Plan a Life You'd Like to Have

Summary

The transcript emphasizes the importance of conscientiousness, particularly industriousness, in predicting lifetime success. It suggests that setting meaningful goals and establishing micro-habits can enhance conscientiousness. The speaker advocates for a future authoring program that helps with situational analysis and goal setting. Motivation is derived from aligning with one's personality traits and life dimensions, such as friendships, relationships, career, and health. The transcript also stresses the value of time, urging individuals to invest in activities that align with their long-term vision and to avoid wasting time, which could otherwise be economically valuable.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Conscientiousness, particularly industriousness, is a significant predictor of lifetime success.
• 🧩 There is a genetic component to conscientiousness, but micro habits can be developed to improve it.
• 🎯 The future authoring program helps in setting personal goals and values, which is essential for motivation.
• 🔍 A situational analysis of one's life is more beneficial than a psychological one for setting life goals.
• 💡 Motivation can be derived from various personality traits, such as extroversion, agreeableness, and openness.
• 🏠 Key life dimensions to consider include friendships, intimate relationships, family, career, leisure time, and health.
• 🚫 Alcohol and drug use should be controlled as they can significantly impact one's life negatively.
• 🔑 Establishing a vision for one's life and breaking it down into micro processes can lead to positive emotions and motivation.
• ⏰ Creating and adhering to a schedule is crucial for achieving goals, but it should not feel like a prison.
• 🔄 The balance between responsibility and reward should be considered when planning daily routines.
• 💰 Understanding the value of one's time can help in making better decisions about how to spend it productively.

Q & A

What is the next best predictor of lifetime success mentioned in the transcript?

Conscientiousness, particularly the aspect of industriousness, is identified as the next best predictor of lifetime success.

What is the genetic component's role in conscientiousness, and how can one work on it?

There is a strong genetic component in conscientiousness, but one can work on micro habits and set up aims or goals that they value to improve conscientiousness.

What is the role of the future authoring program in enhancing conscientiousness?

The future authoring program helps people set up goals they value and conducts a situational analysis of their life, which can aid in enhancing conscientiousness.

What are potential sources of motivation according to the Big Five personality traits?

Potential sources of motivation include wanting friends if extroverted, an intimate relationship if agreeable, winning competitions if disagreeable, engaging in creative activity if open, and seeking security if high in neuroticism.

How does the transcript suggest structuring one's life to find motivation?

The transcript suggests considering various dimensions of life such as friendships, intimate relationships, family structure, career, time outside of work, and attention to mental and physical health.

What is the importance of setting up a vision for one's life?

Setting up a vision for one's life helps to establish goals that are worth striving for and can motivate one to take action and make progress.

How can micro processes associated with a goal become rewarding?

Micro processes become rewarding in proportion to their causal association with the goal, especially when they produce positive emotions as one moves towards a valued goal.

What is the significance of having a valued goal in the context of motivation?

A valued goal is significant because it can activate the dopaminergic incentive reward system, providing positive motivation and keeping one moving forward.

Why is it important to specify long-term goals and also places to avoid?

Specifying long-term goals provides direction and purpose, while also identifying places to avoid can create a fear of failure, which can be a useful motivator.

How should one approach the creation of a daily schedule according to the transcript?

One should create a schedule that represents the best possible day they could have, ensuring a balance between responsibilities and rewards, and adjusting the schedule to reflect what they want from life.

What is the role of self-negotiation in setting up and maintaining a schedule?

Self-negotiation is important in setting up a schedule because it helps to establish a balance between what one needs to do and what they enjoy doing, making the schedule more sustainable and effective.

How does the transcript suggest evaluating the worth of one's time?

The transcript suggests evaluating the worth of one's time by considering the potential earnings one could make if they were paid for their time, and using this to assess whether the activities they engage in are worthwhile.

