How to Unf*ck Your Life - 8 Habits to Fix 98% of Your Problems

I'm going to show you the eight simple habits anyone can build to turn your painful problems into a puzzle you enjoy solving. Welcome to the Martell Method.
I went from rehab at 17 to building a hundred million dollar empire and being a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate.
My bestselling book, Buy Back Your Time, is out now. Grab a copy at buybackyourtime.com or at any of your preferred online retailers.
Starting with habit number one, start on hard mode. You hear people say, building momentum with easy wins.
F*** easy wins. I'm all about going hard.
When I'm creating, when I'm writing, when I'm strategizing, when I'm thinking of the biggest problems in my life, I do it first thing in the morning because I wanna be creating connected to my creator. And all I know is that the more I build the muscle of starting with the hardest thing, it also builds my confidence because confidence is built when we keep the commitments we make to ourselves in private.
And anytime people come to me and say like, oh, I don't feel very confident. I'm uncertain about myself.
I always say it's because you're not keeping the promises you made to yourself when nobody else is watching. We often commit to the big project because that's fun, that's exciting, that's easy, but the game is won on the daily discipline of doing the hard thing first, not putting it off to when you feel in the mood or you feel it's gonna be easier.
Start in hard mode. But that's not where hard mode stops because it's not always the work that's holding us back, it's the energy focus we bring to it and that's where habit number two comes in workout every day small problems feel massive when you have low energy when you're not feeling good about yourself every little thing feels like a mountain they also feel massive when you're constantly living your comfort zone when you're doing the thing that feels safe see a lot of people see me today and don't realize that not that long ago, I was a little chubby and my whole life I struggled with my weight.
I weighed 265 pounds when I was younger and I just went up and down and up and down. And for a long time, it was this yo-yo and I always had an excuse.
And then I eventually said, no, I'm going to do the hard thing and I'm going to get way outside my comfort zone. And I decided to get visible abs in 90 days.
It was crazy, but I got ripped. But guess what else working hard did for me? It also turned out that my nutrition and my body were connected and allowed me to really activate my ADHD into a superpower.
It built my confidence outside the gym, even though it also shaped my body. And that's why today, if you see anything I post on social media, it's always about sweat every day.
I believe that when I go to the gym, it's about my mind, not my physicality. And that's why today I work out every day.
I exhaust the body to tame the mind. I do the reps in the gym to make sure that my mind knows what to focus on.
The crazy part is some people go to the gym feeling super tired and they're like, I don't wanna go to the gym I'm just I'm already tired I've never left the gym not feeling better and it gives you the energy to work on life's puzzles if you have a trouble with being consistent going to the gym here's an advanced move schedule it with somebody else decide to choose a workout partner where you made a commitment every day at 8 a.m you go to the gym together you will do more for somebody else than you'll ever do for yourself. I've never canceled going to the gym when I knew I was gonna have to meet somebody else there.
So do yourself a favor, find a training buddy, and go all in. I've never met one person that couldn't find 30 minutes to get down on the ground, do some pushups, do some pull-up, doing some jumping jacks, do some sit-ups, do whatever.
