12 Habits That Changed My Life

- About a year ago today, I came up with this brilliant idea to try doing 12 30-day experiments. An entire year filled with different self-development practices, things I had been neglecting and putting off, or hadn't thought about yet. The idea was not to maintain all these

habits

throughout the year, but simply to try new things and push myself to do things I had not done before. And let me tell you, I learned a lot. I screwed up a lot too. So I gave up sugar. She took cold showers. Fuck, bitch. She would wake me up at 5:00 a.m. every day.

So I'm probably getting about five hours of sleep. I meditated for an hour a day. This fly was definitely testing me in this meditation. Jesus, I didn't understand. I journaled, like I didn't really have any struggles to write about until I did. I tried to develop three

habits

at the same time. Honestly, I haven't felt this good in a long time. I gave up caffeine. I've been thinking about this moment for the last 30 days. Oh my god, stop. I counted every calorie. I tried intermittent fasting. There is. I can eat, yes! I scheduled every minute of my day.

I did breath work. I didn't expect to get as emotional as I did. And I tried meth every day for 30 days. - So Natalie and I have been doing meth for two weeks. - There are no bubbles. - I'm definitely feeling some effects. I feel like a MILF. It's making me much more manic and willing to do demonic things. Minimalist, I'd like to fuck... - I've never used methamphetamine. I will never do meth. It wasn't a 30-day experiment. That was Captain Sinbad. He has an amazing YouTube channel that you should definitely check out. He talks about self-development.

But again, yes, no, I did not do meth. (brilliant music) Make no mistake about all these experiments. They were largely a selfish practice. I was trying to improve myself. But along the way, as I shared my learnings with all of you, I began to see thousands of you try the same experiments and share your own progress online. So I think it's fair to say that we all collectively learned a lot about facing new challenges, developing habits, and most importantly, trying to push ourselves to do things we never thought we'd have the courage or willpower to do. .

This is day 30 of cold shower. I am very excited that this is coming to an end. But I'm proud of myself. I'm proud to have overcome it. So, as the year ends and I finish my last 30-day experiment, I wanted to break down all the things I learned, the good and the bad, the areas where I was completely wrong so that you don't. I have to make exactly the same mistakes as me. Now, my overall goal, my big vision for the next year is to combine all of this into a practical course that will hopefully help you change your own lives.

So if that's something you're interested in, sign up for my newsletter in the description below. I will let you know when it is available. But in the meantime, let's get into it. So I clearly remember thinking early on, "I'm probably overcommitting myself. Do I really want to commit to doing an experiment 30 days in a row for an entire year?" But then I said, "Screw it. Let's try it and see where things end up." So I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't know what challenges I would still face, but I just started. And that's probably the best advice I could give you: don't overthink things.

Don't try to think of all the hypothetical future problems you will face. Just start. Use that motivation and inspiration, that initial spark to try something new, and then believe me, you will discover those problems when you solve them. But that's not for now. Right now it's just taking action. And I could tell you firsthand that I made a lot of assumptions about habit-building that I eventually realized were wrong. Like in 2018, when I suggested, if you are able to develop this habit this month and a new habit next month, and so on for an entire year, that is 12 new habits that you have developed and brought into your

life

. .

Turns out that was a little more ambitious than I had thought. It sounded great in theory, but completely impossible in practice. It was hard enough for me to maintain these habits for 30 days. But putting them on top of each other and stacking them on top of each other over the course of a year was absolutely unrealistic. And the disappointing side of this was that I learned firsthand how difficult habit change really is. But then, on the bright side, I realized that you don't actually need 12 habits to live a really good

life

. The sentiment behind my original statement is that it is best to start slow and steady and take things one at a time.

And that has definitely been demonstrated through my own life experience. Develop just one habit at a time, rather than trying to tackle five in a month. If you focus on the right habit, it can cause a ripple effect to other areas of your life. You just have to choose wisely where to start. So if I had to choose three habits that have

changed

my life the most, I would choose exercising, eating healthy, and working on my business. And I would consider working on my business a habit because it was something that I had to make into a routine, that I had to do every day no matter how much money I made.

