Turn Self Improvement into Addiction (No Willpower Needed)

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Transcript

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So, here's how to turn self-improvement into addiction. Why?

Because you're already addicted, just not to the right things. You're addicted [music] to scrolling, to pleasure, to wasting time, to procrastinating, and to comfort.

You see, if you take what is already there, that addiction, that obsession, the drive, and you [music] just transfer it

00:17

to something else that is actually beneficial for you, your life will change. Imagine the things you could achieve if you just fell in love with working, fell in love with self-improvement, with [music] reading, with the habits, and all the things that you have to do to get to the next step.

Your life would be amazing. It would be

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so much easier to just continue to make those steps [music] to improve on a day-to-day basis and achieve your goals. So, let's get into it.

Part number one, mastering your mind. You see, I actually got this idea from a discussion we had in one of our weekly calls inside discipline OS, which is our community.

So, the main gist of the discussion went

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like this. It was all about just flipping the tables, inversing something [music] so that something that is even bad for you right now, if you flip it around, it can be good for you and work in the same way.

In that sense, you are already disciplined. You already have discipline.

You're disciplined enough to play video games. You're disciplined

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enough to procrastinate. You're disciplined enough to scroll for hours.

And [music] all these things require discipline. Everything requires discipline.

So, it's not about reinventing the wheel. It is about taking what you already have, the discipline that is already there, but just using it for the right things.

And this is all about remodeling your inner

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self, remodeling that identity, that self-image that you have. So you can start seeing yourself as the person who does those things.

And that same discipline that you have, you can just take it and now be disciplined enough to show up every day, to exercise, [music] to take care of your body, to read, to eat healthy, to meditate, to journal, to

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[music] stay focused, to remove distractions, to spend time off your phone. You got to really nail this down.

You are the person who enjoys working on their business. You are the person who does not get distracted.

You are the type of person who just is focused, who's consistent, who loves what they

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do. And these affirmations, you can write them down in a journal.

You can write them down on some notion document on Google Docs, whatever works best for you. But writing these things down is a great way to just work and rewrite your self-image.

And if you can rewrite your self-image, then all your habits will change. It is about realizing that the

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only way forward is just simply by turning the things you have to do, flipping them around and learning to love them, learning to find the obsession and the discipline to enjoy doing them. So you don't have to force yourself to read, you just find yourself reading because it has become in a sense

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an addiction. If you [music] could be addicted to all of these things that are good for you, then your life would become amazing.

And that is what we want. We don't want to make everything hard and be like, "Yo, I have to do all these things because that's just going to burn you out.

That's going to expend a lot of willpower and eventually leave

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you feeling like you have no other choice but to get back to old ways." So, the most consistent way to achieve your goals, to remove distractions and be your best self and build discipline, to unlock success [music] in your life, the easiest and most sustainable way is to start enjoying the things that you have

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to do. Start loving them.

start developing this obsession and this drive for all of the habits, for all the deep work, all the tasks and projects that you have to accomplish. I mean, think about the gym.

The people who are most in shape, who have the best physiques, do you think that they really hate going

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to the gym? They really don't.

Those people, they they love to go to the gym. In fact, the gym is one of the things that they look forward to throughout the day and that is why they are in good shape because they love going to the gym.

In the same way, if you love the habits that you do, if you love reading, you are going to be a better person just

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by nature. By default, when you love to do deep work and you love to avoid distractions and just sit down and focus, you are going to achieve more.

You are going to get to that next step and achieve a lot of things that when you look back 6 months from now, your life will have completely changed. And that is why self-improvement can be

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scary at times. That is because your brain a lot of the times, most of the [music] time just wants to do what is what what feels good, what is pleasurable, what is [music] nice right now, but then it forgets what is nice for your future, what are the things that are going to level you up.

So it's up to you and that's why you're here right now. It's up to you to build that

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anchor, to build that identity that just reminds your brain what you have to do to get to the next step and learns to enjoy it. So part number two, non-negotiation mode, silencing the internal dialogue.

