Since I was in high school - I've been fascinated with the idea of improving oneself .

I recently stumbled upon Cal Newport's podcast on YouTube and I'm totally immersed in it. There's a lot of value there so it was difficult to find the best place to start - but I think I found it so I'm sharing it with you.

Summarizing the video (which you can do automatically with AI using Stepify), I'll go into a bit of detail on my implementation.

It only Takes Four Months

Step 1: Establish Discipline

Start by setting up a core document or folder for your reinvention journey. This will serve as a foundation for your habits and commitments. Print out your current collection of commitments and place it in a visible location for daily reference. Identify three keystone habits focusing on professional, health, and personal aspects to incorporate into your routine.

My Core Document is located in OneNote, due to intrusive reminders feature and integration with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem. Let me know if you want me to write something up to explain my workflow. I opt not to print out and just make sure to check it the first thing in the morning. I already have my phone in my hand from the alarm, so this makes an excellent healthy alternative to doomscrolling in the morning.

Step 2: Reconnect with Your Values

- Revisit influential books, documentaries, or movies that resonate with your moral intuition. This should be something that grounds you, puts meaning to a life well-lived—regardless of other accomplishments or circumstances. For me, that would be a show called Wangan Midnight—where various characters chase the main character during night runs on the freeway, with each character trying to find their own "why" for racing.

According to Microsoft Copilot:

- These characters are driven by their love for cars, the thrill of speed, and the desire to challenge themselves against other skilled racers. The street racing in Wangan Midnight is not just about winning, but also about personal growth, camaraderie, and the pursuit of the ultimate driving experience.

- Develop a personal code that reflects your values and guides your approach to life through challenges and successes.

- This is a roadmap for how you approach your life, good and bad. What's a good person, and how are you going to do it? That is your code.

- Rituals that connect you to your code. If you're religious, this is easy. There are long-standing rituals such as prayer, church attendance, worship songs that are designed to do exactly this. If you're not religious, this could be a hike, meditation, or even particular volunteering.

- Establish rituals that regularly reinforce your moral intuition and values.

---

Step 3: Gain Control Over Your Life

- Implement multi-scale planning for your professional and personal life to stay organized and focused. This is a quarterly/semesterly/seasonally plan you look at every week to make a weekly plan. Go back and forth to get a big picture and develop a daily plan.

- Time block your actual day. Do this for each of the items in part 1.

- Set up a household planning system to manage tasks outside of work effectively.

- Household chores: Keep an open list, rotate them into your weekly planner, which then gets rotated into your daily planner. The goal is not to fit in more work.

- Automate and curtail tasks to free up time and reduce overwhelm, allowing room for experimentation and new endeavors.

- Curtail things that are distracting you from your core commitments and values.

---

Step 4: Focus on Vision and Remarkability

- Envision your ideal lifestyle five to ten years from now and align your efforts towards that vision.

- Pick one small area—non-professional—and one large overhaul to be more remarkable. You now have the foundation to do this. You have the discipline, value, and control to actually complete an overhaul for remarkability.

- Undertake a small overhaul in a non-professional area of your life to make it remarkable.

- Someone will eventually "remark" about you: "I want to be a cinephile" or "I want to speak Japanese."

- 1st things first: Overhaul my basement theatre for a good experience.

- 2nd habit or system: Twice a week, make a good push (1 movie a week).

- Make a habit by getting them through the library.

- When I do this twice a week, I have to read three articles ahead of time: two reviews and one longer article.

- 2nd concrete step: I'm going to take an online course I found.

- Longer goal: If I keep this up for three months, I'm going to join a local film club (this is a small overhaul).

- Begin planning for a larger overhaul in a significant aspect of your life, such as career planning or personal development.

- My side business

- 4-month timeline

---

Monthly Timeline

- This should take about:

- Discipline: 2 weeks

- Values: 4 weeks

- Control: 4 weeks

- Vision: Final 6 weeks

I put Discipline in my calendar as “all day” for two weeks, pasted the steps in the notes, and set daily reminders to look at this entry and work on it.

Thats it! Lets get started!

---

If you are being pushed around by digital technology, or feeling lost in life, this WILL produce a significant change in your life. It will take a few weeks to build up steam and learn the systems, but it is completely worth it. Or so I'm told by Cal.

I’ll be going through this method for myself and updating you on the progress. Follow me on this journey to a remarkable life!

---