If you’re ambitious but lazy, watch this

[music] All right. So, this is what I like to call the productivity matrix where you've got essentially two [music] axes. You've got vision and you have action. Like vision is kind of like your ambition. Like how much do you know about what you [music] actually want in terms of like goal setting and like having big dreams and all that kind of stuff. And then action is unsurprisingly how much are you actually doing the work, right? So if you have someone who

is low on vision and low on action, I call [music] those the drifters. Not the drifters, the drifters. They are just drifting through life. They don't really have much of a goal or much ambition. They're also not taking much action. They're just sort of drifting, drifting [music] in the water. That is obviously not where anyone really wants to be. Next up, you have the people who are high on vision. So they're quite ambitious. They have they have goals. Um

but they're not taking action. And I [music] call those the dreamers. They spend a lot of time dreaming and not a lot of time doing. Then you have a cohort of people that's very good on taking action. They're good at grinding, but they don't really have much ambition. They don't really have a sense of where they want to go. I call those the hamsters [music] because they are on the hamster wheel of the grind, but without really going anywhere. And then

the place where we all want to get to, of course, is the people over here who are the masters. They are the masters of productivity and getting things done. They do have a compelling vision that they're working towards. They've got ambition and they are also crucially taking action to get there. Now, this is a video that I would like to target at the dreamers. Those of you out there who you feel like you are ambitious, you have dreams, you have goals, but you

might feel like you are lazy or undisiplined, like you're not actually taking the action to turn your dream into a reality. This is my hot take, my honest advice for someone who is in that situation. So, there is a three-step process that I would follow if I were in that situation where I am ambitious but lazy. I.e., I've got goals but I'm not really taking action. The first one is to clarify what you actually want. Now there are a lot of people who seem

to have ambition but it's a very vague and undirected sense of ambition. It's like I want to be successful or even I want to be rich but they have not actually taken the time to sit down and define what does that actually mean? What does it mean to you to be successful? What does it mean for you to be rich? And crucially why do you want those things? Because essentially what this comes down to is [music] creating a compelling enough goal that

pulls you towards it rather than that you have to feel as if you're pushing yourself up the mountain to get to it. [snorts] You've got like pull motivation and you've got push motivation. Pull motivation is like man I really really want that thing and so naturally I feel of course you know motivation es and flows but I feel some sense of drive some sense of pull towards that thing. push motivation is sort of like ah I should want the thing or I should want

to want the thing or I really want to want the thing but like ah deep down I don't really care about the thing and so everything feels like a struggle everything feels like a grind. Now in terms of goal definition you've got the what which is like what is the thing that you actually want and can we be specific about it because if you know what you want it's a lot easier to get there whereas if you don't know what you want it's a lot harder to get there.

When you say you want to be successful can we put some numbers on it? Can we put some parameters on it? What does success mean to you? Are you talking becoming managing partner at a local law firm? Is that your definition of success? Are you talking about having a lifestyle business that makes you a millionaire in profit? Is that your definition of success? Like what is the thing you actually want? Because changing the what drastically changes

the actions that you're going to take to get there? And then also, and this is really important and underrated, we really want to be able to answer the question of why. Why do you care? Right? What are your reasons for wanting to care about this thing? Generally when I speak to people who are in the situation they actually don't know why they want the thing. They have this vague sense that they want to be successful or that they want to be rich but they've not sat

down to really identify and write down ideally why does it matter to you. The more reasons you have for doing something the more likely you are to actually do it. And again here there is a thing that gets in our way which is the idea of should. Shoulds very rarely get you to where you want to go. The people who should themselves a lot are often the people that have dreams and goals but never actually take action or rarely take action to get there. Because

when you have should motivation, you know, I I speak to people sometimes that are like, "Yeah, I really want to I really want to get a first class in my degree." I'm [music] like, "Okay, why?" I'm like, "Well, you know, my parents have worked so hard to get me into this university cuz I'm studying abroad and, you know, I feel like I owe it to them to like get a good grade." Okay. Like, but that's kind of a should. You don't actually want to do that thing. You

don't actually care about it personally. you are [ __ ] yourself into wanting to care about it because you want to make your parents proud. And for some people that motivation that like, man, I really want to make my parents proud. That motivation is not actually a should. It's like, man, I I I have this deep intrinsic desire to make my parents proud. Therefore, of course, I'm going to do the thing. Those people are not the ones who are ambitious but lazy.