The real thing, the real problem that holds people back is mental negotiation. How many times have

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you went to do something only to negotiate yourself out of it to either justify why it's okay to binge watch that TV series, why it's okay to fall back into that old way, why it's okay to procrastinate, to not do the work, and you also justify yourself against the good actions. You want to go to the gym

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and then you sit down for 20 30 minutes and you're just negotiating with yourself on all the reasons why you could skip the gym, why you could go tomorrow, why you could just leave it off and go someday. Or you're on the run and you're just talking yourself out of it.

You're talking yourself out of all of the good things that you have to do

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like the deep work like the running, like the reading, like the journaling and all the habits and the deep work as well. You see, you don't need motivation.

You need fewer conversations with yourself because once that happens then you can finally reclaim your energy. You can reclaim your time and

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you can start moving towards where you want to be without sabotaging yourself. Self-sabotage is such a big thing because if you think about it really if you were not holding yourself back you'd probably win.

You'd probably move forward. You'd probably be successful.

But it is you versus you. It is you who

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is holding yourself back. It is that negative selft talk.

It is those excuses and those justifications for why you can't do the work that just hold you back from achieving who you want to become. So the best way to remove this negotiation to stop negotiating with yourself is to remove choice entirely.

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Now there's a saying I love and it goes like this. Addiction thrives on choice.

Progress thrives on rules. When you create rules, when you create non-negotiables with yourself, like things that you do, habits, routines that you have to do and it doesn't matter how you feel, you are going to do them anyways.

If I don't really feel

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good, I don't feel motivated, I'm still going to wake up and read. That is just one anchored habit.

That is one thing that I do. It is a non-negotiable that I can then use other things and stack other habits on top of that.

So, the easiest habit for me is reading. So, if I'm struggling with another habit like

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meditation, it would only make sense to do meditation and stack it on top of reading. So, after I wake up, I'll freshen up.

I'll do what I have to do and then I'll go read. And then after reading, I'll meditate immediately after that because if I don't then I'm probably going to forget about it.

So it is about creating rules for yourself, a

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system, something that you can rely on without having to use willpower. And this is all about preddeciding routines, setting yourself goals, intentional action planners, using a habit tracker.

I have a habit tracker on notion. I use a task and project manager that just helps me have what I need to do and just

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stick to the things that I have to do and know and have that plan, have it in front of me, have those visual cues and triggers. I also have a whiteboard which is my secondary system and I look at it, I know what I have to do.

I know that I have to do these habits and it just keeps me in check. It is that

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accountability that we all need. And speaking of accountability, that's also where our community discipline OS comes in.

Basically, you're able to have that accountability for your habits, your routines, your deep work and everything you want to achieve. And because you have that accountability and you have those systems, it is going to be 10 times harder to procrastinate, to, you

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know, slip up with the bad habits and to forget the reason why you started. And that takes me to part number three, your work relationship.

Now, the relationship you have with work is either going to make you or break you in the long run. What I mean by this is if you have a negative relationship associated to [music] work, to deep work, to the

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habits, it is just a matter of time before you get distracted again, before you're not able to focus, you're not able to do the things you have to do. On the other hand, if you were able to make that switch that we talked about, learning to love the things that you have to do, to love the work, to love everything that is going to be good for you, that is going to do a lot of good

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for you. Because the default state for most people is that they get dopamine from pleasure and feel good habits instead of deriving dopamine from effort and challenges and rewards and the things that they have to do.

So focus on these, focus on small wins, 1% better every day. That is exactly what [music]

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atomic habits is all about. Consistency is key because every time you take one small [music] win, one step of action, your brain, your subconscious mind cannot really tell the difference between [music] a small win and a big win.

It just sees win, positive confirmation that we're headed in the right direction and that just keeps the

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momentum, gets the ball rolling, and it helps you achieve more, feel better, and feel more in control [music] of your life. And another thing is self-belief is absolutely huge.

