The Last Month - This Episode Will Change Your Life Completely

It's December 2025. You've got exactly one month left before we hit 2026.
I'm not here to sugarcoat things or sell you a magic success pill, but I'll show you the truth.

If you own these next 30 days, you'll walk into the new year a completely different person.

I know this because I used to be that guy, living the same year over and over, wondering why I wasn't making any progress. And that only changed once I found a process for making progress.

So if you're ready to step into the new version of yourself, this is how to change your life in 30 days. days.

Welcome to the Martel Method. I went from rehab at 17 to building a $100 million empire and being a Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate. My best-selling book, Buy Back Your Time, is out now.

Grab a copy at buybackyourtime.com or at any of your preferred online retailers.

Step one, cut the crap. It's time, as the kids say, to lock the f ⁇ in.

Most people's whole year is multitasking to get nothing done have you ever seen the person that goes like hey count to one two three four five six then do a b c d e f g and how long it takes them to do that if they do it quick it might take like 15 seconds if they go a one b two c three and onward it can take them over a minute and a half so you're forcing your brain to context switch because you have too many things going on pick one let's get a win first off we have to write one primary outcome for the next 30 days.

What is the one thing that if you just got done, it would change your energy around your life. The second is we have to choose two habits that are going to drive that forward.

The way we do that is we habit stack. So if the thing is to get in a better shape, then you might go work out every day and eat better food.

Last, we have to say no to anything that doesn't feed that one goal. Learn to say no.
If it's not a hell yes aligned to that goal, it should be a heck no. Pick one f ⁇ ing goal.

Add two simple habits that feed it. Ignore the rest.
So once you cut the crap and the overload is gone, you have to focus. So now's the time to adapt to the next 30 days.

Step two, when things are easy, go hard. I learned this from my coach and he calls it separation season.
There's two times a year where everybody else can coast. Everybody else goes on vacation.

Everybody else slows down. Think about summertime and Christmas time.
Take those two times a year and create separation from everybody else. It's kind of like being on a highway at night.

And when you look around, there's no traffic, there's no distractions. And you in your car car of life can floor it.

You build that gap on your competition and that's what separates you from everybody else. So here's how you separate yourself.
First, that first 90 minutes, that is what I consider the deep work.

That is where you separate yourself from everybody else. That is where you get focused on your number one priority.

Whatever problem is in your life, maybe you don't feel fit or you don't have love or you want to make more money. That has to be the first 90 minutes of that day.

You have to give yourself the gift of being intentional and focused on you getting that reward. Next, we have to skip the partying.

Don't lose your early morning productivity because you stay up later than you should when you should have been recovering because now is the time to actually go hard in the paint.

And finally, pick one weekend day to double your key habit. I consider the weekdays when I get shit done, the weekend when I get better so I can have more leverage to get more things done.

Weekends is when you actually double down. For me, it's Saturdays.
I practice my prompt engineering. I use it to improve my skills.

I work on the skills that make me more valuable so that I can be more valuable to people in my life. And if you do these three things, you will create separation from everybody else.

So now that you've created that separation, it's time to set your daily rituals. Step number three, set daily non-negotiables.
Non-negotiable means you do it every day.

So when I mentor other founders, I have these five daily non-negotiables, but I want to keep this really simple and easy for you. So I'm going to teach three of them.

But essentially, they're zero days off.

If the day ends with day they do these because i want to create a rhythm of success when you can live your life in momentum you want to fight to stay in it because things are exponentially and geometrically more powerful it's like putting your clothes on you don't debate it you just do it the way i think about it it's kind of like when i created my elite program i wanted to design these five daily non-negotiables in a way that it would make it impossible for them not to win and for what it's worth if you're a business owner and you're looking to scale past seven figures and you feel stuck and you're interested in working with me, just click the link below and we'll see if it's a fit.

It's what I do every day with my eyes closed to help people win in life. So these are the three daily non-negotiables anybody can apply to accelerate their wins.
The first is your body.

What are the one or two habits that feed your body? Is it movement? Is your eating habits? Is it your vitamins? Is it your stretching? For me lately, I'm 45.

Stretching has become a big component in my life, but I've learned that a body emotion stays emotion. Number two is your mind.
What's one to two daily habits that could feed your mind?

For me, I have to read. I have to read at least 10 pages.
I look at it like I'm mining for something I can give back to the world. I want to be learning.
I want to be meditating.

Those are things that help me create awareness of this life I'm living in so that I can be better for the people around me. The third is business.

Think of the one to two habits that you could add in your business to move it forward. Think about the marketing activities, the daily outreach, the sales calls.

