Brief Summary
This video provides 11 principles to make doing hard things easier by rebalancing dopamine levels, forming a doer identity, and structuring your environment. It emphasizes reclaiming dopamine by reducing fast dopamine activities, reappraising discomfort, and structuring your day to align with your natural energy levels. The video also covers the importance of consistency, breaking down intimidating tasks, using rituals, and negotiating with yourself to overcome resistance.
- Rebalance dopamine by reducing fast dopamine activities.
- Reappraise discomfort as a necessary part of achieving long-term rewards.
- Structure your day to align with your natural energy levels.
Hard Things…
The video introduces the concept of "hard things" such as deep work, exercise, studying, and resisting bad habits, acknowledging their net positive impact on life despite the difficulty in doing them. It promises to share 11 principles to make these hard things easier.
The Bottom Line…
The core idea is that making hard things easy involves rebalancing dopamine stores by minimizing cheap dopamine sources and engaging in hard things to make them the primary dopamine source. It also involves building an identity as someone who does hard things through consistent action.
(1) A Depleted Brain Will Always Default to Ease
Dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for motivation and reward, is produced in limited amounts by the brain. Engaging in pleasurable activities like scrolling, drugs, or junk food leads to a dopamine crash, putting you in a dopamine deficit state. This deficit makes it harder to find motivation and reward in doing hard things. To counter this, one must reclaim dopamine by purging activities that cause a dopamine spike followed by a crash, and schedule the remaining 10% of those activities. It takes 1-3 days for the brain to return to baseline after stopping fast dopamine activities, and self-compassion is important during this time.
(2) Reappraise the Discomfort
The discomfort experienced while doing hard things is a major barrier. However, this discomfort can be reinterpreted as a necessary part of achieving long-lasting rewards. Mantras such as "This is hard and challenging, but that's just what I need to find it rewarding," "This is what hard feels like, and this is where most people quit," and "The faster I do the hard things I avoid, the quicker I get the good things I want" can help in reframing discomfort.
(3) Win the Evening
A solid evening routine is crucial for setting up the next day for success. Spending evenings chasing fast dopamine leads to waking up in a dopamine deficit state, making it harder to do hard things. A good evening routine includes turning off tech by 9 p.m., avoiding decisions and calls after 9 p.m., using red light, walking in nature, doing recovery activities like foam rolling, writing down reflections, and reading before bed.
(4) Structure Your Day Right
Neurochemistry varies throughout the day, so scheduling hard tasks for when you're biologically best suited is important. Phase 1 (0-8 hours after waking) is ideal for hard, analytical work due to high dopamine, cortisol, and norepinephrine levels. Phase 2 (9-16 hours after waking) is better for brainstorming and creative work due to increased serotonin levels. Phase 3 (17-24 hours after waking) should be dedicated to sleep or preparing for sleep.
(5) Identity Without Evidence Is Just Fragile Consistency
To become someone who does hard things, you need to create a new identity supported by evidence. Consistent daily action for at least a week is necessary to cast votes in favor of forming this new identity. Focus on becoming the type of person who can do the hard thing, rather than just ticking it off a to-do list.
(6) Never Miss Twice
If you miss a day of doing the hard thing, get back to it the next day. Life happens, and rest is sometimes needed, but avoid letting one missed day turn into many, which can lead back to square one with a depleted brain.
(7) When Intimidated, Break It Down to 5%
If you fall off track, avoid harsh self-criticism and instead break the task down to 5% of its totality. Find where your willingness to do the task begins and start there. For example, if going to the gym is intimidating, start by just changing into gym clothes.
(8) Mesmerize Yourself Into Ritual
Create a keystone habit, a simple action you do before the hard thing, to signal to your brain that it's time to do X. This primes your brain and makes it easier to do the hard thing. Routine, when done long and sincerely enough, becomes ritual.
(9) Never Set a Pace You Can’t Keep
A consistent plan is better than a perfect plan that you abandon. Opt for slow burns over heavy lifts, doing the hard thing in smaller segments every day rather than long sessions followed by recovery periods.
(10) The Effort Is the Reward (The Discipline Paradox)
The effort you put into something and the reward you get out of it are not separate; they are the same thing. Remember that the reward is completely dependent on the effort. By recognizing this, you unlock the door to everlasting discipline.
(11) Self-Negotiation Prevents Self-Termination
When doing the hard thing, you'll encounter a voice inside you that wants to do anything but that. Instead of ignoring it, listen to it. Label what's happening out loud, curiously investigate what that rebellious part of you wants, and then ask how you could satisfy both parts of yourself. Incorporate the rebellious parts instead of discarding them.
Summary & Outro Rizz
The video summarizes the 11 principles: a depleted brain defaults to ease, reappraise discomfort, win the evening, structure your day right, identity without evidence is fragile, never miss twice, break it down to 5% when intimidated, mesmerize yourself into ritual, never set a pace you can't keep, effort is the reward, and self-negotiation prevents self-termination. The video concludes by asking viewers to comment on the hard thing they want to do.
