12 Rules to Change Your Life in 12 Months

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Highlights

Freedom Without Rules Is Chaos

Dan Koe argues that absolute freedom equals chaos and people actually need self-made rules.
Order in consciousness produces enjoyment and flow, so create your own operating code. Transcript: Dan Koe I know that many of you will agree with me when I say that life is so much better when you have a code to operate by. Because most people, in my opinion, have been tricked to think that they want freedom. What they may not understand is that absolute freedom, so no limitations, no restrictions, is synonymous with absolute chaos. The only reason you think you want freedom is because you're living by a set of rules you didn't create. So when you feel like you need to escape your life, you take time off from work and go on vacation. But after a week or so, the simulated honeymoon phase ends and the tourist novelty wears off, and you find yourself unfulfilled wanting to go back to structure. Now in the long term, and for the majority of people who hate their jobs, and I know hate their jobs is like the latest buzzword, but in all of my videos, I'm speaking from experience. I used to hate my job. It's okay if you hate your job. But the thing there is that you can't wait to retire. And retirement, in this case, is a promise that was marketed to you since you were a child like a ClickFunnels landing page with a 40-year countdown timer. Little do you realize that your idea of retirement is just another vacation that you will get bored of because that's how the mind works. The core mechanism of our brains is that they are pattern-making machines evolved to solve specific problems with limited resources, not to handle unlimited possibilities. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the guy we always talk about because he's awesome, and the godfather of flow psychology, argued that happiness comes from taking control over the contents Of our consciousness, creating what we know as the flow state, periods of complete absorption where people experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. So order in consciousness equals enjoyment. Chaos in consciousness or disorder in the mind or mental disorder equals chaos equals not enjoyment. So again, you don't want freedom. You want the freedom to create your own rules of the game. You don't want to be assigned goals from parents, teachers, or employers, but you mistake that for not wanting structure as a whole. (via) ^rwhi937876895

Build An Anti‑Vision

Reject the average life and form an anti-vision by listing what you never want to experience again.
Use that negative energy to steer decisions away from mediocrity toward a better life. Transcript: Dan Koe You need to create your own little world and become immersed in it. Most people will try to give you the destination, right? That's what you find on social media and YouTube, even this video, 12 months to change your life. You're attracted toward the destination. And then some other people will give you the steps in the journey, but very few people give you the navigation system to create your own destination and create the steps. So in this video, you're not going to find another guru's proven system. Instead, I want to give you a framework, a meta view that allow you to discover what your unique rules can be. So these are 12 rules to change your life or 12 rules to create your own rules. Rule one, and the thing that absolutely has to come first here because all other rules or anything else in your life is downstream of this, and that is to reject the average life. Reject being regular. Reject being boring. You have to reach this point in your life where you realize that you don't want to be regular, because life is a series of decisions, and the single decision that determines all other Decisions is to vehemently reject the trajectory you are set on at birth. When you truly despise the outcome of being like everyone else, you begin to form an anti-vision. We talk about this all the time because it's important. So if you already know about this, it could be wise to come back to it. If it didn't work for you the first time, that's because you may not have been in the life situation where it would have actually worked. This isn't something that you sit down for 30 minutes and do and expect it to work because you're here for a quick dopamine hit and you want to feel like you have control over your life in The next 30 minutes. That's not how it works. This is a lifelong thing. So if you want to create this potent negative source of energy that can lead you toward the positive, right? So you have both ends. You don't just think positively and hope that you move towards it. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. It's not a sustainable tactic, but you can round that out by having a negative side too. But if you get absorbed in the negative, then obviously your life is going to end up negative. So you need both, but this is the foundation. The negative is a very, very potent energy source that can push you toward the positive. Every time you experience something you dislike, write it down. Go on a walk and think about where your life is heading if you keep doing the same things. Reflect on your past and note what you never want to experience again. Gather all of the data points you skipped over while you were under the spell of someone else's structure. Once you actually do this, and once this anti-vision is at least somewhat clear in your head, right? It's kind of potent. You feel it, and you will feel it. You can now stop, think, and consider whether or not you should make a certain decision in your life, because now you have something to work away from. And what that means is that you can make a choice that leads to a better life. (via) ^rwhi937877423

