You're Not Behind in Life

so a lot of you feel like you're behind in life. I'm here to tell you you're exactly where your habits have placed you because you wake up immediately, you reach for your phone. You scroll through Instagram while your coffee's getting cold, you check email before you even thought about your own priorities and you're consuming other people's highlights while your own goals are sitting on touch. And by 9am you've already trained your brain to react instead of create and then you wonder why you feel behind. You're not behind in life. You are exactly where your habits have placed you. Every single morning you're scrolling instead of creating. Every single night you're consuming instead of building something that you're actually proud of. Every single weekend you're escaping instead of trying to improve. And the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be isn't about luck or timing or talent, it's about the 1000 small choices that you make when nobody is watching. And those choices are creating a life that you didn't consciously choose. We have to talk about this. This is an incredibly important topic. I see people drifting through life because there is so much distraction, distraction from the habits and the activities that you have to be doing. And I think that a lot of people that are listening to this podcast and consume a lot of my content, they are trying to move in the right direction. But they're being sabotaged. Their brains are being hacked. And if you aren't consciously aware that your priorities are actually not your own, your entire life will end up looking like what someone else wants, not what you want. So let's address it. Let's figure it how to deal with it so that the things that we do daily, the habits that we have actually progress our life towards something that's meaningful to us. Because at the end of the day, your habits are your identity in disguise. Your habits aren't just what you do. They're who you become. Every single action that you take is a vote for the type of person you want to be. Every time you scroll on social media, that's a vote for distraction. Every time you skip a workout, that's a vote for being fat and weak. Every single evening that you spend binge watching is a vote for mediocrity. Now, most people think that they can vote differently tomorrow while continuing to vote the same way today. But the math doesn't work because you are the sum of your repeated actions, nothing more, nothing less. So the entrepreneur who checks their email first thing in the morning, they voted to be reactive, not proactive. The person who scrolls through social media for an hour before bed has voted to fill their mind with other people's priorities instead of processing their own thoughts. It's not theory. It's how identity formation works. Your brain doesn't distinguish between who you are and what you repeatedly do. To your neural pathways, there is no difference. Which explains why small compromises feel so harmless in the moment, but they create such devastating long-term consequences. Now, why are these consequences so devastating? This is my argument because I know you're going to say, Scott, listen, if I check Instagram for five minutes, listen, if I start working out next Monday or I write the article this weekend, they seem like these very harmless delays, right? Wrong. Every small compromise with yourself erodes the trust that you have in your own commitments. Every single broken promise to yourself makes the next one easier to break. There is so much power in keeping commitment and keeping promises to yourself. It compounds in both directions. It compounds when you keep them and it just increases your mental fortitude. It also compounds when you break them and it just decimate your resolve and it makes every single time you slip that much easier. I've seen this happen in, listen, personal life, business life, relationship. One of my best friends, he's a founder, he had a very simple goal, write 30 minutes every morning before checking the email. He had the time, he had the space, he had the motivation. What happened? Day one checked his email first, you know, quote-unquote, just to make sure nothing was urgent. How many times have we done that? He wrote for 20 minutes instead of 30. Day two, he responded to a few emails first because there was some stuff that was urgent. He wrote for 15 minutes. Day three, he got pulled into a long email thread, he skipped writing entirely, but he promised to make up for it tomorrow. Day seven, he had completely abandoned the habit and convinced himself that he wasn't a morning person, he wasn't a writing person. I don't know what he convinced himself of, but he's not writing anymore. Now, what has this, what happened here? What happened was each compromise taught him that his commitments to himself were negotiable. And six months later, he was frustrated because his business wasn't growing and his content wasn't getting traction and he felt stuck, but the problem wasn't strategy or market conditions. It was the identity that he had built for himself through a thousand small surrenders. This erosion of self-trust is why most people feel powerless to change their lives. They've trained themselves not to believe their own commitments. And without that foundational trust, every single new goal that you take on, it just starts to feel like self-deception. But what's fascinating is the same mechanism that creates this limitation can create these incredibly extraordinary results when you understand how to reverse it. So we're going to compound effect or flywheel in the opposite direction. But first, I want to tell you a story. Benjamin Franklin, you all know him, he figured out something about his daily habits that most people completely miss. At age 20, he was young, he was wise. Franklin created something that he liked to call his moral perfection project. He picked thirteen virtues that he wanted to embody and focused on one per week, cycling through them over and over and over again. And each day, he tracked whether he had lived up to that week's virtue, not perfectly. He wasn't crazy, but consistently enough to build what he called moral muscle memory. Now, for over 50 years, so until he was 70 years old, Franklin did this daily practice of conscious character building. And the results weren't just personal. He became one of the most influential people in American history, inventor diplomat, writer, scientist, founding father, his daily practice of intentional habit formation, literally helped shape a nation. But the key is that Franklin didn't become great and then developed good habits. He developed good habits and they compounded into greatness. Your current results are last year's habits made visible. I'm going to say that one more time. Your current results are last year's habits made visible. The