Why You Need to Be Broke (Before You Get Rich)

Lewis reveals a truth most people run from: being broke isn't your failure, it's your education. He shares his own season sleeping on his sister's couch with no income, no savings, and no clear path forward, feeling trapped and questioning his worth. You'll learn why the lessons you gain when money is scarce teach you more about wealth than any amount in your bank account ever could. Lewis walks you through five specific reasons why financial struggle forces critical growth around resourcefulness, self-worth, and your relationship with money itself. This isn't about romanticizing poverty or staying broke, it's about extracting wisdom from hard seasons so that when money does come, you're actually ready to keep it. Make Money Easy: Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer LifeThe Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life TodayThe Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest LivesThe School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a LegacyIn this episode you will:Uncover what truly matters in your life by letting financial scarcity strip away the noise and reveal your real prioritiesDiscover why your money beliefs surface most clearly when your bank account is lowest and how to rewrite the stories keeping you stuckTransform your understanding of resourcefulness by learning why skills built without money last longer than any paycheckBreak through the dangerous belief that your worth equals your wallet and separate your identity from your incomeMaster the discipline of respecting money through intentional spending, delayed gratification, and creating a healthy relationship with what you have nowFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1882For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:George KamelTony RobbinsVivian Tu Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  Let me say something to you that might trigger you at first. You need to be broke. Now, not forever, not as an identity and not as a destination, but as a lesson. Most people are terrified of being broke. They avoid it at all costs. They pretend it's not happening. They hide it from friends if they are broke, if they're struggling or financially in debt. They hide it from family. They don't want to feel ashamed of that. And they hide it from themselves. And worst, they judge themselves for it. And there was a time in my life when I was completely broke. No savings, no real income and no clear path forward on how to make money.

• 0:43Lewis Howes?

  It was actually kind of terrifying for me at that moment. I was sleeping on my citrus couch. I had some gratitude in my life, but I was also embarrassed at the same time. I felt like I had potential, that maybe I could create something, but I had no real proof, no real evidence of that. And I was questioning a lot of my decisions. I was questioning my self-worth. I was questioning why I couldn't make money. And I was questioning if I had missed my window of opportunity to make money. I didn't feel successful. I didn't feel confident or believe in myself. And honestly, I didn't believe that I felt free in my life. I felt trapped. I don't know if you've ever felt this in your life, where you didn't have money,

• 1:27Lewis Howes?

  you didn't know where it was coming in and you don't feel free, you feel kind of trapped. Fast forward to today. I'm financially free. I do work that I love. I have choices and options. I've created a life where I create peace inside of myself. And money is no longer the thing that is controlling my decisions. And it wasn't always the case. When I was broke, money was controlling a lot of my decisions and I was doing things to make money because I needed it to survive. And here's why I'm telling you this. This is not to impress you or to flex on you or not to pretend that it was easy also, but to be clear about one thing. The season when I was broke taught me more about money, self-worth and freedom than

• 2:12Lewis Howes?

  any season when I was making more money. And it's hard to believe that because being broke. Doesn't just show you your bank account and what you lack and how much you don't have. It shows you your belief system. It shows you your habits. It shows you your fears, your insecurities and your relationship with money. Now, what does that mean, Lewis? Your relationship with money? It teaches you what your relationship is with money. When you have it, when you don't have it. When other people have it around you, how does it make you feel? What is that intimate relationship with money that you have?

• 2:52Lewis Howes?

  And if you never learn those lessons, more money won't fix your problems in your life. Making more money all of a sudden won't just fix everything in your life. It will only amplify what's already broken. It will amplify everything. So today, I want to share five reasons why being broke can actually be one of the most powerful seasons for building wealth, confidence and a healthy money mindset. Reason number one, being broke exposes your money stories. When you have very little money, all your money beliefs come to the surface. It all rises. And this is where you hear the little voices inside of your head that say, I'm bad with

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  money. Money is hard to make. Rich people are greedy. I'll never have enough. And being broke doesn't create these stories. It actually reveals them for you because they were already there. They'd already been built within your subconscious or you've picked them up from parents or teachers or friends. You've heard these things over the years. It just quieter when money was flowing, you hear those things. They were already there when you were broke and you can't change what you're not aware of. So quote that I share that says the energy connected with money wounds attracts similar

• 4:17Lewis Howes?

  energy to it. Something I talk about in my book, Make Money Easy, which is all about creating financial freedom in your life. So you can actually have a rich life. It's not about making tons of money and it's going to solve your problems. It's about healing the money wounds that keep you in scarcity when you have money as well. For me, being broke forced me to face a lot of things in my life. It forced me to face shame that I had insecurity, fear, self doubt, and really the self judgment that I had attached to money. It was a scary thing for me because I didn't understand it. So my relationship with it was built on that

• 5:00Lewis Howes?

  misunderstanding. And once you see the story of your own life around money and the own beliefs around it, you can start to rewrite them. You can start to rewrite those beliefs one day, one step at a time. And those stories shape what I call your money style. How you earn, how you spend money, how you save money, and how you sabotage money as well. And I actually created a free quiz that helps you identify your money style. So you can understand your own patterns as we go through the rest of this episode. And we'll link the free quiz in the description below where you're watching or listening to this. That

• 5:40Lewis Howes?

