Why Smart People Struggle to Manifest | Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes, three-time New York Times bestselling author and host of The School of Greatness, breaks down five mindset shifts blocking high achievers from manifesting their goals, citing frameworks and language from Dr. Joe Dispenza, Bob Proctor, Rhonda Byrne, and Price Pritchett's Quantum Leap framework, alongside his book The Greatness Mindset and a 30-day embodiment and alignment challenge.

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  If manifestation is not working for you, if you feel like you've been working hard every single day to create the life of your dreams, and for whatever reason, it's not working. It might be because you're too smart. Now, let me get back onto this in a second. Sometimes when we overthink, when we overanalyze, when we overtry, we block the opportunities for abundance. We block the opportunities for things to happen naturally, organically. We block the flow of synchronicities of people allowing people to bring things to us, for doors to open up to new ideas to emerge. We block these things. Seriously, the people who struggle with creating their dream lives the most,

• 0:45Lewis Howes?

  the people who struggle with manifesting effortlessly the most, are often the ones who think the most as well. And there is one small shift that they're missing. It changes everything when you start to make this shift. And I know this because I've been stuck in that pattern in the past at once myself as well. I was learning, I was analyzing, I was over explaining, I was trying to figure it all out, all at once, obsessing about it. And it was just like, there's too much happening in my brain. And after interviewing some of the most successful people in the world, I started to notice something different. They don't approach manifestation or creating the life of their dreams the way most people do. And once I discovered this difference, I couldn't unsee it.

• 1:30Lewis Howes?

  So in this video, I'm going to break down the five shifts that are keeping smart people like yourself stuck, and how to fix each one so you can finally create what you want in your life. You can finally start to use the tool of manifestation to work for you instead of against you. So let's start and break this down. Shift number one is that you're stuck in your head. Why do smart people struggle with manifestation more than people that maybe aren't over analyzing their lives as much? Well, it's because they live in their head. They're living in their brain and they're thinking constantly. And they're thinking every step that could go wrong. That's typically what it is.

• 2:15Lewis Howes?

  They over worry, they over complain sometimes, they over analyze, and they over stress. And this stress blocks... Joy, it blocks the ability of you being in your energy, in your flow, in your body, in your freedom. So when you're constantly in your head, you're not in your freedom, you're not in your flow. And that's when genuine things start to come to you. When you overanalyze and you overquestion and you try to understand everything, it blocks your ability to manifest. Now, I'm a curious human being. I ask tons of questions. I always ask why, why, why? I piss probably so many people off because I'm constantly wanting

• 2:58Lewis Howes?

  to know why people do things the way they do them. But the last 10 plus years of my life, it hasn't held me back from actually acting. Manifestation is not just about thinking, it's about how you show up. Your energy does not lie. You can know exactly what you want and still not have it because you're not showing up as the person who has it. I love this quote by Rhonda Byrne as she talks about this element that keeps so many people stuck in their manifestations. She says, "One of the things that trips people up is they try

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  too hard. The universe wants us to have everything and live a full life. It's not a battle or anything like that." And the question I get sometimes is, why did you first realize you were living in your head instead of actually moving? And here's the thing, when you overanalyze, stress builds up. It becomes overwhelmed. It becomes a burnout. That's what life feels like. It feels like you're burning the candle on both ends. You're trying to get up early and work hard. You're trying to work late. You're trying to be on and be perfect during the day. You're people pleasing people. Your energy is in work hard mode, try to do the right things. It's not in freedom

• 4:21Lewis Howes?

  and in flow. And you've got to be shifting it. You know, sometimes I feel like being one of the dumbest people in every room I go in is an advantage to me because I don't feel... Now, when I was younger, it hurt me. It crippled me because I felt insecure. I felt insignificant. I felt like I couldn't accomplish anything because I wasn't as smart or talented as all of my peers growing up in school. Everyone got better grades than me. Everyone could speak better than me in front of the classroom. Uh, everyone had a higher reading level than me when I went to eighth grade and got tested for the first time. I had a second grade reading level, so my confidence was just knocked down.

• 5:04Lewis Howes?

  And everyone in the room was smarter than me, literally in school. Everyone was more talented, smarter and had more confidence because of their results, because of their grades and their ability to work in school. I didn't have that, so I had a false sense of insecurity and I was crippled with self doubt. Most of my teens and into my twenties. And it became a point where I finally said in my early twenties, that I'm gonna overcome this fear, I'm gonna let this go. I'm not going to be the smartest person and that's okay. I'm not gonna be the most educated person and that's okay. I'm not gonna be able to speak the best in front of public and that's okay. I'm not gonna have the answers and that's okay. And I said, instead of trying to be smarter than other people to fit in,

• 5:49Lewis Howes?

  why don't I be the complete opposite? Why don't I own who I am? And just bring energy, passion, curiosity, joy. Bring all these other fun, unique abilities to life and be present with people. Where most people are worried about what other people are thinking about them. That's something I had for most of my life. I just said, how can I be curious about these people instead? How can I ask curious questions? How can I ask why and be even more interested in them? Than interested in what I'm trying to say in front of them. And that created a sense of relationship with so many people. By just showing up with full passion, full energy and full flow.

