If you’re ambitious but inconsistent, please watch this

The most damaging words in the English language are I am. Cuz whatever comes after I am is what your psyche will expect you to become. All right. So, this video is about why what to do, but you are still not doing it. And because this is a problem that we all struggle with, I was very keen to have a conversation with bestselling author Near Eel.

bestselling author Near Eel. We all know what to do. The problem is that we don't follow through because there's an element missing. Now, Near has previously written the wonderful book called Indestructible, which I personally found super helpful in overcoming my own tendencies to procrastinate. It's not good enough just to know what to do and why you want to do it. You also need the

do it. You also need the But then a few months ago, I read his latest book, Beyond Belief, and I really enjoyed it. What about imposter syndrome? A lot of people feel like they have imposter syndrome. It has this word syndrome, which makes it sound like it's a real thing. Totally limiting belief. And so I invited him to come over to Hong Kong where he and I could have a conversation in person, exploring the research he's been doing

conversation in person, exploring the research he's been doing for the last like five plus years of working on the book to try and answer this question. Why do we know what to do but then just not do it? despite knowing what to do and why we want to do it. So many times in life we don't carry it out right. How many times do we

many times in life we don't carry it out right. How many times do we do we have all the information we need? We know exactly the framework. We know exactly all the steps. We want the benefits of carrying out those steps but we don't do it. Why? So the book is about how do we use our beliefs which are upstream of our behavior to change

are upstream of our behavior to change what we are able to see what we feel and ultimately what we do. Now you and I have both done this a lot of times in our life. We start something with the best intention in the world and then we just stop doing the thing. We might think it's a lack of discipline or we're just lazy or we're just unmotivated. But what Near argues is that there's something deeper underlying this and

something deeper underlying this and that is our belief. I spent the past 30 years being a professional der and my diet went this yo-yo roller coaster for 30 years of my life and what I found was that every

diet worked until it didn't. And when it stopped working it was always because I stopped believing in it. So at first I tried going lowfat and then after that it I became a vegetarian. And then after that it was keto and then after that it was intermittent fasting. And I they all worked for a while but then some bit of

worked for a while but then some bit of doubt would enter my mind. Somebody would say keto is bad for your kidneys and vegetarians don't get enough nutrients and whatever it was. And as soon as my faith in that in that diet faltered then I fell off the wagon and I would stop and I'd say diets

and I would stop and I'd say diets don't work. Well it wasn't that diets don't work. It was that when I stopped believing in that plan and that course of action my behavior changed. I would succumb to what's called the what the hell effect that hey, , diets don't work anyway. So, give me

diets don't work anyway. So, give me that piece of pizza and I'll chase it with some French fries. And so, what was missing was that conviction. And ultimately, what I learned was that to lose weight, to seek financial freedom, to have a better relationship with the people you love in your

with the people you love in your life, to accomplish any long-term goal, what's really required is not the one true method. That's what I kept searching for. give me the next book, the next guru, the next method that's going to be the one and ultimate way to do it. When really, I think the key is that we pretty much already know what

is that we pretty much already know what to do. It's how do we stick with it over time? That the number one trait that will define whether you will meet your goals, it's not how intelligent you are. It's not even what resources you have or what skills you've acco you've acquired. The number one determinant of whether

The number one determinant of whether you will reach your goal is whether or not you quit. It's pretty basic, right? So if quitting is the number one determinant of whether you will fail, how do you persist? Okay, at this point I was like, okay, near fair enough. Like I agree that quitting guarantees you're going to fail at doing the thing, but surely some

at doing the thing, but surely some problems are tactical or strategic in nature rather than just about quitting. And this is what he had to say. , I've met a lot of very successful people. I interviewed billionaires. I interviewed people who were broke. And it turns out that people who are successful at whatever venture

who are successful at whatever venture they choose to accomplish. Successful people are losers. Successful people lose more often. They have more failures on their wrap sheet than people who aren't successful. Successful people try and try and try. They figure out a

try and try and try. They figure out a way. Whereas unsuccessful people, they try something once and they give up. , this with your creator program, right? What's the defining trait of people who go on to succeed? It's not that they're smarter than the rest of us. I met a lot of very successful people. They're modestly smart. They're not necessarily the most smart people I know in the world. It's

smart. They're not necessarily the most smart people I know in the world. It's that they're the most tenacious. They're the me most persistent. But there's never been a formula, I think, for understanding how do I stay persistent. And it turns out that if you persist, you will overcome these challenges. You'll find a way. If there is a way, you'll find one. It's not that persistence guarantees success. It's

persistence guarantees success. It's that quitting guarantees failure. So, if you can do everything you can to inoculate yourself from quitting too soon, not that there isn't a time to quit, there is definitely a time to quit. We can talk about what are the criterias for that. But what we find in the research is that too many of us quit

the research is that too many of us quit far too soon. That is good for us. Okay. But just don't quit, bro. is to me not a particularly satisfying answer because that sounds like telling a depressed person to just cheer up or telling someone who's struggling to build a habit to just do it. So I think the real question is what does it

take for one person to persist with doing the thing but then for a different person with the same general circumstances to not persist to decide the thing is pointless and to quit doing the thing and this is where we get to the motivation triangle. Okay.