  is the end of reason number one. Being broke exposes your money stories. And again, if you want to understand your personal money style, then make sure to check the link in the description and you can go through that quiz for free. Reason number two, being broke teaches you resourcefulness before riches. Now, money doesn't create resourcefulness. Once you have it, you're not more resourceful. Resourcefulness creates money. It's never a bad bet when you invest in yourself. It's never a bad bet when you invest in yourself. When you're broke, you can't buy your way out of problems. You learn to figure things

• 6:22Lewis Howes?

  out. You learn to ask better questions. You learn to build skills. You develop skills by overcoming the fears and insecurities to develop them. You learn to create value without throwing money at everything. I've heard this by different founders before that when you raise a bunch of money, You can throw money at problems and hopefully it'll fix it and solve it. But a lot of startups aren't successful just by throwing money at problems. And they actually lose all their money. And then they're not resourceful in getting out of that problem. It's about learning how to be resourceful. Enrolling people in your vision, developing skills, adding more value in your service. And this is why a lot of people also who win the lottery end up broke again.

• 7:07Lewis Howes?

  The statistics don't lie. Getting a bunch of money is not going to solve your life or fix your life. If so, why do a lot of people who get all this money in a lottery? Go broke or bankrupt within a couple of years? And many of them have more problems afterwards. And many of them have committed suicide as well. Because they realized this didn't solve the problems within them. The relationship they have with money didn't change just by receiving more money. They got money without building the muscle to keep it. And being broke, when used the right way, builds that muscle. And that muscle lasts longer than any paycheck.

• 7:48Lewis Howes?

  So reason number two, being broke teaches you resourcefulness before you receive riches. Now, you have to learn how to be resourceful during that season. You have to learn how to overcome your fears and insecurities. You have to take courageous actions and fail over and over again to become more resourceful. But this is what that season teaches you. And if you just have the money, you'll just spend the money on problems and you won't be as resourceful. Reason number three, being broke forces you to separate your worth from your wallet. Now, this one is huge. A lot of people think more money means more worth. Less money means less value. And that's just not the case.

• 8:32Lewis Howes?

  That belief will destroy you no matter how much you make or how much you're earning. When you're broke, you're forced to ask a hard question. Who am I without my money? Who am I without my money?

• 8:48Lewis Howes?

  Your character, your work ethic, your creativity, your heart, your expressiveness, your integrity, are you your word? Who are you without money? It's a quote from Kyle Sees, who says, "Meditation gets me to understand that I'm the abundance, not money." When we can learn that we are abundance, not having money makes me abundance, but actually, our energy, our attitude, our mindset, our creativity, our ability to take risks, our ability to inspire, our ability to show up and set goals and be consistent and follow

• 9:30Lewis Howes?

  through, those things develop the results of you being abundance. None of that disappears when your bank account is low. If you still have all those things you developed, that character, that integrity, that love, that passion, you are that already. That is your identity, not what's in your bank account. So you have so much worth inside of you right now. And if you don't learn this lesson early, you'll spend your life chasing money just to feel enough, just to feel like you made it, just to feel like you're good enough. And I'm telling you, that is an exhausting life to live. Money is a tool. It is not your identity.

• 10:13Lewis Howes?

  So stop putting all of your worth into what's in your wallet, please. That is the end of reason number three. Being broke forces you to separate your worth from your wallet. Number four, it's a big one. Being broke teaches you how to respect money. Now Louis, what does this mean? Respecting money? Why should I respect money? Money doesn't respect me. Well, when money is scarce, every dollar should have a job. And you pay attention, you become intentional, you stop wasting without realizing it. A lot of people want more money without learning how to manage what they already have, the money that's within them.

• 10:58Lewis Howes?

  And you may say, Louis, well, I don't have much. I've only got about 50 bucks. I've got a few hundred bucks. I don't have much. But when you can learn to manage what you have and have a beautiful relationship with what you have, this is the hard thing. I go back to having a relationship with money. Louis, what does this mean? Money is transactional. Money is analytical. There is no relationship behind money. That's not true. When you think about money, you might have a couple of different responses. An emotional response. If someone hands you a million dollars right now, boom, you open up a briefcase, a million bucks. Most people would say that they would be thrilled and there was no strings attached. You keep it, you don't have to pay taxes on this. Most people would be like, oh my God, this is incredible.

• 11:42Lewis Howes?

  They would say it's life changing. They would have this rush of adrenaline, this excitement, this joy. They'd start thinking about what they could spend it on. Or maybe they say, I'm broke. I don't want to spend that on anything. I just want to put in the bank and just hoard it. Either way, you would have an emotional reaction if someone gave you a million dollars or if someone said, I'm taking all the money you saved and everything you've earned, you have nothing now. Either way, you'd probably have an emotional relationship with that event. And it's normal to have that. Based on how you learn to manage money up until now is that current relationship with it. It's not going to change all of a sudden

• 12:26Lewis Howes?

  if you get a million dollars or you lost a million dollars. It's only going to amplify that relationship. How you experience money now, that relationship you have with it now will be amplified. The more you make, the more you lose. Either way, it's about creating a healthy relationship with money. And the money you currently have is where you need to start in developing a different relationship. If you don't care for your money, your money won't care for you. Again, if you don't care for your money, your money won't care for you. And that relationship will feel broken in some ways. It'll feel out of alignment. And being broke, again, I did not like being broke. I didn't like living on my sister's couch

• 13:10Lewis Howes?

  for a year and a half, making no money, living off credit cards, living in debt. I didn't like it. But I look back at it fondly because it taught me my greatest lessons. Being broke can teach you discipline, priorities, and delayed gratification. And those three things right there can set you up for the rest of your life. If you learn the skill of discipline, if you learn the skill of where to put my time, attention into priorities, and if you learn how to delay gratification, not needing to buy things all the time, just to make you feel better, but to being grateful for where you're at and living beneath your means, not overspending things.