Outlines

00:00

🔑 The Role of Conscientiousness and Goal Setting in Success

This paragraph discusses the importance of conscientiousness, particularly industriousness, as a key predictor of lifetime success. It suggests that while there is a genetic component to conscientiousness, one can improve it through the development of micro-habits and setting meaningful goals. The 'future authoring program' is introduced as a tool for setting personal aims and conducting a situational analysis of one's life. The paragraph emphasizes the need for motivation, which can be derived from understanding one's personality traits in relation to the 'big five' and considering various life dimensions such as friendships, relationships, career, and health. The concept of creating a vision for one's life and breaking it down into micro-processes that align with one's values and goals is highlighted as a strategy for maintaining motivation and moving forward.

05:01

📅 The Importance of Scheduling and Micro-Routines for Conscientiousness

The second paragraph delves into the practical aspects of becoming more industrious by setting clear goals and establishing a daily schedule. It warns against vague goal setting as a form of willful blindness that can lead to repeated failure. The paragraph advocates for the use of tools like Google Calendar to create and adhere to a daily schedule, emphasizing that the schedule should not feel like a prison but rather a blueprint for an ideal day. It discusses the balance between responsibilities and rewards, suggesting a negotiation with oneself to ensure that the day ends with a sense of progress. The paragraph also touches on the value of time, estimating it in monetary terms to illustrate the cost of wasted hours and the importance of using time effectively.

10:02

💰 The Economic Impact of Time Management and Self-Reflection

In this paragraph, the speaker quantifies the potential economic loss due to poor time management, suggesting that wasted hours can equate to significant financial loss over time. It encourages self-reflection on the value of one's time and the importance of engaging in activities that justify the expenditure of that time. The paragraph also addresses the existential suffering that can result from undervaluing one's time and the need to avoid such a state by taking responsibility for how time is spent. The emphasis is on recognizing the worth of one's time and making conscious decisions to use it in a way that contributes to personal growth and fulfillment.

Keywords

💡Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is a personality trait characterized by being careful, thorough, and hardworking. In the video, it is identified as a significant predictor of lifetime success. The speaker discusses the two aspects of conscientiousness, orderliness and industriousness, with the latter being the better predictor of success. The script emphasizes the importance of working on micro-habits to improve conscientiousness and suggests setting personal goals as a way to cultivate this trait.

💡Industriousness

Industriousness refers to the quality of being diligent and hardworking. It is highlighted as a key component of conscientiousness and a stronger predictor of success compared to orderliness. The speaker mentions that while there is a genetic component to industriousness, individuals can enhance it through the development of micro-habits and by engaging in goal-oriented behaviors.

💡Micro-habits

Micro-habits are small, manageable behaviors that can be incorporated into daily routines to gradually lead to significant changes or improvements. The video discusses the role of micro-habits in enhancing conscientiousness, particularly industriousness. The speaker suggests that by setting up aims and goals, individuals can create micro-habits that align with their future authoring program, which helps in achieving a more successful life.

💡Future Authoring Program

The Future Authoring Program is a process mentioned in the video that helps individuals set up aims and goals for themselves. It is described as facilitating a situational analysis of one's life rather than a psychological one. The program is used as a tool to help people envision and work towards a more successful and meaningful future.

💡Motivation

Motivation in the video is discussed as a driving force that can be derived from various sources, depending on an individual's personality traits as described by the Big Five personality model. The speaker suggests that understanding one's temperament can help identify potential sources of motivation, such as the desire for friendships, intimate relationships, winning competitions, or engaging in creative activities.

💡Structural Analysis

Structural analysis, as used in the video, refers to the process of examining the various components that make up a person's life. The speaker encourages individuals to consider what they would want in different areas of their life, such as friendships, intimate relationships, family structure, career, and personal health. This analysis helps in developing a comprehensive vision for one's life.

💡Goal

A goal is an objective or desired outcome that an individual aims to achieve. In the context of the video, setting and pursuing valued goals is crucial for personal development and success. The speaker emphasizes the importance of breaking down larger goals into micro-processes or tasks that can be implemented on a daily basis.

