Setting This ONE Daily Intention Will Transform Your Life

My life-changing annual event, The Summit of Greatness, is happening September 12 & 13, 2025. Get your ticket today! When I started practicing this ONE THING every single morning for seven days, money showed up, new opportunities appeared, and people called me from years past bringing opportunities to me. It felt like success and abundance was chasing me instead of me chasing success. I didn't have to change my job or goals, but I did shift something fundamental: I stopped letting the world grab me before I centered myself. Too many of us reach for our phones the moment we wake up, allowing chaos and dopamine to infect our energetic system before we've even taken a breath for ourselves. I share the seven daily practices that transformed my energy and attracted incredible opportunities, from conquering my fear of public speaking to launching The School of Greatness podcast with zero experience. These aren't complicated rituals - they're simple shifts in how you start your day, set intentions, reflect with compassion, and visualize your future self that will help you step into the person you're proud of. Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life TodayThe Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest LivesThe School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a LegacyIn this episode you will learn:How centering yourself for just a few minutes each morning before touching your phone creates an energetic anchor that keeps you grounded all dayWhy setting one daily intention transforms your reality more than any to-do list ever will - and how energy flows where intention goesThe power of reflecting on your day with compassion and curiosity instead of judgment to accelerate your growthHow to rewire your identity by recognizing that you don't get what you want - you get what you believe you actually areWhy being grateful for what's not guaranteed opens the door for more abundance to flow into your lifeFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1801For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Lewis Howes – greatness.lnk.to/1798SCRory Vaden – greatness.lnk.to/1792SCDean Graziosi – greatness.lnk.to/1766SC 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?

  If you do this one thing every single morning for seven days, you will feel an incredibly powerful energy shift faster than you might think. Day one, the first thing you need to do on day one for the next seven days is to center yourself before the world grabs you. Because most people do something that you should never do. The first thing you do when you wake up is you reach over and you grab your phone and you stare at a screen. When your brain hasn't fully centered itself, you're allowing chaos to take command of you.

• 0:41Lewis Howes?

  And you're allowing dopamine and chaos and fear and gossip and news and what's happening in the world, stresses of the world, to infect your, your system, your energetic system, your thoughts, and to start creating confusion and chaos in your mind. And when you start the day with confusion and chaos in your thinking, your heart, your energy starts to feel overwhelmed. And it's almost like you feel you're behind. Have you ever woken up in the morning and felt like, I'm rushing, I'm behind? And you, you're not, but you just have this anxiety feeling like, ah, there's so much happening in the world. And you haven't even taken a moment for yourself.

• 1:26Lewis Howes?

  If you don't command your morning, the world will command it for you. You've got to center yourself before the world starts to add and infect your mind with chaos. And one of the best things you can do, one of the best things you can do is to create a few minutes of silence in the morning, first thing.

• 1:51Lewis Howes?

  When you wake up, do not grab your phone, do not turn on the TV, do not start playing video games, do not start working right away. Just take a few minutes to either lay still, sit still, and take some deep breaths. You don't have to do an hour meditation. You don't have to sit there, you know, like a monk, you know, meditating for an hour in some perfect setting with incense and lighting. You don't have to do this. Crystals and sound bowls. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about laying in your bed. You wake up, just do not reach for your phone, please. Everything in life will start to shift energetically. You'll start to feel different and you'll attract incredible things

• 2:35Lewis Howes?

  because you're going to be different. You're going to breathe different. If you start the day by breathing chaotic, you're going to feel behind stressed and anxious throughout the day. But if you start the day with stillness, with deep, calm breathing, and you ask yourself, what is the energy I want to carry today? What is the energy I want to carry today? Is it calm confidence? Is it poised, powerful? Or is it stress and anxiety? Because if you don't think about it and you're not having the intention to be still and to sit still and really center yourself before the world grabs you, then you're always going to feel off balance.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  So why this works is because it's creating an anchor energetically for yourself in the morning. So you're going to feel like you're constantly grounded. When if you don't do this, you're going to feel like you're stumbling throughout the day. You're going to feel like people are just pushing you around. You're being pulled in multiple different directions. You're going to feel off balance all day if you're not centering yourself for just a few minutes, some deep breathing without the phone, without the TV, without the video games, without distractions. One of the best things that you can do is not have your phone in your room at all. You know, I'm not perfect at this every night. Sometimes I put it. On the other side of the room. But my goal is to put it in the bathroom.

• 4:06Lewis Howes?

