14:10Dan Martell · Tutorial
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June 4thThe argument in one line.
Chasing money as the only reason to work makes people quit the moment it gets hard, while growing six other pillars, mission, health, love, friends, hobbies, and presence, is what actually makes the money and the life compound together.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A founder or business owner who has hit a real revenue milestone and still feels like something's missing outside of work.
- Someone who wants one simple weekly self-check instead of a sprawling life-planning system with dozens of tools.
- A parent whose work schedule has been quietly winning out over family time for longer than they'd admit.
SKIP IF…
- You're pre-revenue and need a customer-acquisition plan, not a life-balance framework; this assumes the business is already working.
- You want research-backed psychology; this is one entrepreneur's personal system, told as his own experience, not a study.
The full version, fast.
Martell argues that hustle culture's real disease isn't hard work, it's letting a grind season quietly become the permanent default while every other part of life stalls. His fix is seven pillars: mission (found with a Wound-Human-Outcome test), health (Sweat, Meals, Sleep), love (a once-a-year 'Preloaded Year' calendar that puts people before work), friends (a 'friendventory' of who you actually gave time to), hobbies (tested against Fun, Frequent, Friends), presence (morning gratitude), and finances (a daily cash report and the belief that you attract money rather than grind for it). Every Sunday he scores all seven 1-5 and commits to fixing whichever two scored lowest.
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00:00 – 02:45
01 · Cold open — naming 'modern life disease'
Martell opens with the supercars-vs-people thought experiment and names the trap: a grind season that quietly becomes the permanent default while nothing else in life moves.
02:45 – 06:30
02 · Pillar 1: Mission — the WHO test
After exiting three companies and still feeling empty, Martell describes the Peru retreat that led him to his mission (helping at-risk youth) and the three-part WHO test for finding your own: Wound, Human, Outcome.
06:30 – 11:10
03 · Pillar 2: Health — the SMS system
Martell admits he lied to himself about his weight and energy for years until a friend called him out; his fix is Sweat (45 minutes daily, never skip two days), Meals (remove decision friction, keep trigger foods out of the house), and Sleep (a bedtime alarm, not a wake-up one).
11:10 – 14:34
04 · Pillar 3: Love — the Preloaded Year
A private-plane moment where his son couldn't get his attention becomes the pivot to 'love is spelled T-I-M-E'; his system is the Preloaded Year, an annual calendar pass with his wife that schedules people and anniversaries before any work commitment.
14:34 – 17:51
05 · Pillar 4: Friends — running a friendventory
Drawing on the 'transition plan' he learned in rehab at 17, Martell has viewers list everyone they gave real time to in the last 90 days and ask whether each person pushes them to grow or keeps them stuck, then quietly create distance from the latter.
17:51 – 21:59
06 · Pillar 5: Hobbies — the three F's
A stress-induced shingles scare at 31 convinced Martell to schedule fun as deliberately as work; he tests any hobby against three F's, Fun, Frequent, Friends, and treats hobbies as an investment in the business rather than a distraction from it.
21:59 – 25:03
07 · Pillar 6: Presence — faith, gratitude, and being over doing
Martell, author of Buy Back Your Time, says he had to unlearn treating productivity as the whole game; his practice is writing three gratitudes each morning, including one deliberately mundane one, and sitting with the list for 60 seconds.
25:03 – 30:10
08 · Pillar 7: Finances — attracting money and the weekly scorecard
Martell's thesis is that you attract money by becoming someone worth working with, not by grinding harder; he runs a daily cash report across every account, then closes by scoring all seven pillars 1-5 every Sunday and committing to fix whichever two scored lowest.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Martell's 'modern life disease' isn't about working hard, it's about letting a grind season that should last a year quietly become the ten-year norm.
- His mission test is the WHO test: the Wound you're willing to share, the Human you want to help, and the Outcome you want to give them.
- His own mission line, built from his addiction and juvenile record, is helping young people not feel broken.
- His health system is SMS: Sweat 45 minutes daily and never skip two days in a row, Meals decided in advance, Sleep anchored by a bedtime alarm instead of a wake-up one.
- He keeps his trigger food, peanut butter, completely out of the house rather than relying on willpower to resist it.
- His 'Preloaded Year' calendar loads anniversaries, birthdays, and trips with his wife into the calendar before any work commitment goes in.
- A 'friendventory' means listing everyone you gave real time to in the last 90 days and asking honestly whether each one pushes you to grow or keeps you stuck.
- Creating distance from a draining relationship doesn't require a confrontation, replying slower and initiating less does the job quietly.
