754 Master Your Heart and Mind with Robin Sharma

SWEAT MORE IN TRAINING SO YOU'LL BLEED LESS IN WAR. The nineties were a difficult time for me. But I believe that I experienced that to give me the motivation to do what I’m doing today. A rich life greatly lived is one that is also filled with challenges. I want you to know that no matter what you’re going through, there is richness on the other side. Take your wounds and turn them into wisdom. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk with an incredible human who inspires leaders around the world: Robin Sharma. Robin Sharma is a former lawyer who is now a top leadership expert. His work is embraced by rock stars, royalty, billionaires and many celebrity CEOs. He has sold over 15,000,000 books, and his clients include Starbucks, Nike, GE, The Coca-Cola Company, NASA and Microsoft. Robin says that the most important relationship you have is the one with yourself. Awareness is the key to transformation. You not only need to have the right mindset, you have to have the right heartset, healthset, and soulset, too. So get ready to learn all about the Four Interior Empires on Episode 754. Some Questions I Ask: What has been your biggest test as you grow? (9:00) How do you deal with self-doubt? (16:30) What internal conversation do you have daily? (35:00) When do you feel the most loved? (44:30) What are you most proud of? (47:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: A philosophy for leadership (8:00) The Four Interior Empires (14:00) The 20/20/20 Formula (18:00) Why your critics are actually your spiritual friends (25:00) How providing “10x Value” could be the key to your success (43:00) Learn about Day Stacking and the Ten Rituals of Daily Genius (58:00) 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 episode number 754 with number one international bestselling author, Robin Sharma. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Henry Ford said, "Don't find the fault, find the remedy." And Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." We have an icon, a legend, an inspiring leader on today, Robin Sharma. The man who wrote the book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, 15 million books sold worldwide. He's got a new book out and it is blowing my mind. I had a chance to sit down with him for this interview. Then he came and did a speech at my greatness mastermind. We've had more conversations and I am falling more and more in love with this person. The way he thinks, the way he breathes, his art, his creativity, his mind.

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  And I'm so excited for you to dive into this. I really want to get this one out there in a big way. So as you're listening, take a screenshot, let me know what you think about it. Tag me at Lewis Howes and at Robin Sharma over on Instagram. And let him know that you're listening and what you enjoy about this the most because it will blow you away. If you don't know who Robin Sharma is, he is one of the top leadership experts in the world. His work has been embraced by rock stars, royalty, billionaires, and many celebrity CEOs. Again, over 15 million books sold, guys. That's crazy. Clients include Starbucks, Nike, GE, Coca-Cola, NASA, Microsoft. They're all using his leadership methods to drive real growth plus top performance.

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  And when he came and talked to my greatness mastermind, a group of business leaders, millionaires, we really dove into things that were more connected to the heart, to the relationship. Relationship you have with yourself because the relationship you have with yourself dictates the relationship you have with other people and with your customers, your clients and the world. And in this interview, we talk about a daily philosophy for becoming legendary, how putting out your best work brings out vulnerability, how Robin gets through self doubt and really, really cover that topic of self doubt and how to overcome it yourself. The different sets that will help with deep interior work within, heart sets, health set, soul set,

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  and about awareness, how awareness is the key for transformation. If you want to grow in your life, you need to be aware of all the things happening in your life. This is going to elevate you in a massive way. I'm so excited about this. And again, I want you to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com/754. Make sure to share it out, tag me as well. Again, a big thank you to our sponsors today. And without further ado, let's dive into this. I'm so pumped and excited for the one, the only Robin Sharma.

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the inspiring Robin in the house. Good to see you, sir. How you doing?

• 3:23Robin Sharma?

  Great to see you, Lewis. Thank you so much for having me on your show and congratulations on your remarkable success.

• 3:30Lewis Howes?

  Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now, you have blown up in the world with your work, your message, and it's spread like wildfire over the last 20 plus years. You became, I think, well known for the book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which is the one I first heard about when I learned about you. I don't know, whenever this was, 78, 9 years ago, I think. But this has been around for a long time, right? 15 million books sold worldwide. You've got a new book called The 5am Club. Own Your Morning and Elevate Your Life. Make sure you guys get this. We're gonna dive into this and a lot of other things. But first, I want to know more about why you got into this space in the first place and how this all developed for you.

• 4:10Robin Sharma?

  Sure. I used to be a litigation lawyer. So I come from very humble beginnings. I was blessed with incredible parents, but I sure didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. And, you know, Louis, I've experienced what life is like at the top of the mountain, but I've also been in the valley of darkness. And if you were to deconstruct the word passion, the root is suffering. Really? And suffering makes great leaders, suffering makes the mandelas, suffering makes the Oprahs. And I think a great life, richly lived, has lots of the good as well as the challenge. Yeah. So I became a lawyer for all the wrong reasons. Money? Well, exactly. So society's seductions.

• 4:53Robin Sharma?

  Money, applause, material things, beautiful home, et cetera. And I had a lot of those things. I became really successful as a litigation lawyer, but I'd wake up in the morning and I'd look in the bathroom mirror, and I didn't like the man that was looking back. I was very empty. Jim Carrey has this great quote, right? Like, I wish everyone could experience. Rich and famous? Right, to realize that's not where peace of mind and a joyful heart and true wealth really is. And so, once I got to that place, I said, "Look, I've done everything that I should be doing to find this joy in my heart when I wake up and a fire in the belly, and yet I still feel incredibly empty, so there's gotta be more."

• 5:37Robin Sharma?

  And long story short, you know, I don't want to bore you with my whole story, but long story short, I went on an odyssey. I started studying the great geniuses of the world, the great women and men of the world, the true humanitarians and history makers, the geniuses. And I decided to write a little book that I titled "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari", that was self-published in a Kinko's copy shop. Wow. My mom edited it, my father helped me sell it. One book at a time at service clubs. I know you do big seminars and events. My first seminar was 23 people, 21 of those people were my family members.

• 6:19Robin Sharma?

  And that was the beginning of the journey.

• 6:21Lewis Howes?

  What year was that?

• 6:22Robin Sharma?

  Oh, wow. It would have been the late 1990s.

• 6:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:26Robin Sharma?

  I don't know if you've heard of that decade, but it was a pretty good decade.

• 6:30Lewis Howes?

  Pretty good, yeah. I was born in 83. The 90s were interesting for me. 90s were a lot of suffering, actually.

• 6:36Robin Sharma?

  For you?

• 6:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, a lot of suffering.

• 6:37Robin Sharma?

  Wow, and I see, I see tears in your eyes.

• 6:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, it was, it was dark. I think it was just like, there was a lot of joy and love. I think we focused more on the suffering and the painful times than the, the love. I think we remember those times, for whatever reason, because they create trauma in our lives. But it also made me so caring and compassionate. And just a big dreamer to, to realize that there's more than just this suffering and struggle. And that's what I think was the, the spark for me is like through, you talked about some of the greatest leaders all suffered. And then they learn how to have like this incredible rich life because they know how dark it's been for them.

• 7:21Lewis Howes?

  I think that's, that's what I always focus on. No matter what challenge I've been through, there's always richness on the other side.

• 7:28Robin Sharma?

  I totally hear you. And there's a line in The 5am Club from Rumi, the great philosopher. And he said, "Keep breaking your heart over and over until it opens." And the last chapter of The 5am Club is set in Robben Island. Uh, and it, it, I don't want to, you know, ruin the surprise ending, but it has a lot to do with Nelson Mandela. And my life changed about two and a half years ago when I stood in Nelson Mandela's prison cell. I took, I took the ferry over to Robben Island and I had a private guide, you know, take me into the prison cell. And he was from the, a former ANC prisoner. And I said, "Did you know Mr. Mandela?" And he said, "I served eight years with Nelson Mandela."

