Ramit Sethi – The Finishers Formula

What’s going on here?

Why do we live in the most privileged time in history, yet we can’t seem to decide what to do with our lives?

The more and more I look around, I see friends – really smart people – crippled by anxiety, too many choices, and no guidebook to make the right decisions.

How many people do you know that genuinely want to be successful? That are willing to put in the work (and they really mean it)? I know a LOT.

But each time we try, it’s like a yo-yo – we eagerly start, hit a roadblock, lose motivation, then beat ourselves up for not finishing.

Over and over and over again.

This isn’t about some new productivity tool. Looking for “motivational hacks” doesn’t help. Deep down inside, we know it’s about us – and the way we can’t seem to follow through.

How do we get out of the rut?

Why are we even in it?

Too many options – and no way to choose

For the first time ever, we can decide what we want to do with our lives – supposedly.

We’re told that if we want to start a tech company, we can do it! Just like Mark Zuckerberg.

If we want to start a funny YouTube channel on how to apply makeup, we can do that – and make a pretty good living doing it.

And if we want to get a comfortable job and use our free time to follow our passions, we can, right?

Best of all, we can start over and try something new every few years!

So why is it so hard to decide what we want to do?

Because in a world of infinite choice, making a single decision becomes increasingly tough.

Our parents don’t get it. They look at us, confused, and furrow their brow. “You should be lucky to have all these job offers. When I was a kid…”

In fact, I vividly remember a family friend lecturing me on how I should work at Procter & Gamble. “You’ll retire with a million dollars in your bank account,” he bragged. A million? 40 years from now? It was one of the last things I wanted to think about.

And so we’re confronted with choice after choice…and who can really understand our situation?

It’s not just you. Check these comments out.

It’s like the first week in college. Everywhere you go, there are clubs, groups, new classes, events…it’s almost impossible to choose!

Now multiply that by 50 for real life: Which city should you live in? What job should you take? What about a side job? Where are we going out this Friday? When are you getting married?

It’s no surprise that we find it tough to follow through on things. Psychologists know that willpower is like a muscle that gets “used up” throughout the day.

And unlike any other time in history, we’re faced with more temptation than ever before. More ads. More text messages. More Facebook invites.

How many decisions do we make every day by 10am? And that’s just in a day. Forget about making major life decisions.

It’s easy for people to tell us to “buckle down” and focus. THEY didn’t grow up in a time where you could read about octopuses, political bias in the middle ages, and the origin of corn — all within 3 clicks of Wikipedia!

They didn’t have FOMO — a fear of missing out. How could they even understand?

And yet, we can’t just blame all these choices. All these options were supposed to let us choose whatever we wanted, like a buffet. But if we can’t follow through on all these options, what’s the point?

“I’m this close to giving up on myself”

Try to imagine you woke up with a SHARP PAIN in your tooth. What would you do?

Obvious: Go to the dentist that day.

But what if you have a dull pain in your mouth? After a while, you get used to it.

And that’s exactly what happens with our anxiety:

You know the worst part?

We’re the first person who gives up on ourselves!

After a lifetime of making promises we never follow up on, we stop trusting ourselves. We tell our friends, “Yeah, we should get together!”

But as we say it, we know we’re never going to do it.

We complain to our friends about money, or our weight. “I should really do that…”

But we know we won’t.

Ironically, our friends and family still believe in us. They nudge us, support us, help us with each new idea we try.

But after a while, you can see it in their eyes. You tell them new thing you’re “thinking of” doing…and there’s the briefest roll of their eyes.

Oh, here we go again…another thing he’s gonna start (and never finish).

And soon, it’s not just about calling ourselves lazy. We actually become lazy.

These slips of the tongue become self-fulfilling prophecies. When I was 5’11” and 127lbs (yes, it’s true), I used to say, I can’t gain weight like those big white guys. How stupid does that sound?

Yet it kept me from actually changing myself for years and years — until I finally decided to get help to gain weight and look like a normal human being.

Just like I used to do, we give up on ourselves. Oh sure, we say we’re going to try…but our own self-talk betrays us. “I’m just lazy” is just as bad as “I’m a skinny Indian guy.” Both are excuses for us to give up on ourselves.

And when we give up on ourselves…why should anyone else care?

This isn’t about productivity tips or “life hacks.” We’ve tried everything — to-do lists, reminders, getting motivated.

It all lasts for a while, and then we go back to doing exactly the same thing we’ve always done.

Introducing The Finisher’s Formula: How to follow through on anything

I got tired of 60-year-old people telling us to “suck it up” and “be lucky you even have options.”

