- [Mitch] There's one habit that is ruining your life,
and it's not something like playing video games,
or scrolling on TikTok,
or watching people get it on on the internet,
it's something that no one really talks about.
In fact, I've never once in my life
heard a YouTuber talk about this topic.
And in this video, I'm going to tell you what it is
to sharing with you the intimate story,
of probably one of the worst times in my life.
In 2019, I was obsessed
with growing my Mitch Manly YouTube channel,
and I remember I was living
in this tiny apartment in Vienna, Austria.
It was in a really, really bad part of town.
There was no dinner table in the apartment,
there was no air conditioning,
and it was really, really hot there in the summer.
I can still remember hearing the sounds
from my neighbors who were getting it on every single night.
I didn't really care that much
because the only thing that existed in my mind
was how to make each and every video better.
How could I make the thumbnail more clickable?
How could I make the title sound better?
How could I make a hook
to get people to stay on the video longer?
It was literally all that I thought about,
to the point where I, without exaggeration,
had no friends in Vienna.
The only thing that I did was work on YouTube videos
and then I would hang out with my girlfriend on Sundays
and late Saturdays.
It was a really, really rough time in my life.
And the thing that made this really interesting, though,
was I became really successful.
By my 30th YouTube video, I had like 400,000 followers,
and then money and fame and brand deals,
which I never took, by the way, entered my life.
So on the surface, it actually looked like
things were going really, really well.
But internally, I was not in a good place.
You know, emotionally, I was really not well.
I had literally no work-life balance,
even in my relationship at that time,
you know, things were not optimal
due to me not understanding how to properly communicate,
due to me not having proper boundaries,
which I take full responsibility for.
There was just a lot of stuff that wasn't going that well,
but there was no one on earth who was going to tell me,
"Mitch, you were not living life the right way."
Because I was literally making money and becoming famous.
Like that's like the American dream,
even though I'm Canadian,
who's gonna tell me that I'm doing it wrong?
But the thing that was interesting was,
it wasn't like I was consciously thinking to myself,
"Oh, let me ignore this problem in my relationship
and go work on Mitch Manly YouTube videos."
I didn't even know I was doing that.
I wasn't even aware.
I was so unconscious
that I didn't even know I was using YouTube
as a way to escape my problems.
And thankfully, YouTube was a very healthy,
you know, form of escapism.
But I think everyone today
has some kind of form of escapism.
You know, maybe for you it's scrolling on TikTok,
or going on Instagram,
or even watching YouTube videos like this.
Like, for example, have you ever thought
of a memory that made you feel really bad,
or you thought of something
that you know that you should do that's really hard?
And then, instead of either doing it,
or instead of thinking about that past memory,
you simply go to your phone and you start scrolling,
you start going on TikTok,
you start, you know, blah, blah, blah?
This is something that even I do to this day,
but I think most people are doing this
like on steroids today.
It's like, for most people, it's kind of all that they do
and that's why they don't really accomplish
anything in their life.
And something that some of you are probably thinking is,
"Oh, so Mitch, like the bad Habit is escapism, right?"
Sort of, but not really.
Like the way that I like to look at problems
is I kind of like to look at it like an onion, right?
So I wanna unpeel the onion
and get to the root cause of the problem.
And escapism is a symptom of the real problem,
in my humble opinion.
The habit that is ruining people's lives
is they're so unbelievably unconscious,
to the point where they are,
you know, using social media as a form of escapism.
But the problem is, is that,
they're not even aware that they're doing that.
Just like how I wasn't aware
that I was using YouTube to escape my issues.
So the solution
to a lot of the world's problems in my opinion,
is just to become a lot more conscious.
Become conscious of even the food that you're eating.
Like instead of just buying something
from the grocery store,
look at every single ingredient in that,
and then go to Google
and look up every single chemical.
That is choosing to become more conscious
with the foods that you eat.
And also, when it comes to the content that you're consuming
ask yourself, "When I'm reading this news article
that is really, really telling me to do something
do they have a political bias?
Are they affiliated with the company
when it comes to the product
that they're trying to get me to take?
Is there something there?"
This is thinking critically.
And the big, big, big issue,
when it comes to people who are being unconscious
is it removes the ability to think critically.
And when you have a human population
who can't think critically, that is very, very scary
because they can program you
to think what they want you to think,
therefore, you will do what they want you to do.
The answer to a lot of the world's problems
is to become a lot more conscious.
And if you wanna see a Mitch Manly face reveal,
then go follow my actual account
on Instagram @MitchWiggins.
There you can see what I look like,
you can see my lifestyle,
and on top of that, you can speak with me directly
because as of recording this video,
I don't have that many followers,
so I'm actually interacting with my real followers,
which has been really, really fun.
I've been giving tips on making money online,
I've had a few people
ask me for crypto tips, which is interesting,
but I really love interacting with you guys.
So go follow me on there right now @MitchWiggins,
but if not, I totally understand.
Feel free to click the video on the screen right now
if you wanna stay on YouTube.
Thanks for watching.
I love you very much,
and I'll speak with you very, very soon.