Make Excellence Non‑Negotiable

Commit to excellence by making key areas non-negotiable like training, nutrition, and progressive mental work.
Let those standards automatically steer your daily choices away from mediocrity. Transcript: Dan Koe So that leads to rule number two, which is to commit to excellence. And now I try to say these things without sounding arrogant, but you guys only have an image of me in your head, right? You guys watch my videos and you have this idea of who I am. And that's like 1% of who I am. You don't see me or talk to me on a daily basis. You just know me from my videos and that's perfectly fine. I'm here to do what I need to do. So I say this to illustrate a point is that I've never had a problem knowing what I want out of life simply because I knew what I didn't want from the start. My fiance slash wife, I'm just going to call her my wife at this point, is getting her Pilates certification. And her instructor, the big boss Pilates girl, told my wife how to fix her posture over time. And the way you do that is whenever you're in a public space, you just judge people's posture because then when you notice, oh, that's what bad looks like, then you slowly correct your Own. The same holds true for me. And now I know judging people sounds bad. Let's call it observation and discernment. But when I was younger, I would go to the grocery store. I would see someone who didn't look how I wanted to look or act like I wanted to act. And I could see what they were purchasing at the store, how they were shopping, how they were speaking to other people. And it was pretty easy for me to correct my own actions to not do that. I would go to school. I would go to church. And I would see it's just in plain sight. You can see things that you don't want to do. You can see mediocrity all around you just because that's the natural state of how things are unless people put effort into creating their own vision and pursuing it, which most people Just don't do. So judge or observe society more. You don't need to tell them these things. You simply observe and correct your own actions. So from that, when I was a kid, it was pretty easy for me to figure out what I had to do. I had to commit to excellence. I had to do something great. And for me, that looked like becoming an entrepreneur, no matter how many times I failed. And it took seven failures so I can control how long I work and what I work on. I also knew I had to build a strong aesthetic and energetic body by making training and nutrition a non-negotiable. In other words, I had to become my own teacher and personal trainer. I had to learn all of these things. I still love studying these things. It's so fun to learn about the intricacies of your body and how chemicals and nutrients and really anything interacts with it. Once you have that understanding, your decisions are kind of automatic because when you know, oh, I'm putting this thing into my mouth, here's all the downstream horrible effects, Especially long-term, you just don't want to put it in your mouth no matter how good it tastes. You see it as slop. And the last thing, I knew that I had to nurture a strong mind through the progressive overload of uncertainty and emotional labor. So this commitment to excellence created some form of a vision. So if I trained my mind to stay within that frame, if I didn't get distracted, that's what distracted is. It's breaking outside of your frame of reference and not bringing yourself back in. And your frame of reference, how you interpret and see the world and make decisions is formed. One half is your vision, commitment to excellence. And the second half is your anti-vision, which is moving away from mediocrity. So when you are in this little world, that's your little world. (via) ^rwhi937880163

Standards Shape Identity

Standards become identity so your mind protects them and notices supportive opportunities.
Raising standards rewires searches, conversations, and behaviors toward improvement. Transcript: Dan Koe So that leads to rule number three, which is that standards create identity. You aren't where you want to be because you are okay with where you are. If you are okay with having 50 cents in your bank account, you won't have the desire to change that, and many opportunities to improve your health relationships or finances will be closed Off to you Now if you're okay with a hundred thousand dollars in your bank account You will see anything less than that as a problem that needs to be fixed Problems when treated as projects Are what make life enjoyable because projects are another way to bring order to consciousness, as we discussed about. So you're more likely to live in some degree of a flow state if your life is just a series of projects that solve problems, that remove the limits on your potential so that you can commit And pursue excellence. Now, when you have high standards, your mind's survival mechanism notices opportunities that help you maintain those standards, right? We don't only survive or reproduce on a physical level, but on a mental level as well. We don't have only have a physical body. We have a mental body. It's called our identity. Our mind has evolved to survive on the conceptual level as well. If your identity is threatened or your standards are threatened, then you quite literally feel stressed. Dogs don't do that because they don't have language, right? They don't live in the world of concepts. So if your money in the bank is lower than the standard of what you have, you will feel that pain and that pain will push you to get back above that standard. That's where dopamine comes into play. You notice survival opportunities. Your Google searches start to change to acquire better skills. You start having conversations about money with your friends. All of these tiny choices begin to compound into results. You rewire your thinking patterns based on your intentional search for specific information relating to the problem you (via) ^rwhi937883858

