6 Habits to Help You Overcome Procrastination and Maximize Your Year | Lewis Howes

Hey, School of Greatness listeners! It's Lewis Howes, and I'm excited to have you here for a special episode as we dive into the new year with a burst of energy and determination. This fresh start is all about turning reflections into actions and conquering procrastination. I've identified six game-changing habits that will help you overcome this enemy and make 2024 your most remarkable year yet. We'll explore the 1% rule to break free from perfectionism, the art of asking for help, the power of saying "No," the significance of writing down your goals, the role of nutrition and hydration, and the importance of checking in on your "why." So, buckle up, because this episode is a high-energy journey toward unleashing your full potential and achieving greatness in 2024! In this episode you will learnHow to apply the 1% rule for continuous improvement in various aspects of your life. The importance of asking for help and how it can enhance your leadership skills. The power of saying no to protect your peace and focus. The benefits of writing down your goals and breaking them into manageable chunks. The significance of maintaining good health for increased energy and focus. For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1559For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Eckhart Tolle – https://link.chtbl.com/1463-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  We don't like to accept the things that we know are inside of us at times. And when we have been procrastinating on something, we've been resisting making a change. We've been resisting shifting our habits. We've been resisting overcoming something that helps us feel safe, feel comfortable and feel good. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:42Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back to another inspiring episode. This is all about the six habits to help you overcome procrastination and maximize your year. And really your life, it's that time of year right now where there's this collective energy of people who want to make a change. You know, people get so ramped up and so excited. Everyone's a little more open to looking at their life and seeing how it is that they can improve it. A fresh start, a new day, a new opportunity, a new opportunity to become something greater and overcome something that's been holding you back.

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  And the last few months have been about reflection, about thinking about the past, about thinking about what's been working, what's not working, relationships, career, business, all these different things. And if you're really in alignment with who you want to be, that's what it's been about. And I'm a big fan of reflection because how can you move forward if you don't take the steps to look back? It's an important aspect in the process of becoming greater, becoming the highest version of ourselves. But at a certain point, reflection becomes a comfort and it also becomes a massive excuse. I've been there many times before. This excuse can lead to the enemy of self-improvement.

• 2:03Lewis Howes?

  And that enemy is called, duh, duh, duh, procrastination. Oh, man, don't we all love and hate that word at the same time? Procrastination, one, we love to feel comfortable. We love to think about things and not actually do the hard work to put ourselves out there, to risk feeling shamed or embarrassed or not looking good enough. Ooh, we love comfort.

• 2:30Lewis Howes?

  We hate that word because we don't like to accept the things that we know are inside of us at times. And when we have been procrastinating on something, we've been talking about the thing we want to work on for years and not doing it. We don't enjoy that word because we know something in us has been resisting something. We've been resisting making a change. We've been resisting shifting our habits. We've been resisting overcoming something that helps us feel safe, feel comfortable and feel good. But at the same time, that comfortability doesn't make us feel good in the long run. We, we end up presenting ourselves, we end up getting frustrated.

• 3:12Lewis Howes?

  And one of the reasons why procrastination, I think, shows up for people and it frustrates them is because they know they have a purpose and they're allowing their procrastination to hold them back. And there's two sides to the coin, this procrastination and purpose. And they've been talking about their purpose, thinking about their purpose, dreaming about their purpose, yet they have been procrastinating on it for a number of different reasons. And some of us are more familiar with this enemy than others. And this had me thinking, how can we keep the momentum of a new year going? And how can we learn to overcome procrastination?

• 3:53Lewis Howes?

  What are the habits that will actually help us become the better version of ourselves this year? We've had so many guests on the show who have shared their expertise, their tips, their tricks, their tools and their science for positive habit building. And I want to talk about six habits today that will hopefully strike at the core of overcoming procrastination for yourself to really making 2024 the best year for you. And if you have the decision to make this a great year for you. Now's your chance. Now's your opportunity. You don't need to master all six of these.

• 4:32Lewis Howes?

  Although if you start applying all six of these and improving upon them, I guarantee you will start to see changes, not only now that benefits you, but your future self will really be thanking you and saying, you know what? The year of 2024 was the year that you decided to step up in different ways. You weren't perfect everywhere. You fell back at times, but that's okay because you kept moving forward on these six habits. And let me tell you right now, I'm going to tell you right now that the last four years, we're coming up on four years since there was shutdown happened, since COVID, since the world started to change. It's almost a four-year anniversary of that. Can you believe how fast that four years has gone?

