How To Change Your Life In One Day

What this episode is about

This discussion critiques the effectiveness of the self-help and therapy industries, arguing that their profitability stems from people's ongoing struggles to find lasting happiness rather than genuine solutions. Additionally, it highlights a viral blog post by social media influencer Dan Co on X, which gained immense traction and views, sparking commentary on the nature of content virality and engagement within social media platforms.

Key takeaways

• Self-help is a treadmill; you keep running but never reach the finish line of happiness.
• Elon Musk's $1M prize for viral content proves that even influencers need a financial incentive to engage.
• Dan Co's viral post shows we crave shortcuts in a world that rewards effort, not magic solutions.
• Critics of New Year's resolutions aren't wrong; they're just tired of empty promises wrapped in big hopes.
• The irony of life-changing advice? It's often just a collection of simple truths, dressed up in complexity.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Matt Walsh (Host) · 21 min speaking
• Dan Co (Guest) · 2 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day, self-help industry, therapy industry
2. 15:00 – 20:00: self-help industry, therapy industry

Notable quotes from "How To Change Your Life In One Day"

• That's why this the therapy industry is so profitable. It's why the self-help industry is so profitable because everyone is trying to do this.

  about therapy industry · at 0:00

• Impressed as everybody else. The article is titled How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day.

  about How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day · at 2:44

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Books & papers

• How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day — Book · 1 mention · first at 2:50

Concepts & topics

• therapy industry — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 0:00
• self-help industry — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 0:03
  That's why this the therapy industry is so profitable. It's why the self-help industry is so profitable because everyone is trying to do this self analyze themselves into happiness.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 That's why this this the therapy industry is so profitable. It's why the self-help industry is so profitable because everyone is trying to do this self analyze themselves into happiness. But no one succeeds or gets any happier which is why they keep going back to the therapists and the self-help books. That's the point. If any of this actually worked, these industries wouldn't exist. There's one other thing I wanted to talk about which is a big headline on X. Anyway, um, and th this is the the part of the show where I'm going to be the cynical bastard who hates the thing that everybody else loves, which is to say it's not going to be any different from any other part of the show. Uh, because that's every single day. There's a guy named Dan Co who is, I think, some kind of social media influencer, and he wrote a like a blog post on X. uh he actually he wrote it on X's brand new feature where you can write a an article

0:54 or a blog or I don't know what they're calling it an expost directly on the platform. So, it's like Substack or something, but it's directly on the platform. And Elon really wants everyone to use this new feature, understandably, you know, he wants to keep everything contained in this in this app as much as he can, which is why he announced a $1 million prize for whoever writes the most viewed X blog or X post over the next week. I think that's I don't know. I think the the contest started a few days ago, and I'm not sure how long it runs.

1:25 Now, the funny thing is that Dan would easily be the winner, except that I think he wrote this article before the contest was announced, which makes it ineligible, I believe. Not exactly sure, but anyway, Dan wrote this uh this post, which now has 160 million views, tens of thousands of uh of retweets, reposts. Um, I've seen it reposted to my feed hundreds of times and I like I often do, I ignored it the first 500 times. Like when there's something really popular that's some viral thing that's circulating, usually the way it goes for me, my own personal trajectory is that I see it pop up, I'm not interested, and then I see everyone talking about it and now because I'm a contrarian, I'm even less interested.

2:10 Now just out of principle, I'm not going to look at it. But then it keeps going and I'm like, okay, well now I just finally have to. I like I can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't know what this thing is. So, um you know I I and I and I saw people including some people that I I think I have some respect for talking about this post and insisting that it's like one of the best things they've ever read. It's lifechanging. I saw that exact thing said many times. This is life-changing. Life ch this post is life. It's deeply insightful. Life-changing. Amazing. And uh so I finally decided to read it and I have to say that I was not nearly as impressed as everybody else. The article is titled How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day.

