well i hope you're great and i wanted to hop on to instagram live to do what i believe will be a relatively quick instagram live on the science of elite performance and exponential leadership so i believe philosophy is very important i believe what i call tacticology is very important when it comes to exponential impact and elite productivity but let's also make the conversation grounded in science whenever possible and i wanted to offer you three insights from my work that will help you upgrade your productivity especially in this time with so much negativity and so much
distraction i think you are faced with what i call a gca a gargantuan competitive advantage right now because so many people are so negative so many people in the pandemic have no energy so many people are addicted to the news so many people are addicted to comfort food so many people are consumed by just watching tv or videos all the time it's a great time to create your masterwork and to release your music into the world and that's what i would love for you to do because then it makes me feel good that i'm serving
you and it helps me feel like i'm living in a more positive more beautiful world as well and so we all win don't we i'm gonna get right to it the first concept is called hedonic adaptation hedonic adaptation the first time i read it was in a book called the how of happiness by sonia lubomirsky sewing yellow is one of the preeminent researchers in the field of positive psychology i believe she worked with martin seligman sort of the grandfather of positive psychology uh psychology and i really encourage you to read the how of happiness anyway
and there is this term hedonic adaptation which very simply speaks to the phenomenon of the human being to be excited by something new until we become familiar with it and it becomes our new normal hedonic adaptation let me give you um an example so you buy a new car or you buy a new bicycle you've wanted to get this mountain bike ever since you were three years old and you're full of aliveness when you buy it and then you ride it and it's wonderful and you see it parked against the wall and it fills you
with delight after weeks and months you see other people with a similar mountain bike or becomes familiar and the the shiny toy-ness of this new bicycle really wears off and it happens with a new job it happens in a new relationship it happens with if you buy a new house or get into a new apartment or buy a new watch or buy a new handbag hedonic adaptation and this i believe is the fundamental reason why for most people nothing is ever enough we buy what we've always wanted or we achieve what we've always dreamed of
and then hedonic adaptation clicks in and we want more now how am i relating hedonic adaptation to productivity well it's if you always want more then you're going to be a consumer versus a creator fundamental distinction the people who achieve industry dominance those people are not consumers primarily they are creators but you look at many people who are stuck who are stalled they're always buying they're always consuming they're never creating so the first piece of science to think about hedonic adaptation you want to be aware of it so then you say oh i see the
very nature of buying things means i'm never going to be fulfilled so i'm not going to provide create happiness by buying things it's not it's not that will not only save you time and energy which will boost your productivity it'll save you a lot of money the second scientific idea that i refer to a fair amount in my work for example in my online mentoring program the circle of legends is the three what i call the three layers deep theory the three layers deep theory first time i heard about it was from a harvard i
believe physician named nicholas christakis he's written a wonderful book called connected and essentially what he says is you are influenced not only by your circle of friends but by their friends and by the friends of your friends's friends isn't that incredible i call this the three layers deep theory so please don't only be very vigilant to the nature of your friends obviously through the power of another scientific phenomenon called emotional contagion you're going to pick up the energy of your first circle of friends if they're victims you're going to think like a victim if they're
unhappy you're going to feel unhappy if they're giving away their power to the pandemic or the disrupted degraded global economy you're going to feel that but you're not only influenced by your first circle your friends you are also influenced by the friends of your friends and by the friends of your friends's friends isn't that incredible so just think about those influences third and final piece of science i want to offer to you myelination you can google it and study it but i believe this is the hidden secret of genius myelination so if you look at
any practitioner any expert they practice the skill of choice whether it's hockey chess writing business building hand crafting cooking and by the way thank you for all of the people who watched me cook yesterday i made uh spaghetti aglio e olio and um i think i'm gonna start sharing a bit more of my personal passions on instagram i've always tried to make it around the work but i cooked this pasta yesterday and a lot of people enjoyed it so i promise i'll do more of it but if you look at any person who practices a
skill over time they keep practicing the skill to the point where they build a a neuro circuit towards that skill in their brain but here's the point i want to try to make i want to make if you keep on practicing a specific skill versus being a master of many things if you stay monomonically focused on that one skill painting business building chess playing cooking that over time a fatty substance called myelin will start to wrap around the circuit responsible for that area of practice whether it's hockey whether it's chess making whether it's cooking and