• 13:55Lewis Howes?

  That is half the battle. That is it right there to having a successful financial story in your future. And here's the key. Those skills don't disappear when more money comes in. Because in that season of being broke and broken on my sister's couch and having very little money, I kept those lessons with me once the money started to come in. And I am so grateful that I wasn't given a ton of money right away. I didn't earn a lot right away until I learned the lessons on how to manage money and how to have a better relationship with it when it came to me. Because those skills didn't disappear when more money came in for me, and it's not going to disappear for you.

• 14:39Lewis Howes?

  Those skills scale with you as your money grows. And that is a big, big lesson. End of reason number four. Being broke teaches you how to respect money. And you've got to start respecting it and valuing it, but not putting all this extra attention or value on it, but having a healthy relationship with money. Reason number five. Being broke actually clarifies what matters. When money is tight, you get clear pretty fast. You don't have the luxury of just chasing everything. You start asking real questions. What do I really need? Who do I really trust in my life?

• 15:23Lewis Howes?

  And what am I willing to work for? Clarity is a gift and broke seasons strip away the noise. You get real clear, real fast. What's important? The noise gets quieter, the distractions lose their power, the masks start to come off and everyone else's as well. You start to reveal yourself. You start focusing on what counts and that clarity becomes a compass for yourself. And when you start making more money later, you have more clarity with that as well. And that's a big thing. I love this quote from my friend, Tim Sykes. He said, if you're unhappy out there, you'll need to think a little differently. Aside from just the money you can make, what can you do with your life?

• 16:07Lewis Howes?

  What is your life about? Tim Sykes has been a buddy for a long time and he teaches people how to trade on the stock market. And this guy has made millions of dollars trading on the stock market and he's taught a lot of people how to make millions as well. But for years, he lived a life of fast lifestyle. He bought all the Lamborghinis. He had all the fancy homes. He was living the luxurious lifestyle and something smacked him in the face where he woke up and said, what am I chasing all this for? Why am I needing all this external validation around money to feel worthy? He was really good at making money, but he didn't find meaning in making money outside of that. I talked about having him come on a trip with Pencils of Promise one time and learn

• 16:52Lewis Howes?

  about a charity where you, you give back, you serve and you help kids with no school, helping them build schools and create education for them in rural parts around the world. And I took him on a trip and one of the moments where we were at a site where a new school was built, all these kids rushed around him and were just so grateful to have some pencils, some paper and a building that they can go learn from. And that was a big wake up call for him. He, he got to see these kids just joyful, just happy to be able to go to school and have an opportunity to learn.

• 17:32Lewis Howes?

  And he has gone off and done an incredible job giving millions every year to different charities and his own charity as well. And really finding purpose in why he's making money outside of just buying luxurious things, which he no longer even owns a car, I don't think. He's just giving and serving and finding ways to use his skillset to add more value to the world. And it's a beautiful thing that I got to witness and what he's been able to do over these last, you know, seven, eight years of giving and giving and transforming his relationship with money. One from him becoming rich and wealthy to how can I enrich other people with my wealth as well?

• 18:17Lewis Howes?

  And at a broke season, I'm not saying I want you to have a broke season. But if you are going through a season right now where you feel, man, money's been tough. This season can teach you that a rich life isn't just about having more money. It's about alignment. It's about peace. It's about living a life on purpose for you, what makes sense for you. Not just about making a living only. Now again, when you're broke and you're struggling financially, it's hard to be thinking about others because you're like, I'm living day by day here. I'm living week by week. I can't think about helping others and I get that. So there's seasons of time where you do need to put that attention on yourself

• 19:01Lewis Howes?

  and find ways to generate money and find ways to earn and find ways to live beneath your means and find ways to be resourceful and find ways to get creative and develop skills. That might be your season right now. And it's tough. I know it's tough. It's demanding. It can feel humiliating and embarrassing. You can feel shameful and not enough. But if we can just start to shift energy within you to say, I don't like this season right now, but I'm going to overcome it. I'm going to develop something greater.

• 19:34Lewis Howes?

  You know frustration and sadness can lead you to the greatest breakthroughs of your life if you act on them. Don't stay stuck in that energy. Act on them and say, who's the mentor? Where's the book I need to read? What's the skill I need to master? What's something I feel like I could go learn and overcome a fear that'll get make me more resourceful to generate more revenue? And then here's what I can tell you, having a negative attitude, feeling stuck in scarcity, saying, why is a problem always happening to me? That mindset will not make you financially free or emotionally free. So it's shifting the energy around your mindset first of saying, what can I control today? What can I learn today? How can I be a generous person with my time or energy?