  Plugged in the bathroom. Where I don't see it, where I'm not thinking about anything. If it is in the other side of the room, it's because it's my alarm and I put it on the other side of the room. With all notifications, everything turned off. So that there's no buzzing, there's no flashing, there's no sounds. It's on the other side of the room and it's not in my frame of, oh, I can just reach and grab for it and have dopamine. If you don't have an alarm clock and you need to do that, that's fine. Put it the other side of the room if you wake up early. But one of the best things you can do is a few minutes of silent meditation. Deep breathing. Prayer. And gratitude. Start your morning with a frequency of abundance. Not a frequency of stress and chaos.

• 4:51Lewis Howes?

  If you set yourself up for this. You're creating the next seven days to create incredible opportunities. But more importantly, just. You're going to feel more in flow. And that's what I want for you. I want you to feel like you're in flow. Not like you're in chaos. Because the world is in chaos most of the time. Most people are living on autopilot. And you might be feel like you've lived on autopilot now or in the past. And it's one of the worst things to do. The only way you should live on autopilot. Is if you're living into the habits that are supporting you every single day and that's autopilot. But not just I wake up, I do my some routine, I grab my phone, I'm stressed out, I'm.

• 5:34Lewis Howes?

  I'm getting into gossip conversations, I'm limiting myself with my beliefs, my self-talk is already in. In stress and chaos. We need to get out of that automated system and create a new system for yourself every single morning. That creates peace.

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  Because when you are peaceful and calm, you can sense your surroundings. You can sense your physical surroundings. You're not going to jump in a car and you're not going to, you know, be screaming at people in cars because they're cutting you off. It's almost like you're just going to flow through life with total control of what's happening in your surroundings. You're going to be able to respond, not react. And a lot of people are in reaction every single day from the first moment of grabbing your phone and reacting, "Ha, ha." It's like this fight or flight feeling as opposed to the feeling of flow. So start your day with this. Number two, set an intention.

• 6:35Lewis Howes?

  Set an intention, not a to-do list. This is not about productivity. Wayne Dyer says, "Energy flows where intention goes." Not where to-do lists and productivity and all these different things go. Yes, there are going to be a number of things you're going to need to get done every single day. Specifically, if you're trying to create more opportunities for yourself, if you've got big goals, big dreams, if you want to make more money, if you're trying to go on trips and travel the world or whatever you're looking to do, you've got to get things done. People have careers and jobs and businesses. That's part of life. But Wayne Dyer says, "Energy flows where intention goes." Again, not to-do lists, but intentions.

• 7:20Lewis Howes?

  And when you shift from productivity to intentionality, everything starts to change. So instead of diving right into tasks, set one intention today. The intention can be, "Today, I'm going to choose to live in peace." "Today, I'm going to choose to lead with confidence." "Today, I'm going to listen deeply to everyone." What is your intention today? I want you to leave a comment below right now and share what your intention is. Not the results you want to get, not the money you want to make, not the relationship you want to have. What's the intention?

• 8:00Lewis Howes?

  Because when you live with intention, you start to manifest and attract from that intention. When you live from, "I gotta get this done and I gotta hurry and I gotta rush and let's productivity and to do this." It's gonna just feel like stressful because you're not living with intention first. From the morning, from the moment you wake up, breathing, prayer, meditation, or just silence and not reacting. Then intention. What is my intention? My intention today is I'm just gonna live with joy. I'm gonna live with passion. I'm gonna live with gratitude every moment I can take. Someone cuts me off? Yes, uh, thank you.

• 8:41Lewis Howes?

  Thank you for cutting me off because I'm in the car to go to a job that I get paid for. Yes, thank you. I have the opportunity to work. When so many people don't have the opportunity to work right now, thank you. It's shifting the perspective, no matter what. And when you live with the intention of gratitude, gosh, things just open up to you. Doors open up. People offer you jobs. People wanna, wanna provide for you in different ways. People wanna be around you because you're living with that grateful intention. I'm not saying gratitude needs to be your thing today, but think about what is my intention for today? And typically, I like to think about what is the thing I feel like I've been lacking in my life?

• 9:22Lewis Howes?

