Life Your and Why It Matters

This video is about figuring out what to do with your life. This is a question I get asked all the time during speeches and conversations with friends. So, anyway, this is my three-step method that I hope will help you decide what to do with your life. When I discuss this issue with people, there are a few paths you can take, but one of the most helpful is to start by identifying the areas of your life that are important to you. For example, work is a large category of life. We have health. We have a marriage. Maybe you have children. They can be hobbies. It could be self-development. If you are one of those who wants to build a side job, then perhaps we have a field called " additional business".

Maybe we have a sphere called "home." So, the first step is to determine which areas of life are important to you. Of course? Because when you ask yourself the question "what should I do with my life," life in general is a very vague, huge question. And it's not very specific. When I talk to people who ask this question: "What should I do with my life?" Often they actually ask: how do I find a job that I love, that makes a lot of money, and is also really interesting. And often they have a question, if they are not married yet: do I want to get married, have children, in general, all of this together. These are typically the two main areas where people feel insecure about this issue. But even just defining these areas of life gives you a little

more clarity, doesn't it? Because then you can answer yourself: when you lie down at night and think, "I don't know what to do with my life," do you really just mean, "I don't know how to find a job"? Because this question is much easier to answer than "I don't know what to do with my life." Or do you really mean, "Damn, I don't know if I want a serious relationship, if I want to get married and have kids, if I want to have a career"-is that what you mean? Is there something even bigger? So, step one-we divide life into different spheres. And then step two-for each of these areas, and you can define your areas however you want. For each of these areas, we want to create an understanding of what we want and what we don't want in the long term. So let

's start with something simple. Let's start with the health sector. If you ask yourself, "Okay, what will health success mean to me in the long term, say, a few decades from now?" Well, as for myself, I can say that in the area of health, I would like to be in great shape. I would like to have enough muscle mass. I would like to live to be 100 years old in good physical, mental, and emotional condition. I would like to be able to play with my children and grandchildren. I would like to have energy every day. And I would like to avoid any injuries that could stop me. Perfectly. Fantastically. It's worth writing it down somewhere, for example: " This is what I want in this specific area of life." Then we ask the question: "

What don't I want in this area of life?" Again, a simple example is health. Most people, when they ask themselves, "What should I do with my life?" they're not really concerned with, "Oh my God, what should I do with my health?" unless you have any health problems. But that's why it's easy to start with. So, in my case, what I do n't want for my health: I don't want to do a lot of exercise that I don't particularly enjoy. This is useful to know. I'm not trying to get super muscular and pumped up or anything. This is not my goal. I'm not trying to become an Iron Man athlete, an ultramarathoner, or anything like that. To be honest, I don't want this. I don't aspire to show elite results in any sport and I don't want to spend a lot of time optimizing my

physical condition. It's just not something I'm interested in. So, that's good to know. I now have much more clarity about what I want and don't want from my health life. So, what happens if we take on a more difficult task? Let's say work. What do I want in my career? What do I not want in my work? Again, we are thinking decades ahead. What does success really look like? Well, ideally, what would I want? I would like a job that brings satisfaction, energy, self-fulfillment, and is interesting. I would like to work with people I enjoy spending time with. I would like my work to have some impact. I would like my job to bring in a good income. It is often very helpful at this stage to define what a

good income means to you. And express it in numbers. As you get closer to this number, it will change, and that's normal. But it is worth determining what this number looks like. Do I want a job that makes $10 million a year, or would I be happy with a million a year, or 500 thousand, or even 100 thousand a year? Is it like, "Dude, if I could make six figures doing what I love, that would be awesome." By identifying things like this, you can better understand what you want. And then you also ask yourself: what don't I want? So, in the field of work, what do n't I want? I don't want a job where I have to be there from 9 to 5 every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how I feel. Perhaps. Or I don't want a job that requires frequent business trips. Or I don't

want a job that requires sitting in an office because I can't stand offices. Or, conversely, I don't want a job where I have to sit at home all day because I actually like talking to people. You figure out what exactly you don't want. At this point, we are not trying to narrow everything down to a specific position or business. We're just trying to understand what characteristics we're looking for and what we 're trying to avoid. It gives us a sense of direction, instead of choosing whether to become a marketing director or a partner in a law firm. These job titles, specific businesses, and certain things will change a lot.

