Pod Insights The School of Greatness 5 Secrets Of The Ultimate Morning Routine [SOLO ROUND] EP 1398 About this episode https://lewishowes.com/bundle - Order my new book The Greatness Mindset today! Each day you're presented with a choice. You can either keep your greatness hidden under a pile of fears, regrets, and excuses, or you can let it out. So the best way to begin unlocking inner greatness is to make a conscious choice to live out the rest of today, with the best you. When it comes to morning routines, you’ve been lied to. Or, at the very least, you haven’t been given the whole truth. Having a morning routine doesn’t need to be something that consumes your entire day or brain space. Having a morning routine isn’t something that’s only possible for people without kids to watch over, without a business to grow, or without others who count on them for support day in and day out. Having the ultimate morning routine is truly possible for everyone at any stage of their life, and that includes YOU! In this episode you will learn: Where most people fail with morning routines. Five strategies to craft the ultimate morning routine to get you what you want. How mastering your night will help you master your morning. How setting your intentions will benefit your morning routine. Habits to help set daily intentions. For more, go to lewishowes.com/1398Habits That'll Help You Not Waste Another Year Of Your Life w/ James Clear EP 1372 https://link.chtbl.com/1372-podEliminate Brian Fog, Increase Your Focus & Control Your Motivaiton w/ Andrew Huberman EP 1204 https://link.chtbl.com/1204-podHeal The Body & Transform The Mind w/ Joe Dispenza EP 826 https://link.chtbl.com/826-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Lewis Howes? Okay, so if you haven't heard the news yet, I've got a new book out called The Greatness Mindset. Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today. It's coming out soon and I'm pumped to invite you to be a part of the launch team for this book. This is a rare opportunity to get your questions answered and network with other champions of greatness in this exclusive community of conscious achievers. If you're ready to receive early access to the first few chapters of the book, behind the scenes updates from me, plus VIP access to bonuses and giveaways, then this is for you for instructions about how to join this greatness launch team. Make sure to go to lewishouse.com/launchteam right now.
0:43 Lewis Howes? Again, make sure to check it out at lewishouse.com/launchteam right now. I want to acknowledge you for showing up today and for giving yourself an opportunity to learn, to grow, to develop something new within you. And a lot of the stuff you're going to hear today, you've already heard before, but I want to give it to you in a clear, concise way. 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.
1:23 Lewis Howes? I want to ask you a question. On a scale from one to 10, how effective is your morning routine at helping you build the exact life that you want? I want you to put in right now, one through 10, where are you? You've got a morning routine and you've got a purpose and a deep sense of a meaningful mission, but they're not producing the results you want. So you've got some clarity, you've got some habits already, but it's not getting you the results. You're not creating the relationship you want. You're not feeling a certain way that you want daily or consistently. You're not creating the financial career opportunities you want, or you just kind of feel like, ah, I'm doing these things, but it's not working. The second one being you don't have a morning routine at all. You're too busy, you know, you barely have time to get up and, you know, get a cup of coffee.
2:08 Lewis Howes? But did you know that 92% of people with a morning routine consider themselves highly productive? And people with a morning routine have less stress. So if you're dealing with stress in your life. And I know the big thing is going to be like, well, I don't have time to create a morning routine. Or I've got so many distractions, right? But if you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed in your life, I am telling you, when you give yourself a simple structure in your morning, it can transform the rest of your day. And these things compound over time. So if you never take care of what you need to in the morning, and you continue to build on stress every day, it's going to compound. If you start doing little by little, it's going to compound in a positive way.
2:53 Lewis Howes? Where I see most people failing with morning routines, here's the big thing. They're thinking that it needs to be super complicated. Now, how many of you have been like, man, there's so much, so many people asking questions about morning routines out there and, you know, there's all these different hacks and biohackers and tools and gadgets and things I need to buy and, you know, the 6 a.m. club, the 5 a.m. club, the 3:30 a.m. club, and I gotta work out for two hours and I gotta jump in an ice tub for 20 minutes and I gotta do the sauna and I gotta do a hyperbaric chamber. Now I gotta, you know, hold my breath for 20 minutes. And I get all these different things that people say that are so extreme, right? Thinking that it needs to be complicated. Who is with me on understanding that feeling like, there's just too many things? I gotta take a cold shower. I gotta take a hot shower.
3:37 Lewis Howes? I gotta do Epsom salt. I gotta read, you know, a full book in the morning. I gotta write a thousand pages. It's like, no one has that type of time to do all these different things. If you're with me, I gotta meditate for two hours. You see like all these monks meditating for two hours at 2 a.m. I gotta get no sleep. I gotta get all the sleep. It's like all over the place, right? And so we're hot and cold with these kind of like healthy biohacking habits. And that's where I see people, they go all extreme. They're like, okay, I'm gonna dive all in and do all these things. And then after three days, they realize this is unsustainable. I can't do this.