  And now I'm gonna shift into an intention where I step into the thing that I've been lacking. So if I feel like I've been lacking connection, my intention is I'm gonna be connected today. If I feel like I've been lacking love in my life, my intention is I'm gonna be loving. If I feel like I've been lacking... I don't know, joy, fun, playfulness. My intention is I'm gonna be play. I wanna be playful, you know, in every moment that I can be within the right, you know, boundaries and you obviously don't wanna be too crazy at work or something. You gotta live within the boundaries that you have at specific settings, but I'm gonna be a playful human being today. I'm gonna make jokes,

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  I'm gonna laugh, I wanna play little games, I'm gonna just bring playfulness to my moments throughout the day. And why this works, you know, quoting Wayne Dyer's The Power of Intention, is that energy flows where intention goes. Energy flows where intention goes, not where to-do lists go, not where I need to be productive goes, but the energy goes from the intention. And if you're in, you have a to-do list, but you're just like reacting, reacting, reacting, or you're just like hustling, that's your intention. And maybe you need that for this moment, but it's not gonna shift your life when you do this every single day from a reaction,

• 10:46Lewis Howes?

  rather than my intention is to be my word. My intention is to be love, be joy, be play. It's like, we've gotta be thinking intention and then remembering the intention throughout the day. You don't just think and do it once and then I'm back to reactive mode. It's like, how do I be intention throughout this day? It's a powerful thing. So when you set the intention, so many things show up for you. And an example I have from my, my podcast, I launched the School of Greatness, this show, 12 and a half years ago. I had no experience in broadcasting or podcasts, or no one knew what a podcast was 12 and a half years ago. No one knew what it was. They didn't

• 11:31Lewis Howes?

  know how to go listen to a podcast or watch it. There was no podcasts on YouTube. It was, none of this was here. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have the skills. I didn't have the equipment. I didn't know that the backend of uploading it to those, you know, the hosting provider and how to put it out there. I didn't know how to do any of this stuff, guys. But I had an intention. I had an intention. I said, I wanna create something that gives me the tools that I wish I had when I was growing up in school. Because school, I didn't feel like it gave me the lessons I needed. It didn't give me- The experiences I needed, it didn't teach me how to navigate money.

• 12:13Lewis Howes?

  It didn't teach me how to navigate rejection from a girlfriend. It didn't teach me how to navigate my emotions and my feelings. It didn't teach me how to learn about nutrition and optimizing my health. It didn't teach me about all these different things that I'm trying to learn in life right now. So I was like, man, I wish there was a school that taught me about how to be great in all these areas of my life. Well, let me go create it. My intention is to create a school where I interview the world's greatest minds to teach me and then teach you how to overcome these challenges that school didn't teach me. This is like the school of life, the school of greatness.

• 12:54Lewis Howes?

  And that's how it stemmed from my imagination, this intention to serve, to learn and to serve you. And I remember sitting down with my first few guests and I was like, uh, how do you do an interview? And how do you record this? I don't know. What about, and I kept going back to Wayne Dyer's power of intention. And I just said, what is my intention? Because I'm not going to be perfect. I'm not going to have the best guest prep. I'm not the most intelligent human on the, in the world. I'm not the best looking or the, the most well spoken person in the world. Like, I don't have any of these skills that so many people have. So many people have way more advantages than me. I don't have more money than people. All these different obstacles were in my way. But I said, what is my intention?

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  What is my intention? And I remember I sat down with Robert Greene, my first guest on the podcast. And 12 and a half years ago, and I said to myself beforehand, I did all the guest prep. I was like nervous, I was excited. I did all the prep. I researched him for days to try to like, read his books and get all the question, the right, perfect questions. So I was like, every question is going to be amazing, right? I was like, you have no idea how it's going to go until you start the interview and you start with that first question. And I remember saying to myself before the interview, I said,

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  What's going to make this great is not the interview. It's going to be the connection we have before I ask the first question. It's going to be the moment I arrive to see him, to the, to all the time in between of sitting down and connecting to, to right when we press record on the audio and the cameras and we do the episode. Everything in between those minutes before we start is what's going to make the podcast. That's what's going to make the episode. And I just said to myself, what's my intention for how I want to show up? And I just said, I want to show up excited, joyful, appreciative, grateful, curious,

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  and really just honored that he would take his time to spend it with me. And that's the intention I showed up to that first interview with, with Robert Greene, where I was like, I was like, Robert, thank you so much. I'm so excited to put this out there and share with the world. I was just like, man, I'm so excited to hear what you've been up to and share that all these different things. We were promoting his book. I'm excited to sell copies of your book. I was just sharing the excitement and the gratitude. I was living with that intention as I was connecting with him before the first episode. And I literally said to him, when I sat down across from him, I said, Robert, my intention, you can speak your intention into existence. You don't have to only hide it internally.

• 15:39Lewis Howes?

  I said, Robert, my intention is to make this the most powerful conversation you've ever had. So we can impact millions of lives around the world to live better. Is that something you're up to? He was like, that sounds like a great intention. And that's something I say before every interview. I say, my intention is to create a powerful experience for you, is to add value to you, is that the things we talk about inspire millions of people. I say my intention to my guests. I say my intention before I go on stage and speak to an audience. And I say, my intention is to serve you today, to help you overcome this thing. And find the answers to this thing from my personal experience.

