6 Steps You Must Take To Confront Your Fears & Visualize Success w/George Mumford EP 1238

George Mumford is a globally recognized speaker, teacher, and coach. Since 1989, he’s been honing his gentle, but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques with people from all walks of life, but most notably professional athletes like Kobe Bryant, Shaquillie O’Neal and Michael Jordan, who credits George with transforming his on-court leadership and helping the Bulls to six NBA championships. He’s written the book, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance as well as a new course to dive deeper into the lessons in the book. In this episode we discuss:What separates the top 1% of high performers from the rest. The five superpowers we can all focus on to be the best version of ourselves. The practical steps to stop living in fear. The greatest lessons George learned from coaching mindfulness to great athletes like Kobe, Michael Jordan, Shaq and so many others. And so much more! For more go to: http://lewishowes.com/1238Get George Mumford's new book: The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure PerformanceMel Robbins: The “Secret” Mindset Habit to Building Confidence and Overcoming Scarcity: https://link.chtbl.com/970-podDr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: https://link.chtbl.com/826-podMaster Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins: https://link.chtbl.com/715-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?

  This is episode number 1,238 with George Mumford.

• 0:06Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back, my friend. Today's guest is George Mumford, who I had such a pleasure sitting down with. And George is a globally recognized speaker, teacher, and coach. Since 1989, he's been honing his gentle but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques with people from all walks of life, but most notably professional athletes like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Jordan, who credits George with transforming his on-court leadership and helping the Bulls to six NBA championships. And he's written the book, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance, as well as a new course to dive deeper into his lessons in the book. And in this episode, we discuss what separates the 1% of high performers from the rest.

• 1:10Lewis Howes?

  We dive into the five superpowers we can all focus on to be the best versions of ourself, the practical steps to stop living in fear, the greatest lesson George learned from coaching mindfulness to great athletes like Kobe, Michael Jordan, Shaq, and so many others, and so much more. I think you're gonna love this one. And if you do, make sure to share this with a few friends, text some friends, post it on social media, and make sure to tag me and George as well over on social media. And if you are new here, please click the subscribe button over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify right now for the School of Greatness, so you can stay up to date on the latest, greatest from this show every single week. We've got some incredible content coming up, so make sure to click subscribe right now. And also, if you know someone that would love this show, share this with a few people,

• 1:53Lewis Howes?

  text some friends, post it on social media, and spread the message out there to the world. And leave us a review. If you're enjoying this, let me know what part of this episode you enjoyed the most from this episode. You can go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. And a big shout out to today's Fan of the Week from Xavier, who said, "I've been..." tuning in regularly to the School of Greatness podcast for the past couple of months, I'm always impressed by the range of excellent topics and expert speakers. The learnings and insights are invaluable and to Lewis and team, thank you for the great work you continue to do. Big shout out to everyone who is helping us create this show, build this show and serve humanity in a bigger way. It's been such a joy to be of service to each and every one of you who listen on a consistent basis, whether your first episode is right now, or you've been here for nine years.

• 2:38Lewis Howes?

  We're just so grateful for your support and for spreading the message forward to others in your life that you think would be inspired by this message. Okay, in just a moment, the one and only George Mumford. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp online therapy. Relationships take work and a lot of us will drop anything to go help someone we care about. We'll go out of our way to treat other people well, but how often do we give ourselves the same treatment? That's why I'm a huge advocate for investing in myself because I deserve it and so do you. And I make sure to prioritize therapy, coaching, self-care and all of the above. And this month, BetterHelp online therapy and I want to remind you to take care of your most important relationship, the one you have with yourself. BetterHelp offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist.

• 3:23Lewis Howes?

  So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's also much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. School of Greatness listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/greatness. That's B E T T E R H E L P dot com slash greatness. Are you looking to take control of your health? Well, one way to do that is to check GoodRx and finally stop overpaying for your prescription medications. Prescription prices can vary between pharmacies by as much as $100, meaning you're never sure what you're going to pay. Not only will GoodRx find you discounts, it will also let you compare and find the

• 4:05Lewis Howes?

  lowest prices at pharmacies near you like CVS, Kroger, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Vons and more. Now you'll always know what you're paying before you get to the pharmacy. Even if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx often beats your copay price. And I actually have a team member who was prescribed a brand name medication, but her insurance- Would only cover the generic brand and she had side effects with the generic brand. So she was forced to pay out of pocket for the brand name with good or X. She's able to save a lot of money on her meds. So for simple, smart savings on your prescriptions. Check good RX go to good RX.com slash greatness. That's good RX.com slash greatness. Good RX.com slash greatness and good or X is not insurance, but can be used instead of insurance. In 2021, good or X users saved an average of 79% on retail prescription prices.

• 4:50Lewis Howes?

  I speak from experience when I say the best way to stay consistent with your fitness and health goals this year is to switch things up. It'll make it easier to stay excited for your workout each day. And of course, it can be hard to always come up with your own new type of workout routines, which is why I love Peloton. They always are coming out with new stuff to help switch up your exercises. The Peloton bike and bike plus are releasing new classes, new music and new ways to keep your workouts fun and motivating. Keep your workouts interesting. This is key. Peloton has a workout for every goal, day and mood. De-stress from a long day with 30 minutes of strength and 20 minutes of cardio, or do a quick 15 minute total body class before work.

• 5:31Lewis Howes?

  Stay motivated while having fun with bike workouts, yoga, meditation, dance, cardio, and more. And I want to see you achieve your goals. So make sure to visit one Peloton.com to learn more. That's O N E P E L O T O N dot com. What do you think is the difference between the 1% of the athletes or the leaders that you've worked with mentally? What is the difference between the top 1% of high performers than the two to 100%? You know, what is the difference there?

• 6:02Speaker 01

  The willingness to succeed. When they've done this study and they ask coaches and experts, what is the one thing is the willingness to succeed, the willingness and you might call it the pursuit of excellence.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  You could talk about never quitting and having a goal says, yeah, I'm going to do this. I'm going to take it to a to the next level. So it's the hunger and the thirst. You have to, you have to go for it. It's not something that's going to come to you. It's something that you have to pursue.

• 6:36Lewis Howes?

  There's a lot of people that don't have, they don't have hunger. They're not hungry. How do you train someone? Or is that not something you can train?

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Yes, so it's interesting because I've done a lot of research and study on this, even on my own. I had a sense of urgency. You had a sense of urgency. Some people have to create a sense of urgency. And before I was motivated by, you know, my butt being on fire or just survival, just wanting to get, get to living. But you can create a sense of urgency by creating a possibility, a vision of possibility that you want to live into. Or you, you want to serve more people or something. So initially it was me just getting out of that, you know, butt on fire. Then what the game I'm playing now, I'm pursuing excellence and wisdom with grace and ease.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  So there's a hunger for me to want to get to the next level, to want people to help people get to the next level. And to me, it's about helping people understand they have a masterpiece and that their job is to express it and share it with the rest of us. But it's an inside job and only they can do it. So unless they have the will and the desire and to do it, but not just say do it, but I'm, I have this will to succeed. I'm going to do whatever I need to do to get there.

• 8:01Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  And so that's the 1%. That's the 1% that says, I am responsible and I have a masterpiece inside of me or I have greatness inside of me. And it's my job to. Develop it and express it.

• 8:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  And that's why it's so challenging because if you want more than the other person, then that's a problem. But if you can help them discover that they have this greatness inside of them, this masterpiece that has, that can be developed and that can only be developed by them.

• 8:33Lewis Howes?

  So let's say you're, there's a lot of really good athletes out there. There's a lot of really good humans, good people at their jobs, but they stay good and they don't transcend to the next level for themselves. Not meaning they have to be the best in the world at what they do, but they stay very comfortable. You know, maybe they did well in college as an athlete, but they didn't take it to the next level because they didn't have the desire or the willingness or whatever it is. Maybe someone stayed well at their job for 10 years, but they, they got to a level of comfort, but they didn't want to grow and develop their skills to another level to see what's possible.

• 9:11Lewis Howes?

  How can you inspire, evoke, empower people that are at a good level? That, that have, have been stuck there for a while, that haven't been willing to do what it takes to see what their true masterpiece is. Is there a level of coaching? Is it a?

• 9:27Speaker 01

  As I said, you have to create a, a sense of urgency. Because why would they change their, I got to be working with young athletes and say, what's up, man? How you doing? I'm chilling.

