7 Secret Habits To Get Out Of A Cycle
Summary
TLDRThis video outlines seven powerful ideas to help you get unstuck and improve performance. The key takeaways: prioritize sleep and brain health through supplements; dedicate 2 learning hours each week to continuously grow; view stagnation periods as stabilization; take on projects 4% harder than your current capability; treat your body like an athlete would; avoid injury by resting when needed; practice daily gratitude to boost happiness long-term. Implementing even a few of these habits can profoundly impact progress towards your goals.
Takeaways
- 😴 Not getting enough sleep severely impacts performance and productivity. Prioritize sleep over hustling.
- 📚 Schedule 2 hours per week for focused learning to avoid getting stuck. This time is non-negotiable.
- 😌 Periods of stagnation are normal and help stabilize progress. Don't stress during these phases.
- ⏱ Push yourself to complete tasks 4% faster than you think possible to maximize growth.
- 🧘♀️ Treat your body and mind well through meditation, exercise and healthy habits to boost productivity.
- 😣 Avoid injury and don't ignore your body's need for rest. Play the long game.
- 🙏 Practice daily gratitude to boost happiness and self-love.
- 🧠 Nourish your brain through good sleep, supplements and avoiding alcohol.
- 💊 Take supplements to counteract nutritional deficiencies common in modern foods.
- 👩🏫 Continuously level up your skills through classes, workshops and more.
Q & A
What is the most important muscle in your body according to the video?
-The brain is considered the most important muscle in your body.
Why is sleep considered the number one health practice?
-Sleep is deemed the number one health practice because it is crucial for the brain's ability to think, analyze, and process data. Even an hour loss of sleep can significantly reduce mental performance and accuracy in tasks.
What impact does alcohol have on brain health according to the video?
-Alcohol is described as a mild form of poison that kills brain cells, reduces mental performance, and leads to a smaller brain in people who drink every day.
How does the discipline of 2 hours of learning and growing each week help prevent getting stuck?
-Allocating 2 hours each week to learning and growing helps prevent stagnation by enhancing knowledge and skills, ensuring continuous personal and professional development.
What does George Leonard's book 'Mastery' suggest about progress and getting stuck?
-George Leonard suggests that progress is not linear but resembles a step ladder, where periods of leap and stagnation alternate. These stagnation phases are actually periods of stabilization, which are essential for sustainable growth.
What is the 4% rule introduced by Steven Kotler, and how does it facilitate growth?
-The 4% rule states that to grow and enter flow states, one should engage in tasks that are approximately 4% harder than what they think they are capable of. This challenge is optimal for fostering development and engagement.
Why is treating your body and brain with respect important for productivity?
-Treating your body and brain with respect is crucial for maintaining peak physical and mental performance, similar to an athlete's care for their body. Practices like meditation and exercise enhance productivity by improving overall well-being.
How can avoiding injury contribute to long-term goals?
-Avoiding injury by prioritizing rest, healthy eating, and sleep ensures that you do not push yourself too hard to the point of harm, thus maintaining consistency and health in the pursuit of long-term goals.
What practice has the highest correlation with overall human well-being according to the video?
-Gratitude practice has the highest correlation with overall human well-being, as it significantly increases happiness levels over time.
What is the purpose of the six-phase meditation mentioned in the video?
-The six-phase meditation is a protocol designed to train the brain for peak performance, helping individuals to operate in a state of high efficiency and well-being.
Outlines
🧠 Boosting Brain Health and Productivity
The first section outlines strategies for enhancing brain health and overall productivity. The speaker, Vision, emphasizes the importance of sleep, highlighting a study where a lack of sleep drastically reduced the accuracy of army sharpshooters. He advocates for taking care of the brain by ensuring adequate sleep, consuming the right supplements, and avoiding alcohol, as these factors significantly impact mental performance and productivity. Supplements like Gaba, 5-HTP, magnesium, and Melatonin are recommended for mood improvement, stress reduction, and better sleep. Vision also shares insights from Dr. Daniel Amen about the detrimental effects of alcohol on brain health, suggesting that abstaining from alcohol can lead to higher productivity and better mental performance.