• 16:24Lewis Howes?

  My intention is, and I want you to start thinking about that just for the day. And I want you to write your intention in the comments below. Write your intention, and it could be from something you're lacking, or something you want to create in the world. Write your intention of how you want to be today. And if you can think and act in alignment with your intention today, and for the next seven days, and make that an automatic habit of how you intend to be, your energetic presence throughout the world. It is going to shift your life in some incredible ways.

• 17:09Lewis Howes?

  And it could happen very quickly. But the more you do it consistently, you're going to feel better. You know, you may not be getting the external results you want, but you're going to feel more empowered, more free, more joyful, more loving, all these things. It's about the power of intention. So write below your intention for today. How you want to live in this day. I intend to be grateful. I intend to be curious. I intend to be compassionate. I intend to be forgiving. I intend to be integrous with my word. Whatever it is that you want to live more empowered with, intend, say it internally, or say it externally,

• 17:54Lewis Howes?

  and then act in accordance with your intention. But when you don't have an intention, you are reacting to the world, and you're going to feel stressed and overwhelmed. So think about that. That is the second thing. The third thing, this is huge, because most of us, we go throughout the day, and we never fully analyze how we showed up. We don't give ourselves that feedback. Day three or the third thing is to reflect on yesterday with compassion and curiosity. The way we speak to ourselves shapes our reality.

• 18:36Lewis Howes?

  When we learn to treat ourselves with compassion, we start to heal. And that healing moves us toward abundance, success, and peace. And it's something a lot of people miss out on. The way we speak to ourselves shapes our reality. And when we learn to treat ourselves with compassion, we start to heal. At the end of the night, most people go back on autopilot. I've been guilty of this many times. We get home from either work or wherever we're going out for the day, come back, you turn on the TV. You eat a little bit, maybe too late, when you shouldn't be eating at 10, 11, 12 o'clock.

• 19:17Lewis Howes?

  You're snacking, you're scrolling on your phone and looking at more stress and chaos and reacting energetically to that chaos on your phone. You're seeing what's on TV, you're snacking, maybe you've got a video game console next to you. And you've got three screens, maybe you've got your iWatch or something, you've got four screens in front of you, trying to relax and reflect on the day, but numbing yourself to chaos. And you're either nodding or smiling right now because you know this is true for you. If you're someone who's nodding and smiling, then leave a little smiley face in the comments below because, hey, we've all been there, we're all guilty of this, so no judgment. And this is not about judging and making yourself wrong and beating yourself up. That's not what this is.

• 20:02Lewis Howes?

  This is about taking the next seven days to completely transform your life and eliminating some of these automatic comforts that we choose to just do because it's comfortable. I'm gonna jump in and watch, I'm not saying you can't watch TV at night or you can't have snacks, but it's when it's automatic and you do these things and you've got four screens in front of you and the iPad and the computer, seven screens some of you might have, right? You've got all the screens in front of you, you're eating, you're laying there, you're exhausted and you're distracted by a million different things. It's hard to reflect on how you showed up today. And the practice I want you to have. Is in the morning, yes, but almost more so at night.

• 20:46Lewis Howes?

  I want you to look back at your day. And it's really only about 16 hours, right? We can look back in the last 16 hours and say, how did I show up today? Did I show up my intention when there was challenge and stress and overwhelm? Or did I fall into automatic systems? Did I fall into automatic behaviors? Where I react, I get frustrated, I have no compassion, I have no gratitude, I'm grumpy, whatever it might be, whatever your automatic thing is. I've got my automatic thing. My automatic thing is I'm impatient, right? It's like, I like things done now, I like things done the way I like them. I don't like to wait, you know, that's just a bad habit of the past,

• 21:29Lewis Howes?

  where I like to live in a certain way. But I have to constantly remind myself, and listen, you know, I'm married now. I've got, you know, a baby on the way, I've got all these different things. And it's like, life has got to constantly put things in your, your path to make sure you show up differently, or you're going to have to feel pain, stress, and exhaustion, because you're not shifting your intention, and you're not showing up in different ways. So it's like, I'm always learning how to be more patient, right? And it's not like I'm this horribly impatient person every single day. But it's like, I have a tendency of impatience. And so I've got to constantly remind myself, like, today I'm going to be patient.

• 22:12Lewis Howes?

  And I get to, to reflect, at the end of the day, it's beautiful for me to be able to reflect. And I ask myself, how did I show up today? Did I show up patient? Was I showing up my intention? Was I giving? Was I loving? And it doesn't mean I'm going to be like this perfect saint every single day. That's not what I'm asking me or you to do. But I know we can be better, and I know we can improve. And I know we can live more free, abundant lives if we're willing to reflect. One of the greatest things that sports has taught me is that having a coach, recording your practice or your game film, and watching it back, and having someone coach you. Up and then having you reflect on how you could be better.