Learn Through Real Projects

Learn by building real projects and only search for info when you need it.
Turn solved personal projects into products and use them as credentials to earn independently. Transcript: Dan Koe Because you know what you don't want out of life, and you have an idea for what you want out of life, and now you need to acquire the skills and knowledge that bridge the gap between both. So how do you start moving into the unknown by having a way to order any potential chaos along the way? Personal projects. Because the best way to learn is to build a real-world project and only search for information when you need it. How much you learn is directly correlated with how much progress you make on the project. When you do something like watch endless tutorials, you just fill your mind with excess noise. Most of that information goes to waste because you don't apply it, right? We've all experienced this. You learn all that you read a book. And then when it comes to talk to your friend about the actual concept or what you learned, you're like stuttering and you can't articulate it because most of what you learned went to Waste because you didn't apply it. Now, am I saying that reading books is bad? No. Am I saying that watching YouTube videos is bad? No. What I'm saying is that that's not learning. That's entertainment. It's for another domain of your life. Maybe it's for mental clarity or calming your mind or stress relief or something of that nature. But is it for learning? No. And I mean, sure, it can be for learning, but it's a very ineffective way to learn. But the other thing with that is if you're reading a bunch of books for the sake of learning and for YouTube and watching YouTube for the sake of learning, you're filling your mind with Endless options. You're just creating more chaos. Now, a project can be anything. Your health can be a project. Your business can be a project. An image in Photoshop can be a project. A project is simply a structured way of achieving a goal or making progress toward a goal. A project is when a plan and a strategy meet action. So don't focus on a plan. Don't focus on a strategy. Those are byproducts of a project. And then you act and build the project and iterate on the plan and the strategy because the plan and the strategy without action and without an iteration are just a list of things that Aren't going to happen. The bridge between where you are and where you want to be is a series of projects that reflect the value you've developed in yourself. And if you'd like, you can turn that project into a product because you've solved the problem in your own life and can now help others do the same. A project is the only qualification you need to start earning an independent income. (via) ^rwhi937891063

Use Daily Levers For Progress

Use daily levers: complete 1–3 priority tasks each day that move your projects forward.
If you see no progress after two weeks, change the levers because you're likely doing busy work. Transcript: Dan Koe Now, rule number five after projects is daily levers. Every single day, complete at least one to three priority tasks that move the needle toward completing your project. That is the only piece of productivity advice you will ever need in your life. Now, a good rule of thumb for this is this. After two weeks, if you haven't made any noticeable progress toward your goals, you are not moving the right levers. You are doing something wrong. Most people won't admit that or they will intentionally do busy work to avoid making progress because secretly they want to fail. And that's an even bigger problem. Your mind notices opportunities to achieve your goals. That's what it does. And most people have this deep and unconscious programmed goal of staying the same. So that's what they work toward, and they don't even realize it. (via) ^rwhi937892944

Be A Deep Generalist

Become a deep generalist by studying principles across domains instead of hyper‑specializing.
Humans adapt via tools and concepts, so breadth plus depth improves adaptability. Transcript: Dan Koe So rule number six is to become a deep generalist. Let's start this with a quote from Daniel Schmachtenberger that I've said before. Traditional education and hyper-specialization is a way to make people subservient to the dominant paradigm or system. Study the generalized principles of nature and be a deep generalist. Because humans are natural generalists. We don't thrive in a specific niche. Like a polar bear thrives in Alaska. If it were to go to the savanna where a thrives, it would die. And if a lion went to the Alaska, it would also die. But humans, we go to Alaska because we built tools. We built a coat. We built air conditioning and heating. We go to the savannah and we have a car with air conditioning. Or we have a water bottle, which animals don't have. So humans build tools. You're a tool builder. Humans build tools to adapt and thrive in any environment. And this extends beyond physical tools. Humans invented mental tools like language, culture, concepts, religion, and stories so they could adapt, build, and acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in any Situation. This is the ability that makes us unique. This is the ability that most people have lost. (via) ^rwhi937893967