• 8:11Robin Sharma?

  And I said, "Um, what was he like?"

• 8:16Robin Sharma?

  And he said, "That man was a humble servant."

• 8:19Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. I was getting chills.

• 8:21Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, and I stood in the limestone quarry, where he was forced to do eight years of hard labor with no meaning, because they didn't use the limestone for anything. It was just another form of psychological torture. And I stood in the shower area, where young guards would see this elderly statesman showering, and they again laughed at him. And in the book, I actually shared the story of how they asked Nelson Mandela to create a grave, to dig a grave.

• 8:53Lewis Howes?

  For himself?

• 8:54Robin Sharma?

  Yeah.

• 8:54Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 8:55Robin Sharma?

  And then Louis, they said, "Get in the grave."

• 8:58Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 8:58Robin Sharma?

  And they urinated on him.

• 9:01Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 9:01Robin Sharma?

  And yet, as I share in the book, when he emerged from prison, he invited the prosecutor, who looked for the death penalty, to dinner.

• 9:13Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 9:13Robin Sharma?

  And he took, one of the, one of the prison guards, who tortured him, but he later got to know him and became sort of friends. He invited them to his inauguration as the president of the, of South Africa. And he was asked, "Why would you possibly do that?" And he said, "Because if I didn't, I'd still be in prison." And I think the larger point for your millions of followers is simply to remember, leadership in life is, is a wild, beautiful journey. It's dangerous. If you, if you want to get to the top of the mountain, if you, a lot of the 5M Club is about exponential creativity, productivity, elite performance. If you want to do those things, if you want to be a real history maker, it's, it's a, it's, it's a dangerous game. It's a fun game. You're gonna suffer. You're gonna be exhilarated.

• 9:58Robin Sharma?

  You're gonna be tested. You're gonna go to the jagged edges of your potential. But it's not always easy, but it's the most beautiful way to spend the rest of your life.

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Wow. What has been your biggest test? As you've risen to one mountaintop, and then the next one? And, you know, you keep growing every year and have new achievements and accomplishments and notoriety and all these things happen for you.

• 10:22Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 10:23Lewis Howes?

  What's been the biggest test? Or tests? That have shaken your core, your heart? Someone's tried to take you down? Or lawsuits? Or what, what's it been?

• 10:35Robin Sharma?

  I've gone through a lot of tests.

• 10:38Robin Sharma?

  You know, I'll share one thing. There's no way The 5am Club would be the book it is if I haven't gone through my personal hells, as well as the good times. Because it's what tears us apart and challenges us that teaches us the noble virtues of the great women and men of the world. The ego, Louis, says, "Let me get out of this difficult season as quickly as possible so I can eat in nice restaurants and hang out with the cool people and do fun things." But a bad day for the ego is a great day for the hero inside of us. Wow. And so the real game of the Titans and the legends

• 11:23Robin Sharma?

  isn't an easy life and a pleasurable life. And the real game of the heavyweights on the planet is how can I use those difficult times? Sometimes we get them every day, little things, right? But how can I use these to enrich me and to introduce me to my primal genius and the natural hero within me? Here's what I mean. So I've gone through situations where, yeah, people have tried to take me down. You're absolutely right. I've had 10 years of my personal journals, where I pour my heart, my confusion, my pain, my hopes, my dream. I've had those, I'll just simply say, taken. Wow. Which taught me detachment. Wow.

• 12:07Robin Sharma?

  Louis, imagine, do you journal? A little bit, here and there, yes, a little bit. Okay, journaling is incredible. Powerful, yeah, yeah. For self-excavation, for creativity, productivity. We can get into epigenetics. If you want to rewire your psychology as well as your heart set, journaling is powerful. I've had those taken. Taken away from you. Just taken away from me. 10 years of journals. Oh, 10 years of journals. Oh, my God, all your private thoughts. All my private thoughts, yeah, exactly. So that's just one thing that I've gone through. So what was the lesson there? Learning detachment and... Yeah, letting go. Not caring about the opinions of others? Yeah, yeah. There's been another time of my life, and I don't think I've ever shared this publicly, but where there was a situation where I could have lost everything

• 12:51Robin Sharma?

  that I've spent 22 years in this field of leadership and personal mastery building, which, again, taught me...

• 13:00Robin Sharma?

  What real wealth and success is all about? I mean, there's a line in the 5AM Club, which is your peace of... Nothing is worth the price of your peace of mind.

• 13:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:09Robin Sharma?

  And, you know, I'm good. Like, I live a wonderful life. I'm extremely grateful. And yet, if I just had my family and their good health and my good health and work that's creative and a nice mountain bike to ride in the morning, I'd be fine. I don't need much. And another thing, you asked what I'm struggling with or what I've struggled with. I think one of the greatest ones is we struggle with our own self-doubt and our own insecurities. And I just sort of put myself on... Put myself... To hold my heart in my hand here on this podcast, where you influence and impact millions of people, I don't want anyone to think that I'm anyone special. As we go out in the world more and more, it is a dangerous game, right?

• 13:54Robin Sharma?

  I shared with you before we got on here. I worked four years on the 5AM Club. I wanted it to be the best piece of work I've ever done. I've gone to places I've never gone to. And it's this quirky blend of elite performance ideas and how the great geniuses did it and the morning routine of the heroes and icons and the philosophy of prosperity. And I took myself to places I've never been to. And now I'm at a place, when the book is out, it's like putting myself out there. It's very vulnerable because people can laugh. People can laugh at your baby. People might not misunderstand. People might not understand it.

• 14:35Robin Sharma?

  So, when we put out our best work, it's far from easy. It's much easier to coast and stagnate.

• 14:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What's your biggest insecurity and vulnerability right now? Is it that the book won't be successful or people make fun of it? Or is it something else?

• 14:54Robin Sharma?

  Biggest insecurity about it.

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  Or just in life in general?

• 14:59Robin Sharma?

  Well, the book has a lot of disruptive ideas. I mean, there's a model in there called the four interior empires, because so many people are talking about mindset. What I realize is it's not only mindset, because mindset is psychology. You can have a great psychology, but if you don't have a great heart set, if your heart is full of pain, if you're disappointed, if you're sad, if you haven't worked through the past.

• 15:23Lewis Howes?

  You haven't healed.

• 15:23Robin Sharma?

  If you haven't healed, if you haven't worked through your wounds, which we all have, then you can have the greatest psychology, world-class ambitions and strategy, but you're going to self-sabotage because your emotional life is a mess. But it's not only mindset and heart set, it's the third interior empire I'm introducing, which is health set.

• 15:42Robin Sharma?

  One of the great core beliefs of legendary is longevity. So biohacking, managing your vitality, rest, exercise. But it's not only mindset, health set, and heart set, it's soul set. And that's dangerous. I'm a leadership evangel- you know, teacher. I teach elite performance and mastery. I work with billionaires in Nike, FedEx, Starbucks, IBM. And here I am saying soul set's important. But Lewis, what is, if you don't have soul set, soul set is saying, I'm going to do that deep interior work. So when I go out in the world, I'm living for a mission, a mighty mission that is larger than myself. Soul set is about turning down the chattering voice of the ego

• 16:25Robin Sharma?

  so you're an instrument of service for many. Soul set is about developing a rich, robust, undefeatable character that when you go out in the world, you take the stones your critics throw at you and you build them into monuments of mastery. So it's mindset, heart set, health set, and soul set. That's just one of the disruptive ideas in the 5AM Club. But I've been at this 22 years with working with many of the best of the best, so I know the model works. But it's risky putting out fresh information that will disrupt the field.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  It is. You've been doing so much work on belief and eliminating self doubt for yourself for decades. And do you still struggle with self doubt today?