• 22:54Lewis Howes?

  That has given me such an incredible gift throughout my life because at the end of every day, it's familiar for me to replay the day and say, ah. And I'll speak with Martha, my wife, and say, ah, man, I was kind of a jerk in this conversation with this, you know, business deal I was trying to do with someone or I was kind of impatient here. Gosh, I probably could have been better there. Or I wasn't really present in this situation. And it doesn't mean you're here to beat yourself up or make you wrong. That's not what this is to do. What it's to do is to say, okay, that's great. It's just feedback on how I can improve tomorrow. And hopefully God will grant me another opportunity.

• 23:37Lewis Howes?

  When I close my eyes, I'll open my eyes again. I'll be able to take a breath and say, thank you for another day. Another day to show up my intention. Another day to give generously. Another day to cultivate my gifts and share those gifts with others. Another day to learn skills, to overcome my fears. Another day to hug people a little longer. Another day to connect with loved ones deeper. Another day to show what I'm made of in the world. And that's what we all want. We all want another day to be able to show up and be our best. And that's what I want for you.

• 24:22Lewis Howes?

  But when we're living in this stress and chaos and we don't reflect at the end of the day, or even in the morning reflecting on the day before, it's going to be a stressful life. And every night, when I lay down to bed next to my amazing wife, Martha.

• 24:43Lewis Howes?

  I ask her, what are three things you're grateful for? She shares her three things from the day. I share my three things that I'm grateful for. And we talk about what we appreciate about one another. It's a simple exercise, a practice, a habit, a routine, that allows us to be present, to share gratitude and appreciation for our day, for each other, and to reflect on how we could be better for the next day. Because every single day is a gift. You're giving this gift right now to exist, to breathe, to experience everything around you.

• 25:27Lewis Howes?

  And I'm not saying everything around you is beautiful and pretty and fun and enjoyable. Some days are challenging and hard, and there's deep sadness and suffering that might be in your life right now because there is deep sadness and suffering in the world. And I know that's not what you want. It's not what you want for your life. It's not what you want for your family, your friends. You want everyone around you to have peace, joy, and abundance. And when you think about these things every night as a reflection, you think about what you're grateful for, even if you had a horrible day. Find three things you're grateful for and express them. When you're grateful for something,

• 26:11Lewis Howes?

  the world creates more opportunities to create gratitude for you. It expands. So even if you're going through one of the worst days of your life, it doesn't mean you need to downplay the hard, the challenge, the pain, the grief, the loss. It's not what I'm saying. This is not about spiritually bypassing and just finding positivity, even if you went through a bad day. Acknowledge the challenge, acknowledge the pain, and find three things to be grateful for. I'm grateful that I have food today. I'm grateful that someone was there for me today. I'm grateful that I'm healthy. I'm grateful that someone gave me a long hug when I really needed it.

• 26:57Lewis Howes?

  Find those three things because when you reflect on how you can be better and what you're grateful for, everything is going to change in your life if you do this for seven days. The fourth thing you gotta be thinking about is how to rewire your identity before you actually start going after and chasing your goals. Because you don't get what you want, you get what you believe that you actually are. And what does that mean? You don't get what you want, you believe what you actually are. Well, this is a quote that is out there in the world that is kind of quoted by everyone and no one at the same time.

• 27:38Lewis Howes?

  But you don't get what you want, you get what you believe you actually are. And if you believe that you are unworthy, unlovable, financially screwed, unhealthy, unable to overcome challenges, then man, the world is going to remind you of all those things you believe in. You're going to attract guys or girls in your life that treat you horribly or just lie and cheat on you because you believe you're unworthy of love. You're going to attract crappy financial opportunities or crappy jobs just because

• 28:18Lewis Howes?

  you don't believe you're worthy of being on a team or being with a company that sees goodness in you and wants to see you succeed and wants to elevate you and train you and seize your talents and gifts and puts you in a position of opportunities for growth. You're going to attract things that remind you of what you believe you are, right? You don't get what you want. You could say, I want a Ferrari, okay? You say, I want a million dollars. But if you don't believe you're worthy of those things, you're gonna get a Toyota or not that a Toyota is bad. I mean, I had a Toyota for many years, but you're gonna get whatever it is you believe, right? You're gonna get those things. You're not gonna be creating and unlocking the next level of possibilities, freedom,

• 29:02Lewis Howes?

  abundance, love, joy, health. You're going to create more of these things. And so first, we need to be the energy that we want to be in the world. It's not about having something and then feeling good. It's not about having money, success, the car, the girl, the guy, whatever it might be. It's not about having the thing and then I'll be happy. It's about being grateful, being happy, being joyful, being present, being loved, being energetic. And you're going to create those things as a byproduct of your believing who you are and being those things.

