Interview: Black Hole Focus with Isaiah Hankel

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson.

More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to the Optimal Living Interview series. Today I am thrilled to be chatting with Isaiah Hankel, who wrote a great book called Black Hole Focus, subtitled How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives. Isaiah. Isaiah is a speaker and consultant and this book's fantastic. One of our members recommended it to me and just devoured it. It is awesome and I'm excited to explore some of my favorite ideas from it. Isaiah, thanks for taking the time.

Yeah, thank you, Brian. Great to be here.

All right, so let's start at the top. Black Hole Focus. Tell us about what a black hole is and how it relates to purpose.

Yeah, I mean, I'm a PhD and was always big into science and I, I think like most scientists and most people in general, black holes were fascinating. The reason that it went really well with the book is because it kind of stemmed from this idea. Well, there's kind of two parts to it. This idea that most people, they just, you know, instead of looking for a purpose, they look for small, short term goals that they pursue in front of them or they're running from, you know, sticks behind them that are being banged behind them. These, you know, meeting other people's expectations, not living up to other people's expectations, these kind of things. So the black hole came from. Okay, so instead of focusing on just what's right in front of you, and by doing that over and over, you can end up stuck. Instead of doing this, what if you mapped out a very clear vision for your life, a purpose that incorporates everything from the priorities you live your life by to key outcomes, the perfect day you want to hit. What if you mapped all these out and aligned them all so it became like this giant pulling force that pulled you forward. And instead of having to wake up every day and push yourself to take the next few steps. So that was what black hole meant in terms of the book on one end and on the other end. I just happened to be doing some reading about black holes and I was reading something from Stephen Hawking. I read his book when I was younger, that Brief History of Time. And he's the guy who basically discovered black holes and certainly one of the key figures in mapping out what black holes are. And I read this small piece from him that based on, you know, a lot of the mathematics and physics that they've done fairly recently, that black holes, when something, a mass is sucked into it, they used to think that a black hole would Just destroy it, would rip it apart, would obliterate it, and it would no longer exist. But now they believe that when something is sucked into a black hole, it is transformed, it is changed. And that's really what the book was about, was creating this pulling force that would pull you forward, pull you into it, something that you designed yourself, and then you'd come through on the other side and transformed.

That's awesome. I love that distinction of it's not a matter of destruction, it's a matter of transformation. Tell us a little bit more just about the, you know, briefly, but the dynamics of a black hole and what's happening in terms of, you know, that force that's pulling everything into it. Describe that a little bit more.

Yeah, so, I mean, I'm not a physicist, but I can tell you the reason it's called a black hole is because it's the. It has such a giant mass or such a giant pulling force from that mass that everything gets pulled into it, even light. So it's really all about generating this massive force. And it's obviously a metaphor for this massive force you want to create on your life, pulling you forward, an endpoint that's pulling you forward instead of, again, getting up and just chasing small term goals that are in front of you. And a lot goes into this where there's just a lot of science behind it that shows that doing this can actually give you higher energy levels, help you make better decisions, and a lot of other things.

Right on. Okay, perfect. That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. And that leads us to. You've talked about the sticks a couple times. I want to hear you make the distinction between sheep and strategy.

Yeah. So I worked on a sheep farm growing up, and, you know, it was a. I remember the first day being on the farm. It was a learning experience to see how, you know, sheep or herd animals behave. And really, you get them to do what you want them to do, whether it's moving them from one pasture to another or, you know, getting them to a fence so you can shear the sheep before releasing them to another pasture. And there's really two ways to getting these herds to move or to do what you want to affect their behavior. And one is holding out carrots in front of them. And the other, even more popular method is literally walking up behind the herd, grabbing two sticks and just banging the sticks together. And not, you know, not even banging them really hard, but just knocking them together like you would knock on a door. And this noise frightens a sheep a couple of sheep will hear the noise. And then as soon as two or three sheep from a herd take off, running away from the sticks, the rest of the herd will follow. And this is literally what you do to move sheep from pasture to pasture. So, you know, the reason that was mentioned in the book is because this is what most of us do in our lives. We chase carrots held out in front of us, whether they're, you know, the next certification, the next degree, whatever it might be, the next job promotion, or we run away from sticks, Whether it's, you know, not living up to the expectations of our parents, not getting along with our friends, or having enough friends, or not getting enough, you know, validation from other people, whatever it might be. And this is what dictates our decisions. So the difference between being a sheep and a strategist is that a strategist, it flips things around. You know, a strategist, instead of starting at the starting point and moving a few feet ahead in life with these short term goals to do lists, right, weekly calendars, strategists will take a step back and actually sit down for, you know, maybe a full day and decide what that ultimate endpoint is they want to achieve. And, you know, how far ahead in time that is depends on your age. But you know, for anybody in their 20s and 30s and beyond, certainly it can be five to 10 years. And, you know, what is their lifestyle look like in five to 10 years? What do they want their perfect day to look like? Their daily actions. And then from there you can work backwards to define key outcomes that you need to hit in order to live that perfect lifestyle. And from there you can work backwards to define your priorities you're going to live your life by so that you can hit those key outcomes and so forth. And that's how a strategist thinks. They think from the end backwards, and they kind of reverse engineered the lifestyle that they want.

