Why You Shouldn't Hack Your Life | Rich Roll | Revitalize

I had send on this tweet last December and it went off into the internet and kind of took on a life of its own which is kind of amazing actually it still gets retweeted to this day and to me it's really just common sense but I'm not so sure that my common sense is shared with the digital age that we're in in the direction that we're going in unfortunately we live in an incredibly short cut obsessed society increasingly defined by shrinking attention spans in this demand for instant gratification all you have to do is look at how Netflix or video on demand killed the video store and our next thing the next obsession that we're about to enter into is Amazon one-hour delivery by drone right right do we really need this it's insane right what is happening is that privilege has become entitlement we've developed this birthright to overnight six-pack abs and professional success envious wealth limitless free time and in some ways I suspect even salvation and this trend can be boiled down to one term it is the meme that is beyond reproach is the mean that is enjoying irresistible staying power on every corner of the Internet it's the hack right we've all heard the term hack whoops I went backwards there but what is a hat what are we talking about here well a hat really is nothing more than leveraging a good idea right it's a strategy to expedite proficiency in a particular skill or discipline on a fraction of the time required for mastery it's the 80/20 rule 80% of the results on 20% of the time and effort and there's nothing inherently wrong with that that's pretty cool actually but what's amazing is this entire movement that is blossomed around this idea right hashtag life hacker bio hacking weight loss hack Fitness hack diet hack hack your kids hack your wife what is going on Google any derivation of this term and see what comes up and it's amazing actually there are even entire conferences built around this concept like how to have publishing to hit the New York Times bestseller list or how to hack email lists to make millions online where while you're sailing across the Mediterranean or how to hack your job and delegate all of your responsibilities to overseas virtual assistants but what's kind of harder to find is just what it takes to write a great book that actually deserves to be on the New York Times bestseller list right or what constitutes a quality product that would be worthy of selling or how to best channel all of this time suddenly freed up by virtue of delegating all your responsibilities overseas so this is nothing new of course the hack is a mere modern vernacular reframing of practices and marketing techniques that date back to the snake oil salesmen in carnival barkers of you're promising everything from miracle cures to deliverance with a sharp convincing preachers tongue that has us impulsively forking over our hard-earned coin to the profit of the moment but the acute nature of this particular modern Rush is something distinctively new and I think it's kind of disturbing it used to be an insult to call somebody a hack suddenly it's high praise so what does that say about us that a term so historically pejorative has suddenly become aspirational my personal opinion is that somewhere along the line we've lost the thread somewhere along the line the hack became the destination rather than the tool and that's insane that's like becoming obsessed with a table saw rather than the process of using it to make a beautiful piece of furniture destinations personally I don't give a about destinations I rarely think about what it was like to cross the finish line at any of the races or endurance challenges that I've done I couldn't tell you what I was doing or where I was when my book finally hit bookstore shelves because a life of meaning a life well-lived it's not about results it's not about finish lines or destinations it's about the journey that we all take it's about the road less traveled that seeks not to circumvent but rather to embrace all the obstacles the failures the toil the pain that tears the sweat the missteps the doubt and the fear to the fullest and without compromise it's really easy and sexy to frame a narrative of the overnight success story you can look at whatsapp American Idol Instagram even and you'll notice how the media can twist reality to amplify ratings or multiply page views but the idea of the overnight success story really is anything but I mean let's look at what's out right according to the media this is two guys who were rejected by Twitter and by Facebook who came up with an idea for an app and overnight sold it to Facebook for 19 billion dollars of course that's not the whole story of course the media doesn't want you to focus on the 20 shared years of toiling and obscurity that these guys endured five years of which was found on whatsapp alone peek behind the curtain on any so-called instantaneous triumph and you are certain to find an objective truth that does not meet the neatly packaged narrative because every genuine sustainable success is birth only by virtue of incredible persistence interminable patience a million defeats rabid dedication and unrelenting passion for the sake of argument let's suspend reality for a moment let's assume that we really could circumvent these admittedly unsexy yet time-tested notions of hard work and patience and dedication that are required to achieve prosperity or health or life satisfaction spoiler alert there is no such thing but I'm up here and you're over there so you're going to go on this journey with me right so we're gonna do this well if you want to achieve the minimum aptitude threshold in a particular skill or discipline so you can tell your friends you know how to do something or you did something hack away implement the shortcut rush to accomplish the task check the box bucket list item 54 done moving on to the next hack right but when you go home that night and you rest your head on that pillow and you're all alone just you and your thoughts nobody else wants you to ask yourself this one question how did that experience make you feel truly be honest with yourself and if you're like me the answer is really not much of anything and if anything kind of a little bit empty but now let's examine what happens when you decide to devote yourself entirely to becoming the very best that you could be it's something you are inherently passionate about what happens then this is the anti hack I call mastery suddenly the heart starts to be faster right the palms are sweating what's going on ooh maybe it's excitement maybe but more likely it's fear because total dedication total commitment well that is about as scary as it gets truly because if you take that risk if you put yourself completely on the line and fail or succeed dude you are going to have to reckon with yourself and that is truly terrifying when I was 12 years old I was a terrible student I was horribly uncoordinated I was a repeat victim of bullying on the playground I was the kid who was always picked last for kickball nonetheless by the time I was 18 I was a world ranked swimmer I got into all the colleges I applied to I was in a very fortunate position of having to say no to Harvard so I could go to Stanford instead what was my hack how did I rig the system to achieve that result I busted my ass I got up at 4:30 every morning to go to swim practice before school swim practice after school and studied