Malik Peace, my name is Malik Peace.
I make videos and tools to help people think differently, deeper and can get most out of their one existence.
My mission is simple: be useful.
To help as many people as possible get the most out of their one life. To me that means thinking deeply about the big questions, like why we’re here and what actually matters. Then it means doing something about it.
How it’s going so far...
Names and profile pictures are blurred for privacy.
If you are reading this, I assume you want to get more out of your life(good!). And when you research a million different people on how to do this, you’ll get a million different answers.
But the common denominator between ALL of them is that they took:
Consistentfocusedaction.
Please if you can, staple this to the front of your forehead or have it posted up on a wall somewhere. Because that right there, is basically the secret to success. Literally, almost 90% of all motivational self improvement whatever, can be summed up with just those 3 words.
If you look at anyone great, across any area of life, 99.9% of the time, you’ll find relentless almost obsessive focused action, across an area of their life, at least for a period of time.
Isaac NewtonWorked alone on math, light and motion for 18 months while plague closed CambridgeThe start of calculus, optics and gravity, before 25
Marcus AureliusWrote notes to himself on how to live, through a decade of war on the frontierMeditations, still read almost 2,000 years later
Harriet TubmanWent back into the South about 13 times over 10 years to lead people outAbout 70 people freed, and 700+ more in one Civil War raid
Kobe BryantTrained before sunrise, often from 4 a.m., through 20 seasons with one team5 NBA titles and 18 All-Star games
Steve JobsObsessed over every detail of his products for 30+ years, even after Apple pushed him outThe Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and Pixar
EpictetusBorn into slavery, then taught Stoic philosophy for decades at his own schoolThe Enchiridion, still read 1,900 years later
LeBron JamesTrained and played at the top of the NBA, every season, for over 20 years4 titles and the most points in NBA history
AristotleStudied under Plato for 20 years from age 17, then taught for decadesThe foundations of logic, biology and ethics
David GogginsTrained for hours a day and lost 100+ pounds in under 3 monthsNavy SEAL, ultramarathoner and pull-up record holder
Muhammad AliStood by his beliefs through 3+ years banned from boxing, then fought his way backHeavyweight champion of the world, three times
DiogenesLived his philosophy every day with almost nothing, sleeping in a clay jarCynicism, which helped shape Stoicism
Arthur SchopenhauerKept refining one philosophy for 30+ years while almost nobody read itIdeas that shaped Nietzsche, Wagner and Einstein
Cristiano RonaldoDid extra training after practice, almost every day, for over 20 years900+ goals and 5 Ballon d'Or awards
Galileo GalileiBuilt his own telescopes and studied the sky, night after night, for yearsJupiter's four largest moons, and the start of modern astronomy
Michel de MontaigneSpent 20 years in his tower writing and rewriting one bookThe Essays, which invented the essay
William ShakespeareWrote one or two plays a year for over 20 years37 plays and 154 sonnets, still performed 400 years later
Carl SaganExplained science to the public for decades, in books, on TV and on stageCosmos, watched by 500 million+ people
SocratesQuestioned people about how to live, day after day, for his whole adult lifeThe foundation of Western philosophy, without writing a word
MrBeastMade and studied YouTube videos obsessively from age 13, for 5 years before his first hitThe most subscribed channel on YouTube
Albert EinsteinWorked on physics in every spare hour, for years, around a full-time patent office jobRelativity, E=mc² and a Nobel Prize
SenecaWrote letter after letter on how to live, through the last years of his life124 letters still read 2,000 years later