2:54 So you can see why it's so popular. You know, everybody loves a shortcut. Who doesn't? I do, too. Everyone loves a shortcut. And here's an article promising to fix my whole life in one day. Wow. I mean, there's a lot to fix. So, that's a lot of work for one day. Let's see. Um, you know, hey, I got to click on it and find out what's going on. And and then you click on it, you see that it's very long, so I can't read it uh to you. It's it's a it's a very long thing. It's probably I don't know, it's like looks like it's like 10,000 words.

3:25 Not especially well written, I have to say. But I'll read the opening. So, this is the intro from Dan Co on this article that last night had been read 160 million times. Now, it's probably more than that. Uh, if you're anything like me, you think New Year's resolutions are stupid because most people go about changing their lives in the completely wrong way. They create these resolutions because everyone else does. We create a superficial meaning out of status gains, but they don't meet the requirements for true change, which goes a lot deeper than convincing yourself you're going to be more disciplined or productive this year. If you're one of these people, I'm not here to talk down on you. I tend to be a bit harsh in my writing. I've It's just bad writing. I really It's It's pretty bad writing, I have to say. Um that's okay. I've quit 10x more goals than I've achieved. I think that should

4:16 be the case for most people. But the fact that people try to change their lives and utterly fail almost every time holds true. However, as much as I think New Year's resolutions are stupid, it's always wise to reflect on the life you hate so you can launch yourself towards something that that much better as we will discuss. So whether you want to tr start the bit, start the business, transform your body, or take the risk toward a more meaningful life without quitting after 2 weeks, I want to share seven ideas you probably haven't heard before on behavior change, psychology, and productivity so you can do just that in 2026. Okay, so that's the promise, the pledge he makes to the reader. Uh and he says um you know that that he's going to he's going to change your life. This is what he's going to do. And the article continues with a number of little lessons like little insights about life trying to explain why you're not as

5:03 successful as you want to be. It's really what this is about when he says fix your life. I mean really what we're talking about make you a more successful person and there's many different ways to measure success but in in every way make you more successful. And um and he goes through kind of this list and there and he extrapolates on all of them, but I'll read the list of the little like life-changing insights, I guess. You aren't where you want to be because you aren't the person who would be there. You aren't where you want to be because you don't want to be there.

5:38 Third, you aren't where you want to be because you're afraid to be there. Four, the life you want lies within a specific level of mind. And then five, intelligence is the ability to get what you want out of life. And like I said, he elaborates on each of these at length, but basically the idea is that you're unhappy and unsuccessful because you have the wrong mindset. That's the idea, right? The the the more successful, happier life lies within a certain level of mind. Um, and you know, you think you value certain things, but you don't. And if you want to change your life, you have to change what you value and and who you are intrinsically. It's basically the idea.

6:20 And then he gets to a number of exercises that he wants. Again, I'm trying to summarize all this. It's quite verbose, but he he he wants you to perform these exercises in order to become happy and successful. In fact, not just that, but to fix your life. So, we got the diagnosis from Dan, and then he goes into the the uh treatment plan here, right? Here's the here's here's what you do. Here's the prescription. So, I'll read a little bit of this. Uh, how to launch into a completely new life in one day. Um, the best periods of my life always came after a period of getting absolutely fed up with the lack of progress I was making. How do you dig into your mind? How do you become aware of your conditioning? How do you reach profound insights and truths that change the trajectory of your life? Through the simple but often painful act of questioning. Something that so few people do. And you can tell by how they

7:11 speak or give their thoughts on a specific topic. Questioning is thinking and very few people do it. I want to give you a comprehensive protocol that you can use every year to reset your life and launch into a season of intense progress. Um blah blah blah. This will require one full day to complete. So I recommend you follow along with the exact protocol. You'll need a pen, paper, and an open mind. Um okay. And then uh where do we get to the uh wow this is long I can't even Okay. So set aside 15 to 30 minutes to think about and answer these questions.