• 9:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, relaxing.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  And I say, chilling ain't gonna get it done.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  You, you, you know, you can be chilling, but you gotta be willing. So you can chill now, but then you have to step to the next thing. So the way that it works, especially if you're thinking about getting in a flow, you gotta look at it as a step function. Because once you get to a certain level, then it becomes normal. And so if you don't challenge yourself, it's like a step function. And the high challenges will get you ripped up and, and you have to have a vision of possibility. We live in the future we see. So if you're, if you're not uncomfortable, then you're probably not learning. And I don't mean being uncomfortable all the time, but I talk about getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, which means keep moving and increasing your capacity

• 10:27Speaker 01

  to grow, learn and experience life in different ways. And that's what it comes down to. So it's an inside job without the, the will.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  They're not doing it. And the will, some, some people look at will. As having three components, one component is motivation, one component is commitment. But the third component is security or confidence. And so people who have a strong self-efficacy, like myself, like you, that we embrace the challenge, we see things as a challenge. Absolutely. And a venture and, and something to, to move towards. So we're always trying to expand in capacity, you know, our capacity, but we have this, this, this adventurous spirit that says, I don't know how, how far I can take this, but I'm just gonna take it as far as I can take it.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  And it's fun and it's something that I know I'm creating a service for others. I wanna help others by expressing or being a leader in terms of how am I going to not get so comfortable that I'm chilling? And when you get to that, that, that phase of, of, you know, even boredom or just relaxed and, you know, just sort of satisfied, that's when you have to challenge yourself. And if you challenge yourself, then you can, you have to raise everything to, to meet that challenge. And unless you do that, you're, that's where the self-regulation comes in. And that's why when you talk about MJ or Kobe, some of those, those guys like that, Tom Brady, there's a lot of them out there. I'm not naming all of them.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Of course, you know, the ones that are there now. You know, I could name them all, but what it comes down to is you will know them by their fruits, right? You will know them by their ability to not settle and the ability to keep getting better. If you think of Steph Curry last year, he knew he wasn't gonna, well, I can't speak for him, but it was pretty obvious they weren't going to win without Klay, but he took his game to a whole other level. And see, that's the thing, if Klay was there, would he been doing that? Probably not, cause the situation probably didn't call for him to be extraordinary. And that's why if you think about going to a team that's already loaded, you might win championships, but you really have to look at, this is my opinion. Whether or not you're challenged enough.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  So that you can get out of your comfort zone and go to that next level. Without that sense of urgency, you can't do it. Or unless you're committed to excellence and you're you're taking it to the next level. So let me give you an example of that. I can lie about MJ, but let's just talk about Kobe for for a moment. So Kobe won a championship in two thousand and nine. I think I have it right.

• 13:11Lewis Howes?

  You were working with him then?

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Uh, when they come to Boston, yeah, I've always been, you know, they come to Boston, I work with them, talk with them. The process they use is the one that we developed when I was here in in the early two thousands. So that's the thing. So that's what I'm talking about. It's like, okay, you won, but you want to go to the next level. So you, you know, you retire, you could reflect on, but you gotta keep getting better. Because now the team, the team knows you won. Every team is gonna.

• 13:37Lewis Howes?

  Coming for you, yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Coming for you, so you have to keep getting better. It's progressive realization of where the ideal. So you're not there, but it's in that day to day, just making today your masterpiece, getting better today. It's that incremental process, and that's what I mean. And there's other people that do that, I don't have to name names. People don't realize that Tom Brady probably spends ten to twelve hours a day in the offseason. Getting ready, now he's forty-four, now he just came this close from from going to the next level. Uh, had the defense held. He probably, knowing him, he would have got the ball and scored and they would have won, but that's a mindset. It was twenty-seven to six, no quit. That probably disinspired him even more.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  So that's what I'm talking about, that idea. So it's not about how do we get them. It's how do we help them go inside and make that, become willing. To go to the next level. Because some people just don't want to do that, they they're not interested. That's why they say many are caught, few are chosen. It's it's about, it's about you having a vision of possibility for yourself that.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  That has to do with being great or helping others be great by being a role model and by taking it to the next level.

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  What happens when people stay comfortable for year after year after year and they don't challenge themselves? What happens to them?

• 15:02Speaker 01

  They become relaxed and bored. That's what boredom, we spend most of our time between boredom and anxiety. So if you look at it that way, so you're bored or you're relaxed, but you're just a couple of levels up from boredom. But if you're bored or if you're anxious, it's saying to you, if you're bored, you need to challenge yourself more. You need to have goals set and you set goals. Or as Steve Harvey said on a video I heard, he said, the reason people have a hard time getting up in the morning because they don't have a good enough reason for them to get up. So you want to create a raison d'etre or way of being where you you jump up like a kid at Christmas. So Christmas Eve, you can't go to sleep because you know it's going

• 15:44Speaker 01

  to be. So you have to have that kind of a process where you you are getting up and you're going at it because it makes you feel alive. It makes you feel like you're you're making a difference. And I would say it what we're really talking about is people being who they are and not somebody that they're supposed to be or somebody wants them to be, but coming from that masterpiece. And when you're being real, so it's like, we used to talk about it when I worked in the corporate structure, you have, you know, hump Wednesday, TGIF Friday. It's like so five sevenths of the time you're doing something you're not happy about. When in actuality, why not have it be seven seven? So having a work and it's interesting because I was

• 16:29Speaker 01

  just reflecting, I was reading this book by Eric Butterworth called Spiritual Economics. And in there, he talks about what's been my experience. It's not So the job may not be that great, but it's what you bring to the job and how you apply yourself. And it's interesting because it's not so much about the compensation. It's about your soul growth. It's about you growing as a person, just being fully engaged in everything. And I think Jesus talked about this, about going the extra mile. You know, like I guess back in the day there, the Romans could say, okay, I want you to carry this for a mile. He said, go two miles. And so this idea of giving more than what you get. And there's something about applying yourself, be fully engaged,

• 17:13Speaker 01

  your whole mind, body, heart and soul engaged. So that's what, that's what healing is, is wholeness. So just fully engage in yourself. Or as in Zen, they say, burn yourself in the activity. Do not leave a trace. So fully engaged, fully present, just doing it. And what you bring to it is what makes the difference. And it's interesting because I'm thinking about this book I read called, The Way of Man. They talk about this idea of just fully, just fully burning yourself in the activity, just losing yourself, just really, just really. Because what, why, what is that about?

• 17:54Speaker 01

  It's like, so he talks about this idea of what can man do that angels can't do? And the answer to that is that we, men or men with, a woman with holy intent can make, you know, can hallow anything. We can make something holy just by intention. So we can make something hallow, holy, whole, just by intention. So that's what we can do. We can intend to make things holy. We can make heaven here and now just by bringing that love, that compassion, that presence, that's fully committed and a productive act of love. That's what love is. Love, when you love something, you, you help it grow.

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  So it's the intention. So do you have to stay in the job? I was in a job I didn't want to be in. Or I woke up and I'm making missiles. I used to work for Northrop back in the day, 16 years working on that stuff. And then I went to a high tech after that. But it was really more about. And I got into that job. How did I end up being a financial analyst, getting an accounting degree? Because my high school coach told me they make money. So I did it. So I did what I thought I was supposed to do. And it wasn't until I I stopped that I started doing what I wanted to do. So I go from working in corporate, wearing a three-piece suit, going back to graduate school, studying the soft sciences, like psychology.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  And then I'm there with people who are in the soft sciences wanting to go into business because they want to make money. And they look at me like, dude, what's wrong with you? Ah, you come in here with a three-piece suit trying to do what we're doing. And it was very simple. That's because I was following my bliss. I was doing what I was supposed to do. It had nothing to do with what the conversation was. And it had to do with me getting into a situation where I could fully express myself. Be fully it, all in. I think you talk about that a lot, being all in.

• 19:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  And and it's what I bring to it. And of course, that that that can change. But what what can't change is me being fully engaged in the moment with as much love and joy and compassion as I can have.

• 19:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Something you mentioned there was healing is wholeness. Of the people that you train at the 1%, it seems to be like a lot of those people have a chip on their shoulder. They have something where they're, maybe not always, but it's like there was a pain somewhere that drove them to be great. You know, correct me if I'm wrong. When I was training as an athlete, I was very driven to be great, to prove people wrong. People that hurt me, or the pains that I went through, or the sadness I felt, the the being picked on and all those things. I was like, I'm going to become so big, so athletic, so strong, so needed, that, you know, I'm going to prove them wrong. And it worked. It got me to achieving results and being like captain of my team and playing professional football, all these different things.

• 20:43Lewis Howes?

  But I always, when I would achieve my goals, I felt so empty and alone and angry. It's almost like it was like, well, this isn't what I thought it was supposed to heal me. And it didn't. And then I went for a bigger goal, bigger goal. We kind of talked about this before a little bit. And it wasn't until I started doing the healing work that I was able to create from a place of peace and love and generosity as opposed to I got this chip on my shoulder. I gotta keep showing up and like proving these people wrong or whatever. Do you think most of the top performers in the world create and build from a place of there's something that's still not healed or whole inside of them? Or do you know some that you worked with who have completely healed or on a healing journey?

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  And they're creating their masterpiece at a high level from wholeness?