That's awesome. As fun as it is to be a sheep being corralled into the shearing station, much more enjoyable to look forward, see what that vision is and go toward it. Let's take that as a segue to our icky guy. You unpack that really well. I want to hear you describe that for us.

Yeah. So it's from this great book and there's been several studies on these populations of people, like in individual cities or townships or countries where they have a lot of individuals who live to the age of 100. And there was a book, one of my favorite books on it is called Blue Zones and it looks at this Japanese population where they have more 100 year olds, 100 plus year olds than anywhere else in the world. And the author studies these populations and what he found in this particular population is that they have a word called ihigai, which means the best way you could translate it into English is a reason to wake up in the morning. And it's this sense of purpose, right? They have a purpose, they have a reason, right? A reason to get up in the morning that drives them. And this could be anything. This could be a small business that they have even at the age of 100. It could be, I think it was, you know, taekwondo or some type of karate for some, teaching this to others. You know, a reason, a purpose that is making you get up and something that extends beyond yourself, something that you're working towards, that end point you're working towards. But that also is in the present. So it's something you're, you're moving towards, right? You're moving towards growth and mastery, but it's also something you're enjoying in the present.

All of which is awesome. And obviously that's our, that's our black hole, right? So that's the, the force that's pulling us and really channeling all of our energy and transforming who we are, right?

Yeah, exactly. And I think, I mean I, you know, I, I do, my brain just works in, in compartments and in chunks and more scientifically like sequence wise. So, you know, defining purpose is something that a lot of people aren't able to do. Like we read these books and they're very fluffy and it says, well, you need a purpose in life, you have to have a reason why, blah, blah, blah. But how do you get there? What is that exactly? So if you actually broke it down, you know, a purpose is a variety of things and it's having all these things in alignment. And just very briefly, it is, you know, that, that, that ultimate endpoint that you want to achieve, which is really just what do you want to wake up and do on a daily basis? Your daily actions, you know, and the feelings that those actions produce, you know, whether it's getting into, you know, the things that put you in a flow state where you're really enjoying life. That, that's one component. And then it's also these key outcomes. More, I guess more what a lot of people would call traditional goals, where they're measurable outcomes that'll help you live that lifestyle and even smaller goals that I call benchmarks that'll help you live that lifestyle. And Then finally, how you're living your life, the priorities you're going to live your life by. Right. Somebody who lives their life with the number one priority of integrity is going to live their life very differently than somebody who has a number one priority of making the most profits possible. I mean, for better or worse. But your priorities dictate how you make decisions and how you live your life. And then this is all backed up with a reason why. And so why are you doing each of these things? And the reason why for most people is that, you know, they're trying to move away from some sort of pain and towards some sort of pleasure. And that's really connected to your why. And it's really a collection of these things that together, once aligned, make up your purpose.

That's awesome. So I have two questions on that. The first one is if you're open to describing how would you describe your purpose?

