are the
  379. 14:12negative aspects of these things? You
  380. 14:14can kind of start to condition how your
  381. 14:17mind views the world because th this
  382. 14:19kind of sucks, but it's also a very cool
  383. 14:21thing because you have control over it.
  384. 14:23But imagine that you find a new food
  385. 14:27like avocados and you're like, hm, what
  386. 14:29are the benefits of avocados? And then
  387. 14:31you look those up and you're like, oh, I
  388. 14:33should eat more avocados now. But if you
  389. 14:36were to look up the opposite, the
  390. 14:37negative, you would probably find
  391. 14:39something that would make you hate the
  392. 14:43thought of eating avocados and then you
  393. 14:45would never eat them again. Now,
  394. 14:47avocados is a stupid example here, but
  395. 14:49you can do that for almost anything.
  396. 14:51This is why the diet and nutrition world
  397. 14:53is all messed up is because you can find
  398. 14:56negative and positive aspects of
  399. 14:58everything, and what you choose to focus
  400. 15:01on determines what you're probably going
  401. 15:03to eat in your diet. So if we take that
  402. 15:06diet and apply it to your entire life,
  403. 15:09you look up the negatives and you become
  404. 15:10very aware of where those things lead,
  405. 15:13you have a lot of control over how your
  406. 15:15mind perceives reality to move you
  407. 15:17closer toward your goals and love the
  408. 15:19things that you want to do. Now since
  409. 15:21thinking through this and excavating
  410. 15:23this, well one thinking comes from
  411. 15:25questioning thinking comes from
  412. 15:27conversation with yourself. So, if you
  413. 15:29want help with this, a good way to use
  414. 15:32AI is just this. Not having AI tell you
  415. 15:35what to do with your life, but having it
  416. 15:37question you in a thoughtful way so that
  417. 15:39it can uncover what you don't want out
  418. 15:42of life. I'll leave a link in the
  419. 15:43description for a prompt that I've made,
  420. 15:46uh, the life reset prompt. You can
  421. 15:47download that if you want to. So, limbo
  422. 15:50is the laboratory. That was part two is
  423. 15:52that you like pain is a signal of
  424. 15:54change. You need to become absolutely
  425. 15:56fed up with where you're at in life. So
  426. 15:59you're fed up with where you are. Now
  427. 16:01what? How do we become disciplined? So

  428. Discipline isn't built, it's discovered

  429. 16:03part three is that discipline isn't
  430. 16:06built, it's discovered. I've been
  431. 16:09training in the gym for about 12 years
  432. 16:11now. And I've posted actually one daily
  433. 16:14routine of mine where you can see what I
  434. 16:16look like if you want. I'm wearing a XL
  435. 16:19plus oversized shirt. I'm 6'5, right? I
  436. 16:21may look kind of lanky, but one day
  437. 16:23we'll do a physique reveal. I'm in a cut
  438. 16:26right now. It's going really well. I'm
  439. 16:27going to be shredded soon, but that's
  440. 16:28aside the point. So, I've been in the
  441. 16:30gym for 12 years. I've been writing
  442. 16:32online for about five. I've been hitting
  443. 16:3410k steps a day for about 4 years. I
  444. 16:38have various habits that make people
  445. 16:41think like, how do you do that so
  446. 16:43consistently? And for all of those
  447. 16:45habits, the first time that I tried
  448. 16:47them, I fell off multiple times because
  449. 16:50I didn't hate the life or I I hated the
  450. 16:52life, but I wasn't deeply aware of how
  451. 16:54much I hated the life that I was living
  452. 16:56to the point where I would change. But I
  453. 16:58remember one of the first times that I
  454. 17:00was like invited to go on a walk with
  455. 17:02someone. And I'm like, go on a walk.
  456. 17:04Like that's for scenile old people. And
  457. 17:07the thing here is I was confirming the
  458. 17:09thoughts that helped me achieve the goal
  459. 17:12of staying the same. I didn't want to do
  460. 17:14those things, but felt like I had to.