• 29:42Lewis Howes?

  So ask yourself, who do I need to be today to attract the life I want? Then act like that person every moment of this day. Because our identity shapes your, your behavior. And when you believe you are a certain identity, you're going to attract people in your world, opportunities that are in alignment with your identity, right? So if I think I'm stupid, I'm going to constantly reaffirm places in my world, in my life, why I'm stupid. If I believe I'm unworthy, my identity is unworthy of love, then I'm always going to attract

• 30:22Lewis Howes?

  guys or gals who flake on me after the first date, who abandoned me, who abused me, whatever it might be. So we need to have our identity of what we want our identity to be and then start living in alignment with that identity. So it becomes one. You need to mesh the identity and the alignment with the actions and the behaviors. I'm not saying this is going to happen overnight, but if you can start practicing this every single day for the next seven days, gosh, you are going to unlock something incredible in your life. And for years, I thought I was unlovable. It was an unconscious identity.

• 31:04Lewis Howes?

  I wanted love, I wanted intimacy, I wanted connection. For some reason, I just thought, ah, but who could ever actually love me? If people truly knew the shame, the guilt, the things that I've thought in my life, the things I've done in my life, the things that, how people abused me sexually in my life. If people actually knew this, could they actually love me? Could they actually accept me? I had so much fear, I had so much worry about like,

• 31:36Lewis Howes?

  Could a girl ever really love me for who I am? Knowing that I'd been sexually abused, knowing that I'd had all these different challenges growing up, knowing that I was in the bottom of my class, knowing that I wasn't smart, knowing that I was like, had these thoughts that were just not healthy thinking for most of my life. Could anyone ever actually love me? Am I really a lovable person? Like, I get it. I get it. It is not easy to overcome some of these identity beliefs that we've built in our psyche and in our heart and in our cells throughout years or decades of our life. Especially when all we have are examples

• 32:18Lewis Howes?

  that show us and prove to us something else. Guys always leave me. Girls always cheat on me. Every time I make money, I lose it. Uh, every time I get close to someone, they block me and they, they abandon me. Whatever it is, if you have experiences and memories that are painful from those experiences of the past, you have an identity based on memories. And we need to start every single day shifting our identity. And that means shifting our behaviors. Our beliefs and our behaviors are going to form and shape the emotional identity that we have inside of us. And when we start shifting the emotional identity inside of us, the external identity shifts with it.

• 33:03Lewis Howes?

  But if I'm constantly thinking, I'm unlovable. Can I really trust this girl? Uh, can I trust this person? Like, I'm going to attract people that I can't trust. You know, it's like that are, that are gonna abandon me because I'm living with that intention and that identity is embedded in my makeup of my cells. So we have to start shifting that. Every single day, start shifting it. Start shifting it every single day and start embodying the identity that you want to live into. I'm not saying this is easy. But if you can just practice it today, if you can practice it now. And then at the end of the day, just reflect. How'd I do? Ah, I didn't do that good. Okay, well, let's try this again tomorrow.

• 33:48Lewis Howes?

  Let's see if I can get a little bit better tomorrow. Gosh, you improve 1% better in your energetic identity every single day for the next seven days. That's a 7% change. Boom, it's starting to unlock a new level. 30 days, boom, 30% change. It's just unlocking, creating opportunities. Things are flowing to you, and that's what this is about. Day five, the fifth thing. Man, this is tricky. This is tricky. And again, I don't want you to be a person that spiritually bypasses something with, ah, just think positive, everything's gonna be okay. That's not what this is about.

• 34:26Lewis Howes?

  But day five is being grateful for what's not guaranteed. Being grateful for what's not guaranteed. I have so many goals and dreams and aspirations in my life. Nothing is guaranteed. It's scary because you're putting energy, you're putting resources, time, money, trust, into actions of creating a life that you want for a dream, a goal, a relationship, a physical, healthy body, whatever it might be, where nothing is guaranteed, my friend. None of it's guaranteed. And you're thinking, ah, well, I don't want to get out of this relationship because I've

• 35:11Lewis Howes?

  invested years of my time already. So what if I lose all that time? Ah, it's all these unknowns, all these fears. Never underestimate the power of gratitude. Appreciating what you have opens the door for more abundance to come in your life. The idea around this is we don't know what tomorrow brings. Life could be long, life could be short. We don't know. But we have to be appreciating the miracle of today. That's why when you practice this as a daily thing, and it's really a 16-hour window, if you're sleeping seven, eight hours a day, it's around a 16-hour window. Don't think for the next rest of your life.