• 6:35Lewis Howes?

  And when I learned to break the pattern of over analyzing, overthinking or what are people thinking about me? And why am I not smart enough? Why am I not talented enough? Why am I not good enough? And I stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room. Instead, just tried to be the most interested person in the room, interested in other people. Then my pattern changed. My pattern originally was I couldn't explain success. I couldn't break it down. I could, I could teach it, but I wasn't fully living it. I wasn't being it. I could see other people, but I didn't know how to emulate it. And knowledge feels like progress, but without alignment, it keeps you stuck.

• 7:19Lewis Howes?

  So how many of you right now, you know, you're smart, like you got great grades in school. Maybe you went on and got a, a master's degree after college. Maybe you got a PhD, maybe you got certifications, like you kept going to school. You kept gaining knowledge. You read the books. You come here on the school of greatness. You're getting all this content and information. You're consumed with great knowledge, but for some reason you still feel stuck. For some reason you feel like, why aren't blessings and abundance coming to me? Why do I still feel blocked? Let me go learn more and get more knowledge. Something in your life is holding you back.

• 8:00Lewis Howes?

  And another question that I get is what is one area of your life right now? Where you know what to do, but haven't fully committed to being that person? One area of life. So a lot of you watching, listening right now, you know what to do. You know what actions to take, but you lack the courage to act out of fear of failure. Some of you lack the courage to act out of fear of success. What happens when I get all this success and all this detention and all this opportunity? Can I handle it? Can I actually?

• 8:37Lewis Howes?

  Keep it all up. What about the responsibilities or the pressures that come to me when I'm successful? Can I deal with that? So the fear of failure or the fear of success might be holding you back from actually taking the actions you need to. So it's not about more knowledge. Although knowledge and education is important, it's about being a certain way by getting out of your head. And that is the end of shift number one. You are stuck in your head. And I'm telling you, the moment I got out of my head in terms of, I knew I wasn't the smartest. I knew I didn't have certain skills. I knew I was broke in my twenties when I was just getting started. I knew that I was so far behind in a lot of ways. But for whatever reason,

• 9:23Lewis Howes?

  the moment I started to realize that's okay, but I just need to show up with full energy and passion and curiosity and joy. That's when everything started to shift. That's when opportunities and abundance started to flow like I've never experienced in my life. It was like magic. It was like boom, okay, I'm out of my head. I'm into my heart and I'm connecting with human beings by being curious, by being passionate, by following up and seeing how can I add value to you? How can I be of service? By doing that, that's when everything started to unlock and open up. And it was like, oh, this manifestation thing, this, oh, my dreams can become reality so much faster. The moment I got unstuck in my head. Shift number two.

• 10:10Lewis Howes?

  You're overthinking every move you make. So how does overthinking actually block the things you want in your life? Well, overthinking creates hesitation. It sounds like this, okay? Here's what it sounds like. Is that the right move to make right now? Should I really say this to this person? Well, what if that doesn't work out? What if they don't like me when I do this? What will my parents think? What will my peers think? What will my spouse think? Oh, man, I have all these other responsibilities. I probably shouldn't go make that trip and go for it. Am I really ready yet? Well, maybe I need four more years of school before then I can take the leap. Well, what if I take the leap now and people judge me? And while you're overthinking, you're not taking action.

• 10:54Lewis Howes?

  You're not actually moving forward. You're not seeing what's working. You're not getting feedback. You're not getting intel. And the only way you're going to create the life you want is by getting feedback as fast as possible. That means you have to try something. You have to see, did this work? Did this not work? How could I do it better? How can I improve? Let me try it again. Let me try it a different way. You can't just think your way to manifesting. You have to be a certain way to create and attract what you want in your life. Because manifestation requires momentum. But overthinking kills momentum. I love this quote by Price Pritchett. We've had on the show a couple of times now.

• 11:39Lewis Howes?

  He's known for his quantum leap framework. And he has the ultimate quote for overcoming this block. He says, anything of significance that a person has achieved over their life, they didn't know how to do it when they started. You don't know how to do things. Maybe you have a mentor with a model that you can mimic. You've seen someone two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years ahead of you, who didn't know how to do it as well. But they figured it out through a mentor or through stumbling, through taking action, through getting feedback and getting information. And you could see a mentor that you either work with personally,

• 12:23Lewis Howes?

  or you see online, or you read their book, who has a model that you can mimic. A model for how they created the life that you see and that you want as well. They created the success, the result, the pathway that you were looking for. And you just need to start mimicking that by taking similar actions that they took.

• 12:43Lewis Howes?