- He tests every hobby against three F's: is it Fun, is it Frequent, and does it involve Friends.
- A stress-induced shingles scare at 31, with no other medical explanation, is what convinced him to schedule fun as deliberately as work.
- His finance thesis is that you don't create money, you attract it, by becoming someone people want to work with, refer, and follow.
- He scores all seven pillars 1-5 every Sunday and commits to two concrete fixes for whichever two scored lowest, nothing more elaborate than that.
Seven pillars, scored weekly, beat one bank account
LIFE AUDIT SYSTEM
Martell's claim is that money only compounds once mission, health, love, friends, hobbies, and presence are growing too, and the only maintenance he uses is a five-minute weekly score.
02Pillar 1: Mission — the WHO test
- Find your mission by running the WHO test: name the Wound you're willing to share, the Human you want to help, and the Outcome you want them to reach, then write it as one sentence.
- Chasing money as your only reason to work makes you quit the moment it disappears or gets hard, because it was never a strong enough reason to survive difficulty.
03Pillar 2: Health — the SMS system
- Protect your health first thing every day, not last, since untreated fatigue and poor sleep are what most people mistake for just being busy.
- Cut decision fatigue out of eating by pre-deciding meals in advance, and remove your specific trigger foods from the house entirely instead of relying on willpower.
- Set a bedtime alarm instead of a wake-up alarm; consistent sleep timing does more for energy and clear thinking than any morning routine.
04Pillar 3: Love — the Preloaded Year
- Load your calendar with the people you love before you load it with work, since the people you care most about often get scheduled last and shown up for least.
- Time, not gifts or trips, is what the people you love actually register as love; giving your attention while distracted doesn't count.
05Pillar 4: Friends — running a friendventory
- Run a 'friendventory': list everyone you've given real time to in the last 90 days and ask honestly whether each one pushes you to grow or keeps you stuck.
- You don't need a confrontation to create distance from someone who drains you; slower replies and less initiated time do the job quietly.
06Pillar 5: Hobbies — the three F's
- Test any hobby against three questions, is it fun, is it frequent, and does it involve friends; if it fails the first one, you're allowed to stop doing it.
- Ignoring stress until your body forces the issue, like a physical illness with no other explanation, is a sign you've cut fun out of your life entirely.
07Pillar 6: Presence — faith, gratitude, and being over doing
- Write down three gratitudes every morning, and make at least one of them something ordinary you'd normally overlook; gratitude and anxiety don't coexist in the same moment.
- Being productive and being present are two different skills; one produces output, the other lets you actually register the life the output is supposed to be for.
08Pillar 7: Finances — attracting money and the weekly scorecard
- Track your money daily across every account so bad news can't hide behind an assumption that things are probably fine.
- Score yourself 1-5 across all seven areas every week, then commit to one or two concrete actions for whichever two scored lowest; that's the entire maintenance system.
Terms worth knowing.
- Modern life disease
- Martell's term for a hustle season that never ends, where a temporary grind period for the business quietly becomes the permanent default while every other part of life stalls.
- WHO test
- Martell's three-part filter for finding a personal mission: the Wound you're willing to share, the Human you want to help, and the Outcome you want them to reach.
- SMS
- Martell's daily health checklist: Sweat (45 minutes of movement), Meals (pre-decided food to remove decision fatigue), and Sleep (a fixed bedtime alarm instead of a wake-up alarm).
- Preloaded Year
- A once-a-year calendar exercise, done with his wife, where personal dates like anniversaries and trips are entered before any work commitments so they can't get crowded out.
- Friendventory
- An audit of everyone you've given real time to in the last 90 days, scored on whether each person pushes you to grow or keeps you stuck.
- Three F's
- Martell's filter for whether a hobby is worth keeping: is it Fun, is it Frequent, and does it involve Friends.
- Daily cash report
- A report Martell has sent to himself every morning summarizing every personal and business account, so financial problems can't stay hidden.
Things they pointed at.
27:40productThe Five Minute Journal
Lines you could clip.
00:05
“If you woke up tomorrow and you had a hundred supercars sitting there, but every person you love was gone, you would trade it in a heartbeat to have them back.”
03:50
“The question that cracked me wide open was the one asking me, who do you want to help avoid or get through the pain faster?”
07:20
“Just make a rule. Never miss two days in a row.”
11:45
“That love is spelled T-I-M-E.”
28:00
“I don't believe you make money. I think you attract money.”
30:05
“A great life is a life well examined.”
Word for word.