And for all of these habits, that was the biggest investment I made, was working on them when I didn't feel like it, when I didn't have time, when I didn't believe things were really going to work. , when I showed up and just did the little things every day. That's when I saw the most long-term growth. It wasn't from journaling every day or waking up at 5:00 a.m. When I got into the habit of exercising regularly in college, that

changed

everything for me. That was the spark that sparked many other positive changes in my life. It was just about doing one very simple thing on a regular basis.

Now, the three habits that help me the most are for me, and I've heard from you in the comments over the last 12 months, the things that have really helped you change your own lives. And I took note and even tried many of them. You guys said waking up at 5:00 a.m. m., intermittent fasting, and journaling every day were absolute game-changers. And I believe it. But when I tried those things for myself, I found that they didn't help me that much, which is really important because we often hear what worked for others, especially those who have achieved some level of success and we believe that's why they were successful.

The truth is that there are hundreds and hundreds of factors that influence a person's success. Some that are controllable. Others that are not. Some are completely arbitrary and others may work for that person, but not for you. I think the results of the experiment that surprised me the most was waking up at 5:00 a.m. m. every day. I was so sure it would change my life for the better. Which would be incredibly productive and efficient during this time. But it ended up being a complete nightmare and ruined my sleep schedule. And therefore, my productivity. Oh, fuck.

But this was a valuable lesson. First, it made me more confident in my current schedule. Instead of feeling sluggish about waking up at 8:00 or 9:00, or even later some days, I realized that I was simply giving my body what it needed, which was sleep. And I learned how much I value flexibility. While I love having a structured routine, my days and weeks are very large. And there will be days when I will stay up late and have to sleep in the next morning. So yeah, waking up at 5:00 a.m. m. every day, it might work for you.

It definitely didn't work for me. It didn't work for Natalie either. - That was definitely the one I liked the least. It's actually selfish. As if I didn't choose to do this challenge, but since we share the same bedroom, the same bed, you forced me to live this misery for 30 days. - I hear people all the time who say they aren't sure what they want to do with their life. They are stuck. They are bored. They are not sure what their passions really are. And if you find yourself in this position, the best thing you can do is take cold showers. (shower dripping) (Matthew laughs) What the fuck?

That's my nightmare. Okay, well, not exactly. To be honest, I don't think cold showers will help you much. But what I will say is experiment. Try different things, be curious, tap and play with other people's passions. That's really what will help you the most. The reason I took cold showers every day for 30 days wasn't because of the physical benefits, whether it reduced inflammation, reversed muscle soreness, or cured a chronic illness, I'm not really sure if that's true. But the real reason I did it was to accept what Julian Smith calls the cringe. - It's not about the cold shower.

It never was. It was never about a single moment. It is a habit of doing something that is difficult only because the other side is better and because the next step will be easier as a result of doing this, right? - There are endless ways that cringe creeps into our lives and prevents us from doing the things we really want to do in life. For me, at the beginning of the year, I was pretty shaken when I thought about whether I wanted to do these 30-day challenges to begin with. For you, it might be starting that blog or trying photography for the first time.

But the more we try to be uncomfortable, seeking discomfort, as my Yes Theory friends would say, the more we open ourselves to a world of possibilities. And for you, it could start with a cold shower. Seriously, go take a cold shower right now. I'll wait, we have plenty of time. (brilliant music) There was something else I gained from taking cold showers every day. And it was the same thing I got from giving up caffeine. These two experiments were really about deprivation. By proactively eliminating something from my life every day for 30 days, I came to appreciate it even more.

And I also became more resilient. I realized that if I had to, I could live without hot showers and coffee. But fortunately I don't have to live without coffee. I am not going to do it. I could do it if I wanted to. No, as I already tried. Like I showed you guys I could do it. Why would I leave it? I don't want to. I am not going to do it. I can't do it anymore. (thoughtful music) Uh, God, guys. It doesn't matter what kind of luxury you're used to, if humans are good at anything, it's adapting.

And I personally learned that overcoming these moments of deprivation and pain made me much stronger than I would have been otherwise. As Dr. Claire Weekes once wrote: "Strength is not born of strength. Strength can only be born of weakness. So be glad of your weaknesses now, they are the beginning of your strength." Just as physical strength can be built on a scrawny frame, so can mental and emotional strength. However, it takes work and courage to confront these failures and shortcomings. The only real way to get stronger is through pain. I'm going to break down all the practical things I learned about changing habits in my next video, but I think it's worth mentioning how truly difficult it was to do each of these experiments back to back back to back. back to back.