  Getting feedback and adjusting along the way. A question you can ask is about a time when you moved without all the answers in your personal life, and when did it work out? When was that time for you? When did you take a risk without knowing the answer? When did you take a risk on asking the person out? On asking for a sale? On doing something courageous? And not knowing, is this gonna work out or not? Am I gonna get a rejection? Are they gonna laugh at me? When was the last time you did that in your life? You need to reflect on that and understand that you're not always gonna have the answers worked out and figured out before you actually try the thing you wanna do.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  So you've got to be willing to overcome that block in your life, cuz not everyone knows how to do the thing when you get started. And I know you have an example in your life, even some small example where you didn't know exactly the answer to do something, but you took action and you've got the result. Because the people who create results the fastest in life, they're not the ones who know the most. They're the ones who move despite not having all the answers. And I want you to be thinking about what decision have you been sitting on that you could make today? What thing have you been resisting? And almost every time I go and speak at a mastermind or a business conference, and

• 14:11Lewis Howes?

  I ask people, raise your hand if for the last year or two, you've been thinking about launching a new project, whether it be launching and writing a new book, launching a podcast, launching a video series, starting a business, creating that side project, putting your music or your art out into the world. And I say, raise your hand if you've been thinking about launching this project, this dream project that you have for the last year or two. A lot of people raise their hands. And I say, keep your hands up if you've been thinking about launching this idea or this passion project for five years. And so many people keep their hands up. And I say, keep it up if you've been thinking about this idea for 10 years.

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  And there's a certain percentage of the room that still has their hand up. Been thinking about this idea for 10 years and I want you to share in the comments below. If you have a dream, if you have some project, whether it be your art, your music, putting dance out into the world, starting something new, writing a book, whatever it is.

• 15:17Lewis Howes?

  Let me know how long you've been thinking about putting that out into the world, but you've been hesitant. You've been waiting, been waiting for the right time, waiting for the right moment, waiting till you feel fully prepared, waiting until you get the right education, waiting until you get permission from someone else, waiting, waiting, waiting. Analyzing, analyzing, analyzing. Well, I'm gonna put it out when I feel like I'm ready, when I have more time. Be honest, share in the comments below. What is the thing that you have been thinking about? In your mind that you want to put out into the world, but you haven't because for whatever reason, you have an excuse, but most of that excuse is just in your thinking, it's just in your mind

• 15:59Lewis Howes?

  that you're worried about some result that you can't fully grasp. And a lot of it is the fear of like, well, if I put this out there and it doesn't do well, then I don't want to put it out there right now. I'm not ready to put the book out there, my music, my art. I'm not ready to share these things yet because I've been successful over here and this is something new. So if I put it out there and it doesn't work, I don't know if I can handle the embarrassment. I don't know if I can handle the rejection. I don't know if I can handle people not caring about the thing I care about the most. And when others don't care about the thing you care about the most, it might feel like I'm a failure, I'm a letdown, I'm a loser, I'm a nobody, like,

• 16:45Lewis Howes?

  man, what was I thinking? Exactly. Stop thinking, stop over analyzing. You're allowing the perception of future people who really don't matter. What they think about or don't think about with you. And that perception of these people in the future, of you putting some project or art out there in the future and in not being received well, is the thing you're over analyzing and overstressing and it's blocking you from creation. It's blocking you from just being the light that you are in this world, from being the energy, the flow, the fun, the creativity, the personality that you have. It's holding you back and I don't want you to be held back anymore.

• 17:29Lewis Howes?

  End of shift number two is you're overthinking every move. Stop overthinking it. Yes, there are times when you're launching something that you want to have strategy and you want to think, okay, I'm going to launch this and what's the best way to launch this? Sure, those are good things, but don't overanalyze. Set a date, put it out there, and it's not going to be perfect when you put something out there. It never will be, and that's okay as well. The more you overthink every single move, the more you're going to block your manifestation.

• 18:04Lewis Howes?

  Shift number three. You don't trust yourself yet. Man, I think my whole life I didn't trust myself. I was like really living in shame and guilt and insecurity and lacked skills, lacked education, lacked confidence, lacked competence, lacked relationships. I just doubted myself left and right, and I lived in this crippling nonsense in my mind. And I used the idea of let me overwork in sports to get really good at something. So at least I can hold on to being liked or being valuable in one area of life. Because every other area of life I was not valuable in, I was not good at. I didn't have confidence at.

• 18:45Lewis Howes?

  So in my teens, I started to get really good at sports and that became my identity. I was like, I need to be good at this thing because I don't have anything else I'm good at. And I suck at everything. So if I'm not good here, then what's the point of even being alive? And you don't trust yourself yet. That's shift number three. What's really underneath all of the overthinking is a lack of self-trust. Because if you actually trusted yourself, you wouldn't need

• 19:17Lewis Howes?

  perfect clarity of every move you're making. And smart people are usually really good people. But this is a challenge. Smart people often use thinking as a way to avoid risk.

• 19:32Lewis Howes?

