Positive Self-Talk Adds 7 Years to Your Life | Nir Eyal
episodePreviously titled “Stop Limiting Yourself: How Your Beliefs Become Your Biology | Nir Eyal” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 12, 2026
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What is discussed at the start of this section?
It turns out that people who can persist the longest are the ones who are more likely to succeed. When I did interviews for this research, I talked to billionaires and I talked to people who were broke. And you would expect that people who don't succeed in life, that they would have more failures. That's actually the opposite. People who are more successful are the ones who failed more because they were more persistent. And when they persevered, even though they failed more times, eventually if they hit it, sometimes they hit it big.
He is an author, a behavioral design expert, and teacher who focuses on the intersection of psychology, technology, and human behavior, the inspiring Nir Eyal.
So what happens if day after day, week after week, year after year, we constantly recite a script about our limitations, about our labels, about what we can't do? It becomes physiologically as well as psychologically true. Really? If you have positive views about aging at 30, studies have found, there's a study at Yale that found that people who had those positive views at 30 lived on average seven and a half years longer. That is more of an effect size than quitting smoking, than diet.
It's more of an effect than exercise. How important or terrifying is the words we think or say about ourselves and our limits to our life? Incredibly important. The best things you can do Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Nir Eyal in the house. And he is an author, a behavioral design expert, and teacher who focuses on the intersection of psychology, technology, and human behavior. He's sold millions of books worldwide, helping people overcome distractions, build habits that stick, and take back control in a world that is designed to pull us off track. Thank you so much, Nir, for being here. Excited about this, man. Thanks. Great to be back.
It's going to be fun, man. This is a topic that I love because most of my life, I grew up feeling very insecure originally because school, I was in the bottom of my class all through grade school, all through middle school, high school, and college. Bottom of my class, bottom four, because they used to rank us on our grade cards and tell us essentially either how smart or how stupid we are based on the rest of the class. And I was always in the bottom four. So I always... had this belief that I wasn't smart enough. It was like this feeling that I wasn't smart enough, but for whatever reason, there was something else inside of me that said, no, you can make something of yourself.
How do beliefs shape our perception of success?
There was like some calling, some voice, some feeling, some essence that was like, it doesn't matter if you're stupid on your grade card or if you're lack the intelligence in school. If you have the courage to risk, to put yourself out there, to try and fail, to make mistakes, you can get better and you can do extraordinary things. And that belief, thank goodness, has carried me over the last 20 years. To, you know, excelling in athletics and sports, to building a business where I had no skills or like anything about business, to launching a podcast, to writing best-selling books, when I didn't have any of the evidence that those things would be possible. Yeah. But I had this like essence or belief that was like, I think I can figure this out.
If I just... If I take the next step, if I meet the right person, if I ask the right questions and then try, try, try, something's going to work out. And that belief has given me the ability to, I think, outperform so many people who are way more intelligent than I am, who are way smarter, who have more degrees, who have higher education than me, all that stuff. But I just had the courage to believe. And why is it, in your opinion,
Thank you.
that so many people who are extremely smart, extremely talented, have all the degrees, accolades in the world, still lack the courage or the belief that they can go and launch the thing that they really wanna launch.
We see this all the time.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is discussed at the start of this section?
0:00–2:24
2
How do beliefs shape our perception of success?
2:24–4:31
3
What is the significance of persistence in achieving goals?
4:31–13:03
4
How can we transform limiting beliefs into empowering ones?
13:03–46:02
5
What role do beliefs play in shaping our reality?
46:02–46:32
6
How can negative beliefs impact personal growth?
46:32–47:30
7
What is the significance of gratitude in our lives?
47:30–48:29
8
How can we redefine our beliefs for a better future?
48:29–1:30:15
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The School of Greatness
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Why Grit Isn’t Enough to Get What You Want | Angela Duckworth
Why You Feel Stuck and How to Actually Change | Dr. Katy Milkman
Money Loves Speed, but Wealth Loves Time | Sharran Srivatsaa