• 21:33Speaker 01

  I think, and I'll speak about it this way, because I don't get into people's hearts. And I mean, I do, but I don't want to talk about people's hearts. Because I have to talk to them, and even if they express to me what it is, it may not be what it is. It's their interpretation of what it is. And I watch their behavior. I think what's important is maybe that gets you there, that anger, or gets you to prove people wrong. Because I was like that too. When you told me I couldn't do something. You had a tiger, I would show you. But what happens is at some point, you're right, that's empty because that's coming from a place of fear. And so I talk about coming from, you know, you're either coming from love or fear.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  And when you're coming from fear, you're in survival mode, which is that flight, fight and freeze. Or growth mode or love mode where it's rest and digest. It's something that's coming inside of you. It's an expression of you and something that comes from the inside out, not something coming from the outside in. And so even though you get there initially by that, you can't sustain that. And as you mentioned, it's this emptiness there. There's no meaning there. There's because you're not whole. You're just acting out of fear. Instead of coming out of love where you can have your whole being be engaged in it. So even though, like I'll use the example, so there would, I used to work in prison to do mindfulness

• 22:59Speaker 01

  based stress reduction and recovery units, people who have substance abuse. And some of them, they would mandate to be in the program. And so I used to teach where it was voluntary and they would, very different people were mandated and say, well, I'm forced to be here. And I said, yeah, there is some choice. You got here out of force. But you can decide to be here for you now. You can decide, instead of letting somebody's bad behavior affect you, or you'll be at bad behavior, or you be in, doing something you don't want to do. You can choose to do it for yourself. You can choose to change how you look at that and the way it's healing.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  You say, okay, I'm here. I'm gonna go be here for me, even though they got me here, but I can fight it or I can just embrace it and say, okay, how can I find myself in this mix as Hansel you talked about? In this place, there's an opportunity for me to express myself, to me to get in touch with myself. And it's an inside job to do it for myself. And so that's, so I can't speak to all of those athletes, but I think at some point, the ones that are, are the happy, are the ones, because if you do that and you're not in the field anymore or in that sport, how do you deal with life? Cause now you don't have that place to express that, that outlet.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  Whereas, yeah, it gets you there, but why not be there for yourself and then deal with the whole person? You know, how you feel, you know, your body is physical, your mind is mental, the heart is emotional, social and your soul, your spirit. That you want all of those aspects of yourself to be, be there. So when we talk about the spiritual thing, it's like, how do you embrace? How do you get out of survival mode and in a growth mode? And then embracing those parts of yourself that, that haven't been so helpful.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  But you have to make peace with that. We all make mistakes and so that, those two wolves, I talk about this idea of the two wolves with the Cherokee grandfather telling his grandson, I have two wolves with this ferocious battle inside of me and the grandson's concerned and says, which wolf will win? Says the one we feed. So we both have that, those two wolves in us. But it's a question of which one we're going to feed. So the fear wolf gets us there, but then once we get there, can we just start feeding the love wolf? And this idea of getting beyond the illusion of separateness and being a service. And I like to call it, forget yourself to find yourself.

• 25:34Lewis Howes?

  Forget yourself?

• 25:35Speaker 01

  To find yourself. So when you give yourself a service and you help other people, you're also helping yourself. But you have to get to a place where you have something to give. So you have to develop enough so that you can actually give. And so a lot of things we give, we can give money, but when we can give our time, we can give our heart, we can give our soul. That, I think that pays a bigger dividend.

• 25:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You talk about superpowers in order to achieve your goal. I think there's five superpowers you talk about.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:05Lewis Howes?

  What are those? And, and why are these important to develop?

• 26:08Speaker 01

  So I talk about mindfulness, this effort or diligence, this focused concentration, this insight or wisdom and faith, but faith lasts. So they're all connected. So for me to be mindful, what, what I talk about being mindful is having a mirror mind of being able to see, let things be as they are, like they're in the mirror, just interpreting them or letting them speak to you in their own language instead of us interpreting them. So it's like being vulnerable and letting the unfolding moment unfold without you interfering. And so what you want to do is you want to create, you want to elongate the perceptual process.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  So first, there's a very short time where there's, where the raw data is there and then immediately.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  Associative thinking, abstract associative thinking, like, oh, I remember the last time this happened, abstract thinking, selfing or self-importance, all of that stuff. And of course, the way the, the, the visual system works is it, it's trying to relate what's happening based on what we've already experienced, instead of seeing it in fresher new ways. So we have to create this ability, because as human beings, we have this ability to, to sit back and watch things as a silent witness without being critical. And that's what it is, uncritical observation, seeing things in a certain way. And, and that when we create space between stimulus and response, we start to be able to see things as they are, not as we remembered them, or as our mindset that we happen to

• 27:43Speaker 01

  be in is interpreting it in a certain way, instead of seeing the raw data. So we wanna be able to be mindful, so you have to have faith, you have to realize, like, like Einstein said, the most important question to ask yourself is, is this a friendly or unfriendly universe? And let's just go with the friendly. If it's a friendly universe, then you will use all your resources to understand how things work and then align yourself with how things work, like gravity. You don't have to believe in gravity, it works. If you align yourself with gravity, you'll be okay. And so you have to have the faith that what you're gonna do is actually gonna be possible, and it's gonna be helpful. So you have to have the faith to make the effort to be mindful, but then you need, so

• 28:28Speaker 01

  we're talking about faith, we're talking about effort, then you have to have the focus, the here and now, you know, being able to be locked in, so that you could be mindful. And then you also need the wisdom or understanding, what am I being mindful of? And what are the essentials? Wha- what's, what's the, what's the principles involved?

• 28:48Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 28:49Speaker 01

  And so all of those things are always working, so mindfulness helps us cultivate effort, or this idea of being diligent, like the sustained effort. We can't do anything without the sustained effort. But the effort to do what we say we're gonna do, and just, just to keep doing it until we get it, not quitting, not giving up, and that sort of thing. But that's really more mental to get into it, because when you're in a positive mind state. Then it's easier to do it if you're coming from love rather than fear. Let's just talk about that, that wolf, those two.

• 29:19Lewis Howes?

  How does someone get more into love, though, if they've been living in fear their whole life?

• 29:24Speaker 01

  By recognizing they're in fear and understanding how it's not helpful and how to get out of fear.

• 29:29Lewis Howes?

  Well, how do they get out of it?

• 29:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, so this is part of right effort. It's like you're in fear, once you notice that you're reacting to things instead of responding to things. And if you can pause and notice that you're reacting, then, well, how do I not react? Be still and know, by just stepping back and instead of leaping in, interpreting, just let it speak to you, but you have to be vulnerable. That's where the faith comes in and that sort of thing. By being that, then once you say, oh, when this happens, this happens. And if I want to change something, I have to change, I have to self-regulate. I have to change my things, my thoughts, my feelings, my, my behavior. And so you understand, how do I not be fear, noticing you're in fear? And realize that you're in survival mode, and if you can just breathe and focus on one thing,

• 30:14Speaker 01

  and get your nervous system into rest and digest, or focus generating what I call a Hall of Fame, H O F.

• 30:22Lewis Howes?

  A Hall of Fame, yeah.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  Hope, optimism, faith.

• 30:25Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  So, if you get into a positive mind state, it's called the Broden and Bill theory, when you're coming from optimism, hope, faith, then your cognitive functioning is enhanced. So you actually start to see, instead of being locked on channel five, there's two hundred channels.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  And then by opening up, you say, oh, there it is right there. So you have to be able to, to understand, that's what we call right effort. How do you abandon an unwholesome mindset like fear? So one way you can do that is do the opposite of fear, that's love. Another way you can do it is understanding the consequences of coming out of fear.

• 31:01Lewis Howes?

  What's holding you back from that, yeah?

• 31:02Speaker 01

  Okay, so if I'm in fear, then I'm, I'm gonna be reacting and I'm not gonna be able to create space between stimulus and response. And in that space, I get to align with my, with my core values, with my goal, with my aim, right? So that's, the third thing is, To, you know, divert your attention from it to something else. So if I focus on what I want, or I focus on what's gonna work.

• 31:29Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Then I'm not, I can't have two things in my mind at once. So if I focus on what I want versus what I didn't want, then that changes it. So you divert your attention to it. So that's, that's a third way. The fourth way, I'll just, you talk about four today, is you actually turn towards the fear. And you say, okay, when fear is present, I notice that there's this tightness. I notice that I have tunnel vision. I notice that it's keeping me small and like choking, I can't breathe. And if I understand, so I get intimate with fear, so I know, oh, fear is here and it's okay. Just breathe through it, just feel wherever the fear is in your body and just let it be. You know, just notice it, this is, but if I can breathe it, I can open it and say, it's okay.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  Because I'm not reacting to it, I'm actually creating space and then now I'm not reacting. So example of the fear, I had this fear of talking in public.

• 32:24Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  And I would get up and I was in this program called Toastmasters.

• 32:30Lewis Howes?