• 20:18Lewis Howes?

  How can I show up with a smile and gratitude in my face? Because gratitude and generosity are the gateway to abundance. So how can I just be thankful for today? How can I be grateful to people that are offering me something today? How can I show up and just act a little differently so I'm not in scarcity and I'm thinking more about abundance? That is end of reason number five, being broke clarifies what actually matters. Now, I want to reframe something for you. Let me be extremely clear because some of you might be excited about this and you might say, I'm pissed at this right now, Lewis. This is not about staying broke. If you feel like you're struggling financially right now, I want you to get out of it as

• 21:03Lewis Howes?

  quick as possible. And a mentor early on told me a powerful lesson, a painful one, but a powerful one. And I'm going to say it to you right now because I feel like this might speak to you. I was struggling. I was working an internship, making a few hundred bucks at this point, maybe a year into my sister's couch. I was hustling, I was trying to learn skills, I was trying to do public speaking every single week, I was trying to learn about online marketing, I was like doing all these things and developing skills, but I wasn't seeing the fruit of it yet. I wasn't seeing the results coming yet. And I was walking with a mentor that I would walk with once a week. I was doing like an internship with him, so I was getting paid a few hundred bucks a month, but I was mostly learning and working at the same time.

• 21:47Lewis Howes?

  He would take me on a walk every week and say, ask me anything you want. And one of the questions I said is, man, I'm really struggling with trying to find ways to make money right now. It's really hard. And I've been grinding for the last year and it's still not, still not coming yet. He said to me, money comes to you when you're ready for it. And I was like, man, I feel pretty ready. I feel really ready to make some money right now. And he goes, money comes to you when you're ready for it. And if you get money too soon, when you're not ready for it, you're going to sabotage it. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to go broke again and the money's going to leave you. And at the time I was just like, yeah, but that doesn't make sense to me because I'm broke and I need money. So all this philosophy about relationship with money and your mindset around money.

• 22:31Lewis Howes?

  I'm like, I just need it. It feels like oxygen that I didn't have and I needed to breathe. That's how it felt, but something stuck with me when he said that also. And I was like, okay, I'm just gonna have to trust that I need to keep learning. I need to keep developing. I need to keep rewriting the money story. I need to keep reinforcing different beliefs by implementing those beliefs, by acting on them, by taking these actions daily and eventually it'll come. Now, fast forward, maybe about a year and a half later, after that moment, money started to come. And it started to come pretty quickly. So it took about a year and a half and still I maybe was making fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars a month.

• 23:15Lewis Howes?

  But then something clicked. It was like I was just taking action daily, daily, daily. And after a couple of years in, boom, like a big chunk of money came because I took a big action in front of a big audience and I took a risk. And boom, a flood of money came and it's almost like it unlocked. But I was just like, what? It was sixty two hundred dollars that entered my bank account within a moment. And it was like, this is more money than I've made my entire life is what it felt like. And I felt like I was the richest person in the world with sixty two hundred dollars instantly in my account.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  And it just, like boom, it expanded my capacity to even think about what was possible. And I was like, wow. If I was able to do this in an hour by giving a presentation and making an offer and selling something and make $6,200 an hour, I could do this every day for the rest of my life. Right? I was so excited. Now, that was after a year and a half, almost two years of practicing, of acting, of developing skills, of public speaking training, of online marketing training, of like actually doing the actions, not just thinking, I need money to come to me and it comes to me, but acting daily, overcoming myself, overcoming my fear, overcoming my limitations,

• 24:37Lewis Howes?

  and going all in. And then boom, it came to me. And the moment it came to me, I was like, oh, it's like the matrix. It was like, I know how to make money. It was like, it finally clicked. There is a language around making money. There is a feeling, an energy, and it finally was like, oh, I know Kung Fu. I know how to make money. And now I can repeat this again, and again, and again. And that's what I did for years. I just kept repeating it, developing new skills. So I'm not telling you that I, I want you to be broke right now, or I want you to be in a season of broke news, or that you should be happy that you're in this season of broke news

• 25:21Lewis Howes?

  if you're dealing with this right now. This is not about staying broke. This is not about romanticizing the struggle of being broke on your sister's couch and like, oh, this is the great time right now. Like, I look back at it as a beautiful season of my life, but I'll tell you what, when I was in it, I wanted to get out of it as quick as possible. I wanted to make money as fast as possible and get out of it. But I look back at it now on like, wow, man, that was the most challenging financial time. And thank God that I had the courage to take actions, to give me skills in resourcefulness, and build relationships, and build a network,

• 26:05Lewis Howes?

  and build a brand, and create content, and write book. Like, I took so many actions that now give me the ability to generate money now.

• 26:15Lewis Howes?

  This is not about romanticizing living in that right now, but I can look back on it and say that season taught me everything that I needed to know to be able to get to where I am now. And I'm speaking to you right now. The season you're in right now, if you feel like you're struggling, this is an opportunity. Do not waste this opportunity to learn, to develop yourself, to overcome the self that's limiting you, these beliefs that are limiting you. And this is not about, again, shaming success either. Because when I was broke and I would look at people who had money, I was like, gosh, why are they there and why am I not there? It's not what this is about. This is about learning the lessons before money magnifies your life.

• 26:57Lewis Howes?