  A question to ask yourself is was there a moment where you chose to trust yourself without certainty? And it changed everything. I remember I moved to New York City off of a dream where I had no clue. I moved to New York City in 2000. I can't remember if it was exactly like beginning or end of 2010. And I moved there because I had a dream for a couple of years. I was thinking about wanting to go somewhere where I could learn handball. Because I had a dream of making the USA national team and going to the Olympics. This is back in 2008 when I watched handball for the first time on TV. And there was no handball in Ohio where I was living at the time.

• 20:15Lewis Howes?

  And one of the top teams in the country was in New York City. They had won the national championships year after year. And back at that time, there was not really social media. There's no way to get a hold of anyone. But they had a website and they had an address of where they practiced and when they practiced. And I just said, okay, I can't get a hold of anyone. I'm going to literally move across the country and go to New York City and give this thing a shot. And it was a risk. I had no clue. I had no clue if anything was going to work out or not. I had no clue what was going to happen next. But I knew there was a dream inside of me and I knew if I didn't take a risk and didn't go for it and didn't book the ticket and see what show up, I didn't know what was going to happen.

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  So when I went there, I had zero clue what was going to happen. I showed up in that gym that first night and I was laughed at, literally laughed at because I told people my dreams. And they were like, come back in a few months. This is our last practice of the year. Come back in a few months and if you're serious, we'll start to work with you. I came back a few months later and I kept showing up every single week. And within a year after that, I made the USA national team in handball. And had I not taken the leap, had I not risked, had I not been okay with being uncertain of the result, I never would have gotten the result. If I said, ah, I don't feel ready yet. I didn't talk to anyone. Is anyone going to even let me in the gym? Are they even there?

• 21:45Lewis Howes?

  Uh, I need to call them first to make sure it's okay. If I would have just waited, I would have never been in the position to manifest the dreams that I had in my heart. So you've got to be willing to act and trust that something is going to unfold. It may not be the result you want, but trust that the right things will unfold. The more you flex that muscle of moving into uncertainty and being okay with the results. Because here's the truth, you will never have full certainty on anything. Every night I go to bed, I literally go to bed, I look at my wife Martha, we talk about what we're grateful for. We share our prayers, we share something that we appreciate within each other.

• 22:30Lewis Howes?

  And I literally say, God, I hope I wake up tomorrow morning. I hope I get another chance at this life tomorrow because today was amazing. Even if I had a challenging day, I'm like, thank God for today. I got to wake up, I got to be next to my wife, I got to see my kids grow for another day. Thank you, God, for a beautiful opportunity today to live life. I hope I get tomorrow to do the same. And every time I wake up, I say, thank you. I say, thank you for another day, even if I'm feeling sore and groggy and not feeling like the best. What a blessing to wake up 150,000 people today and every day do not wake up. They do not get to live the next day.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  150,000 people die on average every day in this world. And for me, it puts things into perspective that you will never have full certainty on anything. And waiting for it, waiting for the right moment, waiting for the right education, waiting for the right permission, waiting for the right time, waiting till you have the money, waiting till you have whatever. That is what's keeping you stuck. And some of the biggest breakthroughs in my life came from moments where I didn't have all the answers, but I trusted that I would figure it out. I had faith that something would come out of it. And I trusted that if this action led me to a dead end,

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  then it will open a direction for a new door that I meant to go down next. Instead of staying stuck in overthinking about the next move in this door. It will guide me to the next opportunity in my life that I meant to go through.

• 24:16Lewis Howes?

  And I trusted myself to figure out a lot of these things. I trusted myself to move to New York City. I trusted myself to go to Spain the first time to play handball. I trusted myself in launching my first book and launching the first episode of this podcast when I had no clue what I was doing. Zero clue what I was doing when I was on my iPhone recording, just saying, hey, I hope I can figure this thing out. I had no idea it would be, you know, almost 2,000 episodes later, 13 years later. I had zero clue there'd be three New York Times bestselling books after that because of what courage and the risk of taking the leap and trying this out. I had no idea, zero chance.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  But I trusted myself to figure it out. I trusted I would know what the next step would be. I trusted I would get useful feedback on what's working and what's not working. And I'm constantly innovating and trusting the next steps. And that's the shift. You stop waiting to feel ready and you start trusting that you'll grow into it. And things will figure themselves out. This is not an easy thing to do. Trust me. You know, I think it's easy to overanalyze things, but the more you overanalyze, the more you block, the more you hesitate, the more you wait, the more you need everything perfect in your mind before you launch.

• 25:41Lewis Howes?

  It takes courage to overcome this self doubt and the fear. And I'm reminded of something that Bob Proctor shared with me when he was on the show. And I had a great time with Bob when he was on the show. Quote, he said that goes like this, courageous people aren't people who don't have fears. There's no courage without fear. Courage gets you to face the thing that you fear. And anytime I go to do anything that I've never done, I'll be afraid, but fear won't stop me. Ah, I love that from Bob. Fear won't stop me. I'll tell you what. When you live in self doubt, it's really hard to have courage because fear is crippling fear.

• 26:27Lewis Howes?