• 5:17Lewis Howes?

  Yes, it felt like a long time during it, but looking back now, boom, it's over those four years. That's like your whole college experience and the last four years done. And you have to reflect and think about, how did you show up? When things got tough, when there was adversity, when there was stress, when there was challenge, when there was overwhelm and uncertainty and fear and chaos and all the different tragedies that happened over the last four years? How did you show up? And the Navy SEALs talk about this. You don't, you don't rise to the level of your kind of hopes and dreams and your, your visions.

• 6:00Lewis Howes?

  You fall to the level of the standards, the things that you set for yourself consistently. You're never going to rise to these best expectations. Well, when adversity strikes, I'm going to be, make sure I do all these habits. No, if you're not doing these habits consistently on the regular, on the normal, when things hit the fan, you're going to fall back into old ways of being, old comfort zones. And that's why I want to talk about these six things today. And before I jump into the first one, I want to prepare you. I want to ground you. Because this is a year that hopefully goes amazing for you. And I hope a lot of great things happen in the world. I hope there's peace.

• 6:46Lewis Howes?

  I hope there's community. I hope there's a lot of health. I hope people collaborate and support one another. And there's not a lot of pain and suffering and war and chaos and friction. However, this is an election year. This is, uh, we're in the middle of wars happening still. And for whatever reason, we don't know where the economy is going to be at this year also. There's a lot of uncertainties and I want you to be prepared. It could be this year, later in the year, it could be a few years. There is going to be a time where life happens again in the world. Where emotions get high, where tensions are high with family members.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  Where careers are uncertain, economies uncertain, politics are uncertain. And I want you to be prepared. I want you to be set up so that when there is chaos around you, you have the habits within you that you've been consistent with. So you can have that standard still set high when everything around you feels like it's crumbling. And I remember when 2024 hit, I remember saying, I'm ready. I'm ready because I've been preparing for this since 2008. Since I went through my injury, lost my dream of playing professional football, had to have a surgery, was on my sister's couch for a year and a half, making no money. I remember saying to myself,

• 8:14Lewis Howes?

  if this ever happens again in the world where there's some economic crisis, something happening, I will be ready. I will be prepared. That doesn't mean I'm going to be perfect. That doesn't mean I'm not going to make mistakes. But I will be ready because I started to build habits to prepare me for 2020. And I want these six habits to prepare you for 2024 and beyond. Wherever you're at in your life right now, you have an opportunity to set yourself up for success. And the number one thing that I want to talk about, this number one habit, is to use the 1% rule. That is habit number one, use the 1% rule.

• 8:56Lewis Howes?

  Feel free to write this down, put it in your phone notes, whatever it might be, but use the 1% rule. Now, as you set off to create goals, try to accomplish goals, be in the process of pursuing them, one of the biggest battles that you will face against is procrastination. Now, perfectionism can equal procrastination. So don't use perfectionism as an excuse. And I've been coaching people in their online businesses, in their lives, in their relationships, off and on for the last 15 years in some capacity.

• 9:39Lewis Howes?

  And so many people put off launching their idea, their book, their show, their course, their program, their event, their whatever it might be. They put it off for years because of the excuse of perfectionism. And that perfectionism equals procrastination, where they just keep putting it off because they want it to be perfect before they let it out into the world, before people can see it. And Brene Brown, when I had her on the show, she's talked about this, and she says, quote, "Perfectionism is something we don't understand very well. We think it's being our best selves. Perfectionism is actually a defense mechanism that says to us, hey, if you look perfect,

• 10:22Lewis Howes?

  do perfect, and accomplish perfect, you can avoid or minimize shame and judgment and blame." So perfectionism is not about striving for excellence or being our best selves. It's how we use self-protection. Ooh, man, how many of us have tried to protect ourselves from judgment and shame and criticism and what people are going to think and say about us? How many of us I have been to blame? I raised my hand in so many different areas in my life, been afraid of what people are going to think and say about me. But I've always said, good and done is better than perfect and never done.

• 11:06Lewis Howes?

