Video summary
The video argues that a year is sufficient time to radically transform one's life trajectory, provided there is intentionality, the right mindset, and a strategic approach. The core philosophy centers on rewiring one's identity from the inside out through five distinct steps, starting with accepting total ownership of one's existence. This means shifting internally before any external changes occur by embracing radical responsibility, which involves stopping all blame, excuses, and waiting for perfect conditions or rescue from others. The speaker emphasizes that many people remain stuck in a psychological "waiting room," hoping for life to change them, whereas true growth requires acting as the CEO of one's own life where success or failure rests entirely on personal choices rather than external circumstances like the economy or upbringing.
Once total ownership is established, the second step involves clarifying a vivid and specific vision for the future. The transcript uses the analogy of driving without a destination to illustrate how many people merely drift with the winds of circumstance, working hard but spinning in circles because they lack a clear target. Instead of vague goals like "being happier," individuals must define exactly where they want to be in 365 days, including specific details about their income, daily routines, and emotional state. This clarity is crucial because one cannot hit a target they cannot see; therefore, the vision must be written down with extreme specificity and made omnipresent by displaying it on phones, mirrors, and screens to constantly reprogram the identity and keep the goal at the forefront of every morning's thoughts.
The third step requires reverse engineering this vision into a concrete plan, while the fourth step demands adopting the mindset of a scientist who experiments rather than seeking perfection. By working backward from the desired future, individuals can identify the specific habits, skills, and boundaries needed to get there, such as starting Toastmasters for public speaking or implementing a strict budget for financial independence. Simultaneously, one must treat life as a laboratory where failure is an expected part of the learning process, encouraging the testing of new hobbies, diets, or business ideas without fear of making mistakes. This experimental approach allows for adjustments along the way, ensuring that the path forward is built through action and discovery rather than waiting for a flawless map that will never exist.
The final step is to burn the backup plan, adopting an all-or-nothing commitment where there is no room for hesitation or Plan B. The speaker illustrates this with the historical parable of Christopher Columbus burning his ships upon landing so that his crew had no choice but to press forward, symbolizing the necessity of eliminating distractions and excuses that keep people stuck in regret. Success is framed as the only viable option, and the pain of hard work is presented as preferable to the pain of looking back with remorse over missed opportunities. Ultimately, the video concludes by urging viewers to take immediate action on one specific step today, emphasizing that waiting for fearlessness or perfect timing is futile, and that a strong, exciting vision combined with relentless execution is what will pull someone through their transformation.
Read the full video transcript
Let's get real. Change your life in a
year. It sounds like some Pinterestw
worthy slogan that's like slapped on the
back of a a picture with a sunset,
right? But under the right conditions,
with the right mindset, with the right
strategy,
a year is plenty of time to radically
shift the trajectory of your life. And
so the point of this is to be
intentional and to understand that every
action that you take that's in the right
direction compounds over and over and
over again with each one of them that
you do. And so this is a system that's
for rewiring a lot of you. Rewiring your
mindset, your behavior, and also your
identity of who you think you are from
the inside out. And so we have five
different steps that we're going to go
through of how to actually change your
life in a year. Okay. Number one is to
accept total ownership of your life. But
before anything shifts externally, you
personally have to shift internally. And
what that starts with is you taking
radical responsibility in your life. And
so what I mean by this is is no more
blaming, no more excuses, no more
waiting for the perfect time, no more
outsourcing your results, none of that.
If you're going to really step up, you
have to be the CEO of your life, which
means that if your life crashes, it's on
you. If your life is amazing, it's also
on you. And so, you have to have this
sense of radical responsibility. I think
that one of the things that's kind of a
tragedy for growing up in the West is
that we kind of just go from living with
our parents to kind of going to college
to kind of getting a job and stuff, but
there's never any real big moment of you
are now a man, you are now a woman. That
is a full break psychologically, not
just like I moved out of my parents
house, but like a psychological break of
I'm now a man or I'm now a woman. And
years ago in tribes, they used to have
rights of passage where there was this
really hard thing that you had to do and
that was a symbolism for you now
becoming a man or a woman. And we don't
have that anymore. And so a lot of
people are 45 years old and they're
still like, well, you know, I'm waiting
for my life to change as if someone's
going to come and change their life for
them because they're kind of
unconsciously still like waiting for
mommy and daddy to come and save them.
