A Comprehensive Guide
How to fix your entire life in 1 day
7 ideas on behavior change, psychology, and productivity. Plus a protocol that requires one full day to complete with effects that last far longer.
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You aren't where you want to be because you aren't the person who would be there
Changing who you are matters more than changing your actions
Most people set a surface-level goal, hype themselves up to remain disciplined for the first few weeks, then go back to their old ways without much struggle, because they were trying to build a great life on a rotting foundation.
Think of somebody successful. Does the bodybuilder have to"grind" to eat healthy? Does the CEO have to discipline themselves to show up? The truth is they can't see themselves living any other way.
If you want a specific outcome in life, you must have the lifestyle that creates that outcome long before you reach it.
When you truly change yourself, all of your habits that don't move the needle toward your goal become disgusting, because you have a deep and profound awareness of what kind of life those actions compound into.
You aren't where you want to be because you don't want to be there
All behavior is goal-oriented, even when it harms you
"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."
– Alfred Adler
The first step to understanding the mind is to understand that all behavior is goal-oriented. It's teleological. Most of the time, your goals are unconscious.
If you can't stop procrastinating your work, you may justify it with "lack of discipline," but in reality, you are attempting to achieve a goal like you always are. That goal could be to protect yourself from judgment.
Real change requires changing your goals.
A goal is a projection into the future that acts as a lens of perception which allows you to notice information, ideas, and resources that aid in achieving it.
You aren't where you want to be because you're afraid to be there
Identity shapes goals, and you defend your identity
"If you have accepted an idea and are firmly convinced that idea is true, it has the same power over you as the hypnotist's words have over the hypnotized subject."
– Maxwell Maltz
The anatomy of identity:
You want to achieve a goal
You perceive reality through the lens of that goal
You only notice 'important' information that allows you to achieve that goal
You act toward that goal and receive feedback
You repeat that behavior until it becomes automatic
That behavior becomes a part of who you think you are
Break the cycle hereYou defend your identity to maintain psychological consistency
Your identity shapes new goals, restarting the cycle
Warning: If that identity is disadvantageous toward a good life, this cycle gets bad very quickly. The pattern must be broken between steps 6 and 7.
This process starts when you are a child. You have the goal of survival. You are dependent on your parents to teach you how to survive. Since most people teach through reward and punishment, unless you adopt their beliefs and values, you will be punished.
When your body feels threatened, you go into fight or flight. When your identity feels threatened, the same thing happens.
The life you want lies within a specific level of mind
The mind evolves through 9 predictable stages over time
When you're born, you're like a little survival sponge that absorbs whatever beliefs you can. And if you don't be careful, your mind may crystalize and it may make it difficult to live a meaningful life.
Conscientious
You build your own system of principles and hold yourself accountable to them.
Leaving your family's religion after careful study and adopting a personal philosophy you can defend.
Most readers hover between stages 4-8
It doesn't really matter what stage you are in, because moving through any of them follows a pattern. The good news: you can evolve.
Intelligence is the ability to get what you want out of life
Understanding cybernetics helps you achieve goals faster
"The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life."
– Naval Ravikant
There is a formula for success: Agency + Opportunity + Intelligence. Cybernetics comes from the Greek word kybernetikos which means"to steer" or "good at steering." It's also known as"the art of getting what you want."
Cybernetics illustrates the properties of intelligent systems:
High intelligence is the ability to iterate, persist, and understand the big picture.
Low intelligence is the inability to learn from your mistakes - getting stuck rather than solving.
Intelligence is realizing that there is a series of choices you can make which lead to achieving the goal you want. You understand that ideas are hierarchical and that you can't go from papyrus to Google Docs in one fell swoop.
How to launch into a completely new life (in 1 day)
A comprehensive protocol with morning, day, and evening phases
The best periods of my life always came after a period of getting absolutely fed up with the lack of progress I was making.
The 3 Phases of Identity Transformation:
- 1. Dissonance - Feel like you don't belong in your current life
- 2. Uncertainty - Don't know what comes next, experiment or get lost
- 3. Discovery - Find what you want to pursue and make 6 years of progress in 6 months
Psychological Excavation
Set aside 15-30 minutes to think about and answer these questions. Create a new frame for your mind to operate from.
Click each question to mark as completed
Turn Your Life Into A Video Game
Organize your insights into one coherent plan
"The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy—or attention—is invested in realistic goals."
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Games are the poster child for obsession, enjoyment, and flow states. They have all the components that lead to focus and clarity. If we reverse engineer what those components are, we can live in a state of deeper enjoyment.
Click each component to explore
All of these act as a concentric set of circles, like a forcefield, that guard your mind from distractions and shiny objects.
The more you play the game, the stronger this force becomes, and soon enough it becomes who you are.