7:52 Uh and then here are some of the questions. What is the dull and persistent dissatis dissatisfaction you've learned to live with? What do you complain about repeatedly but never actually change? For each complaint, what would someone who watched your behavior, not your words, conclude that you actually want? What truth about your current life would be unbearable to admit to someone you deeply respect? Um, okay. So, you ask yourself those questions. Then, uh, now we turn to those, uh, into what I call an anti- vision, which is a brutal awareness of the life you do not want to live. Okay? And then he's got another series of questions you should ask yourself.

8:35 Um, this goes on on and on. Uh, [snorts] and this is just the morning meditation, but it it continues as the day goes on. He says, "Take the time right now to create reminders or calendar events in your phone. Include the question in the reminder or event so that you can immediately start thinking about it. The more random and non-conlicting with your schedule there are, the better." So then, so he wants you to set calendar reminders in your phone. alarm goes off and it's going to prompt you to think about a certain question right about your life. So 11:00 a.m. What am I avoiding right now by doing what I'm doing? 1:30 p.m. If someone filmed the last 2 hours, what would they conclude I want for my life? 3:15 p.m. Am I moving toward the life I hate or the life I want? 5:00 p.m. What's the most important thing I'm pretending isn't important?

9:23 7:30 p.m. What did I do today out of identity protection rather than genuine desire? 9:00 p.m. When did I feel most alive today? When did I feel most dead? And then there's even more reflections as you get later into the night. And uh and anyway, it goes on. Okay, so again, this is why this is why it's worth spending a little bit of time. It's 160 million views. Um and I really kind of hate all of it. I I I really do. And uh and I'll tell you why. It's not that everything he says is completely wrong. And I did read the whole damn thing. Some of it is wrong. Some of it has some truth to it. You know, the fundamental idea that there's like a misalignment between what people say they want and what they really want.

10:10 That's obviously true. That's an insight as old as time. I mean, that's in the Bible. That's in the New Testament. That's Romans. Uh I do not understand what I do, but what I hate I do. Um [snorts] but what I for what I what I what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do. um that that's St. Paul. So, there's nothing new here, right? And the rest of this stuff is for the most part just like kind of very standard self-help uh mumbo jumbo. And every year some new self-help book comes along uh or self-help expost in this case, promising like this whole new system for fixing your screwed up life. But it's never new. It's always the same.

10:52 So, anytime you hear about, oh, is this a brand? This person has come up with a whole new system, the fix your life, it's not new. I guarantee you it's not new. It is the same thing. Like, every self-help book for the last 40 freaking years has basically been the same. And they always claim, "Oh, this is totally different. This is revolutionary." It's not. It's basically the same. And so, I always have the same problems with it. And and here are my problems. First of all, you cannot fix your life in one day. You can't do it. The fundamental promise of the article and of most self-help books is a lie. I mean, the whole reason why it has 100 million views is because it promises to fix everything in one day.

11:41 That's why it's why people click on it. Fix it in one day. But it that's that's impossible. Okay? If you want to fix everything in a single day, you can't. So, I could write that article and make it a lot shorter and more efficient. How to fix everything in one day. Uh, impossible, right? The whole text of the article just impossible. Can't do. Stop being lazy. Why did you click on this thinking that you're going to fix everything in a day? Like, your problem is that you clicked on it. The fact that you're the kind of person that would click on that looking for that answer, that that's your problem right there.

12:13 You're lazy. There is not any system you can adopt today or selfanalysis you can perform or mindset shift or whatever that will fix your problems today and tomorrow and the day after and forever more. That doesn't exist. Um now you might be able to do or say or think something right now that in the moment will help you feel better or help you feel more productive, but that moment will pass. And then you have a new moment and a new day and another one until you die. Right? This is the story of life. You have these moments, these highs where you feel like everything is going to be different from here on out. And then two weeks later, it's like that moment. You don't even remember that it happened. You don't even remember that you felt that. That's how far in the past it is. Really, like two hours later, that might be the case. That's life.