Albert CamusWrote nearly every day through tuberculosis and a world warThe Stranger, The Plague and a Nobel Prize at 44
Leonardo da VinciReworked one portrait for over 10 years, while filling thousands of notebook pagesThe Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world
Viktor FranklKept rebuilding his life's work on scraps of paper, through 3 years in Nazi campsMan's Search for Meaning, read by millions
Charles DarwinStudied nature for 20+ years before publishing, 8 of them on barnacles aloneOn the Origin of Species, and the theory of evolution
J.K. RowlingWrote the first Harry Potter for about 5 years, then took 12 rejections500 million+ Harry Potter books sold
Simone de BeauvoirWrote almost every day, mornings and afternoons, for decadesThe Second Sex, which reshaped feminism
Jeff BezosPut almost everything back into Amazon for 9 years before its first full year of profitOne of the biggest companies on Earth
Christopher NolanShot his first film on weekends for a year on £3,000, then kept making films for 25 yearsInception, Interstellar, Oppenheimer and an Oscar
Baruch SpinozaWrote one book for 14 years, while grinding lenses to pay his wayThe Ethics, still studied 350 years later
Fyodor DostoevskyKept writing for 30+ years, through debt, deadlines and 4 years in a Siberian prison campCrime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov
Abraham LincolnKept running for office for 28 years, through two lost Senate racesPresident, the Union saved and slavery ended
Nelson MandelaNever gave up the fight against apartheid, through 27 years in prisonThe end of apartheid, and South Africa's first Black president
Neil ArmstrongFlew experimental planes and spacecraft for 14 years, 200+ kinds of aircraftThe first steps on the Moon, in 1969
Serena WilliamsTrained nearly every day from age 4, starting on public courts in Compton23 Grand Slam singles titles
Friedrich NietzscheWrote through near blindness and migraines for a decade, walking hours a day to thinkA dozen books in 10 years, including Thus Spoke Zarathustra
PlatoWrote and taught philosophy for about 40 years at the Academy he foundedThe Republic, and an Academy that lasted about 300 years
Maya AngelouWrote every morning for decades, in a hotel room she rented just to write7 autobiographies, poetry and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Simone BilesTrained in the gym nearly every day for 20+ years, since age 630 World medals and 11 Olympic medals
Jean-Paul SartreWrote every morning and every evening, almost every day, for decadesBeing and Nothingness, and a Nobel Prize he turned down
Marie CurieStirred tons of ore by hand in a leaky shed for about 4 years to isolate radiumTwo Nobel Prizes, the first person to win in two sciences
Søren KierkegaardWrote at a furious pace for about 12 years, three major books in 1843 aloneThe foundations of existentialism
ConfuciusTaught students how to live and lead for decades, much of it wandering from state to stateThe Analects, and 2,500 years of influence
Malala YousafzaiSpoke up for girls' education from age 11, and kept going after being shot at 15The youngest Nobel Prize winner, at 17
Mahatma GandhiLed nonviolent protest for about 30 years, once walking 240 miles to make saltIndia's independence in 1947
The BuddhaSpent 6 years searching for the end of suffering, then taught it for about 45 yearsBuddhism, followed by hundreds of millions today
Martin Luther King Jr.Gave 2,500+ speeches and traveled 6 million miles over 11 yearsThe Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act
Elon MuskWorked 80 to 100 hour weeks for 20+ years on rockets and electric carsSpaceX's reusable rockets, and Tesla, the most valuable carmaker
Arnold SchwarzeneggerTrained 4 to 5 hours a day, six days a week, for over a decade7 Mr. Olympia titles, then Hollywood and Governor of California
Orville WrightBuilt and tested kites, gliders and engines with his brother for 4 yearsThe first powered flight, in 1903
Photo credits
