912 Clear Your Headspace

“Accountability is a huge thing with changing lifestyle practices.”I interviewed my friend Rich Roll years ago about the incredible lifestyle and health transformation he went through in his 40s. I pulled out a clip from our conversation where we cover the why behind his meditation practice and how it has transformed his productivity. I have a ton of respect for Rich and the way he lives his life and pursues his mission. I always learn a lot from talking to him (not just about food and meditation). If you’ve been feeling low on energy, struggling with health issues, or wondering how to improve your productivity and mental health, this 5 Minute Friday episode is for you. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  We've got an interesting guest on today. He's a good friend of mine. His name is Rich Roll, and he's got a new book out called The Plant Power Way. Now, for those that don't know who Rich is, I've had him on before about a year and a half ago. He's a graduate of Stanford University and Cornell Law School. He's 47-year-old, accomplished vegan, ultra-endurance athlete, and former entertainment attorney, turned full-time wellness and plant-based nutritionist, advocate, motivational speaker, husband, father of four, and an inspiration to many around the world.

• 0:46Rich Roll?

  Well, meditation for me has been the biggest watershed this past year. And, you know, I've been meditating on and off for the better part of 17 years, but I've always struggled with trying to find a way to make it stick and be consistent about it. And the busier I get, the more difficult it is to kind of...

• 1:02Lewis Howes?

  The more conversations and excuses you come up with.

• 1:04Rich Roll?

  Of course. You know, and like, look, you know, I got a bunch of kids. I got, I got a lot of...

• 1:08Lewis Howes?

  What are you kids? You got four or five kids?

• 1:09Rich Roll?

  Four kids. And my nephew lives with... Yeah, like, we got, there's a lot of energy in my house.

• 1:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:14Rich Roll?

  So it's very easy for me to say, I don't have time. But what I found, I've really made it a priority this year to do it every morning. And...

• 1:21Lewis Howes?

  So what's your daily ritual look like?

• 1:23Rich Roll?

  So 20 minutes in the morning, without fail. And it's, it's a, it's a simple breath practice. And I've been playing around with the Headspace app, which has really helped me a lot.

• 1:32Lewis Howes?

  I have that, but I haven't used it yet.

• 1:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's great because it just kind of, it's, I have it right on my iPhone. You know what I did? I put it down on the dock. At the bottom is one of the four main apps. So I always see it. And, and it's just, it's, you know, I like, I like the practices that they offer on the app. They're very accessible and there's not a lot of woo-woo in it. Andy Putticombe, who is the guy behind Headspace, records all of the, all of the meditation programs on there. And they're, they're very easy to follow. It just makes it easy and like, it holds me accountable. So I think accountability is a huge thing with, with changing lifestyle practices. And so, yeah, there you go. Yeah, but you haven't logged in yet. You gotta, you gotta like, create your account. You got the app, but you haven't used it.

• 2:14Lewis Howes?

  I haven't used anything yet.

• 2:15Rich Roll?

  Yes, like anything, like I have it. So I think that I'm doing it, but I'm actually not doing it.

• 2:20Lewis Howes?

  Well, I actually do a pretty good meditation for, I think it's about 12 minutes in the morning and then at night. But so you do 20 minutes using Headspace.

• 2:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:28Lewis Howes?

  It's just a guided meditation, basically.

• 2:30Rich Roll?

  The guided meditation, yeah, it's breathing, it's breath, there's some visualization and they have all different kinds of programs depending upon, you know, what you like, if you want to, if you're having problems with stress or sleep or whatever, you can pick and choose. But the point really is just that you're doing it, not that you're adhering to some, I think a lot of people are like, well, I need to, I need to this, the perfect practice. I need this to be right. It's the same thing with exercise. Well, I can't go out and run until I have the perfect pair of running shoes. These are all like barriers and excuses to actually just doing it. And I've just noticed that it really has improved my life in every single way by just making it consistency is king.

• 3:04Lewis Howes?

  In the last year, you started this, right? 20 minutes in the morning. What's the biggest benefits you've seen since doing this?

• 3:10Rich Roll?

  Being able to navigate through a lot of stimuli coming at me, you know, like yourself, like I'm sure you get a million emails and you're like, you're doing all these podcasts and you're juggling a lot of different things. You're writing a book. Like these are all things that I'm doing as well. And it's very, very easy for me to get overwhelmed.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  Overwhelmed and stressed.

• 3:29Rich Roll?

  And stressed. And then, and then I'm not productive because when I'm doing one thing, I'm thinking about the other thing that I'm not doing. And it's allowed me to just ground myself and just focus better and be able to navigate relationships, phone calls, emails, and all of that, that kind of thing with a little bit more grace and ease, right? And, and just my interactions with people are better. I'm more present. I'm more focused. And as a result, like that 20 minutes that I spend in the morning turns into, you know, maybe two hours of saved time because I'm more productive throughout the day.

• 4:10Lewis Howes?

  Hey guys, if you enjoyed this inspirational clip from a past episode of the show, then you'll love the free book I'm giving away right now. It's called The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping. Again, check it out right now. TheMillionaireMorning.com