Bodyweight movements to get a sweat on, to feel better about themselves, and that energy will allow you to take over the world. But you can't just brute force your way to success or hope your way to wealth.
Habit number three is how you dial in your strategy. Before we get back to the episode, if you actually wanna know what my real life looks like and see the people and the businesses and the companies I buy and my family and just like how I make it all work, go follow me on Instagram, Dan Martell, 2Ls and Martell on Instagram.
It's where I show the behind the scenes, the real deal, real time. I'd love to see you there.
Have an amazing day. Habit number three, measure daily.
If you're like most people, feeling a lack of direction or spinning your wheels or not feeling motivated, it's usually because you can't physically see if you're even moving towards your goal. Most people don't even have goals.
Think about money. One of my core philosophies is if I want my money to grow, I got to focus on it.
And I look at my bank account daily. Every day I get email reports for all the companies I'm involved in with a daily cash position.
And I personally look at all of my bank accounts. Why? I learned a long time ago that if I want something to grow, I got to look at it.
I got to focus on it. I can't pretend like I don't know.
I track everything. I track all of my food, my workouts, all my businesses have dashboards, scorecards.
They have metrics, KPIs. If something's important to you, you want to measure it.
And if you distill it into a metric, it means you understand it. Most people can't distill their life into the right measurement, which means they don't understand it, which makes it impossible to improve.
This is why I believe that measuring things daily is a must. First off, it gives visibility into the things that are important to you.
So if you want to grow your business or you want to get healthier, you have to measure those things because then you'll focus on on them just the act of measuring it and writing it down will change your prioritization you'll be like okay i'm measuring my weight again it didn't move yesterday what do i got changed today and the cool part is it also gamifies your growth it makes it a thing that you measure and see if you're getting better over time and some things like my food i measure throughout the day so that way it makes it fun and all i'm trying to do is take my best score and try to beat it every time it turns life into this fun video game and just like a video game that gives you feedback while you're playing now your life is giving you back some information to know if you're making better decisions if you don't measure things how are you supposed to know if you're getting better so here's the deal i learned a long time ago if you want something to get better the higher precision that you measure it with the tooling that you're getting better. So here's the deal.
I learned a long time ago, if you want something to get better, the higher precision that you measure it with, the tooling that you use to measure, the frequency of measurement is the first step. Most people struggle in their life or in business, and it's because they haven't broken down each step from the initial concept to the finished revenue, or like, hey, waking up in the morning all the way to losing weight.
And then they wonder why they're not making any money with their marketing funnel or losing any weight well it's because that afternoon snack that you think isn't a big deal turns out is putting you over on the calories or there's a button missing in a landing page and because it's not working because you don't know because a funnel step isn't being reported properly is costing you a ton of money so this is the the big idea. What you focus on will expand.