  I do it too.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  And I get up there and I'm at the podium and I'm shaking and the more I tried not to shake, I shook. So at the time I was in graduate school and I was studying paradoxical intention. This is Viktor Frankl and he was saying that instead of running away from the fear, embrace it. And so I decided I was gonna be a shaken fool when I got up there. And when I got up there, I stopped shaking. So the only way out is always through.

• 32:57Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  So the fear is, and then we talk about exposure therapy. So the thing you fear to do, just do it a little bit in increments that are manageable, uncomfortable, hard to do, but doable. Then what happens is you actually create this, what they call exposure therapy. The more you're exposed to it, the less it affects you. So there's all of these different ways, but it's really embracing the fear and generating the hope and saying, okay, there's a lesson here for me to get. And if I look at fear as an acronym for false evidence appearing real, or some fears are healthy, like fear of being hit by a car when you're walking across the street or touching a hot, hot thing. So it's really understanding when fear arises, I embrace it.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  And by embracing it and working through it, it's no longer fear. It's just a reaction and we're learning from it. We respond to it and so you embrace it and you get comfortable being uncomfortable. And by embracing the fear and understanding it, it no longer is fear. Mm hmm. What was the biggest fear you've had to overcome? Being myself. When did you learn that? I didn't learn that, I just observed myself, self sabotaging and being uncomfortable. So this is what Mary Ann Williamson said, our greatest fear is, is you know, is not embracing our our masochism, our divinity, but it's just uncomfortable. And we know the nervous system, if something is unpleasant, it's gonna avoid it.

• 34:24Speaker 01

  And if it's pleasant, it moves towards it and if it's neither, it faces out. So we're afraid of our greatness, but it's by embracing our greatness that that we can, um, we have this, once again, that exposure therapy, just taking in a little bit more. So I do it more and more, but it's yeah, my greatness and it's not something I thought about, it was just something I observed. When did you realize that you weren't fully being yourself? Like, how old were you? I think when I was in recovery in nineteen eighty-four, I was about thirty-two and a half, something like that. When I started real, I started getting glimpses of it, realizing, oh, there's more to it. Cause I lived in my own little fantasy, but just to open up and to see

• 35:07Speaker 01

  uh, that I was responsible and that I could choose my response and and stuff like that, I realized that on some level I was hiding out in plain sight. There's like those folks that, that uh, don't wanna, don't get up, you can't keep up, as Ben Diesel says. Wasn't interested in getting up, so that's it, but it's really fear. The process of fear is probably the main thing, but that's how it manifests and not realizing. And you know how it feels to realize that you're afraid of your greatness? Really feel like a loser when you do that. Oh. But that's just a thought, not reality, it's just, okay. That's one way to look at it, or another way to look at it is fear is um, sort of taking care of yourself, oh, I can't do that, that's afraid.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  So self-care can be looked at, I mean, fear can be looked at as self-care and is, is not self-care that's helpful or effective, but it's a form of, of survival.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  And that's what we call survival mode. That's what it is. Like a prey animal.

• 36:08Lewis Howes?

  When did you learn how to overcome self sabotage? And how can people do that today? Learn if they've been doing that in their relationships or their career? How do they learn to stop doing that?

• 36:18Speaker 01

  By observing, by noticing that you gotta get into your, into love mode. You gotta get in a positive mind state and look at it as a uncritical observation. You got the mindfulness, you got to be able to see it without judging. And just see how things arise and fade away. And then think about, well, how do I get out of it? How did so and so get out of it? What does the research tell me? What are the role models out there that have overcome their fear? And then ask them or read the books and just study. You know, I've been, been in recovery going on 38 years. I've averaged over a book a week.

• 37:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  So my way, the best stress reducer is, best stress reduction, dealing with fear is wisdom, understanding.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Because as Frankl says, because we're really talking about suffering, right? Victor Frankl says, suffering ceases to be suffering when we find meaning in it.

• 37:23Speaker 01

  So when you find meaning in it, then it ceases to be suffering. So we got to touch our suffering. We have to go into it and we have to understand it.

• 37:32Lewis Howes?

  For some reason, it's hard to understand the meaning of suffering when we're in it sometimes.

• 37:38Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 37:39Lewis Howes?

  It's, it's, I always look back and I'm like, man, that was a rough time in my life. But I wouldn't change a thing because it helped me overcome this adversity. And it helped me learn this skill and it helped me have more courage or whatever it is. But it's like when you're in it, you're, you can't, I shouldn't say you can't. It's hard sometimes to really step back and have wisdom and observe, oh, I'm in this.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  Unless you have a habit of doing that.

• 38:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, unless you're.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  And unless you're able to feel it in your body and step away and get out of the mindset. But this is the whole thing. It's, it's creating this ability to observe experiences, no matter how challenging it is.

• 38:14Speaker 01

  From this silent witness and not doing anything but just observing and asking what is this? And how is it manifesting? So you're absolutely right. That's why you've got to get out of survivor mode and get into growth mode. If you're reacting to things, there's no way you can do it because there's no space to do anything but react. But if we reflect on it and then we look at it and reflect it and say, okay, I reacted. What training do I need to do? What learning and practicing do I need to do so the next time I can create a little bit more space? A little bit more space. Then, once I create the space, then I can really see. But you're right, when you're in that mode, that consciousness, that consciousness is like a attractive field that only allows you to have certain options.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  And so you have to raise your consciousness or expand your ability to pause, slow things down. And in that space, learn from your mistakes. And then at some point, you understand, oh, here's how you do it. But it's the inside job and it's something that you have to practice. So if you're going to do it and just say, I did it last week and I don't want to do it this week, but you're not learning and practicing anything, then how do you expect to not do the same thing? So you have to actually reflect on experience because the true understanding reflects on, comes from reflecting on experience. So how did, how did I, I did this, how can I do it differently? Well, first thing you've got to understand, if you don't look at it differently or if you don't have a different mindset, you're going to keep doing the same thing. So that's why you've got to get out of survivor mode and into growth mode.

• 39:44Speaker 01

  Or that, that hope optimism faith I talked about. Or the willing suspension of disbelief and saying, okay, why don't I try it this way? But once you change, this was Dr. Wayne Dyer said, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. So it's the perspective from which you are observing experience that's the whole thing. Your mindset, if I have on the fear glasses, then I'm going to be looking. If I have on the love glasses, then I have on possibility. If I come from half full, that's abundance. If I come from a half empty, I'm coming from scarcity. That totally changes everything. But if you just notice, oh, I'm in fear. Get out of fear and be in love, then you it'll be clear to you what you need to do.

• 40:30Lewis Howes?

  Hundred percent agree, and I remember for probably most of my life, feeling like I would get in these waves. Sometimes it'd be a good season of life, and sometimes it seems like, oh, man, I'm in breakdown mode, right? And I felt like stuck and I couldn't get out.

• 40:47Lewis Howes?

  And I remember something happened four years ago, where I went through a challenging moment in my life, and it felt like, oh, wow, this is a this felt like a heavy moment, like a season, right? A few months of heaviness. And for whatever reason, I think because I'd experienced a few different seasons of that in the past like fifteen, twenty years,

• 41:07Lewis Howes?

  I remember thinking to myself, oh, okay, a lot is happening. It was almost so emotionally, mentally overwhelming. I was like, okay, I've been here before. And every time I've been here, three, four, five, six years later, I look back on it and say, I'm so grateful for what that taught me. So I would reflect back and have wisdom. So what are the reasons? This happened four years ago. I decided when something was challenging, I said, I'm going to reflect forward and have wisdom. Like, I know this is going to be happening for me, and I just have to wait six months, a year, two years, until I'm going to see the benefits and the fruits of this. And it worked. It helped me stay in peace mode, not reaction mode.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:46Lewis Howes?

  Helped me focus on love, what I can control, not what I couldn't control. And it put me back on my mission, like, how can I improve? What's the lesson? What's my mission? Not how can I be angry at the world or whatever? And it was a beautiful experience to reflect forward for me. I don't know if that's something you teach as well in terms of like moving forward, but it's like time travel.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:08Lewis Howes?

  And see yourself a year or two away.

• 42:11Speaker 01

  Yes. So you live into the future you see. So when something bad happens, we look, we see it happening again. So what are we really talking about here? Louis, we're talking about something happens, then we interpret what it means. Yes. So in the interpretation, if you interpret it as from survival mode, then things are gonna get worse. Uh huh. Interpret it from love, you see it, okay, what's the lesson here? How do I learn it's gonna be okay? That's where all those like the faith and the effort and the mindfulness and the concentration and the wisdom. They all come in and you just look at it and say, okay, I interpreted it this way before and this is what I got. So I don't want that, so I have to do something different.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  This was self-regulation, so something happens, why not interpret it in a way that empowers you, motivates you, inspires you? And that's what you did. Yeah. And, and that's the whole point. The whole point is we learn from mistakes, we are not our mistakes. And that's the challenge we have, we make a mistake and we identify with it instead of realizing, no, it's just behavior, it's not who you are, it's just, it's an event. But then we carry it, so when you were talking about that and all of that carry on, I was thinking about when I worked with baseball and softball players. When you haven't got a hit, each time you go up, you keep adding on to the drama. The pressure.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  You're going up with a sixteen, twenty pound vest on instead of saying what Yogi Berra, one of, one of, one of my philosophers. When they asked him about that, he said, I ain't no slump, I just ain't hitting. Yeah. So what he's really saying is, I just have to get a hit, but I'm not bringing those other sixteen at bats into the moment with me. Let it go, but more importantly, reflect on those sixteen and see in each case, what could you have done differently to get a hit? So now you don't look at the string, you look at, okay, what do I need to change? What are, what are the principles involved in getting hit, seeing the, seeing the ball? You know, having my hands right, you know, being ready, having to relax, uh, having the confidence, it's your mindset.