They're the ones who are ambitious and actually doing the thing because the compelling nature of the motivation to make the parents proud or to make society proud or to tick the boxes or whatever the thing might be is so strong that it's it's pulling them towards the result. But in your case, if you're watching this video, I suspect should motivation is not that helpful for me. Should motivation has never been that helpful in my life. Whenever something

is a should, I really should work out. I really should go to the gym. I really should care more about this exam result. I really should dot dot dot. That is when we get into that territory of like having a goal but not having the motivation or the drive to actually follow through on it. [music] So what we're really trying to get at is why. What the hell is the actual core want behind the thing that you think that you want? [music] Why? Why does it matter to

you? And the other thing the other thing about this is that there's there's sort of two types of reasons. There's logical reasons and then there are emotional reasons. And emotional reasons beat logical reasons every day of the week. A lot of us can come up with logical reasons. I [music] really should get a first class degree because that will increase my chances of getting a job and that will increase my chances of being [music] secure and being happy or whatever. And

you? And the other thing the other thing about this is that there's there's sort of two types of reasons. There's logical reasons and then there are emotional reasons. And emotional reasons beat logical reasons every day of the week. A lot of us can come up with logical reasons. I [music] really should get a first class degree because that will increase my chances of getting a job and that will increase my chances of being [music] secure and being happy or whatever. And

that's like a train of logic. It's a train of logic that also doesn't actually work because you know you know the social contract of society is sort of broken these days where [music] you can get a totally good degree and get totally good grades at your good degree and still not have a job. So like what's that phrase when you sort of like uh dissonance? Yeah. where sort of one part of you is telling yourself that like this is logically coherent and another

part's like no but it's kind of [ __ ] because AI and stuff but like even if it were true convincing yourself to want something through logic is unlikely to succeed. Whereas if you can convince yourself on an emotional level that you actually care about the thing if there is a if there's a compelling enough emotional drive behind the thing that is where motivation becomes a lot more sticky compared to just a chain of logic. Now, obviously, when it comes to

things like starting your own business, you're going to want to know how to use AI tools because AI, as you know, is like changing the world, and we as entrepreneurs, we really don't want to get left behind. Now, there's all sorts of stuff in the world of AI. And every single week, there's like new models being released and new news coming out. And that's where it's actually really helpful to have a foundational grounding in how AI actually works, which is where

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subscription. So, thank you so much Brilliant for sponsoring this video. And let's get back to it. For example, for me, a major motivation back when I was uh a medical student and then working as a doctor, a major motivation for wanting my own lifestyle business and wanting financial freedom was because I saw every single day I saw doctors who were absolutely miserable in their career who were like 10 years older than me. And I could see it with my eyes and I could

subscription. So, thank you so much Brilliant for sponsoring this video. And let's get back to it. For example, for me, a major motivation back when I was uh a medical student and then working as a doctor, a major motivation for wanting my own lifestyle business and wanting financial freedom was because I saw every single day I saw doctors who were absolutely miserable in their career who were like 10 years older than me. And I could see it with my eyes and I could

feel like they're their like sense of h just almost like not wanting to be there and they're having to drag themselves out of bed and like doing another night shift when they're in their 40s or 50s and they want they really just want to be home with their kids but they're doing a night shift at work. There were some doctors that freaking loved it. But I saw quite a lot of doctors that like seem to have that like uh like they've got this enormous weight on their