4:15 Lewis Howes? There's, and then there's a distraction that comes up, right? So they have a lack of vision for the enthusiasm for the day. And they're unable to get up and really do these things because they're not clear on what they want for the day. Um, or they let social media hijack their attention. How many of you let your phone just like wake you up first thing in the morning and then you're on there for 30 minutes. You're in a loop and you're getting, you know, overwhelmed and stressed and already reactive. Now here's the thing we've tried to do. We've tried to create a podcast to give you inspiring information with the school of greatness and the daily motivation to help you actually get up and start taking action. So that's something we have tried to create for you to support you. If this sounds familiar to you, you're feeling stuck or broken down and barely surviving right now, uh, in your life. Uh, you're living what most would
4:57 Lewis Howes? call a good life, but still feel unfulfilled inside. So it's like, okay, I've got a good job. I've got a good relationship. I've got a good family. I've got a good thing, but I'm feeling like something's stuck inside. Like some, so I'm missing something. There's something I'm not doing that I know I'm supposed to be doing. And you want to break through that next level and find the edge to what that is. Maybe some of you are living for the weekends and you're dreading the mornings. Like you, you don't want to wake up in the morning. You just wait for the weekends and that's your life right now. Maybe you're feeling like you're setting yourself up to lose by not winning in the morning. So you feel like I can never get caught up. I feel like I'm behind, I'm behind, I'm always behind. Or maybe you're just highly distracted or frustrated because you don't know where to focus your
5:39 Lewis Howes? efforts. You don't know what's going to work and you're not sure. I've done all the biohacking. I've done it all. I've been to Poland with Wim Hof and, and you know, trained five days, climbing a mountain half naked and jumping in frozen rivers and chanting and, and it's great, right? I loved it. I've hung out with all the top spiritual gurus from Sadhguru and Jay Shetty and you know, all the, the individuals who live a spiritually filled life. Uh, I've done, you know, with all the top athletes and peak performers and working out in tents in the morning. I've done all these different things, guys. I've tried 95% of the morning routine biohacking things that you could do. The awe, the hot, the cold, the resistance
6:22 Lewis Howes? training, the meditation for, you know, two hours a day. I just did a seven day meditation with Dr. Dodo Spence the last month. Um, I've done a lot of these different things. Okay? And I feel like, I feel like we got to start simplifying our mornings. We got to create some structure and simplicity. So we can create something that works for us for this season of life that supports us in feeling centered and balanced in a chaotic world. Centered and balanced in a chaotic world. Even if that's just a few moments every morning to center yourself and feel balanced. So that the rest of the day you can take it on.
7:05 Lewis Howes? There might be unbalance and out of centeredness the rest of your day. But if you don't get that straight in the morning, you're always going to feel like you're on one leg being pushed over and off balance. And you're never going to feel like you're centered and you're strong and you're grounded and you're ready to take on the challenges of life. The adversities that come up with your emotions, the stresses of the world, the economy, the war, the policies, the news, your relationships, you're never going to feel like I'm fully grounded and centered in taking on anything that comes my way.
7:44 Lewis Howes? And so my intention, my mission, my vision for all of you is that you create a simple process. And I'm going to share with you five simple timeless lessons to support you with your morning routine. So that you are grounded in a beautiful aligned way, so that you are centered. So that you feel like nothing can shake you off of your core. Nothing can take you out of your alignment to your vision. Nothing can rock you. Maybe you stumble a little bit, but you're not fully off balance. So that you fall over and you feel like you're exhausted and drained. And by no means, zero means am I perfect every day with my morning routine. So I'm going to be the first one to put my hand up and say that, you know, I'm not the perfect person every morning.
8:29 Lewis Howes? I'm not as most consistent as I like to be all the time. You know, things happen, I get it. But the goal, the goal is to be as simple and consistent as possible. So that after your morning routine, you feel grounded and centered to take on the day. I did my morning routine this morning. It got me to a place of centeredness. It got me to a place of readiness. It doesn't mean I'm 100% perfect every day in my energy and my feelings, but it got me to a baseline where I feel really good. So by the end of this training, you're going to have five proven tools, strategies and breakthrough insights to craft the ultimate morning routine to get more of what you want. This is about you. I want you to craft what you need.
9:14 Lewis Howes? That's going to keep it consistent throughout each season of life. And things could change season by season. So here's what we got. Have a meaningful mission. A lot of people don't have clarity on what their mission is for this season of life. I'm not saying, okay, if you're 25 years old, you gotta be like, I'm going to cure cancer. Like you don't have to have this mission of like, I'm going to change the world for the rest of my life and I'm clear on my mission. You don't need that. You know, each season of life for me has evolved with a different meaningful mission. When I was playing sports, I was like, I just want to be the best athlete I can be and accomplish certain goals while I'm playing sports. You know, once I launched my first business, it was I, my, my meaningful mission was to get off my sister's couch.
9:58 Lewis Howes? That was my first meaningful mission when I was broke, lived on my sister's couch. Then it kept evolving and shifting. Then I sold a company. That was a mission of mine. Okay, I want to, I want to build it till I can sell it. Then I had to reinvent myself. So it depends on your season of life, but a meaningful mission is what will support you. And for me, greatness is discovering your unique gifts. It's figuring out what's inside of you. And that takes time and lessons and adversity and challenges to figure that out. It's discovering your unique gifts and talents to pursue your meaningful mission and make the maximum impact on the people around you. That doesn't mean you need to change millions of lives or thousands of lives. It can be, I want to make an impact on the five core people around me. The people that I'm spending the most time with, the people that I care about, that I love.
10:41 Lewis Howes? And then once I've gotten there, how could I give more? You know, that's what something you can think about after that. Now, everyone has a different meaningful mission, right? And it's depending on what the season of life you're in. It could be, I want to be a great parent. I want to be the best version of myself to show a new model of what it's like to be a great parent to my kid or my kids. I want to break the system from what my parents taught me. Maybe your parents didn't give you the love, the attention, the support, the listening to meet your needs. And you say, I want to break that cycle, that generational trauma. And I want to show up in a new way of how I want parents to show up. And I want to be the example for my kids so that they can lead a life that I didn't get to lead. Maybe it's being healthy and fit.
