Number one, change your inputs to change your outputs.

So a lot of us go throughout life completely unaware of why we do certain things, or why we think certain thoughts, or why we say things the way that we say them, with the tone in which we say them.

Or we can't figure out why we're tired all the time.

Our behavior is like a mystery to us.

Something completely out of our control, like the weather, or some foreign government EMPing you while you're in a plane on the way to Europe.

But maybe things aren't so complicated or mysterious.

Maybe we're putting out exactly what we're putting in.

Your mother and your grandmother have said it since you were a child.

You are what you eat.

But it goes way deeper than that.

You are what you eat, what you smell, what you see.

Your senses are soaking in inputs all the time. 99.9% of which are synthesized and understood and processed by your subconscious.

And what that means is that you're not conscious of it.

You're not consciously aware of the fact that all these calculations are being made.

Your conscious mind is super efficient at no longer noticing the filth in your bedroom, the moldy spaghetti behind your monitor.

But your subconscious smells that every second of the day.

What you are inputting into your subconscious is information that is making you feel a certain way, that's making you behave a certain way.

Become conscious of what you are feeding your subconscious on a regular basis.

When was the last time you saw a tree?

Number two.

You have to stretch in order to grow.

So in order to be successful in life, you probably need to have habits that benefit you.

So maybe you don't have those.

And maybe you want to be a person that has those.

But I think there are two main ways that people fail to implement beneficial habits for the long term.

The first way is they think it's going to be too easy.

They think that habit change is this really fun thing.

People want to go to the gym every day.

So they shop for new supplements and new workout clothes.

And they get all infatuated with this idea of being this healthy gym going person.

And then obviously, you know the story.

You show up to the gym and it's way harder than you thought it was going to be.

It feels nothing like thinking about going to the gym.

Lifting weights is hard.

You have to sweat.

And then you feel like, hey, this isn't fun.

So you stop doing it.

The second way I see people fail is they think it's going to be really hard and miserable, treacherous, not worth it.

Maybe they've tried a bunch of times and they've burned away their naivety.

And they say things like, I would start going to the gym, but I just don't feel like putting in all of that effort.

It's not worth it.

You probably can identify that there are truths and falsehoods to both of these approaches.

Yeah, it's not easy to implement a new habit.

Yes, it's not going to feel natural and it's going to be kind of unpleasant for a lot of it.

But also, it is worth it.

Because every single time you implement something that is genuinely good for you, when you can manage to have these small wins, when you actually show up to the gym, you put in a workout, it is difficult.

But when you leave the gym and you're sitting there on your couch after a great workout, chugging back a protein shake, you get this quiet feeling of victory.

Like, damn, a lot of bad things could happen to me today, but at least I went to the gym.

And that might seem subtle, but if you compound that feeling over a very long time, you feel like a completely different person.

You have inputted into your mind repeatedly that you have won.

You've done something worthwhile.

You're growing.

You're getting stronger.

And when you have that narrative in your subconscious, the way you walk changes, the way you make eye contact with people changes, the way you treat yourself changes.

That's the power of burning away this lesser self, of voluntarily subjecting yourself to pain.

Because what that tells yourself is that I'm willing to go through this to better myself because I'm worth it.

I'm shouldering so much suffering so that I can be the best version of myself, so that I can be stronger, so I can treat myself with respect.

And that narrative, treating yourself that way, completely transforms your existence.

That is absolutely worth it.

And suffering viewed in this proper context is a wonderful thing.

It is joyous, even.

So remember that.

Yes, it's painful.

But hell yeah, it's worth it.

Number three, guard your eyes.

The more we look at something, the more we are telling our brain that this thing is valuable.

This thing is important to us.

Even when looking at something as a reflex, you hear a pen drop next to you and you're home alone, you're going to look at that right away.

Because you value that information.

It could be a predator.

It could be somebody climbing through your windows ready to stab your dog.

I find that the more I scroll Instagram, the more I scan my environment kind of aimlessly, looking for something to sort of pique my interest.

You know, there's this sort of this aimlessness to my field of vision, where I'm just kind of looking for things to stimulate me, to give me a little brain tickle.

If you really need to focus on something in particular, try looking at it for 30 seconds.