shoulders and it's almost like I can't even put it into words because it was just a feeling, right? It was a feeling that was just really [ __ ] obvious when I was in that environment every single day. And so seeing that feeling and feeling that feeling of these other people that I respected and looked up to kind of hating their jobs made me realize, wait a minute, I really want to become financially free so that if I do medicine, if I continue doing medicine,

it's because I want to rather than because I have to. A lot of these guys wished that they could leave medicine or at least go part-time, but they just did not have the money. And so I was like, great, I need to make the money. that was a strong emotionally compelling reason for me to actually do the thing. Whereas if I didn't have that reason then and I thought I probably should start a business someday. I probably should become financially free because

like I don't know in the future maybe it'll help or like then it's just it's just a lot harder to get yourself to do something unless there is a strong emotionally compelling reason or reasons behind why you actually want the thing in the first place. So let's assume you have done step one and you have actually clarified the thing that you want. The next thing we want to do is we want to identify the blockers to the thing. Now, this is where it's like, okay, you know

that you really want the thing. Like, you know, a lot of people I speak to really want to become financially free. And so, I was like, okay, cool. I really want to have a lifestyle business that makes me 500,000 a year in profit. Okay, great. That's fine. Those are the sorts of people we have in our lifestyle business academy, which is like my online business school. More details down below if you want to check it out. What else? You've clarified the goal and

you've got a clear sense of like the reasons why you want the thing. The next thing we need to do is identify the blockers. Like, why aren't you already there? What is stopping you from having already achieved the thing? Now, this is where people often miss this step and they think, "Okay, I really want to start my own business. Therefore, [music] I'm going to discipline myself. I'm I I I just need more discipline." And discipline is fine in small doses.

Discipline is fine for like once you have a goal and you have a plan, then yes, sometimes you're not going to feel like doing the thing. So, you push yourself a little bit. You use discipline to get yourself to get started. But generally, if you're enjoying the process, as I talk about in my book, a feel good productivity, if you're enjoying the process and working towards a goal you actually care about, then you stop needing to rely on discipline all the time. But before we

get there, we need to identify why are we not already there? What are actually the blockers that are stopping you? Now, there are broadly three categories of blockers. There are blockers that are not in your control. There are blockers that are in your control. And there are blockers that are somewhat in your control. This is the sort of the the tricotomy of control. So, why do I not yet have that million-dollar lifestyle business that I' I've been dreaming of?

Well, I don't have the right business idea. So, that's a blocker that's in under my control, right? It's under my control to come up with the right business idea. Of course, there's going to be stuff I have to do. I might not know how to come up with the right business idea, but the how is very solvable, right? These days, you just ask Chad GBT or Claude, hey, I'm working towards the goal of a million- dollar lifestyle business. Um, but I don't have

any ideas. Can you help me come up with the idea? Right? Easy enough, right? This is this is under your control. Something that's not under your control is government policy. So, if you're like, "Man, the reason I don't have my $500,000 lifestyle business is because the government sucks and they're not doing the things that they're supposed to be doing." Okay, that may be true and it's also probably not under your control unless you happen to work in the

any ideas. Can you help me come up with the idea? Right? Easy enough, right? This is this is under your control. Something that's not under your control is government policy. So, if you're like, "Man, the reason I don't have my $500,000 lifestyle business is because the government sucks and they're not doing the things that they're supposed to be doing." Okay, that may be true and it's also probably not under your control unless you happen to work in the

government or some or your dad happens to be the prime minister and even then it's still probably not in your control. Then you have things that are somewhat under your control. So, for example, I don't know how I would find customers. Finding a customer for a business is actually uh it's it's a two-way it's a two-way street, right? In order for you to make money, someone else has to give it to you. And so it's not fully under your control that there will be people

out there who want your thing. It's somewhat under your control. You can create content. You can do outreach. You can run ads. There's a lot of things you can do, but ultimately someone else has to give you money. And so that's sort of under their control. And so this would be finding customers. And this is just a very simple example, but you essentially identify like, okay, cool. I really do care about this goal. What are all the reasons I'm not there yet? And you'll

identify reasons that are not under your control. And then you'll identify the reasons in these three different buckets. And my hot take on this is we want to start by looking at the reasons that are not under your control. So government policy is not under your control. The amount of money you earn in benefits is not under your control. The weather is not under your control. Um whether or not you have a physical disability is not under your control.