  Because so many of us try to be perfect and we never get anything done. So good and done is better than perfect and never done. So what this is saying is that to be productive, we have to be willing to put ourselves out there, risk, be vulnerable enough to put ourselves out there, to take the pen off the paper and stop planning and start doing. So many times we just plan and dream and talk about the things we're going to do as opposed to just taking the actions on them. This is 11 years of the School of Greatness podcast. This month, it is our 11 year anniversary. And if I waited until I felt like it was perfect,

• 11:50Lewis Howes?

  this podcast would not be here. I was so sloppy in the first few months. I just used my iPhone. I just recorded it. I put it on the table. I had bad audio. I had no video. I had very little quality. But I had passion and excitement and I was creating and I was putting it out there. And all I thought about was really the 1% rule. How can I make it 1% better every episode? What can I do? How can I become a better researcher, interviewer? How can I get better quality audio, video, all these different things? What is the 1% thing that I can do to get a little bit better every time? And that helped me overcome my fears because I knew I was progressing every week

• 12:34Lewis Howes?

  as opposed to waiting until I was perfect. And if you can focus on the process of progress, I'm telling you, it will support you in overcoming procrastination and the need to being perfect. Focus on the process and progress every single week. And I like how productivity expert Thomas Frank. Said on this show, he said, quote, "My favorite thing about overcoming perfectionism is the 1% rule. Basically, the 1% involves setting a schedule to create, learn, grow, or move, and then each time you act, determine to get just 1% better."

• 13:18Lewis Howes?

  Just like I talked about with this podcast. He said, "The 1% rule acknowledges that you won't be perfect out the gate, but you get 1% better." So many of us get intimidated by greatness, but we forget that greatness is not always loud. It's not shiny, saying, "Look at me." Greatness is what you do when no one else is looking, the tiny details in your life that no one will notice but you. Greatness is built in the 1%. Man, isn't that true? You think about these great athletes, or great artists, or musicians, or writers,

• 14:02Lewis Howes?

  and you hear their backstory. If you read their biographies, or watch a documentary on them, you hear them talk about, "Man, I spent so many nights practicing by myself when no one is watching. I spent so many hours in pain physically from the workouts." You know, a guitarist saying, "My, my fingers were cramping and bleeding because I was just plucking the strings so often." You think about these moments that are not glorious. Greatness is not always glory every moment. It is the 1% thing that you try to do every day, just to get a little bit better. Now, here's how that might look for your life personally.

• 14:43Lewis Howes?

  If you are trying to exercise right now and get in better shape, just strive for 1% better. Form during a push up or a pull up or some type of activity that you're doing. One percent better form during your jog, your run. Don't try to be like, I'm gonna break a five minute mile right now, the first day. It's like, give your best. And then how can you be one percent better the next day? If you're a musician, aim for one percent better control of the note of the tone. And just saying, how can I do one percent better? Not, how can I be perfect right now? That's just not gonna work out. You're gonna fail and you're gonna be frustrated when you fail. Cause you're gonna feel like, I'm never gonna be a perfect. Just aim for one percent better control of the note.

• 15:28Lewis Howes?

  If you're in business, how can you write a one percent better customer service email? Or one percent better social media post? Like whatever it might be, how can you be one percent better? In writing, draft a one percent stronger sentence in a paragraph, just a sentence. Not a whole chapter, not a whole book, just a sentence. Your relationships, how can you get one percent better at making eye contact in conversation? Again, don't be perfect and stare at someone all day long on their eyes. But during that conversation, can I be one percent more present? This is a really simple way to give yourself some grace while continuing to move the needle toward getting better.

• 16:09Lewis Howes?

  And I talk more about this concept in the book, The Greatness Mindset that came out last year. If you don't have your copy yet, make sure to get your copy of The Greatness Mindset. This is number one, use the one percent rule. Number two is to ask for help. Who, who? How many of us struggle, resist? Uh, just do not want to ask for help from anyone. I have been known to over give, give, give, give, give, and never ask. And just try to do everything on my own.

• 16:50Lewis Howes?