• 44:17Speaker 01

  There's a certain mindset that you need to have, and then physically, you gotta have your body ready. But more importantly, you have to have this idea that you're gonna do well. Yeah. That you have what we call outcome expectation, you expect things to turn out, just like what you talked about. Oh no, this is happening, but I expect it to turn out, so now you can let go to grow. And you can say, okay, this is just a stepping stone, it's not a roadblock. So it's all about the mindset, it's all about this growth mindset. That says, okay, everything that happens, I need to reflect on it and understand what worked, what didn't work and then figure out what didn't work, how to make it work. So that's the thing we have to focus on. This moment, not the previous sixteen at bats, but this at bat and just focusing on it.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  And that's how MJ or Kobe can go in the fourth quarter before three for, three for eleven or something like that, and then

• 45:12Lewis Howes?

  Hit the game winner.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Hit the game winner because it's always about resetting and beginning again. Make a mental note how, okay, I have to keep my arm in, but you expect to make the next shot, but you forget about the previous shots other than understanding, okay, I'm not using, you know, my legs or you saw it in the last dance. Michael, you know, he was tired, so he didn't get his legs in it. So when he made that last shot, he didn't make it for style. He put follow up on it because all his shots were short. So he was adapting in real time to what happened. And that's what the key is. Don't focus on what happened before. Focus on the moment and focus on what you want. Remember what I talked about? Don't focus on what you don't want because that's what you're creating. You focus on what you want and then you reset.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  It's just like, just like my iPhone. Yours is probably the same thing. If it gets stuck, turn it off and turn it back on. It's reset the factory settings and I can, you can roll. That's what we have to do mentally when we make mistakes, not just athletes that like you talked about, when we get stuck, we make a mistake. Can we bring compassion and forgiveness and say, when I know better? This is what Dr. Maya Angelou, one of her sayings I love. When you know better, you do better. So no, no, no blame, no being critical. Just notice what needs to change and then go from there. And the rich get richer because when you understand that, you automatically do it because you know that, why would you take confidence from yourself? You know, confidence is really important.

• 46:42Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. What do you think is the, the, the best way to build confidence and self-belief and overcome self-doubt for people?

• 46:50Speaker 01

  Depends on the situation, but I think the main thing is to be able to listen to that, those voices inside of you. So obviously prayer, meditation, focusing on what you want, cultivating that hope, optimism and faith. That I talked about having social support. So, so there's this thing I talk about predicting success in a job. Sean Accor, Happiness Advantage, talks about the research that says there's three things that are important. The positive genius, what I talked about, the hope, optimism and faith, cultivating a positive mindset. Second thing is social support. So it's not just being around somebody and commiserating, but being around people who

• 47:33Speaker 01

  in relationships like you talked about, your mentor, that are encouraging you. The only way out is through and that you're not by yourself and you have help. And then the third thing is seeing the crisis as an opportunity or seeing it as a challenge. And like we said before, people don't look at things as challenges. They just look at, oh, that's bad. I don't want to go there. Instead of saying, no, this is an opportunity for me to learn something. And even if I don't want to do it for myself, my kids, I want my kids or I want to impact society in a way where people are saying yes to life and not no to life and are leveling up and embracing challenge, seeing opportunity. Rather than stand back and, and being reactive, it'll be proactive.

• 48:18Speaker 01

  And they're really talking about how, how can you express yourself, that master peak within. It, it, it comes out when, when, when it's challenged.

• 48:27Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:28Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. You taught a lot of people over the years and coached people and you know, you were saying before that you learn a lot when you're teaching. You get some of the best lessons when you're teaching someone.

• 48:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:40Lewis Howes?

  What would you say were the three greatest lessons you think you learned from people you coached? Maybe there's someone well-known, maybe someone not well-known. But what would you say of just like, wow, this person actually just gave me an incredible gift.

• 48:54Speaker 01

  I'll give you two, right off the top of my head. You can only be yourself. Cause if you don't know who you are, you can end up being anybody. That's number one. Number two, if you don't know where you're going, you could end up going anywhere. Number two. And number three is you have a masterpiece inside. And when you access it, even a little bit of it, it changes everything. When you realize you have the power to do whatever you need to do, you can learn whatever you need to learn. And that you don't have to do it alone. So it's really more about understanding who you are and where you're going. And that you have everything you need to succeed.

• 49:33Lewis Howes?

  How did you have confidence when you're coaching some of these, you know, superstars? How did, when some of these guys and gals have some of those powerful mindset out there, you know, how did you, as a coach and a teacher, make sure you went in there with confidence, knowing that you could contribute to these people as well sometimes?

• 49:53Speaker 01

  Be honest with you, I prayed. Yes, I, I focused on my masterpiece and knowing if I could be still and know and just trust that the universe was lawful, just trust it, my high-powered God, the universe, whatever you want to call it, that if I was aligned with divine will, I was gonna be fine. So that mean love, how can I help? How can I serve? Not worrying about, so forgetting myself to find myself. In that case is not worrying about how I'm gonna perform or how they're gonna take me, but focusing on how I can serve. And just coming from my own experience, knowing from my own experience and being authentically myself. So understanding that if I can be still and know and come from the love,

• 50:38Speaker 01

  come from the inside out and how can I help? So the two questions I usually ask people that I work with a team is, what do you want? And then the question is, are you willing to be who you need to be to do what you want? Those two questions, it's really simple. It doesn't matter who you are. It's like, okay, here's what's happening. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna react to it or respond to it? And if you understand you have everything you need to succeed and you have that will to win. Remember I talked about the desire to succeed? The will to succeed? If you have that and you realize that it's gonna take as long as it takes, but if you sustain your attention, if you're paying attention.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Then you're gonna learn what you need to learn and you're gonna do what you you have to do. And even if you don't get the result you want, if you can walk away and say, I gave everything I had. That's a winner.

• 51:33Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  Where you no regrets. I I was fully engaged in what was happening and sometimes that's the way it is. You don't always win, but you win when you are when you got better today. When you played your best, when you express your potential.

• 51:47Lewis Howes?

  In that moment, yeah.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  In that moment.

• 51:49Lewis Howes?

  My friend Rory Vaden says, it's hard to be nervous when your heart's on service. And I used to.

• 51:54Speaker 01

  Yes, I like that one. That's a that's a keep I might.

• 51:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, my buddy Rory Rory Vaden, that's his quote. It's hard to be nervous when your heart's on service.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 52:02Lewis Howes?

  For years, I would be nervous before a game, a speech, whatever it might be, an opportunity to to present something. And it wasn't until maybe six years ago, seven years ago, where I reached out to a coach and I right before a big speech. And I'd been speaking, I did Toastmasters as well, because that was my big fear.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 52:20Lewis Howes?

  And I overcame the fear and I the having the skills to be able to present an idea in front of an audience. Took me a year to really get there. Every week practicing in Toastmasters, terrified in the beginning. And years later, after I'd been speaking professionally for a while. I was still getting nervous like the day before and I didn't understand why. I was like, I should be better by now. I was judging myself was the first thing. But I reached out to a coach and I said, I don't know why I'm still nervous. This was about an hour before a big speech. I go, what can I do? And he said, you're focused on yourself, not on the audience and serving. He's he's like, no, you're gonna make a mistake. No, you're not gonna remember every line or every point or joke or whatever.

• 53:03Lewis Howes?

  Stop thinking about you and what people think of you and start focusing your energy and attention on how you can be a service to them. And that was a big shift for me. And, you know, I still maybe get a little nervous here and there, but it's like whenever I feel that insecurity, I just think. I'm not gonna be a hundred percent perfect and that's okay. But if I put all my energy on the message, the mission of what I want to get across and focus on that. Realizing I'm not the best speaker in the world and I'm trying to do that. Then it relieves the nerves.

• 53:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:33Lewis Howes?

  It's helpful.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  You forgot yourself to find yourself.

• 53:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 53:37Speaker 01

  So it's so I'd like to say a couple of things about nerves. It's not the nervousness that's that's the situation, it's how you react or respond to it. So I'll give you an example. Well, people don't know, but Bill Russell, I grew up in Boston, so I watched the Celtics. And Bill Russell won eleven championships in thirteen years. Eleven championships in thirteen years.