  Because I'm telling you, it will magnify what is going on inside of you if you don't learn how to manage it first. Because if you don't learn the lessons when you're struggling or when you're broke financially, you'll pay a much higher price when you're not. Being broke is not a failure. It's a classroom. And if you pay attention, it will teach you some important things. It will teach you how to think differently about money, how to build skills, how to value yourself, how to respect wealth without worshiping it. It'll teach you how to appreciate other people's success first before you get there, instead of being frustrated about them.

• 27:42Lewis Howes?

  And money gets easier when your relationship with money gets healthier. Now, you might be thinking, what is this again, Louis? A relationship with money? This is everything I talk about in my book, Make Money Easy. If you want to make money easier in your life, you have to have a healthy relationship with it. That means you have to be thinking about money and feeling about money differently. You need to be experiencing it differently. You need to have a different internal dialogue around money. And here's an exercise for you. If money was a person and it represented an unlimited amount of money in a person and that person walked in the door and stood in front of you right now. And this person was just the symbol of unlimited money.

• 28:27Lewis Howes?

  And they walked into the door and they said hi to you. How would it make you feel? Would you get excited? Would you run and hide away? Would you act weird? Would you hate money? How would you feel? If money were a person and then you had to have a relationship with it, that's probably the relationship you have with money inside of you. When you see it, when you receive it, when you spend it, all these different things. And sometimes the fastest way to build a rich life is to let a broke season make you wise first. Again, make money easy, create financial freedom and live a richer life. Because having money is not about creating financial security.

• 29:13Lewis Howes?

  Having money should be a season where you enrich your life with more options. But I'm telling you, I know a lot of people who have a lot of money, who are not fulfilled and happy. It solves money problems, but it does not solve the internal problems that people have within themselves. And I want you to have both. I want you to have money so you can be financially free and secure and have savings and investments and feel like you're taken care of over the next six to 12 months or hopefully the rest of your lifetime. I want you to have as much money as you want. But money amplifies who you are and the relationship you have with yourself. So I want you to have money. I want you to be able to make money and I want you to feel good about it as well.

• 29:56Lewis Howes?

  I don't want it to stress you out more. I don't want it to make you feel exhausted. I don't want to make you feel like you're not ready for it. So I want you to comment below, what lesson has money taught you the hard way? Have you had any hard money lessons? Please share below what that is. Because I want everyone here to thrive. I want you to thrive. Money is meant to support you, to serve your highest self. It's not meant to control you. And if it's controlling you right now, then it's holding you back and we need to start thinking about things differently. Make sure to get a copy of Make Money Easy right now. Give a copy to a friend who might be looking for ways to optimize their

• 30:40Lewis Howes?

  their relationship with money and their financial freedom around money. And I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter. And this is an opportunity for you to start living a greater life today.

• 30:56Lewis Howes?

  What is your thoughts around the identity of money? The psychology of how it plays in our lives? Because a lot of people want to make more, they want to attract more, but they're just struggling with just the concept of it.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I think we've been programmed quite a bit with our relationship with money. And we have a relationship with everything known in our environment. You have a relationship, a neurological network in your brain for your parents, for your cellphone, for your computer, where you live, where you've lived in the past, what you're gonna do tomorrow. For the most part, the brain is a reflection of everything that we know, right? So along with that is our relationship with money. And I feel like I have a really good relationship with money because I work on having a really good relationship with everything in my life, right?

• 31:44Lewis Howes?

  Did you always have a good relationship with money?

• 31:46Speaker 01

  I think so, I think so. I've never really lived in lack. That just wasn't part of it. Even when I went to college and I had to take out student loans and stuff, I always figured out a way to always be a little bit ahead of the curve. And so, let's back up and just look at how people form beliefs. Because most beliefs are created from past experiences, right? So children, when they're in their early ages, their brainwaves are very slow. Like their brainwaves are in alpha when they're like 7 to 12. They're in theta when they're like 2 to 6 years old. And they're in delta like when they're newborn to 2 years old.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  And so, these brainwave states are states that were very suggestible to information.

• 32:36Lewis Howes?

  So when we hear information, we believe it?

• 32:38Speaker 01

  No, we accept it, we believe it. We surrender to it as if it's the truth without analyzing it. Because there's no analytical facilities yet. The analytical mind starts around 12 or so, 7 to 12. And that analytical mind is actually what creates a barrier between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

• 32:56Lewis Howes?

  So before 12, roughly, what we see, how we model our parents' behavior, what they say to us...

• 33:03Speaker 01

  It's all being programmed subconsciously, right? And so, that's really, really important. Because if you heard "money is the root of all evil", Money is bad. Only certain people are allowed to make money. You have to work hard to make money. This is how you gotta do it. And that becomes the foundation subconsciously. Let's like recording an audio file. You just keep recording that audio file. It becomes a subconscious program, right? So a lot of people have a relationship with money based on either what they've been told or what they've experienced in their outer environment, right?

• 33:44Speaker 01

  So then we gain information from our environment and the stronger the emotion we feel from experiences in our lives, the more altered we feel inside of us, the more the brain freezes a frame and takes a picture. And that snapshot is called a memory.

• 34:01Lewis Howes?

  Based on an emotion.