📚 Continuous Learning and Growth
The second section delves into the importance of continuous learning and setting aside dedicated time for personal growth to avoid stagnation. Drawing from the book 'The Four Disciplines of Execution,' Vision advocates for allocating two hours each week to learning and growing outside of one's usual work tasks. This practice is aimed at fostering personal development and overcoming the feeling of being stuck by expanding one's knowledge and skills. He explains how embracing the concept of a 'step ladder' of progress, where periods of growth are followed by stabilization, can reduce stress and contribute to long-term success. Additionally, the concept of the '4% rule' from Steven Kotler is introduced, encouraging individuals to take on challenges that are slightly beyond their current capabilities to induce flow states and stimulate growth.
🌱 Embracing Self-Love and Gratitude
The final section emphasizes the power of self-love and gratitude in achieving well-being and productivity. Vision highlights the scientific benefits of practicing gratitude, noting its substantial impact on happiness levels even months after the practice is adopted. He advocates for starting each day with a gratitude exercise, focusing on personal and professional life aspects. Furthermore, Vision introduces the concept of treating oneself as an athlete, underscoring the importance of meditation, exercise, and proper rest for maintaining peak mental and physical condition. He shares a personal anecdote to illustrate the risks of neglecting self-care, ultimately advocating for a balanced approach to work and health. The section concludes with an invitation to explore Mind Valley's personal development programs, specifically recommending the six-phase meditation program for those interested in furthering their personal growth journey.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Unstuck
💡Brain health
💡Supplements
💡Learning and growing
💡Flow states
💡Self-love
💡Physical health
💡Gratitude
💡Mastery
💡Avoid injury
Highlights
Introduction to overcoming being stuck in life with seven powerful ideas.
The importance of brain health, emphasizing good sleep, right supplements, and avoiding alcohol.
Impact of sleep deprivation on performance, highlighting its crucial role in brain function.
Discussion on nutritional density decline in food and the necessity of supplements.
Alcohol's negative effects on sleep quality and mental performance.
The discipline of allocating two hours weekly to learning and growth to prevent stagnation.
George Leonard's concept of progress in a step ladder pattern, emphasizing periods of stagnation as stabilization.
Steven Cotler's 4% rule for growth and entering flow states by taking on challenges.
The importance of treating the body and brain with respect for peak performance.
The significance of avoiding injury and prioritizing self-care for long-term success.
The role of self-love and gratitude in improving overall well-being and happiness.
Introduction to Mind Valley as a transformation platform for personal development.
Recommendation for the six-phase meditation for peak performance.
Call to explore further personal development programs on Mind Valley.
Invitation to subscribe and share feedback on the video content.