💡Incentive Reward System

The incentive reward system, particularly the dopaminergic one, is a neurological mechanism that the speaker discusses in relation to motivation and goal pursuit. It is the system that provides positive reinforcement when an individual perceives progress towards a valued goal, thereby encouraging continued effort and movement forward.

💡Schedule

A schedule in the video is portrayed as an essential tool for organizing one's day-to-day activities in alignment with long-term goals. The speaker advises creating a schedule that reflects an ideal day and emphasizes the importance of adhering to it while maintaining a balance between responsibilities and rewards.

💡Willful Blindness

Willful blindness is a concept discussed in the video where individuals choose not to acknowledge or recognize certain truths or facts, often to avoid discomfort or pain. The speaker warns against this behavior, suggesting that it can lead to repeated failures and missed opportunities for growth and success.

💡Self-negotiation

Self-negotiation refers to the internal dialogue and decision-making process where an individual must convince themselves to take action or make changes. The video speaker uses this term to illustrate the importance of treating oneself with the same consideration and understanding one would offer to another person, especially when it comes to setting and following through with personal goals and schedules.

Highlights

Conscientiousness is a strong predictor of lifetime success, with industriousness being a key component.

Genetics play a role in conscientiousness, but micro habits can be developed to enhance it.

Future Authoring program aids in setting personal goals and conducting a situational analysis of one's life.

Motivation can be derived from the Big Five personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.

Setting clear goals is essential for directing effort and motivation in life.

The dopaminergic incentive reward system is tied to positive emotions and progress towards valued goals.

Valuable life goals should be established to provide a sense of worth and motivation for action.

Long-term ideals and places to avoid are identified to balance the desire for success and fear of failure.

Structural analysis of life components like family, friends, career, and health is crucial for setting comprehensive goals.

Universities should be a place for students to figure out their identity and future aspirations.

Micro routines and daily schedules are important for implementing long-term goals.

A schedule should be set up to reflect the best possible day, not as a prison of obligations.

Negotiating with oneself is necessary to balance responsibilities and rewards in daily planning.

The importance of self-worth and time valuation is emphasized for effective goal pursuit and avoidance of wasted time.

The economic value of time is calculated to motivate efficient use of one's hours.

Existential suffering can result from not valuing one's time and potential.

