The Truths Exercise
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- —
Robin Waite's antidote to imposter syndrome and self-doubt. You list ten things you know to be true about yourself — anything at all, business or personal — on the basis that these are facts nobody can take away from you, and that a journey lies behind each one. Then you write future truths: what you want to be true twelve months from now. The critical mechanic is language. Saying you are going to do something grants permission to defer it, so future truths must be written as though they have already happened — I am, I have. Robin keeps a list of around a hundred of these, both existing and future, and reads it whenever self-doubt shows up. His logic is simple: reading it makes him feel good, and feeling good makes him more likely to act.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
List ten things you know are true about you
Write ten statements — anything counts, business or personal, trivial or serious. Ali's list runs from height and video games to having a YouTube channel, a podcast, a medical degree, and wanting to release an album. Robin says the exercise is genuinely hard to start, which is why the number is deliberately small.
Pro tip Do not filter for impressiveness. The mundane truths carry the same weight because they are equally unremovable.
- 2
Keep expanding the list over time
Ten is a starting point. Robin's point is you could come up with a hundred or a thousand things you know to be true, and behind each of them is a journey and a version of you that made it happen. His own list sits at around a hundred entries covering both existing and future truths.
Pro tip Add to the list whenever something is completed. Every closed goal converts into a permanent truth.
- 3
Write what you want to be true in twelve months
Define the identity you want a year out. Ali's version includes being a published author, having written a book he is proud of, having shored up the foundations of the business, and having lived in Austin for a while. Robin frames these not as goals but as your identity twelve months from now.
- 4
Convert the language from future to present
This is the load-bearing step. Robin corrects Ali the moment he says I'm going to — that phrasing gives permission to put it off. Rewrite every future truth as though it has already happened: I am a published author, I have lived in Austin for a few months, I am currently working on my second book.
Pro tip Rewrite immediately after drafting. The first version will almost always slip into future tense.
Watch out Any statement still in the future tense functions as a deferral, not an intention. Robin treats this as the difference between the exercise working and not.
- 5
Read the list whenever self-doubt appears
Robin calls his the morning formula, though he admits he reads it in the afternoon during his break. Whenever a moment of self-doubt hits, he goes back to the list and looks at the legacy he has built and his own makeup and identity. The claimed chain is that this gives a boost of self-confidence and self-worth, which makes him feel good, which makes him more likely to act.
Pro tip Ali's framing is that even if you attempt the future truths and fail, the existing truths remain permanently yours — the downside is bounded.
In the wild
Asked to name ten truths, Ali produces them in under a minute: five foot eleven and a half, video games he does not make time for, reading books, a YouTube channel, a podcast, medical school, having vaguely enjoyed working as a doctor, chess, guitar, musical theatre and Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, wanting to release an album one day. Robin then asks for twelve-month truths and Ali starts with I'd like to be a published author. Robin makes him convert them into present tense: I am a published author, I have lived in Austin, I am currently working on my second book.
→ A list of concrete identity statements produced live, with the future ones rewritten as already true.
Robin describes keeping around a hundred truths — existing and future — and calls the practice his morning formula, though he actually reads it in the afternoon during his break. When a moment of self-doubt arrives, he goes back to the list and looks at the legacy he has built up and at who he is in terms of makeup and identity. He asks Ali directly whether he is more or less likely to take action when he feels good. The answer is more likely, and that is the entire mechanism: the list is not motivational decoration, it is an action trigger.
→ Self-doubt converted into action rather than into deferral.
Common mistakes
Writing future truths in the future tense
Robin interrupts Ali specifically to correct this. I'm going to write a book is a statement that grants permission to keep putting it off, because it is always true right up until you die without writing it. I am a published author does not offer that escape. The tense change is the whole intervention and skipping it turns the exercise into a wish list.
Only listing achievements
Ali's list includes his height, his hinge profile, video games and musical theatre alongside medical school and a podcast. Robin's point is that behind every truth is a journey and a version of you that produced it, and these things are permanently yours regardless of scale. Restricting the list to CV items defeats the purpose, which is to establish an identity rather than a résumé.
From the transcript
“the second thing is also it's I call it the truths exercises reminding yourself what you know to be true about you so Ali and…”
“So when you say I'm going to it kind of gives you permission to kind of put it off that's the feature okay so when…”
“whenever I have the element that moment of self-doubt I go back to that and I look at the Legacy which I built up and…”
From the episode
How To Build A Business In 2023 (The Easy Way) - Robin Waite
Robin Waite