And after going through years of being indecisive, paralyzed by too many options, and feeling guilty for not following through, I finally cracked the code.

This formula helped me write a New York Times best-selling book. It helped me build a solid business, with apartments in San Francisco and New York.

Even more fundamentally, it helped me build a team, create amazing systems, and cut through the millions of possibilities — AND GET STARTED ON ONE THING!

Ruthless focus.

Mental toughness.

And the ability to “turn off the voices” in my head telling me I should be doing 10 other things.

I want you to have access to this same material. And now you can.

The Finisher’s Formula is a 10-day, online, HD video course that gives you the tools and mindset shifts you need to quit being lazy, unmotivated, distracted, and unable to finish anything…and START achieving your goals. Even if you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet.

This course isn’t about productivity or weight loss or skill building. If you wanted those, you could have already found tools, recipes, and tips online.

Instead, The Finisher’s Formula goes much deeper. It’s not about your productivity app, or the city you live in. It’s about YOU.

This course includes:

• An all-new presentation by Ramit on “The Difference between Finishers and Non-Finishers.” Learn how to stop beating yourself up and how to eliminate destructive self-talk. Discover why getting things done is a skill — and how to systematically master it. Why “just doing it” is a bad idea, and how top performers get amazing results with a completely different approach.
• A 60-minute video interview with a New York Times best-selling author on the psychological techniques to create habits that stick. This author wrote a book I’ve called the seminal psychology book of our time. Now, you’ll get access to a private video interview I did with him asking the toughest questions on FINALLY building real habits that last. You’ll learn the real, hidden reasons why we indulge in bad habits like snacking — even when we really want to lose weight! Learn how the proven 3-step system for creating a habit that you’ll actually stick to, plus how to CHANGE a bad habit (and why “quitting” a habit rarely works).
• A 60-minute interview with a top author on true mastery. This author shows you how he gets more done in a 9-5 workday than most of us get done in a week — including the specific “time bounding” concepts that let you leave work and enjoy life without boundaries. Uncover the secrets to eliminating distraction, achieving deep focus, and how to juggle multiple projects and commitments without ever feeling overwhelmed.

In The Finisher’s Formula, you’ll learn…

• The truth about why we don’t follow through on our goals — even when we have all the desire and information in the world. (If you just needed more information, you’d have already done it! Hint: It’s not about more information.)
• How I built mental toughness and the ability to say “no” without feeling guilty.
• How to pick up any habit, learn any skill, or pursue ambitious projects — and know you’ll follow through.
• How to channel your inner fears and emotions productively so that they don’t stall you from hitting your goals.
• The key differences and surprising similarities between finishers and non-finishers.
• A simple framework to systematically build good habits (and effortlessly replace bad habits with productive ones).
• How to develop a “Craftsman’s Mindset” and really dig deep into complicated work like writing or programming.
• When to persist and when to quit working on a project — never be left wondering, “is this thing even working?”
• How to anticipate failure so you can bypass disappointment and frustration and quickly solve any problems that pop up.
• The right way to leverage accountability so that you keep making progress towards achieving your goals…even when you’re feeling lazy or unmotivated.
• And much more…

The Finisher’s Formula is NOT for you if…

• You’re still looking for “productivity hacks” and “top 10 tips.” Those are snacks and I’m not in the business of being your intellectual entertainment. This is a system that requires work — not just a series of random, unconnected tactics.
• You’re looking for the next workout or diet plan. There are thousands of sites dedicated to rapid weight loss or the new best workout routine. The question is, why haven’t you already used them before? That is what The Finisher’s Formula covers — how to start and follow through.
• You’re afraid to dig deep to find out why you’re really stuck. You will confront your internal barriers and re-engineer them. Candidly, this isn’t easy.
• You can’t commit at least three hours a week to reviewing and implementing the course materials.

The Finisher’s Formula IS for you if…

• You’re a chronic “starter” but can’t follow through on all the things you want to do — and you’re ready to put that phase of your life behind you.
• If you’ve started to describe yourself as “lazy” and deep down, you know you can be more than just another ordinary lazy person. We’ll tackle self-talk, personal labeling, and the actual system to change yourself from the outside in.
• You’ve tried the “conventional advice” about habits, weight loss, learning new skills, and they haven’t worked.
• You’ve gotten as far as you can on your own, but you know “what got you here won’t get you there” — and you’re open to getting an extra push to cross the bridge to success.
• You’re willing to invest at least three hours a week on forming lasting habits.
• You’re focused on the long term — and you understand there will always be ups-and-downs, but that you can make HUGE gains by acting smarter.