Entrepreneurship Is High Agency

Entrepreneurship equals high agency and aligns with human need for challenge and uncertainty.
Think of entrepreneur versus employee as mindsets, not job titles. Transcript: Dan Koe You have the internet, you have AI, go and learn something. Now, rule number seven is that entrepreneurship is spiritual. And here's my prediction with this. I've talked about this a few times, but in brief, the future of work will consist mostly of entrepreneurs, and if not entrepreneurs, elite employees who have entrepreneurial traits In increasingly rare positions. The entry level will go extinct. AI isn't replacing the bar, it's raising the bar. So this leaves us with two options. Rely on government support with a marginal chance at a good life, or take full responsibility and become an entrepreneur. Now unfortunately, entrepreneurship and business have become dirty words. People believe entrepreneurship is reserved for talented people with a lot of money and a lot of time. So let me redefine it really quick. The difference between employee and entrepreneur is the difference between low agency and high agency. High agency individuals create their own goals and pursue them without permission. Low agency individuals are assigned goals and pursue them because their programming doesn't allow them to see other options. Industrial style schooling and employment breed complacency and are dangerous for your psyche. It goes against your nature of needing uncertainty and challenge and constant improvement to thrive, growth, evolution. That's what the universe is doing. That's what you're doing. And you trying to stop it to stagnate and become comfortable is making your life worse People climb ladders like the corporate ladder because their mind craves challenge But eventually They get so used to it that it becomes boring, right vacation retirement You're going to go into it. You're going to like it for a bit. Then it's going to become boring You need that next challenge and usually that involves work But that's the other thing is that most people hate their work. So they don't think that there is good work. They don't think that they can create their work. They don't think that they can pursue their life's work and actually enjoy work and control it. So it's my belief, at least, that entrepreneurship is the only logical option for long-term thinkers. It's the path of uncertainty requiring skills taught in schools. You must be okay with failure, rejection, and slow progress. So stop thinking of employee and entrepreneur as titles. Think of them as states of mind. Employees are passive individuals told what to learn. Entrepreneurs are assertive individuals who set their own vision, learn by curiosity, and create solutions that push humanity forward. The secret is cultivating a skill set so impactful that you can't help but share it. You solve your own problems, sell the solution, and improve humanity. That's entrepreneurship. (via) ^rwhi937899202

Shift From Consumer To Creator

Shift from consumer to creator: solve your own problems and publish solutions on the internet.
Aim to attract a dedicated audience; a thousand true fans can sustain a good life. Transcript: Dan Koe Because for millions of years, creativity was reserved for the gods. Humans didn't know how things worked. We didn't create things. We didn't build tools yet. And then we slowly started to figure it out. We realized, oh, we can create fire. And then down the road, we can create planes. And now we can create AI. It just evolves. It's insane. We built tools that allowed us to survive in any environment, harnessed energy, and transformed the earth. Humans took over the role of creator, but so many have lost their path. And so many are giving up their role as creator to AI. The entire key to using AI well is to maintain the role as the creator. Now, we don't know what the future holds when it comes to AI and other things. It's probably not going to be as drastic as many people made it out to seem, myself included. But we know two things. One, problems are infinite. And two, problems are soluble. No matter how developed we come, there will always be a new problem to solve because complexity, the evolution, or one, evolution creates more complexity. Just like how AI allows us to access more information. That's not better to an extent. That's more chaotic. That introduces more problems. And those problems create jobs or opportunities to become an entrepreneur that allows for more solutions building on top of the current ones. And that can go on forever and ever and ever until the sun dies out unless we solve that problem. Now here's an excerpt from my book. It's free to read purpose and profit on my sub stack. But I think it gets the point here of becoming a creator across quite well. If happiness or enjoyment is the combination of progress being made and contribution to something greater than yourself, and both are accomplished by solving problems for yourself And others, and problems are solved through creativity, then the only logical and fundamental aim for your future is to embody creativity by becoming a creator. In other words, you find the intersection of purpose and profit by creating solutions to problems you deem interesting, passing on those solutions to contribute to the progress of Humanity, and repeating the process when the next set of more complex problems arise. Although problems become more complex, you become more equipped with knowledge, skill, and experience to solve them. Life gets better as problems get harder if you learn to keep chaos at bay, which is a problem within itself. With every problem comes the opportunity to reach a new level of purpose. Now, becoming a creator or adopting the role of a creator has always been possible, but it's never been so accessible. We're in the second renaissance, and it's happening on the internet, everywhere, faster than before. A digital society where anyone can be the next Einstein or Shakespeare. So the path to becoming future-proof is this. Shift from consumer to creator. Solve your own problems. Distribute your solutions in the global town square, which is the internet. Attract people who share your vision. Even with just a thousand true fans, you'll find the power to create a good life. (via) ^rwhi937901934