There are lots of and lots of things that might stop you from achieving the goal that are not under your control. You can't do anything about them. Now in that world the question I would be asking is given all of these factors that I can't do anything about should I still have that goal? Is the goal reasonable? For example, I would say I might have the goal to play in the NBA in the National Basketball Association of America, but I'm 5' 6 or 5' 3 or 4'9.

My height at that moment is not under my control. I cannot do anything about my height. So then I'm like, "All right, cool. What does that do to my chances of playing in the NBA?" Well, if I'm 4 foot n, I basically have zero chance of getting into the NBA. It's probably not going to happen, right? And so, I'm signing up for a very difficult life. If I'm trying to achieve a goal where there is a systemic factor that's not under my control that I cannot do anything about

that will stop me from achieving that goal. Now, in that context, it's probably sensible to abandon the goal, right? Because generally, so if you imagine you have a goal, right? And then you have certain actions. [music] Now, when those when the actions you take are increasing uh the probability that you're going to achieve your goal, this is all in alignment and everything feels good. When you're playing a video game or something and you know that like every

time you hit the boss, you're like making progression like you're you're chipping at the boss's health each time. You're getting better at learning the moves in the Elder Ring fight or whatever the thing might be. Like you [music] you can feel the progress that the actions you are taking are actually helping you get closer to the goal. then that feels very good and life [music] is good and actually ultimately whether or not you achieve the goal is somewhat

irrelevant because you'll have enjoyed the journey because we as humans enjoy making progress toward stuff. But if there is a systemic blocker in place like for example your height [music] and now you're taking actions right but you're like coming up against the brick wall of the fact that you're just too damn short to play in the NBA. This will feel very very very demotivating [music] and generally people don't like that. So in that context I would say you know

some people would say hey man just follow your dreams just manifest it hard enough you know Steph Curry is kind of short and like that proves that it's possible. I'm like okay but Steph Curry is also one out of a zillion and you're probably not Steph Curry right and he's also not that short. So like you know I would say in that context it's worth just like deleting the goal and doing something else instead because otherwise we're signing up for a lifetime of

misery. So that's if there is truly a systemic obstacle that is not under your control that is truly stopping you from getting there [music] in which case we change the goal. But for the most part for the people that I speak to actually a lot of the factors that are blocking them from doing the thing are actually under their control. And so the trick here is you just ignore the ones that are not under your control. There's a phrase from Joo's book amazing amazing

misery. So that's if there is truly a systemic obstacle that is not under your control that is truly stopping you from getting there [music] in which case we change the goal. But for the most part for the people that I speak to actually a lot of the factors that are blocking them from doing the thing are actually under their control. And so the trick here is you just ignore the ones that are not under your control. There's a phrase from Joo's book amazing amazing

book discipline equals freedom which is ignore and [music] outperform. A blocker is I'm really worried about what people will think of me if I start posting content on LinkedIn. Is that under your control? Is what other people think of you under your control? Not really. Maybe somewhat, but really, but not really. So, in that context, you ignore and outperform. You just ignore the the fact that that obstacle is there and you work through it and you

outperform it. Unless it's literally like a thing that's going to stop you from, you know, like being 4'9 and playing in the NBA, which is probably not that for your particular goal. You just ignore and outperform. You ignore the category of blockers that are not under your control. [music] This is difficult for people to do. It's so easy for people to just blame stuff that that is outside of their control, right? It's so easy for you to think that like, oh

