Change Your Life by Journalling - 10 Powerful Questions

2024-04-02 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 22:06 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Goals, purpose and life design (also: Business and entrepreneurship) · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, Feel-Good Productivity thesis, His own numbers, His medical past, His own products discussed, Sponsor segment present

Ali shares ten journaling questions that shaped his life: money no object, your funeral, Dickie Bush's ten-year week, the energy audit, the wheel of life, the Odyssey plan, goal and bottleneck, Brian Tracy's one goal, whether your business works for you, and two years to live; their point is to prompt action.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Journaling as the habit that most changed his life; ten prompts

★★★ Ali calls journaling, which he says he has done pretty consistently since about 2014, the single habit that has most changed his life: many good things in his life came directly from it. — 00:00:00 · first in: 2023-09-29, Change Your Life by Journalling in 2026

00:00:27 — Question 1: what would you do if money were no object, and how would you use your talents to serve others

★★★ Ali's first journaling question, which he asks himself about every three months: what would you do if money were no object? So much of what we do is for the sake of money. — 00:00:27
★★ Ali has tried sipping cocktails on a beach and found it not particularly enjoyable; everyone he has spoken to who made a lot of money and then retired has been miserable, because work you enjoy is profoundly meaningful. — 00:00:52
★★ Ali says a big part of what makes life feel meaningful is doing things we are good at, using our strengths, and serving other people. — 00:01:19
★★★ Ali's follow-up to the money question: if you had all the time and money in the world, how would you use your talents to serve others? — 00:01:41
★ Entrepreneurs, creators and students Ali meets for lunches and dinners often ask him what to do with their lives, and his first question to them is often what they would do if money were no object. — 00:01:41
★★ If he had all the money in the world, Ali says, he would write more books and keep making YouTube videos, but with no schedule and no sponsored videos, on his own terms. — 00:01:41
★★ With money no object, Ali would also love to run workshops and seminars teaching productivity, aligning your actions with the life you want, and how to reach financial freedom. — 00:02:29 · work optional
★★★ After many journaling prompts Ali realised the main thing he wanted to do with his life was teach; seeing that he would serve others by teaching rather than practising medicine led him to quit medicine. — 00:02:29

00:02:56 — Question 2: what would you like people to say at your funeral

★★★ Ali's second journaling question: what would you like people to say at your funeral? Think of family, friends, coworkers and people whose lives your work has affected. — 00:02:56
★★ At his funeral Ali would love people whose lives his work changed to say his content showed them they were on a path chosen for them and gave them the courage to change course. — 00:03:48
★★ Knowing what he wants said at his funeral gives Ali a clear north star; such clarity about why you do your work makes it feel more fun, meaningful and purposeful. — 00:04:16
★★ Ali says the people who love us and work with us do not care about our performance: they care how we made them feel and how we showed up. — 00:05:00
★★★ After asking what his family and friends should say at his funeral, Ali asks how far he lives in alignment with it, and usually finds he has overemphasised work at the expense of relationships. — 00:05:00
★★★ Ali says the whole point of journaling questions and prompts is that they encourage you to take action and tweak your course. — 00:05:29

00:06:10 — Sponsor read for Trading 212

★★ Ali says journaling has let him make a lot of money running his business: many of his decisions to grow it came directly from journaling. — 00:06:10

00:07:08 — Question 3: Dickie Bush's question of repeating this week for the next 10 years

★★★ Ali's third question, from his friend Dickie Bush: if you repeated what you did this week (week of 1 April 2024) for the next 10 years, where would you end up, and is that where you want to end up? — 00:07:08
★ Ali prefers to ask Dickie Bush's ten-year question about a week rather than a day, since a single day, such as one full of Zoom meetings, may not be representative. — 00:07:32
★★ Auditing his last week, Ali went to the gym four times, spent too much time in meetings, perhaps too long playing Baldur's Gate one Saturday, had two date nights, saw friends twice and family once. — 00:07:32
★★ Ali says everything in life comes from compounding: you are compounding either positively or negatively. — 00:08:20
★★ Ali has decided to go to the gym at eight every morning, which will compound positively for his health; in the past he went about once a week or never. — 00:08:20
★★ Ali warns that it is easy to make short-term decisions at the expense of the long-term game, such as skipping workouts, date nights, friends or sleep in a busy week, and these decisions compound. — 00:08:44

00:09:30 — Question 4: the energy audit

★★★ Ali's fourth question is the energy audit: what have you done in the last two weeks that energised you, and what has drained your energy? — 00:09:30 · energisers and drainers
★★ Ali got the energy audit, marking calendar events plus or minus, from Professor Grace Lordan's book Think Big, Take Small Steps, which he calls really good; his podcast Deep Dive has an interview with her. — 00:09:59 · Deep Dive
★★ For draining things you have to do, Ali advises the three Ps of Feel-Good Productivity, play, power and people, to turn them into a source of energy. — 00:10:24 · play, power, people, Feel-Good Productivity (book)