  And that got me certain results, but it left me feeling burned out at times, exhausted at times, resentful at times because I would never ask for help. And I would just think that, oh, because I'm always giving to someone. They would think like me and they just wanna give in return. But not everyone thinks like you. Not everyone's gonna always just automatically give to you and say, hey, what do you need right now? That's something I like to do with a lot of people and say, hey, what's your biggest challenge? And how can I support you? But not everyone is gonna think and act the same way you do, and that's okay. But you've got to be willing to ask for help. Many of us feel like we have to do everything on our own. And if that's you, if you're guilty of that, just go ahead and nod right now and just smile and say, okay, yeah, that's me.

• 17:35Lewis Howes?

  Uh, I try to do everything on my own. And in result, this leaves us with overwhelm. And that overwhelmed leads to procrastination or some type of burnout frustration. And it's never really good to create from a space of burnout, frustration and things like that. Getting in the habit of asking for help will save you so much precious time and energy. And they are our biggest resource after all. We've got people in our lives. We've got friends. We've got colleagues. We've got family members. We've got acquaintances. We've got connections on social media. Reach out and ask for help. Now, just because you ask for help, it doesn't mean people have to help you.

• 18:19Lewis Howes?

  They might be going through something. They may not be able to help you in this moment. And that's okay, too. So you can't let the risk of asking for help and being shot down hold you back from asking for help. And I'm sure some of you have done that before. You've asked for help and people didn't help you, or they abandoned you, or they said they would and they didn't follow up and you said, ah, screw this. I'm gonna do it on my own. And that's gonna happen, but it doesn't mean you should stop asking for support. It doesn't mean you weak asking for help. It makes you wise. Another thing that you can do is asking for help builds your leadership muscle as well. Instead of learning to take on everything yourself and be this

• 19:02Lewis Howes?

  unrealistic hero of mastering everything in your life. You learn to delegate tasks that will help 10x your productivity as a leader in your own personal life, in your home, in your business, in your school, on a sports team. Any area of your life, again, you doing all the work at home, if you've got kids and never empowering them to take responsibility is not you being a hero. It's actually you empowering bad habits in your kids or your family members. And you just saying, I'm gonna do it all, I'm gonna take it all on, take all the responsibility. That doesn't empower you. Asking for help from your family, from your friends to support you is key. Now, again, doesn't mean you have to get mad at people if they don't help you.

• 19:47Lewis Howes?

  They may not be able to and accept that within them as well. But another habit, number two, is to ask for help and support. And some of these things might be investing in support. You know, I, I've got a great, um, you know, my best friend goes to the gym with me and we, he holds me accountable, I hold him accountable, working out. But I also invest in coaching to give meal plan and workout plans and things like that to save myself time. I invest in different people to coach me, therapists, coaching, business coaches, things like that.

• 20:26Lewis Howes?

  I ask for help from mentors that are willing to give me time and energy and support for, for free because they care about me, but I also invest in help. I invest in support and that supports me in knowing that I'm gonna have someone that I can rely on because I'm spending money on it and investing in it. And you also don't want to just ask everyone to do everything for you for free all the time. That's not the best way to do it. People will start to feel taken advantage of after a while. But I think you can have both in your life, ask for support and help, but also invest in it to support you in saving time. Number three habit that I want you to take on this year. Oh, this is a big one for me. This has been something that I've been doing over the last few months

• 21:10Lewis Howes?

  as I started to reflect on what I needed more in my life. And this is the habit of saying no. Now, that might be counterintuitive to what you'd think I would say here on the School of Greatness, but saying yes to life and saying yes to every opportunity. And there is a season and a place for that. You might be in the season of needing to say yes to lots of different things. But I did that for, I don't know, 15 years. I said yes to every event. Every interview, every speaking gig I could do, all these cool opportunities that came my way, et cetera, I said yes. And in a lot of ways, that has served and helped me

• 21:54Lewis Howes?

  get to where I'm at. But as I reflect back, there's also many things that just took unnecessary time and energy away from more of the core main thing that I'm focusing on. And in the book, The Greatness Mindset, we talk about developing your meaningful mission. When you create and get clear on what your meaningful mission is for this season of life, not forever, but for this season of your life, it will serve you to say no to the things that aren't fully in alignment to helping you maximize your meaningful mission right now. I recently had Ali Abdaal on the show, and he is a master at providing tools for people to overcome procrastination

• 22:38Lewis Howes?