And so you can't say anymore like I
don't have enough time or I'm too young
to do it or I'm too old or it's the
government's fault or the economy is not
in the right place or you don't
understand how my parents treated me
when I was a kid or you know I have
children so I don't have enough time.
What it means is you cannot blame
anything externally outside of you.
Total ownership is what I want you to
brainwash into yourself. If you don't
fully adopt the mindset of total
ownership, nothing else that I say today
is going to matter at all. And so
without it, you're kind of just like
stuck in the waiting room of life, just
like hoping someone's going to come in
and call your name and go, "Hey, you.
I'm going to save your life. I'm going
to make it amazing." And so, I want you
to try this. I want you to set a rule.
You're not allowed to complain ever
again unless you're actively doing
something about it. If you're like
working towards something, you could
complain about it. But if you're just
sitting on the couch, you can't complain
about anything anymore. No more excuses,
no more complaining, total ownership of
your own life. That's the first thing
that you need to really burn into your
brain if you're going to change your
life in a year. And we will be right
back. Hey, if you're looking to get to
your next level and you realize that
it's not another strategy, it's not
another book. It is found by you
conquering the version of you that's
holding yourself back, then you need to
be at my live event this December 3rd,
4th, and 5th called Freedom Live. We're
going to find out exactly where you want
to be in life, why you're not there yet,
and then find and break the unconscious
patterns, limiting beliefs, and fears
that are holding you back and capping
your success without you even knowing
it. So, if you want to live to your full
potential, but you don't know how to
break through, this is the event to be
at. You can go to freedomlive2026.com
or you can go to this QR code. Scan this
right here. There's currently a $50 off
coupon right now. So, go ahead and scan
that and I will see you live in Austin,
Texas. And now back to the show. The
second thing is to clarify in extremely
vivid detail the real vision. So clarify
the real vision. Most people try to
change their life without really knowing
what they're actually building towards.
And so it's really weird because it's
like getting into your car and going,
"Well, I want to drive to the next town
over." And then you just start going on
random streets and hoping you're going
to end up in the next town, not
realizing the next town could be east
and you're driving west. If you get into
your car and you say, "I want to go to
the next town over," you can simply take
out your phone now, go to Google Maps,
type in the next town over, and it's
going to take you there directly. So,
when you know exactly where you're
going, it makes it easier to get there.
But so many people are just kind of
like, most people just like get in a
sailboat and they just lay down and they
just let the tides and the winds take
them this way and then this way and
they're like, I hope my life is going to
be what I want it to be. But really,
they're just going with the winds and
the tides. When in reality, you can step
to the the steering wheel and go, "No,
I'm going to drive myself to where I
want to go. I need to know exactly where
I need to go." And so, what happens when
you don't have a real destination? You
can work really hard, but it doesn't
feel like you're going anywhere. You're
kind of like spinning in circles. And
so, they're you're kind of like hustling
for a goal that you've never fully
defined. And hard work is really, it's
definitely necessary in life to get what
you want, but it's not the only thing.
Like I can work really hard at digging a
hole in my backyard, but at the end of
the day, I only have a hole in my
backyard, right? So it's like, what am I
doing in this hard work? Where am I
going? So instead of sitting there and
not being clearly defined on what it is
that you want, I want you to sit down
and like do some breath work and close
your eyes and think to yourself like one
year from today, picture yourself if you
had 365 perfect days in a row, where are
you? How do you feel? What do your days
look like? How do you speak to yourself?
Who do you surround yourself with? What
time do you wake up? What time do you go
to bed? What's your life look like? If
if you could wave a magic wand and you
have the best 365 days in a row, the
most productive 365 days in a row, where
could you be 365 days from today? And
you write it down. You don't just think
about it, you do think about it first
off, and you visualize it. And then you
write it down in extreme detail, as much
as you possibly can, and get very
specific. Like, I want to be happier is
not a goal. It's a trash goal if we're
being honest. You know, if you say, "I
want to wake up excited and work 30
hours a week doing creative work and
feel confident in my own skin and have
an extra $10,000 in my bank account."