Transcripts

the next best predictor of Lifetime

success is conscientiousness well so and

of the of the two aspects of

conscientiousness say orderliness and

and industriousness the better predictor

is industriousness so the question is

well what can you do about your

industriousness and the answer to that

is

well that's kind of rough too because

there's a strong genetic component but

you can work on micro habits with

regards to your conscientiousness and I

think the best micro habits this is

partly to do with this future authoring

program processes I think the best thing

you can do with regards to your

conscientiousness is to set up some aims

for yourself goals that you actually

value and the future authoring program

helps people do that and basically it

does a situational analysis of it helps

you do a situational analysis of your

life more than a psychological analysis

I would say and so so the questions are

something like well all right you're

going to have to put some effort into

your life

and you need to be motivated to do that

and so what are the potential sources of

motivation well you could think about

them in in the big five manner you know

if you're extroverted you want friends

if you're agreeable you want an intimate

relationship if you're disagreeable you

want to win competitions if you're open

you want to engage in Creative activity

if you're high neuroticism you want

security okay so those are all sources

of potential motivation that you could

draw on that you could tailor to your

own you know your own personality but

then there are dimensions that you want

to consider your life across and so we

ask people about well you know if you

could have your life the way you wanted

it in three to five years if you were

taking care of yourself properly you

know what would you want from your

friendships what would you want from

your intimate relationship how would you

like to structure your family what do

you want for your career well how are

you going to use your time outside of

your job and how are you going to

regulate your mental physical mental and

physical health and maybe also your drug

and alcohol use because that's that's a

good place to Auger down you know

because alcoholism for example wipes out

you know five to ten percent of people

so you want to keep that under control

and then

and then so maybe you know you you you

develop a vision of what your life what

you would like your life to be and that

Associates

the so the goal once the goal is

established and then you break down the

goal into micro processes that you can

implement the micro processes become

rewarding in proportion in relation to

their uh causal association with the

goal and that tangles in your your

incentive reward system you know we

talked about the dopaminergic incentive

reward system and that's the thing that

keeps you moving forward and the way it

works is that it works better if it

produces positive emotion when it can

see you moving towards a valued goal

okay well what's the implication of that

better have a valued goal because

otherwise you can't get any positive

motivation working out and so the more

valuable the goal in principle the more

the micro processes associated with that

goal start to take on a positive charge

and so what that means is well you get

up in the morning and you're excited

about the day you're ready to go and so

as far as I can tell what you do is you

specify your long-term ideal

maybe you also specify a place you want

to stay the hell away from so that

you're terrified to fail as well as

excited about succeeding because that's

also useful you specify your goal you do

that you do that in some sense as a

unique individual you want to you want

to specify goals that make you say oh if

that could happen as a consequence of my

efforts it would clearly be worthwhile

because the question always is why do

something because doing nothing is easy

you just sit there and you don't do

anything that's real easy the question

is why would you ever do anything and

the answer to that has to be because

you've determined by some means that

it's worthwhile and then the next

question might be well where should you

look for worthwhile things and one would

be well you could consult your own

temperament and the other would be well

you kind of look at how look at what it

is that people accrue that's valuable

across the lifespan look look what so

you do a structural analysis of the

sub-components of human existence and

already did that you need a family you

need friends right like you don't need

to have all these things but you better

have most of them family friends career

educational goals plans for you know

time outside of work

attention to your mental and physical

health Etc you know those are that's

what life is about and if you don't have

any of those things well then all you've

got left is misery and suffering so

that's that's a bad

that's a bad deal for you

so

so once but once you set up that that

goal structure let's say and that's

really in many in many ways that's what

you should be doing at universities is

that's exactly what you should be doing

is trying to figure out

who it is that you're trying to be

right and you aim at that and then use

everything you learn as a means of

building that person that you want to be

and

and I really mean want to be I don't

mean should be even those things those

things are going to overlap and it's

important to distinguish between those

because that's partly and this is back

down to the micro routine analysis so I

started saying well you're going to try

to make yourself more industrious okay

number one specify your damn goals

because how are you going to hit

something if you don't know what it is

that isn't going to happen and often

people won't specify their goals too

because they don't like to specify

conditions for failure so if you keep

yourself all vague and foggy which is

real easy because that's just a matter

of not doing as well then you don't know

when you fail

and people might say well I really don't

want to know when I fail because that's

painful so I'll keep myself blind about

when I fail that's fine except you'll

fail all the time then you just won't

know it until you've failed so badly

that you're done and that can easily

happen by the time you're 40.

