In this motivational compilation, host Evan Carmichael introduces a series of efficiency rules presented by several high‑profile speakers. Eric Thomas urges viewers to abandon all excuses, declaring yesterday the last day for self‑justifications. Tony Robbins emphasizes that lack of resourcefulness—not lack of resources—is the true barrier, urging listeners to tap into creativity, determination, and passion as the ultimate human resources. A focus expert stresses the power of deep, singular effort over spreading attention across many tasks. Jordan Peterson advises constructing a realistic, flexible schedule and treating it as a negotiation with oneself rather than a prison, encouraging incremental improvement. Robin Sharma explains how surrounding oneself with high‑performing peers leverages the brain’s mirror‑neuron system and emotional contagion to boost productivity. Jay Shetty recommends a digital detox—turning off the phone for at least an hour—to regain mental clarity and reconnect with nature. Throughout, Evan ties these insights to his "one word" concept, encouraging viewers to identify their personal guiding word and apply the most resonant rule immediately, while also promoting his book "Your One Word".
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation! It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe that you have a special ability to create something amazing that can change the planet. So to help you on your journey today, we're gonna learn how to be more efficient. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best.
[FOREIGN] The reason why you have not become successful, the reason why you are not like a locomotive, the reason why you're not having success in your life is because every single day you got an excuse. And I need you to do me a favor. I made my last excuse yesterday, my last reason. I came up with my last reason yesterday of why I can't do what I'm supposed to do. And so I need you to do me a huge favor. All your excuses, all your good reasons, everything, everything that's keeping you from doing what you're supposed to do, I need you to put it behind you and say yesterday was the last day for that foolishness. Yesterday was the last day to say I don't have enough money to do this. I don't have enough money to go to school. I don't have enough money to get a computer. I don't have what it takes. I'm not smart enough, right? I don't write well enough. I don't sing well enough. That's why I didn't do my CD. I didn't write my book because I'm not on that level. Listen to me, you better hear what I'm saying. Yesterday was the last day that I want to hear an excuse. It's over with.
Everything you people have told me, "I didn't have the technology, I didn't have the right contacts, I didn't have the time, I didn't have money," everything you've told me, "I didn't have enough Supreme Court justices," those are resources. And so you're telling me I failed because I didn't have the resources, and I'm here to tell you what you already know: resources are never the problem. It's a lack of resourcefulness is why you failed. Because the ultimate resources our emotional states. If you're creative enough, can you find the answer? Yes or no?
Yes.
If you're determined enough, can you find the breakthrough? Yes or no?
Yes.
If you're passionate, loving enough, can you get someone to help you? Yes or no? If there's no way, but you're committed, can you find the money even if you don't have it? Yes or no?
Yes.
So I said creativity, decisiveness, passion, honesty, sincerity, love, these are the ultimate human resources. And when you engage these resources, you can get any other resource on Earth. And I said, so you told me all the resources you're missing, and you hypnotize yourself into believing that you don't have what you want because you don't have the resources, when the most successful people in history had no resources, but they were incredibly resourceful, so they got the resources. Resourcefulness is the ultimate resource. And if you don't have what you want, stop telling yourself the story because you don't have the money, you don't have the time. That's bullshit. It's because you haven't committed yourself where you would be burn your boats. If you want to take the fucking island, burn your fucking boats, and you will take the island, because people, when they're gonna either die or succeed, tend to succeed. But most of us give ourselves a way out, and that's why we don't have what we want.
Other than hard work, what advice would you give to better yourself both in life and in your career field? Focus. Focus is super underrated. Like, if you commit all that you are and all of your energy to one thing, You'll— okay, this diagram, this is— I took this from a book called— I don't know what it's called, but it goes like this. You can do 10 things to the first degree, like this right here, and that's how well you'll do all 10 things. Or you can do one thing to the 10th degree, right there, and look how much better you do that. So when it comes to focus, to put all of your energy into one thing is to do that one thing really well, to the best of your abilities, to take it all the way. And to scatter yourself means you're never actually accomplishing anything. You're just sort of chipping away at a bunch of nothingness. And this is true for work, this is true for like dating versus committing yourself to one person, friendship, everything. Like really focusing and investing yourself into something you're passionate about will always yield better results. Than scattering yourself around and spreading yourself thin.