Transcripts
do you feel stuck in life right now most
people at some point in life get stuck
and you don't just get stuck at some
point in life you actually get stuck
very often at different points in your
life and I'm going to be sharing with
you seven really powerful ideas to not
just help you get unstuck but to help
you improve yourself in a cycle of Rapid
performance towards your goal or the
ultimate vision of how you want your
life to be this advice is fairly unusual
and it comes from my experience having
built the world's number one
transformation platform mind Valley but
also interviews I've done with close to
a th000 thought leaders professors and
experts in the world of human
performance and if you already feel like
things in your life are going swimmingly
well this video is going to help you
swim better my name is Vision I'm the
founder of Mind Valley and I'm delighted
to be sharing these ideas with you
number one guess what's the most
important muscle in your body it's your
brain but most of us do not care for our
brain we do things that actually reduce
brain health you want to ensure that
you're getting good sleep you want to
take the right supp supplements and you
want to avoid things which are bad for
your brain such as alcohol let's talk
about sleep for a moment in a study of
army shop Shooters if someone requires 7
hours of sleep and they instead get six
their accuracy in the range goes down
from 90% to approximately 50% even an
hour loss of sleep can take down your
brain's ability to think to analyze to
process data so if you force yourself to
wake up earlier than you need because
you need to rush into work know that
your work that day is going to be
significantly lower quality than if you
simply gave yourself a good night's
sleep never ever compromise sleep the
number one Health practice in the world
you guessed it is sleep your brain needs
it you need to take supplements because
the nutritional density of our food has
been falling for example according to
nine Jane the brilliant founder of viome
the gut testing AI company an avocado
today has one8 the nutritional density
of an avocado in the 1980s think about
that this is why taking the right
supplements is extremely important
because the right supplements can
improve your mood improve your energy
and improve your focus there are many
great supplements that have a profound
impact on your brain Gaba and 5hdp
actually elevate your mood and lower
your response to stress magnesium and
Melatonin help you sleep better Alpha
GPC is amazing for Focus all of these
are extremely affordable and available
in any supplement store on Amazon look
into these supplements finally this is
going to be tricky for some of you let's
talk about alcohol many friends I know
have completely given up alcohol and
when I ask them why they say because
they've started to notice that when they
drink they sleep worse and this causes
them to wake up feeling a little bit
tired and it also causes them to lose
mental performance the next day they
actually notice that their thinking
quality goes down Dr Daniel aan who's
the world's leading brain doctor told me
that every time you drink alcohol you're
literally killing brain cells people who
drink every day have a smaller brain
alcohol is essentially a mild form of
poison and every time you take alcohol
the very next day you will see a
decrease in productivity if your time is
worth say $300 an hour and alcohol
causes a 30-minute decrease in
productivity well guess what that drink
just cost you 150 bucks is that worth it
now this brings us to the second idea
and this comes from a book called the
four disciplines of execution so firstly
this is an incredible book that I've
made every manager working at my company
read one of the disciplines in this book
is the discipline of 2 hours of
allocated time every week to learning
and growing why do people get stuck we
get stuck because we're not actually
growing our knowledge we're not actually
learning no matter what field you're in
you can learn to get better if you're a
writer you can attend writing workshops
if you're an actor you constantly should
be attending acting classes to get
better and better as an actor but many
of us forget that we fall into the
hustle and the grind rather than calving
aside time to get better you need to
block off 2 hours on your calendar and
in those 2 hours you're not allowed to
work rather what you have to do is study
how to get better at your work you can
let your work bleed into anything else
but your work should never bleed into
your study time and you will be shocked
at how fast you grow this 2 hours is
non-negotiable go to your calendar right
now and figure out what are those 2
hours a week you can block off for your
non-negotiable learning time they don't
have to be a connected 2 hours they
could be two disconnect 1 hour slots but
go to your calendar right now before you
do anything else and block out that time
in those 2 hours you could be watching
more YouTube videos you could be
checking out content on mind Valley you
could be reading a book but in this
2hour slot this is where the magic
happens number three is probably
something really unusual because you're
going to see that being stuck can
actually be to your advantage this idea
comes from George Leonard's book Mastery
now in his book George shared this idea
progress does not flow in a linear way
rather it flows like a step ladder you
have a leap and then it stagnates you
have a leap and then it stagnates you
have a leap and then it stagnates but
we're not really stagnating we're
stabilizing if you were just constantly
growing the change could be really
disruptive think about reptiles reptiles
don't perpetually shed their skin they
grow they shed their skin then they stay