00:10:53 — Question 5: the wheel of life

★★★ Ali's fifth question is the wheel of life: split life into health (physical, mental, spiritual), relationships (romance, family, friends) and work (mission, money, growth), plus joy, and ask how aligned your current actions in each are with the future you want. — 00:10:53
★ Ali's team member Tintin has done the wheel of life every Sunday for several years. — 00:11:57
★★ Running the wheel of life on himself, Ali rates his joy about six out of 10, which is why he is considering buying a PS5. (hedged) — 00:11:57

00:12:26 — Question 6: the Odyssey plan

★★ Ali rates his spiritual health, his soul category, about four out of 10, as he has done no meditation and has not been mindful recently. (hedged) — 00:12:26
★★★ Ali's sixth question is the Odyssey plan, three sets of questions; the first asks what your life looks like five years from now if you continue down your current path. — 00:12:26
★★ The Odyssey plan's other two paths ask what your life would look like in five years on a completely different path, and on a different path where you cared about neither money nor what people thought. — 00:12:56
★★★ Ali calls the Odyssey plan probably the prompt that most changed his life: doing it in late 2019 showed him his medical career was not the one he wanted in five years, and led him to make YouTube videos and write books instead. — 00:12:56
★ Ali likes an image from Tim Urban's blog showing that our lives could have taken many paths and can still take a multitude of others. — 00:13:48
★★ Ali says it is easy to feel confined to the path your degree suggests, economics to banking or medicine to doctor; the Odyssey plan and such prompts show you have far more control and options than you think. — 00:14:17

00:14:42 — Question 7: what is the goal and what is the bottleneck

★★ Every year at his annual review Ali redoes his Odyssey plan, to make sure he is thinking big and that inertia does not keep him on his current path as a content creator. — 00:14:42
★★★ Ali's seventh question, which he asks himself a lot and asks creators and entrepreneurs he coaches: what is the goal and what is the bottleneck? — 00:14:42
★★ Ali says we often get embroiled in our problems and forget to ask what the goal is, though the goal changes everything. — 00:15:29
★ At a writers' retreat Ali took part in a hot-seat session: each person spends 45 minutes discussing their problems while the others give advice and ask questions. — 00:15:29
★★ The bottleneck is the one thing most stopping you from reaching the goal: for one hot-seat member aiming to grow a business to $10 million, it was having too few products to sell. — 00:15:58

00:16:23 — Question 8: Brian Tracy's one goal, and Ali's goals for the year

★ Ali took his eighth question from a YouTube Short of Brian Tracy, who he says has written many good books on goal setting and productivity. — 00:16:23
★★★ Brian Tracy (quoted): Brian Tracy advises asking which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on your life, circling it, moving it to a clean sheet and following seven steps, from writing it down and setting a deadline to doing something every day. — 00:17:16
★★ At the start of the year, leading an annual planning session for about 12,000 people in his audience, Ali used Brian Tracy's one-goal idea to set his own goals for the year. — 00:17:16
★★★ Ali has three main goals, in work, health and relationships; his work goal is to grow his business from $5 million to $10 million in revenue. — 00:17:52
★★★ Ali's health goal is the best shape of his life, and over the last two or three months he has reached it: more muscle mass and general activity than ever before. — 00:17:52

00:18:15 — Question 9: do you work for your business or does your business work for you

★★ Ali has two relationship goals for the year: one is secret, the other is to host six mini adventures for friends and family. — 00:18:15
★★★ Ali's ninth question, for entrepreneurs: do you work for your business, or does your business work for you? — 00:18:15
★ Ali first came across the question of whether you work for your business about a year earlier, at an entrepreneurs' retreat in California. — 00:18:15
★★★ Asked whether his business worked for him, Ali realised he worked for it like an employee, in a prison he had created for himself. — 00:18:44
★★★ The question of whether his business worked for him led Ali to make many changes in his business and life; he is now far less stressed than a year ago, enjoys the business more and feels more confident about its future. — 00:18:44
★★ A year ago Ali would have rejected a video about journaling prompts as not clickbaity enough and selling no products; now he just wants to make videos he thinks are useful. — 00:19:22

00:20:12 — Question 10: if you knew you would die two years from now; sign-off

★★★ Ali's tenth question: if you knew you were going to die two years from now, how would you spend your time? He prefers it to the "die tomorrow" version, which would lead to destructive choices. — 00:20:12
★★ With two years to live, Ali would keep working, since he enjoys his work and finds it meaningful, but would play more video games, fly to Pakistan to see his grandma and host more dinners with friends. (hypothetical) — 00:20:12 · Ali Abdaal's grandmother, Pakistan
★★ Ali sometimes changes the timeline of the question: with two years left he would not write another book, with ten he might write two, so the time horizon dictates which projects you want to work on. — 00:20:54
★★ Writing Feel-Good Productivity took Ali three and a half years. — 00:20:54 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
★★ Ali says you need not be wedded to what you write in answer to a journaling prompt: it gives you ideas, and you can ask which of those things you can just do now. — 00:21:20