myelin neuroscientists are saying causes you to causes that specific neuro circuit responsible for the skill to operate in an upgraded way and this is why wayne gretzky for example the great hockey player said i don't skate to where the puck is i skate to where the puck is going you see the great artists the great entrepreneurs the great humanitarians the great painters these people all had what i call advanced perception but their advanced perception was not a genetic gift and i've been saying this for year after year after year their advanced perception their otherworldly ability
to see possibility that no one else could see was not some blessing from the gods of genius denied to the majority it was just they practiced so much that they set up this neuro circuit and then they kept on practicing while everyone else is just diluting their focus doing too many things and not willing to practice and so these people on the path of mastery got to a place where the myelin or the the circuit in the brain was myelinated which you can do and i can do if we stay focused and practiced for many
years and that allowed them to achieve their mastery so three ideas i've offered to you in these past i don't know how many minutes but hedonic adaptation the three layers deep theory and myelination and i talk a lot about it in my other courses many of you are in those online courses but here's what i wanted to do if you look at my main feed here on instagram today i'm doing something super special i recorded an audio program called the victory over difficulty anthem the victory over are we not in a world of difficulty stores
are closed people are losing their jobs people are suffering massive upheaval and yet there are time honored principles and tactics that you can use to actually accelerate your happiness your service to the world your productivity your leadership and your impact and if i were you i would be all over trying to figure out what those ideas are i've taken those ideas on how to achieve victory over difficulty put them in an audio book this is not like a five-minute audio book i always try to offer heavyweight content this is a i believe it's about an
hour-long audio program again if you're just joining us the victory over difficulty anthem it's my hot new audio program and here's what you might find interesting i'm giving it to you completely free it's my way of saying i'm with you as my way of saying we're all brothers and sisters on a little planet is my way of saying i love you for following my work and spreading the message and helping me get the 5 a.m club out to the world so here's what i want you to do i want you to go to my main
feed it's just my instagram and you'll see the cover and for the victory over difficulty anthem and there's a link in my bio a link in my bio here on instagram some people say well i can't find the link just go to my bio there's a link it'll say the victory over difficulty anthem click on it and you're gonna be able to get my new audio program for free as my way of saying thanks in my way of doing my best to encourage you during these difficult times i'm gonna go to some of your comments
here adventure avish thank you loving your and then that end so i don't know what you're loving but someone else embrace embrace dance yoga i just started reading the 5am club awesome i hope you love it and for every one of you around the world who has made the 5am club such a massive phenomenon i say thank you so much i you probably know i spent four years writing the 5am club so much my life went into it it took so much out of me and to see every day all these comments about people whose
lives are being transformed by the 5m club means the world to me please keep sharing the book telling your family telling your co-workers about it so we get this message out it's a great method to help people stay positive and strong and productive in these difficult times milady zapata is asking me a question in spanish i don't speak spanish por que toda to information so why is my information in english well my books are in spanish and i don't speak spanish so i speak in english and we are going to be translating my videos into
spanish much more in the future uh author samir thank you for your advice about writer's block i'm now a published author samira i remember that i think was an instagram live and we all face writer's block the key is just keep moving forward keep writing i don't want you to think like anyone who's watching please don't think i get up and the words just flow some days it's easy some days it is so hard uh a lot of you are asking about my new book i've just finished writing it i've spent 10 months on it
this year it's now at harpercollins it's in the copy editing stage i think this book is going to blow your mind i hope it does and it'll be well i'm not supposed to say when the book will be out so i'll just simply say i finished writing my new book it's at harpercollins it's being copy edited and i'm going to review it for a couple more times make a few tweaks but it's mostly done and then hopefully it will be getting out to you and thank you for all the interest in my new book as
well and samir congratulations on writing that book uh alifar alifar siddiqi when is the new book coming out i'll simply say my new book is coming out as soon as possible we are rushing to get it out but we also want to maintain the quality so it reflects the highest of quality and it's a heavyweight work for you thanks for asking azim verani love from india to all my indian followers i i just want to say thank you so much uh for all the support and i hope you are safe and healthy unleash the knowledge