  It consumes you. It like locks up your nervous system. Your heart feels tense. You have short breath. You're over analyzing and it's like you can't focus because you're just afraid and you're not in flow. So what does building self-trust actually look like? For myself and for you, day to day. For me, self-trust is a constant reminder to lean on habits and practices of joy. Now, this may seem like a simple thing to think about. But if you can show up in gratitude in the mornings and say, thank you for another day and express gratitude right away. If you can enter every room with joy.

• 27:12Lewis Howes?

  When you open a door and you enter a room, just think, I am bringing joy, light and love. I'm bringing curiosity. I'm bringing play. I'm bringing fun. I'm bringing preparedness, whatever it is, the thing that you want to bring, bring that energy into any room you enter. Except for maybe the bathroom, but even then there's an opportunity to meet people. You open the bathroom, maybe you say, hi, does someone wash their hands? You can bring curiosity, play in that, in that setting as well. Bring the best of you to every room. If you do that every single day, good things are going to happen. Good things are happening and put yourself in uncomfortable rooms and bring that also.

• 27:56Lewis Howes?

  Don't try to be more interesting to people, be more interested in people. So if you wake up in gratitude and say, thank you for this day, you think, how can I bring the best of me today? Every door that you open, you bring light, love, curiosity, joy, play, preparedness, whatever it is that you want to bring to the world. If you do those things, I'm telling you, it's going to help you overcome the fears and insecurities. Because you're going to fail. You're going to look silly and stupid at times. So what? So what? That is the entry price to manifestation, allowing yourself to just be silly, goofy, playful. Knowing you're going to make mistakes, knowing it's not going to look perfect and.

• 28:40Lewis Howes?

  It's not the point to look perfect. Your job is never to look perfect. It's to give your best. It's to be as prepared as possible. It's to act with courage. It's to be consistent and constantly show up. That is your job. And to release the results and be willing to see what comes to you. Whatever comes is meant to come. And it might be bigger and better than the goals that you had in mind. If you may not accomplish the goals. But the energy you bring and the consistency you bring is going to develop so much self-trust, so much self-belief, so many good connections with people, so many great opportunities are to come to you,

• 29:23Lewis Howes?

  that you're never going to feel stuck. So this is the end of shift number three. You don't trust yourself yet. And it's time you start trusting yourself.

• 29:35Lewis Howes?

  Shift number four. You're trying to control how it happens. So what is the biggest mistake people make when they're trying to manifest? Well, they try to control every little detail. Smart people love strategy. They love having everything figured out ahead of time. But manifestation requires trust, flow, not knowing exactly how it's all going to work out. You get clear on what you want, but you don't have to force how it has to happen. And this is like a dance. This is like a dance with your daily life. This is a dance with synchronicities, with opportunities, with possibilities. You are one decision away, one relationship away,

• 30:19Lewis Howes?

  one piece of content away, one conversation away, one courageous act away from creating a life that you never imagined or stepping into the life that you always dreamed of. And I'm telling you, there, you know, when I was sleeping on my sister's couch for a year and a half. Those first six months, I was not happy. And I was ruminating on all the things that had gone wrong in my life. I got injured, my dream of trying to make it to the NFL didn't happen. I got, I had to have a surgery. I couldn't go back to play football. I've got no money. I'm going through this breakup with this relationship. Sleeping on my sister's couch.

• 31:03Lewis Howes?

  My dad had gone through a traumatic brain injury and got into a car accident a couple of years for that. And he never fully recovered. It's like the 2008 housing crisis crash. There's no jobs. It was like I was a victim machine. I was just like victim, victim, victim. Woe is me. Everything is against me. No one loves me. The world hates me. I'm not talented. I have no skills. I didn't graduate college still. I'm a loser. I'm sleeping on my sister's couch. You know, I'm never going to get married and have kids because no girl's going to want to be with me. It was just like a victim conversation in my mind. Consuming my thinking, consuming my energy and consuming my behavior.

• 31:47Lewis Howes?

  So when I'm ruminating and thinking and consumed by negative thinking and victim mindset. My energy is also reflecting my thinking. And if my energy is reflecting my thinking, my actions are reflecting the thinking as well. So the thoughts influence energy. Energy influences the emotions which influence our behaviors and how we show up. So if that is my perception all day long, that my life is against me and everything is against me and nothing's going to happen. My behaviors will say, well, I might as well not even try this because who cares anyways? Because nothing good is going to happen. So that's why I need to shift thinking to flow and shift emotions and energy

• 32:32Lewis Howes?

  to being positive, joyful, creative, prepared. And then my actions will mimic the behavior, the feeling, the energy and the thinking. And that just creates this. Momentum, it creates this like manifestation momentum. It's like a machine. It's like whoom. And then it just, the energy spirals to where you start becoming a vortex. It's like you, you put this energy out there and then you just whoom, it just comes back to you. Cause when you try to control the how, if you're like, I'm gonna do everything this certain way. If it doesn't work out, then I'm gonna be angry. You limit what's possible. You limit what's possible and you control the how. Dr. Joe Dispenza has been on the show many times.