For example, one of the things I make every one of my clients do is post three stories a day.

Three times a day, I want them to pull out their phone, talk to their phone, it's really awkward, and post those on their stories, on Instagram, on Facebook, on TikTok.

I actually don't care where because it's the process of doing it. It helps their business.
It helps them grow. It helps them overcome their fear of learning to communicate or creating content.

And that pushes them outside. their comfort zone.
For most people, it's improving their business relationships.

For other people, it could be marketing, trying to figure out how do you get your message about what you do in the right places. Could be just shaking more hands.

You know, the more hands you shake, the more money you make. I don't know what it is for you, but think about the two habits in your business that can move it forward.

One or two habits for your mind, your body, and your business. Anybody can do this.
With your habits locked in, it's time to eliminate every single biggest thing holding you back from your goals.

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number four stop making excuses excuses are just lies that keep you comfortable you know i don't have the money i don't have the relationships those are just things you tell yourself to make it okay for not doing something i get that laying in a warm bed and warm blankets feels really good but you know what feels great living a life of your dreams And please don't say, I'll start on Monday.

That used to be my move. I would be like Saturday, ate like a pig.
All right, I'm going to start my diet on Monday. Guess what? You can start a diet halfway through a bag of chips.

For me, what happened is Monday became next week. And then eventually next month.
And then eventually next year, because I never got to it. I kept pushing it off.

So here are my favorite ways to eliminate excuses to make the last month the most productive of the year. First, we have to say our excuse out loud.
Give it a name. Like actually talk to it.

You can actually write it down and say, oh, this is my excuse. It's got a name.
Let's call it Bob. Bob, why are you in my life? I really would like for you to f ⁇ k right off.

Having that conversation might sound wonky, but when we name things, we then have the ability to change things. Second, we have to ask, does this serve me? Challenge it.

What would it mean if I didn't have this in my life? I like to ask questions like, where did this come from? Who taught it to me?

Why do I continuously allow myself to enable this behavior because it's in my life? When you put a spotlight on it, it starts to dissolve. There's this great quote that says, sunlight sanitizes.

Sunlight putting attention on it will dissolve it, will clean it up, will get rid of it. And lastly, if you can't dissolve it, ignore it.

It sounds crazy, but I tell people all the time, feel the feelings, have the excuse, fly the plane.

See, when people talk about like being courageous or taking action in spite of fear, that's what courage requires. Courage isn't, I did it.

Courage is, I'm scared scared shitless right now, and I'm going to do it anyway. If you do that, I can guarantee that you're on your way to make this last month of the year the best month of the year.

So now that your excuses are gone, there's one more thing holding you back. Step five, cut your time assassins.
Being successful. isn't about what you do.
It's actually more about what you don't do.

When I think about like the ultimate personal development plan, it's waking up in the morning, asking yourself, scan the previous day and go, out of everything I did yesterday, is there something I wish I didn't do?

But if I then knew what that was and I make a commitment for today to do the thing that I didn't do or to stop doing the thing that I knew I shouldn't have done, then today will be a better day.

That's why in my book, Buy Back Your Time, I have a whole chapter dedicated to time assassins because I realize it doesn't even require money to buy back your time.

It requires you to stop stealing your time by having these time assassins show up and literally take from you.

And if I were to bet, one one of your time assassins lives in one of these five categories. The first one is notifications.
Turn them off. I don't have notifications on my phone.

I literally pull up my phone, no notifications. Don't need them.
Why? If somebody needs to call me, I'll go check my missed calls.

If somebody needs to get a hold of me, I'll go check whatever I need to check. So just turn off the notifications.

Your focus and attention is worth way more to you than other people's need to distract you. Second are the vices.
Remove them from your life. And the vices aren't just alcohol, drugs.

It could be video games. It could be anything you feel guilty for doing the next day because it took away from you.
That's what a vice is. Third is energy vampires.

And this one, I can't tell you how powerful it is if you add it to your life to essentially do a friend inventory, look at the people in your life and curate out the ones that take your energy.

When I interact with somebody, I ask myself a simple question. Was that easy, light, fun? Did I learn something?

If the answer is no, I say no in the future so I can create the space to say yes to somebody I may not even know. Fourth is late nights.

I care more about getting up early and having that time to myself than I do staying up late at night. And my favorite thing my mother-in-law always says is nothing great happens after 9 p.m.
anyway.

So go to sleep. So here's a pro tip.
Set an alarm for when you go to bed. Try figuring out your go-to-bed routine, not a wake-up routine.
Number five is saying yes.

Most people need to learn to say no. People have to say no to other folks that are asking them to do things that aren't aligned.