• 34:03Speaker 01

  Based on emotion. The emotion alters our internal state. So you're going along as Louis feeling really good and all of a sudden you have this trauma, you have this crisis, you have this shock and all of a sudden you have this dramatic change in your internal state and your senses get heightened and then you freeze the frame and you associate this internal state with whatever it is that's causing it, right? And that's how we create long-term memories, right?

• 34:24Lewis Howes?

  Are painful memories more powerful or beautiful memories more powerful?

• 34:30Speaker 01

  They're both equal.

• 34:31Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  They're both equal. But the problem is I think most people experience more the negative emotions, right? And those negative emotions really are derived from the hormones of stress, right? So the alarm system, the emergency system creates an arousal inwardly. And that arousal is saying there's something dangerous in your outer environment, right? And it could be a person, a circumstance, an accident or whatever. And that change in emotional state causes you remember the event. You gotta pay attention, right? You gotta stay really narrow your focus on the cause. So think about people who have relationships with money, right? From the past. All beliefs are based on past experiences. So you have an experience where you lose money, you have an experience where money's

• 35:17Speaker 01

  taken away from you, you have an experience where you don't have enough, you're living in a place where there's not enough money or a family that's not enough money, then the emotion that most people are living by on a moment-to-moment basis is lack. Like, I'm in lack of having something that I want, okay? Now, there's nothing wrong with that, because the experience changes your emotional state. You freeze the frame, you take a picture. The problem is, that's hardware. So, we think neurologically within the circuits of that past experience, and we feel chemically within the boundaries of that emotion, which would say, for example, be lack, right? So now, the person says-

• 35:56Lewis Howes?

  Before you go on to the next thing, what happens to the body and the mind when it is in an environment of lack? Mentally or physically, I'm in lack. What is the body and the mind saying?

• 36:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, so the body is saying, "I'm waiting for some external event to occur." "I win the lottery." "I marry the right guy." Whatever it is, that you're waiting for that event to occur, that experience produces an emotion. So, the emotion then takes away the lack. And so, when we play the game in three-dimensional reality, the creation game in three-dimensional reality, we experience separation from everyone or everything, because our senses fool us into the illusion, the hallucination of separation. "I'm here and you're there." "I'm here and the door is over there." So, I'm aware that I'm here at one point of consciousness,

• 36:49Speaker 01

  and the door is over there, another point of consciousness, okay? So, in order for me to get from here to the door, I gotta move my body and do something through space. I gotta do something, and everything in this three-dimensional reality is gonna take time and energy, right? So, okay, so then here's Louis, right here. And then he says, "Okay, I want this experience in my future, and your brain automatically predicts and projects how far in the future you think it's gonna take."

• 37:17Lewis Howes?

  Maybe it's a year, five years, 10 years.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  Thirty years.

• 37:20Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:20Speaker 01

  Right? Because that's what it's gonna take to pay off that house, right? So now, one point of consciousness, I'm here. The other point of consciousness is where I'm placing my dreams. So, I'm separate from that experience. So then, how do I get to that experience? In three-dimensional reality, you gotta get up and you gotta do something. You gotta go to work. You gotta drive to work, it takes energy. You gotta fill your car with gas, you gotta eat food, you gotta work, you know, all this stuff. You gotta sleep, you gotta recover if there's stress. And now, people are- In a sense, waiting for the experience that's ten years down the road or thirty years down the road to happen, to take away the lack of them not having it. And unfortunately, many times when the experience finally occurs, they can't enjoy it because they're too exhausted, right?

• 38:05Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  So then, so you play the game. You go to school. You study really hard, or you study on your own. You develop some skills. You make the right choices. You start saving money. You start learning from your mistakes. And then the game is, how many things can you accumulate? And that accumulation, then, you associate with being wealthy, or being abundant, or being successful, right? And some people get really good at it, right? You can get really good at that. But for the most part, though, when we create from three-dimensional reality, we're creating from lack and separation. In other words, you're driving down the road and you see someone driving a car that all of a sudden you realize that you don't have. The moment you become aware that that person has that car

• 38:50Speaker 01

  and you don't have it, you're in lack of having it, right? So what the brain naturally does is it naturally creates you driving that car. And you have an image of yourself driving that car and you start identifying, wow, that would be a greater experience for me to have. The problem is, the distance between the thought of what you want and the experience of actually happening it, happening for most people, is the concept called time, right? Between cause and effect, right? So some people develop the ability to manage themselves and manage their life. They develop certain skills and they can pay for it and they can get it very quickly. The problem is, when the novelty of that experience wears off, you know, the car, and they're no longer identifying with that,

• 39:33Speaker 01

  and the feeling of emptiness and lack comes back.

• 39:36Lewis Howes?

  They need to find something else.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  They gotta go find something else. And so there's this game that goes on where you never have enough, right? And that's the lack game, right? So then, if you think about people having the things they want in their life, when they create from lack and separation, it's the experience in three-dimensional reality that produces the emotion. And the emotion is saying, "Let's feel that, experience this thing that you've been in lack and separation from." And that emotion then takes away the lack or separation. But you've worked really hard to get it, okay? Nothing wrong with that. Is there another way to do it?