All of that is much more detailed than I
just want to be happier. And so, I want
to make more money. That's not clear.
That's not a good goal. I want to make
$50,000 more this year. That's a goal.
And you have to get very very clear
because you cannot hit a target that you
cannot see. Like one of the things that
that I first realized when I was first
in coaching people in sales is sales
reps would come in and I say, "Hey, how
much how much do you want to sell this
week?" And they would always say as much
as I can. And I'm like that's not a
goal. That doesn't make any sense. Like
you can't hit the target because you're
you have no target to go from. Like give
me a number. Get clear on what it is.
Write it down. Speak it into existence.
revisit that goal every single morning
so it's top of mind. It's omniresent.
It's always in front of you because
you're reprogramming your identity, not
just making a to-do list. You're
thinking to yourself, "This needs to be
everywhere. I need to see it on every
morning when I wake up. I need to have
it on the back of my phone or, you know,
my screen saver, my wallpaper on my
phone so that I see it a hundred times a
day. And I'm going to have sticky notes
and I'm going to put it on my mirrors."
It needs to be omniresent. And so you're
just constantly reminding yourself of
these goals and constantly reminding
yourself what you're working towards.
And the more clear you are, the more
likely you are to get it. So that's
number two. Then number three is once
you get very clear on the life that you
want, you reverse engineer what it's
going to take to get there. So once that
vision's locked in, you start working
backwards. If the future you is a
confident speaker, maybe a a great
speaker 365 days from today, how do we
work backwards? Well, I'm going to start
Toast Masters.
I'm going to go on YouTube and I'm going
to look up videos of how to become a
better speaker. I'm going to start doing
Instagram lives in order to become
better at public speaking and kind of
start off slowly and I'm going to
practice at home every day with no one
around and I'm going to buy a course on
how to become a better public speaker.
Well, now we're started to work
backwards and from working backwards, we
start working forwards to the goal that
we want and we come up with a plan. You
know, if you say, "I want to be
financially independent." Cool. Well,
what does that mean? Well, I start
learning how to save my money. And I get
good at saving my money. And I listen to
podcasts and YouTube videos around
saving money. And then I want to learn
after I start saving money how to invest
that money. You have to learn how to
make money. And then you have to learn
how to save money. And then you have to
learn how to invest your money. I want
to cut out all the pointless expenses. I
want to put a budget together. I want to
build a side hustle now so I can start
making more money. Okay, cool. Well,
that's a lot more clear. I want to live
with more peace, just more
more relaxation in my life because it's
just I'm so stressed out in my own head.
Okay, so then what do you need to do to
get there? So, I'm going to start
scheduling some boundaries. I'm going to
go to therapy once a week. I'm going to
spend more time in nature. I'm going to
make meditation a real practice that I'm
actually going to do. Not like, hey,
it'd be nice to and I do it twice in a
week and I forget about for a month, but
I'm going to meditate every morning for
15 minutes and I'm going to prioritize
my peace. What I'm trying to say to you
is everything is figure outable. So
you've got to ask yourself, what would
my future me do today? This me that's in
365 days from today that I saw and that
I wrote down on a piece of paper, what
would they do if they were in my
situation? What habits and thoughts and
boundaries and priorities would they
have set? What non-negotiables would
they have set? And you plan it out and
you actually put it on paper like it's a
business plan. Like imagine if someone
tried to create a business plan just in
their own head. That'd be insane. You
got to put it on a piece of paper so you
know what you're shooting for and
everybody else knows what they're
shooting for. So you figure out the
goal. You work backwards and you make a
plan from there. So that's number three.
Number four, become the scientist
in your life. You don't need to have it
all figured out. Most people think that
they need to have like the perfect plan
before they start taking action. It's
completely impossible. There will never
be a plan to create the life that you
want to that is 100% perfect. What you
need to do is you need to experiment.