And when you measure daily,

the thing you want to grow will grow.

Here's the final concept.

The first step towards progress

is just looking where to step.

The most important next step,

what's called the mins,

just take that step to measuring.

It'll get you on the path.

Most people don't want to measure

because it sounds like effort.

But if you're going to do all the work of planning, going to the gym, actually working out, and then you don't measure your food, your macros, I just think it's kind of silly because that could be the needle mover. That could be the hinge on the big, massive door that makes it easy for you to get results.
But that not wanting to measure because it feels like work is the missed data that you need to know if you're making better decisions. So now you've got the foundation, but if you're feeling stuck on problems that feel too big with no idea how to actually make progress, habit number four is what will unlock it for you.
And it's this, learn daily. The problem is that so many people hit a wall.
They wanna grow, but then they hit what I call their complexity ceiling. And what I've learned is that each level, there's a new devil.
Usually what happens when people hit those ceilings, they just spiral inside their own head. They keep trying a bunch of stuff based on history and things they've tried, but it doesn't work.
All they do is they keep searching for answers, but they're missing information. When I was 17, my dad did one of the coolest things ever.
And at the time, I didn't understand it, which is he gave me an unlimited budget for books. He said, as long as I finished them, he'd buy me the next one.
And my dad didn't come from money and we didn't have all the resources in the world. So it was actually like a big deal that he did it.
And today I've read over 1800 books. My life has been shaped by books.
When people see me driving around my supercar and they ask me, what do you do? I always tell them, it's not what I do. It's what I've done.
And what I did is I read books to help improve my life. In many ways, I am built by books.
This is why books are so incredible. Books can give you the confidence to tackle any new and bigger problems.
It's literally the cheat code. Think about it.
For 20 bucks, you can get 20 years of knowledge from some person that became an expert on a topic and read it in eight hours and have all their best practices, all their solutions to the biggest problems they ever faced, some understanding of what you might be facing in the future for eight hours and 20 bucks. I think it's the coolest trade in the world.
And I gotta give a shout out to my dad for even introducing me to that concept at such a young age. So these are my three rules of reading.
Number one, don't read just in case, read just in time. See, I get people asking me all the time, hey Dan, what book should I read? And I'm like, what are you dealing with? What do you need to learn? They go, I don't know, what are you reading? What I'm reading and what you should be reading are two different things.
See, the difference is just in time is the thing you need to learn to apply to your life today. Just in case is almost kind of like entertainment, even if it's a business book, because you don't have something to apply it to yet.
It's like you're reading to get ready for a moment that's not there. You know, some people, they literally just keep reading business books and they don't start a business.
Stop that. Read books for the number one problem you have in your life right now and execute what you read.
Number two, I read to learn, not to finish. Some people are so OCD when they start a book, they won't allow themselves to start another book or to entertain any other kind of information until they finish the book.
Even if they accidentally picked a book that is not even relevant to their life. I will tell you most of the books I've started, as soon as I find that golden nugget, that one thing that adds a lot of value to my life and I go execute on it, if I decide to read it, cool.
If I don't, I don't mind. I probably have five or six books on the go right now because I'm always trying to figure out what mood am I in? What problem am I trying to solve? Does this chapter solve that? I keep moving on to another book.
I might think, okay, I gotta go find something a little bit more relevant to the space I'm in right now. Do I finish most of my nope do i finish books sometimes if they're well written but i'm not starting a book with the intent to make sure i finish the whole thing oftentimes what i do is i read the first three chapters if i get something awesome from it i'll then go to chat gpt and ask it to give me the seven top takeaways from the book learn those and see if there's anything in those seven that i want to learn and then i'll go to that chapter other than that i move on number three is read books to serve others now this one is a game changer see most people just read books selfishly for themselves which i told you doing number one the bigger move is to ask yourself for your customers for the person that you serve what could you read to add value to their life see i believe every person should wake up to create the most value for other people in their world than anybody else in their world so if you want to help your customers be more successful read books that could help them read books about their industry read books about personal problems leadership whatever you can do to better yourself to then help them that's a game changer most people are so selfish if they're like if I can't make money reading this book, I'm not gonna read it.
How about you read a book for somebody else and they make the money? How about you give them the idea and they go become wealthy? I believe you receive what you desire for others. And this concept of reading books for your customers is essentially just reinforcing that concept.
What good is consuming 1800 books if you're not retaining or using it? This next habit will make sure you're not just blasting through content hoping for change. Before we get back to the episode, if you want to jumpstart your week with my top stories and tactics, be sure to subscribe to the Martell Method newsletter.