Yeah, that's great. So my purpose is an alignment of all of these things. So I have. I'll give you one small example. For the longest time, when I was in academia working to be a professor, and then I got out and worked corporate jobs for a while, one of the biggest things I always wanted to do, that I wanted to change my lifestyle, is I wanted to have my mornings to myself. It was always a massive goal, and that was my daily action. Because having a morning to myself meant I could do a small workout in nature, have time to journal these different things that put me in a flow state. I always wanted a leisurely breakfast, not just rushing off to the office, not hitting the snooze button 10 times. That was something I always really wanted to achieve. But how could I do this, right, and have enough money to support myself and really build that lifestyle? So that was kind of the end point. I wanted to achieve a piece of it, a piece of that. You know, what I call perfect day. I worked backwards and I'm like, okay, what key outcomes do I need to hit in order to achieve that perfect day? And so I put up some key outcomes and it took some defining. Like a lot of us, we think an outcome or a goal is, I want to be successful, I want to be healthy. Now it's got to be measurable, it's got to be defined. It's got to have an end line, a deadline, these other things. And. And one that I came up with is that I need to start a business that I can, that allows me to be financially independent and location independent. Only then would I be able to do this. Those are my outcomes. You know, that might take five or ten years. So I broke that down into like 12 month benchmarks and then six month and then weekly benchmarks. And then finally I determined the priorities that I would need to live my life by. And this meant a lot of different things. Like for, for me, I was always very independent. And this might be the reverse for some people, but I was always very independent to, you know, just appeal to my nature as, as a scientist. So, you know, independence was always one of my top priorities. And I had to push that down a little bit and put one of my top priorities to be building relationships. You know, whether it's relationships with new clients for my business, relationships with my readers, relationships with other peers so I could learn how to create a business. So that changed how I was living my life. And then finally this was all backed up with a strong reason why, which seems simple, but it really was number one to not be, to lend and not borrow, to have money to give to other people, not to have to beg for money, to be able to travel whenever I wanted, or to be mobile and not to be stuck somewhere or dependent on one location to create a legacy and not just be forgotten or do something will be forgotten. Right. So these things were all my, my reasons why that backed up all of this and all of these things together. Once I got them aligned, that was my purpose.

That's awesome. I love the, the distinct components and then the systematic way to go about constructing it. And of course, the book is all about walking us through each of the different points we're touching on briefly here in a really cool, compelling way. Let's, let's move to the next idea of that fascinating study you shared about the rats swimming just blew me away. Can you talk to us about that and the significance of that study as it relates to our purpose?

Yes, I mean, and really the, that study was kind of the spark that, that initiated a lot of the book. And I was looking for things, I was like, why do some people just seem to have these extraordinary levels of energy? And it always seems like the people who have the strongest sense of purpose to do something also have tons of energy. Like those who have a strong reason why to do something, they always end up doing it. And I started read a lot of these personal stories about people who have accomplished these superhuman feats just because they had a lot, which is a strong reason why. And so I started looking up for more, you know, like peer reviewed scientific experiments on this. And I found one that was, that was done with Rats. And it was done in the 50s and it came to be known as the Hope Experiments. And you know, as it's laid out in the book very briefly, there was, you know, just very simply two groups of rats and one group was put in these hind sided buckets of circulating water and, and let swim as long as they could until they started to sink. And, and the average rat could swim for 15 minutes. Over and over again it was just 15 minutes. And the second group of rats, they did the same thing, but at that 15 minute mark, when they started to sink, they took the rats, they dried them off, let them rest for a little bit, and then instead of stopping the experiment, they put the rats back in the bucket and had them swim a second time. And here's the fascinating part. You would think that the rats, I mean if you look at what you think you would do as a human, if you swam your max until you were starting to sink and then you were told to swim again, you think, okay, maybe I could swim for like eight minutes, right? But it turns out that the rats were able to swim much longer. They were able to swim for 60 hours the second time. So 60 hours, 240 times longer than the first group, which is just mind boggling to say the least. And I mean the reasons, you know, these experiments that were done in the 50s, they said, well, it's because the rats were given hope. A better conclusion is that, is that the rats were given energy through hope. They had a vision of what being, say looked like and they kept swimming for it. Like before the rats just, they had nothing, was uncertainty, it was darkness, right? There was nothing there, no vision. And then once, once that happened before, once it happened before to where they were taken out of the buckets, dried off, everything was okay at a vision for that. And they were able to, I mean it energized them, gave them 240 times, 240 times as much energy. And that's, that's the key conclusion from.

The experiment, which is literally just astounding. 240 times my energy, 15 minutes to 60 hours. And then you say purpose equals hope equals energy. So and again you say defining the path in front of you will give you the energy you need to complete it. Tell us more about that.