• 33:17Lewis Howes?

  And he has a great quote that expresses this uncomfortable but essential need to give up control in order to truly allow change to happen in your life. He said this quote, "You gotta lay down the very thing you've used your whole life to get what you want for something greater to occur." You've gotta lay down the very thing you've used your whole life to get what you want for something greater to occur. Imagine what it would look like.

• 33:51Lewis Howes?

  If you just said, "I don't know how this is gonna happen. I'm gonna, I'm gonna create a strategy and I'm gonna follow the actions of the strategy, but I'm also gonna allow for things to happen even way easier. I'm just gonna allow for it to happen if it does. I'm gonna keep showing up and being consistent and working hard, but I'm gonna allow for possibilities. It doesn't have to be the exact way of the strategy and that's okay." And I want you to think about a time, something incredible happened in your life because of how you let go of the how and you thought it was supposed to look. Like of how you let go of the how and the way it was supposed to look. Share below.

• 34:35Lewis Howes?

  A time, something incredible happened because you let go of how it was supposed to happen or how it was supposed to look. And there've been so many times where it's like, man, I really wanted an opportunity or I wish someone in my network would, would show up for me around something and they, maybe they don't do it or whatever reason. But then I'm just like, something unexpected or someone unexpected I never thought would reach out to me or help me. I just asked them for something and they do it right away. At the end of last year, I was asking,

• 35:08Lewis Howes?

  Someone that I just met briefly and but we had a great interaction. We maybe spent an hour together. It was the first time I met this person, spent an hour just being curious, adding value, trying to support him. And then a few months later, he reached out to me randomly and said, hey, I'm looking to make some donations at the end of the year. He's got a lot of money, he said. And for whatever reason, I thought of you. I loved our time together. Is there anything you're looking to receive donations for? And I actually, he said, yeah, I just launched this, you know, LA handball team. We're looking to take it to the national championships for the first time in 16 years. They haven't won the national championship. And I've been raising money for this because it's a lot to take on.

• 35:50Lewis Howes?

  I'd love for you to donate. And he was like, yeah, I was just, I was gonna donate $5,000 for you, if that's okay. I go, hey, man, you give me $5. I don't care. Yeah, it's great. 5,000. And then I sent him the link of where he could donate. And then he texted me back and he said, you know what? You're just so amazing what you've been up to and so inspiring. And I loved our conversation. I just gave you 10,000. I just want to say thank you. And I was just like, out of nowhere, someone reached out to me and said, hey, here's $10,000 for you. And it was just like unexpected. It doesn't have to look and feel and be a certain way sometimes. Now,

• 36:28Lewis Howes?

  I'm constantly showing up and adding value. I'm being consistent. It's not like this just comes out of nowhere just because I think it and I sit around on my couch all day. It's adding value and being a certain energy consistently. And when I said, like, I wake up and I say, thank you. I express gratitude. I do my best to behave in a way that allows for this. And this doesn't mean every day I'm perfect. You ask my, you know, wife, you ask my team, you ask my best friends. I've got off days. I'm not always perfect every single day. But this is thinking, how can I give my best? How can I show up as consistent as possible with that energy? And allow for magic, allow for possibilities, allow for people to show up as well.

• 37:12Lewis Howes?

  And support me. And that also means I'm showing up for other people. I'm showing up and giving to other people. I'm contributing to other people. And that energy just flows back as well. So some of the best things in my life came in ways I could have never predicted. But I would have missed them if I was too attached to a certain plan needing to happen, needing to work out. Clarity of vision is key. You've got to be clear on the vision you want to create for your life. But flexibility in the execution, that's where the alignment and the magic happens. So you've got to be thinking about how to stay fully committed to your vision without strangling the outcome, without like, it has to be this way. I have to get these results.

• 37:54Lewis Howes?

  Like, I've got visions for my business, for my health, for my marriage, for my kids, for my Olympic dreams. I've got visions. But things are not always happening the exact way I imagined them to happen. And they're unfolding of events that are beautiful things that happen. So end of shift number four, you're trying to control how it happens. Stop trying to control how it happens.

• 38:22Lewis Howes?

  Shift number five is a big one. You have to become the person first. Gosh, so many people hate this. So many people hate when I talk about this. Shift number five, you have to become the person first. What does this mean? So what actually needs to change for this to work in your life? You stop trying to think your way there and you start showing up as the person who already has it. This is probably the thing that most people hate about manifestation or about creating the life they want. They hate this. They hate hearing this. And here's why. Because it seems like, well, you say, okay, you say, stop trying to think your way there.

• 39:06Lewis Howes?

  Cause a lot of people that are over analyzing. And if you're an over analyzer, over thinker, Type yes below or type over thinker. I'm an over thinker in the comments below. And you say, well, okay, here you say Lewis said you need to start showing up as the person who already has it. But I don't have it. I don't have it. That sounds stupid to me because I don't have the thing I want. So how can I be the person who has it? How can I be happy? How can I be joyful? How can I be rich when I'm poor? How can I be smart when I'm stupid? How can I be a million dollar homeowner when I live in a shack? Or I live in my sister's apartment or whatever it is.