13:11 There is no fix you can adopt in a single day that will effortlessly transfer over to the next day. So Dan wants you to go through this whole, you know, internal checklist, this series of meditations. And uh but but even if you feel better as a result of it, well, that doesn't mean that you're now a happier or more successful person. And even if it does inch you barely in that direction temporarily, it's not going to matter the next day. Okay. So, either Dan wants you to just perform this checklist, do this self analysis, and he's claiming that you do it once and you're good for the Well, then he says do it every year, which I thought I thought you said you're fixing my whole life in a day. So, now I got to do this every year. So, okay. But, so do it once a year.

14:00 So, this is going to put me this is going to be such a revelation. It's just going to carry over. It's going to carry me through the rest of the year. Uh, well, that's not going to work. And and doing it every day is even dumber because here's the thing, cuz then maybe you say, well, but maybe you you perform this self analysis every day. Maybe this is something you do every day. Maybe you meditate on these things every day. Maybe it is a day-to-day thing. Well, that's even worse because the other thing is this. The key to you to your success and happiness is not found through even more obsession and self selfobsession and self analysis. Sitting around and thinking about yourself and your own state of mind and how you feel and what you want and if you really want what you want. I think I want this but do I really want this? Do I want to want this? You know that is the opposite of what you should be doing if you want to

15:01 be a happy and successful person. You already do enough of that. Everyone does. And if you're if you're reading something like this or you get a self-help book, you definitely already do enough of that. That's why you're the C. That's you're a customer for this stuff for that reason. I always love these self-help guides that act like the average self-help reader isn't already spending every waking moment in a state of constant selfanalysis. They all are. That's why they're customers for this crap. Uh, this is not the key to success or happiness or fulfillment in life.

15:40 The key to the extent that there can be a key is to get out of your own damn head for 5 seconds and just go do like just go, I'm sorry, there's no other solution. There's something that you want done. You're not happy because it's not done. Well, you have to do the thing. You have to just go do that thing. There's no other way around it. It's the most boring and simple and also and also most difficult path is the only one. Nobody has ever selfanalyze themselves into success or happiness. It's never happened. That's why this this the therapy industry is so profitable. That's why the self-help industry is so profitable because everyone is trying to do this selfanalyze themselves into happiness.

16:25 But no one succeeds or gets any happier, which is why they keep going back to the therapists and the self-help books. That's the point. If any of this actually worked, these industries wouldn't exist. If the self-help industry could actually help you, it would no longer exist. They wouldn't. There would be no more posts about it. There would be no more no more self-help gurus doing videos. there be no more books. Cuz if it worked, it's like all the stuff's already out there. The key to happiness is already there. We don't need more.

16:57 Here, here's an uncomfortable truth. Okay? No truly successful person in the history of the world has ever done any of this Okay? And I I really want you to think about that. Which truly successful person do you think has ever set a reminder on their phone reminding them at nine o'clock at night to reflect on when they felt most alive? Do you think any great man, any man of achievement has ever had his phone go off and he looks down and thinks, "Oh yeah, this is my time to meditate on when I felt most alive today." H let me think. Has any successful person ever done that? That stuff is for losers. It just is.

17:47 Successful and happy people don't even know what that means. You go up to a successful person, again, successful by any measure. Ask them, "When did you feel most alive today?" They're going to look at you like, "What? When did I feel most alive? What the hell are you? What? I don't their mind's not even that's that kind of ridiculous pointless naval gazing is the kind of thing that a successful happy person never does. Doesn't mean they're not self-aware. It doesn't mean they're not thoughtful. It's the naval gazing. It's when did I do I feel most alive while I'm doing this? That successful happy people never do that ever. Now that we've started 2026, perfect time to cross getting life insurance off your list and uh kick off the year with real peace of mind. Making sure your family is taken care of is a big responsibility and making sure everything's in place if uh something happens can feel like an

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19:20 Head to policygenius.com/walsh to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's policygenius.com/walsh. You know, if you aren't successful in life, the reason is actually very simple. You don't need to read a 10,000word article or a whole self-help book to discover it. If you aren't successful, it's not because you failed to conduct the right self assessment or you failed to put reminders in your phone or you failed to meditate on your inner life and your inner experiences. Now, if you're not successful in whatever field or area of life you want success in, whether we're talking about in a job, an industry, being successful as a parent, I mean, whatever it is, it's because you're not trying hard enough or you aren't good enough or both.