• 17:13Robin Sharma?

  All the time.

• 17:14Lewis Howes?

  And what do you do when you reach that moment of self doubt? I'm assuming it doesn't stick with you as long as maybe it used to, or maybe sometimes it does.

• 17:21Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 17:22Lewis Howes?

  How do you get through eliminating self doubt when you're that vulnerable? Because I think a lot of people in the world, this is the thing I hear the most, is people don't believe in themselves. And I think what we try to do on the School of Greatness is give people tools on how to learn how to do that. And, you know, just thinking about something doesn't always work. It's taking the actions and seeing the results and building the confidence. The 5AM Club is probably the thing that builds the most belief. Because when you have your morning set up with structure and you follow through on these principles. I know when I make my bed, when I work out, when I meditate.

• 17:55Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 17:55Lewis Howes?

  I am almost bulletproof in my belief. Because I did what I said I want to do. I build momentum. I took care of those core things with my mindset, my heart set, my soul set, my health set. And it's like, okay, the rest of the day is good now. At least I have a foundation. So how do you do it when you feel a sense of a lack of self belief?

• 18:16Robin Sharma?

  Well, you said it, which is get your morning routine right. One of the key themes in the 5AM Club is as you start your morning, so you construct and build your day. The Spartan Warriors said it amazingly. They said, sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war.

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 18:33Robin Sharma?

  So you look at most people and they begin their day like a five alarm fire. You know, they start checking their email, they start, you know, hitting the ground, running. And so what the 5AM Club method is really all about is the 202020 formula that has worked amazing results with the Titans and the A players and the billionaires and the sports superstars that I've worked with. And it's simply the first 20 minutes of your day is intense exercise. And we can get into why that's important in terms of dopamine and reducing cortisol and serotonin and norepinephrine. And then after that, the second 20 minute pocket, which we can get into is all about reflection, which is where you're at.

• 19:14Robin Sharma?

  It's journaling and it's meditation and it's visualization and you can do some affirmations. And guess what? You could just sit there in solitude and think. I mean, the great heroes of the world were more thoughtful.

• 19:28Robin Sharma?

  Than ordinary people.

• 19:30Lewis Howes?

  You don't have to be on your phone or writing all the time, you can just sit and reflect.

• 19:35Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, I think tranquility is the new luxury. We live in a world where we're addicted to devices, we're addicted to distraction. We all know about the dopamine loop of a lot of the platforms out there. And so a lot of people are taking the best hours of their greatest days. Time that they could spend constructing their monuments, being creative, being productive, serving the world, building beautiful lives for themselves and their families. And they are just hooked, hooked to technology, hooked to likes. And then the third pocket of the 202020 formula, and I go much deeper into in the book, is all about growth. Now, if you give yourself that one hour that I call the victory hour, free from distraction,

• 20:20Robin Sharma?

  free from interruption, what you're doing is you are building an inner core of heroism and undefeatability so that 6 o'clock, you feel fundamentally different. Your neurobiology is on fire, your metabolic rate is higher, you know this. You've actually connected with your values. If you've taken some time to journal, you've connected with your mountaintop. You're grounded in what's most important. You've practiced some calm and you've even done some learning. You're far more intentional, stronger and energetic and creative by 6 o'clock. Then you go into our messy world where there's confusion and you face challenges.

• 21:01Robin Sharma?

  But you're not busy being busy, you're monomaniacally focused on the few things that will get you to your Mount Everest.

• 21:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow. I'm gonna ask for some coaching from you. I feel like you're much wiser than me.

• 21:12Robin Sharma?

  You're giving me a lot of credit.

• 21:14Lewis Howes?

  You've gone through years of experience and challenges. And those challenges have brought you a lot of wisdom and lessons. Let's just say there's been a few people that have been attacking me lately online. And very aggressively. With rumors, lies, manipulation, trying to control a narrative. And I've been in complete peace about it. I mean, there's been some moments where I'm like, ah, you wanna like react and defend yourself and your ego's hurt. But overall, I've had zero reaction and I've been at peace about it. Because, one, I say to myself, I must be doing something right if people want to try to take someone down.

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Two, I say to myself, gosh, in six months, a year, 10 years, this is going to give me so much more wisdom to be able to serve humanity at a higher level. And three, it's purging my ego and attachment to the way I want people to think about me. But I'm curious if you have any coaching for me or wisdom that I should be approaching through all this and if this happens again from whoever in the future.

• 22:27Robin Sharma?

  Well, Lewis, you know, I appreciate your humility. You don't need coaching from me, but I appreciate your humility. Here's my suggestion because I've gone through this as well. And for all your listeners from across the planet, as you go out and bring your gifts and genius to the world, as you stand for something higher in a world with a lot of people suffering from victimitis, excusitis, as you bring your glory to your days, you're going to threaten people. I was in the Barcelona Picasso Museum in the Born district and there was a quote on the wall in Picasso Museum that said, "People were terrified by the genius of Picasso."

• 23:12Robin Sharma?

  So the more you shine, the more you're going to attract shadows and darkness. So here's what I would say. I've actually worked out in my journal what I call the troll deconstruction.

• 23:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow, is this the journal that got stolen?

• 23:25Robin Sharma?

  It's not the one that got stolen, so I still have it. But that's why journaling is so powerful because you can actually deconstruct and figure things, these things out. Okay, so here's what I would say. The people who are attacking you, critics and cynics are frustrated dreamers. When they were kids, they were kids, they were full of awe and wonder because that's our natural state.

• 23:48Robin Sharma?

  But something happened to them as they moved out in the world and pursued their dreams and ambitions that caused them to contract. And so now there are these armchair critics that see Lewis Howes doing amazing things. Well, you actually model possibility for them. The possibility that exists within their mindsets, heartsets, healthset, and soulset. And it's much easier for them to try to tear you down than lift themselves up and get in the game themselves. So that would be the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say is, everything in life, Mr. Riley, one of the characters, towards the end of the 5:00 AM Club,

• 24:28Robin Sharma?

  gets into the philosophy behind greatness and genius and world-class and legendary on a Francorchuk, South Africa vineyard. And he writes a series of letters that are transformational for the other characters. And one of the things he talks about is trusting your art. So I think these people who are trying to tear you down are actually your spiritual friends. Hmm, how so? Well, because they are causing you to trust yourself more. They are strengthening your resolve to pursue your mighty mission. They are helping you. They are touching the wounds within you and the insecurities. And we have a choice.

• 25:13Robin Sharma?

  We can blame, which is losing your power. Or we can say, "How can I use what they're activating within me to heal these wounds, grow stronger, and build the relationship with my primal genius even more?" And this is not a platitude, and I'm far from a motivational speaker. Like you've mentioned, I've been at this over two decades, working the best of the best, you know? Billionaires and sports superstars and a lot of the Fortune 500. And I say that because... There are no extra people on the planet today. There are no extra people? No, every single one of us has a primal genius inside of us.

• 25:56Robin Sharma?

