How to easily RUIN your ENTIRE LIFE forever

Every single year we set a bunch of New Year's resolutions: get in shape, wake up early, start a business, make more money. We tell ourselves that this year is going to be different. You said that last year too. How many of the goals you set did you actually achieve? Probably not a lot of them, maybe even none of them. Let me tell you the reason: because you're doing it wrong. Stop being obsessed with New Year's resolutions. What you need is systems, not goals.

Last year, I had enough and decided to do things differently, and thanks to that, I achieved every single goal I set to myself. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I'm going to take you through my process step by step so that you will make this year the greatest year of your life. Get ready to take some notes, and let's get started. Thank you, Shopify, for sponsoring this video!

I have ADHD, and I often get asked, "How are you so motivated all the time?" It's quite interesting because for business-related things, I don't even need motivation; I do it anyway. But for some of my goals, even though when I really want it, I don't do anything about them.

I realize that unless your goals come from the right place, it's really hard to sustain motivation. The first thing we will dive into is where do goals actually come from. Without realizing it, many of our goals can come from the expectations of others or societal conditioning. The challenge is that these goals don't come with intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation basically means it's coming from within you. You know you want that.

So the first question you need to ask yourself is: why do you want to achieve this goal? Whatever goal you set for yourself for the new year, is it because you care about it and deeply want it, or is it because of external pressures and expectations from others? I want you to pause this video and write down the reason behind your goal. This is actually really important, and the interesting thing is it's not about the goal itself but the reason behind it.

So the same goal can have an external reason and an internal reason. For example, let's say my goal is to earn $5,000 a month. Right? If my motivation is coming from outside, so extrinsic motivation, I want to buy a nice watch, or I want to have a trendy lifestyle, or I just want to make 5K because it's what I'm supposed to be earning, it's just I want to impress my friends.

And if my motivation is coming from inside, so the reason is intrinsic, I value freedom and experiences because my mania loves that, and I value stability, or it's my duty as a parent to provide financial stability for my kids. So if we want to have long, sustainable motivation, we need to shift our reason towards the internal reasons rather than external reasons. If you can't come up with internally motivating reasons, it might not be the right goal for you because every goal should have an internal reason.

After that, we need to break that goal into measurable, achievable, and input-based smaller goals. Most people set goals like, "I want to get in shape." Okay, what are you going to do about it on a day-to-day basis? "I'm going to eat healthier to get in shape." Okay, what is healthier? Where's your start line? Where are we trying to get to? Are you trying to get from here to here, or here to here? You know, without knowing these clearly, you will get stuck.

So what we need to do is set milestones and micro commitments. Milestones are measurable outcomes that will contribute to achieving your goal. For example, if you want to get in shape, finding a workout routine that you will follow is a milestone, or joining a fitness community you will show up to is a milestone because you can measure that you show up or not. You can measure that easily.

Micro commitment is the action you will perform every day to achieve your goal. The reason why it's called micro commitment is because it needs to be something tiny, something super easy that you can achieve even when you're super busy, even when you don't have time. When I was trying to make working out a habit of mine, for example, I decided to wear my workout clothes every single day. I'm not talking about working out, literally just wearing those clothes and putting them on every single day. That's it! That was the goal.

You might find it stupid and think it's not going to work, but trust me: lowering the bar as much as you can is the most crucial step when it comes to achieving goals, and this is what most people don't do. Because the more evidence you have of actually achieving the goals you told yourself to do, the more confidence you will have in yourself. Keep the bar low, focus on consistency rather than perfection because confidence comes from competence.

After you set your milestones and micro commitments, we need to make sure that we're in control of achieving this goal. These are input-based goals and output-based goals. Basically, we can control the inputs, the actions that we take, but we can't control the outputs, which are the results. So rather than setting an output-based goal like losing 10 kilograms or something like that, set input-based goals such as working out four times a week, not eating junk food two days in a row, kind of something like that, right?

Stop the video and fill in your intrinsic goals, milestones, and micro commitments on a piece of paper or on my Notion Kaizen template and make sure to focus on inputs. You can get my Notion Kaizen template by joining my community, where I dive much deeper into goal setting and motivation. So if you're interested, check the link in the description. But you can also write these on a piece of paper, don't worry about it.

After you filled out your intrinsic goals, milestones, and micro commitments, it's important to remember that the process of achieving goals, whether they are personal or professional, often requires the right tools and support. I'm sure many of you got interested in the business world once in your life but found yourself getting overwhelmed and couldn't make progress. But what if I told you that there is a platform that can make it easier for you to start and grow your own online business? That's where Shopify comes in.

Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that allows anyone, regardless of their technical ability, to build and manage their own businesses. Whether you want to sell a physical product, digital downloads, or even offer services, Shopify has got you covered. With Shopify, you can create a professional-looking website, accept payments from customers all around the world, and even sell on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Shopify has tools specifically designed for new merchants, like their business name generator and Shopify Learn, which guide you through the process of setting up your store. Their affordable plans give you everything that you need to get started. But it doesn't stop there. Shopify keeps you with powerful marketing tools to help you reach and engage with your customers. So if you're ready to take that leap and start building your own online business, I encourage you to give Shopify a try. They’re offering a free trial so you can explore all the features and see how easy it is to get started. Thank you, Shopify, for sponsoring this video!

Tracking your time is actually one of the best methods to learn about your behavioral patterns. It's a way to become more aware and intentional about how you spend your life, and here's how you can get started. First off, don't worry about changing anything in your daily routine. Just live your life as normally as you would. To make it easier, I recommend using a time tracking app called Timelines. I'm not sponsored; I just use it. It's pretty cool because you can sync it with your Apple Watch, and this way it automatically tracks your time without any extra effort from you.

Now here's the thing: track as much as you can, and every time you switch activities, just add them to the app. I know it might feel weird at first, and you might even forget to track sometimes. I always forget, but that's totally okay because the key is to get a rough idea of how you spend your day. If you can aim to track for a whole week, but if you're skeptical about your commitment, you know, like me, or you just want to get started ASAP, you can track for 2 to 3 days. It will give you a good sense of your time usage.

By the way, I find it super helpful to have different categories in my time tracking app, so I have eating, and I have the shower, I have deep work, light work, things like that because it helps me to organize my activities better. I also have the same categories in my calendar setup, so when I add those events into my calendar, it automatically syncs with the app, and I have the tracking. The whole point of tracking is to gain insights into your behavior and find areas you can make improvements.

It's quite helpful for those who have ADHD like me because you get a sense of time, and with the time, you actually become more aware of how you spend your time and how you switch tasks. The first day, I was crazy; I was switching tasks back and forth, and it was like crazy for me to track. But now I'm more intentional, and I don't switch that often at least.

All right, let's take a moment to really think about how you spend your time on a daily basis and identify areas where you can make some improvements. It's important to look for patterns and routines that might be holding you back from reaching your goals. Rather than trying every single productivity method you see online, I would recommend identifying your weak patterns and trying to solve them. That is far more efficient and will get you closer to your goals much faster than trying out every single thing.

By taking the time to reflect on your habits and behaviors, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and make more intentional choices moving forward. You need to consider your energy levels and natural rhythms throughout the day. Just because everyone is waking up at 5:00 a.m. doesn't mean you need to wake up at 5:00 a.m. Are you more productive in the morning or at night? Understanding your peak performance times can help you optimize your schedule and allocate your most important tasks accordingly because everyone is different.

The important thing is to make sure you're getting enough rest and prioritizing self-care. Taking care of your physical and mental well-being is crucial for maintaining productivity and focus. Now let's take a look at how you allocate your time. Evaluate whether it aligns with your long-term goals. Are you dedicating enough time to your personal growth and development? It's important to set aside dedicated time for learning, whether it's through reading, taking courses, or engaging in other educational activities, maybe watching YouTube videos and learning from them.

It's important to remember the value of building and maintaining relationships and social connections too. Making time to spend quality time with friends, family, and loved ones is crucial for our well-being and happiness. When I tracked my time for a week, I realized that some weeks I don't even socialize. You know, I don't even see anyone; I'm just like with my family. I don't even see my friends; I don't even talk to anyone.

After realizing that, I decided to actually do something about it because whenever you're achieving your big goals and things like that, if there's nobody around you to celebrate that with you, then it's a really lonely life. I don't think it's really worth it, to be honest. So now I make sure that every single week at least I'm seeing a friend of mine, or we're doing a catch-up call, or we're just hanging out. I'm making sure to make time for the things that matter to me.

So tracking time is really essential not only for your productivity but also for your mental well-being too. As you reflect on how you currently spend your time, you might uncover areas that can be optimized or changed to better align with your goals like me. So take a moment to identify any habits or behaviors that might be holding you back or preventing you from making progress. This could include excessive time spent on social media, like doom scrolling, or getting caught up in unproductive tasks, like maybe answering too many emails.

By recognizing these areas, you can begin to make intentional choices to redirect your time and energy toward activities that truly matter to you. But what you need to remember is we only learn, learn, learn, and learn, but if there is no behavioral change, there is no learning. Most people just learn and never take action, but taking action is the key.