Via Wikimedia Commons. Isaac Newton: Godfrey Kneller, Public domain; Socrates: Copy of Lysippos (?), Public domain; Serena Williams: AndrewHenkelman, CC BY-SA 4.0; Marcus Aurelius: Daniel Martin, CC BY-SA 4.0; MrBeast: Tyren Redd, CC BY 4.0; Friedrich Nietzsche: Friedrich Hermann Hartmann, Public domain; Harriet Tubman: Powelson, Benjamin F. 1823 - 1885, Public domain; Albert Einstein: Oren Jack Turner, Public domain; Plato: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain; Kobe Bryant: Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0; Seneca: Calidius, CC BY-SA 3.0; Maya Angelou: Clinton Library, Public domain; Steve Jobs: Matthew Yohe, CC BY-SA 3.0; Albert Camus: Photograph by United Press International, Public domain; Simone Biles: Ocoudis, CC BY-SA 4.0; Epictetus: William Sonmans / Michael Burghers, Public domain; Leonardo da Vinci: Attributed to Francesco Melzi, Public domain; Jean-Paul Sartre: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl; LeBron James: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0; Viktor Frankl: Prof. Dr. Franz Vesely, CC BY-SA 3.0 de; Marie Curie: Henri Manuel, Public domain; Aristotle: After Lysippos, Public domain; Charles Darwin: Beao, Public domain; Søren Kierkegaard: La Biblioteca Real de Dinamarca, Public domain; David Goggins: //www.flickr.com/photos/thecanonrattman/, CC BY-SA 3.0; J.K. Rowling: Daniel Ogren, CC BY 2.0; Confucius: Anonymous Chinese painter of the Western Han period, Public domain; Muhammad Ali: Ira Rosenberg, Public domain; Simone de Beauvoir: Moshe Milner, CC BY-SA 3.0; Malala Yousafzai: flowcomm, CC BY 2.0; Diogenes: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain; Jeff Bezos: SECWAR, Public domain; Mahatma Gandhi: Elliott & Fry, Public domain; Arthur Schopenhauer: Johann Schäfer, Public domain; Christopher Nolan: PhilipRomano, CC BY-SA 4.0; The Buddha: พระมหาเทวประภาส วชิรญาณเมธี (ผู้ถ่าย-ปล่อยสัญญาอนุญาตภาพให้นำไปใช้ได้เพื่อการศึกษาโดยอยู่ภา่ยใต้ cc-by-sa-3.0) ผู้สร้างสรรค์ผลงาน/ส่งข้อมูลเก็บในคลังข้อมูลเสรีวิกิมีเดียคอมมอนส์ - เทวประภาส มากคล้าย, CC BY-SA 3.0; Cristiano Ronaldo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0; Baruch Spinoza: anonymous, Public domain; Martin Luther King Jr.: Yoichi Okamoto, Public domain; Galileo Galilei: Justus Sustermans, Public domain; Fyodor Dostoevsky: Vasily Perov, Public domain; Elon Musk: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0; Michel de Montaigne: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain; Abraham Lincoln: Alexander Gardner, Public domain; Arnold Schwarzenegger: Bernhard Holub, CC BY-SA 4.0; William Shakespeare: Attributed to John Taylor, Public domain; Nelson Mandela: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel, CC BY-SA 2.0; Orville Wright: Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright (credited as photographers) [1], [2], Public domain; Carl Sagan: NASA/JPL, Public domain; Neil Armstrong: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain.
But to make it more tangible for you, this is how to actually lock in:
Stare at your wall or yourself in your eyes in the mirror and think about your existence. Doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad just listen. Thinking is not, watching a video and thinking. It’s not having music in the background and thinking. It’s very simple to just say “think about your life,” but it’s one of the most uncomfortable things any human can do, but necessary if you wanna get the most out of your existence. You can never expect to fix or change your life if you don’t do this.
You are a biological machine. If you sit in the dark, eat bullshit, barely sleep, don’t move, what do you expect is going to happen??
1. Sleep - Sleep is probably the most overlooked but is arguably the most important.
2. Diet - Just eat clean. I'm not a nutritionist, but just eat cleaner if you can. We all know what "good" and "bad" food is lol.
3. Move - Move even if it's 15 minutes. You don't have to
(These are so so basic but barely anyone does them. do NOT be like most people)
Our entire lives are going to be full of doing "stuff" a lot of people get depressed whenever the "stuff" they're doing feels useless.