Yeah, and it's, that might be my favorite line from the book because I think it just sums up everything so important because we talk about purpose, we talk about everything that I just did. And it sounded really intelligent, right? These components, you align them, but really what does it Come down to. It comes down to do you have the energy you need during the day to make giant things happen? You want to leave a legacy, you want to do all these things, you've aligned your life, that's great. Now do you have energy on a day to day basis to make it come true? And a lot of people can't draw the connection there. The connection is very direct. Purpose equals hope equals energy. So if you give yourself, if you define an endpoint and the more clearly you define it, and I don't mean just the endpoint, I mean if you work backwards from that endpoint all the way to where you are now and you map out that path in complete detail, it might change. Of course you're gonna have to be flexible, all these things. But the more detail you map it out in, the more energy you're gonna have to achieve it. And it's the same feeling you get. It's called the light at the end of the tunnel feeling. Right. We've all been working on a very difficult project, whatever it might be. I mean, for me, like when I was, you know, in graduate school with my thesis, for example. But a lot of us, we've worked really hard towards a promotion or whatever else it might be. We've gone through a different difficult time at home with our, with our spouse or whatever it is. And we're going through the mid, you know, as we're in the middle of that, we can't see the other end of it and it starts to drain on us and we feel that uncertainty and we hit that dark point. But then as you keep going, if you keep moving forward as things become more defined, as you start seeing the endpoint, you get this burst of energy. Right, like right towards the end of, you know, almost graduating from high school, graduating from college, something that a lot of people can identify with, you get that burst of energy. And that is what happens when what's in front of you is defined. And that's really the point of this, is that when you have no vision, when nothing's defined, you're not going to have the energy you need to do anything. Great. So the more you can define it, the more you create a vision, the more energy you're going to have.

Which goes back to our icky guy or Ikigai of jumping out of bed, high fiving our purpose. Right?

Yes.

And just really having that motivation, that clarity. This is all great. Just as a side note, we talk about, do you know Shane Lopez's work by any chance, in your studies?

Yeah, A little bit. I do.

He says something crazy too, about short story is a leader who inspires hope will have engagement around 69%.

A leader who doesn't inspire hope will.

Have an engagement level of 1%. That idea of that light at the end of the tunnel, that vision of something more powerful, those rats swimming. Right. Yes. And that leadership of ourselves.

Right.

That we have to be able to see that future that calls us, that we believe we can achieve if we want to have the energy to go out and do our best.

Right, Absolutely.

Yeah.

Very well put. And I believe those percentages, I mean, yeah, 69% more success rate just from inspiring hope. Absolutely.

It's crazy.

And when you put it in the context of this, 60 hours of, of rats swimming in their swim trunks, crazy. Tell us about singularity. To go back to the physics for a moment, the singularity and how that impacts our drive toward purpose and execution, etc.