• 40:11Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 40:11Speaker 01

  Okay. So, the person who's living in lack is waiting for their wealth to feel abundant. They're waiting for their success to feel empowered. They're waiting for their healing to feel gratitude. They're waiting for their new relationship to feel love. They're waiting for their mystical experience to feel awe. That's the Newtonian model of reality of cause and effect. Waiting for that event to happen to take away this separation or lack. Nothing wrong with it. It's the way most people create. But what we've discovered is actually something else. The moment you feel gratitude, your healing begins. The moment you feel worthy and abundant, you're generating wealth.

• 40:55Speaker 01

  The moment you're empowered, you are moving towards your success. The moment you're in love with yourself and you're in love with life, you'll create an equal. The moment you are in awe of life, you're going to have a mystical experience. And so, that's causing and effect, right? So then, if you can teach people then, how to create instead of from lack or separation, but create from wholeness. And create from what we call the quantum field instead of three-dimensional reality.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  What's the difference?

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Okay, so, the way you... First of all, it takes knowledge, okay? The quantum field is an invisible field of energy that exists beyond our senses. You can't see it, you can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't hear it, you can't feel it. It exists beyond our experience of three-dimensional reality.

• 41:47Lewis Howes?

  Would this be in our mind's consciousness? Or would this be in a different space?

• 41:52Speaker 01

  Okay, let's look at that. So, the answer to the question is, how much of your waking day do you put your attention on matter, on the material world? And how much of your waking day are you aware of energy and frequency? For most people, they're unaware of the quantum field. And if you're unaware of it... It doesn't exist for you. Just like you have a nose, but if you're unaware of it, it doesn't exist for you. The moment you become aware of it, it exists. Well, the quantum field, you can ask, you could study all kinds of science and they'll tell you there is this invisible field of frequency and energy that exists beyond the senses that tend to connect everything physical and material. In fact, everything physical and material is connected to this field. Okay?

• 42:36Speaker 01

  So, how do you get there? Right? How do you get there? How do you get there? How do you get there? So, we discovered that when you take all of your attention off your body and you are not paying attention to your emotions, your drives, your habits, if you could take all of your attention off of every element in your environment, your cellphone, your tablet, your computer, your car, your, whatever it is, your bed, take your attention away from everything, every place that you live, where you sleep, or you work, and you're not thinking about time. You're not thinking about your schedule, where you need to be, or what happened yesterday. You can relax into the present moment.

• 43:20Speaker 01

  There tends to be a dramatic change in the way the brain functions when people do this properly. We call it getting beyond yourself, but in a sense, you're dissociating from your three-dimensional reality. Why? Because if you're thinking about anything in your three-dimensional reality, that's where your attention is and that's where your energy is. Okay? So, we kind of figured out this formula when people really become nobody, no one, no thing, nowhere, no time. We're pretty much all of a sudden outside the constraints of the Newtonian world of got to do something to get an outcome. And if you can teach people how to linger there without a name, without a face, without a profession, without a family, without a culture,

• 44:02Speaker 01

  without a past, without a disease, you teach them how to be in this place we call the unknown, right? And you teach them that from that place, that invisible field, is where everything material comes from. And if they could create coherence in their brain, you need a strong signal in the brain. The more coherent the brain, the more stronger the signal. What do you mean a strong signal? Okay, let's see how I could say this. When most people, we look at, when we look at brains in real time and we're looking at people's, how their, how their mind is working. When you're under stress, okay, stress is created by not being able to predict something that's gonna happen in your life.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  The perception that something's gonna get worse, or you can't control something, right? So, when that occurs, we switch on that primitive nervous system called the fight-or-flight nervous system, and the brain goes into this very alarmed state called high beta. That means, pay attention to the outer world, there's danger out there. So it's, but if it's not a predator, and it's traffic, or your coworker, or your ex. Right. This is where it gets to be a problem, because it becomes very maladaptive, right? So, when we're in that state, and the brain is that, in that aroused state, we try to control and predict everything, so every person, every object, everything, every place, every, even your body, has a neurological network in your brain, right? So, as the arousal happens, we start shifting our attention to all these elements, and

• 45:29Speaker 01

  like a lightning storm, in the clouds, the brain starts firing very, very incoherently. And when the brain's incoherent, we're incoherent. That's not a strong signal. That's not, there's, it's a static on the, that's disconnection, there is no signal. Right. So, when we're in that state, we're always really looking for the worst-case scenario, what's gonna happen, because if you prepare for the worst, anything less happens, a better chance of survival, right? So, so, in this kind of aroused state, as we shift our attention to each one of these elements that are known in our environment, the brain starts compartmentalizing and firing out of order, and, and, and that is what creates what's called autonomic dysregulation. That's causes the brain and body to get really out of balance, right?

• 46:13Speaker 01

  So, in that state, we're, we're over-focused, you know, when you're stressed, you're over-focused on something, you can't stop thinking about it. Our research... Shows that when you do that, you actually make your brain worse. Because you're analyzing your problems within some disturbing emotion. And that emotion is driving you further out of balance. You're actually knocking your brain and body out of balance by thought alone. And you're driving it into these more aroused states, right?

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  For someone that's been living like that for decades, that's their base state. How do they even realize how to get out of that?

• 46:48Speaker 01

  They don't. Usually it takes crisis, right? It takes drama.

• 46:51Lewis Howes?

  Extreme breakdown.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, breakdown.