See Uncertainty As Signal

Treat uncertainty as signal: embrace higher‑return challenges incrementally (level up from safe to riskier).
Hedge risk by changing living conditions before taking bigger bets. Transcript: Dan Koe Because you're supposed to feel lost. You're supposed to feel overwhelmed. You're supposed to feel like you have no idea what you're doing. Everyone feels that way. What do you expect to happen when you're trying to change your life or learn something new? Did you just think that all possible knowledge and skill would just be deposited into your head the second you started something? When you commit to excellence, you commit to a life of uncertainty because you commit to a life of learning. Your potential is determined by the amount of uncertainty you're willing to embrace. But the thing is, the most successful people don't even flinch at this. They don't perceive uncertainty as something dangerous. How do they do this? Because they realize that all outsized gains lie in their ability to embrace, manage, and extend uncertainty. They realize that the certain life is the least rewarding. A job is certain. Your paycheck reflects that. A business is uncertain, depending on what level you're operating at. Starting out with a local business or agency work or freelancing or even information products is level one. It's uncertain, but it's simple. And you have a cap of about one to five million a year before you need to increase the stakes even further by hiring a team or expanding the business model into something like software Or physical products. And the same goes for investing. You can invest your savings in a certain 401k. That's level one. And you can invest in the stock market. That's level two, because it's kind of predictable and you'll probably make more than in a 401k. And then level three is that you can invest in businesses or crypto or even more uncertain assets. Naturally, those have the highest returns on investment, but it requires the ability to navigate and understand risk. So you need to hedge against risk as much as you can, especially when you're just starting to change your life. So you punch just above your weight. You go from level one to level two to level three, and you don't take on a challenge you can't handle. If you can handle level three challenge, then take it. And if you want to go further and take the level three challenge anyways, then you need to hedge against that by changing your environment and how you live. (via) ^rwhi937908973

Engineer Your Enthusiasm

Engineer enthusiasm by identifying activities that distort time and energize you, then schedule them daily.
Remove or outsource tasks that drain your enthusiasm to preserve creative fuel. Transcript: Dan Koe Because we hear all the time that you need to be obsessed. You need to be obsessed with your goal. Because this is how people describe successful people with an intense spirit. And if you are intense, you have that intense spirit, you have that kind of obsessive personality that can really hurt your life unless you learn to direct it away from people and toward Other things like a skill or an interest or a business. But the real word for this is enthusiasm. That's what we should aim for. That just doesn't feel as cool or edgy as obsession. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthusiasmos with the literal translation of having God within or God inspired. It referred to being possessed or inspired by a divine spirit, suggesting that true creative or spiritual power came from beyond the individual self. The master key to the good life is to fill your average day with that which makes you enthusiastic. So one of the most important things you can do is to reverse engineer where enthusiasm comes from in your life, and then eliminate, outsource, or accept all of the things that don't align. Notice which activities make you feel energized, which distort time, and which make focus effortless. Notice what makes you excited, curious, and open-minded. Especially notice when you can't sleep because you are having too many ideas. Do everything in your power to fill your day with more of these and remove things that you from doing so. Literally block off one to two hours a day to pursue your enthusiasm. (via) ^rwhi937908974