• 53:57Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  And he used to get nervous before a game to the point where he would have to throw up. And one game, he was, he was, uh, before the game and Red Auerbach said, "Russ, did you throw up?" Yeah, he said, "No," he said, "Go in the locker room, don't come out until you, until you do." Well, what's that about? Because he knows when he's nervous, he plays his best. And part of the nervousness could be for a lot of reasons. It could be maybe because you want it so badly or whatever. But in the moment of the game, if you change your consciousness or your focus from being nervous to doing the next thing, I call it the, some people talk about the win, W I N. And what does that mean? What's important now?

• 54:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  So if you manage the moment, it doesn't matter how you feel or how you see things. You make the next, if you manage this moment, then the next moment goes, the next moment goes. So it's not about, we have this interpretation that we're nervous. Cause there's people who are not nervous and then in a moment of truth, they're nervous, even though they weren't nervous before, and that one second could make all of the difference, you know, making a, making a play or whatever. So we have to realize that stuff can happen, but it's always about the mindset and it's always about what's important now. Managing this moment and, and forgetting yourself to find yourself. When you're in flow, there's no self-consciousness there.

• 55:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  You're just, you're doing the thing in and of itself, you're not focused on the results, cause you focus on the results. That's where a lot of the nervousness might come from, because you're focused out there instead of being in here and just managing the moment. And that's the most important thing is, right now, there's nothing wrong. Right now, there's nothing wrong. Think of how profound that is.

• 55:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 55:39Speaker 01

  There's nothing wrong. But if we think about the past or the future, or we say, "Yeah, but", then it's a problem. But if we just say, "There's nothing wrong", and just focus on what you're doing, even if you make a mistake, correct it in real time and keep it moving. But that's too, that's too simple. We have complicated minds. But that's it. It's like, so you're nervous, so what? Like with me, I was shaking, I was nervous. And the more I tried not to shake, I shook, like this. And then once I just said, "I don't care." I'm gonna be shaking for, I'm gonna be the best, the most nervous there, person there ever was. Now, once you do that, you change your relationship to it. And then you don't make it a thing. Then it totally transforms everything.

• 56:21Speaker 01

  So that's it. So that, so you're absolutely right. It worked for you. As long as you focus on service, you won't be nervous. But even if you are nervous, who cares? The thing is, can you make the play, even if you are nervous? Can you do the next thing? Can you, what's important now? And if you focus on what's important now, and forget yourself, and just focus on the task, then you find yourself. That's the paradox. That's one of my Georgisms. Forget yourself and find yourself.

• 56:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Once you get out of the way and just let what's inside of you, your divinity, express itself, and being real and being authentic. So being authentic means you're nervous, you're expressing your nervousness.

• 56:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:58Speaker 01

  But it's your relationship to it. In that space, how are you gonna respond to it? In a way where it actually helps you get to the next level?

• 57:07Lewis Howes?

  So you had a drug addiction for a while, is that right? How long was that period of time for?

• 57:12Speaker 01

  I can't, couldn't really tell you. I know I stopped in nineteen eighty-four, but I was, I don't know, fifteen, twenty years, whatever.

• 57:18Lewis Howes?

  What do you, what do you think is the root cause of addiction in general? Why people get addicted to substances? And then also, what was the biggest lesson you learned from your recovery? From rehab, recovery, and, and getting off of that?

• 57:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, not speaking, that's a big question, to speak about it, but I think the nervous system is programmed to, to go for things that is disple- that's pleasant. You approach things that are pleasant, avoid things that are unpleasant, and space out if it's neither pleasant or unpleasant. Now, the neutral, that's how positive is when you're in equanimity, or when you're in the center, in the eye of the hurricane, where there's a, there's not a preference, it's not indifference. So you're not moving towards or moving away, you're just holding your center and just observing things. I just didn't wanna be, in my experience, for whatever reason, I was trying to get away from, from reality.

• 58:14Speaker 01

  And I found a way that I could hide out, or I could just kind of dull the pain, or, no, but, and sometimes people just start using drugs and alcohol because it's the thing to do. And then some of us, because we, we get addicted to it, we need it more, and more. And so it wasn't- I think the most important thing is just to notice that that I was doing things that got to the point where I was just, you know, I was a functional addict. You know, I still worked and everything, but it was robbing me of myself. And it's like people, some of us, my father was alcoholic, so I, you know, my uncles, I probably came there's some part that's just nature and nurture.

• 58:58Speaker 01

  But I think the main thing was that, you know, I found out, well, for me, especially, I was always drinking. All right, but with the alcohol, I mean, with the drugs, it just made me feel more, it got rid of some of my inhibitions and I felt like I could just,

• 59:18Speaker 01

  you know, it was just, it just changed me, it gave me courage and stuff like that, when I think about it. So, but it doesn't matter so much how you start, what matters is that once you start, you can't stop.

• 59:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:32Speaker 01

  And some of us, some people could do it in safety, I couldn't. So it wasn't until my butt was on fire when I realized that I had an issue. And so I had to come to the realization that, that if I don't take a drink or a drug, I won't get high, I won't get drunk. And so the best lesson for me is that it was a way for me to deal with life and I wasn't dealing with me. I wasn't going inside and dealing with my greatness, with my masterpiece, with my ability to just be myself in spite of what everybody else was, wanted me to be. Because people will tell you who you should be or who they want you to be.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  And when we're being authentic and authentic, or when we're doing what we're supposed to do instead of doing what we want to do, that creates a whole, I mean, there's a lot of conflict, there's a lot of self-hate, who knows? It could be a lot of reasons, but to me, I just didn't know how to deal with life on life's terms. I'll just put it as simply as that. And then, once, once I got clean, now I had to deal with that during reality for the first time.

• 1:00:40Lewis Howes?

  How was that?

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  Overwhelming my nervous system. It was really challenging. So I, I had chronic pain. I had all kinds of stuff. So that's when I got into meditation and,

• 1:00:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:00:50Speaker 01

  and, and some of the mind-body experiences. But the main thing I learned was the mind and body are connected and that I am responsible and it's an inside job.

• 1:01:01Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  So that was the lesson for me is that it's up to me. I can't worry about what you're doing. I gotta focus on what George can do. George can't drink. George can't do drugs. George is not interested in this. So I was doing all the other stuff until when I got clean. That's when I just started saying, I'm gonna do what I wanna do. I'm gonna take responsibility for me and what resonates with me and I don't really, I still cared about what other people thought, but I kept weaning off of that. Till I got to the point that the only opinion, the most important opinion is my opinion of myself. And me doing what I needed to do and continuing to embrace that. So that's challenging. I'm still, you know, I feel like forty years later, I'm better at it.

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  But it's something that's constant, like you talked about, uh, nervousness or fear. It can, you can get traumatized any ti- any time. I was working, actually, I was working with, with the Lakers during the championship run against Boston. And I go in there and his voice says, you shouldn't be there. They don't wanna hear from you.

• 1:02:03Lewis Howes?

  Inner voice.

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  Inner voice.

• 1:02:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:05Speaker 01

  Cause of my training, I said, oh, that's interesting. Well, I ain't listening to you. I got work to do.

• 1:02:09Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  But, but that, but you see what I'm saying? But for me, I've been doing this for a long time. And a moment, you can have a voice or you could, you could have fear or you could have nervousness or whatever. But when you're a professional, which I think really helps me in my role as a professional, it doesn't matter how I feel.

• 1:02:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:27Speaker 01

  I just have to show up and do up and do, you know, show up and show out. So it can happen at any time, but it's, it's me creating that space and being able to observe it and not judge myself. So, oh, that's interesting. This sound from the peanut gallery. I call it the negative committee. It was just, okay, so it could be there like background music and just go and do what I needed to do. And no one knew the difference. No one knew it. It was just me, but it was a blip. But that could have sabotaged the whole thing.

• 1:02:55Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  I could have just said, well, you know, I'm not feeling good. And see, like, well, come on, they're on the championship run. You can't. Can't do that.

• 1:03:01Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  And so.

• 1:03:03Lewis Howes?

  Step up or step out, right?