• 39:49Lewis Howes?

  I've said this in the past in my book, The Greatness Mindset. You are not stuck. You are just operating from a version of yourself. That hasn't decided to change yet. Where is my book? This is my book. If you do not have this, people ask me all the time, Lewis, what is the book? Of yours that I should get first? This is the book I wish I had when I was 15, when I was 21, when I was 30, when I was 40. This is the book. This is the book that I would read now in the past and in the future. The Greatness Mindset. Unlock the Power of Your Mind. I'm going to do the best life today. Go get a copy of this right now. We'll link it up in the description as well. It gives you all the exercises, tools, strategies you need.

• 40:33Lewis Howes?

  You're not stuck. You're just operating from a version of yourself that hasn't decided to change yet.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  I love the quote from Dr. Joe Dispenza. He says, your personality is your personal reality. Your personality is your personal reality. So you live in, I'm not good enough. The world is out to get me. People take advantage of me and abuse me. I'm never going to be smart enough to fit in. I don't belong because of this. I was abused. I was this. I had this struggle. If you constantly think and in that operating system. As this is going to hold me back because I believe this, this victim mentality. And you probably want to through very dark challenges. This is not diminishing the challenges you've experienced.

• 41:24Lewis Howes?

  But we must learn how to heal the wounds of the past in order to create an abundant future. And if you're constantly stuck ruminating on the past as a block of why you cannot act courageously to create the things you want, then you're not going to create the things you want.

• 41:45Lewis Howes?

  It's a simple concept, but hard to do. I know it's hard because it took me a long time. It took me until I was about 30 years old to start the healing journey. And that was a journey that was freaking hard. And it didn't all, you know, it was layers and it was stages, you know, for the first few years, I felt like I unlocked a lot. But then I had other blocks I needed to unlock and heal. And that took a few years of breakdowns because I wasn't willing to heal them yet. And so I kept making actions that would hurt me. And so then I had to find deeper levels of healing and then new levels of unlock. And it's just a journey of healing. Okay. So this is the shift that changes everything. Every day you've got to ask yourself, how does that version of me think?

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  How does that version of me, that future version of me think? How do they decide? How do they show up? And then you act from that place.

• 42:41Lewis Howes?

  How does the future version of me who doesn't have this think?

• 42:47Lewis Howes?

  Decide, act, feel? How do they show up? And then you start acting from that place. You got to, and here's the key, you've got to do it before you feel ready. Oh my gosh. Let me tell you a story about this. When I was um, 17, 16, 17, 18, and 19, all those summers, those four summers from 16 to 19, I gave myself three month challenges, roughly three months. I guess summers back in school was like, what, two and a half months or like 10 weeks or something. Summer break. I would give myself a challenge around the thing that I was the most afraid of. And back then it was like talking

• 43:30Lewis Howes?

  to new people. I was very insecure. You know, I felt like I couldn't speak in front of the class because everyone would laugh at me because I couldn't read. And I couldn't read aloud. I couldn't see what was, I couldn't read in the book and actually read it out loud. I was that bad at reading.

• 43:46Lewis Howes?

  And so a lot of it was like, I was afraid to just go up and talk to people. Because I was afraid people were gonna laugh at me because I would have nothing good to say. It's funny, right? And so each summer, I gave myself these challenges to go humiliate myself in front of strangers. The whole challenge was get people to laugh at me. Like, not in a good way, but go up and say something, introduce myself. I remember when I was like the summer of my junior year or sophomore year in high school, whatever, 16 years old. I was, I was like, okay, um, I'm afraid of girls, so I need to go up to any girl that I think is cute. I'm gonna go up and say hello.

• 44:29Lewis Howes?

  And I did that in the first like two, three weeks, like every girl like ran away from me and just kinda like laughed at me. And they were like, ew, you know, whatever it was, I just didn't know how to talk to girls. I was like, uh, I have no clue. I was like this tall goofy looking skinny kid with big ears and big teeth. And I had no clue how to talk to people, let alone girls. I was like, uh, what do I do? And first couple of weeks, like girls were just like running away from me or just like, uh, you know, laughing at me or making fun or whatever. And then I was like, okay, that didn't work. How do I just have a conversation where someone doesn't run away? You know, it was like, how do I have a conversation where someone doesn't laugh at me? How do I learn to just show up differently?

• 45:12Lewis Howes?