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metaphor
. If you woke up tomorrow and you had a hundred supercars sitting there, but every person you love was gone, you would trade it in a heartbeat to have them back. The gurus out there will tell you how to f***ing grind.
Technically, that's not bad advice. There are seasons in your life where you have to show up and you have to attack. The disease is when that season turns into a year, that turns into two, and then this becomes the norm.
You're going to wake up in 10 years and realize nothing's changed. I know this. Because I got there, built the business, hit the number, and looked around at life and realized in every direction, it wasn't working.
And then I looked at people at the highest level, the richest people, people like Gary Vee, who absolutely puts in the time, but shows up for his family and cares about the people in his life. People like Jesse Itzler, who is literally a grown camp counselor. Everything he does, he makes it fun.
Mark Cuban, billionaire. courtside at every one of his Mavericks games, living the best life. They're richer than every guru that tells you to grind and grind and grind.
And they're having way more fun than all of them because the people that are winning the biggest are the ones growing in every part of their life, not just their bank account. And I felt this myself. The faster I grew every other pillar of my life, the faster my business and the bank account grew too.
That's why today I'm going to show you exactly how to make sure every part of your life keeps growing so you never end up rich, but fucking miserable. To me, there's seven pillars. And the first one isn't about the business or the money.
I know that because it's the first place that everybody starts. And it's the first symptom of modern day life disease. Because when the money is the reason, you quit the second it doesn't show up or it gets hard.
So we need to start with the one that helps us decide if we want to get out of bed or not. After exiting not one, not two, but three companies and anybody in my life would have said, Dan, you've won. And yet I felt like there was a massive hole.
There was something missing. So I reached out to a friend who I knew could help. And I went to Peru.
And here I was traveling around, visiting orphanages, hiking through the mountains, contemplating on big life questions, and then spending three days reflecting in silence around what this whole thing meant. It would have been easy for me to think about the next business to start, the investments I want to make, how I was going to create more.
And the question that cracked me wide open was the one asking me, who do you want to help avoid or get through the pain faster? Because it's not about the things. If it was about the stuff, then I wouldn't have this like feeling inside, this emptiness.
And that's when I realized and I gave myself permission because it wasn't easy. to make the decision to help at -risk youth. That was my story.
That was my journey. That was my pain. The moment I made the decision and I wrote it down on paper, my whole being shifted.
Only 10 years ago, nobody knew the story of my addiction, my teenage years, the challenges that I went through as a kid. And now if you meet me and talk to me for five or six or 10 minutes, I'm going to share that with you because it's what's made me. I'm here to help every young person not feel broken.
You might know me as the guys can teach you how to make money or have a lot of followers on social media, but I'm telling you, that's just the byproduct of what I just said. And when it's hard and I don't want to get up and I'm like, why am I dealing with this problem yet again? It's not about me.
It's about the example that I get to be for the kids that are paying attention. The moment I stopped making about myself and started making about other people, the bank account. The life, the resources, they all showed up.
A lot of people have goals and they have targets, but what they don't have is they don't have a mission behind those goals and targets. So every time I give a talk, book meet up, hang out in public, somebody puts their hand up and they ask the question, Dan, how do I find out my mission? How do I figure out my purpose?
And my answer is the same one every time. And it's the who test. What is the wound that you're willing to share?
Because I believe your purpose sits right next to the worst thing that's ever happened to you in your life. If you have the courage to evaluate this, it will change your life. The H is the human.
Who do you want to help? And give yourself permission to be specific. For a large part of my life, I just had people incarcerated and I went to Pelican Bay and I went to San Quentin.
And unfortunately, I just don't resonate with the adults. The kids, on the other hand, when I went and spoke to the detention centers and the crisis centers, and I'm talking to these kids that are looking with pain in their eye.
And I know they didn't have somebody like me in their life. And that the whole reason I'm there is that maybe I could get through to them in this moment. That to me is why I do what I do, is I know because of what I went through, that wound, it gives me the ability to reach them.
And for you, it might be people that are struggling with their weight or women that have been in abusive relationships. I don't know what it is. My gut tells me you know.
And if you can give yourself permission to share your story around that, to lean into that, to name that, that is a powerful step. And the third, the O, is the outcome. What's the outcome you want to help them get?
What is that transformation? Did you know that ? And the outcome of helping somebody feel seen and confident and that you believe in them, that could be the thing that changes their life forever.
But you have to be specific. Like what is that outcome you want to help them get? And look, if you read that out loud, you should have a sentence that connects all three, that feels deeply connected to your mission.