In the description and comments

★★ Replying to a viewer who misses the translated voice-over on his videos, Ali says he will get back to doing it. — creator comment
★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked for videos in Arabic for viewers not fluent in English, the channel says it is working to do this on every video soon. — creator comment

Threads in this video

restate · Should you journal, and how? — Ali calls journaling, which he says he has done pretty consistently since about 2014, the single habit that has most changed his life: many good things in his life came directly from it. (00:00:00)
refine · Should you journal, and how? — Ali says the whole point of journaling questions and prompts is that they encourage you to take action and tweak your course. (00:05:29)
refine · What keeps you motivated once money is no longer the goal? — Ali has tried sipping cocktails on a beach and found it not particularly enjoyable; everyone he has spoken to who made a lot of money and then retired has been miserable, because work you enjoy is profoundly meaningful. (00:00:52)
restate · What keeps you motivated once money is no longer the goal? — If he had all the money in the world, Ali says, he would write more books and keep making YouTube videos, but with no schedule and no sponsored videos, on his own terms. (00:01:41)
refine · How do you find your purpose or what to do with your life? — Ali's follow-up to the money question: if you had all the time and money in the world, how would you use your talents to serve others? (00:01:41)
restate · How do you find your purpose or what to do with your life? — Ali's sixth question is the Odyssey plan, three sets of questions; the first asks what your life looks like five years from now if you continue down your current path. (00:12:26)
refine · Do you need motivation or discipline to get things done? — Knowing what he wants said at his funeral gives Ali a clear north star; such clarity about why you do your work makes it feel more fun, meaningful and purposeful. (00:04:16)
refine · How do you balance ambitious work with family life? — After asking what his family and friends should say at his funeral, Ali asks how far he lives in alignment with it, and usually finds he has overemphasised work at the expense of relationships. (00:05:00)
refine · How do you design the life you want? — Ali's third question, from his friend Dickie Bush: if you repeated what you did this week (week of 1 April 2024) for the next 10 years, where would you end up, and is that where you want to end up? (00:07:08)
restate · How do you design the life you want? — Ali's fifth question is the wheel of life: split life into health (physical, mental, spiritual), relationships (romance, family, friends) and work (mission, money, growth), plus joy, and ask how aligned your current actions in each are with the future you want. (00:10:53)
restate · How do you have more energy during the day? — Ali's fourth question is the energy audit: what have you done in the last two weeks that energised you, and what has drained your energy? (00:09:30)
restate · How do you make boring work more enjoyable? — For draining things you have to do, Ali advises the three Ps of Feel-Good Productivity, play, power and people, to turn them into a source of energy. (00:10:24)
retold · Ali does the Odyssey Plan in 2019 and finds his planned career in anaesthetics unexciting (2019) — Ali calls the Odyssey plan probably the prompt that most changed his life: doing it in late 2019 showed him his medical career was not the one he wanted in five years, and led him to make YouTube videos and write books instead. (00:12:56)
refine · How should you review your year and plan the next? — Every year at his annual review Ali redoes his Odyssey plan, to make sure he is thinking big and that inertia does not keep him on his current path as a content creator. (00:14:42)
refine · Should you set goals, and how? — Ali's seventh question, which he asks himself a lot and asks creators and entrepreneurs he coaches: what is the goal and what is the bottleneck? (00:14:42)
restate · Should you set goals, and how? — Brian Tracy advises asking which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on your life, circling it, moving it to a clean sheet and following seven steps, from writing it down and setting a deadline to doing something every day. (00:17:16)
looked back · The Feel-Good Productivity Annual Planning Workshop, Ali's live Zoom workshop for people who pre-order his book (2023) — At the start of the year, leading an annual planning session for about 12,000 people in his audience, Ali used Brian Tracy's one-goal idea to set his own goals for the year. (00:17:16)
progress update · Ali says he is doing a fitness journey at some point soon (2022) — Ali's health goal is the best shape of his life, and over the last two or three months he has reached it: more muscle mass and general activity than ever before. (00:17:52)
restate · How big should you grow your business? — Asked whether his business worked for him, Ali realised he worked for it like an employee, in a prison he had created for himself. (00:18:44)
refine · How do you avoid regrets in life? — Ali's tenth question: if you knew you were going to die two years from now, how would you spend your time? He prefers it to the "die tomorrow" version, which would lead to destructive choices. (00:20:12)
looked back · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Writing Feel-Good Productivity took Ali three and a half years. (00:20:54)
promised · Ali promises to bring back translated voice-over on his videos (2024) — Replying to a viewer who misses the translated voice-over on his videos, Ali says he will get back to doing it. (creator comment)
progress update · Ali promises to bring back translated voice-over on his videos (2024) — Asked for videos in Arabic for viewers not fluent in English, the channel says it is working to do this on every video soon. (creator comment)
refine · How do you exercise consistently and get in shape? — Ali has decided to go to the gym at eight every morning, which will compound positively for his health; in the past he went about once a week or never. (00:08:20)