I was very hard on myself to stay consistent and stay on top of each of these challenges and stay engaged every day. -Matthew hated himself when he missed a day. I actually thought, "Why, you know?" Like, oh, you said you were going to do something and you don't do it. It's kind of the story of my life. But I guess I didn't understand the commitment. It is something that is self-imposed. Then why? - Even with my desperate loyalty to these challenges, I failed a lot. I missed days. Like when I journaled every day while traveling at the same time, we'd come back at the end of a long day, at 11 at night, and I'd make some notes in my journal and say, "Well, there it is.

I journaled." That counts, right? And then I would immediately feel guilty for not showing up, for not engaging with my challenges. And that started to weigh on me in a way that was probably unhealthy. Along the way I was open and transparent about these failures, but I still put pressure on myself to keep going even when things weren't working out. Part of that is my desire to want to make a really cool video. The other part was my ambition and my drive to do things, quote, the right way. And this is what happens to me all the time when I try to get up early or if I try to develop a habit, I try to start exercising, eventually something will happen.

You're going to get sick. You are going to travel. You're going on vacation and you'll be jet-lagged. And you won't be able to maintain the exact same routine you've been trying to build. This was just a reminder that I need to put my health and well-being before this religious dedication to arbitrary defiance. Managing my own crazy expectations and not being too hard on myself when things didn't go as planned became a challenge in itself. I had to continually remind myself that this is justa part of the process. If he didn't get the results he was looking for or if he kept failing and making mistakes, that was okay.

It's okay to fail. And that's something I'm still learning. But the older I get, the more I realize that putting this kind of crazy pressure on yourself to be perfect, if that's even possible, probably isn't going to make you happy in the long run. So if you did the math at the beginning of the video, you'll realize that I didn't actually achieve my goal of doing 12 30-day experiments. I failed one short and did 11. You see, at the beginning of the year, I didn't have a plan for what I wanted to do during the 12 months. I just started.

And when I started, a lot of the early ones were really excited. I had a nervous excitement about giving up sugar and taking cold showers or giving up caffeine. Like they're really fun to me. And as I started checking them off the list, I found that there were fewer and fewer things I was excited to try. That's why I ended up doing only 10. I stopped a little early. And that's what I'm going to address next year. That even if you commit to something and really try, you don't always have to follow through. This is what Seth Godin calls "The Dip." Even when you fight through those really difficult parts, then you realize, is it worth continuing?

Is it something you really enjoy? Or is it something worth giving up so you can spend your time doing other things you're really interested in and passionate about? So next year, I'll probably do a couple of 30-day experiments, but definitely not, definitely not that many. like I did last year. The truth is that in the long run it was exhausting. Of all these experiments I played with last year, there were a few that really worked. How to quit sugar. While sugar is obviously still part of my diet, it plays a much smaller role. The second thing was to meditate.

While I don't meditate every day, I wish I did, I meditate much more often than I used to. And the last thing was to schedule every minute of my day. I still keep track of my calendar and schedule things every 30 minutes. And while I didn't implement and incorporate all of these habits into my life every day going forward, there was something I learned from each and every one of them. And the only way, the only absolute way to know if they will work for you is to try them yourself. So, a couple of things before we wrap up here.

If you have any experiments you want me to do next year, I'll probably do a couple more. Let me know in the comments any ideas you have. Don't say, "Try meth for 30 days." I am not going to do it. I don't care how much you bully me. The other thing I would say is: have you tried any of these experiments yourself or others that I haven't tried? I would love to hear from you what you have learned about changing habits and experimenting. That would certainly help me a lot and I know it would help other people in the comments below who are trying to develop habits for themselves.

Thank you all so much for watching. I can't tell you how crazy the last year has been, the growth of the channel, just the community, how amazing, polite and respectful the people in the comments have been. It's great to see people really excited about self-development and trying a lot of these things for themselves. What means the most to me is when I get comments from people saying that my videos or the ideas I've talked about on the channel have helped them in some way. That to me is just mind-blowing. I am incredibly lucky and will never be ungrateful for what you have given me.

Thank you so much for everything you have done to change my life this past year. Thanks for watching and see you next time.