with that skin for several years before
their next growth bur you can't be
continuously shedding skin by
understanding the concept of the stap
lather we put less stress on ourselves
during those moments where you are
stabilizing now the fourth rule the
four% rule by Steven Cotler Steven
Cotler is a dear friend and he's written
many remarkable books his program habit
of ferocity is one of the most amazing
programs available in mind Valley now
Cutler in one of his speeches introduced
me to the idea called the 4% rule he
said if you want to grow in any field
you want to be able to enter flow states
where you are so engrossed in your work
that you are growing you're getting
better and you are excited excited about
the work you do and there's a simple
rule for this always ensure that the
projects you're working on are roughly
4% harder than what you think you're
capable of the 4% harder rule puts you
at just the right Zone where the project
is challenging enough where you can
develop flow and you can grow so always
seek to do things at a level that's 4%
harder than what you're capable of a
simple way to do this is a timer for
example if you're a writer and you write
blog posts or you write chapters for a
book if you know that a particular blog
post or article might take you 8 hours
seek to do it in 7 hours and 45 minutes
that will push you to deliver your
article within the constraints of that
4% rule it gives you the right amount of
challenge that puts you in flow but
causes you to grow because you have to
think of new processes new creativity uh
Pathways new ways to get your output
done in a tighter time frame of time as
a result you get better and better
faster rule number five treat your body
and brain with respect you you got to
think of yourself as an athlete no
matter what you do you are not just that
which you do you are a human being in a
human body meaning a mind powered by a
brain and a physical body you do not
want to in any way sacrifice your
physical body or your mental prowness
you always want to make sure that your
physical body and your brain are
operating at Peak potential much the
same way an athlete takes such good care
of their body you need to treat your
body and brain with respect and this
means not just avoiding stuff that's bad
for you but doing stuff that keeps your
body and brain sharp meditation having a
schedule for exercise for yoga for
practices that put you in a great state
will all make you more productive
meditation takes 20 minutes a day
exercise can be done in 15 minutes a day
this may take 30 minutes or so a day but
these 30 minutes will probably add 1 to
2 hours that same day in extra
productivity number six is simple avoid
injury you see this little red mark on
my nose well it may be a little bit more
obvious if we were sitting in person
about a month ago I was feeling a bit
sick in my apartment I had eaten
something that was off and I had
developed food poisoning and I knew this
but I was still hustling and busy with
work I got out of my apartment cross the
street to go to a restaurant for a
business meeting at the restaurant I
started feeling sick and I knew that I
needed to go and collapse in bed but I
didn't even have enough energy to walk
out the restaurant as I was walking out
the restaurant I lost Consciousness I
fell down hit my face against some
potted plants fractured my nose I was so
obsessed with my goal that I forgot to
take care of myself if you're not
getting enough sleep if you're working
even when you're sick and not giving
your body rest then you are failing you
may be pushing a little bit extra to get
greater movement towards your goal in
the short term but you are hurting
yourself in the long term what this
means is if you need downtime Embrace
that downtime I'm not saying be lazy but
I'm saying you got to prioritize sleep
exercise healthy eating and rest and
relaxation when your body needs it avoid
injury you're playing a long-term game
here number seven is self-love do you
know what is the single most important
practice that has the highest
correlation with overall human
well-being it's gratitude a scientific
study showed that if you practice
gratitude for 30 days this means for 30
days just sitting still in meditation or
journaling things that you appreciate
about yourself and your work at the end
of 30 days you see your happiness levels
go up by 25% but here's the crazy part 9
months later in that study people who
practice gratitude over the control
group their happiness levels were still
higher gratitude is a form of self- love
start your day by sitting still or
journaling and think about three things
that you're grateful for in your
personal life three things that you're
grateful for in your work life this
simple practice can have a profound
impact in your day so there you have it
seven habits that can help you get
unstuck I hope these ideas are
interesting if you want to go and
explore any of these ideas further you
might want to get a membership on mind
Valley for just a really low price uh
equivalent to what youd pay for a
Netflix subscription you get access to
hundreds of the world's greatest
programs in personal development and one
of the programs that you may want to
start with if you like this particular
video is the six- phase meditation this
is a meditation protocol I created
that's been used by top performers
around the world and the six phas
meditation actually Trad your brain to
ensure that you're perpetually
performing in a peak State go check it
out on M valley.com thank you and if you
like this video please click subscribe
and leave a comment let us know which of
these habits do that you find have the
biggest impact in your life thank
you
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)