late into the night there was no shortcuts there was only an obsession with transcending my life circumstance at the time in my 20s alcoholism killed my dreams then it nearly killed me and my 30s I was able to get sober but I was able to achieve sobriety only because I prioritized my sobriety above everything else had I tried to hack it or find a shortcut in my recovery most likely I'd be dead I certainly wouldn't be standing up here the best-case scenario is I'd be living a miserable life somewhere as a drunk then by 39 I'd succumbed to a sober yet highly disillusioned middle life malaise I was hopelessly addicted to fast food unhealthy lifestyle habits I was 50 pounds overweight and I was on a crash course with depression obesity and heart disease so it was time once again for another radical life transformation at the age of 42 I was able to do it I was named one of the 25 fittest men in the world by Men's Fitness Magazine like as an aside please I don't believe that I'm actually one of one of or ever was one of the 25 fittest men in the world but when you have a book that you're trying to sell this is very effective that's a pro tip for free I was given that title because I I did quite well to race called Ultraman it's this ludicrous double Ironman Triathlon is a three hundred twenty mile insane race all the way around the island of Hawaii and I did fairly well on that the following year I went on to do the epic five that Jason kind of introduced me with five Iron Man's on five wine islands and five we were trying to do in five days took a little bit longer about seven days it was something that a friend and I attempted that no one else had ever even tried we were the first people to ever do it so how do you go from a guy who's thirty-nine fifty pounds overweight to this super fit guy in his 40s what's the hack there tell me the shortcut what's the secret smoothie that you drink in the morning a secret workout right no I busted my ass it's completely committed to changing my life I devoted myself completely to this that's the hack so looking back it all seems to make perfect sense how events unfolded in my life to take me from where I was to where I am today but you have to understand that in the midst of it all it was never linear it was generally a chaotic terrifying madness teetering on disaster all the time and punctuated by countless lows and gut-wrenching come-to-jesus moments my favorite story from this period of my life was the time I was five hours into an eight-hour training ride getting ready for my first vultureman race and I balmed bonking is cycling parlance for when you run out of energy and it's not it doesn't mean just being tired it means you're lightheaded you can't see straight like you can't go any further I was in the middle of nowhere I kind of pulled up in front of a grungy roadside hamburger stand I had no food on me I had no money on me I had a debit card but the problem is my bank account was overdrawn we were in a financial crisis at the time I was starving I was lightheaded and I was too embarrassed and too ashamed to ask for help or to ask for some free food so I resorted to go in behind the restaurant and dumpster diving for half-eaten french fries just so I could get some calories in me and crawl my way home on the bike it sounds kind of funny now actually it sounds pathetic but it was pathetic but the irony is that looking back on that experience that's one of my favorite memories I think about that day all the time I think about that day way more than I think about what it was like to cross a finish line or any other of successes that I've had in my life it's an extremely valuable memory that I would not change for anything because failure or success or at least the prospect of failure or success this is what gives our lives proper context towering emotional and spiritual stakes that fertilize our soul for quantum growth irrespective of outcome and growth is everything but growth can only result from earned investment in experience so fear commitment these aren't things to be avoided or short circuited or things we're trying to find a hack or a shortcut around there's things to be embraced embraced with everything that you have and everything that you are I'm nothing special I'm absolutely convinced that if I could repeatedly and so radically and drastically change my life that traumatic sustainable change resides within all of us growth isn't just possible growth is what we were put on earth here to do growth is our mandate there's a YouTube filmmaker that I'm a big fan of his name is Casey nice dad he lives in New York City and I had the great opportunity of going and visiting him in his studio last winter and interviewing him for my podcast and he related to me his guaranteed recipe for success and I'm going to share it with you because I think it captures my anti hack ethos perfectly it's really simple and it goes like this all you have to do is to commit your life entirely to something and this will result in one of two outcomes either you will succeed or you will die trying which in and of itself is its own form of success right simple enough there's nothing sexy there's nothing meme worthy about the journey the journey is hard the journey is painful it's not linear it's not glossy and it will never trend on Twitter that's a guarantee but if you aspire to your own personal sense of greatness if you aspire to push the envelope on what you're capable of then forget about the hack instead invest invest in mastery learn how to toil in obscurity hold yourself publicly accountable for your goals let go of perfection detach from results allow yourself to fail and fail and fail again and when all is lost you pick yourself up off the floor and you go the extra mile the limits that we impose upon ourselves these are mental projections they are illusions we must embrace the very real possibility that we are so much more than we allow ourselves to be right I can't promise you that this path will translate into success the way that our society inappropriately defines the term financial reward fancy friends accolades I can't even promise you a single Facebook like more likely than not derision will be what you will receive and I've received a lot of that over the time but I can absolutely guarantee you that this exploration will infuse your life with a sense of meaning and a sense of purpose that no destination by a shortcut could ever rival happiness now I'm not talking about happiness in the sense of unicorns and rainbows I'm talking about a deep satisfaction that your life has value a value that can be shared shared as inspiration in service to others who feel stuck in their lives imprisoned by a thinking mind that is hardwired to prioritize the illusion of security and the illusion of comfort over the priceless nests of adventure and experience nothing changes if nothing changes but as the Chinese say do something 40 times a day for 40 years and you just might figure something out right and the journey to figuring out the how that is the path to figuring out the big it this is the promise of the warrior path this is the art of living with purpose and this is what it means to be truly alive a promise no hat can give you not now not ever thank you

Channel: mindbodygreen

Views: 113,126

Keywords: rich roll, lifestyle, balance, wellness, fulfillment, endurance athlete, revitalize, mindbodygreen

Id: iPrzN8hjdIM

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 12 2015