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, and so it happens, but the training of being able, I can't explain, I mean, I can't overstate how important it is for us to be able to be in a moment and observe experience as this silent witness from the eye of the hurricane and just notice it without judging, without being critical, without pushing it away, pulling it towards you. Then, once we get the intel, then, then out of that silence, there's a knowing, I can't really explain it. There's a knowing that there's some part of you that knows what to do, that masterpiece, that divinity within just knows what to do. We call it intuition. Sometimes, but it's a gut feel, it could come as a gut feeling, but it's just a knowing, but a lot of times, I tell people, I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's great.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  And that is because I'm not in there, but I'm letting, I'm being like water, I'm just going with the flow. Okay, I hear that, okay, you got your opinion, and thanks for sharing that, but I got, I gotta do my job. I have to be present and staying in the moment, and then, like you said, when you serve, you know, when you focus on service, you're not nervous. And, and it's the same thing, is when you focus on how you're gonna help somebody, you forget yourself, but by helping others, you're also helping yourself. And then, when you get through it now, and I noticed this answer in that voice, that voice is not there so much, but a lot of us have been traumatized in one way or the other, or once again, here I am on a major stage in prime time, and

• 1:04:34Speaker 01

  then, things could happen, things could happen, something comes up, and I was fortunate enough to be able to not listen and, and just focus on the task, and that's why I think being a professional, what I mean by that is, being a professional, when you do a job, or you go the extra mile, you do it, you forget yourself, and you just focus on the task, and it doesn't mean I don't take care of it later, but it means unless... I can't breathe, I'm gonna do what I can do. I can show up and show out.

• 1:05:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:05:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. So that makes sense?

• 1:05:07Lewis Howes?

  It makes a lot of sense. What was the biggest lesson you learned about yourself? From the rehab recovery process then, would you say?

• 1:05:14Speaker 01

  When we can't express ourselves, there's something, there's not a feeling of wholeness, I'll tell you that. It's, you know, like having two sides, you know, like just really trying to hide our secret self. Not wanting anybody to know who it is, so this surreptitious kind of sense of being. I'll show you who I want you to see, but you can't really see my real self. And I was identifying with that negative stuff instead of identifying with the masterpiece or saying, okay, that's the fear wolf. You're feeding that. Stop feeding that and feed the love wolf. They're both there. The one that's gonna win the battle is the one that you feed.

• 1:05:51Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  So, yeah, I think, to be honest with you, I was so focused on getting high and stuff. I didn't really have time to think about stuff like that.

• 1:06:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:06:02Speaker 01

  It was just survival. When you're in survival mode, you're not thinking about tomorrow or yesterday. You're focused on the next thing, putting out the next fire and that sort of thing. And I think for me, I was just thinking about how am I gonna get high? When am I gonna drink? Or how am I gonna get through this? And it was nothing positive. There wasn't something that I was looking forward to. And like say, okay, I'm gonna go on vacation or, you know, I'm gonna have this spell of really positive results. And whatever I was doing, work, role play. It was more a consumption of just trying to not be present.

• 1:06:37Lewis Howes?

  Was there a mentor or someone you saw or an incident? Or was there someone die or did you?

• 1:06:42Speaker 01

  There was a couple of things. One thing was I was riding around with like a hundred, four hundred, five degree temperature. I had a strep infection. And because when you're drunk, when you're dope sick or when you're having that, it feels like a bad cold and all sorts of things. So I had no idea, but I had to go to the hospital. And then they kept me for five days. And so when I got out of hospital, a couple of weeks after that, a friend of mine that I used to get high with came by my house on April Fool's Day. And he took me to a meeting. On April Fools? On April Fool's. But I'm looking at it, dude, man. Is this a joke? Yeah, exactly. Dude, dude, he's a dope. Look at him. He's sober. What'd you do, man? It like it got my attention and and that's the first time I had real hope.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  I hoped that, oh, there's a way for me. Then I went to the meeting, you know, the AA meeting and then I saw other people that were, had the same issue I had, but they were sharing their experience, strength and hope. And it gave me a vision, a possibility that, okay, I could do this. It took me months after that, but I went into detox for twenty one days. And when I came out of there, it was very interesting because I think it's the first time I ever saw my house. First time you saw your house? Mm hmm. Really saw it. Where I was really living on life. Present, you're like, oh. I've never, I've never gone twenty one days without having some kind of drug or some kind of living in fantasy or something where I was dealing with life on life terms for the first time

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  at thirty two and a half. But it's a blur and it was just kind of like in and out of my own little fantasy, but I didn't know I was in there until I got sober and I started seeing clearly. So it was profound. And it was even more so because when I went, when I was going into the detox, I heard this voice say to me, if the St. George that goes in there comes out, you're in trouble.

• 1:08:33Speaker 01

  So I knew I had to be different. Yeah. And of course, that's partly because um that that implicit learning I got being around recovery and people who were clean, that I believed that I probably uh is what they call implicit and non declarative learning. I think there was some stuff there that I got that told me that. And I was on methadone program before, so I knew taking methadone when I went in there trying to detox in twenty one days was not gonna work. Right. So. Wow. So this was thirty seven years ago? This is nineteen eighty four. Yeah, thirty seven, thirty eight years ago, I guess. Yeah, it'll be thirty eight years in July. Wow. After going through that, man, everything is a blessing, man. Man, life is is amazing compared to what it used to be. I want to ask you a question about.

• 1:09:17Lewis Howes?

  Fears, we talked about a little bit before. You know, the fear therapy, exposure therapy.

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:09:25Lewis Howes?

  And really, you know, facing the fear, the only way.

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  Always.

• 1:09:28Lewis Howes?

  Out is always through and exposing yourself to it, to feeling it, and then going more into it.

• 1:09:33Speaker 01

  You don't have to go look for it, it's there.

• 1:09:34Lewis Howes?

  Just to lean into it.

• 1:09:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, lean into it.

• 1:09:37Lewis Howes?

  Embrace it, is what you said. What do you think people are afraid more of? The fear of failure, success, or the judgment? The other people's opinions about them?

• 1:09:47Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go back to FDR during World War II. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. So it's a mindset, it's being in that survival mode. I think that'll cover everything. And we covered, we talked about dealing with fear, doubt, and insecurity. But I think it's hard to know what, what people going through, because it's not, you can't paint it with a broad brush. But I will say that they're in survival mode, I guarantee you that. They're in survival mode. Where they're doing either fighting, fleeing, or freezing, which is numbming out, or just not being there. Right? In that, in that kind of indifference. And so that's what I think.

• 1:10:26Speaker 01

  So when we think about it, it's hard to get into all of the complexes and, and the psychological terminology that we have for, you know, character disorders, or psychosis and neurosis. I think the main thing we need to understand is that they're in survival mode, so they're either fighting, fleeing, or, or being frozen, and, and feeling like life is happening to them, and they don't have the ability to respond to things, rather than react to things. And they don't even know the difference between reacting and responding. I didn't. I was just reacting all the time, but then once I realized that I could pause and reflect, and I could actually think about things before I did them,

• 1:11:07Speaker 01

  and then even while I'm doing them, I can reflect on, is this working, is it not, and then adjust in real time. And then afterwards, true understanding comes from reflecting on experience. So reflecting on, okay, so I used to get high, or I got clean, or I got through this, how did I do that? And so when I talk about people being mindful of their behavior, we need more of, let's catch each other doing something right. What works? Attitude of gratitude.

• 1:11:33Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  Grateful heart, it's just saying, okay. As long as I'm breathing, it's more right with me than wrong with me. Life I used to live before, now this little stuff, this is nothing compared to that. But if you look at it and say, okay, what's the lesson here? And this is an adventure, we're on an adventure. Then I come from that hope, that hall of fame, hope, optimism and faith and say, okay, there's something here. There's an opportunity for me to be a service, like you talked about. Be a service, not nervous. And then, then it's a totally different experience. So it's my attitude and that's the self-regulation, self-regulated thoughts, feelings, behaviors. Well, I'm choosing joy today, joy now and ever.

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  I'm choosing compassion, I'm choosing love, I'm choosing to be present. I'm choosing to fully deploy myself. That changes everything.

• 1:12:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:26Speaker 01

  And so that's the habit, get into that habit of saying, okay, what is this? And how am I going to relate to it in a way that's in alignment with my core values? Do I have core values? Do I have a worthy cause? What is my intention? So if you're trying to impact a hundred million people or billion people, then you have to be engaged in that day to day. You have to have a strategy in which you are, you are getting this progressive realization of a worthy ideal where your success is on a moment to moment, day to day basis. Because when you get off, you get back on, you talked about it. That's all, it doesn't matter. It's a zigzag, it's not straight.

• 1:13:06Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  So when you get off, I gotta do is get back on, don't judge. What did you learn? And keep it moving.

• 1:13:11Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. I love this stuff, man. You've got some amazing wisdom and lessons and experiences that I hope everyone dives into more. You've got, you do a weekly show on Instagram, is that right? Or a weekly like YouTube thing?

• 1:13:26Speaker 01

  I do YouTube, Being at Home with George during COVID. Yes, and, and last week I talked about this idea of a grateful mind is a great mind and it attracts great things to you. So gratitude to gratitude and I wanna acknowledge Tieten and Hans passing. And a lot of my teaching comes from, you know, he's been inspirational. He's been a person that has led the way to mindfulness in daily life or bringing this contemplative practice to everyday folks.

• 1:13:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:56Speaker 01

  And just really talking about it in ways that makes a lot of sense. You know, compassion, love.