outperform it. Unless it's literally like a thing that's going to stop you from, you know, like being 4'9 and playing in the NBA, which is probably not that for your particular goal. You just ignore and outperform. You ignore the category of blockers that are not under your control. [music] This is difficult for people to do. It's so easy for people to just blame stuff that that is outside of their control, right? It's so easy for you to think that like, oh

man, the reason I haven't started my first [music] business is because dot dot dot the economy or the environment or the weather or the government or insert whatever other thing you want to blame that's outside of your control. [music] It's too easy to do that. It's also not very helpful when you do that. Those are the people that end up having lots of goals and then never actually taking action because they are focusing on systemic blockers that are outside of

their control. So, we basically just ignore those things. Great. Now we have blockers that are within our control. And then once we have identified those blockers, we just make a plan to get rid of the blockers. It's really not that hard. I'm like, okay, I don't have any business ideas. Okay. Have I tried asking Chan GPT? Probably not. I don't know how to find customers. Okay. Have I watched YouTube videos about it? Have I read Alexi's book 100 million leads,

their control. So, we basically just ignore those things. Great. Now we have blockers that are within our control. And then once we have identified those blockers, we just make a plan to get rid of the blockers. It's really not that hard. I'm like, okay, I don't have any business ideas. Okay. Have I tried asking Chan GPT? Probably not. I don't know how to find customers. Okay. Have I watched YouTube videos about it? Have I read Alexi's book 100 million leads,

which is literally a book about how to find customers? Like, have I done the sensible things that would help remove this particular thing as a blocker? And this is one of the key the key things that you learn as an entrepreneur when you're building a business that there are always blockers, right? Like I want to grow our business to $10 million a year in revenue. There are certain blockers that are getting in our way as to why we're not already there. One of

those blockers is that we didn't have an expensive enough product to sell. Another blocker is that we didn't have enough customers. But like all of these are solvable problems, right? They're not completely outside of my control. They're either fully in my control or somewhat within my control. [music] And as long as someone else has figured out the solution to that problem, that means a solution exists. And now it's just a job of me to be an investigator. This is

like a a magnifying glass. I'm going to be an investigator and I'm going to find the answer to that particular problem. And generally I find the people that are the people that end up becoming the productivity masters are the ones who are able to take action to [music] basically identify and remove blockers. The best CEOs, the people in businesses who get paid insane amounts of money are very good at simply identifying and removing blockers. The people that

become productivity masters, who are ambitious and also take action to achieve their goals. [music] The people I know who are financially free, who are living dream lives where they've got financial freedom, time freedom, creative freedom, a lot of their core skill set is in identifying and removing blockers. And what I find from the people that have lots of goals and don't take any action towards getting them, the people who are dreamers, the people

who are ambitious but undisiplined, the people who are ambitious but lazy is that it's very easy to have a goal. It's very easy to have a vision. But the hard part is in identifying and removing blockers. And if you think of it as okay, what are the blockers and then how do I identify and remove them? I find that for me that is a really really helpful way of like tangibly [music] improving my chances of of achieving a particular goal. And then finally, step

number three is [music] once you have identified the blocker and you have identified how to remove it, [music] it will usually require something called work to sit down and do. It takes work to sit down and come up with a business idea for your lifestyle business. It takes work to figure out how to find customers for your thing. It takes work to complete your PhD dissertation or whatever. Everything worth doing requires some work. And then we get into

the thing of like, okay, but like what are all the blockers that are stopping you from doing the work? And there's lots of them, but the single biggest one for most people that I speak to and coach through this process is time. I'm just busy, man. I've got other things going on. I've got job, I've got kids, got family, got mortgage to pay, etc., etc. By the time I get home from work, I don't have any energy, etc., etc. There's all sorts of problems that come

up, all sorts of blockers. Again, it's a case of identifying and removing blockers. But the key one that I found for most people is that, and the the simplest hack is literally just you you pick your goal, right? Let's say in this context it's like my side hustle business or my side hustle lifestyle business. That's sort of like your goal, right? And then the next thing that you do is you basically just block time in calendar every week. Not that hard. It's not that hard to