• 46:52Lewis Howes?

  A loss, a death, a breakup, a divorce.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  Bankruptcy, whatever it is, a disease, a diagnosis, whatever. Something where you just can't go on business as usual. Now it's time to really start looking.

• 47:03Lewis Howes?

  They have to wake up.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, so let's get back to the concept of abundance here, because...

• 47:10Lewis Howes?

  You need a strong signal in this field.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  Right, so then if you can teach people to do the exact opposite, go from putting all of their attention on everything physical and material in the world of separation. And instead of narrowing their focus on something material, ask them to broaden their focus and put it on nothing. Now, I know that sounds kind of crazy, but when you put your attention on space and you divert your attention, the act of sensing without thinking actually starts to slow the brainwaves down. Not only slow it down, but all of a sudden cause the brain to start reintegrating, starts to synchronize, right? And so you see different compartments of the brain that were firing out of order start to resonate.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  They start to communicate. They're all of a sudden synchronizing. And what sinks in the brain kind of links in the brain. So when a person has their whole entire brain firing in rhythm, that's a very strong signal that you can send out into the field.

• 48:12Lewis Howes?

  So when that signal is strong in that position, what can you create from that space?

• 48:16Speaker 01

  Okay, so, but that's only one element.

• 48:18Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  So then the clear intention tends to be a very important element that we have to have to get down. And the more coherent the brain... The more clear the signal for that intention. So with intention and attention, we could actually make thought more real than anything else. Now, what is that? You're saying, what would it be like to be wealthy? What would it be like to be abundant? What would it be like to have all my needs met? What would it be like to have more than I need? What would I do if I had everything I ever wanted? The answer always is the same. You start giving stuff away. Because if an abundant person is truly abundant, why would they hold on? They would say, I'm not in lack. There's more for everybody, okay? Turns out, though, that the signal sent out isn't enough.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  You're gonna have to draw the experience back to you.

• 49:07Lewis Howes?

  You send the signal out to, you know,

• 49:09Speaker 01

  Coherent brain.

• 49:10Lewis Howes?

  Financial freedom, abundance, all these different things.

• 49:13Speaker 01

  Right, right, right. Whatever that is for you. Whatever that is for you.

• 49:15Lewis Howes?

  You're putting that out there with the signal, with the intention and the attention.

• 49:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 49:19Lewis Howes?

  And then how do you draw it to you? So in the physical world, the physical world.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  In the physical world, you gotta go get it. You gotta do something. This is the plane of demonstration. You gotta go get it. And when you're in lack until it occurs, right?

• 49:31Lewis Howes?

  But I'm hearing you say there's a way to not chase, but attract.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  All right, so if you're creating from the field instead of from matter, right? There's a very strong possibility that you'll shorten the distance between the thought of what you want and the experience of having it. And when there's a vibrational match between your energy and that future that you want to experience, now, if you're creating from the field, you actually don't go anywhere to get it. You actually draw it to you. So here comes the synchronicities, the serendipities, the coincidences, the opportunities. And they come out of nowhere. And you say, "I don't understand. I didn't do anything." Well, you changed your energy. And so then, the other element is a coherent heart, right?

• 50:20Speaker 01

  And the heart has a magnetic signature. And the magnetic signature is what draws reality to us, right? So you combine that clear intention with a coherent brain. Now, here's the key. This takes practice.

• 50:34Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Because the person who's living in lack is usually unworthy, is usually insecure, is usually in their past. They're usually frustrated. They're usually impatient. They're usually resentful. Because nothing's changing out there because it's taking too long. Well, that's, everything takes a lot of time when you do matter to matter, right? So then if you teach them, okay. We know all about that. We know the story behind it. We know what your parents told you about money, all that other, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. But now, let's do something that would be really cool. Let's, let's write down the feelings of how you would feel

• 51:15Speaker 01

  if that future happened, and you're going to have to feel that feeling before it occurs. So now, okay, what does an abundant person feel? Pretty much free, a lot of freedom.

• 51:29Lewis Howes?

  Free, peace, excited, joyful.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  In love with life, grateful to be alive, abundant. Okay, now, let's practice feeling those. Turns out, when you're feeling those other emotions like resentment and impatience and frustration, you're stepping on the gas pedal, just turning on the sympathetic nervous system, and you're stepping on the brake.

• 51:50Lewis Howes?

  At the same time.

• 51:51Speaker 01

  At the same time, which is, you're angry, you're frustrated, but the fight or flight nervous system says run, fight, or hide, and you're sitting in a Zoom meeting and your neck is pulsating is because the heart is beating against the closed system, right? You're not, you're not using it in an adaptive way. So the heart starts firing out of order. It starts firing incoherently, and incoherent waves cancel each other out. It's called destructive interference, and then we stop trusting our future. Energy leaves the heart. Energy leaves the brain, energy leaves the heart. You can't get in touch with the feeling of your future because in survival, those are hormones of stress, all those emotions. In survival, it's not a time to create, right? It's time to run, fight, and hide. Okay, so we've got to lay down

• 52:34Speaker 01

  the very thing we used our whole life to get what we want. The habit of doing it that way for something greater to occur.

• 52:41Lewis Howes?

  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 support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved,

• 53:22Lewis Howes?

  you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.