we get to the motivation triangle. Okay. So the motivation triangle is a new explanation of how motivation works that I think most people including myself. I used to think that motivation was about the reward, right? The incentive, the benefit that if you want this thing, you

benefit that if you want this thing, , you want more money, you want better health and longevity, you want to find a mate, you whatever it is that you want, that motivates you to do certain behaviors. So it's a straight line between knowing what to do and just doing it for the benefit. But that's

doing it for the benefit. But that's obviously not true because if it was that easy, we would all have six-pack abs and be multi-millionaires because we all know what to do, right? I don't think that's the problem anymore. We all have, , bookshelves for full of advice. We can watch , , YouTube videos that tell us what

know, YouTube videos that tell us what to do. We can ask chatbt or Google the answer to our questions when we don't know what to do. We all know what to do. The information is out there. We're drowning in information. The problem is that we don't follow through because there's an element missing that it's not good enough just to know what to do and why you want to do it. You also need the

why you want to do it. You also need the belief. So the benefit is why you're doing the thing. The behavior is what you're doing. But if you don't have the belief holding this triangle together, you won't sustain your motivation. So for example, if I'm working for a boss who I don't believe has my long-term

who I don't believe has my long-term interest at heart, right? So, if I don't believe I'm going to get the benefit of that promotion or that raise because I don't think my boss has my best interest at heart, well, then I'm not going to work very hard. Eventually, I'm going to quit. And on the other side, if I don't believe in my own ability to do a

don't believe in my own ability to do a behavior, I also won't persist, right? If I don't believe in the person who exercises regularly or who can start a business or who can start a YouTube channel, if I don't believe I can sustain that behavior, I'm also going to quit over the long term. So even if I know what to do the behavior, even if I know why I want to do it, I have to have

know why I want to do it, I have to have that belief that holds it all together. Now this is the core model of this entire episode. The benefit is why you want the thing. The behavior is what you do to achieve the thing. But if the underlying belief collapses, then so does the entire motivation triangle. Now, speaking of stuff that we know we

Now, speaking of stuff that we know we should do but probably don't do. So I have a massive long list of Slack messages and emails that I should probably get around to replying to at some point. Now, this would be probably multiple hours of typing, but I can save a lot of that time by using the people who are very kindly sponsoring this video, and that is Whisper Flow. Whisper

video, and that is Whisper Flow. Whisper Flow is an incredible voicetoext tool that I've been using non-stop for the last several months. It has saved me dozens of hours of time. I use it on my computer, I use it on my phone, and you can use it within any app. And so, even though I type quite fast, I speak a lot faster than I type. And so, it's just a way more efficient

And so, it's just a way more efficient at getting text out onto a computer. So, for example, this is something I could write to Owen, one of my team members. Hey Owen, I've got three quick things before Thursday. , firstly, can you send Angus the updated numbers from last quarter? Secondly, we need to move the onboarding call to Wednesday. , no, wait, , Thursday afternoon. , and then thirdly, can you find somewhere for the team lunch next week, ideally near

then thirdly, can you find somewhere for the team lunch next week, ideally near West Koon, so it's easy for everyone to get to. Boom. So, that took about 20 seconds. And what it does is that it's already formatted it as a numbered list. It took into account the fact that I made a mistake of Wednesday, , no, Thursday. All of my ums and rs are gone. The punctuation is reasonable. And if you're thinking that, wait, why do I need a separate tool for this? Like,

you're thinking that, wait, why do I need a separate tool for this? Like, surely my phone or computer already has Siri built in as dictation. , I would say, when was the last time you tried to use your phone's built-in dictation? And like, was it any good? , let's try this right now. , hey Angus, , can we do the team lunch on Thursday? , no, wait, Friday. And, , can we do it somewhere

Friday. And, , can we do it somewhere near West Koon this time? As you can see here that it just doesn't understand what I'm trying to say. It's kept in the mistake. It doesn't know what Koon is because , it's a weird word. And the nice thing about Whisflow is that it's just sorted all of that stuff out without me having to think about it. Whisper Flow is free to use, but if you use the link down below, you get a 1 month trial completely free of

but if you use the link down below, you get a 1 month trial completely free of Whisper Flow Pro, which is what I personally signed up for and pay for. So, thank you so much Whisper Flow for sponsoring this video. And let's get back to it. But, okay, we're talking about belief. And at this point, things can start to sound a little bit mystical, a little bit woowoo, a little bit like manifestation. And so, what's going on here? Like, how does

bit like manifestation. And so, what's going on here? Like, how does the underlying belief change our behavior? Right? We see this a lot when someone is told in school that you're bad at math, right? That you flunked out on an exam, this you're bad at math. And people start internalizing that. , they have one bad experience and

people start internalizing that. , they have one bad experience and they think, I'm not a math person. Well, what happens the next time they have that challenge? Well, , I'm not a math person. So, am I going to really study as hard as a person who thinks I'm great at math? No, I'm going to give up early. I'm not going to try very hard. And then that belief becomes