• 1:14:05Speaker 01

  Just smiling and embracing people's divinity. Seeing the greatness in everyone. And just training the mind and the heart to be open. You've got a, you've got a course out right now, right? Yes, I have a course I've been teaching for the last three years. It's called the Mindful Athlete Course Online. And what I've done with it is so you sign up for the course, you're in it for life. And so we have, actually next week, we have a quarterly call. So each quarter, we have a call where people can get on it. But in the spring, we'll have a six-week study group.

• 1:14:44Speaker 01

  Just past November, October, November, we did a study group called Being Courageous. So what we do is we go over six, six weeks. You know, once a week, we'll get together and we'll have our call. So we'll do a little practice and then we'll go over the homework. And I'll say a little, little something, but it's mastering those five superpowers I talked about. Mindfulness, effort, concentration, insight, and, and faith. And so we apply those to a, a topic, like the last one, being courageous. How, how to, how to be courageous? How to feel the fear and do it anyway?

• 1:15:27Speaker 01

  And what's, what's the relationship between being courageous and faith? You know, your, your courage, you know, is means you're, there's fear. We talk about fear. You feel the fear and do it anyway. Or you, you have to have faith. Faith helps you to be courageous because you don't know what's gonna happen, but you know something good's gonna happen if you just show up and show out. And you're true to your, you know, you just learn from your mistakes. You just kinda do that. So we go through it over and over as what we, what I call circular learning. I read my book. Uh, probably forty seven times. Wow. And this last time I'm reading, it's interesting because I have this client of mine who goes into prison and he's using my book.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  And so we go over each one of those superpowers. And so of course, me being a recovering perfectionist. You're going over it all. And each time I go over it, I learn something new. And I say to myself, man, this is a really good book.

• 1:16:21Speaker 01

  And I say that because I wasn't there when I wrote it. I just was expressing that. Yeah, it was flowing through you. It was flowing through me. But I keep reading it. And each time I read it, it gets a little bit deeper, gets more in my psyche. So when I said to you, the best way to learn something is to teach it. Because when you teach it, what you give comes back to you. But also, you you have to, you have to understand what you're saying in a way, and then you have to present it to other people. So it it encourages me, encouraging encourages us to know that if you have something, you share it with your family, your friends, you talk about it. It gets more into your psyche because you you repeat it over and over. So you keep going over this idea that you embrace whatever comes up.

• 1:17:04Speaker 01

  That's what I talk about, embracing, generate the hope. You have to keep finding the courage to say yes. And to say, what's the lesson here? Right. And to kind of move through that. So, yeah, so I have the, I offer these things. I have a, I have a master class on dealing with anxiety during the time of COVID. And I'll do more master classes and I'm developing a youth course. And the other thing is I'm writing a new book. It's gonna be about unlocking our potential or embracing our masterpiece, discovering a masterpiece within, something along that line, but it's really more about how I got through that. You know, my experience and how I teach people. But the idea is, you talk about this idea of being happy

• 1:17:47Speaker 01

  when you're doing something that, you know, when your work is happy, your work life is happy and that sort of thing. Then you're happy. And my thing is that if you're being your authentic self and you're living, and you're embracing that masterpiece within, it's gonna be amazing. So no matter work, love and play, you're gonna bring this this aliveness to it. Yeah. This quality of authenticity and and being present and getting beyond the illusion of separateness. I mean, that's what we need a lot now. Because we have people who add each other crazy things. And we just need to know we're all connected. And the best way is to do it together and not stop. Demonizing each other and stop talking at each other. But they realize that I am the other one.

• 1:18:30Speaker 01

  And then how about just seeing that just like me, that person wants to be happy. Just like me, a person suffers.

• 1:18:37Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, yes.

• 1:18:38Speaker 01

  So we have to get to a place, and it's not Pollyannaish, because I come from a really challenging background and all that stuff. I'm not a simpleton. I'm not talking about anything that I haven't experienced or witnessed. And I know we can do much better if we can remember who we are. Because like I said, if you don't know who you are, you can end up being anybody. And if you don't know where you're going, you could end up going anywhere. So why not decide to be yourself and then go where you want to go?

• 1:19:06Lewis Howes?

  The Mindful Athlete, the book, Mindful Athlete course. You got the masterclass on anxiety. They can get everything at georgemumford.com, is that right?

• 1:19:14Speaker 01

  Georgemumford.com, that's right.

• 1:19:16Lewis Howes?

  And they can follow you. What's your main social media platform you're on the most? Instagram?

• 1:19:21Speaker 01

  Instagram, mostly Facebook.

• 1:19:24Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 1:19:24Speaker 01

  YouTube. Yeah, like you, man, I want to reach a billion people.

• 1:19:30Lewis Howes?

  That's big.

• 1:19:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, I probably won't do it in this lifetime, but maybe I will.

• 1:19:36Lewis Howes?

  You never know.

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  I never know. But to me, I don't know, I ask you because I don't know where that number came from. I just put it out there. I want something that's going to stir me and encourage me to just really get out of my comfort zone and really just go out there, get beyond the realms that I'm normally in, and then just embrace more realms. So if I only, if I only got 20 people or 100 people, I'd be, that would make a difference. But I know I'm reaching more than that. And it's not like I'm reaching it. I just want people to be themselves. I just want people to know that they have a masterpiece and that they can develop it, and only they can develop it.

• 1:20:21Speaker 01

  But my platform is to help them do that.

• 1:20:24Lewis Howes?

  That's great. Yeah, exciting stuff, man. I got a couple of final questions. This is called the three truths.

• 1:20:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:20:30Lewis Howes?

  So imagine you get to live as long as you want to live, but it's the last day for you on earth. And you accomplish everything. You reach the billion people, you do whatever you want to create, and you have the life you want. But for whatever reason, everything you've created has to go with you, or it has to go somewhere else. So it's not here available for us anymore. But you get to leave behind three lessons to the world, three things you know to be true that you would share. And this is all we would have from your teachings and your information. What would you say are those three truths for you?

• 1:21:00Speaker 01

  You have a masterpiece that you can develop. Number two, only you can develop it. And number three, the quality of your life is going to be a reflection of how much you develop. It can be developed, and you can develop it. And to the degree that you develop it, the quality of your life and the quality of your service is going to be a reflection of it.

• 1:21:16Lewis Howes?

  If you only develop it a little bit, you'll, at the end of your life, you'll be like, oh, look at all this I did not develop that I could have.

• 1:21:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:23Lewis Howes?

  And you'll be frustrated, or resentful, or regretful.

• 1:21:26Speaker 01

  And I hope that in my last days that I can continue to be in joy, joy now and never, and to just be as loving and as present as I can be.

• 1:21:35Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful.

• 1:21:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:36Lewis Howes?

  I want to acknowledge you, George, for how you have transformed your life, and how you've used your lessons for service. You know, I've never been addicted to drugs or alcohol. I've never been drunk or high in my life, believe it or not, because I saw what it did to certain people in my life. And my brother was in prison for many years for drugs, for selling drugs.

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 1:21:56Lewis Howes?

  And so I guess fortunately, I got to learn from other people and realize I don't want to go down that route. So it kind of scared me, but I think it helped me as an athlete and other things. So I don't know what that feels like, but I do know how challenging and almost seeming impossible it is for people to overcome addiction. For a lot of people, it seems almost impossible for a lot. So for you to overcome that and wake up for yourself and realize I'm going to use myself for good, and develop into who you've become now is really inspiring. So, and the fact that you're doing it at such a high level to serve people. You know, anyone listening or watching and people of all spectrums of life from high achievers

• 1:22:38Lewis Howes?

  to people that just feel stuck, I really acknowledge you for the gift that you've become and the gift you keep sharing to the world, so.

• 1:22:45Speaker 01

  Well, thank you. I'll take that in. I mean, that's powerful, but I believe that's why I'm here.

• 1:22:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:51Speaker 01

  I'm just being myself.

• 1:22:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:52Speaker 01

  About being myself, being a service. So, thank you for saying that and that's my challenge is continue to to take that in, but I love helping people. I love everybody, man. So, why wouldn't I? You love what you labor for and you labor for what you love.

• 1:23:07Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, absolutely. Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:23:10Speaker 01

  My definition of greatness is doing, getting better today, doing, expressing yourself as much as you can.

• 1:23:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:19Speaker 01

  That's greatness is just getting out of yourself and just being real, just being the best version of yourself at whatever you do. So, it's about not what you do, it's what you bring to it and who you are being. So greatness is somebody who's gonna show up and be themselves consistently and in a way where they're progressing. So, they're getting better each day. That's greatness is every time you do something, it changes people. It makes things better, but it gives this realization that we have this unlimited potential. And that if I get better today, I'm being great today. But, once again, I'll go back to my grateful mind.

• 1:24:03Speaker 01

  Last week, a grateful mind is a great mind and a great mind attracts great things to it.

• 1:24:09Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:24:10Speaker 01

  So greatness is being grateful and being great.

• 1:24:15Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's show with all the important links. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts as well. I really love hearing feedback from you guys, so share a review over on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one's told you lately, 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.