It's where you'll elevate your mindset, fitness, and business in less than five minutes a week. Find it at martellmethod.com.
So here's habit number five, teach daily. There's this old concept called the learning pyramid.
It says you only retain about 10% by reading alone, but by teaching someone, you'll retain about 90%. When I started making my role about teaching, everything changed in my life.
In my 20s, my first company, I just expected everybody I hired to just know how to do the thing. It turns out that's a really bad way to lead.
Now, I literally don't go a single day without achieving some kind of teaching. Why? Because it reinforces the learning.
Here's how I'd recommend you do it so that you can really deepen your learning. We all have opportunities to teach every day.
Think about it this way. You could teach one-on-one, think colleagues, team members, spouse, if they're open to it.
You could teach to a group. Think leadership training for your whole company, youth program, or any group of people that are willing to come together.
You can even do live Q&A. You could just tweet out a link and say, hey, I'm going to do a live Q&A and I'd love to teach you some stuff.
Or you can teach your content. And this is essentially talking to your camera.
Pull out your phone and talk to it. Teach a concept.
Teach a a lesson teach an insight that you got that day and just post it on social media post it on your Instagram stories post it on your YouTube the cool thing about social media is you can teach anything at any time to anyone not say anybody's going to watch but it's about you retaining the information not necessarily how many views you get here's the coolest part building a teaching habit forces you learn new things. If you build that rhythm of always trying to learn something and then teach it, you'll always be looking for new things to learn.
And that's how you actually integrate those learnings into your life. The next habits are actually the opposite of what people are talking about.
If you really wanna set yourself up for success, it's not a morning routine. Habit number six, prepare for tomorrow.
Here's what most people do. They change their alarm from 7 to 5 a.m., getting up a little early, and then they stack 10 things together and power in some morning routine.
Then in a few days, it all falls apart. They get all excited, they start, and then they stop.
See, people see me post stories at 4 a.m. and think I'm crazy, but I'm not that impressive.
The only reason my morning routine works is because of what I do the day and night before. So here's how it looks.
First off, I call it the daily shutdown. Number one is I review my day at the end of the day, and then I take any open loops and I write them in a list.
This list is a perpetual list of things that I wanna get done, and I use it to prioritize and block in my calendar so I never forget anything. So at the end of the day, I dump anything that's still an open loop that I didn't get to.
I put it in my laptop. I categorize it.
I put it into my calendar and then I shut my laptop. Why? Because I want to be present with the people I spend time with, which is my family.
The next thing I do is I prepare the work. I look at my calendar and my projects and make sure the things that I need to do the actual work are in the description of the calendar.
And if it's not, I reach out to the people or I go grab it and I copy paste it there so that it is ready to go. Because the worst thing you can do is waste your time trying to find stuff when you really want to be working at those times you've put in the calendar.
The last part, crazy important, is I go to bed on time. I think most problems would be solved if you just went to bed on time.
Some people just let themselves start a show and it keeps going and one more episode and I get it. But trust me, that's a losing recipe.
Staying up till 1130 at night to wake up groggy eyed at 6am because that's when your alarm's going off. I don't think a TV show is worth it.
So that's why I say I'm not that impressive. I just go to bed at like 9, 930 and I get up really early because that early morning time when it's quiet and the rest of the world is quiet is where I get the most work.
And no TV show at 10 p.m. at night is worth me not having that focused time.
Here's a crazy idea. How about you set your alarm for when you're gonna go to bed and honor it.
And when it goes off, no more. Shut it down.
Go to sleep. When I was a kid, my mom said, be home by 11 p.m.
because nothing productive is gonna happen after 11 p.m. All the cool moments peak, everything that happens after that, 50% of the time is gonna come with an apology.
We assume growth is about doing the right things, but in my experience, I got so much more leverage by not doing the wrong things. Before we get back to this episode, if you prefer to watch your content, then go find me on YouTube.
I have this episode on YouTube. I'm Dan Martell on YouTube.
Just subscribe to the channel, turn on the notification bell because then you'll get notified in real time. It'll tell YouTube to tell you.
I got a new episode, so you'll never miss anything. Now let's get back to the episode.
So habit number seven is this, keep a do not do list. All the advice you usually hear is about adding more to your plate.
Do more stuff, grow. Truth is that's not easy when you're already overwhelmed, but we forget we're allowed to remove.
It's crazy because I do this program called King's Club for 15 to 20 year old youth. And the number one question almost every time I run the event that people ask me is, I want to be successful.
What do I need to do? and my answer is always the same the truth is it's not what i did it's what i don't do what i don't do is i don't drink i don't do drugs i don't eat sugar i don't gamble i don't vape i don't do all the things that i know are going to hold me back and some of these things people go well dan how do i enjoy myself if you need to take a substance to change your state because you're not happy with who you are, that's an issue. And the problem with that is that if you actually are successful, that habit will actually be the reason that you lose that level of success.
Oftentimes when we want to move forward, we got to learn to let go of things so that we can make room for the new so it's not about adding more stuff it's