Yeah. So, you know, towards the end of the book, it becomes. The book is kind of divided into, okay, why you need a purpose. That's the first part. Then how to generate a purpose, and, and then really, you know, how to find your purpose, how to create it, and then finally how to fulfill it. And as the book goes on, it gets, it moves more and more from the theoretical to the practical. And the singularity part is, it's really the practical side where look how you're living your daily life right now. Look at technology, look at all the changes that are happening before you. A lot of us ignore this, but if you look around, you'll see that the things that make you uniquely human, those are your strengths, and those are, those are the things you have to leverage to be able to create a purpose that's going to matter. That's not going to be replaced by a software app, for example. And there's really only three things that are left, you know, that, that a machine can't do yet. And it's, it's not even having ideas. A lot of people think, okay, we're in the idea age. It's the ideas. It's not even ideas. I mean, anybody can have ideas. There are idea farms, right? There are computers that can crank out ideas. Ideas are commodities now, so what's left, right? And the one thing that really stands out, or there's three things in the chapter it's called, is the only three things that'll matter in the next five to 10 years. And one of them is oral communication. And of course, there are computers out there that can communicate that allow us to communicate better. But oral communication, you look at these industries, whether it's webinars or even live events or retreats, gathering places like, you know, yoga, coffee houses, all this stuff, these things are all skyrocketing in today's world because human beings being around each other and orally communicating is, is still crucial, right? So oral communication, it's one thing, I mean, eventually, one day, of course they might have a computer out there that can help you read facial expressions, all these different things. But your pitch, your voice, the, the way you play off each other, sarcasm, all this stuff, it makes us uniquely human. All communication is crucial. And if you look at any job, any, anybody's purpose, no matter what it is, it will be enhanced by improving your oral communication skills. End of story. And even just, and we know this content is king. Like to be able to create that fresh new content, especially oral content, which is why you're seeing like video blogging, right? Skyrocketing now versus just regular written blogs is crucial. That's number one. Number two, it's just the ability to take action, which really, if I could go back and rewrite that section, I would say, you know, to initiate action. Not just action in general, but to initiate new action. And again, going back to some of the examples I just said like all these things where there's physical movement involved, you know, yoga studios, dance studios, all these, these individual industries are all exploding because human body needs to move. End of story. You know, it's, it's never going to be like the Matrix, like we need to move and be active. Our brain is connected to our body and it, the blood flow. Like you, you've probably seen these studies other, there's been books about it. Like if you walk on a treadmill and type versus just sitting down and typing, the blood flow in your brain is, there's a massive difference. There's a massive increase, so action, initiating action, movement in general of your physical body, massively important. And then finally the ability to make decisions, right? So you can write code all day and tell a computer which decision to make based off of what happened. You can even give it flexibility in this area. But you're the one that has to make the initial decision as a human. And that's the one thing that will never ever, ever for sure be replaced. And it's the, it's the Holy Grail that goes back to, you know, biblical times and ancient philosophy times, you know, which is usually, it's usually termed as free will, right? Having the free will, having the ability to make mental decisions. That's the last thing. So the reason I bring this up towards the end is because as you're investing in yourself, these are three areas you should be investing in. It should definitely be, you know, oral communication, that kind of content action, you know, having initiative. And a lot of people are losing initiative nowadays. They just are used to being told what to do, or they're used to, you know, opting out and living in fantasy land. And then finally the ability to make sharp, good decisions. Decisiveness. I mean, this is a party. It's linked to a part of your brain. You know, there's a, there's a decision control center in your brain and you need to exercise or it's going to shrink. And it's, it's important for no matter, no matter what purpose you decide, those three things will always be important.

So much there. I'm going to leave it at that. I love it. Talk to us about achieving greatness. You have two steps in the process. Can you share them with us?

Achieving greatest. So what I think you're saying is it's really the first step is realizing that anything is possible. And then second, it's defining it. A lot of people get stuck on the first step. I mean, they get stuck on both steps, I should say, and probably fairly evenly. A lot of people think, you know what, given my situation, I can't do this. They have a limiting belief that they cannot achieve something just because of their situation or how they feel or whatever it might be. But if you really open your eyes and look at what's been done, might sound a little bit fluffy or cliche, but if you look at people eradicating deadly diseases, I mean, the invention of the Internet, I mean, Google's putting little balloons into space so we can all have free Internet now, right? You look at the X program sending people into space, Virgin Galactic, it doesn't matter. You look at the example I use in the book is Felix Baumgartner skydiving from space. Like literally anything is possible. All of these things started off with somebody having an endpoint in mind and then working backwards to achieve it. Every single one of them, right? So that's the first thing you have to accept. And if you don't accept it, you just, it's just a cop out. It's just a limiting belief in you saying, you know what? I refuse to believe that because it makes me feel bad then that it's all on me. And it is. And then finally defining it. A lot of people say, okay, I know anything is possible if I can do it. But I just. I don't have too many ideas. I don't know which one to choose, or I don't know how to get there. I don't have the connections I need or I don't know what to do. Anything is possible with a, you know, first, the enthusiasm, the energy to do it. And that comes from your purpose and then from a detailed plan. And I think this is from, I want to say, the book Think and Grow Rich. Right. One of the first books ever written in terms of motivation. Anything is possible with a burning enthusiasm and a detailed plan. And the second part is all about detailed plan. Once you create that strategic plan, you will get there.

I love it. Know you can achieve greatness. Decide what you want to be great at. Give us a tip on getting clarity on making that decision.