person frustrated by their bank count made a thousand small financial decisions that led to this moment. The entrepreneur that's struggling to build an audience made a thousand small content decisions that created their current reach. Franklin's genius wasn't in choosing perfect habits. It was understanding the consistent small actions compound into extraordinary outcomes over time. Good habits compounded success, bad habits compound into limitation, and most people are just unconsciously compounding in the wrong direction. And that's why the solution isn't to completely overhaul your life. It's understanding the minimum viable consistency that can flip the compound effect in your favor. Now, Franklin's approach worked because he understood three key principles that most people miss. The power of minimum viable consistency, the leverage of key stone behaviors, and the importance of identity alignment. So let's break down each one and start with minimum viable consistency. Now, most people fail at building new habits because they think in terms of outcomes rather than systems. They want to get in shape so they plan a two hour gym session. They want to build an audience so they commit to daily blog posts. They want to learn a skill so they block out weekend study marathons. All of these approaches miss the point. Lasting change happens through minimum viable consistency, not maximum initial effort. I want you to apply the 10 minute rule. Start with the smallest possible version of the habit you want to build and then protect that tiny commitment religiously. If you want to exercise, commit to 10 minutes of movement daily, not an hour in the gym, not a perfect workout routine, 10 minutes of any physical activity. If you want to write, commit to 10 minutes of writing daily, not a blog post, not a perfect article, 10 minutes of putting words on a page. And here's why it works because you're not trying to build the perfect habit. You're trying to rebuild trust with yourself. Franklin's virtue tracking worked because he could actually stick with it. He maintained it for decades, which meant the compound effect had time to work its magic. And once you rebuild that self-trust through these tiny consistent winds, expanding the habit becomes natural. But if you can't trust yourself to maintain 10 minutes daily, you definitely can't trust yourself to maintain an hour. And this minimum viable approach, it also reveals some very important truths. Some habits naturally trigger other positive behaviors. And Franklin understood this when he structured his virtues to reinforce each other. This is where the idea of the keystone habit comes in, because not all habits are created equal. Some habits naturally trigger positive behavior. Now, Franklin's virtue practice it works so well, partly because it was a keystone habit that improved everything else in his life. So one well-chosen habit, it really can transform multiple areas of your life simultaneously. Now for many people, exercise is their keystone habit. When they work out consistently, they naturally make better food choices, they sleep better, they feel more confident, they think more clearly. Now for entrepreneurs, maybe a morning routine becomes your keystone habit. It means you wake up early more time for work. Review priorities means better decision making throughout the day. If you exercise or meditate, you get improved mental clarity. And if you eat a healthy breakfast, you have sustained energy. Great morning routine, that's a keystone habit. The key is to identifying which single habit would create the most positive ripple effects in your life. So Franklin's daily virtue reflection was a keystone habit because it improved his decision making in every other area. By constantly asking what would a virtuous person do, he naturally made better choices about work, about relationships, about health, about personal development. So you have to ask yourself what's one change that would naturally lead to other improvements. I gave you two examples, but just start there. And once you've identified your keystone habit and built momentum with the minimum viable consistency towards your keystone habit, you're ready for the deeper transformation, which is identity-based change. Now what Franklin really understood was that he wasn't trying to do virtuous things. He was trying to become a virtuous person. And the fastest way to change your habits is to change how you see yourself. So when your habits start to align with your identity, they become effortless. When they fight against each other, meaning your identity is one thing and your habits are another, that's when you need this constant willpower. Because the person who sees themselves as someone who exercises doesn't need motivation to work out. Exercise is just what they do. It's like brushing their teeth. The person who sees themselves as someone who creates doesn't struggle to sit down and write, creation is how they process the world. So instead of saying I want to exercise more, you have to start saying, I am somebody who moves their body daily. Instead of saying I want to eat healthier, you have to start saying I am someone who nourishes their body with quality food. And every action that aligns with your chosen identity makes it stronger. Every action that goes against it makes it weaker. And this is why the system is so powerful. The daily check in the minimum viable. It wasn't just tracking behavior. It was reinforcing identity. So in Ben Franklin's example, he was basically daily reinforcing the identity of someone who actively practices these 13 virtues. His identity turned into I am the type of person who practices temperance. I am the type of person who works hard. But identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's always shaped by powerful forces. So you can do as much as you possibly can do to have the identity that is synonymous with your habits and vice versa. But there are two very powerful forces that shape that are external forces that shape your identity and shape your habits, your physical environment and your social environment. And if you do not manage these, it will be very hard for you to adopt the habits that will eventually become your identity. Because if we go through these two powerful forces, physical and social, environment shapes your behavior sometimes even more than your intentions do. If your phone is next to your bed, you're going to check it first thing in the morning. If healthy snacks are visible and there's no junk food in the house, you're going to eat better. If your workout clothes are laid out at night, you're more likely to exercise in the morning. You have to structure your entire day around the habits that you want to actively pursue and eventually turn into your identity. Franklin understood this instinctively. He structured his entire day around his virtue