Artificial intelligence is already changing absolutely everything. A few decades ago, people could not have imagined that Lehman Brothers would ever go bankrupt, or that Fuji would cease to be dominant in the field of photography. It's very hard for us to imagine now that the world will actually change, but that's what everyone has believed throughout history. They say, "Oh, the world can't possibly change." And then- boom, and the world changes. So, if you've ever wanted to start your own business but weren't sure what idea to pursue, you should definitely try out this completely free tool that I created with the help of Perplexity Computer, who kindly sponsored this video. The problem with business ideas is that most people don't have any

ideas, or, on the other hand, they have too many and don't know which one to tackle. So this free tool can help you. This is the best business idea generator that gives you everything you need to start your own business. He conducts a quick question and answer session where he asks about your experience, skills, and abilities. It's as if a researcher or business coach is sitting across from you and asking questions, trying to learn your brilliant insights and understand which business idea is right for you. The coolest thing is that while you're talking, the canvas on the side of the screen fills with real business ideas in real time. And these are not just vague or general suggestions.

These are business ideas tailored specifically for you, with a brief explanation of why they might suit your personality, skills, and experience. Once you select an idea, the tool will create a business plan for you that you can use as a source of inspiration. I tried to create an atmosphere as if you had a business partner helping you start your first business from scratch. This tool is completely free. The link will be below. So you just enter your email address, go through the interview, and see what result you get. And I would be happy to know in the comments below what business idea you can implement or which one interests you. So,

thank you Perplexity for sponsoring this video and for the great tool Perplexity Computer that I use every day in my work and life. Well, let's get back to the video. So, when we're trying to figure out what to do with our lives, it's worth avoiding the mistake of focusing only on the job title or even the field of activity. You need to understand what general characteristics you are looking to optimize? When it comes to work, it's also really helpful to think, " Okay, what exactly do I want from a lifestyle related to my career?" Do I want a flexible work format where I can work on my own terms? Or I'm happy with a high-paying corporate lawyer job, where I understand that work will become the center of my life, and I'll have to sacrifice other

things, such as family, life, health, or whatever. Again, there is no right answer. It's just a matter of figuring out what you want from this situation. Most people never take the time to clearly define these areas of life and outline what they want and what they do n't. It is also very helpful at this stage to better understand what to do with your life, to answer the question "why." This is a difficult question. You might think, "I want a job that makes a million dollars a year." But it 's worth asking: " Okay, why?" What do you think you can do with a million dollars a year that you can't do with, say, 500,000? You might think, "Dude, I

really want to build a billion dollar business." But the question is: "Why?" What do you hope a billion-dollar business will give you that you don't already have? Again, there are no right or wrong answers, but it's a question worth asking, right? Because if, for example, you say you have to earn at least a million dollars a year, the number of available careers for that is drastically reduced. Because almost no career actually makes a million dollars a year. You can start your own business, but if you decide that it has to be a billion-dollar company, that again severely limits the choices of businesses you can create. You are unlikely to be able to open a local

coffee shop. It won't bring in a billion dollars a year. It just limits you a lot when you have such big goals and aspirations. And so, again, it's worth understanding why. Usually, when we strive for something, it is because we are looking for a certain feeling. So, the question to ask yourself is: what feeling are you looking for when you say you want this? A million dollars a year-is that just because it's a nice round number? Are you looking for a sense of security, safety, or confidence in a world that is uncertain? Are you looking for a sense of relaxation, balance, and a stress-free life? In that case,

again, the lifestyle you desire is related to the reason behind the specific thing. Some of them are quite obvious. For example, why do I want to be able to play with my children? Well, I don't know, because I want to be able to play with my kids. You know, I want the feeling of satisfaction, joy, and fulfillment that comes from being able to pick up my granddaughter when I'm 70 years old without the fear of breaking my back, ending up in the hospital, and eventually dying. This is what I strive for. But it's much harder to ask this question in the context of work. And then you start doing the same for your home, your children, your marriage, your development, your hobby, or your side business. For example, if you want to start

your own business, that becomes a separate category. And if you already have a business, it essentially becomes a category of work. Again, we simply determine what we want and what we do n't. And why do we think we want this? At this stage, it is also useful to create a kind of wish map where you simply place certain images. Often, just talking about your desired lifestyle is unlikely to motivate you to take action. But if you have a photo- I, for example, have a wish map that will appear on the screen, and it's set as my desktop wallpaper. So, there 's a nice house there, some woman with three children-that's a signal that

I want to have at least three children, I guess. There's this guy, pumped up, doing martial arts, and it's not so much that he's pumped up, but that he's very flexible and mobile, so I strive for that in terms of health. Here's a squash player, and I'm like, "Oh, I really like playing squash." I'll probably never do this professionally, but it's a cool thing to do. Here's the app screen, you know, I like the idea of creating and designing apps and stuff, because it's cool. I love technology, you know. Images like this, when I see them on my vision board, give me so much more clarity about what I want to do with my life, because every time I think about that question, I just look at my desktop wallpaper. I'm like, "Oh, okay." Does this still seem broadly