For me, it's helping young people not feel broken. Our whole purpose, being here on Earth, enjoying this human experience, is to become the person we needed most in our darkest days. Pillar two is the one that everybody says they'll get to next week, next month, next year.
I do it the other way around. It's the one thing I take care of first thing every single day. And it's the one thing everyone winning at the highest level protects the most.
This one I struggled with for a big part of my life. I was a millionaire. On stages, speaking, telling everybody how to be successful.
And yet every once in a while, I would see a clip of a video or a photo posted on Twitter and go, oh, who is that? I was fat. I lied to myself.
I would be tired all the time. I didn't have the energy to go long. I would sleep in.
And yet I thought it was okay. And then I had kids. And that just made it even harder.
And luckily, I had friends in my life that looked at me and said, hey, bro. Not a good look. Now you might hear that and go, what the kind of friend would say that to you?
I'm telling you, I needed that. That person in that moment was the best friend I needed. Not somebody that was just going to agree with everything.
And then I went on a journey. I started writing down that I'm going to be an Ironman. I started moving my body a little bit, not like a half marathon.
I'm talking a 5k was a big deal, but I just kept at it. Not only did I know it was important for my mental health because I felt like a fraud, but it actually, allowed me to show up more powerfully.
It gave me the confidence to speak up in a meeting, to ask for what I'm worth. The person that's sitting here talking to you right now, I want you to hear this. I built this person and the way I did it was by prioritizing my health.
Today, I've done seven or eight Ironmans, ultra marathons, competitions all the time. I stay at about nine to 10 % body fat. And then in regards to the bank account, It's grown in proportion to my energy levels, to prioritizing my fitness.
Now I'm better for my team, for my kids, for my wife. At the highest level, you will see somebody that takes their health seriously. The way I think about it, it's SMS.
First, sweat every day. Every day, 45 minutes minimum, must break a sweat. If that's a walk, put a weight vest on.
If that's a CrossFit workout, treadmill, incline. If you can win the morning, you will win the day.
And look, I know life gets busy, but guess what? Just make a rule. Never miss two days in a row.
It's okay if you got to get up early and catch a flight and you skip it and you didn't get a chance to do it. Just never two days in a row because now you have a trend. The second M is the meals.
The idea is we want to remove the friction. The amount of brain power used to decide what you're going to eat for breakfast, what you're going to eat for lunch, what you're going to eat for dinner because you go out with your friends. How about we just take all those hard decisions and we take them off the plate?
Pun intended. If you want to make a lot of money, then learn how to make the hard decisions easy and the easy decisions hard. For example, I have an addiction to peanut butter.
I love it. I would eat, you know, what would you eat for the rest of your life on a private island? Peanut butter.
So guess what's not in my house? Peanut butter. If I want peanut butter, I got to get in my car, drive to the corner store and buy myself an O 'Henry peanut butter.
Now I do have them when I train. This is my favorite part about doing long bike rides is I need some calories and those are the calories that go in my mouth. And on the other side of the coin, just like most people, I don't love chicken and rice, but that's why I have my meal prep set up so that I have exactly what I want.
Some lean ground beef, some sweet potatoes, some greens, some low calorie hot sauce. And I eat this every day. I have it for lunch and dinner.
I don't think about it. I don't confuse myself about it. And if I'm going to a restaurant, I have my assistant pre -order what's on the menu, put it in the calendar invite.
So when they say, what are you having? I open it up. I read, I don't make a decision.
I want to make things easy to do. I don't want to make them hard. For you, it might just be automating your food.
Stop buying snacks. Don't go to the grocery store when you're hungry. Find a local meal prep company.
If you look at the amount of time it takes you to make the food, it actually almost works out to the same price. It's better, it's packaged, and it saves you a ton of time. And the third is sleep.
See, most people go, Dan, what time do you wake up? I say 4 a .m. They go, oh my God, that's so early.
Not impressive if you know what time I go to bed. What time do you go to bed? 9 p .m.
Really? Yep. Guess what?
I set an alarm for going to bed. I don't set an alarm for waking up. I naturally wake up at 4 a .m.
because I've been doing it for like a decade. The alarm to go to bed that goes off at 8 .30 every night, that's the reminder to start shutting things down, to wind down, to get ready. And I have kids that go to bed later than me.
That's okay. The whole point. is that sleep is probably one of the most important things to have the energy to allow your body to recover, to make sure the food gets processed properly.
And if you can't creatively think, it's probably because you're not getting enough sleep. Pillar three, this is the one that everybody takes for granted. It ends up being the thing people regret not prioritizing more than anything else.