Say no to the distraction. Say no to these long conversations that don't go anywhere.
Just say no. And no is a full sentence and it ends with a period.

So now that we freed up your time, it's time to make some progress.

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Now let's get back to the episode.

Step number six, stack the small wins. Most people don't celebrate the little tiny wins.
See, what you do when you celebrate those small wins is you build belief and belief builds identity.

And it's actually the identity that drives the actions. When I'm driving home after work, I don't have to convince myself not to stop to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Why? I don't smoke.

Identity makes makes it easy for me. It's like when I go to the gym, tracking my lifts, even if I don't get stronger, still makes the win there because I track the lift.

So here's how you track your wins to make this month the month where you start to build your identity. Number one, we have to track your progress.
Every little thing you have to measure.

Peter Drucker always says what you measure will get managed. If you measure things, then you will start to make better decisions.
So measure your steps per day. Measure the marketing you're doing.

Measure your weight. Measure your revenue.
Measure what what matters to your goal and track it. I like to put things in a spreadsheet.
Every Friday, I track myself across seven different dimensions.

Okay. It's the last bonus chapter in my book.
And these are just my life scores around things like love and hobbies and money and spirituality.

And because of that, I have a chance every Friday to reflect on my week, to measure myself.

And then I choose my two lowest scores and I do one thing, action for each to make it better the following week. Number two is identify the win.
Most people just coast through life.

Things happen to them and they don't even notice the progress. They don't even stop to like celebrate.
My creative director hit 2 million on YouTube.

It's our project, but he's the one that's spearheading it and creating it. He wasn't even going to celebrate it.
It's just like on to the next thing. Don't be that person.

See, when you celebrate the little, the big ones come to life. If you don't appreciate what you have, God's not going to give you more to deal with.
And number three, share it with the world.

See, a lot of people don't want to share their progress because they don't want to be considered braggadocious. Here's what I've learned.

The more you share your wins, the more consistent you'll be because you've now just been public about what you just won at.

So if you went and lost a bunch of weight and you share it on social media, well, guess what? When the people see you next time, go, oh my God, how are you doing? Are you keeping it off?

And you're going to be like, yep, because you don't want to be the person that says no. You don't want to win in private so that nobody holds you accountable.
But the best part is you will.

100% inspire them. Isn't that the coolest thing? I consider the three H's.
We go through the world and we unfortunately have to hurt.

Then if we're mature enough and we learn these things I'm sharing with you, we heal from those things.

And then the last part, which is why you should share with the world, is that you can help other people by sharing your story of winning, of transformation, of the setback and the struggles and how you overcame it.

I think it's the most powerful idea in the world.

And if you do that, you'll start stacking wins that will build your belief, that will eventually shape your identity to make it not even a habit, just who you are.

Now that you've got momentum, this last message is to you. Step number seven, start today.

Imperfect action today beats a perfect plan for tomorrow. Whatever it is, you've got 30 days this month to actually turn it into reality.
Here's why.

Like a plane, taking off the first few minutes take the most fuel. So you just got to get that motion going.
Get the plane off the runway.

Once you're in the air, it's actually easier to keep momentum. But the reason I'm so passionate about this is because I believe that life isn't about just being happy.
Life is about fulfillment.

And to feel fulfilled, we have to do two things. And this is like my core message to everybody.
If we ever have a chance to sit down, have coffee, this is what I would tell you.

Number one, we want to wake up every day to strive to become the best version of ourselves. What I like to call our 10.0 self.

Your best moments of your life all into one day and you live that day every day. That is the 10.0 version of yourself.
So we got to wake up every day to become that person.

And then the second part to this, to feel true fulfillment, is to share yourself with the world. Share your wins, share your process, share your progress.
See, that's what we're here to do.

We're here not just to make our lives better. We're here to use our example to help other people.
That's what it's always been about.

That's why the worst thing that's ever happened to you is actually your purpose. If you're willing to look there.

And that's why for me, this month, the last month, setting you up to build that momentum into the new year is one of the most important times of the year for you to finally finally get on the train of feeling fulfilled.

So on that note, I need you to do two things. Number one, write down your 30-day goal right now.
If it's lose 20 pounds in the next 30 days, that's aggressive, but write it down.

And number two is commit. Post that goal on social media right now and tag me for accountability at Dan Martell, Tuels and Martell on all platforms.
That's what I need you to do right now.

If you start this process, that life you've been dreaming of, it's not that far away. You got this, just

do it.

Now, as a reminder, if you're a business owner and your goal is to pass seven figures in 2026 without sucking your life away, just click the first link in the description below and I'll see if I can help.

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