consistent with what I think I want? So, we define spheres of life. For each one, we ask ourselves: what do I want? What don't I want? Why do I want what I want? And can I add some pictures to this to make it look a little more atmospheric? It's not easy. This takes a lot of time. This probably requires a few hours of actually sitting down and journaling about it. When I do this, I like to do it on a plane because there's no Wi-Fi. I just open a blank document in Apple Notes. I put a little airplane emoji to show, "Yes, I'm flying from Hong Kong to London and writing a little diary entry about what to do with my life." And I

just write down different areas of life, and what I want and what I do n't want. If you just do this, you will immediately gain much more clarity about what to do with your life. By the way, a little digression: if you enjoyed the video, my team and I are working on a productivity app that will help you figure out what to do with your life. It's called Superfocus. It's currently in closed beta, but there 's a link below if you're interested in an app that can really help you answer all of these questions. More detailed information below. And now let's move on to the second step. Step two in figuring out what to do with your life is that it's very, very, very helpful to identify what your dreams are. I first did this exercise at a 5-day

Tony Robbins seminar, which actually lasted 6 days, called " Date with Destiny" and was dedicated to figuring out what to do with your life. For me, it was one of the most powerful exercises because he just put on inspiring background music and everything . And everyone had 20 minutes to write down as many answers as possible to the question: what do you want from life? There were questions like: what do you want to have? What do you want to do? What do you want to achieve, what do you want to try, what do you want to learn, where do you want to go? Uh, what do you want to feel? The point was that you just wrote down a huge list of things. And again, it really helps to figure out what you want to do with your life, right?

Because we almost never sit down and actually define these things. We do a variation of this exercise once a year when I hold my annual productivity summit. People also benefit a lot from this. You know, in the "have " column, you can be as materialistic as you want. If you want a private jet, you can put a private jet on the list. If you want a yacht, you can add a yacht to the list. Many people don't want these things, and that's okay too. What do you want to do? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to try?

What do you want to learn? Personally, I want to learn Japanese. I want to learn Mandarin Chinese. I want to learn how to snowboard. I want to visit the Maldives. I want to visit Timbuktu because it looks like a cool place. What do I want to feel? I want to have more psychedelic experiences. Where do I want to go? You create a list of all these different dreams. And, as a rule, you can scatter, you can group some of these dreams into different areas that we have already defined. So, we define our dreams. It is important that we try to define our dreams without limiting ourselves. Often people say, "Oh, I really want to learn Japanese." Oh no, I won't put that on the list because it would be too difficult. We want to reject the idea that it

will be too difficult, unrealistic, or anything like that. Again, we think big, broad, thinking, "If I could do anything, what would be cool?" I have For example, I want to organize a ski trip with friends every year. I want to organize a joint work trip with friends every year. I want to organize a cruise with friends. I think that would be fun. I would like to go hiking to Machu Picchu because I have seen pictures and it looks cool. I would like to live in a van for a month, convert it, learn about electricity, plumbing, etc., to try out life in a van. You know, we're just making a dream list. And again, the more we think about it and write it down somewhere, bookmarking it to find anytime, the better it is when the question arises:

"What do I want to do with my life?" Because, you know, even if you solve everything, this question will come up at least once every three months. If you just look at your list, at your areas of life, your visions, the pictures on your visualization board, you can ask yourself: does this still feel right? Because in reality, to be honest, your desires will always change over time. So when you ask this question, it will only be a snapshot of the moment. I am 32 years old now. If I ask myself what I want to do with my life and do all of that, it will just be a snapshot. This is very different from when I asked myself this at 22. And it will probably be very different when I ask myself this at

42. But some things will remain relatively constant, and some will change. When I was 22, I still wanted to become a doctor. So, a significant part of the work was related to medicine: anesthesia, emergency care, plastic surgery part-time work, etc. And then, when I left medicine and realized that this was no longer what I wanted to do, all of that took a backseat. Now, professionally, I strive to build a comfortable business, work with people I enjoy communicating with, teach others, help them improve their lives, and master the skills for financial freedom. Maybe in ten years it will stop being important to me and I will do something else. But that's okay, because right now it's just a snapshot of my life. And the point of this snapshot is not to

give you a clear end goal. In fact, this is needed to set the direction. If I roughly understand what I'm striving for, the main thing is not the end point, but the direction of movement. It is important that my ship sails this way, not the other way. If I set a goal to create a $10 billion startup, my actions now will be completely different than if I wanted a quiet business where I can work three days a week and earn $100,000 doing what I love. This leads to radically different approaches to building a business. The ultimate goal is almost unimportant, the main thing is the direction.

