True success, especially at the highest levels, is achieved not by sheer discipline or more hours worked, but by strategically designing systems that automate or facilitate the execution of difficult tasks, thereby overcoming inherent human limitations like willpower depletion and emotional avoidance.
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Most people think success is about
discipline or working more hours. And
sure, they will get you to the top 10%.
But to reach the top 1%, the rules are
completely different. I was once
homeless and I thought I was a failure.
Today, I'm a multi-millionaire investor,
board member, adviser, two billion
dollar tech companies. And I didn't get
there by working harder, but by
designing systems that did the hard work
for me. So instead of giving you
motivational fluff, I'm going to share
five simple principles to finally do the
hard things you've been avoiding.
Principle number one, you need to trap
yourself. In 1519, the Spanish
concistador Hernand Cortez landed on the
shores of Mexico with just a few hundred
men. They were there to conquer the
Aztec Empire. Now, they were outnumbered
in an unknown land, facing impossible
odds. Now, guess what he did to make
sure his troops had no option but to
win. Cortez ordered them to sink the
ships. There was no going back, no
retreat, no surrender. That's exactly
what we need to do in our lives because
when you don't have a plan B, you will
find a way to make plan A work. I
learned that lesson in my career when I
was the chief operating officer at a
large company [music] and we acquired a
new company and it was an adjacent
business uh with an attractive revenue
stream and several hundreds of employees
joined us [music] and they had a
terrific management team but they were
in a different [music] city and there
were no direct flights from New York. So
I wasn't sure if I was going to travel
there much. But when you acquire a
company, you have to put in a lot of
time and effort to integrate the two
companies. People, [music] culture,
systems, product, customers, all of that
has to come together. And I remember my
CEO putting his hand on my shoulder and
saying just two lines, okay, man, I'm
not going there. You own it. And that
was it. And at that moment, the whole
idea of traveling there every week
didn't seem like a chore or a choice.
That became my plan A. And there was no
plan B. We had to make the deal work. We
had to make the integration successful.
And that required me to pay full
attention to the acquired company
because my CEO was going to work on a
larger picture. [music] and he trusted
me fully to take care of our new
employees and make sure we became one
company. In behavioral design, these are
called forcing functions. The
constraints that corner you and force
you into growth. Here are the four
forcing functions you can set for
yourself. First, public commitment. Tell
people what you're going to do. Announce
[music] it. Social pressure is one of
the oldest motivators on earth. Second, [music]
[music]
financial stakes. Pay before you feel
ready. Like putting money down on that
gym membership or that training course
that you always wanted to take. Our
example of that acquisition was a
financial state. We spent a lot of
money. We had to make it successful.
Third, cut the access. [music]
Delete the app. Block the site. If
things that distract you aren't
available easily, it becomes a forcing
function itself. And fourth, time box.
Give the task a hard window. 90 minutes
ship something at the end of it. You
know when retreat is not an option, hard
things that seemed impenetrable first
become inevitable. This lets you
overcome one thing everybody blames when
they can't stay consistent. That's when
principle number two comes into play. Do
you know what that is? It's willpower.
We've all had those days. It's 800 am
and you feel like it's going to be an
amazing day. You're gonna get so much
done today. And then it's 800 PM and
you've renegotiated almost everything
from your list and you feel like you
have failed, but you haven't. That's
just how our brains work. Yours and
mine. One of the world's leading
willpower researchers, Roy Balmeister,
ran a study that literally flipped the
idea of discipline on its head. For me,
at least. He brought people into his lap
and put fresh baked cookies in front of
them. Now, half of them were told not to
eat them. Don't touch it. The other half
wasn't told anything. And after a while,
some of them ate cookies, some of them
didn't. Both groups were given a set of
impossible puzzles to solve. And now
you're going to say, "Of course, I know
where this story is going." Those with
the willpower did better. But that's the
twist. Those who resisted eating cookies
gave up on puzzles 50% faster. Now, that
completely surprised me, too. But there
is an explanation. Our willpower isn't
infinite. It's like a fuel tank. Every
decision you make and every distraction
you fight ends up draining that tank.
So, by evening, the tank's going to be
empty. That's why you feel like you
failed. Not having willpower is not a
sign of failure or weakness. It's just
biology. Judges deny parole more often
in the afternoon than in the morning.
Same cases, same type [music] of facts,
but their mental fuel is depleting. We
keep trying to solve a biological
problem with vague solutions like
willpower. Noah Li is the world's
fastest man right now. Now, he doesn't
chase willpower or discipline. He
engineers it. How? Well, he has ADHD.
So, he doesn't trust willpower. He
trusts his internal rhythm. 6 days a
week, same track, same playlist, same
warm-up, same bodily movements. When the
gun goes off, he says, "I'm not
thinking. My body already knows what to
do." That's not discipline. That's
[music] design. He's not fighting
biology. He's using it. When the margin
between a gold medal and a silver is
just 1 500th of a second, those routines
give him the edge. So why not use the
same logic to your advantage? Pick one
task that you've been avoiding for a
while or the task that has been avoiding
you for a while and lock the three
variables, time, place, and trigger.