stick a few time blocks in your calendar every single week for you to work on that particular goal. This is literally what we do for students in our lifestyle business academy. Every single week we have a form that they have to fill in and that form asks them how many hours do you intend to work on your business this week and they put a number and then the next question is great please block those hours in your calendar and send us a screenshot and then everyone's like a

and we force them force like you know we strongly encourage them to block the timeout in their calendar and they send a screenshot to us because it's kind of like an accountability system as an accountability mechanism and by Jove like the amount of students we have that are like, man, ju just sticking the thing in my calendar has been absolutely game-changing. We've had people who in the first month have made thousands of dollars in sales. They they stuck the

thing in their calendar and it's simple ass stuff that they could have done if even if they weren't in our program. But there's something about paying money to be part of an online business school and having a coach, having accountability who's literally just asking you to stick the [ __ ] time block in your calendar every single week that makes people do the work. There are all sorts of other factors, right? energy levels and distraction levels and focus levels and

like whether the kids knock knock on the door at a given time. But the most basic ass version of this is just making the time in the first place. One of my coaches, Eric, when back when I was working on my book, Feel Good Productivity, I had a goal of write the book and the action I needed to take was spend uh like I don't know 15 hours a week on writing writing the book. And in my CEO coaching sessions with Eric, he would literally ask me to bring up my

calendar and show him where I was blocking the time out to work on my book. And when you do that, there's just no excuses, right? Because you create the container of time for the thing to happen. And then when the container of time comes around, whether whether or not I sit down to focus or get distracted or like block apps and stuff, all of that then again identifying and removing blockers. If I realize, man, I get distracted from my phone every time

I sit down to write, I [music] just stick my phone in a different room or stick it on do not disturb or block the apps. Like those are solvable problems. But the first thing we have to do is make the time in the calendar to actually do the [music] thing. What I find with people who are ambitious but lazy, people who are ambitious but undisiplined, if you look at their calendar, you do not [music] see the time blocks that have been blocked out

for the thing that they supposedly care about. One of my former team members and friends, Tintin, he cared about growing his YouTube channel. And so every Monday and Tuesday evening from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. after work, he blocked out to work on his YouTube channel. It didn't really matter what he was doing, whether he was filming or writing or editing, whatever the thing was, >> but there was six hours in his week that were blocked out every single week to work on the YouTube channel. And Tinton

was able to work on his YouTube channel and now has a business where he's making a quarter of a million a year teaching people how to do YouTube. It was great. But if he hadn't had that time blocked, the Monday and Tuesday evening where it's like the calendar block reflected his priority, if he hadn't had that blocked, nothing would have happened and he would have still been, I don't know, working in his management consulting job or like maybe still been working for me.

um but not having his own business. So Alli, why did you want to hire me? I didn't want to hire you. Uh bro, the time block method, shoving a block of time in your calendar every single week. Honestly, this is the thing that separates people who do the stuff from people that don't do the stuff. So, right now, if you're at this point in the video, have a look at your calendar. To what extent do you have blocks of time that are dedicated to pursuing the

goal that you say you want? If not, it's easy enough. start blocking time in the calendar for it every week and you will find that you will make an insane amount of progress compared to when you're just trying to squeeze the time in whenever there's time because there's never any time. We we're all busy. None of us have time in our lives. The people that actually achieve the goals that they set set their mind to are the ones who carve out time, who protect the time in their

calendar to work on those things [music] and to make them happen. And if you're interested in a video that goes deeper into how to find the time if you're very busy and if you have a lot going on, if you want to find the time for whatever you're doing, there's a video over here where I introduce you to my 168 hours spreadsheet. And that spreadsheet like will totally help you figure out where your time is going and also be able to carve out time for the stuff that

matters to you. So, thank you for watching and I will see you in that video right over