about stopping things here's the big idea every new level came when i gave up a bad habit every

time it's almost like if you made a list of everything you're not willing to give up i would consider that the reason why you're never going to win whatever you tell me i would never is your opportunity for reflection so here's how i do it in practice i reflect a lot on decisions I've made and ask myself, if I had to make that again today, would it be an F yeah? See, a lot of people say yes to things that are two, three, four, five months into the future. What if it was tonight? If you woke up today and somebody said, hey, I need you to come to this charity event tonight at six o'clock and you looked at your calendar, would you say yes? Would you be enthusiastically excited to do it? If not,

you're allowed to say no. And you don't need a reason to say no.
See, most people have this like people pleasing desire and not hurting other people's feelings that they put themselves in a situation that they then become resentful for. At the end of the day, it's not what I do.
It's what I don't do that makes me successful. So here's the way I think about it.
It's simple scales. Level one, stop bad habits.

And you know what those are?

It's literally the thing that you wish other people didn't find out about. It's the things you have shame around.
Level two, stop low value task. Anything that you're doing that you could pay somebody else a quarter of what you get paid per hour to do, let the other person have the employment.
Create the opportunity to create jobs. There's a good chance that if you're watching this your time is valuable if you don't consider your time valuable nobody else will take it valuable either and habit number eight is for the pros now if you're serious about tackling life with speed and without burning out you'll make this a habit keep it dry dry stands for do not repeat yourself see most people assume if you want more money, you gotta work harder.
Not true. Some of the people that put roofs on houses or build cement walls, they work harder than anybody else.
The most successful people get obsessed with actually doing less. And the reason why is they don't wanna repeat themselves.
If they create a system, if they have to give somebody something to do, they wanna build a checklist so that every time it happens the same way. See, people that drive themselves crazy is because they're always having to tell people how to do stuff.
They never thought, hey, if I'm going to do this a thousand times in my life, hire somebody, train somebody, follow up with somebody, schedule something, maybe I should sit down, document it, and give it to somebody else to follow so that you don't have to do it so you create the space to level up what you don't realize is that everything in life can be a system and most people never step back to just look at it so for example recently I was in Chicago I was meeting with my team and we're launching my newest book software as a science and I've got the task of signing books. And I sit down and I think about the process because I'm definitely going to sign other books in the future.
And I map out a simple five person book signing process. And I had 60 minutes in the calendar to sign those 500 books.
And I ended up doing it in 18. How did I do it? Systems.
In software development, you write code that is dry. Don't repeat yourself.
If you're gonna write some code that does an addition, instead of doing it in line, you take that function add and you put it separate and you call it every time. So if there's ever a bug, there's one place to fix it.
That concept you can apply to your whole life. So for example, I always wear the same outfit.
I have the same blue shirts, the same beige pants, the same white shoes. It is my uniform.
Do I have multiple? Yeah, like 27 versions of it. But I go into my closet, I wear the same stuff.
It matches with everything. I don't have to think about it ever again.
It is a system. For me, when I make decisions once, I try to look for stencils.
And stencils is kind of like a pattern that I can give somebody else to go find examples of that in the world. So for example, when I'm creating my events, I've got like a one day and a two day event stencil.
It's like a blueprint. So that way I have a stencil I give to somebody else that's organizing the event to follow and they're gonna get most of it exactly the way I would because they just follow that stencil.
If somebody asked you to paint like 100 butterflies on a wall and all you had was like a brush, it would take you all day to hand paint those butterflies. But if I gave you a stencil that you could just put on the wall and kind of spray over, you could get those hundred done in an hour.
Everything in life is like a process. You go from raw materials to some form of finished goods.
If you design it, it removes all the stress out of it. You keep all the fun stuff like planning, but you create a system, you create a checklist, and the whole thing just gets easier.
So you can either choose to run your systems or a lack of systems will run you. It can be as simple as making yourself breakfast all the way to manufacturing new shoes.
Now, I know you're not gonna make your own clothes, but there's a lot of decisions you make in your home that you don't need to make every time. You can figure out what you wanna eat on a monthly basis, break it down per week, per day.
I even have it so that I have a checklist for all my packing so I don't even have to pack my clothes when I go on vacation. Now I know, that sounds crazy.
What's the worst that could happen? You have a credit card on you and you go shopping if you forget something, not a big deal. Your life will dramatically change when you create systems for your personal life.
And James Clear probably said it best because a lot of people have these massive goals. He says, you don't rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems. Having systems in your life create the foundation for success.
But here's the thing, no matter what stage you're at, if you implement these eight habits, your life will be absolutely transformed. Thanks for listening to Martell Method.
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