so so I would recommend that you don't

let that happen so that's willful

blindness right you could have known but

you chose not to okay so once you get

your goal structure set up you think

okay if I could have this life it looks

like that might be worth living despite

the fact that it's going to be you know

anxiety provoking and threatening and

there's going to be some suffering and

loss involved in all of that obviously

the goal is to to have a vision for your

life such that all things considered

that justifies your effort okay so then

what do you do

well then then you turn down to the

micro routines it's like okay well this

is what I'm aiming for how does that

instantiate itself day to day week to

week month to month and that's where

something like a schedule can be

unbelievably useful Google Calendar it's

like make a damn schedule and stick to

it okay so what's the rule with the

schedule it's not a bloody prison

that's the first thing that people do

wrong they say well I don't like to have

follow a schedule it's like well what

kind of schedule are you setting up well

I sh I have to do this then I have to do

this then I have to do this you know and

then I just go play video games because

who wants to do all these things that I

have to do it's like wrong set the damn

schedule up

so that you have the day you want that's

the trick it's like okay I've got

tomorrow if I was going to set it up so

it was the best possible day I could

have

practically speaking what would it look

like

well then you schedule that and

obviously there's a bit of

responsibility that's going to go along

with that because if you have any sense

one of the things that you're going to

insist upon is that at the end of the

day you're not in worse shape than you

were that then at the beginning of the

day right because that's a stupid day if

you have a bunch of those in a row you

just dig you know you dig yourself a

hole and then you bury yourself in it's

like sorry that's just not a good

strategy it's a bad strategy so maybe 20

percent of your day has to be

responsibility and obligation or maybe

it's more than that depending on how far

behind you are but even that you can you

can ask yourself okay well I've got

these responsibilities I have to

schedule the damn things in what's the

right ratio of responsibility to reward

and you can ask yourself that just like

you'd negotiate with someone who is

working for you it's like okay you got

to work tomorrow

okay so I want you to work tomorrow and

you might say okay well what are you

going to do for me

that makes it likely that I'll work for

you well you could ask yourself that you

know so maybe you do an hour of of

responsibility and then you play a video

game for 15 minutes I don't know

whatever turns your crank man but you

know you have to negotiate with yourself

and not tyrannize yourself like you're

negotiating with someone that you care

for that you would like to be productive

and have a good life and and that's how

you make the schedule it's like and then

you look at the day and you think well

if I had that day that'd be good great

you know and you you're useless and

horrible so you'll probably only hit it

with about 70 percent accuracy but that

beats the hell out of zero

right and if you hit it even with 50

accuracy another rule is well aim for 51

the next week or 50 and a half percent

for God's sake or because you're you're

going to hit that position where things

start to loop back positively and spiral

you upward and so

so that's one way that you can work on

your conscientiousness is plan a life

you'd like to have and and you do that

partly by referring to social norms

that's more or less rescuing your father

from the belly of the whale but the way

other way you do that is by having a

little conversation with yourself about

as if you don't really know who you are

because you know what you like you won't

do what you're told you won't do what

you tell yourself to do you must have

noticed that it's like you're a bad

employee and a worse boss and both of

those work you know for you you don't

know what you want to do and then when

you tell yourself what to do you don't

do it anyways you should fire yourself

and find someone else to be but but you

know my point is is that you have to

understand that you're not your own

servant so to speak you're someone that

you have to negotiate with and that's

and you're someone that you want to

present the opportunity of having a good

life to and that's hard for people

because they don't like themselves very

much

so you know they're always like cracking

the Whip and then procrastinating and

cracking the Whip and then

procrastinating and it's like God it's

so boring and such a pathetic way of

spending your time and you know what

that's like because you probably waste

like six hours a day and I think we did

an economic calculation about that a

while back right your time's probably

worth 50 bucks an hour something like

that I mean you're not getting paid that

now but you're young and so this is

investment time and what you do now is

going to multiply its effects in the

future so so let's say it's 50 bucks an

hour which is perfectly reasonable so if

you waste six hours a day and you are

then you're wasting about two thousand

dollars a week or about a hundred

thousand dollars a year so like go ahead

but that's what it's costing you every

hour and you need to know what your damn

time is worth so let's say it's not 50

bucks it's 30. whatever maybe it's a

hundred it's somewhere in that range one

of the things you should be asking

yourself is when you spend an hour was

that well what have I paid someone 50

bucks to have had that hour and if the

answer is no it's like well maybe you

should do something else with with your

time and it depends on whether or not

you think that your time's worthwhile

but the funny thing about not assuming

that is if you assume your time isn't

worthwhile what happens is you don't

just sit around sort of randomly in a

state of responsibility list Bliss what

you do is you suffer existentially and

so that seems like a stupid solution