So we need to apply what we learn, implement new strategies, and we need to track our progress along the way. Because otherwise, what's the point of watching this video right now? It's time to prevent distractions from happening. I don't trust myself, and I have no self-discipline, and that's why I create systems that won't require my discipline. If you find yourself procrastinating after getting back from work and struggle to focus, make sure to go to a café after work, or if you find yourself not being able to focus while everyone is awake at home, try waking up earlier and making time for yourself, even for 30 minutes.

If you realize you never work out, put your workout clothes in a visible place. Or if you realize you never cook and eat junk food, never buy junk food at home. If you really want to get that, make a rule: only walk to the supermarket and buy one junk food at a time. If you realize you scroll too much before you go to bed, install apps like "AAL" and "Burnout Buddy" to block social media. If you realize you never read before bed, charge your phone in a different room, buy an alarm clock, and buy a Kindle and place it next to your bed.

Take time for weekly reflection and create an action plan for the following week. This is something that many people neglect to do, to be honest. Everyone learns and absorbs information, but they often fail to apply it to their own lives and strive for improvement because applying is the hardest part, right? Learning is always fun, but when it comes to taking action, it's not that fun.

So every single week, we need to make sure that we've made progress towards our goals. Have you completed your micro commitments? If not, what's the reason? And if yes, what strategies worked for you? Reflecting on these and understanding these is important. How did you allocate the majority of your time this week?

When it comes to motivation, it's important to have the drive and work towards something. But what ultimately determines our success is how we react to failure. Because no matter how smart or successful we might be, we will always fail. And when faced with failure, we have two options: we can give up and believe that there is no point in trying anymore, or we can view this failure as an opportunity for growth and learning.

If you believe that your talents and skills are predetermined and limited, you're simply fearing failure and avoiding challenges, to be honest. But you know you have the absolute freedom to do whatever you want. And by limiting yourself, you're only hindering your own progress, not anyone else's. So every failure is an opportunity for growth and learning. You can do whatever you want, but I think it's a learning opportunity, and we should learn from them.

To learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them, we need to reflect, realize, and improve. One effective way to do this is through regular, ideally weekly, reflections. That's why we have included a weekly review section in my Notion template. When you log your tasks, they will be assigned one of our four groups based on their urgency and importance. Effective time management involves spending the majority of your time working on non-urgent but important tasks, such as pursuing long-term goals like maintaining good health or starting the business you desire.

It's important to allocate less time to urgent tasks, as they can cause stress, burnout, and overwhelm. Every Sunday, during our weekly reflection and feedback time, our Kaizen system automatically provides us with insights based on the tasks we have completed during the week. It tells us how much time we spend in each quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix and suggests actions for the next week. These feedback allow us to rearrange our schedule and be more realistic in our planning. We can also reflect on our micro commitments and make adjustments if we weren't able to be consistent the previous week.

Whether you have my Notion template or not, go through your calendar and time tracking app and reflect on what you could have done better. Are you on track with your goals? Do you need to decrease the bar? You know, dealing with challenges like ADHD requires having a system that allows for failure because you will fail on the road to success. Failure is inevitable, so if you're scared of it or if you're running away from it, well, we're going to fail, and that's fine. We just need to learn from that and never repeat the same thing.

If you repeat the same thing, learn from it: why are you repeating it? That's it! And the more we understand ourselves and our patterns, the more realistic and less frustrated we become. Remember, the system isn't a cure-all, but it's crucial for finding what works for you. After receiving feedback, make a list of action points for next week and strive to apply them in your life. At the end of the week, reflect on how many action points you were able to implement. Were there any obstacles holding you back? Can you find a way to overcome them?

As you can see, basically, this is a pattern, right? You track your week, identify your problems and struggles, and then you reflect and provide feedback to yourself. Then you try to implement those new strategies in the following week, and then you reflect again. It's basically a loop. Implementing change is never easy, and there will always be distractions that hinder your progress, which is nice because we can always grow. We can always do better, and we can always improve.

Just by doing this weekly reflection and improvement process consistently, you will be unrecognizable at the end of the year because this is the fundamental principle of success: to become better than you were yesterday. That's it! So if you found this video helpful, you might be interested in my Kaizen Community. It's full of like-minded people focused on self-improvement using science-backed approaches to tackle everything from ADHD-driven procrastination to time management.

If you join, you get access to a full course on how to transform the chaos in your life to clarity, as well as my Notion Kaizen template, and most importantly, access to a community of amazing people who are working together to achieve their goals. So if you're interested, click the link in my bio to check out, and if you found this video helpful, you might find this video helpful too.