11:26 Lewis Howes? Maybe you've been out of, uh, out of alignment with your, your body. You've let your temple get out of alignment and out of balance. You've been overeating. You haven't been moving. You haven't been working out. You haven't been taking care of your temple, the one thing that you have forever. And your mission is, I'm going to get in the best shape of my life. And I'm going to create a game plan and I'm going to stick to it daily. Uh, you know, maybe it's, hey, I want to create the next level of financial freedom for myself. And that's a mission that I have. Or maybe it's when I accelerate your career. Or maybe it's like, hey, I've got a, I want to be of bigger service right now. And that's my mission. Um, for me, that's the season of life that I'm in. It's about being of service on a higher level. Obviously, I'm trying to optimize the different areas of my life,
12:11 Lewis Howes? but it's also being of service at a higher level. And your current seasons of life and intention, it's, it's going to be a lot about intentions moving forward will determine your meaningful mission. So where you're at in your life, what's going on, what your challenges are, uh, and your intentions will determine your meaningful mission. So my mission and our mission here at Team Greatness is to impact a hundred million lives weekly. That's our mission, a hundred million lives weekly. To help them improve the quality of their life with inspirational, educational and entertaining media and content, right? That's our mission. That's something I got clear on about seven, eight years ago, a few years into the podcast. I said, okay, we've reached the million lives.
12:55 Lewis Howes? What do I really want to do? What's going to get me excited? What's going to get me fulfilled? What's going to get me to step into the highest version of myself consistently? What's going to get me to overcome my insecurities and fears? It's going to get me to stop doubting myself. What's going to get me to get over my ego? And being of service to others in a bigger way. What's going to get me to be proud of myself? What's going to get my future self to be excited about? What's going to get my future self excited, you know, grateful that I showed up for my past self? All these different things. I started asking these questions to get clear on what is my meaningful mission for this stage of my life? Now, in two years, 10 years, 20 years, this might shift.
13:37 Lewis Howes? I, you know, I may reach that goal. I may not reach that goal. And at that point, I may say, you know, I have a different mission. I have a different value system. You know, maybe it's not serving 100 million lives. Maybe I want to, you know, open some other, you know, shop and live a simple life and impact the people around me in a different way. So it, there's no right or wrong here. But how would you describe your current season of life? And meaningful mission at this moment, you know, the thoughts and the daily decisions we make. Create the environment and the results in our life. The thoughts that we consume consistently. The daily decisions we make and take consistently.
14:20 Lewis Howes? End up creating the environment we're in. So if you're in an environment that you're not excited about. Then you want you to assess, what have my thoughts been? And what have my daily decisions been? And if I'm compounding those daily, over and over and over again. That might be why I have the results that I have. Now, there are circumstances and there are adversities and challenges and things that come up. I get for all of us that might set us back. But your thinking and your daily actions can start to shift about that, creating new meaning around it. You know, Viktor Frankl, I loved it in his book, Man's Search for Meaning. He talked about finding meaning in the most horrible adversities and challenges in life.
15:05 Lewis Howes? Finding meaning from the tragedies, meaning from the traumas that we've experienced. And allowing ourselves to heal those memories of the past and start visualizing a more beautiful future that we can step into. But the only way we can step into that is by the way we think and our daily decisions. And compounding those over time. And for me, that starts with the morning routine. That starts with the morning routine. The secret number two, which I don't think a lot of people talk about, is you need to master your night to master your morning. Now, let me break this down for you. How many of you feel like you have a great evening routine? Here's why this is so important.
15:50 Lewis Howes? And this is something I learned years ago that has really supported me in my life. Feeling peace, feeling calm, feeling love, feeling abundance, feeling rest. Two out of three people who prepare their morning routines the night before report having lower stress levels. Forty-four percent of people with a morning routine report preparing the night before. Huh, okay, so we're adding things up. You know, two out of three people prepare their morning routines the night before, report having lower stress. Interesting, so why don't we start doing that more? And then forty-four percent of people with morning routines report that prepare the night before. So when you prepare the night before for the next morning, you're gonna have less stress, you're gonna feel more prepared.
16:32 Lewis Howes? So Tricia Hershey, she's the founder of the NAP Ministry, who said, rest is generative. Rest gives you clarity, right? So we need to sleep well. Uh, but we need to do something right before we sleep. And I think if we do these things, these three things right before we sleep, you're gonna sleep a lot better. Three things that I do before the night. One, I reflect on the day. I think about what worked today, what didn't work today. So this is, doesn't have to be an hour, right? This is a few moments. I think in my mind, how did I show up today? Did my highest version of myself show up the way I wanted to show up? In the good moments, in the challenging moments and everything in between. Did I, was I reactive or was I kind and compassionate?
17:16 Lewis Howes? Did I show up someone to be proud, proud of myself? And, and I'm not saying I gotta be perfect every day. It's just a moment to reflect on what worked and what didn't. So I can have that in my bank for tomorrow and make sure, okay. And I got stressed out today, so why did I get stressed? Well, I didn't get enough sleep. I didn't do my morning routine. I didn't do this. All right, so I need to do that tomorrow. It's just a mental note. The next thing I do is um, I really prepare the next day by setting myself a process. So I like to write down any notes that I'm thinking that are like cluttering my mind. If I'm like, God, I gotta do this thing. I wanna do this thing right now. I write it down and know that I'm gonna do that tomorrow. Okay, I look at my calendar and see what I have going on tomorrow.
