5 Rules That Will Change Your Life Immediately

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Dec 11, 2025

Join Mark Rober, a former NASA and Apple engineer turned YouTube science educator, as he shares his revolutionary approach to life using engineering principles. He discusses transforming failures into valuable learning experiences and introduces the Super Mario Effect, encouraging listeners to see setbacks as opportunities. Mark emphasizes the importance of making goals enjoyable and stresses that creativity is a skill that can be developed. Plus, he reveals a free science curriculum aimed at inspiring teachers and students alike!

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INSIGHT

Frameworks Reframe Failure

Mark Rober views failure as data and reframes setbacks as exciting opportunities to learn.
Adopting useful frameworks changed how he approaches problems and decisions.

ANECDOTE

First Viral Video Launched A Habit

Mark's first viral video was a simple Halloween optical-illusion costume he made at 31.
That early success led him to upload one deliberate video a month for 15 years.

ANECDOTE

Glitter-Bomb Porch Pirate Project

Mark built glitter-bomb devices to study porch pirates and recorded live reactions across multiple locations.
The project combined engineering, tracking tech, and humor to create viral educational content.

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This episode is a MUST listen.

If you feel stuck right now - whether it’s with your health, your job, your habits, your relationships - this conversation is for you.

Today, you’re getting a new framework that helps you create an instant shift, and it comes from one of Mel’s favorite thinkers on the planet: Mark Rober.

Mark is a NASA engineer who turned his love of science and education into the #1 science education platform in the world, with 72 million YouTube subscribers.

And here’s here to teach you a completely different way to approach goals, confidence, and happiness:

Treat your entire life like an experiment.

Mark has spent his life turning failure into data, setbacks into experiments, and high-pressure work into play.

He has synthesized every single thing he has learned into a few simple tools and strategies that he is teaching you today.

His personal framework, rooted in engineering, will help you achieve your goals, improve your habits, be happier, make better decisions, have more fun, and become more confident.

This is about thinking like an engineer, not to build rockets, but to build a better life.

You’ll learn:

-How to make your goals more fun so you stick with them

-What the Super Mario Effect is and how it will change how you think about “failure” forever

-A stress-free way to choose your next step when the future feels blurry

You’ll also learn the lessons behind some of his wildest experiments, his simple method for beating overwhelm and uncertainty, and a specific message for teachers.

If you’re tired of overthinking, afraid to make a move, or bored with your own excuses, this episode is a masterclass in engineering your way forward and turning failure into fuel.

For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page.

If you liked the episode, check out this one next: 3 Questions to Ask Yourself to Figure Out What You Really Want.

Still looking for a holiday gift?

One of Mel’s favorite gifts to give is a CrunchLabs subscription.

And as a gift to listeners of The Mel Robbins Podcast, Mark is offering a special discount of 15% off any CrunchLabs subscription using the code MELROBBINS.

These monthly subscription boxes, created by Mark, are great for the kids in your life because they are designed to foster creativity, inspire hands-on engineering, and teach robotics and coding skills.

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