Make a damn schedule and stick to it. Okay, so what's the rule with the schedule? It's not a bloody prison. That's the first thing that people do wrong. They say, "Well, I don't like to follow a schedule." It's like, well, what kind of schedule are you setting up? "Well, I have to do this, then I have to do this, then I have to do this, you know, and then I just go play video games because who wants to do all these things that I have to do?" It's like, wrong. Set the damn schedule up so that you have the day you want. That's the trick. It's like, okay, I've got tomorrow. If I was going to set it up so it was the best possible day I could have, practically speaking, what would it look like? Well, then you schedule that. And obviously there's a bit of responsibility that's going to go along with that, because if you have any sense, one of the things that you're going to insist upon is that at the end of the day you're not in worse shape than you were at the beginning of the day, right? Because that's a stupid day. If you have a bunch of those in a row, you just dig, you know, you dig yourself a hole and then you bury yourself in it. It's like, sorry, that's just not a good strategy. It's a bad strategy. So maybe 20% of your day has to be responsibility and obligation, or maybe it's more than that, depending on how far behind you are. But even that, you can ask yourself, "Okay, well, I've got these responsibilities. I have to schedule the damn things in. What's the right ratio of responsibility to reward?" And you can ask yourself that, just like you'd negotiate with someone who is working for you. It's like, "Okay, you gotta work tomorrow." Okay, so I want you to work tomorrow. And you might say, "Okay, well, what are you gonna do for me that makes it likely that I'll work for you?" Well, you could ask yourself that, you know. So maybe you do an hour of responsibility and then you play a video game for 15 minutes. I don't know, whatever turns your crank, man. But you know, you have to negotiate with yourself and not tyrannize yourself. Like you're negotiating with someone that you care for, that you would like to be productive and have a good life. And that's how you make the schedule. It's like, and then you look at the day and you think, "Well, if I had that day, that'd be good." Great! You know, and you're useless and horrible, so you'll probably only hit it with about 70% accuracy, but that beats the hell out of zero! Right? And if you hit it even with 50% accuracy, another rule is, well, aim for 51% the next week, or 50.5%, for God's sake. Or, because you're gonna hit that position where things start to loop back positively and spiral you upward.
The next piece of technology that will help you create exponential productivity in your work life so you truly impact the world around you is choose your peer group really, really well. There's a lot of excellent science coming out and a lot of excellent research coming out that says the number one way to improve your behavior is to surround yourself with a peer group or social circle of people who are also playing at the level you want to be playing at. So if you want to be a high performer in terms of your productivity, populate your life with high performers. Now here's the science behind it. In the brain, we have something called the mirror neuron system of the brain, and it dates back to thousands of years ago when we were living on the savanna. And this mirror neuron system allowed us to model the behaviour of the dominant people in the tribe. So if someone figured out a tool, or figured out fire, or a better way to survive, subconsciously this system in the brain allowed us to model the behaviour. And I think this is pretty fascinating information. Now here we are in the modern world, and what happens? Subconsciously we are modelling the behaviour of the people we spend most of our time with. And so if you are around victims, you will start behaving like a victim. If you are around people who are mediocre performers, you will subconsciously start behaving like them. If you're around people who gossip, who are not A-players, who do not produce very much, you will subconsciously, because of the mirror neuron system in the brain, start performing like them. Why else is it important to surround yourself with a peer set or a social orbit of A-players? Emotional contagion. And that's a scientific phenomenon that simply says we pick up on the emotions of the people that are around us. And so if you are around a social circle of people who are inspired, people who want to do great work, people who want to be ultra-productive, people who want to be innovative, people who are relentlessly optimizing their work, their thinking, their creativity, just being around them will allow you to adopt their energy and their ways of being.
To become the most productive person you know, baby, turn off your phone right now. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it either. I don't blame you, right? But I've noticed that if I turn my phone off— and this is what I'm reaching for like every single day, I turn it off for 1 hour totally. Like sometimes I'm in nature, I turn it off, right? And it just helps. Like it just your mind is clearer. Like, is it healthy to have all of these notifications every single second? I don't think so, right? We weren't born with a mobile phone, like, checking updates and stuff, right? So for me, what's helped me is to get back into a more organic flow, and then I just start getting more downloads. Because once again, you connect to nature, you get the organic download. And that's really the secret of great productivity. Sometimes take a break from your phone. I know it's hard to do, but you're going to have to leave it sometime. Let it go.
Let it, let it go.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I'd love to know, what did you think of this video? What was the rule that most applies to you that you're going to immediately implement somehow into your life or your business? Please let me know. I'd love to hear from you. Leave it down in the comments below. I also want to give a quick shout out to Oscar and Dermo. Oscar, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, for doing the fun interview on your channel, and for all the support in promoting the book. I really appreciate it, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed the read.
Today's book, book report is The One Word by Evan Carmichael.
So thank you guys again for watching. I hope you have an amazing day. I believe in you and hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.