17:59 Lewis Howes? And then I start to prepare to make sure I have everything I need. Okay, I'm doing my workout first thing in the morning. So I put my shoes out. I've got my gym bag. I've got everything ready the night before. So I'm not waking up fumbling around thinking, ah, where is my clothes? Where is this? I've got things packed in my backpack to go to my studio. My gym bag packed, things ready and organized so that I can declutter my mind and caress. And then at the end of the night, you know, I, I lay down with my girlfriend Martha and I say, what are three things you're grateful for? She'll share three things she's grateful for. I share three things I'm grateful for. And that puts me in such a peaceful state. It's like this blissful energy. You know why? Cause it's hard to be angry and grateful at the same time.
18:44 Lewis Howes? It's really challenging to be both at the same time. And if you feel stressed and overwhelmed in the day and you step into gratitude, your energy automatically starts to shift. And you take a moment and you do it yourself and you ask someone else, a friend, hey, what are you grateful for? Partner. And both of you start to calm and relax, okay? It's going to set you up for a better night's sleep. And Sean Stevenson from School Greatness Podcast talks about 21 secrets to sleep your way to better health. And he says it's all about having a great sleep if you want to optimize your health. Okay, so this is, this is the thing. But I get it. I get it. And you're gonna say, Lewis, well, what about the challenges and the, you know, what if the kid gets sick and I'm not gonna be able to do that?
19:27 Lewis Howes? And what if I'm in a bad mood or overwhelmed or had a bad day? Or what if there's some unexpected news at work or personal life? Like, listen, I get it. Life is going to happen. And that's why it's so important to prepare the night before for the next day. So you're not feeling behind and stressed and I don't know where everything is at and losing my keys and where's this? You prepare yourself, you ground, and you set a clear intention of how you want to show up. So what's one thing you'll do at night to start mastering your morning routine? We haven't even gotten to the morning routine yet, right? We haven't even got into that. We've talked about a meaningful mission because if you don't have your, your mission clear, then it doesn't matter what you do in the morning.
20:09 Lewis Howes? You want to do the things in the morning that support your meaningful mission. You don't want to just do whatever you think is you're supposed to do. You want to do what serves your meaningful mission, right? Getting clear on who you are, what you stand for is key.
20:27 Lewis Howes? These days, job seekers want more. Everything from remote working conditions to an easier application process. And sometimes it can be hard to stand out to job seekers. So how can you break through the clutter and attract the most qualified candidates for your business? ZipRecruiter, and right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/greatness. And there are a bunch of ways ZipRecruiter can help you stand out to the right candidates. ZipRecruiter's technology sends you great candidates for your job, and you can send a personal invite to your top choices to make an impact. ZipRecruiter also makes it easy for candidates to apply to your job. And in fact, they can apply within one click, which is cool. Plus, ZipRecruiter offers attention grabbing labels like urgent, training provided, remote, and more that will catch the eye of the quality candidates. And my company, Greatness Media, is currently hiring.
21:09 Lewis Howes? And in my opinion, finding the right team is the most important step in setting your business up for success. And we like to ensure our new hires will be an incredible fit before they're even on the team. So I am grateful that I have ZipRecruiter's help with my growing. Team at Team Greatness. Get your job noticed by the best and brightest candidates with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. See for yourself. Go to this exclusive web address to try ZipRecruiter for free. ZipRecruiter.com/greatness. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com/greatness. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Then you want to make sure the night is ready to go so that you can take action in the morning with your morning routine.
21:52 Lewis Howes? Right? We haven't even gotten there yet. Most people say, step one, you got 30 minutes of ice cold shower and meditation and reading and writing and all these things. No. If you don't set the foundation for yourself with your, your mission being meaningful, and then the evening routine setting you up for success for the morning, you're not going to get restful sleep. And then you're going to wake up tired and then you're not going to be able to do the morning routine. So what's one thing you will do at night for yourself? The secret number three, setting your intentions, setting your intentions. This is huge. One of my favorite books, The Power of Intentions by Wayne Dyer. I don't know if anyone's read that book. I read that book when I was like 23 and it really transformed in a big way for me, setting your intentions.
22:38 Lewis Howes? So a clear intention helps you go into your day already feeling accomplished and it gives you clarity. So when you wake up and you are clear, like my intention for today, like when I wake up, I do a couple of things. I already know what my intention is from the night before, based on what's happening. So I knew I had, I had this training today. I knew there were 20,000 people registered from all over the world. And that you were all super going to be passionate and excited. So I set my intention last night. I'm going to be ready for this training. I'm going to be of service. I'm going to add a value. My intention is to show up clear, peaceful, energized and giving as much as I can to support and sharing whatever it is that someone needs to hear in that specific moment.
23:22 Lewis Howes? That was my intention last night. That was my intention this morning and my morning routine reflected on my intention for today. Okay. So I'm going to talk about that here in just a moment. But we need this clear intention in the habit to help set daily intentions. Something that I like to do to set daily intentions, make sure I'm showing up from a space of intention. Cause when we intend something to happen, it happens more frequently than when when we don't intend it to happen. We just wake up and say, I want to show up and just, you know, go through the motions. Then we're going to get results that happen from going through the motions. But when I set an intention and say, I'm going to show up full of energy, full of love, full of clarity, focus.
24:07 Lewis Howes? And giving uh in a big way, my heart of service to the 20,000 people that register. And whoever shows up, they're going to get exactly what they need. Then I'm going to be more clear on how I communicate, how I show up, how I react, how I respond to these situations. So you can meditate and or move your body to relax your nervous system. I woke up this morning. I put on um a meditation. I got about a 20 minute meditation that I put on this morning. That got me into my body. That got me thinking and putting the signal of what my thoughts are out into the world. So I had a thought of what I wanted to create today. I sent it out into a field of abundant possibilities, this thinking potential that we have.