• 35:54Lewis Howes?

  Think today. Wake up. Presence. Calm, breathing, meditation, prayer, whatever works for you. Think of intention. How do I want to live today? How do I want to show up? Even though I've lived my whole life in fear and reacting and I've always acted a certain way. That doesn't matter. I'm not living in the past. I'm living in today, this intention right now. I'm living into it. And the only thing that matters is today. Knowing that if I didn't know that tomorrow was going to come. And I was given a task. I was given a goal. I was given a challenge. To live the identity of the most empowered, positive, generous, excited, passionate person today.

• 36:40Lewis Howes?

  Could I do that? And how would that look? Make it a fun challenge for yourself. You don't have to make life so daunting and exhausting and oh, life is just beating me down and I'm like, nothing ever comes to me. I'm so unlucky like. That is not going to create miracles in your life. The energy of victimhood is not going to create the possibilities of a victor. You have to be thinking differently, acting differently, intending, and your identity needs to shift with it. So a practice you can have is to write or speak three things that you are excited about, are grateful for, if you only had one more day to live. If you only had one more day to live.

• 37:26Lewis Howes?

  How could you find those three things? And then how could you go express those things for the next 16 hours? Before you come back and go to sleep, how could you go express that fully? Be the identity that you want to be and express it. When you do this, it awakens your emotional center inside of you. When you start thinking in a creative and imaginative ways, it starts awakening a power inside of you emotionally, not just your logical mind. And this is the blessing of having another day, thinking about, man, if this was my last day, how would I live? You know, a story around this is.

• 38:08Lewis Howes?

  Some of you may not know this, but my father passed away a few years ago. And when I was 20.

• 38:15Lewis Howes?

  Twenty one. He got into a severe car accident where the car that he hit came up on his car. It was an SUV came up on the car and hit him right in the head through the windshield, cracked his skull open. He had to, the paramedics had to come and they cut the, the car open. Because he was jammed in the car, so they had to cut the car open. Got him out, they airlifted him from a helicopter to a hospital. While someone was holding his head closed because he had a car smashed right in his forehead.

• 38:57Lewis Howes?

  And for three months, he was in a coma. We didn't know if he was gonna live, if he was gonna die, we didn't know. I'm twenty one, I'm playing college football. I get a call at night, right before a game. Around eleven o'clock at night from my sister. And right when I picked up the phone, for whatever reason, I get goosebumps thinking about it. Whatever, for whatever reason, I picked up the phone and I said, what happened to dad? I didn't know something happened, it just had a feeling. Because my, you know, my family wouldn't call me late at night. Before a game, when I have a game the next morning, they wouldn't call me like that. So I just saw the phone, I pick it up, I say, what happened to dad?

• 39:40Lewis Howes?

  He went on a trip to New Zealand and was gone for a couple of weeks. And I just had a feeling because the last time I saw him before he left, we were at a weekend family campground. This is a week before this. And I saw him sitting on a couch, kind of in like the lobby area of this campground. And he was sitting there by himself and he just had a different look about him. There was just something different about him energetically. And I went up to go sit next to him and I was like, dad, how are you feeling? And he says, I'm really excited about this trip I'm gonna go on. But something was off when he was talking to me, like I was looking at him and it was just like, huh.

• 40:25Lewis Howes?

  He just looked, it's almost like he knew something was gonna happen, like his life was gonna change.

• 40:33Lewis Howes?

  But it was just a weird feeling. I can't really explain how it is. Maybe you've had this in life in some way. And I'm sitting next to him, I'm like, Dad, how you feeling? And he goes, I'm really excited about this trip. And I go, why? And he goes, I'm excited to go on a spiritual adventure. And when I think about it, I didn't know that was gonna be the last day that my dad was gonna be who he was. Because after his accident, he was in a coma for three months. He eventually did wake up right around Thanksgiving, which was a beautiful blessing and a beautiful gift.

• 41:10Lewis Howes?

  He was in a hospital for many months on life support. Then he woke up, then he got a little bit better. But when he came back from New Zealand, back home in Ohio, I saw him in the airport, went to go grab him. And I knew that he would never be the same. I knew life would never be the same with my father. Now, I had belief, I had faith, I was praying nonstop. I was trying to find the best doctors, the best therapists, the best everything. But Dad was never the same for 17 more years, until he passed away a few years ago.