  And show up just like, how do I show up as a gentleman? How I show up and just say, hello, my name is Lewis, what's your name? Can I just do that over and over again? And by the end of summer, it was like, I was talking to everyone. I was talking to people, people were saying hello to me. I was having good conversations and I started to overcome that fear. I remember a few years later, I was going to like my first business conference. I was like 19, I was an intern for a company, an insurance company. And there was a, a conference that summer that all the employees, it's like thousands of employees from around the country came to. And I went and I remember, I was like, okay.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  I talked to girls my age like a couple of years before, but I've never talked to like people older than me. So I was like, I'm gonna go up to any person older than me, men, women, and just strike up a conversation. And I'm like 18 or 19. And I'm just like, I'm a nobody here. Everyone here is more successful, more talented, more knowledgeable. And I just went up to everyone, tables. I went up and said hello to people. And I was just like, hi, my name is Lewis. What's your name? And I just started figuring out what questions get people to engage back with me. Instead of what do you do? Or why are you here? I was like, oh, I asked those questions and people didn't care to talk to me. Let me think of better questions.

• 46:34Lewis Howes?

  What are you most grateful for today? What are you most excited about in your life? Just asking different questions to get people to feel something created an energy of feeling, an energy of flow. And that energy of feeling rather than thinking something created opportunities. And so you've got to be willing to act from that place of the future self. Before you feel ready, before you know what to say, before you know what to share, before it makes sense, before you have proof. Show up, act, and you're gonna get feedback quickly. And if you don't know what your future self would do, then think of who comes to mind when you think of someone who fully lives this way.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  And they, they do whatever it takes to create this life in themselves. Like who of your friends just feels like fearless, like they can go up and talk to anyone? They can, they have an idea and they start on it right away. They put it out there. Like who do you know? That just does this. Start to embody that person's energy because manifestation is not about attracting something new. It's about aligning with who you need to be to then be able to receive what you want. But if you feel like, well, I have to have this first for me to be a certain way, you're never gonna get it. You've got to be joy, be energy, be curious, be positive, be fun, be play.

• 48:01Lewis Howes?

  And be a positive contribution in the world. And when you are a positive contribution in the world, you don't need to have all the talent or all the skills, because that is one of the most coveted resources that anyone has. It's a positive attitude. It's a positive energy. Energy does not lie. No one wants to be around a talented, smart. They want to be around positive people who lift them up. And you can teach people skills to make them smarter. It's hard to teach people how to be more energy driven and community driven as well, being of service.

• 48:46Lewis Howes?

  So when was the last time you made a big decision from your future self and not your current circumstances? Something to reflect on. When was the last time? Maybe it was back when you were in school. Maybe when you had a gap year and you were like, I'm going to be courageous. And I'm going to go travel for six months and just go for it. And for whatever reason, you fell back into a way of thinking to survive. So the end of shift number five is you have to become the person first. Now I'm going to give you a 30 day embodiment and alignment challenge. If you are ready to start applying this in your life, where should you start? Well, I want you to start simple. I don't want you to overcomplicate this and say for the next 10 years, this is what I'm going to do. 30 days.

• 49:27Lewis Howes?

  I gave myself 10 weeks during summer as like social experiments. You don't need 10 weeks. I want you 30 days. For the next 30 days, I want you to notice when you're overthinking and you've got to interrupt it with action. Make one decision daily from your future self that is creating the most magical life of your dreams. And I want you to stop asking, well, what happens if it fails? Or what happens if they laugh at me? And start asking, what happens when this works? What happens if this succeeds beyond my wildest dreams? And I need you to release the need to control every outcome. Let it go.

• 50:12Lewis Howes?

  You can have a vision of what you want to create, but let go of the result and the outcome of the timeline. Because every day.

• 50:20Lewis Howes?

  I need you to practice showing up as the person you want to become, not perfectly, but consistently. So if you want to become more courageous, every day you get to become courageous. One act, what is that? What is the thing you fear the most? Do you fear putting your message out there online? Every day you've got to share a message out online. Do you fear being on video? Every day you've got to be on video and post it. Do you fear having conversations with strangers? Every day you get to have a conversation with five strangers and build that muscle and reflect on it. What did you learn? What did you need to get better on? What can you try differently? So what happened the last time you fully committed to a personal challenge for 30 days or more?

• 51:03Lewis Howes?

  I don't even know if you have done something for 30 days or more because it takes courage. This is not an easy thing to do. And if you do this for 30 days, you won't just change your results. You'll change your identity. Identity is everything. Identity is where it's at. Again, your personality is your personal reality. And that personal reality is based on an identity of how you think, feel, and behave in the world. Smart people have a gift. But if you're not careful, that gift can become the very thing that's holding you back. Because you can always find a reason not to act, not to move, to wait, to delay. You can always find a reason.

• 51:49Lewis Howes?

  A reason to do more research, to get more education, whatever it might be. But the people who create an extraordinary life, they don't just think differently, they act differently, they move differently. They are different because they trust themselves. They move with courage. They embody the version of themselves that they want to become in the future, not the past. And the moment you start doing that, your life will start to reflect it. Take 30 days of action. Every single day, I want to see you do this. If you're committed, type below in the comments that you are committed. Let me know what you're gonna work on. What is that thing you want to do every single day for the next 30 days? I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy,

• 52:33Lewis Howes?

  and you matter. I'm so grateful for you. And go out there and have a great day. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can

• 53:14Lewis Howes?

  support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.