Because with doing stuff comes doing things we don't want to do, which is suffering. And whenever we can't find meaning in the suffering, life feels meaningless.
This was at least my experience. I was unhappy and couldn't seem to focus on shit. But in hindsight it was because the things I was trying to force myself to focus on, I didn't care about.
But once you desire what you TRULY want above all else, a mountain to climb, a reason you get up, etc. The next step is to...
Once you get clear on what you want, you then need to figure out HOW to get it. Then, once you know WHAT you want and HOW to get it, you simply remove everything that is not the HOW.
This might sound extreme. But it does depend on your goal and your tolerance to mediocrity.
For example. I had a video game addiction. So I fixed this problem by selling my PS5. And I’ll tell you, it’s VERY hard to play Tekken at 2am if you don’t have a tv or PS5 in your house.
Delete TikTok. Delete Instagram. Delete apps you know are adding nothing to your life. Especially in the very beginning to get the ball rolling.
(While this step is important, this is the ONLY thing a lot of people focus on, which is an error. Reducing friction is only useful if you have a worthy goal to work towards. A lot of people just remove but then have NOTHING else to do which causes them to relapse. Before reducing friction, make sure you know WHAT you want to do first.)
The hardest part is the beginning because you have no evidence that what you're doing is working, and you usually have to front-load so much effort before seeing any results from that effort.
But, once you start, you realize that it generally takes a lot less time than you think to get into a flow state and keep going.
A lot of the time, you just need to force yourself to start, keep going for a bit, maybe 5-15 minutes, then your brain will automatically focus.
For deep focus and creative fields especially:
Deep work:
A focused fool accomplishes more than a distracted genius. Deep work allows you to get more shit done in an hour than you can in 10 unfocused hours. It’s when you do nothing but ONE thing that's going to move you forward. It’s when you’re uninterrupted in a clear, quiet area, with no phone, and you lock in.
99% of your time will be spent in quiet frustration - Exurb1a
In my experience, consistency matters more than intensity. And it's way more useful to stop focusing on streaks, but rather how consistent you are over a large body of time.
A reminder I tell myself all the time as I'm working and want to give up is: Keep going until you remember why you started.
Because as you continue, you're going to get feedback that you're on the right path at some point. And if you actually care about your goal, it's going to light your soul on fire and give you energy you never knew you had.
Which is why, above all else, you have to KEEP GOING.
3/10 effort for 3 years is better than 9/10 effort for 3 weeks.
The speed in which you can get back up will determine the quality of your life.
To summarize how to lock in:
Stop and think about your life.
Take care of yourself so you have energy.
Figure out exactly WHAT you want and WHY you actually care about it.
Figure out what actions you NEED to do to move towards your goal.
Start, even if it's small.
Remove everything that is not the goal.
Keep going until you see results.
Then get the most out of your existence.
Also, these are some tools I made I hope you find extremely useful:
The Life Audit and the Freedom Number are free and take a few minutes.
- The Life AuditA simple tool to help you see how much time you have left, and how much of it goes to waste.Warning: might get a bit existential lolStart the audit
- 25+5 Lessons I’ve Learned at 25Every lesson I wish I knew earlier, written by hand.Free when you join my email list.Read the lessons
- ExampleYour Freedom Number is$1,674,60012% of the way there. Free at 52.Your Freedom NumberThe amount of money you need invested to live off the returns and stop trading time for money.Two minutes from now, you’ll know yours.Find my number
- Focus RoomA timer that fills the screen.Focus, and get it done.Open the Focus Room
I’ve been working on something big...
Over the past several years I’ve been making videos. And while it’s nice and I’m able to help people, I want to be more valuable outside YouTube. So over the past several months I’ve been obsessed with trying to figure out what I can make that’s actually useful and can help people get their shit together.
That thing is Memento. And I can’t wait for you to use it when it’s released :)
I never spam, don’t worry lol
See Memento