the reality. This is so fascinatingly demonstrated. , how much time do we spend on longevity and health? We talk about eating right and exercise and don't smoke, don't drink, all these things. Do you

know that we have found that beliefs will affect your longevity more than stopping smoking or eating right or even exercise. That in a study at Yale, they found that having positive views of

aging increased lifespan by seven and a half years. That's shocking. Seven and a half years. That is more than the effect size of exercise, diet or stopping smoking. Now that doesn't mean that having positive views of aging magically changes your mitochondria because of the vibrations of the nothing to do with

changes your mitochondria because of the vibrations of the nothing to do with that at all. Right? It has nothing to do with that. It's that your beliefs become your biology via behavior. M so if you have the person who says to themselves that I'm having a senior moment or I'm getting too old for

this. What type of behavior will they do in their day-to-day of life versus someone who has a positive view of aging? What does that sound like? Something like growth is possible at any age. If you believe growth is possible at any age versus I'm having a senior

at any age versus I'm having a senior moment. I'm too old for this. How does your behavior change? Your behavior be your beliefs become your biology because you behave differently. You're more likely to take care of your body, to exercise, to not smoke, to do these behaviors that will increase your

these behaviors that will increase your lifespan much more than just telling people don't do this, don't do that. If you change your beliefs, you're much more likely to do those behaviors and stuff because again, these beliefs are upstream of the behaviors. So, I think we should, , we should

constantly be preaching to not reinforce these limiting beliefs, right? What? Why do we tell ourselves I'm having a senior moment or I'm too old for this? Like why do we tell ourselves that? Because which is true? Which is true? I'm too old for this. I'm having a senior moment versus growth is possible at any age. They're

growth is possible at any age. They're both true, right? They're both potentially true. But the person who defaults to this belief, the negative belief versus the positive belief is going to behave differently. There's another amazing study where they took a group of men and they told them that

they were enrolling in a steroid study. there was a new steroid pill that they would be a part of. And these were guys who exercised regularly in the gym. And that group of people who were told they were in this steroid study, they were

steroid study, they were given a placebo pill. So no steroid, but they were told this is a steroid. Now, those men who were told that they were taking a steroid gained more muscle mass and became stronger than the guys

who didn't get the placebo steroid even though both of them were taking nothing, right? Both groups had it was a completely inert substance. Why did the group get stronger when they were taking a placebo steroid? Well, because when they went to the gym, they pushed out another rep. They worked a

another rep. They worked a little bit harder. And so, that's not a trick. That's not magic. It shows you how our beliefs become our biology via behavior. I really like this. I found myself taking notes on it while we were doing the podcast. Your beliefs become your biology via your behavior. Now, there is a really cool scientific study that

a really cool scientific study that backs this up from the 1950s. Let's just say it would not pass through an ethics board of approval if someone were to try to do it today, but because it's from the 1950s, we can talk about it. And so, I'm going to give you a trigger warning here. If you do not like animal cruelty, then please feel free to skip this next section. One of my favorite studies

then please feel free to skip this next section. One of my favorite studies that demonstrates this. It was a study that was done in the 1950s by a biologist by the name of Kurt Richter. And Richter was had this very simple experiment. What he wanted to do was to determine how long rats could swim in water. This was in the 1950s. He did

water. This was in the 1950s. He did a ethically dubious study. But here's what he did. He took some rats and he put them in a cylinder of water and he stood there with his stopwatch and he measured how long they could swim. It turns out a wild rat can swim for about 15 minutes before it gives up and dies. It's interesting. didn't

exhaust itself, it just gave up. So what RTOR observed was if the baseline was 15 minutes, he was looking for how he could make that rat persist for longer. How could he change how long the rat could swim for? So he had a second experiment. The second experiment, he took a new group of rats. He put them in the same exact cylinders

He put them in the same exact cylinders of water. He waited till they swam for 15 minutes. And at the 15-minute mark, he reached in, pulled out the wild rat, dried it off, let it catch its breath, and then plunk back in the water it went. And this time, he wanted to see would there be any difference in how

would there be any difference in how long the rat swam for. And when he did this intervention a few times, when the rat saw that if it persisted, that it might be saved, that salvation might be possible, the rat didn't swim for 15 minutes anymore. Do you want to take a guess how much longer it swam for? Do already? , 1 hour, 2 hours.

already? , 1 hour, 2 hours. That's what most people say. They say maybe it swam for twice as long, for 30 minutes, for maybe an hour, which would be crazy. Think about that, right? If I could make you four times more persistent. Imagine if everybody who takes one of your courses, if you could make them four times more persistent, if you could run a marathon for four times

you could run a marathon for four times longer, that'd be crazy, right? That'd be an unbelievable intervention. But the rats didn't swim for 60 minutes or 2 hours, 120 minutes. They swam, Ali, for 60 hours. 60

60 hours. Not 60 minutes, 60 hours of non-stop swimming. So, what can we learn from this? Nothing changed in the rat's body. Same exact rat body. They didn't suddenly become super rats. Nothing changed in the environment. As we, as much as we talk about, well, , the environment shapes behavior. Nothing