– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

- So I was watching this Woody Allen film

called "Hannah and Her Sisters," and in the movie,

there's this scene where Michael Kane's character, Elliot,

is sitting at the dinner table with his wife, Hannah.

Now, Elliot is completely emotionally detached,

he is disturbed, and that's because he's been having

an affair with his wife's sister.

Shocking stuff, I know.

But this scene really got me thinking

about the way in which a lot of us live our entire lives,

hopefully not by having affairs with our wife's sisters,

but what I mean is that we do certain things

or leave certain things undone in the past

that continue to eat away at us subconsciously

in the present.

And a lot of the time, we do this so compulsively

that we don't even know that we're doing it.

We just see it as normal, we don't know anything else,

yet we're living a lower quality of life because of it.

Every single thing that we do,

every single conversation that we have

is infected by the things that we've left

usually undone in the past.

And I think this is the most insidiously toxic thing

about escapism and procrastination,

and that is because of something

I like to call mental air time.

When we haven't yet done what we know we're supposed to do

and we have a tendency to put these things off

every single day, then we exist in a mental framework

where we are a person who hasn't yet done the thing

that we're supposed to do.

And over a long period of time,

this really changes how we feel about our entire lives,

because no matter what we're doing,

no matter what kind of conversation we're having,

no matter how special the person

we're having that conversation with is,

we are subconsciously tainted by the fact

that we are not where we're supposed to be,

we are not being who we're supposed to be.

And we live our entire lives like this

emotionally disturbed with this feeling of anxiety

that's just always there because of our chronic escapism.

People don't talk about procrastination this way, it's nuts,

because when we procrastinate, it's not just the thing

that we're supposed to do that suffers,

everything else suffers as well

because we're not present with it,

we don't have the mental capacity to enjoy it.

Anything good in our lives is infected with this feeling

like it's not good enough, we're not supposed to be here

because there's that other thing

that we're supposed to be doing.

And the weird thing is,

it's not like we're never going to do that thing,

we usually end up doing it.

Usually the deadline comes closer,

the repercussions for not doing it grows scarier

and more acute,

so we eventually guilt ourselves into eventually doing it

so that we can repeat that cycle every single day

for the rest of our lives.

But what's crazy is since we end up doing it anyways,

there's great utility to just changing the order

in which we do things.

We can escape and do all of the other bullshit later,

but if we could find a way

to do the the most important thing that we need to do

earlier in the day,

then we could change the entire narrative of our lives.

We could change the way we feel about ourselves,

about our capability to solve problems.

And the theme of our lives that's echoing

through our subconscious becomes,

oh yes, I can play video games, I can watch this movie,

I can enjoy this conversation,

because I've already done the thing that I'm supposed to do.

So how do we do it? That's the golden question.

Well, knowing what it's doing to us is great

and I think this will help you get some motivation

to just do the damn thing, but when push comes to shove,

this is an irrational problem.

I can give you all the rationality in the world

but when you're faced with the crossroads

of watching this funny little YouTube video

versus writing a research paper,

something other than logic takes over.

Your monkey brain kind of bullies your rational brain

into coming up with a rationalization

to justify some suboptimal behavior.

So the answer can't be logical.

It has to be an emotional tactic

and I think that tactic is submission.

- Submission.

You know, that's a bit of a problem.

- Nobody talks about this word submission

in a productivity context.

They talk about it in other contexts

but we're not gonna get into those other contexts.

That's not what this channel's about.

What I mean by submission, it is a feeling of melting

into what you're supposed to be doing.

It's not increasing the tension in your body

to try to fight and bully your monkey brain

into doing what your more logical side

of your brain wants it to do.

No, it's acknowledging

that doing what you're supposed to do feels difficult,

it's feeling that tension that's stopping you

from doing that thing, and letting go of it,

and doing the thing anyways.

We need to get good at shutting the brain off,

stopping the chatter of rationalization and escapism,

reduce the tension in our body,

take a deep breath, and just do the thing.

We can think about all the rationalizations afterwards.

