You can’t waste any more time.

It’s nearly February already.

Now let me guess.

You promised this time would be different.

You told yourself there’d be no more excuses.

“New year, new me”.

Let me ask you then:

Is it really being so?

Or are you already drifting off?

If that’s the case, don’t be sad.

It’s just a repeated behavioral pattern.

Meaning that which you naturally default to:

Procrastination/Laziness/Negligence.

But you weren’t born this way.

It took years to develop this nature.

Now it’s time to rebuild it.

Let’s see how.

First of all, understand this:

You are an amalgamation.

Meaning a combination of countless experiences, relationships and ideas you were exposed to.

The person you currently are isn’t your natural ‘you’.

It’s the result of what you lived, which propelled you to think and act the way you do, in turn making you become who you are.

This might sound a bit obvious to some, but it isn’t for many.

We tend to think we just ‘are’ the way we are.

We’re not.

I say this because, if you’re reading this newsletter, it means you want to stop acting the way you do and act more like the person you want to become.

And if that really is the case, you will not allow yourself to forget this:

The easiest way to change who you are is to change your environment.

Not only do I say this from experience, but also because I learned it from James Clear, author of the book ‘Atomic Habits’.

As he says:

“Shape your environment to support good habits and discourage bad ones.”

The quote makes sense, but the tricky part is we assume it only refers to physical environments.

It doesn’t.

I see it as referring to 3 environments.

1st: your physical environment.

2nd: your digital environment.

3rd: your mental environment.

All of them set the standard for what’s normal and expected behavior of you.

If you don’t carefully set them up for your success, you will always fail, no matter what your goal is.

Your physical environment has cues all around it that stimulate certain behaviors.

Maybe you can’t tell, but I guarantee they’re there.

I’ll prove it to you.

Some of you reading this have videogame consoles in your rooms.

Some have a tv screen right in front of the bed.

Some others highly addictive apps like TikTok, Instagram, games etc. on the phone’s homepage.

All of this primes you to behave a certain way.

Something’s boring? Turn the tv on.

Tv’s not fun? Play a little on the console.

Game’s boring too? Go to TikTok.

It’s a loop, and a bad one at that.

The reason why is these are low-effort, high-reward behaviors.

That means your attention is required for increasingly small periods of time, with the outcome always being pleasure.

Fleeting pleasure, though.

Much different from satisfaction.

Real life satisfaction doesn’t come from beating a game, having a video go viral, or finishing a series.

It comes from doing hard things that truly matter to you, which in turn will make you become more.

If you really want to stop procrastinating, make sure your environment primes you to do the things you usually avoid:

Reading, researching, writing, testing, correcting and so on.

When your environments are designed to make you constantly look for fun and comfort, you’re guaranteed to abandon hard tasks quicker.

So get a desk if you don’t have one.

Start building your own bookshelf.

Have a notebook to write down what’s important.

Remove anything that you know to be distracting in your physical environments.

And remember, January’s almost over.

There’s no time for playing around anymore.

This is your life and your destiny.

So move.

Your digital environments, however, are a bit different.

Not only is the phone an addictive device, it’s also packed with addictive apps and services.

And all of them are a touch away from you.

It would be unrealistic of me to ask you to stop using your phone.

So I won’t.

What I will do, however, is tell you this:

Redesign and focus.

By ‘redesign’, I mean either totally removing the most addictive apps you know to use too much, or at least getting them out of your home screen.

As someone who deleted his Facebook, Instagram and TikTok profiles during the pandemic, let me tell you:

It was genuinely the most productive time I had in my life.

Phones can be a great tool, but will always be a terrible master.

So, get rid of those apps.

And if you use them, make sure you’re using them for a valid purpose.

Not just to check some cute pics from your crush.

And then, by ****‘set’**, I mean setting your phone’s Focused Modes to help you not procrastinate.

I’ve set mine to always go all black and white when I start working.

That way, when I pick it up, there are no colors to stimulate me as much and make me want to use it.

Also, pretty much no notifications.

Just the extremely important ones.

Having a colorless phone +

no addictive apps on the home page =

Easier focus.

However, none of this will change you if you don’t change your mental environment.

It’s the thoughts you keep entertaining, sometimes out of habit.

Thoughts that convince you the hard task you’re trying to finish is too hard.

The language you wanna learn is too complex.

The business you’d love to build is never gonna work.

The weight you wanna lose will take too long to be gone, so why even bother.

It’s the fuel you choose to put inside, which in turn will make you run fast or slow.

Changing your negative mind state isn’t ‘good’ or ‘helpful’.

It’s necessary.

But for you to do it, you must have this clear as crystal in your head:

You are not your negative thoughts.

They’re there for a reason.

Maybe you were taught to think that way by your parents.

Or you’re just sleeping poorly every night and it’s messing up your mood.

Or you’re consuming too much negativity from the media and thinking the world is gonna end soon.

Regardless of the reason why they exist, remember:

THEY’RE NOT YOU.

They’re just how you were taught to interpret life.

But what if you interpreted life as an incredible journey?

What if you interpreted life as a unique opportunity to make everything you want come to life?

What if life was just the things that happen while we’re making our dreams come true?

Sounds silly?

Well, it’s not stupid if it works.

This way of thinking and being radically changed my life in the past couple of years.

It made me go from a broke 18/19 year old to a 26 year old with 5 THOUSAND students and more than half a million followers from all over the world.

It can make you go from water to wine too.

You simply must take this seriously enough to apply it every day and not give up when the going gets tough.

And it will.

But it’ll be worth it.

Your future you will be thanking you and cheering you on.

You’re gonna make it.

Go be great, my friend.