As a parent with money, you think... That the best thing I do for my kids is show them cool things and fly around and have experiences. Yet I remember this one time when the kids were young, we're flying on a private plane.
We're going to do something fun. And the whole time I'm on my phone. And I remember looking over and watching my son and he had asked me three times to play with them.
And yet I didn't even hear him. Now I could have blamed the sound of the plane, but it wasn't that. I literally was involved in my work.
And here I am thinking I'm winning at life when my kid's looking at me and he doesn't give a fuck. about the plane. He doesn't care where we're going.
He doesn't care about Disneyland. All he cared about is that his dad played with him. That's when I realized all the stuff that we think that our kids want and our way of showing them affection to get that love, what they really want is time.
I heard this once and I love it. That love is spelled T -I -M -E. So if you tell me you love me, we're yeah, bro.
Time is the most valuable thing we have. Then when I show up for my family, for my friends. That is proof that I care about them.
We all say that we're working our ass off for our family. We're doing it for them. We're showing up to create a future that we never experienced that we want to provide for them.
Here's a question. Have they asked you for that? In my book, I close with this story because it was so jarring.
This guy tells me, he goes, hey, Dan, I heard you speak and I got to tell you, man, I feel horrible. And I said, why? He goes, I haven't seen my kids in three years.
He goes, look, I see them obviously on weekends, but for the last three years, I get up before they wake up. I come home after they go to bed. And for the last three years, because of decisions I made in my business, I haven't seen my kids.
And you made me realize, for what? So that I can feel good about myself to people that I don't even like? So that I can tell myself that I'm killing it, and yet I don't get those years back?
Sometimes the people closest to you get the worst version of you. You're nicer to the stranger you just met in a boardroom than you are to your family on the weekends. So the system that I use to make sure that I don't drop the ball and that all the important stuff is there is called the preloaded year.
I got it from my buddy Taki. It is so powerful to ensure you plan the right things in the right order and you see it all in one spot. And it's something that I do with my wife at the end of the year for the following year.
And we review it all the time to make sure the big stuff's in there. And what's unique about it is I do it backwards than what most people do. Most people put the work stuff in their calendar.
I load the people first, the anniversaries, the birthdays, the quarterly trips with my wife. The things that I know, if I literally had a month to live, these are the things I would want to do. You don't know when your last day is going to be your last day.
So put those in first. Those are priority. And then the work stuff takes care of itself.
And look, if you want help, I've got a PDF template that you can load up on an iPad or you can print it off. You can highlight the dates, you can put it in, you can see it on one page and I have it for the next three years. So you're sorted.
So if you want it, just find me on Instagram, follow me and DM me the word YouTube year and I'll send it over for free. It'll change the way you use time to show your love for the people you care about the most. Pillar four is the easiest place to catch the modern life disease.
Because it's the endless grind, the money chase, the burnout. That shit's contagious. And the people in your life might be the reason.
When I was 17 in rehab, one of the most powerful things they asked us to do is called a transition plan. Essentially, sit down and decide who are we going to spend time with. When we get out and we want to make sure we're making better decisions, who are the people that are going to influence us?
Because if we go back and do the same thing with the same people we're doing with it, zero chance we're going to stay sober. And that plan is the reason why I'm here today. I realized that I became the byproduct of the people I spend the most time with.
And I went away from spending time with people that were addicted and negative and critical and always getting in fights. And it was almost like drama followed them everywhere as they went to people that were into sports, that were eating healthy, enjoying life more than the other ones, but just not doing things that were illegal.
Crazy. I know. Be careful who you call a friend.
Just because you sat next to somebody in 11th grade English class does not mean they're a friend. You know them. But ask yourself what a great friend does.
Look at the people you actually call friends and say, are they doing those things? You want to hang out with people that want more for you than from you. I talk about this all the time.
I used it yesterday. I call this a friendventory. So do this tonight.
Take the time to write it down. First thing, you have to list everyone you've given real time to in the last 90 days. Then ask yourself a simple question.
Is that person pushing me to grow in every part of my life? Or are they keeping me stuck? Are they making me feel bad about myself?
Are they encouraging me to do things that I know aren't good for me? Be honest with yourself. These are the people you might say that like, look, they're fine.
They're my family. They're always like that. It's not a big deal.
The person might be fine. They may not mean to hurt you. But seeding that idea, pushing you to be rude to somebody.
Hey, you shouldn't call them back. They don't deserve you. Or always complaining.
These are the people that as soon as you say hi to them, they're like, hey, did you see what was on the news? No, don't watch it. Don't wanna.
