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Back to Work

Episode 101: Sprinting Straight Into a Wall

Back to Work

5by5

Business, Society & Culture, Barriers, Dan Benjamin, Careers, Communication, Merlin Mann, Creativity, Work, Productivity, Constraints, Technology

4.72.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2013

⏱️ 89 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

TOPIC: Those New Years When We're Not Actually Resolved.

This week, Merlin and Dan step back from resolutions and shooting yourself in the face with a wrist rocket to talk about what you're actually trying to change.

You're failing and feeling bad and eating a whole bag of cookies because you're resolving to be someone you're not (yet). What are you really trying to address? Are you being honest with yourself? Where do you actually start?

Find the real reasons, build a real infrastructure, and build yourself a real habit.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode for Back to Work is sponsored by Frank & Oak (use code "BACKTOWORK10" for 10% off your first purchase) and Squarespace (use offer code "NICE" for an additional 10% off).

Transcript

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0:00.0

My resolution has to say about me. I'm going to start with five miles every day.

0:13.2

All right. And then I will click and I will do the thing. I don't see the button. Is there a button? I

0:22.7

I move the mouse. All right. Now we're streaming. I click and I will make the tweet happen. Clicking

0:33.5

back to women.

0:37.1

Why do you have to be so normative? You're a norm in D. Normandy. Life's a beach. Is this

0:44.5

to show? I think this is absolutely what people tune in for is us setting the knobs,

0:51.1

controlling the controls. You know, past is prologue. So what is past is prologue?

1:00.6

What is past is prologue? I've heard this. I read that. I wrote that. I wrote it down and I read it.

1:06.6

I was informed that this is the year when days of future past happen. I didn't realize that.

1:10.8

The age of Aquarius, if you will. It's when that moody blues record came out.

1:14.9

So I've been getting into this other thing you do. Can I talk about that here or no?

1:20.7

If you're going to fake enthusiasm for something, I didn't say no. That's not fake enthusiasm.

1:27.6

I know. I'm sure I have a pretty good idea what you did. You sat down and you scrubbed a little.

1:32.1

Nope. You never do that. I never do that. I never do that. You're a scrubber. But you're a scrubber.

1:36.8

Did not do that. Two X would never do it. Two X would never do it. Three X. Never do it. Quarter X.

1:44.0

I can understand why our listeners believe that each of our shows is heavily scripted or

1:49.5

retro scripted in some cases and why they would think that we would. But this is the first time

1:54.1

we've had this discussion and I think it would be awkward to have here. We can have it if you want.

1:57.8

No, that's cool. Whatever you want. It's your show. No, it's actually it's your show. But I'm thrilled

2:02.5

to listen to an episode more than one episode. Multiple episodes. But I will only reveal that

2:07.7

episode 21 is where I started. I will not tell you what other ones I have heard. It is referring to

2:13.6

another program that I'm involved with. The one with not the one with Adam. It's the one with my friend

...

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