Let's say it's deep work that you want
to do and it's always 9:00 a.m. on
Thursday. And so at 9:00 am on Thursday
on your deep work day, show up at the
same desk, same playlist, phone on
airplane mode, no Slack, no email. Now
you're on autopilot. [music] That sounds
terribly simple, right? But that's the
point. Simple systems are the hardest
[music] to break. The more you force
yourself into these kind of rhythms, the
less you have to rely on willpower
anymore. Instead, you'll be able to take
advantage of your mental algorithm. A
psychologist at NYU, Peter Galwitzer,
studied students who were trying to
exercise over Christmas break. And he
did something very interesting. He
divided them into two groups. One group
was told to set goals like, "I want to
work out more." And the other group was
given something like an if then plan.
So, if X, do y. If it's Monday at 7
a.m., then you were at the gym. Both
teams had the same motivation, but two
different instructions. And the results
were so surprising. [music] The goal
setters failed 62% of the time, but the
if then planners only failed 9% of the
time. That's just how our mental
algorithms work. [music] If X, then Y.
If this happens, do that. It's a simple
but powerful system that changes your
behavior. We avoid hard things because
what we're really trying to avoid is the
emotion that comes from it. The
frustration, the doubt, discomfort, the
uneasy feeling, the imposttor syndrome.
So your brain starts bargaining with
you. Let's skip this just just for
today. You know, promise tomorrow we'll
do it twice. It doesn't work, does it?
The fix. Run the algorithm. [music] Why?
Because the if then algorithm helps you
see those emotional bargains as just
data signals. You take out the drama,
you take out the debate, and in your
head, you just run the code. If it's
3:00 p.m. Thursday, your deep work
starts. If you had lunch, you walk for
15 minutes. If it's Friday afternoon,
you review your week. If it's Sunday
night, plan for the next week. Whatever
it is that you want to program in your
if then algorithm, you can do it. and
then execute. Take out the debate. But
here's what most people don't realize.
Even with all these systems in [music]
place, there is one step that makes
everything stick to outsource your
decisions. Atul Gawande is a famous
surgeon and he was curious about
surgical errors. While he was doing his
research, he found something very
disturbing. [music] That worldclass
surgeons were making so many mistakes
that were totally preventable. [music]
They knew better. But somehow under
pressure, their performance was uneven.
So he worked with the World Health
Organization and they developed a 19step
surgical checklist. And you will think
the list would be like super technical,
right? But it had the simplest things
like confirm the patient's identity
first. Make sure all the antibiotics are
given. Make sure that the right leg to
operate on is marked so you don't chop
off the left leg. That kind of stuff.
Now you think, wait, this is so
elementary. But when the hospitals put
this simple system of checklists into
practice, postsurgical complications
fell by 36%.
and deaths dropped by 47%.
Same surgeons, same skills, just a
simple checklist as a safety net when
their cognitive load was peaking. That's
the power of the system working for you.
And the paradox here is that the better
you get at mastering something, the more
structured the systems you will have to
rely on. Checklists aren't just for
beginners, they are for experts,
especially experts who do hard things.
That's why pilots with 10,000 hours of
flying still read the same checklist
every single flight. Not because they
forgot how to fly, but because they
don't trust their own memory under
pressure. So no matter what level of
expertise you're at, you can use
checklists to become more effective. The
three checklists I love making in my
life, to-do list, the two want list, and
to be list. The to-do list is about
execution. The two want list is about
expansion and the tob list is about
personal evolution. These checklists
aren't about creating bureaucracy. They
are about creating bandwidth for your
brain so it can focus on what must be
done on the hard things. If your craft
matters to you and if your career
matters to you and you take pride in
doing hard things, [music] then the
easiest way to keep track of what you
want to do is your checklist. But even
with the simplest system like checklist,
there is still one problem. What happens
if your brain tries to bypass the system
entirely? Which brings me to principle
number five. You have to become the
system. I've seen great musicians and
great leaders and great spiritual
masters and they all have this one thing
in common. Harvard researchers scanned
the brains of Tibetan monks during their
meditation sessions and they found that
all the monks had their brain waves
[music] synchronized with each other
across all the individuals perfectly in
rhythm. Now these monks weren't trying
to focus or they weren't trying to
motivate themselves and they were
obviously not trying to synchronize
their brain waves but their nervous
system over time had evolved into
developing that pattern. Years of
repetition had given rise to this
beautiful resonance and they didn't need
motivation to do it. So what's the
secret that these monks can teach us?
Motivation doesn't drive repetition.
Repetition drives motivation. When your
brain can predict the cadence, it starts
craving the queue. Over time, you
[music] don't have to push yourself
every day. Your biology starts to pull
you forward. That's how your brain
lights up and [music] that's how you
become the person who does the hard
things over and over again. But it
almost seems effortless. Now it is not
effortless. [music] That's just a myth.
When you see someone like Raja Federer
doing that perfect serve, it seems
effortless. But he has put in thousands
and thousands and thousands of reps over
countless years, day after day, night
after night. But our brain over time
starts following those patterns. And
once the pattern takes over, your brain
stops chasing the reward. It starts
craving the repetition itself. So
tonight, don't just try to change your
entire life. Design one tiny rule that
changes your tomorrow. Build the right
systems and those systems will build the
right you. If you like this video,
subscribe to my channel for more content
like this and check out my recent video
on why you feel so stuck in life and how
to find [music] success. I'll see you
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