  Our natural state is awe and wonder, our natural state is energy, our natural, our natural state is a heart full of love and a mind full of ideas and a soul that shines brightly. You see, and that's why the people who live like that, whether it's a Shakespeare or Catherine Graham of The Washington Post, whether it's a Kobe Bryant, I loved your interview with Kobe Bryant, a Kobe Bryant, or a Mother Teresa, or Nelson Mandela, like all the fascinating people in the world, they just model possibility for the rest of us. Our natural state is greatness. But what happens is, you know, I was in Thailand and I saw the Golden Buddha.

• 26:40Robin Sharma?

  And the story behind the Golden Buddha is, they had, you know, the Thai people had this priceless object. And invaders were gonna come into Thailand, so they got the idea to put layers of mud over the Golden Buddha. And, you know, the invaders didn't find it. And, you know, many, many centuries later, someone noticed this great monument of mud, but there was gold, you know, sparkling out of it. And so they went through the layers of mud and they found the Golden Buddha. And the metaphor for all your amazing listeners and viewers is simply this. When we were born, we were born into possibility awe and wonder, but through our parents' well-meaning and the media,

• 27:24Robin Sharma?

  and our teachers, and society, and our peers, and the social media, what happens is, we adopt the psychology of average versus the mentality of possibility and legendary. And as we continue to leave the perfection of childhood...

• 27:46Robin Sharma?

  We get hurt and we get disappointed. We don't get invited to a birthday party. We lose a love. We get stepped on. We say, "I want to be an astronaut and I want to be a billionaire and I want to also be a great chef and I want to be a yoga teacher." Our teacher or our friend says, "Ha, ha, ha, you're a fool." And there's one of the lines in the 5AM Club, which is, "Every visionary is initially ridiculed before they're revered." But if we're not careful, we pick up all these layers of mud in terms of our psychology and our heart set, our emotionality, and we don't even see it coming. But over time, we resign ourselves to average.

• 28:26Robin Sharma?

  And then we see Kobe Bryant and we see Shakespeare and we see Jean-Michel Basquiat and we see Nelson Mandela and we see Richard Branson and Wozniak. And we say, "Oh, they are geniuses and they're cut from a different cloth and I need to spend my days being busy, being busy." Because dreaming and possibility and being loving and having a world-class lifestyle is not within the realm of what I can achieve.

• 28:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  I want to take a quick moment to share with you about something that's been powerful for me, and that's bio-optimizers, mass enzymes. Now, if you're over 35, you know that your enzyme levels have already begun to decline. And enzymes are the workhorses of digestion. So if you have struggles with your digestive, then this is something for you. And you want to optimize your health, and this is a key. Now, enzymes, they break your food down into usable macro and micronutrients. And research shows that by the time someone hits 65, their saliva and pancreatic secretions, both of which are involved in enzyme activity, have declined by as much as 50%.

• 29:44Lewis Howes?

  Now, this decline creates chronic indigestion, setting the stage for gut issues, yeast and mold overgrowth, even malnutrition. And this is why I'm a big fan of enzymes. Enzyme supplementation and the best enzyme I've found comes from my friends at Bioptimizers and it's called Masszymes. I've been using it for a while and I love the way I feel. Masszymes not only contains more proteins, it contains 13 additional enzymes, including lipase for fat digestion, which work at every stage of digestion. And you can watch Masszymes rapidly dissolve raw steak when you go to bioptimizers.com/greatness.

• 30:25Lewis Howes?

  If you don't feel how Masszymes help you upgrade your digestion and power through your food, their support team will give you a no questions asked refund. Finally, when you go to masszymes.com/greatness, be sure to enter the coupon code GREATNESS to receive 20% discount off your order. Again, go to masszymes.com/greatness. And now let's get back into the episode.

• 30:58Lewis Howes?

  So when your ego is under attack and you start to

• 31:05Lewis Howes?

  have all these people against you

• 31:07Robin Sharma?

  Hmm.

• 31:09Lewis Howes?

  And you feel like everyone has turned their back on you.

• 31:11Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 31:12Lewis Howes?

  Who you've been in service to for many years. How do you handle a situation like that? Whether it's tons of people, one person, or you feel like a good friend is

• 31:25Lewis Howes?

  attacked you. What do you think about or say to your ego in that situation?

• 31:30Robin Sharma?

  Well, I wouldn't say anything to my ego because you don't want to fuel your ego.

• 31:36Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 31:37Robin Sharma?

  Now, we all have egos. I just think our egos are our scared selves.

• 31:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:42Robin Sharma?

  So you want to build a relationship with your more noble and heroic nature. And you can do that through journaling, you can do it through prayer, through meditation. You can do it through reading. Another thing I would say to you is trust life even more.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Open your heart even more.

• 32:01Robin Sharma?

  Open your heart even more. I mean, my dad used to say to me when I was growing up, "Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice."

• 32:14Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 32:16Robin Sharma?

  So even if the world hates you, I mean, I know there's something going on for you now, so I just want to be of service to you and hopefully to all your listeners. That was my intention to come here on the School of Greatness podcast.

• 32:30Robin Sharma?

  Even if no one gets you.

• 32:33Robin Sharma?

  Remember Galileo? They wanted to burn him at the stake because he said the earth was round.

• 32:43Robin Sharma?

  Joan of Arc,

• 32:46Robin Sharma?

  the originator of the internet. Look at all of the great visionaries, the Google guys, or the doctor who said, "No, germs are not... Germs are disrupted the germ." The very nature of any disruptor means you are going to terrify the status quo. So let's say the whole world hated you. I'd say, "Louis, you're doing something right."

• 33:16Robin Sharma?

  The very nature of bringing on your fire and birthing great art means you're going to provoke powerful reactions. J.K. Rowling of a little book called Harry Potter said, "For some to love you, some must loathe you." Wow. And so the 5:00 AM Club has really helped me. And look, I don't have to mention the 5:00 AM Club. And if you want to know how I build myself, and again, it's not just my psych... A bulletproof psychology, but a battle-proofed heart set. This word I'm introducing. So you feel gratitude when everything's falling apart.

• 33:58Robin Sharma?

  And then third interior empire of health set. And that fourth one of soul set. Ray Lott, you're in this field that I'm in. I think success is incredibly important, and you and I both teach that.

• 34:12Robin Sharma?

  Success without a soulful, without soulfulness is an empty victory.

• 34:17Lewis Howes?

  Of course, that was my twenties where I was achieving, achieving, achieving. And after 10 minutes of achieving my biggest dreams and accomplishments and praise, I'd be like, it's still not enough. Like, I'm still, I'd be angrier.

• 34:31Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 34:31Lewis Howes?

  And I never, never understood until I realized I was doing things to prove people wrong.

• 34:37Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 34:37Lewis Howes?

  Who had picked on me or bullied me or whatever.

• 34:39Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 34:40Lewis Howes?

  From childhood, I was trying to prove the world wrong about me.

• 34:43Robin Sharma?

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:44Lewis Howes?

  And proving people wrong is never a good thing. Lifting people up is where the, the real joy and fulfillment comes from, from what I've learned.

• 34:51Robin Sharma?

  Well, for sure.

• 34:52Lewis Howes?

  And being a, a, a human of service to humanity is what's the most, the greatest addiction is service. I feel like we're all addicted to something. And if we're gonna be addicted to something, we might as well put it on giving and, and helping others.

• 35:06Robin Sharma?

  Right.

• 35:07Lewis Howes?

  At least that's what I've learned in the last, you know, seven years.

• 35:10Robin Sharma?