  and become more productive in their lives. And one of my favorite tools he has shared is actually a word, and this concept of saying no. This isn't anything revolutionary, but it gets harder and harder to do now because of opportunities, because of growth, because of success, all these different things. It gets harder and harder. There is an immense pressure to say yes to everything. The possibilities that can come out of saying yes to go to that dinner, to take that meeting, to take on a new project, these all could lead to great opportunities. But on the other hand, saying no to going to that dinner and staying up all night and lose your routines the next morning,

• 23:19Lewis Howes?

  you may not feel great, you may not feel focused, you may get off track that way. So saying no conserves your energy to focus on what needs to get done. We can say yes to all of these cool things, and that's another form of procrastination. That's another form of not doing what you said you were gonna do for yourself, for your own goals and your own mission, by saying yes to everyone else's. Again, saying no is also setting boundaries to protect your peace and focus. Procrastination is the result of a disturbance in peace and focus. I'm going to say that one more time.

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  Procrastination is the result of a disturbance in peace and in focus. So I want you to start saying yes to the things that align to your meaningful mission, to the habits that support you, and start saying no to the shiny objects that allow you to spend time and energy away from the things that you're supposed to be doing. The meaningful mission, the goals that you have set out, the things that are hard work to do. The shiny objects are fun, they're easy, they're exciting. Ah, what could I create from this? But it's just another way to procrastinate and pull you out

• 24:41Lewis Howes?

  of what you are meant to do today. Again, go back to that 1%. How can I be 1% better at saying no? And this is hard. I mean, I've got, I've got so many different relationships in my life, so many different people that I've met over the years, different connections, different colleagues, different friends, different people that I would like to get to know better, people that I've interviewed on this show that have become, you know, closer in my life. And there's so many different people gathering and, you know, evening events and all these cool activities. I live in Los Angeles. There's an activity, you turn around the corner and there's some cool event happening, right? There's always an opportunity to do something. But I've got to ask myself, am I going to overeat?

• 25:26Lewis Howes?

  Am I going to stay up late? You know, and if I do this one, two, three, four nights a week, where, what is my life going to look like? You know, am I going to be creating the things I want to create? And you've just got to ask yourself, what season of life are you in? Are you in a season of life where you should be saying yes to everything? Or are you in a season of life where saying yes is just a story you tell yourself? And it's making you procrastinate from everything that you should be doing. So take on habit number three and say no. Habit number four to overcome procrastination, write it down. Write it down. This is a

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  You know, goal setting 101, have a game plan and write it down. Think of this as a real time manifestation. When you see the images and words, this will prime your brain to take on the task you need to get done. I'm going to give an example of this from neuroscientists that we had on. But this is something that I've been doing since I was in high school. High school athletics, football, we used to have our schedule written down. When we'd walk into the locker room, we'd have the schedule of the activities we were doing for the next two and a half hours of practice. Every 10 minutes was accounted for. We would write it down and we had our goals written on a chalkboard. I don't know if anyone uses chalkboards anymore.

• 26:54Lewis Howes?

  It's more with the whiteboards today, but back in the, the late 90s, it was a chalkboard in the locker room with our goals written down. We would look at them every single day. We had a game plan every single day of practice on what actions we were going to take to accomplish the goals written down. It was like this visual manifestation that was happening every single day. And then we would move into action. We wouldn't procrastinate and say, ah, let's just take five days off this week and try to play a game with no practice. We took practice every single day and then showed up for the game. And then we reflected on it. Then we showed up with a better game plan for next week.

• 27:36Lewis Howes?

  We had Dr. Tara Swart Bieber on the show. She's an amazing neuroscientist. And she talked about mentally rehearsing what you desire. You can also think of this like running. Let's say you signed up for your first 5K or a half marathon. Seeing three miles or 13.1 mile runs on your training plan seems like it could be a lot. Seems like, man. I can barely run a mile right now. How am I going to run three? How am I going to run 13? But seeing it seems impossible. But as you break it down into chunks, it is not as overwhelming. You feel like, okay, I'm just going to do this half mile and I'm going to do it at a slower pace. And then I'm going to try to get 1% better every day at this training, right?

• 28:22Lewis Howes?

