so there's a term that's been gaining a lot of traction lately it's locking in and you might have heard it it's all about getting serious focusing shutting out distractions locking in is when you dial into what really matters and actually finish things in 2017 I was sitting at my desk at Google and I was doing well by most people's standards I had a great job six figure pay every benefit you can imagine but all I could think about was quitting and working for myself building something of my own and I knew in my gut that if I wanted that to actually work I'd have to go all in so I locked in I worked around the clock to the point where it felt like working for myself was the only option I had I became obsessed there was no going back no maybe in my mind and that was the first time I realized what locking in can do when you cut out the distractions when you focus and when you just push forward and that's exactly why I want to talk to you about this today locking in because what it can do for you it can be lifechanging a few months of Total Focus can completely transform your life once you decide to lock in the first thing you're going to notice is how quickly your mindset shifts it's not just about working hard it's about working smart being relentless in your focus and let me tell you back in 2017 when I was still working at Google I felt that change firsthand I would wake up thinking about my YouTube channel and go to bed thinking about my next piece of content all of a sudden my job at Google wasn't just a safety net anymore it started feeling like this weight that I just needed to shed I wanted to succeed I really wanted to bet on myself I knew that if I wanted to succeed I couldn't just dip my toes in I had to dive in head first I had two goals in 2017 one was to grow my YouTube channel to 500,000 subscribers and two to feel good about quitting a job as good as Google I needed to save some money I needed to have a safety net in case things didn't work out and what I did is you know I did some math I came up with a number $80,000 I lived in la la is expensive right so looked at that piece of paper for a while it said 80k on it and I got pretty nervous I'm not going to lie I was sweating so I added another 20 on top to make around $100,000 that meant that I'd have to work really really hard to save 100 Grand I needed to stop spending money unless it was extremely necessary I had to lock in there's a lot of YouTube videos out there titled I lock myself in a room for 6 months right and of course that's an exaggeration no one is locking themselves in a room for 6 months and just sitting there in the dark right it just means you're actually going to lock in for a while you're not really going to pay attention to the outside and come out a new person here's a wild stat for you a study by the American Psychological Association found that consistent Focus over a period of 6 months can improve your productivity by 25% imagine what being 25% more productive means to you to your career to your sideous to your personal goals 6 months of deep focus can put you so far ahead people won't be able to catch up now let's do a a quick exercise together here if you're just listening to this video in the background I know some people do that but I beg you I'm going to ask you to focus on this for just a minute I want you to imagine yourself living your ideal life your dream life you don't have to go crazy if you don't want to it doesn't have to be private jets and Yachts right maybe your dream life is having an aesthetic physique that you're proud of making six figures a year being happily married to your dream woman living in your dream ocean front house or pent house in the city imagine your ideal life now think of where you are today just acknowledge the truth and be honest do you have a great physique is your income enough to live a great life are you dating women that excite you are you happy with where you are in life today and maybe you are I'm going to tell you where I'm at I have a good life I have a lot of great things going on in my life you've seen some of it on social media and I don't even show the best parts to be honest with you I just try to keep that private but even though I'm happy I'm not satisfied I want more and not in a egotistical greedy way it's actually the opposite I just want to know how far I can go how far can an immigrant from Brazil who moved to the US at age 13 didn't speak English Mom working at the school cafeteria Dad working as a dishwasher how far can I go from working as a landscaper working at Domino's Pizza working as a server at Outback Steakhouse just to pay my bills when I was in my 20s to owning properties in my Miami Los Angeles starting multiple businesses I'm proud of that but is there more in the tank I think so and I owe it to myself I owe it to my family who immigrated here right to give us the best chance possible I owe it to see how far I can go so I am locked in I'm building my brand Forte series to become a 50 to100 million brand I've been posting content online since 2011 that's 13 years without a single break I don't plan on stopping anytime soon and as a matter of fact I'm always thinking of ways to improve my content and you can clearly see that if you go back to my old videos I think they suck right I'm trying to get better with every video with every upload with every hair product so let's get tactical here how do you apply this how do you actually lock in and the hard part isn't even knowing what to do I'm going to give you the plan the three things that you have to do to lock in but the hard part is going to be sticking with the plan so in the end of this video after I give you the three-step plan I'm going to give you the one thing that helps me keep going that pushes me forward every day and without this I think I would have given up a long time ago now the first step is to Define what locking in looks like for you and it's a two-step process all right first you figure out your goal and second you figure out what you have to do to achieve that goal and I'm going to show you how to write that down exactly so you have a clear vision of what locking in looks like for you specifically before I show you that I'm sure you could see the watch that I've been wearing this is the date 002 from Aura watches big shout out to them for sponsoring today's video I wish you guys could feel how heavy this feels all right this feels really nice on the wrist it feels like a luxury time piece but of course without the luxury price tag now when I first started working with them they only had a handful of options now they've expanded their whole collection and they have a ton of new watches with different metal options you can go with brushed or polished steel and silver rose gold which is really clean they also have them in Black if you like that Sleek look the strap options are endless from steel brakes bracelets to rubber straps and even leather which just came out now I absolutely love watches I think every man should wear a watch you guys know that I say that all the time women have their jewelry you know their earrings their rings necklaces bracelets so on so forth men we have our watches you know most of the time that's our main accessory I have a big watch collection you've seen it here on YouTube but of course those watches are pricey I realize that most people can't afford those just yet so this is a great alternative it's at anain able price tag that looks great and it feels like you spent a lot more every man needs a watch and this is a high quality time piece without the crazy price tag it's clean it has a minimalist fashion forward design that I personally love and of course I'm not going to just let you pay full price Aura is hooking you up with 40% off your entire order with no limits you can buy one two 10 watches and straps and get 40% off if you go to a.at alexcosta