  I agree with you, and I'd say for what you're going through, that morning routine, that one hour, I would go even deeper.

• 35:16Lewis Howes?

  Deeper.

• 35:17Robin Sharma?

  I would get even, our relationship with our creativity, our relationship with our loved ones, our relationship with our, our craft, our relationship with the world, all comes down to one thing. Our relationship with that primal hero that exists with, at our core.

• 35:35Lewis Howes?

  What should we be saying to the hero in our core?

• 35:37Robin Sharma?

  I would be, I would be spending more time noticing when your ego is chattering. Because awareness is the key to transformation. So the more intimate you become with the voice of your ego, which is really just the voice of your fear, then you can actually stand outside of it and you're not that fear. You are watching that fear, and when you're watching that fear, you're in your more powerful self.

• 36:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:06Robin Sharma?

  And then you can journal and you can talk to that part of yourself. You can visualize who you wanna stand for. The more you actually, look, I had Deepak Chopra on my stage at my event a few months ago, and he talked about, he just brought science to the fact that.

• 36:26Robin Sharma?

  We do live in a universe where you can choose whatever possibility you want to bring to your days. And that's not mysticism, that's cosmology and science now. And so the more you can say, here's the reality I want to construct today and then inhabit it, the more you will materialize it. And it's like another thing we said before we went on to camera, which is, no one who's in a really good place in their lives is going to tear someone down.

• 36:56Lewis Howes?

  It's someone who's really hurt, angry, afraid, right?

• 37:01Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

• 37:04Lewis Howes?

  What's the conversation you have with yourself every day internally? Not a verbal affirmation or visualization, but the internal conversation that you have, whether you're having an incredible day or the worst day of your life.

• 37:18Robin Sharma?

  Oh, I have a lot of conversations with myself. I'd say a few things. You mentioned service a lot, and for me, look, I think it's really wonderful to have a great lifestyle. In the 5AM Club, I share a lot of the ideas that have been very helpful to me in terms of building a beautiful lifestyle. It's really important.

• 37:38Lewis Howes?

  An environment.

• 37:38Robin Sharma?

  An environment. Your ecosystem is going to drive your performance. So being around art, there's a model in the book called Joy as a GPS, releasing toxic people and populating your life only with people who fuel your joy.

• 37:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:52Robin Sharma?

  Going traveling, there's a lot of good science coming out that traveling boosts creativity. Prosperity is very important. You can do beautiful things for your family. So I think living a lifestyle that inspires you and that is beautiful is so great for your craft and so great for your creativity and so great for your productivity. I think it's really important to surround yourself with people who are curious and have high integrity and who stand for possibility and who are all about growing and doing their part to make the world a better place. So a lifestyle is important and my craft is very important to me, much more important than applause, but the dominant thing I work on in conversation

• 38:35Robin Sharma?

  is I want to be used by, I don't know what word resonates with you, spirit, source, life, nature, God, whatever that energy is that...

• 38:52Robin Sharma?

  Brings up the sun and allows the trees to grow and the tides to shift and us to breathe. There is a power that is indisputable. And I think if we get out of our smaller selves and scarcity and selfishness, there is an amazing accounting system to life. When you actually take a trust walk and go, whoa, what if I stop making it so much about me? And I go out there and I bring on ridiculous value to the world through my work. And in every room I'm in, I radiate possibility and I see the best in people versus hunting for the worst.

• 39:36Robin Sharma?

  And what if I listen to this conversation and say, hmm, I'm not Nelson Mandela, I'm not Mother Teresa, I'm not Martin Luther King Jr., but I matter in the world and I'm alive for a reason. And no matter what my current conditions are today, through small daily seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time, I can manufacture a much better career and a much better world. So if you come from that place of service and you take a trust walk and say, I'm gonna build myself up.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:18Robin Sharma?

  Through a great morning routine. And that's the starting point. You could, yeah, read the books and go to the events. That's incredibly important. But the tactic is five to six, your victory hour, the 2020 20 formula. So you prime the mind, the neurobiology, and we can get into the 2020 20 formula if you like. But you take that sacred space for yourself in a world of distraction, busyness and shiny toys, so that by six o'clock, you are intimate with your inner hero. And then you go out in the world and you say, I'm gonna just serve and I'm gonna help.

• 40:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:54Robin Sharma?

  And I think that is what the real titans on the planet do.

• 40:58Lewis Howes?

  I think, yeah, I think we feel the most fulfilled when we serve and help. I think obviously, we wanna serve ourselves first to make sure our needs are met and we're taking care of ourselves like this morning routine. But then, once we have filled our cups up, we've got a outpour of love to the world. I think. That's what eliminates anger, that's what eliminates depression, that's what eliminates insecurity is when we're focused outward, not always insecure about what we're lacking. I just think it's a powerful thing. There's so many people who are hurting right now and they just continue to focus on the hurt and the hurt and what's wrong and victim. But when we take ownership and responsibility for our thoughts, our behaviors and our actions,

• 41:40Lewis Howes?

  and we serve other people and have a bigger mission, just a lot of that just starts to go away. It's the antidote to depression is service, you know?

• 41:49Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, I think if we were to fast forward to the last day of our lives, and that's why mortality and connection with the mortality is one of the most important things to do every morning while the rest of the world is asleep.

• 42:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:02Robin Sharma?

  Because even if you live a brilliantly long life, and Louis, for you and your millions of followers, I wish them long, beautiful, healthy, prosperous, creative lives that are of service. But no matter how long we get to live, even when we biohack.

• 42:18Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 42:19Robin Sharma?

  The journey is a really short ride. And I believe when we get to the last hour of our last day, what will bring joy to our hearts and what will define whether our lives were successful will not be how many likes we had, whether people thought we were cool, whether even we were icons in our industry and had all the material things that the world says will bring us joy, peace and fulfillment. I think life, when you strip away all the accessories, it comes down to two primary things. Who did you become? Did you use those rocks people throw at you in your hard times as well as your beautiful times?

• 43:01Robin Sharma?

  To sculpt a pristine character of empathy, compassion, bravery, nobility, decency and honesty. And even if the world doesn't see that, why does that matter? As long as you know who you became. And secondly, how many people did you help? I go into coffee shops and taxis and airports and I see these unappreciated heroes and that's that's the shoe shine person who said, who dances and I think it's the Atlanta Airport. And I was in the Johannesburg Airport, there was a man cleaning toilets and he said, this is my,

• 43:42Robin Sharma?

  "Welcome to my office, I'm the, I'm an ambassador of South Africa." And he kept his office as clean as Steve Jobs kept Next, when Steve Jobs was at Next. Wow. Because these people are running an own rate, their own race and that's true leadership and heroism. We get hurt if we don't get applause, but the real question is, why do we need applause? If we were intimate and locked into our genius and our creativity and our values and our worth, and if we truly adored ourselves for who we are, well then we'd be an army of one in our businesses. And for anyone who's listening, I know you have a lot of entrepreneurs, is this valuable?

• 44:23Robin Sharma?