  If you break it down in chunks, it's not as overwhelming and you can go to the track. You don't have to think about, I'm going to run 13 miles today. You're just thinking about running the first lap. And this is where it gets so daunting for people, especially when they want to write a book or do something. They're like, oh my God, how am I going to write this full book in a day? You're trying to get it all done in one day or one week or one month. It's just not realistic. You've got to be thinking about, how can I write a page today? A paragraph today? Just being consistent. Again, guys, this is 11 years of the School of Greatness. 11 years. It was not perfect overnight. I'm still not where I want to be. But every week I just try to get a little bit better.

• 29:06Lewis Howes?

  And that's what I think you need to think about as well. The same goes for writing down your tasks, your goals or the things you have to get done. Mentally break down these different tasks and chunks. The best way you can do this is just schedule it. You know, when I'm writing my book, I'm working on my next book right now. I will spend Monday for a couple hours and Friday for a couple hours, writing and researching and reviewing. I do interviews on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the show to get ahead. So Mondays and Fridays are when I'm spending time right now for writing, for researching, for going over with my editor. And I just schedule it in and then I show up for the time. I do the work. I'm not always motivated to do it.

• 29:51Lewis Howes?

  Sometimes there's other things going on. Uh, I don't, I don't always feel like I'm giving my best. I don't always feel like I'm in the flow. It's not like, oh man, I'm always in the perfect mind space. That's not true. But I have it scheduled in my calendar. And I like making these must do and can do lists because it lets me see everything I need to do in a day. But it takes the pressure off of not getting everything done in that day. The must do list is much shorter and it's, it's like the red marked list. The things that have to get done because of a deadline or will help set your immediate future self up for success.

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  So that's like my workouts. That's like, okay, if I have to record an interview, if I've got to do some ad reads, if they've got something that is a difficult, a speech coming up. I've got to get these things done today. Like these are important to do every single day. The can do list is the one that it would be nice if you could get them done today, but it's not imperative. It's not the most urgent and important thing to do right now. So just think about reflecting on some of these things when you are thinking about your time, your energy, your schedule. Write it down, have a game plan, visualize what you're really looking to create and then schedule it. We don't need to overcomplicate these things.

• 31:16Lewis Howes?

  Schedule the most important things for me. My workout is the most important because I have a vision for myself being healthy. So I gotta put that in first. And then I focus on my, my show. The podcast is of high importance for myself and the business. So we block off three days a week to record the show. It doesn't mean every day that's happening, but we have those times set to be able to schedule interviews. And then I'm working around my book on Mondays and Fridays, team calls and everything else in between fits in the space and the gaps. And I just put it between must do and can do. Number five habit to really optimize for this year.

• 31:58Lewis Howes?

  This again, a lot of these things might sound a little basic, but they're so important. And number five is to drink. More water and eat quality food. You know, I just hit forty last year. And I noticed that when I was in my early twenties, I was training so hard. That was my profession. Being a professional football player was my life. So I was training so much that I could eat whatever I wanted to. Plus, I just had so much more testosterone constantly running through me. You know, I had youth on my, on my side, all that different stuff. Where I could eat whatever because I was burning so many calories.

• 32:40Lewis Howes?

  When I hit forty, I realized like, man, I just really have to be more mindful. I can't just eat whatever. Even though I was working out hard, I couldn't just eat whatever anymore because it wasn't my full time. You know, I'm sitting around throughout the day. I'm interviewing. I'm not moving all day long. So I started to pay more attention to drinking more and eating more quality food. And really just setting a goal, scheduling it in, tracking it daily. That might not sound sexy, but I lost twenty-five pounds by doing that in about six months. And it didn't happen overnight. It was just by being the consistent habit of tracking these things. And if your health has taken a backseat in your life, eventually your body will force you to pay attention to it.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  I tore my Achilles. I was just feeling like not confident with myself as much anymore. Based on my body and it made me pay attention to it. So I did. And if we are unhealthy, our bodies take a lot of energy to heal. I mean, it took me, I don't know, like nine months to fully recover from the Achilles. Because it was just a bad tear and it took time and energy. That energy that you could have been using to build your business is now trying to rebuild your body back to health. So you've got to be thinking about preventative care. You know, I started to really invest in prevention for these things. I did a brain scan with Dr. Daniel Lehman. I did a full body MRI scan.

• 34:07Lewis Howes?