  461. 17:17And when I finally formed the habit, it
  462. 17:19was different than the other times when
  463. 17:20I tried to force it. They weren't hard
  464. 17:23to do. They were the byproduct of
  465. 17:25experimentation and discovery. All of
  466. 17:28those habits became a part of my life
  467. 17:29for four specific reasons. The first is
  468. 17:32that I was deeply aware of a painful
  469. 17:34problem in my life. Two, I searched for
  470. 17:37evidence to support a desirable future
  471. 17:39version of myself. Three is I changed my
  472. 17:41physical and digital environments to
  473. 17:43solidify my new identity. And four, I
  474. 17:45blocked out time during the week to do
  475. 17:47those things as if I were going to be
  476. 17:49doing them for the rest of my life. The
  477. 17:52first step there is to become deeply
  478. 17:54aware of a painful problem in your life.
  479. 17:57You do not understand how powerful that
  480. 18:00can be to become deeply aware of a
  481. 18:02problem because most people don't want
  482. 18:04to solve their problems. They don't
  483. 18:06realize that life is just a series of
  484. 18:08problems and you build solutions and you
  485. 18:10get better. That's how you make more
  486. 18:12money. You solve your own problems. The
  487. 18:15way you solve a problem is with a
  488. 18:16project. The project is a solution. You
  489. 18:19can turn that into a product and put it
  490. 18:21online. That's what fitness people do.
  491. 18:22That's what business people do. That's
  492. 18:24what anyone creating a product has done.
  493. 18:26They solve a painful problem in their
  494. 18:28own life or someone else's. If you just
  495. 18:30solve your own problems for life, just
  496. 18:32continue and not get distracted from the
  497. 18:34series of problems that are laid out in
  498. 18:36front of you from shallow to deep. Your
  499. 18:38shallow problems right now are get in
  500. 18:41the gym, get fit, eat healthy, you're
  501. 18:44overweight, you feel sluggish, you lack
  502. 18:46energy, you don't have money, start a
  503. 18:48business, you solve the problems in your
  504. 18:51life, and then you have experience to
  505. 18:52the point where you can make more money.
  506. 18:55As an example of this entire process,
  507. 18:57when I was in middle school, I was the
  508. 18:59tall and super lanky dude and I didn't
  509. 19:02like how I looked. I felt awkward in my
  510. 19:04own skin and I lacked self-confidence.
  511. 19:06So, I used that pain to educate myself
  512. 19:09on fitness and nutrition. I even
  513. 19:11remember reading this book that was
  514. 19:13called Nutrient Timing for Peak
  515. 19:15Performance on the bus ride to Middle
  516. 19:17School. Like, who reads Nutrient Timing
  517. 19:19for Peak Performance on a bus ride to
  518. 19:21middle school? I started doing push-ups
  519. 19:23in my room. I started going to
  520. 19:24afterchool weights and my love for the
  521. 19:27gym just slowly picked up from there.
  522. 19:29Now to change my environment when I was
  523. 19:32in middle school, I couldn't really
  524. 19:34change my physical environment, right? I
  525. 19:36lived with my parents. I had certain
  526. 19:38friends. I was in this specific physical
  527. 19:40location. But the beautiful thing about
  528. 19:42the modern world is that you have the
  529. 19:44internet. You can literally curate your
  530. 19:46digital environment that creates and
  531. 19:48programs your identity by immersing
  532. 19:50yourself in the right information. When
  533. 19:52I would get home from school, I would go
  534. 19:55straight to my computer and just watch
  535. 19:57the two to three fitness vloggers at the
  536. 19:59time when YouTube was just starting out.