  The 5 AM Club, building yourself for an hour using the 202020 formula? I mean, one of the things I say in the book is, you will never rise any higher in terms of your exterior empires than your interior empires. And we live in a world that thinks the doorway of success opens outward, but I believe it opens inward. And so it's when you work on yourself and you start to understand your creativity and you work on your neurobiology and you build your character and you start to know what you want to stand for and you actually start to architect the person you want to be and the life you want to construct,

• 45:06Robin Sharma?

  that's when you go out there and you do great things. And for all your entrepreneurs, is serving even a value? Well, what made Apple, Apple under Steve Jobs was, he was so monomonoically focused on bringing magic into the marketplace, he created a cult of Apple because of his commitment to serve. If you haven't built that inner core and you don't want to serve, well then you're, you're going to be a taker from your clients versus running what I call the 10x value obsession, which is giving your clients, you know, what I've tried, one of my intentions in the 5 AM Club. Was in 333 pages. Give people more value than they could possibly imagine.

• 45:51Robin Sharma?

  That's why I spent four years of hard labor on the book. And so, it's when you really care and you wanna serve and you wanna have an impact on people. Well, that's when you go to the jagged edges of your creativity. That's when you bring on your fire to your work and your life. Because you're not coming from taking, you're coming from serving. And that does translate into business success as well as personal success.

• 46:20Lewis Howes?

  When do you feel the most loved?

• 46:24Robin Sharma?

  Well, I would say my children. You know, my children are just great examples of unconditional love, I would say.

• 46:34Lewis Howes?

  How many kids you have?

• 46:35Robin Sharma?

  I've got two kids. I've got a son and a daughter. And they're the great blessings of my life. So, I feel love when I'm with them. I've got a great partner and she just sees the best in me. So, I feel very loved and supported by her. I learned so much about what love is from my family. My parents, you know, my dad's, my dad was a family doctor for 54 years. I said, "Why did you take so long to retire?" He said, "Because my patients needed me."

• 47:03Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 47:05Robin Sharma?

  I feel loved when he wrote me a letter after he read this new book. And it just brought tears to my eyes, so I felt very loved. My mother, same thing. I feel very loved. I feel loved by all my readers. I mean, I've got a great relationship with them. And they're in many ways my heroes. Because it's, it's beautiful but dangerous work to say, "I'm going to build my best self, I'm gonna do my best creativity, I'm gonna go out in the world and work really hard and do great work and stand for noble values." In a world where of... Bikini selfies and Speedo shots, not, you know, right?

• 47:44Robin Sharma?

  Like, it's a fascinating world right now, where we pedestal the most interesting values. And, you know, if you look at the great warriors and the great creatives and the great geniuses and the happiest people, they all have the same things in common. They're living by the values and aspirations and ambitions we're speaking to. Yeah. And I've been teaching this for 22 years, and I started off as a lone voice in the wilderness. And I think the world is a much better place now in many ways, because a lot of these values are getting out there even more, but it's also a very confusing place. I feel loved working. To do work that fuels your creativity, that allows you to express, that allows you to

• 48:27Robin Sharma?

  have an impact on the world, I think that's a form of love, too. What's the thing that you're most proud of that most people don't know about? I would say my children, first of all. If I could be 10% of the human beings that my children are, I would be a very blessed man, even more. I'm proud of the fact that I started in this field from nothing. I mean, self-publishing a book that people did laugh at, and just step by step, one relationship at a time, building something that's meaningful to me. I'm proud of who I am. I'm far from perfect. I'm a work in progress, but, you know, I'm proud of what I've gone through and what I've

• 49:12Robin Sharma?

  made of it, you know? I could be, we could all be bitter, and we could all be blamers, and we could all be victims, and that's the power of working towards your greatness. That's the power of self-excavation and personal growth. That's the power of using everything that the world throws at you, and taking your wounds and making them into wisdom, and your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. I think, and I don't really know, I love the word "what am I proud of?", but, I mean, I've done a lot of work on myself. And it's not always been easy.

• 49:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 49:46Robin Sharma?

  It can be terrifying to go really deep into your insecurities and your wounding and your limiting beliefs and your scarcity and what activates you. And then say, rather than blaming those people, saying, you know what? They came for a reason. I believe every person that shows up in every condition in our life was, in many ways, an orchestration from our higher wisdom, right? And everything that happens to us serves us and can be used to make us stronger, braver, more creative, more better and happier. And I've tried my best to use those things to become a much better human being. And I feel pretty good about that.

• 50:26Lewis Howes?

  That's good. What's the thing you're least proud of that you've done or ashamed of or feel bad about? That maybe looking back, you're, you know, you're saying, this was for a reason for me to improve and get better and it was a great lesson. But, you know, maybe you want to go back and change it because it's made you who you are. But you also wish you knew the lesson before going through that.

• 50:49Robin Sharma?

  I would have to go to romantic relationships. We all have parts in our lives that seem to be the part in our life that is for our greatest growth. And for me, I've always tried to do my best. But there have been relationships where I wish I would have been wiser. I wish I would have had a more open heart.

• 51:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:15Robin Sharma?

  I wish I would have realized I was projecting on my partner, which was my stuff versus thinking it was all about her. I wish I had learned how to communicate in a relationship in a respectful way. Not that I was ever rude, because that's not my nature. But I wish I had learned the art of relationship communicating. I wish I'd been more confident in some of my relationships so I could speak my voice even when my voice was shaking. We're gonna spend another three hours if you're looking for if you're looking for my mistakes, we better add another five hours to this podcast.

• 51:54Lewis Howes?

  But it sounds like those were given to you for a reason, for you to learn like, "Okay, I wish I would have done these things, but they helped me become those things." Is that right?

• 52:04Robin Sharma?

  Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I think, like I mentioned, everything that comes to us can serve us and grow us, or we can blame it on the other person and give away our power. The very nature of a victim is we give away our power so much, we actually think we don't have any power. Like, I was in a country in Europe recently for a presentation, and the gentleman who was taking me back to the airport says, "Oh, you know, I wanna go to North America, and my dream would be to go there, and I'd love to, you know, work for a tech company." But he kept on saying to himself, "But it's not possible, it's not possible, not possible." And I kid you not, in like 45 minutes on the way to the airport,

• 52:47Robin Sharma?

  he must have hypnotized and brainwashed himself 20 times by saying this incantation or affirmation of "it's not possible." All I'm saying is, he's giving away his power every day by saying what's not possible.

• 53:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 53:04Robin Sharma?

  And if you look at a victim, somebody says, "Well, I can't find love, I can't get fit this year, I can't achieve domain dominance in my industry, or I can't build a financial fortune." Those are people who are giving away their power. We have a choice every day. You can go out in the world and you can be a victim, or you can go out in the world and you can be a possibilitarian. You just can't do both. And one of the things I really focus on in the 5AM Club is getting away from digital distraction and digital dementia. There's a term called cognitive bandwidth. When we wake up first thing in the morning, our cognitive bandwidth, in other words, that creativity is full of fire.

• 53:49Robin Sharma?

  When we wake up first thing in the morning, Our energy is super high. When we wake up first thing in the morning, according to the research, our willpower is at our strongest. And yet, you look at people who wake up in the morning and then if you get-

• 54:05Lewis Howes?

  Get on the phone and-

• 54:05Robin Sharma?

  Well, they get on their phone and they watch- I was in the gym this morning, and so it's great they were in the gym, but they're on one of those-

• 54:12Lewis Howes?

  Watching TV.

• 54:12Robin Sharma?

  They're watching the news. And then another person's on the treadmill walking. I'm not criticizing, I'm just reporting. They were checking their phone. And I believe you can build your fortune, or you can play with your phone, you don't get to do both.

• 54:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 54:26Robin Sharma?

  And there are a lot of brilliant people on the planet right now who have figured out ways to hook people. And so you've got amazingly creative people that- we all have this creativity, but we are not bringing on our fire because we're not starting our days with the 5:00 AM club method and a world-class morning routine. We're literally- we want an amazing life, but we're not running the rituals that if we did them, anyone would give us an amazing life.