Try controlling your eyes, guarding it from distraction, and literally just looking at the thing that you're supposed to do.

And not directing your vision anywhere else but that thing.

And when your eyes are focusing on something, your entire being tends to focus on it.

So you don't have to overthink things.

Just look at what you're supposed to do.

Don't allow yourself to look anywhere else.

Treat your eyes like a laser beam.

Have a reason to be looking where you're looking.

Number four, figure it out.

So if you want to get into powerlifting really badly, and you've never lifted a dumbbell, a barbell in your life, then obviously a really dumb thing to do would be to go onto YouTube and watch a bunch of videos of people who can powerlift or deadlift 600 pounds or more.

You watch all these videos of these strong dudes showing you the best possible way to deadlift 600 pounds.

Like that's such a waste of time.

If you've never deadlifted a thing in your life, then watching any of these videos is the biggest waste of your time you could possibly imagine.

Go to the gym first, and then when you're at the gym, take out your phone and watch a video on basic form, so you don't hurt yourself while you're deadlifting.

But deadlift.

Take all the energy you would use to try to figure out the perfect way to do something and use it to do the thing repeatedly and terribly so that you can get good at it faster than you ever would by watching videos about it.

There is no amount of videos you could watch.

You could watch 7,000 powerlifting videos and you would not be able to deadlift one more pound.

Maybe like two more pounds, but it ain't gonna be 600.

Most people's problem nowadays is they forgot what it feels like to just figure things out.

Start doing the thing, obviously don't hurt yourself, don't be dumb, but figure it out.

Oh no, Joey's telling me to start doing like free solo climbing on the side of a cliff and not watch a video or get a mentor.

No, I'm not.

Figure it out.

Figure it out.

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Number five, use leverage.

This sounds like the most technical one.

It sounds like, I don't know what it sounds like.

It sounds stupid.

That's what it sounds.

Not all productive things are created equal.

There are things that you really should be doing, or maybe there's literally one thing that you always avoid doing.

And it is by far the most important thing you could possibly do.

In my own life, that's making videos.

From a strictly monetary ROI perspective, making videos from start to finish and hitting upload is by far the best use of my time I can possibly do.

So whenever I am hanging out and, you know, I'm painting my windowsill black in my theater room, you know, that is a productive thing.

I'm painting my windowsill.

I'm doing something.

But when I have a deadline for a sponsor and I need to make a video and I have something on my mind and I should just sit here and talk about it, what the hell am I doing painting a window?

So many things in life are like that, where, yeah, it's technically productive, but it's not the thing.

It's not the thing that is on your mind, that's plaguing your existence, that is making you feel like you need to escape.

Everybody has that thing.

You need to find a way to do whatever that thing is as often as possible for as long as possible with as much intensity as possible.

There's a dirty joke in here somewhere.

And on the exact same wavelength, there's something that is the absolute worst use of your time that you could possibly do.

It has the absolute worst ROI out of any activity that you do on a daily or weekly basis.

If you thought about it for even three seconds, there's no reason to do it.

You need to find a way to do that thing as little as possible.

So that's what it looks like to maximize leverage.

Make that one thing that you need to do as enjoyable as possible, as frictionless as possible.

Make it just so easy to do all the time for a long period of time.

Spend money and time to help you make that thing as good as possible.

Increase the quality and enjoyability of that most important thing.

And on the exact same token, make doing the worst thing that you can possibly do as unenjoyable as possible.

Straight out miserable, right?

Make it inconvenient.

Make it as hard as possible to do what you don't want to do and as easy as possible to do the best thing you could possibly do.

Number six, stop running from yourself.

Desiring to be a better version of yourself should not be confused with wanting to run away from who you are.

That might sound cheesy, but believe me, I've been there.

I've wanted to just not be who I am.

And instead of just resenting my situation, I confused it with resenting myself for punishing myself for failing or thinking it's somehow unacceptable to be in the state that I'm in or to have the lifestyle that I have.

And it's very important to realize that once you start attacking yourself, instead of just being proactive about leaving your undesirable situation, as soon as you start attacking yourself, all progress stops.

Because even if you manage to get yourself out of your situation, you're not gonna be happy.

It's not gonna be good enough.

You will feel like you always need to justify your own existence.