Transcription
The secret no one will tell you is that you can massively change your life with small habits. I went from being homeless to being the CEO and board member of companies worth billions of dollars. These seven habits transformed my life and I guarantee they will make you successful.
The first habit is a trick only the Navy Seals know. The secret to stop spiraling fast. Slow down and just breathe. When Navy Seals are in combat level stress, they don't just power through it. They breathe through it is called box breathing. Inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four counts, hold for four. This one habit calms their nervous system, lowers cortisol, and gives them clarity under fire. That's why singers, climbers, Olympians all learn how to breathe right. But most of us, we do the exact opposite. We panic, we gasp, we hold our breath, we start spiraling down. So the real habit of success, slow it down. Science shows that 6 to eight breaths a minute activates this thing called parasympathetic system, your body's natural brake pedal. I sometimes go even slower, just three breaths a minute. Because when your breathing slows down, the world slows down with you. And when the world moves in slow-mo, you start seeing clearly. You spot patterns. You make better decisions. You stop reacting, you start responding. When you find your rhythm, the stress can't keep up with you.
Next up is tiny habit number two. Lock it in. In today's AI world, your number one skill is learning fast and remembering faster. Listen, AI is coming for everything. Your calendar, your craft, your career. The half-life of any skill is shrinking faster than ever. So, I rely on two micro habits to learn faster and retain more. First, teach it to keep it. If I can't explain something, I don't own it. So, after I read, watch, or learn something new, I take 60 seconds to explain it out loud. If there's no one in the room, no problem. I'll teach it to the wall. I don't just explain concepts. I act as if it's a TED talk because that helps me form deeper neural pathways. Second, take small breaks to lock it in. Deep work definitely matters. But what helps me is something shallow and small. So after 20 minutes of deep focus, take just a 10-second break. No input, no phone, do nothing. Just let your brain be. Neuroscience shows that in those tiny breaks, your brain replays what you just learned 20 to 30 times faster. That's how your brain locks it in. It's like hitting the save button on your brain. So try it today. Learn something new for 20 minutes. Take a 10-second pause and then teach it to someone to an invisible audience. Sure, AI will be great at processing and probabilities, but you need to be great at creating permanent pathways in your brain.
Habit number three, stack where you stuck. Motivation is fleeting. Friction is forever. Discipline doesn't start in your brain. It starts in your environment. Let's face it, motivation is that flaky friend who swears they'll help you move and never shows up. Friction, that's that annoying roommate who never leaves. Now, I am not wired for motivation. I get bored fast. I take too many breaks. I stay up late. So, instead of relying on my willpower, I rely on stacking. I stack a good habit on top of something I have to do every day anyway. For example, I love starting my morning with deep breathing. But some days I would run out of time. Other days something urgent would completely hijack me. Reminders didn't work. Sticky notes didn't work. I tried guilt. That didn't work. So now I stack that habit on top of my morning coffee routine. While the coffee is brewing, I am breathing. And that's my trigger. Neuroscientist Donald Heb said, "Nurons that fire together wire together." That's how habits become a part of our identity. The friction fades, the accidental becomes intentional.
Tiny habit number four, trick your brain. Set traps for your future lazy self. You know, my entire life has been shaped by random moments. Many years ago in Boston, I was rushing to catch a train, missed it by seconds, and met a guy who missed the same train. Pure chance, right? And we started talking and we ended up forming a band together. We toured the world, hundreds of concerts, and some of our bandmates went on to win Grammys. One mistrain, one coincidence, many world tours. NYU researchers have found that 50% of major breakthroughs arise from pure chance. So here's the question. If your success is shaped by serendipity, why not design your environment to randomly stumble into right habits? Want to read a book before going to sleep? Leave the book on the pillow. Want to eat healthy? Put apples on the counter. Hide the junk food away. Want to play guitar? Keep it out of the case and next to you so you can grab it. In fact, this habit takes less discipline, not more. Building good habits is not like pushing the boulder uphill. Let gravity do the work for you.
Next up is number five, and it won't make sense at first. I call it mumble when you stumble. Stop chasing the price. Fall in love with the process. Whenever I fail at something or even when I succeed, I mumble this one word karm. It's from a Sanskrit verse in the Bhagat Gita. a text that's maybe 3,000 years old. There is a brutal epic war going on. Arrows flying, dead bodies everywhere. So much blood is spilled. The ground itself has changed color. And a great warrior at that point turns to his friend and his charioteer who happens to be God and asks for direction and guidance. And he hears this timeless wisdom. Vadiaste, you have the right to your efforts, but no rights over your results. That 3,000-year-old conversation aligns perfectly with something neuroscientists have discovered only recently. That your brain's reward system gets activated during efforts, not just when you win. So whenever I hit a wall, karm it brings me back to what matters, the effort, not the outcome. So, pick a word, a phrase, even a song. Choose it. Write it down.
Next up is my sixth tiny habit, which is a phrase I love. Watch where you wander. Your brain was built to survive savannah, not succeed in Silicon Valley. This 70,000year-old computer between your ears. It evolved to spot lions in tall grass, not optimize your calendar. It's wired for fight or flight. And that's why we don't know exactly why evolution gave us this inner voice that never shuts up. Scientists have theories. Maybe it helps us plan socially or solve problems or imagine futures or organize memories, but no one knows exactly why it never shuts up. That constant chatter is called the default mode network. It helps you imagine, recall, and plan. But left unchecked, it becomes the path to the dark side. It's the inner critic that holds you back, gives you anxiety, keeps you up at night. I once spent an entire hour in shower rehearsing an argument with someone who wasn't even there. My brain created the script, directed the drama, and cast the villain. All imaginary. Sound familiar? We all go through this. And that's why mindful practices have evolved in all cultures around the world. We all need to regulate that behavior. And no, mindfulness is not about silencing your thoughts. It's about noticing them. When you meditate, you're just watching yourself wander. You're the pilot who watches the airplane drift off course sometimes, but you can't blame the winds, right? Simply course correct and get back on track. No drama, no judgment. You're your own GPS. When you're lost, don't panic, just recalculate. Now, mindfulness and meditation won't turn off that noise in your head. But it will give you a great volume dial. It puts you in that tiny gap between you and your story, between you and your inner voice, that space between what happens to you and how you respond. And that's where your best choices live.
That brings us to my favorite habit. When life gets you down, look up all the way up. The fastest way to shrink your problems is to zoom all the way out to the stars. At night, I walk outside barefoot, feel the earth beneath my toes, tilt my head back, and I look up and I watch the greatest story ever told. 13 billion years in the making. billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, any of which could hold planets like ours. And by the way, one day the universe will expand so far that no star light will reach our planet. The entire sky will go dark. These stars remind me how small I am. My house, my town, our planet, our solar system, even this galaxy. Barely a flicker in the cosmic play. And somehow that truth sets me free. Here I am and here you are, the same atoms that made the stars made you and me. We are the same stardust. We can find joy in knowing that we're all one. Carl Sean said the best. We are a way for the universe to know itself. This tiny habit of stargazing helps you remember that yeah, your problems and your life can feel so big, but you have the power to make them feel small, just a blip on a cosmic calendar. We're not here to control the universe. We're here to marvel at it and glide through it with grace. This tiny habit is not about feeling insignificant. It's about feeling the infinite.
So, here we are. These seven habits are so tiny, they feel like nothing. Because success is not one giant leap. It's a million tiny choices. If this video hit home, hit subscribe. I'm here every week. And check out my video on the 20 cheat codes that could change your life. Thank you and I love.