24:51 Lewis Howes? Then I did a little workout. I normally do a longer workout, but I needed to prepare for this. So I did a little workout as I was listening to actually the daily motivation. So for me, I'm I'm a big fan of the daily motivation show. I'm a big fan of the school of greatness. The daily motivation supports me if I've got seven to 10 minutes. I listen to something while I'm working out to keep me inspired and activated during that time. On my vision, on what I want to create. So I did that. Did a little workout. Then I made my bed for me. I think having a clean space physically allows me to have a clean space mentally. A clean space mentally allows me to create a space physically but uh clean as well. It's a cycle, so I make my bed.
25:34 Lewis Howes? And allow myself to reflect on a positive thing that I accomplished. Simple thing, right? Uh, my intention was to not check my phone this morning, last night. So I didn't have my phone next to me. Um, and when I woke up, I got up and I put it on the meditation right away. And then I did the meditation. So that was my intention and I followed through with that intention. And I also wake up and I say, thank you. I, I wake up and in my mind, I say, thank you. I talk about what I'm grateful for. My girlfriend Martha, you know, we usually say, man, it's so good to be alive another day. What a blessing to have another day to express and experience this life. That is not guaranteed, that is not guaranteed for another hundred years, 50 years, 20 years. We don't know.
26:18 Lewis Howes? The day we're gonna go. So I'm so blessed and grateful to be here today. That's what I set my intentions for this morning with the actions that I did. Again, we have a couple of things in our life. We have our, our thoughts. And what we think about. And we have our daily actions. You know, what we do, our thoughts and our actions. And if those are not in alignment of your highest version of yourself. I'm not saying you gotta be perfect all the time, but they're not in alignment. You're gonna feel off balance. You're gonna feel stressed. You're gonna feel overwhelmed. So if you say, okay, my goal is to learn more. So I'm going to read 10 pages in the morning. These 10 pages turn into 70 pages a week, turn into 15 books a year, if you do 10 pages a morning.
27:04 Lewis Howes? That's 150 books in 10 years that you'll read if you do 10 pages a day. These things compound over time. If you see this, it's about the small daily actions around the intentions. If you're working out, okay, I'm gonna do one workout a day. I'm gonna do seven workouts a week. That's 3,650 workouts in 10 years. If you're trying to get in shape, man, it's hard to, it's hard to beat you if you're trying to get in shape and you do this every morning, right? Um. If you're like, okay, I'm trying to build my business. Okay. What's the first thing in? Maybe your intention in the morning is to start getting up early and start working. And I'm gonna start creating content early on social media. And then I'm gonna do it weekly and yearly and annually. Look what I've created.
27:46 Lewis Howes? Right? It all depends on what the intention is for you, the season of life and your meaningful mission. Okay. So you got to figure out what that is for you and start those actions. This is not, make sure you meditate for two hours and ice bath for 30 minutes and you know, hold your breath underwater for as long as you can and do the most extreme things. I don't think those work for 95% of people consistently over time. I think those things only work for extreme personalities consistently over time. Which is great. I think it's awesome what all these people are doing with extreme. You know, I'm gonna wake up and run an Ironman every morning and do that for a hundred days. Cool. That works for you. That works for you. That doesn't work for me.
28:26 Lewis Howes? Right? I need a simpler, easier routine that I can manage to keep me balanced and centered. And for people like that, that's what keeps them balanced and centered. And that's okay. But that doesn't mean you need to do the most extreme biohacking thing every morning. What is the, the, the least that you can do to keep you centered? Start there and start building from there. I want to see you thriving and being grounded and balanced in your life. Not feeling like I tried something and then it didn't work because I'm exhausted and life happened to my kids and I'm stressed and I got sore. Now I can't do it. I don't want to see you with some extreme case for two days. And then up, it's unsustainable. So I'm gonna go back to overwhelm and stress.
29:09 Lewis Howes? That doesn't work. Do not do that. Please tell me you're not gonna do some extreme thing. And think that you can sustain this every day for the rest of your life. It's just very challenging to do and only a few people that works for. And for most people, that doesn't work for me, guys. And I'm a pretty intense, extreme human being and it doesn't work for me. Okay? Sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war. You know, there's another quote out there. It's like a proverb or something. It says something like, it's better to be a, a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Right? It's better to, to train for experiencing stress and pain. So that when stress and pain shows up in life, it doesn't affect you as much.
29:53 Lewis Howes? Being prepared for what's to come. I think there might be challenges for some people next year. If they are not setting themselves up for success. And I want you to set yourself up for success in a big way. I don't want you to say, well, I was, I struggled these last two years and I'm just not going to be prepared for next year. I want you to be prepared. I want you to have the tools and training, the support, the accountability you need to support your life. That's what I want for you. Glennon Doyle, I'm a big fan of Glennon C. Woke up early in the mornings to work on her craft before she started. You know, she started working up and writing and then she started launching all these books. But she was writing them in the morning and really getting it started. And this daily practice helped her go viral online.
30:38 Lewis Howes? So she had, you know, she had work, she had kids, she had a lot of stuff going on in her life. She was married, all these different things that she had responsibilities to take care of. She got up early, started taking different actions would help her really create her life in a big way. Right? And she's been on the show and talked about this. So for me, the lesson of this is making daily deposits. What you're thinking, the intention you're sending out in the morning. The feelings you have around that intention and then the daily actions that you take. They will allow you to weather whatever step of storm is coming your way. We all have different storms coming our way, internal storms, external storms. It allows you to, to have more balance when that occurs.