• 54:55Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. Why is that? Because it's the hard thing to do?

• 54:59Robin Sharma?

  I think if we were to go even- you're right. And if we were to go even granular, I- most people on the planet have a huge well of self-loathing that is repressed, suppressed, and therefore subconscious. What I mean by this is when we get hurt, we swallow it.

• 55:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 55:22Robin Sharma?

  When we get heartbroken, we repress it. When we have a challenge at work, we are taught by society, don't feel it. And so what happens is we take all of this stuff that happens to us, like little kids, if they get hurt, they feel it, they cry and they move on and they laugh.

• 55:38Lewis Howes?

  Until we tell people not to cry. We make them wrong for crying, or make them bad, right?

• 55:43Robin Sharma?

  You've written your book about masculinity, right? Well, don't cry. Well, Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese prophet, said, "Well, if you don't cry your tears, you're not going to fully feel your laughter."

• 55:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 55:55Robin Sharma?

  And so, all I'm suggesting is, most people, I believe, are addicted to distraction versus embracing their primal geniuses and running these rituals and living great lives. Why are they doing that? Because deep inside of them is this suppressed pain of potential betrayed.

• 56:16Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 56:17Robin Sharma?

  And the more we don't acknowledge that pain and where we've been hurt and where we've betrayed our brilliance, we just build that up. And then it becomes like this, Carl Jung called it, you know, the shadow side. We all have this subconscious shadow side. So, we read the books and we go to the conferences and we watch the podcasts. We're all full of fire and seven days later, we're, you know, we're addicted to our likes. It's because we're getting into self-sabotage. And so, that's why working on mindset, heart set, health set, soul set, those four interior empires is transformational for any human being on the planet because as you go through the process, you're going to start to release the darkness

• 57:00Robin Sharma?

  and you're going to become more intimate with your light, your primitive creativity. You'll get your energy back. You'll get your self-belief back. Like, we all have that brilliance inside of us, but it's been covered up by all the mud and all the shadows.

• 57:18Lewis Howes?

  I remember when I was broke about, uh, I don't know, 10, 10 years ago. I was, just got done playing professional football. I got injured. I broke my wrist. I was in a cast for six months, sleeping on my sister's couch for a year and a half. I remember being in that dark place and my shadow side was taking over because this was my dream and now it was over. And I remember my sister, she's incredible. She was like, okay, after a year and a half, she was like, I think it's time, Louis, like you start paying rent a little around here, like helping out. You know, she's like, she let me stay for much longer than I was supposed to. She was very kind. I said, okay, I've got to start getting my life together and figuring something out. She pushed me finally, right?

• 58:00Lewis Howes?

  And I remember I was making a little bit of money, doing some side jobs, trying to figure out this online marketing stuff at the same time. And I had, was making enough money to get an apartment. I found an apartment for $495 in Columbus, Ohio. Didn't have a car, so it was like in an area where I could walk. And that was a stretch, $495. I remember paying that first month's rent. I was just like, this is gonna be tough next month. I don't know. But it pushed me out of my comfort zone to start thinking differently. And I was like, what do I need to eliminate in my life? So that I can go earn more and apply this and take more action. And I remember thinking that year and a half, I was addicted to TV on my sister's couch.

• 58:40Lewis Howes?

  I said, this TV like served my depression for just trying to make me feel something or have some entertainment. But it wasn't serving me of trying to bring prosperity in my life. Sure. And so for the next four years, I didn't even own a TV. And I said, I'm just gonna be here to get to work. And that was a huge game changer for me to eliminate these distractions. And I think, I'm sure you talk in the book about eliminating digital distractions, at least through different parts of your day. If we are constantly checking, it's hard to focus our energy and our genius, like you call it, into bringing our brilliance into the world. And that's why I think we must guard ourselves from the digital distractions.

• 59:23Lewis Howes?

  I try to detox every day and make sure that my phone's not by me. I try to take a trip for a week a year and leave my phone at home and get on a plane with no devices. It was the scariest thing when I did it the first time, but it was so freeing to be in nature with no devices. What advice do you have for us on a daily, weekly, or yearly basis for setting a great structure so we can reconnect to the genius as opposed to the device?

• 59:51Robin Sharma?

  Okay, so, great question. A lot of the 5AM Club is about the morning routine from 5 to 6, the victory hour of the 202020 formula. That sets you up for a great day. Your days are your life in miniature. As you construct a great morning, you're gonna have consistently better days. Your days slip into weeks, your weeks slip into months, your months slip into years, you're gonna have a much better life. The concept in the book is called day stacking. But secondly, it's much more than a book about the morning routine of the great women and men of the world. There's a model called the 10 Rituals of Daily Genius. And that is how you literally structure your life to be an elite performer and own your field.

• 1:00:32Lewis Howes?

  All day.

• 1:00:33Robin Sharma?

  All day. And one of the key things to remember is this: isolation is one of the essential points of genius.

• 1:00:45Lewis Howes?

  Being isolated.

• 1:00:47Robin Sharma?

  You absolutely, and I call it in the book, the tight bubble of total focus. There's a model that I share in the book, and I don't know if you want to show it or whatever, but it's called, we're gonna go a little deeper into neuroscience if it's okay.

• 1:01:01Lewis Howes?

  Sure, go ahead.

• 1:01:02Robin Sharma?

  For any one of your listeners or viewers who doesn't think they have genius within them, here's the science that confirms it is. We all know about flow state. It came from Chicago, University of Chicago professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

• 1:01:17Lewis Howes?

  I can never pronounce it.

• 1:01:18Robin Sharma?

  I can never pronounce it either, but anyway. And so what he found was the great athletes, the great cellists, the great chefs, what they would do is they would get into flow state, and that would allow them to tap into a latent or deeper genius that allowed them to do, come up with amazing ideas and do great work, right?

• 1:01:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:38Robin Sharma?

  So then people might go, well, how do I get flow state? Because I want to be a great entrepreneur and a great performer, and I want to do my part to be a history maker. Well, here is the model from the book. It's called transient hypofrontality.

• 1:01:54Robin Sharma?

  We all have this capacity in our brain. And transient hypofrontality simply means, most of us operate every day in beta wave, checking our phones, going from meeting to meeting.

• 1:02:06Lewis Howes?

  Busy work.

• 1:02:07Robin Sharma?

  Busy work. We're not in this tight bubble of total focus because most of us don't really like to be alone very much. And that's another conversation. If we can actually divorce ourselves from the world for, let's say, three or four hours and go into this tight bubble of total focus and create what I call the Menlo Park, like Edison had, where his band of merry men would go to get away from the world, your brainwaves shift from beta down to alpha and even into theta. We all have this gift. And when your brainwaves go into theta, I hope I'm not boring you with this neuroscience.

• 1:02:43Lewis Howes?

  I love this stuff.

• 1:02:44Robin Sharma?

  Okay, so when your brainwaves go down into theta, the neocortex, which is the monkey mind, the inner critic, the relentless chatter, turns off. Transient, short period of time, hypofrontality. Your prefrontal cortex in your brain turns off. When that turn-

• 1:03:05Lewis Howes?

  You're not thinking about insecurities and fears.

• 1:03:06Robin Sharma?

