You've definitely heard of monk mode before,
but you can definitely make it better.
And so my new version of monk mode consists of six key elements.
First is your environment.
Second is your mind.
Third is your sleep schedule.
Fourth is your diet.
Fifth is your exercise.
And sixth is your discipline.
So to start, let's talk about your environment.
The most important part of your day-to-day life
because it is a reflection of your mind.
If your environment is full of clutter,
then that means your mind is full of clutter.
So you want to clear out your environment
and have it stripped down to its essentials.
So there are three levels to your environment.
Level one is your workspace,
which is basically where you do your work,
your desk or your office.
Level two is your room and your closet.
When I heard that your environment
is a reflection of your mind,
I just went through and got rid of everything.
And so I bought a tatami mat,
and now the only things in my room are my alarm clock,
a fan and my bed.
Another extremely important part of this monk mode
is sleeping on the floor.
This increases your discipline.
It also allows for more space in your room
and it clears out all the clutter
and allows you to have less distractions.
And then your closet is also extremely important as well.
And the only things that are left in the open
of my room or my closet or my workspace
are the things that I use every single day.
So I actually found it extremely beneficial
clearing my room because now there's no distractions
and I'm able to sit in my room
and read, sit in solitude, sit in silence and meditate.
And all of these things without any distractions
because of one essential piece that I added into my room.
And it's I nailed blackout curtains onto my window
and my door and this keeps out all the noise and the light.
So there's no distractions at all.
Level three are the people you surround yourself with.
So this is your friends, your peers, your classmates.
And then this is also your teachers, your bosses.
Also your family members, siblings, parents and animals.
So all of these people are part of your environment
and they are affecting you.
And they are basically shaping you into who you are today.
The quote, you are the average of the five people
you spend your time with.
That is true.
And when I realized this, I realized I was spending my time
around a bunch of people at school
that I did not have similar goals or dreams with.
And I didn't have similar habits with either.
And so I realized that I needed to get out of school
as soon as possible.
And that's what I did.
I graduated early.
So now I'm done with school.
Now the only people I surround myself with
are those who are like-minded.
Another extremely important part of this monk mode
is treating your phone like a tool and not a toy.
So keep it on do not disturb forever.
Also put it on airplane mode
and power it off when you're not using it.
And keep it in another room like the basement.
The second key element to this new monk mode
is all about your mind.
The first piece to this is learning.
For example, every day read at least 10 minutes
and every day work on improving your skill in your craft.
So for me, I'm working on improving my skill
on this YouTube channel,
making better thumbnails and making better videos.
The second piece to your mind is meditation.
This is keeping your mind clear
and bringing you back to balance.
So this is where your environment
will really play a key role.
Because if you followed the steps and cleared your room
and created essentially a dojo
where it's distraction free,
then that means that you have a perfect meditation environment
built just for you.
And what I like to do is I meditate for five to 10 minutes
and then I just sit in silence for 20 minutes
for the rest of the time.
And then the third key piece to your mind is thought control.
I read in a book called A Law of Success in 16 Lessons.
Napoleon Hill said,
self control is solely a matter of thought control.
And he also said that self control is a law of success.
So essentially what that means is in order to see success,
you must control your thoughts.
Most people don't control their thoughts.
Most people go around their days just in a daydream.
They're just like zombies
and they never control their thoughts.
But if you're not controlling your thoughts, who is?
The third key element is your sleep schedule.
A lot of people neglect sleep and it shows.
In order to have optimal sleep,
you must have at least nine hours.
I don't care what the doctors recommend.
I don't care what anyone says.
This is essential for your health
because your sleep is the foundation to your health.
And then you also must have a consistent sleep schedule.
So that means waking up at the same exact time every day
as well as going to bed at the same exact time.
This also means you must keep it consistent on the weekends.
Element number four is your diet.
So there are three levels to your diet.
On all three levels, you're eating extremely healthy.
So that means no processed stuff, no junk food,
nothing like that.
This means whole foods only.
All three levels have the exact same type of food.
It's just the quality is different.
Level one, the food has seed oils
and it is not organic
and it's not grass-fed or pasture-raised
or anything like that.
So it's got estrogenics and it's got seed oils in it.
Now, level two is better.
There's no seed oils,
but there are still non-organic foods
and non-pasture-raised or grass-fed foods or wild caught.
Now, level three is optimal.
It's the best, highest quality food you can get.
This is no seed oils, it's organic
and it's wild caught, pasture-raised, grass-fed,
all of the best quality labels
and it's not packed in plastic.
Now, the fifth key element to this monk mode
is you exercise every day except on days that you need a rest.
And there are two workouts.
Workout one is weights in the gym, lifting weights,
or you can do calisthenics.
Workout two is cardio-based, running, sprinting,
biking, swimming, whatever.
And the sixth key element, extremely important
because none of this matters without it, is discipline.
Only shower you take is cold.
That means if you take a shower after your second workout
or your first workout, then that means it's cold.
The entire time and you do not change it to warm.
You keep it cold, the entire shower.
Another more passive method of increasing your discipline
is like I mentioned earlier,
sleep on the floor with a tatami mat.
After a while, this doesn't really increase discipline
too much because I actually found that I prefer
the tatami mat now and it's actually gotten
quite comfortable for me.
But in the beginning, it was increasing
my discipline slightly.
So that's why I added this here.
But that's the real monk mode.