31:21 Lewis Howes? So you can take on opportunities when those come. Cause it's really hard to take on new opportunities to create. It's almost impossible to be creative and create from a place of abundance thinking. When we are in stress, overwhelmed and out of balance. It's really hard to create something. And that's why you gotta focus on that first. Secret number four. Now talk about the first three. Not some crazy biohack, right? It's not some extreme thing. Secret number four is simple and consistent.
31:59 Lewis Howes? So many people ask me this question, Louis, how do you have one of the top podcasts in the world with, you know, half a billion downloads and you've done over thirteen hundred episodes and you've built this, this massive media thing and you've got this great team, people from all over the world who support, like, how did you build this? And it wasn't some fancy, you know, software that I was smart enough to build. It wasn't, I didn't have a lot of money. You know, I started with one dollar and turned that into two dollars. It wasn't like I had something funding me early on. It wasn't, uh, you know, I didn't get straight A's. I was in the bottom of my class, the bottom four of my class all through high school. Took me seven years to graduate college. You know, it wasn't like I had some
32:44 Lewis Howes? extreme advantage of building this. I didn't know how to launch a business. I wasn't an entrepreneur. Uh, when I, you know, after college, I wasn't, I wasn't clear on these things. But what I did, from what I learned from sports, is I always went back to the fundamentals. I went back to training, the fundamentals every single day and being simple and consistent. And how can you hold yourself accountable to following through on your daily intentions? It's really hard when you have extremes that you want to do every day. I'm gonna do four hours morning routine where I wake up at three thirty AM and train for two hours and then do this thing and then this thing. That is so challenging to sustain and that only works for a very small personality type, right? I'm not saying that couldn't be you,
33:28 Lewis Howes? but I don't think it's necessary to be successful. What I did over the last ten years is I was simple and I was consistent. I showed up every week. We do three episodes a week for almost the last ten years. We just show up. I work on the fundamentals. I try to keep it simple. I try to keep working on myself. I have accountability with my team, with my coaches. I invest in all these different areas to support me. In being simple and consistent. I try new things. I fail. It doesn't work. I, you know, and I keep moving forward. I don't let it hold me back. I've learned how to overcome the insecurities of failure and self doubt by developing myself, by investing in workshops and webinars and trainings like this.
34:12 Lewis Howes? I've got coaches. Last night I worked with my therapist every two weeks. I, I met, I meet with her, right? And she asked me, what was your intention? Last night she said, what's your intention for our call tonight? And I thought about it and I told her my intention, which was about continuing to stay balanced and centered. And then at the end of the, the session, she always ends the session with gratitude. This is my coach. She said, what are you grateful for? And I told her three things I was grateful for. And then I added the fourth. I usually just say three. I added the fourth and I said, you know what? I'm grateful for me for constantly showing up to prevent challenges from happening and stress from happening.
34:57 Lewis Howes? You know, we, we go to the gym to prevent injury, sickness, disease. Right? We meet with our financial advisor to prevent from going bankrupt or getting in debt and being sound financially. But how often do we meet with someone for our emotional well-being, for our spiritual well-being? And really get coached and processed to prevent injuries emotionally, to prevent traumas emotionally. So I was like, I'm really grateful for me for showing up and doing this every two weeks, even when my life feels really good. You know, you don't stop going to the gym because you're in shape.
35:39 Lewis Howes? You keep going to the gym to prevent getting out of shape and being healthy and being strong and doing something that you'd be proud of and feeling confident in. So I have accountability built into my life so that I can stay simple and consistent with all these different things. The key is making healthy habits simple so you can be consistent with them. I know I'm doing three episodes a week of the podcast, right? Okay, I need to show up a certain way every week. And I don't do too much. If I feel like I'm doing too much, then I'm going to get out of balance. And you can only do that for so long until you need to get back to your center. Okay? So, simple habit, time away from your phone.
36:19 Lewis Howes? Two out of five individuals who check their phone upon waking up reportedly have higher stress throughout the day. Ooh, and I know a lot of you, I know a lot of you are picking this thing up first thing in the morning and checking stuff. I've been guilty of it many times. But I'm telling you, when I take time away from my phone, I put it into another room and I do not touch it for hours or days. Incredible things happen. What can you do? Can you do an hour away from your phone a day? Can you do, put your phone in the other room when you go to sleep? What can you do to set yourself up for success around that alone? Cause that's one thing that's causing stress in so many people. So what's one habit you can make more simple to be consistent with? Secret number five is to practice a greatness mindset.
37:03 Lewis Howes? Now, what is a greatness mindset? Practicing a greatness mindset is the foundation for everything. It's the foundation that will help you overcome all of your insecurities, all your fears, all your self doubt. It's the thing that actually holds people back from taking the consistent, simple actions. It's the thing that keeps people not believing in themselves on their meaningful mission. It's a thing that makes you doubt yourself at every step of the way. No matter how much success you have, no matter how much you've accomplished, no matter how many accolades you have, no matter how much money you have, no matter how many people love you.
37:42 Lewis Howes? The greatness mindset is the thing you need to overcome all insecurities, all fears, all self doubt, all traumas, all pain. Anything that has held you back in your life from that feeling inside. How many of you would love to have the feeling?