Yeah. So the decision, right. Once you decide that anything is possible, then you have to decide on what it is that you want to do. And the biggest tip I can. I can say is look ahead to your daily actions. Right. So if you look at a human being's ultimate endpoint, you can go all the way back to Aristotle's teachings. Really, our ultimate, ultimate endpoint is our feelings. We want to feel happiness. And if you look at a lot of the research that's been done lately, what makes people the happiest, it's entering this flow state, right. There's studies on this that show that the flow state can be entered by. It's a variety of things, but it's things that you. You would already know. Like you didn't need somebody to tell you. It's like great conversation with good friends. You know, it could be going to a big dinner where you have these kind of conversations, exercising, going for a walk in nature, all these kind of. And there's a great study on that that I can send you so you can. You can put in the show notes. But if that's your ultimate endpoint, what actions put you in that flow state? Define those actions. That's your actual endpoint. A lot of people think that, like a job title or a certain amount of salary, that's their endpoint. You don't need to decide on a job title. Okay? That's not your endpoint. The endpoint is the actions you want to wake up and do on a daily basis. So decide on the day that you want to live five to ten years from now, what is the day you want to live? That's what you need to decide on first. And you need to fight really hard not to limit yourself. Most people when they do this, they take the day they're currently living and they try to squeeze in like a longer lunch, right? No, you need to start fresh, break outside of your current identity, think ahead to that perfect lifestyle you want to be and that different person that you want to be first. That's how you decide.

That's awesome. And the final idea I wanted to chat about, you kind of touched on, but it's moving from vision to decision. And you make the, the, the important point that, okay, once we've, we realized we can achieve greatness, we can achieve what we want to do, and we've made the decision of, this is where I want to focus. Like, we actually need to make that decision. Can you talk to us about that? And the cutting offense, which brings us full circle back to what a black hole does for us.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, once you have a black hole in place, there is no option but to be moved towards it because it's going to pull you forward and you have to make a decision, right? So the, the Latin root of decision, or to decide something, is to cut off, right? S, C, I, S. To like, excise. To cut away all other options forever. And this is ironically the reason that most people have such a hard time making a decision. Because we have this fear of loss. We don't want to let go of anything else. We want to keep our options open. And the ironic part is if by keeping your options open, you'll never decide on any one thing. You'll never do anything great. So what you need to do is you need to decide what it is you want to do. Pick your. I call it picking your mountain peak. You pick a mountain peak, right? Think you're at the bottom of a mountain, you can see the peak, right? You can't describe the terrain on the summit. You're not close enough yet. But you can pick your mountain peak that stays the same. But the path to the top will be flexible. You might have to choose a different trail on the way up, right? You might come across an obstacle. Whatever it is, you can stay flexible. But you have to decide on a mountain peak. Your whole life's not going to be mapped out for you just because you decide on something you want in detail. So you decide on that mountain peak, you cut off all other options, and then you go for it, you stay flexible on the way up, and that's going to help you achieve that endpoint, right? Other people, they never decide. They keep their options open. And these are the People that end up getting distracted with carrots and sticks. So by deciding what you want and really backing that up with conviction, like, you know, people who, like, they believe, whether it's usually with, like, religious or political beliefs, like, there is no talking them out of anything, they believe it with such certainty that nothing will stop them from ever believing that they don't even want to hear anything else. That's the kind of conviction you have to back up this decision with. So you make that decision and then you hold tightly to that decision, even when things get tough, by backing it up with conviction. And that's the only way that you can achieve anything big, anything worthy of being called a black hole.

I love it. And in the note, I talk about the fact that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says basically the exact same thing with the people who he described as truly creative with a kid. Capital C, Change the world. Creative, yes. Then, you know, when you have that dps, the nos become considerably easier.

Right? Yes.

Sorry, you can't do it. And Stephen Covey says it's like a psychological relief. Paradoxically, when you're willing to make that leap into the big yes and cut off other options, then it's actually easy and relieving to say no to all the other nonsense that used to take up most of our time.

Right, exactly. Right. I mean, it's so true. It makes sense. When you decide, when you cut away, you say no easier. You don't even feel bad about it, because you know what? You're on your path and you're creating your legacy for sure.

Right. On what did. Obviously, we only scratched the surface of your book, but is there anything that we didn't talk about that you want to make sure we hit on?

No, I think the big thing, it really is just understanding that purpose is directly linked to tangible energy on a daily basis. And if you want to energize yourself, you have to sit down and do the work to figure this out. It could take you a couple of hours, it could take you a day. And it will seem draining at the time. Like the most draining part of this, and I work with a lot of people on this, is taking that fuzzy goal of wanting to have more space, more time, be more mobile, and then crunching it down into a measurable outcome with a deadline that's aggressive and specific. Right. People can really get held up on specificity and measurableness. So you have to get those two things done. It's going to drain you with energy, but you'll be Drained for one single day at most if you dedicate yourself to it. And then after that you'll be energized every single day afterwards because you know where you're going and you know exactly what you want.