practice from his morning routine to his evening reflection. So you have to make good habits obvious and bad habits invisible. Now James Clear, he's the author of Atomic Habits, probably one of the most prolific thought leaders on habits. He calls this environment design. But I like to think of this a little bit differently. I like to call it choice architecture. So you're designing your physical space to make good decisions automatic and bad decisions difficult. That's all it is. It's very simple, but many people don't do it. So I'll give you a couple examples of what this looks like. If you want to build creative habits, just keep a notebook and pen visible at all times. You can close all the browser tabs. You're not distracted, except for the piece that you're working on or the work that you're actively engaged in. And if you are trying to enter flow state and be creative, put your phone in another room. Do not disturb while you work. If you're trying to build health habits, so prepare your workout clothes a night before. Keep your water bottle filled visible. So you're always hydrated. Put the healthy snacks that I level in your fridge or even better, only have healthy snacks in your fridge. And if you want to build a learning habit, keep books in places where you normally hang out. So you don't turn on the TV at night. You can download some educational podcasts for your commute or if you're going to jump on a plane and then set up a dedicated spot in your condo in your house where you can just learn. Listen to a podcast, read a book with minimal distraction. The goal with any of these ideas is to reduce the friction for good habits while increasing the friction for bad ones. When good choices become easier than bad choices, will power becomes irrelevant. Your environment does the heavy lifting. It leaves your brain free to focus on what matters most, but your physical environment, like I mentioned, is only half the equation. The people around you shape your habits just as powerfully because humans are social creatures. We unconsciously adopt the habits of the people that we spend time with. You've heard the saying, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, it's true. If your friends complain constantly, you're going to become more negative. If your colleagues work late every night, you're going to feel that pressure to do the same. If your family has poor health habits, you're really going to struggle to find and maintain good ones. Your social environment is your destiny. So let me get this straight as well. It's not about cutting off everyone who doesn't perfectly align with your goals. It's about being intentional about influence. I want you to surround yourself with people whose habits you want to adopt. Join communities of people who are already living the way you want to live, online or offline, formal or informal. The medium doesn't matter. What matters is the consistency of exposure. So if you want to build a business, spend time with entrepreneurs. If you want to get in shape, train with people who prioritize fitness. If you want to be more creative, connect with artists, writers, makers, you become who you spend time with. You got to choose wisely. And even if you can't change your immediate social circle, you can be intentional about whose content you consume, whose books you read, and whose examples you study. Your influences shape your identity. Your identity shapes your habits. Your habits shape your life. And none of these ideas work in a vacuum, right? All this preparation, the minimum viable consistency, the keystone habits, the identity work, the environment design, the social architecture, it all builds towards the moment that actually matters. That splits second when you have to choose. And that's really what this all comes down to. Because every habit comes down to a moment of choice. The alarm goes off. You get up, you hit snooze. Finish dinner. Do you go for a walk? You turn on Netflix. You sit down at your computer. Do you open up creative work or do you check social media? Now, these moments don't feel significant, but they're everything. In that split second, you're not just choosing what to do next. You're choosing who to become. The person who consistently chooses the harder path in small moments builds the strength to choose it in the big moments. But the person who consistently chooses comfort builds the habit of avoiding challenge. Your character is built in the gap between stimulus and response. Victor Frankl, he understood this when he wrote between stimulus and response. There is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our growth and our freedom. Now, most people live unconsciously, letting stimulus trigger automatic response. Wake up, check phone, feel boards, growl social media, feel stressed, watch TV. Franklin's daily virtue practice was really about expanding this gap. Creating space between impulse and action. Training himself to pause and ask what would a virtuous person do right now? Living consciously means creating space in that gap and making intentional choices. So the next time you reach for your phone, just pause. Ask yourself, is this moving me toward or away from who I want to become? The next time you skip your planned workout, just pause, ask yourself, what kind of person am I voting to be right now? And these small moments of conscious choice compound into a life that you consciously choose, just like I did for Franklin, just like they can do for you. Now, after listening so far, I don't want you to wait until Monday to action some of these ideas because you don't need a perfect plan. You don't need to overhaul your life. You just need to make one different choice today. Franklin didn't transform himself overnight. He spent decades building the habits that would define his legacy. But it started with a single decision to track one virtue for one week. The person who exercises for 10 minutes today is closer to their fitness goal than the person who plans to start a perfect routine next week. The person who writes one paragraph today is closer to becoming a writer than the person who's going to quote unquote really focus on it once life gets less busy. Progress beats perfection, action beats intention. Your past habits create your current reality, but they don't have to create your future reality. Every moment is a chance to start becoming who you want to be. And the compound effect works both ways. If bad habits have been working against you, good habits can start working for you immediately. If you miss a day, if you miss a week, if you miss a month, you don't listen to what I'm telling you right now, you might find yourself living someone else's life. But you're always one choice away from living your own. So start making different choices today right now with the next choice that you make because your future self is waiting.