Why is that the first thing you always have to tell me? Once you have that list and you identify the people that are pushing you in areas of your life and they're always trying to expand and grow, then you have to spend less time with the people that are pulling you down. I call that creating space.
And it's as easy as not being so quick to reply to them. And then try to spend more time with the people that are doing it right. And look.
Tomorrow, I'm jumping on a plane, flying an hour, driving for two hours to go celebrate a friend that's doing something crazy with his time right now. A big challenge. And I want him to see me there to cheer him on, even if it's for two hours, so that he knows that I value our friendship, our relationship, because he's also somebody that I admire, that pushes himself and is an example for me as a father, as a business person.
That's because I made this list and I prioritize it. At the beginning of the year, I always ask myself, who are two or three people that I should be spending more time with? And then I just prioritize it.
I put them in the preloaded year. And look, the people are going to spend less time. They don't need like a whole speech.
You don't have to like break up with them. You can just say to yourself, I got to spend less time with them. And if you don't have anybody else to hang with, go out, go to the run clubs, go to the events, go to the local seminars, go to the meetups.
They're happening in your city. For the fifth pillar, I want to ask you a question. When's the last time you did something?
purely for fun. I'm talking no agenda. I'm talking because it made you smile.
Not for networking, not for business, just for fun. You're like, I think it would be fun to rent a bunch of cars and go on a road trip or get some camping gear and go up into the mountains. Maybe my definition of fun is different than yours, but I think life is about being enjoyed.
And I think that people that are very successful like to be around people. That have fun. That's why like a lot of people that I know that are incredibly wealthy, you see them at festivals.
You see them enjoying themselves. You see them dancing on the dance floor. They don't take themselves too seriously.
And look, this is crazy. But when I was 31, I go see my doctor friend. He's like, what's going on?
I said, I've got this like pain on my back. It's like a bruised area, but it's a little like there's a skin thing. And I don't know what it is, like a rash.
He leaves the room. He comes back and he goes, here's some pills. I said, what's that for?
He goes, shingles. I said, what shingles? He said, Dan, it's a really good thing you came in to see me.
And then he pulls up a picture of what it could have looked like. My whole back following my nerve system would have broken out into this scaly, shingly, I guess probably why they call them shingles, response. And it was my body stressed out.
And the reason why is I was so stuck up. I was so driven. I didn't have fun.
I didn't let myself to let loose. My body was telling me. Since that moment, okay, I'm 46 now, I will tell you, kind of been cured of that problem.
I prioritize my hobbies. I prioritize the fun. I organize the fun.
I schedule the fun. I show up and make it fun. It has been the biggest game changer.
And again, the business followed. The money showed up. The relationships, the quality of people I get to spend time with.
I mean, it's wild. People are like, Hey man, I saw you speak at Tony Robbins. Hey man, I saw that the rock follows you on Instagram.
How did you get John Maxwell to write the forward of your next book? It's because people see that I'm a well -rounded person because I have fun because I'm not single purpose. It's not transactional.
So to me, hobbies are an investment in your business. And these are the three F's that I follow to make sure they're happening. The first F, is it fun?
If you don't want to do it, if you're not excited to do it, if you don't smile when you think about doing it, probably not fun. You're allowed to say no. The second F is frequent.
If it's fun, how about you do it more often? Do it more frequently. Doing it once a year is cool, but it's not as fun as doing it once a month.
The hike I do every Tuesday, everybody in the world is invited. You're invited. I've been doing it for five years.
It's super fun. Great way for me to get a workout, meet some new people. It's every week.
Every Tuesday, same time. Schedule it. And the third is friends.
See, if you woke up tomorrow and you had 100 supercars sitting there, but every person you love was gone, you would trade it in a heartbeat to have them back. You'd probably want a room full of people. People that you've impacted, people that you've supported, people that you care about.
To me, that is what we're trying to do. We're trying to invest in people and collect great friends and create moments. You know, my buddy Brad has this great saying.
He says, we're here to do the three M's. Make magical memories and increase them in intensity and frequency. That's the kind of friend you want.
That's who I spend time with. You can see how like these pillars, they just start pouring into each other. They start compounding upon each other.
They start flowing. So yes, you're making money, but you're also not dealing with a crisis at home. You're not worried about the fact you're going on vacation.
You won't take your shirt off. You're not worried about the fact that you just bought a new supercar and you have nobody to call to celebrate with. You're not worried that you might get shingles on your back.