Experiment To Find What Works

Self-experiment to find what actually solves your problems instead of blindly following gurus.
Combine patterns from multiple sources and adapt them to your unique context. Transcript: Dan Koe Because self-experimentation is the only way to solve your problems for good. People can diagnose and prescribe solutions to your problems, but they often lack regard for the difference in perspective, goals, and experience from the person with the problem. As an example, here's two different approaches for a person who's wanting to make money. Person A follows exactly what a guru says. They play it safe, follow the rules, and downgrade their lifestyle based on someone else's blueprint. Person B pulls advice from multiple sources to make decisions based on the patterns they notice between all. They use how-to advice, but only to discover principles that can be integrated into the pursuit of their goals. Eventually, with education and effort, it clicks, and they know how to make it work in their own unique way. As an example with nutrition or weight loss, person A is in a much more dangerous position because they find a guru preaching veganism, then clean up their diet, then follow their advice As law, see results, and then attach to that ideology and become a prophet for it. This is dangerous in the definition of low consciousness. You lost weight and felt more energetic, but from a lack of understanding decided that only the vegan diet can do that. And I'm just using the vegan diet here as a punching bag. I don't really care which diet you go with. If you're going through problems in your relationship, hire a therapist, binge watch YouTube advice, go on a retreat, and experiment with options until you find the right solution. The first one you try probably isn't the best way. If your business isn't growing, buy a course, hire a coach, test a new software, zoom out, or create a new strategy. (via) ^rwhi937910545

Mistakes Are Nature's Compass

Mistakes are essential signals that reveal what you truly want and guide unique life paths.
You won't know desires until you fail forward and refine goals through experience. Transcript: Dan Koe Because the thing with all of this, the reason you've made it so far in this video, is that you're different. You don't want to live the default life. You're aware of this. You're observant, maybe a bit quiet, afraid to speak your mind because they won't listen anyway. But that silence is killing you. You tried to fit in. You tried to trust others with your future. You tried to demonize money, success, and the rest because you don't need it to live a good life. But you need to build because that's how you contribute to others. Connect to something greater than yourself and embark on a unique journey that brings an end to robotic living because you have the money to remove your dependency from that robotic Living. The thing is, you're still looking for that one true path, and I'm here to tell you that there isn't one. You aren't where you want to be because you're afraid of making mistakes. I cannot express that enough. If there were one true sentence in which to orient your life, that would be it. Mistakes are nature's compass. If happiness can't exist without sadness, as a reference point, success can't exist without failure. It's a universal law, a pattern of reality, a phenomenon that has been around since the first sign of life because something can't exist without nothing. You can make mistakes on the conventional path, schools and jobs, but you are still working toward a narrow goal. The mistakes don't lead toward a new, better path. They simply lead to you feeling sorry for yourself. Now when you decide to be free and reject the goals assigned to you at birth that made you think small and trapped you in this negative bubble of thoughts, your mistakes are your light In the dark. But you don't know what you want. That's the problem. You don't realize that you will never know what you want. It's in the future. It doesn't exist. It's imaginary. Life changes. What you want now could and will absolutely be different tomorrow, the next day, or the next decade. But you'll never embark on this process of refinement and purification because you can't seem to allow yourself to fail. What you want out of life becomes clearer when you realize what you don't want out of life and work in the other direction. Since you haven't made any mistakes on your own path, it's obvious why you don't know what you want out of life. Now here's my advice. Do what you want without permission from someone else. Go to the party. Get drunk. Start the business. Scroll on your phone all night. Do whatever your little heart desires. Seriously, because denying those desires is only going to bind you to them. But there's a catch. You need to be able to realize when those things are a mistake. Getting drunk every night isn't a mistake if you don't have meaningful responsibilities to wake up to every morning. It's not hurting your ability to achieve the goal. Managing parties and alcohol becomes a lot easier when it impacts something more important than parties and alcohol. Since your schooling and job aren't more important, you don't care and you do it anyway. You need your own goals, and you can only generate those goals by getting absolutely fed up with where you are and rejecting everything you thought was true. (via) ^rwhi937910857