  I'm doing blood work. I'm trying all these things to track and measure my health metrics. To stay on top of it as opposed to waiting until it's too late. And a lot of people rely on the latest drug or energy drink or caffeinated drink to stay focused and energized. But you know what? While those might help for some people, the greatest source of energy can come from us. So try this for one week, just one week. I'm not telling you to reinvent your whole lifestyle this whole year. But I'd love for you to try for one week to cut out processed sugar from your diet. This is my biggest crutch.

• 34:50Lewis Howes?

  So it's not easy and I don't do this perfectly every day now. But there was a time where I cut this out for a long time and I saw incredible results. Cut out processed sugar from your diet for one week. Eat something green every day. Eat lean protein, go for a 15 minute walk every day and just drink plenty of water. Drink plenty of water hydration. It's so good for your body, your blood and your brain. Hydration is key. You can add some electrolytes in there, do that. But try that and, and try to be at least one hour a day unplugged.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  Just unplug from your phone, your computer, TV screens, unplug. If you're 40, you remember what it was like growing up. We didn't have screens. You know, we didn't have iPads and iPhones and iWatches all day looking at everything. We didn't have unlimited content. We didn't have that. So try to try unplugged and watch how you'll start to feel better. Now, I'm not saying this is going to fix everything, but when your body starts to be given what it needs, it will work for you, not against you. That's number five. Number six, this is the final habit for today's episode.

• 36:14Lewis Howes?

  This is kind of like important for you to have this so that every other habit really lands and really matters. Number six is to check in on your why.

• 36:27Lewis Howes?

  We talk about this in The Greatness Mindset. The Greatness Mindset is the book that I wrote for my younger self. It's the book that I wish I had when I was injured, when I was in transition, when I was going through different breakups, when I was going through a business transformation. When I hit 20, when I hit 30, when I hit 40, it's the book I wish I had at every stage of my life. It's the last 10 years of research from the world's greatest experts, my own personal mistakes, my own personal lessons, and all the frameworks and tools that I would use to live a better life. And in the book, we talk about your meaningful mission. Your meaningful mission is your roadmap.

• 37:09Lewis Howes?

  It is the game plan personalized, designed for you specifically and your life. It's not something someone else gives you. You give yourself this gift because this gift is inside of you. And it is so important to write it down and see it daily, or at least just know it and memorize it as a reminder of where you are and where you are going. And if you don't have a meaningful mission, a one-sentence meaningful mission, clear direction of what you want and why you want it, you're just gonna feel like you're wandering. You're gonna feel like, what's the point? Why am I working so hard doing this thing? Why am I chasing this? You're gonna be jealous of other people. You're gonna be all these different emotions that aren't serving you.

• 37:53Lewis Howes?

  So this is a reminder of where you are and where you are going. You need to get clear on this. When you remind yourself of why you are doing the things you are doing, it just grounds you. It helps keep you on track even through turbulence. Because you need to be excited or passionate about the things you're doing to be able to overcome all the challenges and obstacles that will be in your way. If you're not clear on the meaningful mission and there's no excitement around it, emotional energy around it, you'll get so burnt out and frustrated because you won't be in alignment with who you are and where you want to be. So this reminds you, it grounds you, it keeps you on track through the turbulence.

• 38:34Lewis Howes?

  And like I said in the beginning, there may be some big turbulence later this year, and I want you to be grounded and ready for it.

• 38:44Lewis Howes?

  In The Greatness Mindset, we talk about something called the Greatness Performance System, or the GPS. This is a system that has helped me define a clear, meaningful mission and rate myself where I'm at on the different areas of my life. I break it down into three pillars: your business, your relationships, and wellness. The business can also mean career. This is on page 250 of The Greatness Mindset book. So if you have that book already, just pull up page 250 and check it out. If you don't have the book yet, you can go on Amazon, you can buy it right now. Type in "The Greatness Mindset" by Lewis Howes. I think it's, you know, 15 bucks on Amazon, or you can get it on Kindle, you can get it on Audible,

• 39:29Lewis Howes?

  but it's on page 250 of The Greatness Mindset. When I have chosen my top three goals for each of those three players: the player of business or career, the player of the relationships, and the player of wellness, I ask myself these questions: what do I want? Why do I want it? What's the next step? That next step is kind of like, what's the 1% that I'm going to improve on in this next step to move forward? How can I make that a standard and then improve upon that and just keep improving? What do I want? Why do I want this? And what's the next step?