says thank you unleashing the knowledge every day uh you're very welcome i love doing this by the way 25 years in the field and i think i'm just getting started i'm having so much fun even when i'm not having fun writing my new book i'm having fun uh alga says you changed my life you changed your life maybe you read my book maybe you watched an instagram live but i gave you the information and then you did the heavy lifting to change your life and that's a that's an act of heroism because it takes a
lot of courage to challenge your winning formula challenge your habits challenge your mindsets challenge your heart sets and then go out there and do the work to change i have a lot of energy today i think it's because of that pasta i usually don't eat carbs by the way if you want to see my how i cooked pasta spaghetti allio e olio it's a very simple dish pretty hard to make very inexpensive it's just spaghetti olive oil and garlic very very inexpensive dish and i know some people use chili i know some people throw in
anchovies i used pecorino cheese because it gives that flavor but it's a very simple dish if you're interested you can go to my instagram feed and see i i did a cooking video yesterday because maybe you know but i also in the future want to do an 11 seat restaurant in a very hard to find village where i'm going to cook for for whoever comes to this little restaurant i you know i want to paint as well and i have all these new ideas so i think it was the carbs that gave me all this
energy today anyway alga you changed your life and i honor you for that uh colombia t-e-r-e-0931 thank you for colombia to all my colombian readers you've been with me for years i say muchas gracias and um thank you so much for following me uh who else we've got greetings from argentina i miss buenos aires very much so thank you to all my uh argentine readers sand24 palmer i love your book the 5am club thank you uh tom tom cool jay what's your best practical advice during this pandemic wow this this tom this is a a
great question what's my best practical advice during the pandemic i assume you're talking about to stay strong number one use the news as a tool to help you navigate the pandemic but please don't let the news scare you there is a lot of good in this world there are a lot of good things happening there's less pen less pollution in the world a lot of us are waking up mentally emotionally spiritually a lot of us have are now rewiring our priorities tom because of the pandemic a lot of us are doing work that matters now
versus busy work a lot of us are reconnecting with our family a lot of us are doing zoom calls with our friends there are so many blessings that are happening from the pandemic and yes our brothers and sisters are sick and suffering but i think we must also recognize the reality but train our focus on the opportunity so that's the first thing i'd say second thing i'd say tom in terms of how to navigate the pandemic get up early and exercise simple it'll rewire your psychology your neural circuitry your neurobiology your inflammatory response your immune
response third thing i would say is i know a lot of us are gravitating towards comfort food honor the need but don't be overwhelmed by the need because the your nutrition is medicine and good nutrition will keep your immune system strong it'll affect your moods what did hypocr um hippocrates said food is medicine so i'd say thirdly honor your diet eat as clean as possible fourth tactical idea to navigate the pandemic well do not succumb to victimhood be really careful who you talk to a lot of people are so scared right now they're pouring their
toxicity all over you and that will affect your creativity it'll affect your immune system it'll affect your neurobiology it'll affect your immune your your inflammatory response fifth tactic get into it i'm trying to get into nature every day and i've been talking about this for years i wrote a book in 1998 called who will cry when you die talking about forest walking talking about the power of being in nature get out to nature every day it'll do things for your neurobiology again for your immune response it'll make you feel better so that's i think the
fourth tactic fifth tactic to navigate the response well meditate spend time in solitude before the pandemic we were all traveling we're all out there we're all busy we were doing meetings i was doing keynotes across the world now i've been grounded so i'm spending even more time in quietude even more time praying even more time in solitude even more time alone and i i've always spent as an introvert i've always spent a lot of time alone i think i've done my best work because i spent a lot of time alone but the fifth tactic is
savor the beauty of solitude i call them the three s's in my work solitude silence and stillness okay guys it's been a real pleasure make sure you go to the link in my bio you can look at my main feed i am giving away a brand new audio program called the victory over difficulty anthem this is not an introductory level this is not a a lightweight program it's a heavyweight piece of content that's worth a lot and i'm giving it to you for at no charge whatsoever to support you to encourage you to say thank
you for reading the 5am club and telling everyone about it thank you for being here with me on instagram live many of you have followed me for years and i don't take that loyalty lightly and i'm working even harder to produce even better content that really serves you i want to say stand strong i want to say we're in a pandemic but good things are coming it's a time of rich opportunity it's time to build yourself it's a time to do beautiful work it's a time to serve the world in your own unique way and
it's time to find the blessings in the everyday and it's a time to be more loving and kind so thanks for being with me and i'm going to talk to you soon take great care bye you