  537. 20:01And that changed my entire life. They'd
  538. 20:03make videos about their programs or
  539. 20:06certain exercises to try or certain
  540. 20:08tips. And every time I watched, I had
  541. 20:10this novel hit of dopamine because I had
  542. 20:14something new to try. I had some new
  543. 20:16knowledge to experiment with. I could go
  544. 20:18to the gym, try the new exercise, try
  545. 20:19the new program, stick to it, see
  546. 20:21progress, create this feedback loop,
  547. 20:23fall in love with it, eat correctly, so
  548. 20:25on and so forth. The same with
  549. 20:27nutrition. You're probably not sticking
  550. 20:28to your nutrition because you're not
  551. 20:31surrounded by the people in your
  552. 20:33physical or digital space that give you
  553. 20:37these new tips and tricks and knowledge
  554. 20:40that you can implement and see direct
  555. 20:42feedback from. This is another topic for
  556. 20:44another video, but daily learning and
  557. 20:47self-education is so freaking important
  558. 20:50because all of these things overlap and
  559. 20:52intertwined. Just treat daily
  560. 20:54self-education toward your goals as a
  561. 20:57habit and your life will change. So this
  562. 20:59entire time I didn't just pick a random
  563. 21:02diet or go to the gym and start doing
  564. 21:04random exercises because that's
  565. 21:06extremely chaotic. The mind craves
  566. 21:08order, psychology, hierarchy of goals,
  567. 21:10turning your life into a video game,
  568. 21:12everything that we've talked about
  569. 21:13before. I wasn't trying to force myself
  570. 21:15to doing something random because I had
  571. 21:18clarity and novelty and dopamine that
  572. 21:20was leading to me doing something. The
  573. 21:22problem here is that one, most people
  574. 21:24aren't hyper aware of a painful problem
  575. 21:26in their life, so their mind doesn't
  576. 21:28release dopamine at the sight of a
  577. 21:29potential solution. and two they learn
  578. 21:32without experimentation. So they never
  579. 21:34make the progress necessary to act as a
  580. 21:36feedback loop that keeps them motivated.
  581. 21:38So far we know that limbo is the
  582. 21:40laboratory. We know that self-discipline
  583. 21:43isn't built, it's discovered and now we
  584. 21:46need to understand how to engineer an
  585. 21:48identity and we're going to kind of
  586. 21:49rapid fire this and you can do with it
  587. 21:51what you will. Step one is recognition.
  588. 21:54Who you are determines what you consider
  589. 21:57important. You must first recognize that
  590. 21:59you are pursuing a series of goals
  591. 22:01whether you are conscious of them or
  592. 22:03not. Those goals frame how you interpret
  593. 22:05reality and you usually notice things
  594. 22:07that confirm your current way of life.
  595. 22:09The goals that your mind operates on
  596. 22:11stem from your conditioning. This is the
  597. 22:13first thing that you need to become
  598. 22:15aware of. And your conditioning stems
  599. 22:17from your environment. Your parents,
  600. 22:18your teachers, your peers, your culture,
  601. 22:21the goals that society gave you when you
  602. 22:24were a child. When you turn 15, 16, 17,
  603. 22:2718, you can start to think, why am I on
  604. 22:30this life trajectory? Did I even choose
  605. 22:33any of this? And the answer is probably
  606. 22:35no, unless your parents were extremely
  607. 22:38high agency and taught you how to
  608. 22:40navigate your teachers and peers while
  609. 22:43you were young. Step two is strategic
  610. 22:46dissonance. To avoid getting trapped in
  611. 22:48a state of feeling lost or limbo, you
  612. 22:50let the divide between who you are and
  613. 22:53who you want to be grow wider. You
  614. 22:55cultivate dissatisfaction with your
  615. 22:57current lifestyle by noticing where you
  616. 22:59will end up if you don't change. By
  617. 23:01becoming aware of the problems in your
  618. 23:04life, you prime your mind for pattern
  619. 23:06recognition. That's what your mind is, a
  620. 23:08pattern recognition machine. That's what
  621. 23:09leads to good dopamine. Your brain
  622. 23:12starts to confirm that change is the
  623. 23:14right thing to do. And it helps you
  624. 23:16notice information and conversations and
  625. 23:19books and social media content and other
  626. 23:21things that help you achieve your goals.
  627. 23:23This is kind of funny because in order
  628. 23:25to learn something new, you don't need
  629. 23:27to take a course on it or read a book
  630. 23:30about it or read something specific, an
  631. 23:32article about how to do a specific
  632. 23:34thing. That's helpful, right? There's
  633. 23:36nothing wrong with those. But by simply
  634. 23:38having this goal that you deeply care
  635. 23:41about, you'll achieve it because that's
  636. 23:44the thing on your mind. That's what
  637. 23:45that's what's framing how you perceive
  638. 23:48reality. That's how that's what's
  639. 23:49framing what you pull out of situations.