The last thing we will do is look at everything from a bird's eye view assessing life's prospects on a grand scale. So, we have identified the areas and some of our dreams. Now we'll go even further and use some journaling questions to help you step out of your comfort zone and explore different potential paths. One of my favorite exercises for this is called the " Odyssey Plan." The point is that you ask yourself three questions. First: "If I continued on my current path, what would my life be like in 5 years?" And you describe in detail what your life looks like in

five years. Then ask yourself, "What is the alternative path?" Suppose I am forbidden to follow this path and must choose a completely different one. What will my life look like in 5 years on this new path? Well, that's great. Let 's go back to the present. And then you ask yourself: " What will my life look like in 5 years if I choose a completely different path, where I don't care about money and what others think of me?" I have done this exercise many times over the years. My wife literally did this the other day when she was thinking about what to do with her life in the context of certain work projects, and it helps incredibly. I've been

recommending this for years online, and sometimes at events when people ask me, "I don't know what to do with my life." I say, "Oh, have you heard of the Odyssey Plan?" And they often respond, " Yes, I heard you mention that in a video or Instagram reel." Then I say, "Great, did you do it?" And they said, "No, I haven't done it yet." So my advice: if you've reached this point in the video and are sincerely trying to figure out what to do with your life, it's not something that will bring clarity simply from watching a YouTube clip in anticipation of a miracle. Clarity comes when you watch videos, get ideas, and then actually do the work of inner exploration and journaling to explore different life paths. The advantage of the Odyssey Plan is that

it forces us to think outside our current paradigm and clearly articulate what I would do if I didn't care about money and if I truly didn't care what society, parents, friends, or relatives thought of me. And often this makes us realize that in reality we are severely limited by the need to earn a certain amount of money and the desire to please those around us. I'm not saying you have to follow any of these plans, but it's a good way to think a little more broadly. Another tip that I really like is an idea from a TED Talk. Let's imagine that 30 years later I was invited to speak at the TED conference. The same main conference, not TEDx, but a real TED Talk, after which everyone applauds standing, the video gets

tens of millions of views on YouTube, and in the comments everyone writes: "Oh my God, this is incredible." It's so inspiring, and it's so different: " What would you be talking about in 30 years? What would be interesting to talk about in 30 years? It's a tough question. You're probably thinking, "Oh my God, I have no idea." But if I were to ask, "Would it be cool to give a TED Talk about how I became a partner at a big law firm? Would that be really cool and exciting?" You'd probably say, " Uh, not really." Would it be really cool and exciting to give a TED Talk about how won four consecutive Olympic gold medals?

Maybe. If you're into sports, you might think, "Wow, that sounds really cool." If you're a regular person, you might think, "Uh, no, that doesn't sound that cool." So start coming up with those kinds of ideas and asking yourself, " What would you be talking about at TED in 30 years that would be interesting?" There's another approach that I really like this: Imagine that you had all the time and all the money in the world, so you didn't have to think about earning money -- you already earned it. But there's a condition: you have to spend 40 hours a week using your skills and talents to help other people. What would you do if you had all the money and all the time in the world, but you had to use your skills to help others? Would you

teach someone? That's often my answer. Would you create something cool? Would you save the environment? Would you solve the refugee problem? Would you help the homeless in your community? What would you do if you had 40 hours a week to serve people in some way ? That often helps you figure out what you really want to do. In fact, if you're trying to figure out, "Oh my God, how do I decide what to do with my career?" Ideally, the more we can let go of the thoughts of "I need to make money," " I need to think about what people are going to say," and the more we can get into the spirit of service, realizing that work is about helping other people in some way or another. So, if I had to, what would I actually do to help other people? And then you can often find a way to

make money from it if you need it. I'm not saying it's possible 100% of the time, but it's more likely than not to think about it. And then here's an interesting point: what would you like people to say at your funeral, in your eulogy, or what would you like to read about yourself in the obituary that's written after you die. That's really the point of starting with the ending in mind. Usually, in a eulogy, you don't talk about your accomplishments or anything like that. Usually, you talk about, what a good person you were, what an impact you had on your community, your friends and family, what a great guy or gal you were, etc. And in an obituary, they often add in your accomplishments and the impact you had on the world or the people you served. And again

, at our annual productivity summits, we sometimes do an exercise where we ask people to write their own eulogy or obituary. And people on the Zoom chat write, "Oh my God, I'm crying. Oh my God, I've never done this before. Oh my God, I feel so clear. Oh my God, I'm so moved. This is amazing." So if you're ready, I suggest you write your own eulogy or obituary to get a better idea of what it is that you really want to do with your life. Because eventually, we're all going to die. You know, in a few decades, none of us will be here. In a few decades, no one will remember me. No one will remember you. So, with the idea of a memento in mind, mori-remember death-we can often get a better sense of how we want to live our lives. Of course, all of this is

much easier said than done. It's a really complicated question: what to do with your life. But if you're interested in other similar journaling topics that can help you figure that out, I have a video right here where we go into a little more detail. So, thank you very much for watching. I hope you found this video helpful, and I'll see you in the next one.