  You're in flow. You're in flow. You're not going, "Oh, what if this... What if I get criticized? What if this doesn't work? What if, you know, how am I gonna pay my..." You get into the state every one of your followers from around the world has as part of their brains. But we never access it because we're on our phones, watching videos, we're surfing, we're in endless meetings. And you get into transient hypofrontality and you create flow. And so you're right. An addiction to distraction is the depth of creative production and an absolute... One of the 10 rituals of daily genius in the book is you've gotta get into the tight bubble of total focus and you've gotta get away from the world and be comfortable being alone so your ideas can incubate

• 1:03:51Robin Sharma?

  and you get the ideas that allow you to disrupt your marketplace.

• 1:03:55Lewis Howes?

  That's why journaling without devices is more powerful than being on a device where you can get distracted and check social media and email. It's just more pen and paper, focus on that and eliminate distractions. Is that something you recommend?

• 1:04:08Robin Sharma?

  I highly recommend it because if you're with your phone doing your journaling, there's an attraction to trivialities. And I'm a purist. I'm one of the only people on airplanes, sitting there with a, you know, like flight attendants come up to me and they go, "Oh, I haven't seen that for 77 years." "Wow, you know, you've got a pen and you've got a journal." But there's actually great science saying when you write, it activates a deeper part of your brain. So you lock in what you're writing about. And we know from willpower researchers, pre-commitment strategies allow us to do the things we want to do during our day. So even writing about what you want to do and who you want to become,

• 1:04:50Robin Sharma?

  helps you bring on the full force of your self-discipline. So you get those things done.

• 1:04:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. This is powerful, man. I want to ask you a few final questions.

• 1:05:00Robin Sharma?

  Sure.

• 1:05:00Lewis Howes?

  This has been very inspiring and I know people are gonna love this. This question is called the three truths. I ask everyone at the end, this question. And imagine you've lived as long as you want to live. And you said earlier that one day, you know, it's gonna be your final hour. Let's just imagine that's happened. You've created everything you want. You've lived a life. You've seen your kids do great things. All amazing things have happened.

• 1:05:25Lewis Howes?

  But for whatever reason, you've got to take your work with you. It's gotta go when you go. So no one has access to your information anymore. But you have a piece of paper and a pen, since you still like to write. You get to write down the three things you know to be true about your life, the world, lessons. If you have three lessons you get to share, what would you say are your three truths?

• 1:05:48Robin Sharma?

  The first truth would be, you will never rise any higher in the world than the quality of who you are on the inside. Because the outside is always a reflection of the inside. The second truth would be,

• 1:06:10Robin Sharma?

  rising at 5:00 AM, getting up before the dawn, running that 202020 formula and giving yourself the victory hour is a true game changer for any human being. We all have the capacity to do greatness in our lives. Most of us are not doing the rituals and routines that would allow us to embrace who we truly are. And the third truth that I know to be true is, when you... Work and live with a heart full of love and service for the benefit of a better world

• 1:06:55Robin Sharma?

  in a world where people sometimes still mock that truth. Good things always happen, even though it doesn't look like they're happening.

• 1:07:07Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, yeah. Leading with love and grace and service. Yeah, that's powerful. I want to acknowledge you, Robin, because you are just a man of extreme service and goodness.

• 1:07:21Robin Sharma?

  Thank you.

• 1:07:22Lewis Howes?

  And your work and your mission and your commitment and dedication to doing the challenging things to make it easier for us to be better is is just really inspiring. And I acknowledge and appreciate the gift you are in the world and that you continue to show up day after day, year after year, decade after decade, and serve so many people. So, thank you for everything.

• 1:07:48Robin Sharma?

  Thank you for that, by the way. It's been a privilege to be here with you.

• 1:07:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. I have one final question, but before I ask it, make sure you guys get the book, The 5AM Club. This is gonna change your life, change your health, relationships, everything. So, I highly recommend you guys get this book. Get a copy for a friend as a gift as well and help someone else's life as well. You are everywhere online. Is it at robinsharma.com? What's your website and your social media?

• 1:08:17Robin Sharma?

  Sure, anyone who wants to get The 5AM Club can just go to the5amclub.com. And what I tried to do with this book is it's not only the book. At the end of the book, there's a free 66-day program where you get very high-content videos and mentoring from me. So, I actually help you go through the 66 days required. According to University College of London, it takes 66 days to install a new habit. So, I actually have that online course at no charge whatsoever. Details are in the back of the book. And something I find very important is my dad said to me, "Robin, anything you can do to remove leprosy from the world, you know, please do it." And leprosy, a lot of people, you probably don't hear about it,

• 1:09:01Robin Sharma?

  but it's actually a very violent disease and it's afflicting a lot of people. So a percentage of my royalties on the 5am Club is gonna go to my not-for-profit children's foundation to help children who are suffering from poverty and leprosy live much better lives. And then I'm on Instagram, it's @robinsharma. And YouTube, I've got my podcast, etc.

• 1:09:27Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. You do big seminars in Canada and all over the world, so if people want to learn more about that, they can go to your website.

• 1:09:34Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, robinsharma.com.

• 1:09:35Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. Is there anything else you want to share before my final question?

• 1:09:39Robin Sharma?

  No, it's just been great to meet you, you know? I mean, I've heard such great things about you and what you've done can look easy, but you're doing amazing things in the world. And I think my hat off to you. And you know, you've done just tremendous things for people and I want to recognize you for the impact that you've had as well. And I think it's just the beginning for you.

• 1:10:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, just getting started. I'm excited. I appreciate it. Final question is, what is your definition of greatness?

• 1:10:09Robin Sharma?

  My definition of greatness is, you know, genius is less about potential and what you do with the potential you're born with. So I'd say greatness is about taking what the natural talent you've been born into and when it's easy and when it's hard, materializing it to the fullest of your blazing glory until the last moment of your life. And I'd say greatness is being an instrument of service to as many people as possible so that when you're no longer here, people will say, "She or he lifted people up versus tore people down."

• 1:10:54Lewis Howes?

  Beautiful. Robin Sharma, thank you, Bill.

• 1:10:56Robin Sharma?

  Pleasure. Thank you very much, Lewis.

• 1:11:02Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this one. I was blown away. I was constantly inspired, sitting on the edge of my seat, just excited to learn more about the way he thinks and how we can optimize our life. Again, we go through challenges and upsets and letdowns all the time in our life, and we're going to continue to go through them. And this interview and these insights and Robin's new book will help you optimize your life. Make sure to pick up a copy, The 5A End Club. Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life. We've got it all linked up at the show notes. LewisHowes.com/754. If you enjoyed this, tag myself, @lewis house and @robinsharma over on Instagram. Let your friends know. Text one or two friends and say, "Hey, guys, you've got to check out this interview.

• 1:11:47Lewis Howes?

  It's going to inspire your life and get you to the next level." The more you share the message, the more people we can support and help together. We have some big guests coming up, some exciting things. And if you're just new here to the episode and to the podcast, make sure to check out some of the previous episodes because, man, they have been on fire lately. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud, Pandora. We are everywhere in the world. Leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this, if it impacted your life. And Robert Louise Stevenson said, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." What seeds are you planting today?

• 1:12:29Lewis Howes?

  How are you adding value into your life and to someone else's life around you? Continue to plant seeds. The harvest is coming, my friends, but continue to plant seeds. And Henry Ford said, "Don't find the fault, be the remedy." You are the remedy. Your heart is golden. You are filled with a golden light that can heal the people around you and heal yourself. You have all the answers inside of you. You just have to listen to your intuition and your heart and your soul, and make sure you take action on what you're hearing from within. I love you all so very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.