38:00 Lewis Howes? Inside of your chest, in your heart, in your throat, and in your head, and in your stomach. You want to have this feeling of peace. You want to have this feeling of abundance, of expansion, of calm, energy, of... Like your chest is an environment of a beautiful rainforest. Not a hot desert with no water and no life. How many of you would love to have that feeling? But there feels like, man, I just feel stuck, or something's off. And you're thinking to yourself, but I've, you know, I've been successful. I've, I've got a great relationship. I've got a partner in my life that loves me. I've got kids and family.
38:42 Lewis Howes? I've got, you know, this great job, or I've got this, you know, business, or I've made a lot of money, or I should, you know. But why am I not feeling fulfilled inside? What is that reason that something is off? It starts with the greatness mindset.
38:58 Lewis Howes? And the greatness mindset is something I want to talk about here in a second. It's something I've been working on and developing for a while. It's something for the last 10 years I've developing through the School of Greatness podcast. But I want you to think about, that's something you want. What type of person do you want to become?
39:15 Lewis Howes? You know, I've heard a lot of you talk about and type in the challenges over the past two years. The things that stress you out, the things that hold you back, the things that are keeping you from creating that peace inside, that abundance and expansion inside. What do I need to let go of to be that type of person? This might be a longer conversation for yourself and reflection moment. It might take a few days for you to think about this. Some of you might already know. I know I need to let go of my ego. I know I need to let go of this toxic relationship. I know I need to let go of people pleasing. I know I need to let go of abandoning myself. I know I need to let go of making excuses. I know I need to let go of... Uh, whatever conversation that's in your mind that you need to let go of, right?
39:57 Lewis Howes? Some of you already know, but you're resistant and you're, you know, you're bullheaded and I get it. I've been there before. You don't want to let go of stuff because you're familiar with it. And what's, what's the thing that's going to support you in getting there faster? So seeing a vision of the person you want to become and bringing that into you right now. Or into you in the next few days or into you in the next few months. What is going to support you bridging the gap and bringing it closer into your mind and to your existence right now? Before you have, it's, it's be, then do, then have. Because if we have something, we're not being it, we're going to feel like, ah, why is this off inside? I've got these things I've accomplished. I've made the money. I've got the relationship, but why is something off?
40:40 Lewis Howes? Why, you know, why is it not working still? Why is it stuck? I lived that life for about 30 years, guys. That's the, it's the, it's the worst thing you could feel. Having everything you want and feeling stuck, lost and trapped inside still and unfulfilled. It's the worst feeling ever. And about nine years ago, uh, I went through a journey. You know, my healing journey, for those that don't know me, you know, I, I was a, I grew up with different challenges, you know, not better or worse than anyone else, but dealt with sexual abuse as a kid. Dealt with my brother being in prison for a number of years when I was a kid. My parents fighting on and off and being divorced. And just, you know, feeling like I was never smart enough because I was dyslexic growing up and in the bottom of my class.
41:25 Lewis Howes? So this is not to say like I have some worse story than you or, you know, you're better than me or this and that. This is not a comparison of, of stories of the past. But there were challenges and traumas that, that were my personal experience that I had to learn to overcome. And I know you have gone through your own challenges, um, traumas and experiences that have affected you, that have shaped and molded your life. And you get to overcome those things to step into the person you want to become. For me, it started with nine years ago. I went to a workshop, an emotional intelligence workshop and training here in Los Angeles that got me to unlock some of these things. Now, it didn't mean I was perfect overnight or healed overnight or any of that.
42:08 Lewis Howes? It meant that the journey started there and I started to feel a lot different about myself because I let go of certain things from the past I was holding on to. And I was so resistant to letting those things go. But I finally let those things go. That allowed me to step into a greater future. Within, I don't know, nine months after this, I launched a New York Times bestseller. The podcast started taking off. I started feeling better. I started attracting better people into my life. I started being less resistant, less reactive. It didn't mean I was perfect overnight. I still had many, many years of things to overcome. But it unlocked a new level for me to step into. And that allowed me to just keep showing up in different ways in my relationships with family, with friends, with my team.
42:54 Lewis Howes? And again, I'm still on the journey. It's not like I have it all figured out. I'm still showing up. The reason I do my podcast and interview five, six people a week is because I want to keep investing in my personal growth and learning. Even though I feel like I've figured out a bunch of stuff, I know there's always more to learn. I know there's always, you know, a level that I need to stay consistent with. And just because I've trained at one thing for a certain years, doesn't mean you're going to stay with it forever. If you don't use it, you lose it, right? So I keep showing up for myself. So who are you ready to become? And what's helping you get there and stay there?
43:32 Lewis Howes? For me, that is having coaches, mentors, support staff, a great partner that I, that I ask for support from and to keep me accountable. This is having a clear, meaningful mission. This is having a clear morning routine for myself. This is having goals that excite me. This is about, you know, seeing things in the future that I'm going to work towards. You know, I just did the New York marathon and that was a challenge for me. So it was like this thing that I could work towards. All these things that support me and help me becoming that without having those things, without having a meaningful mission and developing the greatest mindset and and the goals and the environment and the intentions. Then my life is not going to feel fun. It's going to feel exhausting and it will feel overwhelming. So these things support me.
44:17 Lewis Howes? But I want to share something with you. These last 10 years, I've learned so much and I wish I had this information 10 years ago. And now I want to share it with you and reveal to you something that I want all of you to have access to. And I want you to get all of this information in one place because the greatness mindset is exactly what you need to overcome fears, self doubt, insecurities, traumas that are holding you back from feeling a level of peace and fulfillment on the daily actions you're taking. And we finally put it all together in one place for you. It's my brand new book called The Greatness Mindset.