Pillar six is the one that most business people skip completely. I'd argue it's the most important one on the list because it's the reason you can have everything I just talked about and all the money in the world and still feel empty. I wrote a book called Buy Back Your Time.
My happy place is being wildly productive, scheduling every five, every 15 minutes, producing, creating the checklist, the SOPs. It's what drove every part of my life. I was really efficient at getting things done.
I didn't know how to be in the moment. I didn't understand the power of here. I had to read the text, the books, the philosophies, because it didn't matter how much doing I was doing.
If I wasn't being, then I couldn't feel it. What's crazy today is a couple dozen times a day, even while I've been sitting here talking with you, I've actually taken a moment to just...
Just like drop in. And it's allowed me to be present. You know, when people see me coach, they go, where did that come from, Dan?
I said, I know where it came from. It's connected. It's why I wake up in the morning and I create early in the morning because I'm connected to my creator.
Having faith, my spiritual beliefs, has been the most powerful thing that I've brought, if you want to call it to business, I call it to creation. than everything I've talked about. And I actually find it fascinating when I ask people if they have faith and they go, sure, I'm a Christian.
Sure, I'm a Buddhist. Sure, I'm a Muslim. Sure, I'm whatever religion.
And I go, why don't you bring it to your work? In the heat of the craziest going on in your life, I'm telling you, if you have faith, you can find the calmness. Most pain is self -inflicted.
But when you have God, faith, spirituality on your side, it's an option. Here are three things that I like to do that really helps me connect to my faith.
First thing, write down three things you're grateful for every morning. There's an incredible journal called the Five Minute Journal. It's got a bunch of other practices.
I give those away like candy. Go buy one. It'll be a great guide to help you with this.
My rule is, is one of those things have to be something completely ordinary, like the fact that there's dirt. holding this mountain in place. Or that when you breathe, you can breathe the air and there's enough oxygen to actually feed your body.
It has to be so mundane. I do this with my kids. It's one of my favorite things that I do with them.
It's like, hey, let's do some gratitude. I want to hear something that is just wildly simplistic, but yet is so powerful if you actually think about it. Then take that list and sit with it for 60 seconds.
You might feel like you got to get work done and that to -do list is just going to sit there and stare at you. Let it be. I think gratitude is the best cure for anxiety that I've ever found.
You can't be grateful and upset at the same time. Impossible. And look, pillar seven, this is the one that everybody else out there is starting with.
But I put it last on purpose. And it's not because it's the least important, but every story I've shared with you pours into this one. I have a completely different perspective.
I don't believe you make money. I think you attract money. You bring opportunities, resources into your life.
How? By doing what we just talked about, by becoming somebody who can attract those opportunities. The reason why wealthy people are wealthy is because they develop themselves.
They develop their habits. They develop their character traits. They develop their skills.
They develop their productivity. They do more work on themselves than they do in the work. Figuring out your next funnel, yes, will have to happen.
Realizing that not being an asshole to your team has to be there or nobody's going to work with you. Nobody's going to refer people to you. Nobody's going to suggest work with this agency.
They crush it for us because they're like, I don't even like this guy. You don't create money. .
Through your character, through your love, through your time, through your prioritization, through doing interesting stuff, like having hobbies makes you interesting. Does that make sense? People think that it's about working hard.
I'm saying work hard on you. The money will always follow. And look, this modern life disease is just prioritizing like money, money, money, hustle, create, do more.
You'll be valuable when you have a million dollars in your bank account, when you're making 10K a month. Trust me, you need to be valuable before the money ever shows up. Which came first, me having a million dollar mindset or a million dollar in my bank account?
So like the way I manage all the finances and the money part of my life is a thing I do every day. And I call it the daily cash report. Every morning I get a report.
across all my accounts, personal and business, to tell me financially what is the heartbeat of my life. Because what you measure multiplies. And most people don't want to know what their number is.
Nobody wants to know how their business is doing. And they think that they're doing fine and they haven't seen that a big wire got sent out and that they're not going to be able to make payroll. So then I get this report.
I try to figure out what am I going to do with that money? How do I deploy it? Once I've made those decisions, then I move on with my day.
I don't let the money control me. The money is a tool. It's a resource.
Knowing what it is is good. And that's the important part. What is this money buying?
Because if it's just more people or more things, that's not freedom. If it's your time back, if it's to support your mission, if it's to invest in the people you love, that's valuable. If the answer is just to make the number bigger, what the...
That is the disease we're talking about. Every Sunday, I sit down and I score myself on these seven pillars. One out of five.
Mission. Am I doing work every week to help young people not feel broken? Health.