Selft talk is everything. Belief, the way you see yourself, the way you talk to yourself, the the internal voice, the internal narrator.

Super important that you

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really dial it down so that you don't have this negative selft talk [music] that is sabotaging you. So you don't have these negative conversations with yourself, these excuses, these limiting beliefs that just hold you back from achieving your full potential.

You see, every single time you do a small one, you take a positive action, you believe

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in yourself, your selft talk is positive and inspiring and supporting. You're planting a seed, the seed for success.

[music] And another thing, a quote from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Amazing book, life-changing book.

I've read it twice over the past 2 years. It is amazing.

There's a quote that goes

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like this. Every single failure plants with it the seed of equivalent opposite success.

So our goal here is to just keep planting those seeds that eventually create the success that we want. Now part number three is about work relationships.

So here are three ways you can improve your work relationship and your relationship with

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your habits so that you can be consistent consistently. [music] Now number one is connecting your work with your reason why.

Finding pleasure in your work, finding pleasure in the things that you do because you know that this is your life's purpose. You know this is your mission and that's what gets you up.

That's what inspires you.

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That's what makes you super disciplined. Because if you can identify and look and choose somebody who has the success that you want, who has the life that you want and ask yourself why not me?

If this person can, then why can't I? That is a huge motivator.

And on top of that, you need to identify your reasons why. Why

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are you doing what you're doing? What is your reason?

What is your purpose? And list a few things.

Be honest. Because knowing why creates the clarity that eliminates procrastination.

And number two is gamifying your work. Keep it easy, low friction, keep it fun and enjoyable.

And break your tasks down as

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much as possible so that when you sit down and you actually do the work, it's not overwhelming. You feel good.

You're like, "Yo, this was actually nice. I actually feel productive." Because let's be honest here, if you are undisiplined, if you don't have consistency, if you're unable to focus, deep down, there is a

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this background feeling. You're not you don't feel good.

You know something deep down is bothering you and you don't know what. But that's just lack of discipline.

On the other hand, when you feel disciplined, when you feel like finally I'm in control of my life, my habits, and I'm on a good path and I'm doing well for myself, that feeling is

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just an unspoken confidence, an unspoken level of just assurance and knowing that you're on the right path and just feels amazing. Being disciplined feels amazing in so many ways.

And being undisiplined, it just doesn't feel good. When you are undisiplined, when you're not consistent, when you don't keep your promises and follow through on your

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word, some part of you is just not feeling good. And that is okay because you can always work towards being more disciplined, being more focused and consistent and creating a life that you don't need to escape [music] from.

And thing number three for work relationships is to work with colleagues. Go to a public space, go to the library, go to a cafe, put some

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music in, and just work with friends. Make it fun.

Work with colleagues. Make sure you don't get distracted and you don't get sidetracked.

But just having this connecting work with social is a huge motivator because you're always going to like being social to an extent.

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It it's always going to fulfill you like nothing else does. So connecting the social aspect with habits by joining a community with work.

For example, what we have in discipline OS is a live call that always runs and if you will need to work, you need accountability. You just join and there's other people in there as well and you just focus together and

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it's just super good for accountability. So you don't scroll, you don't distract yourself while you're working and you can just improve this work relationship.

Creating positive associations with the habits and the things that you have to do and the work and the exercise and the routines. It is essential because that

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is what is going to make you stick to it for the long term. Understand that you can only stick to something for the long term if it is fun, if it is enjoyable, if your brain finds something nice about it and actually enjoys the work.

So, a few videos ago, I talked about the discipline protocol light, and I created

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a new version of that, which is the discipline protocol pro, which will be linked down below, which includes all the systems you need and the fundaments to start building that discipline, to start being that consistent version of yourself that you've always wanted to be. So, it's linked below.

I hope this video was insightful. I hope it helped

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you, and I thank you for your support, for your attention as well. And I'll see you in the next one.

You got this.