  640. 23:52One person can read a book and their
  641. 23:54goal is to get a job and they're going
  642. 23:56to pull information from that book that
  643. 23:59relates to getting a better job. There's
  644. 24:01a person who is losing weight and you
  645. 24:03can read a spirituality book and that
  646. 24:05spirituality book is going to be framed
  647. 24:08from the goal that they're trying to
  648. 24:10achieve, right? It's going to give them
  649. 24:11the mental and spiritual strategies to,
  650. 24:13let's say, deal with the low energy that
  651. 24:16comes from being deep in a cut. If you
  652. 24:18read the power of now, when you're
  653. 24:19prepping for a bodybuilding competition,
  654. 24:21that's going to help you manage the
  655. 24:23emotions that come with that. But a
  656. 24:25person who is really struggling to start
  657. 24:27a business, it's going to help them in
  658. 24:29that case. That's what I mean by the
  659. 24:30goal frames your perception. So, uh,
  660. 24:32another thing there is that if you're
  661. 24:34not getting anything from reading or
  662. 24:37from watching podcasts or whatever it
  663. 24:40may be and you're just watching them for
  664. 24:42entertainment, it's usually because
  665. 24:44you're not trying to pursue a meaningful
  666. 24:48and self-generated goal. Now, step three
  667. 24:50is environment engineering. Unfollow
  668. 24:53people who don't put out information
  669. 24:54that helps you achieve a better life.
  670. 24:56Throw away the food that you allow
  671. 24:58yourself to eat at 3:00 a.m. Pull out a
  672. 25:00paper and map out exactly what you're
  673. 25:02going to do that week down to the hour.
  674. 25:04Review and iterate every week. You need
  675. 25:07that feedback loop. Immerse yourself in
  676. 25:10the people, places, and things that give
  677. 25:12you new things to try that can help you
  678. 25:15achieve your goals. The little novel
  679. 25:17tactics, things to experiment with.
  680. 25:19Follow new accounts, even if you
  681. 25:21disagree with them or don't like them as
  682. 25:22a person, but their information helps
  683. 25:24you achieve your goals. Scroll through
  684. 25:26Amazon until you find a book that sounds
  685. 25:29interesting. Scroll through YouTube
  686. 25:31until you break out of your normal
  687. 25:33algorithm and can start curating another
  688. 25:35one. Or don't go onto algorithmic social
  689. 25:39media in general and only go based off
  690. 25:41of search. So only search YouTube
  691. 25:43videos. Intention is what matters here.
  692. 25:46Intention is what are you stretching
  693. 25:48towards? That's the Latin origination of
  694. 25:50it is what are you stretching towards?
  695. 25:52That's what intention is. What goal are
  696. 25:55you achieving? Is that top of mind? When
  697. 25:57you do something intentionally, you're
  698. 26:00thinking about what you're going to do.
  699. 26:02Does it help me achieve my goal? No.
  700. 26:05Don't do it. Intention is you giving a
  701. 26:08direction for your mind to rewire itself
  702. 26:11toward. Step four is
  703. 26:13self-experimentation. Because problems
  704. 26:15that aren't solved through
  705. 26:16experimentation aren't solved for good.
  706. 26:19Rather than being assigned another goal,
  707. 26:21you try everything until you find the
  708. 26:23one thing that you can't pull yourself
  709. 26:25away from. Then you repeat that process
  710. 26:27until it becomes who you are. Now, if
  711. 26:29you want more on self-discipline,
  712. 26:31self-improvement, business, all of those
  713. 26:33things, human potential, finding
  714. 26:36figuring out what you are good at in
  715. 26:38life, so on and so forth, subscribe to
  716. 26:40my Substack. I send out two free letters
  717. 26:43a week on all of those things. And if
  718. 26:45you want to continue watching, you can
  719. 26:47watch my last video titled You Have 36
  720. 26:49Months to Make It. That'll be up
  721. 26:51somewhere on the screen. So with that,
  722. 26:53like, subscribe while you're here. It's
  723. 26:55just a button click. Thank you. See you

  724. How to engineer an identity and reset your life

  725. 26:57in the next video. Bye.
How To Become So Self-Disciplined It Feels Illegal — Transcriptly