You in your life, you are the scientist
and you're also the experiment. And so
it's not about being perfect or
perfection or having the perfect plan or
planning it and then planning it and
planning it and planning it for you
planners. What it's about is about
going, "Okay, this is something I'm
going to try and I'm just going to
experiment." And you just experiment
everything that you possibly can. and
you treat the next year like you're in
the lab and you're going to try things
and you're going to fail and you're
going to fail forward and you're going
to have some results and you're going to
see what works and you're going to see
what doesn't work and you make
adjustments as you go but you are the
scientist and you're also the experiment
at the same time. You don't need a
perfect map. You don't need a compass
with you. You just need to try new
things. And so like as I was writing
this episode I was like what are some
examples of like a one-year experiment?
Well, like maybe you launch a side
hustle and you go for it on the
weekends. Like, you know what? I want to
I want to start a candle business and
start selling my candles. Cool. Okay.
Well, then maybe start formulating what
types of candles and smells that you
want. And you start putting it together
and you find YouTube videos about how to
make better candles and healthier
candles. And you start using beeswax and
you get everything that you need. And on
the weekends, you're like, I'm going to
make try to make the best candles I
possibly can. And then you start getting
better at making candles. and your
friends come over like, "Damn, these
candles are really good. Okay, now what
I'm going to do, I'm going to start to
go to farmers markets on the weekends."
And then you decide that you want to do
that. So, you have a a side hustle that
you start. Maybe what another way that
you experiment is like go alcohol-free
for 60 days and just track how you feel.
How does your skin look? What about your
energy, your mood? Maybe you um you say,
like I said earlier, you're going to go
to therapy once a week for the next 52
weeks and just try to try to heal the
core wounds that you know are there that
are holding you back. Maybe it's trying
12 different hobbies. Like you pick one
new hobby that you've never done before
that seems interesting to you and just
see if you can find something that
you're passionate about. Maybe you try
fasting and you fast 24 hours for one
day out of the entire month and then
Monday through Friday you fast until 2
PM just to see how you feel. Just try
new things. Like stop doing the same
every single day. Like try things.
You're you're supposed to have
experiences in this life. Then you don't
have to stay the same every single day.
In order to create a life that you've
never had, you're going to have to do
things you've never done before. And so
just try some new things. be the assign
the scientist. So that's number four.
And number five, just please do this.
Just burn the backup plan. There is no
backup plan. Right? I'm going to quote
the great philosopher Marshall Mathers.
Success is my only motherucking option.
Failure is not. So you've got to go as
if that's your mindset. I'm going to
commit. Not like, let's see what
happens. No dipping my toes in the
water. Like I'm going to burn the backup
plan. There is no reason to have a plan
B because plan B distracts from plan A.
I'm putting all my eggs in one basket.
Most people that say don't have your
eggs in one basket don't have the life
that they want. And so this next year is
the year for you. You don't need to act
like, "Hey, I'll just try it out." You
need to act like the bridge behind you
is on fire and you've got to run across
the bridge into your new life because
the only thing that is worse than the
pain of hard work is the pain of regret.
And the last thing that you want is to
be like, man, you know what? Like, I had
that idea a couple years ago of like
really trying to change my life for a
year. And I didn't. And I'm stuck in the
exact same place. And so, you have to go
at it the same way that there's the old
parable of, you know, this the ships
came over from Spain and they landed on
the in the United States before it was
United States. So, they landed on this
patch of land and he could tell the
commander could tell that all of his
guys on the ships were just a little bit
hesitant. They wanted to go back home.
They didn't seem fully committed. And so
as soon as they landed on shore, they
all had wooden ships. He said, "All
right, everybody, burn the ships."
That's what they did. They burned the
ships. There could be no going back at
that point in time. That's how you
mentally have to think about your life
and what is that you're trying to
create. And so I want you to understand
as you do this throughout the course of
the year, like you don't need to be
perfect.
You don't need to wait until the the
planets align. You don't need to wait
until you're fearless, cuz that's never
going to happen. You just need to create
a strong vision that excites you that is
enough to pull you through the fear and
this this willingness to take one step
after another. Not to have all 100 steps
figure out, but it's like one step.
What's the next step that I need to do
to change my life today? And so what I
want you to do is I want you to pick one
of the things from the list that we went
over and I want you to do it today. Not
Monday, not next week, not when
Mercury's out of retrograde. Today. Take
action towards it. You've got one year.
Do it now. Hey, thanks so much for
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