20:10 That's it. Every single person who's ever been unsuccessful at something, it's always because they aren't trying hard enough or they aren't good enough or both. Very often it's both. But usually it's the first. Usually you don't even get past the first step. You know the industries that I've been in media, you know, I've done some publishing, I've made movies. So I've been, you know, these are these are industries where many the grave is a graveyard of dead dreams. everywhere you go and uh lots of people who have big dreams of success and what I found is uh and there's a lot of failures all around in all these places and what I found and I think this is the case in any industry you go to that um 99% of the people that I come across that are just are not successful in one of these areas well you can look at them you can look at them for 10 seconds and you're like okay well I see the is that you're not working hard enough.

21:14 You also probably you also might not have the the innate talent that you need for this. But before we even get to that, you're getting outworked by everybody around. So you sit around feeling sorry for yourself, making excuses, being envious, getting mad at people, holding grudges because they're more successful than you, but they're outworking you by like a hundred times. But when you're going to bed early at night and you're and you're you're laying in bed looking at your phone, like they're still working on whatever their craft is. They're psychotically obsessed with it and they outwork you.

21:48 They work a thousand times harder than you. That's why they're more successful. And this is true of, like I said, parenting. Being a su successful parent has nothing to do with money, right? Do you raise your kids to be are they happy? Are they welladjusted? Are they virtuous people? That's being a successful parent. a lot of failure. A lot of people fail at parenting in a big way. Consequences are quite dire for that. But um why do people fail fail at parenting? And there's a lot of excuses they come up with, but it always comes down you didn't work hard enough.

22:21 The people that are really good at this, like they raise kids, you look at their kids, and their kids become young adults. You're like, "Wow, it all their kids are happy and they they're getting married and they're they're having kids and they just got this beautiful family." [snorts] Um how did they do that? It's not that hard to figure out. They put the work in. They they worked hard as you know. They they made the sacrifices and a lot of parents don't do that. They'd rather just turn the TV on, give them a phone, get them out of the way.

22:49 You're lazy. You're not working hard and you're going to fail at this. That's why. And then when that happens, you're going to make excuses. But that was the reason. So um that's it. That's how you get where you want to be. And I think I think all uh self-help books and self-help blog posts and all the rest of it are really just meant to get around this one simple fact that people don't want to work hard. That's what all this is about. How can I fix everything without actually having to do much? That should be the title of the article.

23:24 How to fix everything in one day without actually doing anything. Well, of course, the problem is that you can't. Hey YouTube, thanks for listening to the show. If you'd like access to my full show with no ads, you should go to dailywire.com and use promo code Walsh to get two months free on all annual plans.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "How To Change Your Life In One Day"?

Matt Walsh (Host), Dan Co (Guest).

What is "How To Change Your Life In One Day" about?

This discussion critiques the effectiveness of the self-help and therapy industries, arguing that their profitability stems from people's ongoing struggles to find lasting happiness rather than genuine solutions. Additionally, it highlights a viral blog post by social media influencer Dan Co on X, which gained immense traction and views, sparking commentary on the nature of content virality and…

What is mentioned in this Matt Walsh episode?

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including therapy industry, self-help industry, How to Fix Your Entire Life in One Day. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How To Change Your Life In One Day"?

The episode runs 24 min; the transcript is about 4,381 words in 33 timestamped sections.

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