But submitting to what you already know

you're supposed to be doing

is less of a psychological feeling,

it's more of a physiological feeling.

And again, this might sound very woo-woo,

but if you've ever tried to take cold showers

or go cliff jumping with your friends,

it's the same feeling.

You almost submit to the discomfort.

If you're standing there at the edge of the cliff

and you don't want to jump,

even though you know it's perfectly safe,

it's a very steep drop off, very deep water,

nothing could happen to you.

You almost need to just submit to the gravity.

Same thing with cold showers.

If you already know you're going to enter

into the cold shower and feel very uncomfortable,

the only way that you're gonna get in there

is if you just walk in.

You stop the chatter, you stop thinking.

The mind is corrosive.

It'll try to figure out all these different little ways

to weasel out of it and you don't end up doing it.

It's like if you already know this is what you must do,

relax your body and submit to it.

And while you're in the cold shower,

it feels so much colder if you maintain this resistance,

if you try to fight the cold,

if you tense up your body

and you try to convince yourself to power through it.

It's so much better if you just concentrate on the cold,

you fully submit to it, you fully focus on it,

and you accept the fact that it's cold,

and then it ceases to be so cold.

You're allowing yourself to relax into this discomfort,

and it actually feels quite euphoric when you do that.

I think this is the key to stop procrastinating.

I think this is the key

to make better decisions in the moment.

You've already heard the logical reasons

as to why you should do the thing

that you're supposed to do.

You know that your life will be dramatically better

if the majority of the time you spend here on this Earth,

you exist in a head space where you have already done

the most important thing that you need to do.

You already know that this is so good for you.

The only step now is when you're confronted

with the crossroads is to just turn the brain off,

to submit to what you're supposed to do.

It's like submitting to the highest version of yourself

and you start to develop trust

that that highest version of yourself

has your best interest in mind.

So if you are now motivated and excited

to submit to your destiny and you want further reading

or other resources that will help you do that,

then I highly recommend the audiobook,

"The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller,

which is an audiobook I frequently revisit

using today's video sponsor, Audible,

because that book really talks about a lot

of the things that I talked about in this video.

It's about distilling down all of these things

that you have to do into this important thing

and it helps you tackle doing this thing

as early as possible

so that you can live the rest of your day

having already done this thing

and having that very narrative change your entire life.

And for those of you who don't know,

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Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
procrastinate /prəˈkræstɪneɪt/ B2	verb - to delay or postpone an action
escapism /ɪˈskeɪpɪzəm/ C1	noun - the tendency to seek distraction from reality
submit /səbˈmɪt/ B2	verb - to yield or give in to something
mental /ˈmɛntl/ B1	adjective - relating to the mind
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ B1	noun - a feeling of worry or unease
toxic /ˈtɑksɪk/ B2	adjective - poisonous or harmful
irrational /ɪˈræʃənl/ C1	adjective - not based on reason or logic
rational /ˈræʃənl/ B2	adjective - based on reason or logic
bully /ˈbʊli/ B2	verb - to intimidate or coerce someone
rationalization /ˌræʃənəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/ C2	noun - the act of making excuses for behavior
tension /ˈtɛnʃən/ B2	noun - mental or emotional strain
corrosive /kəˈroʊsɪv/ C2	adjective - destructive or harmful over time
euphoric /juˈfɔːrɪk/ C1	adjective - a feeling of intense happiness
destiny /ˈdɛstəni/ B2	noun - a predetermined course of events
subconscious /ˌsʌbˈkɑnʃəs/ B2	adjective - relating to the part of the mind below consciousness
compulsive /kəmˈpʌlsɪv/ C1	adjective - relating to an irresistible urge
tainted /ˈteɪntɪd/ C2	adjective - contaminated or spoiled
repercussion /ˌriːpərˈkʌʃən/ C1	noun - an unintended consequence
narrative /ˈnærətɪv/ C1	noun - a story or account of events
capability /ˌkeɪpəˈbɪləti/ B2	noun - the ability to do something