I'm going to leave that link in the description below okay back to the are the two things that you need to get locked in your goal and how to achieve it now let's say your goal is to get a promotion at work you're not just going to wait for it to happen you have to actively make it happen first you need to get crystal clear on what's expected for that next role look at the people who already hold that position what do they do differently right you try to understand what skills do they have that I don't have what impact are they making and write those things down because now your focus is to master each of those things then you need to go above and beyond locking in for this promotion means treating every day as if you're already in that role be proactive look for projects that need Improvement when you're manager needs help volunteer to lead those initiatives and become the person that adds value to every meeting don't just be present add value show your boss that you're thinking one step ahead there's a study by Harvard Business Review that found that employees that consistently go beyond their job description are 50% more likely to be promoted that's a huge statistic so now you know the goal is to get a promotion and the way to get there is to be proactive and to go above and beyond that's step one of locking in step two is to implement that into your daily life into your routine because once you know exactly what you need to do to reach your goal you just need to build it into your schedule into your everyday life and here's the thing locking in it doesn't work if it's just something that you intend to do it's it needs to become a habit it needs to become part of your day-to-day routine it needs to be built in woven into your life so the most important thing you need to implement this into your routine is to learn time management people think locking in is just about being on their computers all day look time management is everything I use Google Calendar for every single thing this is what a typical Monday looks like for me pretty much every minute is accounted for I don't have to think about what I have to do it's already laid out for me I already made that decision of what I'm going to do on Monday a long time ago now I just execute the plan Google calendar is your best friend if you're trying to lock in start using it as soon as possible it's free all right because it's going to change your life I guarantee you're going to be more productive if you create a calendar like this and you just have it open on your phone or your computer so you can keep track of your time and your tasks and this is the oldest saying in the world time doesn't stop right so when you're looking at that and time is going by you know either you're getting things done or you're getting left behind and it's purely on you you created that schedule on Google Calendar so you have to stick to it or you going to feel horrible or at least you should now in 2017 when I wanted to save those $100,000 which was a huge huge goal for me I had the craziest routine ever I would wake up at 6:00 a.m. hit the gym commute to the Google office work until 5: or 6 then drive home work all night on my YouTube channel and Instagram page I would shoot edit I'd watch tutorials on how to make thumbnails on Photoshop on the weekends I would shoot all of my Instagram photos for that week because I had no time to shoot them during the week and and it was dark by the time I got home from work so I couldn't even shoot if I wanted to I just had to lock in because I knew that if I failed that meant that I should probably just keep my job at Google and give up on the dream so it was all or nothing that chapter of my life taught me so many lessons but time management was by far the most important one and a pro tip here is that I used to not be very good at knowing how long tasks would take me I would assume that I could get something done in 30 minutes but really I needed an hour to do it and that would derail my whole day so in the beginning give yourself some Grace give yourself some extra time to get things done then once you know how long these tasks take you you just adjust those right so give yourself some Grace in the beginning now step number three is to minimize distractions which are all over especially now that we have our phones and social media put yourself as the number one priority right it sounds selfish oh put yourself as number one how about other people this is what it takes to get to the next level you can't be locked in if your priorities are to drink with your friends to travel to binge watch Netflix understand that your priority is to succeed to achieve that goal that you set out to achieve the rest can wait sacrifices will be made you might not see your friends as much you might not have a lazy Sunday for a while who cares if the goal that you wrote down is a good goal a goal that you actually want if it's going to change your life for the better those sacrifices in the end should be worth it by the way locky in doesn't even mean that you're this robot right you're still human humans need breaks but when you do rest when you do take a break do it intentionally if you're going to have a rest day make it a day that recharges you hang out with your friends go on a hike do something that brings you excitement Joy don't let that break turn into two days then three then a week that's where most people slip up they let that one day off derail their entire plan locking in means getting right back into your routine the next day oh and by the way be ready for push back your friends might say come on dude just come out to tonight one drink that girl's coming right or oh you're too stuck up now you're too serious just relax and look balance is important but if you know that you have to work that day to achieve that goal that you that you set out to do discipline is saying no to what you want now for what you want most later on it's about those small daily decisions that add up Michael Phelps the most decorated Olympian of all time he trained seven days a week for 5 years leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics no days off on Christmas no day off on his birthday that's the kind of discipline that leads to world records and one of the most incredible athletes of all time now I'm not saying that's what you have to do you don't have to go that extreme but just think about what that kind of consistency can do for you if locking in can make someone an Olympic champion imagine what 6 months can do for your business for your personal goals for your Fitness but there's one last thing one thing that keeps me going every single day the one thing that pushed Michael Phelps to be able to not miss a single day of training and I'm going to be honest with you this thing is not even uh teachable uh but I'm going to try my best when I wake up it's like I'm going to battle all right if I don't do these things on my calendar if I don't get them done I'm not winning I'm competing against myself the one thing that keeps me going is this obsession with becoming better and better being obsessed with getting a promotion will get you the promotion being obsessed with being in the best shape of your life will bring you those results because if you're truly obsessed I'm talking about true Obsession here if you're truly obsessed about something it's hard to think about anything else you think about it in the shower you think about it in the car in bed you dream about it and when that much thought goes into a specific goal chances are you're going to make it happen so here's my challenge to you forget the New Year's resolution BS start early for the next 6 months lock in cut out what doesn't serve you stay consistent stay disciplined and when you do you're going to find that locking in isn't just a trendy term it's a mindset shift that's going to change your life