Am I prioritizing my health? Am I eating right? Am I training hard?
Health has to be there. Love. Have I shown the people that I love that I care about them with my time?
My friends, same thing. Am I investing in relationships? Am I doing it for inventory?
Am I being honest about how people are showing up for me? Hobbies. What am I doing?
Am I mountain biking? Did I skip this week? Did I go wake surfing?
Spirituality. Am I connecting with my creator? Am I slowing down?
Am I using gratitude to appreciate everything I have in my life? And then finances. Am I understanding how money flows into my life and what I use it to invest in, not just buy stuff?
So then I circle the two lowest scores and I make a commitment to two actions I can take next week to improve them. That is the game. It's in my calendar.
I score it on a spreadsheet. I copy paste it every year. I've been doing it for over a decade.
If you do that last part, you're basically avoiding any opportunity for the rest of your life for things to go wrong because you can't go a long period of time without adjusting. If I haven't gone on date night this week, my love score might be low. I'm going to schedule that date night.
If I haven't seen my friends in a while because I've been in a season where I've been like heads down, I'm going to fix that. See how this works? It's how we make sure nothing goes to zero.
This disease was never about working hard. There are seasons when you have to push and you have to create and you got to set a foundation for the rest of it. You just have to make sure that that season doesn't turn into the norm.
The whole point is that in 10 years, you're going to look back at this time and it's going to compound and you're going to have to reflect and you're going to ask yourself, was it a life well lived? And I think the reason why I shared this with you is because a great life is a life well examined. And using these tools to examine different areas of your life is going to set you up.
So just leave me a comment below and let me know which part of your life do you feel you have to put more time into? Is it love? Is it hobbies?
Is it finances? You tell me below in the comments. And remember, if you want my calendar template for the whole preloaded year, just find me on Instagram, follow me and DM me the word YouTube year and I'll send it over.
And if you want to see how you can change your whole life in just six months, click this video and I'll see you on the other side.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Dan Martell opens by naming the thing nobody questions about hustle culture: the season of grinding that quietly becomes the norm, then the decade. What follows isn't another productivity hack, it's the seven-part audit he says he runs on his own life every single week.
Named ideas worth stealing.
03:50acronym
The WHO test
- Wound — what you're willing to share
- Human — who you want to help
- Outcome — what transformation you want to give them
Martell's filter for finding a personal mission, built from the idea that your purpose sits next to the worst thing that's happened to you.
Steal fora personal 'why I do this' page, about section, or brand story
06:30acronym
SMS (health system)
- Sweat — minimum 45 minutes daily, never skip two days in a row
- Meals — pre-decide food to kill decision fatigue
- Sleep — set a bedtime alarm, not a wake-up alarm
A three-part daily health checklist Martell runs to keep energy and mental clarity up without relying on willpower.
Steal fora personal health routine or a coaching program's health module
13:22model
The Preloaded Year
An annual calendar pass, done with his wife, that enters people, anniversaries, and trips before any work commitment goes in, so family time can't get crowded out.
Steal foran annual planning ritual for any founder or founder-couple
15:50list
Friendventory
- List everyone you've given real time to in the last 90 days
- Ask if each person pushes you to grow or keeps you stuck
- Create space (reply slower, initiate less) with the ones who drain you
A relationship audit adapted from a rehab 'transition plan,' used to decide who deserves more of your time and who deserves less.
Steal fora personal relationship audit or a coaching client worksheet
19:30acronym
Three F's (hobbies)
- Fun — if you don't smile thinking about it, skip it
- Frequent — do it weekly, not once a year
- Friends — built around people, not solo
Martell's test for whether a hobby is worth keeping on the calendar.
Steal forvetting whether a hobby or recurring event earns its spot
27:30model
Daily cash report
A report sent to Martell every morning summarizing every personal and business account, so he always knows the financial 'heartbeat' of his life without hunting for it.
Steal fora founder's daily ops dashboard
29:00model
Seven Pillars weekly scorecard
- Mission
- Health
- Love
- Friends
- Hobbies
- Presence / Spirituality
- Finances
Score each of the seven pillars 1-5 every Sunday, then commit to two concrete actions for whichever two pillars scored lowest.
Steal fora personal weekly review template or a coaching check-in
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
30:10link
“leave me a comment below... find me on Instagram, follow me and DM me the word YouTube year and I'll send it over... if you want to see how you can change your whole life in just six months, click this video”
Stacks three asks at once, a comment, an Instagram follow-plus-DM for the free template, and a related-video click, rather than a single clear ask.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
Visual structure at a glance.