• 40:11Lewis Howes?

  Sometimes we think about what we want. Let's just say something. I want a million dollars. I want a girlfriend. I want this. I want a fancy car. I want a home. But we don't actually think about why. When you go deeper on why you want it, there's more meaning behind what you want. And then the next step becomes clearer. Again, these are my six habits to help you overcome procrastination and optimize where you're at in your journey and enjoy this process. And there are so many tools, tips, and tricks, and things to help you overcome procrastination. This is just a few key fundamentals that I think will serve and support you if you do these things. And at the end of the day, what is going to move

• 40:54Lewis Howes?

  the needle is actually applying what you have learned. And I wanted to make you, I wanted to give you six things that are actually based on science and research and that have helped me personally and that aren't overcomplicated or some, you know, big hack that isn't going to be sustainable. It's six rules and principles that you can live by, that we can all live by. Use the 1% rule, just 1% better in the process every day. Not perfect, but progress in the process. We talked about different things there. Number two, ask for support, ask for help. You cannot do everything alone.

• 41:37Lewis Howes?

  You cannot live alone and be alone and build something meaningful alone. Life is about togetherness. Life is about asking and receiving support and also giving and contributing help as well to others. It's about working as a team. It's about working together, collaboration. Ask for help. Number three, say no. And what I really mean by that is say yes to the things that will support your meaningful mission and say no to the distractions that hold you back from the time and energy of taking action. Because those distractions, when you say yes to everything, it's just a form of procrastination. Number four, write it down. This is not hard work, guys.

• 42:21Lewis Howes?

  This is getting clear by writing it down and visualizing it, scheduling it in, planning, organizing your life just a little bit better. Write it down. Number five, again, stuff our parents told us growing up as kids. Drink more water, eat more quality food. Your future self will thank you for the decisions your current self makes every single day. When you do this, if you take the right decisions, your future self will be frustrated at you, your current self, if you continue to make poor decisions around nutrition and food. Again, just try this for one week and see how it makes you feel and then apply it the best you can moving forward.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  And the sixth one is to check in on your why. Get clear on the meaningful mission and reflect on it consistently in your relationships, in your wellness, and in your career or business. What do I want? Why do I want it? And what's the next step? Again,

• 43:24Lewis Howes?

  Movement generates momentum. Just thinking about something and talking about it does not generate momentum. Movement, action, consistency builds momentum. Yes, physical movement, but also by taking action in incorporating these effective tools and practices, these six core habits for overcoming procrastination. And these won't work for everyone. That is why you need to find the best tool that works for you. I recommend applying all six of these. These can't, these aren't that hard to do. You just got to figure out which ones can you do more consistently? And again, not try to be perfect on everything.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  And you won't find out what works for you until you test it and you fail and you make mistakes and you fall back. You know, I'm not asking you to be perfect at everything. Don't get disappointed if you break a habit or if you mess it up. This is not the perfectionism police over here at the School of Greatness. I've never proclaimed to be perfect myself. I've made a ton of mistakes. I fall back all the time on different things. But this is about being able to reflect and have progress. You won't know what works for you until you test it, until you try it, until you fail. Remember, your life is yours. If the fear of failing stops you from taking action, just think about this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

• 44:50Lewis Howes?

  "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better."

• 44:57Lewis Howes?

  Take these six habits as an experiment for you, as an exploration to try these things. Try for 30 days.

• 45:06Lewis Howes?

  And tell me what you think about them. You know, what else would you add to this list? Feel free to send me a message over on email or you can send me a DM over on social media, at Lewis Howes. And I would love for you to follow this podcast. If this has added value to you, make sure you just click on the follow button on the Apple Podcast or Spotify Podcast app. Click that follow button right now if you can to stay up to date on more great content here on the School of Greatness and leave us a review. I would really love to hear from you. If you leave a review, I read all these over on Apple Podcasts and they really inspire me. And the more reviews that you leave, it helps us spread this message to more people over on

• 45:50Lewis Howes?

  the platforms on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. So please click that follow button right now and leave a review of what you got out of this episode. And I would remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. 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.

• 46:32Lewis Howes?

  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, @lewisHowes. 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. 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.