44:59 Lewis Howes? And this is all about unlocking the power of your mind and living your best life today. The Greatness Mindset is the complete ultimate guide to overcoming any self doubt, insecurity, former pain and experience that is holding you back from living exactly the way you want to live every single day. It's everything I wish I had. I wish they gave me this book in kindergarten, in middle school, in high school, in college. Cause it would have helped me overcome everything that I was looking to overcome in my life. I wish I had this book right now and now I do. I have this for myself. I have this for my younger self, my future self.
45:40 Lewis Howes? This is the ultimate guide to unlocking the power of your mind and living your best life today. It shows you how to unleash your greatness by clarifying who you are, discovering and your meaningful mission. The thing that is going to give you peace and stepping into how you can make an authentic, unique contribution in the world. If you're excited about doing that in your life, then type in yes right now if you're excited. Here's exactly what's inside this book. I want to make sure you have access to it. And that anyone that gets this today, I'm going to give you some very cool special bonuses that I want to share with you here in a second. There is an enemy that surrounds all of us. It's the enemy of greatness.
46:23 Lewis Howes? This enemy consumes some people. It consumes them when life is challenging. It consumes them when life is good. It holds people back. And this thing really is the thing that we need to learn how to conquer on a daily basis. The enemy of greatness. There are three main fears that we all face in life. Three fears that hold us back from living a beautiful life. The fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of judgment, other people's opinions. And at the core of these fears is a little thing called self doubt. And at the core of any of these things, which is self doubt, is I am not enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not lovable enough. I'm not smart enough.
47:08 Lewis Howes? I'm not pretty enough or beautiful enough. I'm not talented enough. If you are feeling this, I'm telling you, it's one of the worst feelings in the world. I felt it for about thirty years of my life and it crippled me. It crippled me from love, crippled me from peace. It crippled me from self love. I didn't love myself. I didn't know how to love myself. I didn't know how to enjoy my own company. I just felt insecure and overwhelmed often. And I used masks, success, working hard, achieving, to try to fill the hole of I am not enough. And it never worked. It never worked and it never will work until you learn exactly how to be enough. And we talk about the entire process, guys.
47:51 Lewis Howes? I have had the privilege of sitting down with a top therapist, psychologists, neuroscientists, doctors, physicians, world-class athletes, billionaires, authors, speakers, social justice individuals, people leading in the world. And what we did is we brought it all together in the most simple package to understand the process of where you are to where you want to be. Healy, and it starts with understanding where you are not enough. So if you don't know which one of these failures holds you back and how to overcome them through knowing where you're not enough, it's going to be so hard. It doesn't matter what morning routine you do. You need to have this first to optimize everything else.
48:36 Lewis Howes? So we talked about finding and reinventing your new identity because our identity shapes our environment. Our personality creates our personal reality, as my friend Dr. Joe Dispenza says. Then we'll give you the game plan for greatness. So there's so many different levels that you gotta go through to get into the game plan of greatness to really start to unlock what you want. So this is for you. If you feel stuck and you need support to get out of your own way, and I'm seeing a lot of you saying that's what you're experiencing. This is for you. You want to take your business, your life and your habits to the next level. This is for you. I'm going to ask you to sign up and get one book today to support in this process. Sign up and get one book to preorder it today.
49:21 Lewis Howes? By doing that, I'm going to give you early access to a couple of chapters of the book. I'm going to give you a masterclass with myself. So we're going to come back on. Anyone who buys one book today, I think it's like 28 bucks or something on Amazon. We're going to tell you exactly where to go here in a second so you can get these bonuses. You're going to get early access to a couple of chapters of the Greatness Mindset. You're going to get a masterclass with me. I'm going to do a live coaching with anyone that signs up today. In the future, we're going to do this live coaching masterclass. You're going to get exclusive access. This is going to be a private community of people that are going to be on my launch team. So if you sign up today, you'll get access to be on my launch team if you want to be. Where I'm going to be communicating in there, it's going to be a group access either for
50:06 Lewis Howes? Facebook or, or, um, you know, some type of WhatsApp or Telegram type of group. We're going to create a group. We're going to have more access to myself, my team. I'm going to be jumping in throughout the process of my book launch. Okay. So if you sign up and get one book today, you'll have access to be a part of that if you want to. And I'm also going to give you a copy of The Millionaire Morning. So The Millionaire Morning is the morning.
50:33 Lewis Howes? Mindset, habits and routines of millionaires. So I'm going to give you access to this ebook and audiobook version. So we've got a digital copy that we'll send you. You know, people pay for this every day. You'll give you the audio copy and the digital copy for free as a bonus. This is the routines of millionaires. If that's something you want, if you sign up today. So all you need to do, go and get one book. I'm not asking for a lot here. I'm asking if you want to unlock these things in your life. Go to this link right here. LewisHowes.com/tgm. Again, guys, I'm so grateful for you for investing your time and your energy in being here. I acknowledge you for showing up, for learning the lessons.
51:17 Lewis Howes? Whether you bought a book or you didn't buy a book, if now's not the right time, I appreciate you for being here. I hope this added some great value to your life. I hope understanding about the power of your morning routine will support you in overcoming the stress or anxiety or anything that's holding you back in your life. I hope the value of having a clear, meaningful mission, the value of a clear night routine, the value of setting intentions, keeping it simple and consistent, and the power of the greatness mindset will support you in having the environment that you want internally to create the abundance you want externally in your life. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
51:58 Lewis Howes? Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels, at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter.
52:42 Lewis Howes? And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.
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