Right on. And then iterate to it step by step. As you said, be flexible on the way up, but you make the decision. That's the peak I'm going after. And go after it. One of the things I love to do is focus on fundamentals. So what are the things that keep us plugged in? I would love to hear you share some of the basic stuff that you do. We talk about eating, moving, sleeping, meditation, etc. What are the things that you've done and discovered over the years that really help you stay on the top of your game?

Yeah, you know, I would say very simply, like I think I can divide this into two things. I mean on a day to day basis. And it's not going to be anything mind blowing that your listeners haven't heard of. Hopefully. It's really just creating the right habits and to do this it takes the right sequence. Sequence to me has become more and more important. And what do I mean by sequence? A lot of people say, okay, I got to create good habits, I'll create these good habits first. But really first you need to learn new information that's has to apply to you, that you can use and then move from information to action as quickly as possible. Because the sooner you put new information that's good for you into action, the faster you can turn it into a habit. Right. So this requires that great executive function of your brain. You learn that new information that's going to help you. And instead of just saying oh, that could help me, right, or reading more books about it, boom. You put into action right away. It integrates it into your life. You make a decision and then you do it as often as possible. You iterate over and over again until it becomes a habit and then it's automatic. And then it doesn't take any decision making units in your brain. And I'm sure you've talked about willpower depletion and these other things on other episodes, but you only have a discrete amount of decision making units a day. So for me I try to put good, I try to turn good information into a habit as quickly as possible. And that's been the biggest differentiator. And then in terms of just continuing to move forward and how to continue to have breakthroughs in your life, you have to stay flexible and willing to take big Risks. You keep that mountain peak, that mountain peak in place like you know where you're going, you have these long term goals, but you stay flexible and you continue to take big risks.

Yeah, I love it. Your idea to action reminds me of the law of diminishing intent, which we talked about recently in an episode we interviewed Roy Baumeister and talked about exactly that of, you know, using your willpower wisely to install habits that then run on autopilot is the phrase I use in our habits 101 class. What about you specifically? What's like your number one habit that you do to stay plugged in?

Yeah, so it's what I to bring things full circle again. You know, when I define my perfect day out, like the first four hours of my day, you know, I wanted those to be perfect. I wanted them to be sacred. And so those first four hours are almost always the same. And I put in everything in my life that is important during those first four hours. I get up, I go, I exercise in nature, I have a leisurely breakfast, I have good conversation and then I write. I write during this time too. You know, I journal, but I also create content. This is where a lot of my blogs and people are always asking, how do you have three or four businesses? How do you do all these different blogs, the book, everything. It's because that is sacred time. It's turned into a habit. So I don't have to make any decisions for like the first half of the day. Like it's all on autopilot and so I'm able to just to crank things out. And for me personally that's protected time and it's been the biggest differentiator, the biggest amplifier.

Brilliant.

That was exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks for sharing. Solid. I love my mornings as well. Let's talk about one more thing. I like to end these interviews with one final question, which is if you could share just one piece of wisdom with someone passionate about optimizing their lives, what would that be?

One piece of wisdom about optimizing their life. You know, it really I would like to do something fresh, but it really comes back to get really good at turning to new information that applies to you into a habit as quickly as possible. And that takes both action and sharp decisions. But if you can do that and at the same time stay flexible because life is going to knock you on your butt over and over again. But if you can continue to, even when that happens, look for new information and then turn it into a good habit as quickly as possible, you'll move ahead further and faster and you'll be better off both emotionally and with your relationships than than anything else.

I love it.

I should have qualified that with it might have been something we already talked about. We love repetition and I appreciate your emphasis on the basic fundamentals and I appreciate you great work. Where can people learn more about you and what you're up to?

Yes, the simplest place is just isaiahnkel.com if you can't spell that, just go to blackholefocus.com and that's the best place to start.

Awesome. Isaiah Hankel Hankel is H A n k e l blackholefocus.com is a nice way to get there directly. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for all you're doing.

You're welcome.

Thanks Brian hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that interview. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson me two basic things one our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And 2 our optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes when you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books.

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