• 41:52Lewis Howes?

  And it was pretty devastating. I mean, it really was hard for me and my whole family. Because here's a man that I really looked up to, a man that I admired, a man that taught me so much, a man that showed up to all my games, who supported me, who wanted to see me succeed. Not a perfect man, he had a lot of mistakes and childhood, early childhood was not fun. But then later childhood, my teen years, college years, he started transforming to a better man. And it was just...

• 42:28Lewis Howes?

  It's hard to have someone alive, but emotionally gone. Especially your father. Someone that now you have to teach. Now you have to take care of. Now you have to remind them who you are. You have to tell them your name when you see them. And when they ask you, "How do I know you?" You have to remind them. "Hey Dad, I'm your fourth son. It's Louis." He goes, "Didn't you used to play sports?" "Yeah Dad, you used to come and watch my games all the time. Here's some photos to remind you." And every time I see him, you have to retell him the story of his life and my life and our life together. And for the first four or five years, it was devastating.

• 43:13Lewis Howes?

  Cause I wanted him to be back to the person he was. I wanted him to be my dad. I wanted him to have his memories. I wanted him to be able to be emotionally there and present. But every time I saw him, he'd get tired after 30, 40 minutes. He'd wanna sleep. He couldn't remember much. He couldn't work anymore, another day of his life. He needed 24/7 support. And he emotionally

• 43:38Lewis Howes?

  wasn't there. Physically, he was there. Emotionally, my dad wasn't there. And it was probably one of the hardest 17 years of my life to experience that experience. And at the same time, had I known that was my last day, when he said, "I'm gonna go on a spiritual journey." Had I known that was my last day with him before he had his accident, I might've hugged him a little bit longer. I might've just sat next to him longer instead of like ran off and did what I did. I might've just really just been there. And said, "Tell me more Dad. Tell me more. What do you mean a spiritual adventure? Tell me more about your life."

• 44:21Lewis Howes?

  Just being present. Like I didn't know that was gonna be the last day. And you can't take that back. You can't take back these moments today. This moment, this day, will never happen again. Never. And tomorrow's not guaranteed for me or you. I hope it is. I hope I live a very long, healthy life. Accomplish all my dreams. I hope you live a long, healthy life. Accomplish all your dreams. But no day is guaranteed. Except for this moment. So I want you to be thinking about that.

• 44:56Lewis Howes?

  Think about how you can show up fully today.

• 45:01Lewis Howes?

  As we go into day six, and the sixth thing that I want you to apply for these seven days is thinking all about fear.

• 45:11Lewis Howes?

  Because the biggest thing that blocks us is our fear. So on day six, I want you to turn your fear into a superpower. Your biggest fear is often the doorway to your greatest gift. And what if the fear holding you back was actually the key to your greatest growth? What if the fear holding you back was the key to your greatest growth? And there's something that I talk about in my books. That's called creating a fear list. And I want you to do this right now. I want you to make a list of three, four, or five of the biggest fears that you have. Whether it's fear of judgment, fear of failure, fear of

• 45:59Lewis Howes?

  success. Is it fear of public speaking? Is it fear of being lovable? Is it fear of being vulnerable? Is it fear of intimacy? Is it fear of someone leaving you and abandoning you? Like, what is the fear that you have? I'm not talking about, you know, snakes necessarily, or spiders, or something like the sharks. I'm not talking about that necessarily. Although you can write that down as well. But more of these psychological, emotional fears that block you from taking risks, from having courage, from, from doing the thing that you're meant to do. What is that fear? Write that down. Something that a big fear for me, I've talked about my fear of public speaking and how it, when I went all in on public speaking for, every week for a year,

• 46:44Lewis Howes?

  I made $5,000 by the end of that year on a speech. When a year before that, I couldn't get up in front of five people without stuttering or sweating profusely and just being like, I couldn't remember how to speak for 60 seconds. I was terrified. But when I went all in on the fear, allowing myself to be fear, to be terrified, to be nervous, to sweat and look like an idiot in front of people that were much smarter and much better than me. By allowing myself to be fear, I overcame the fear.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  But I had to put myself in the situation of fear every week. And by doing that, it made me more confident. It made me more courageous. It gave me more skills and it created an identity of myself where I can speak in front of any amount of people. I can present and share a vision of what I want to share with the world and let it be received. Is it perfect? Am I the funniest or the smartest, the most eloquent? No. But I overcame a fear that allowed me to create financial freedom for myself and impact people in a positive way.

• 48:00Lewis Howes?

  And if I never went all in on that fear, I never would have had this superpower. And again, this doesn't mean, you know, I can still improve on this. You know, 15, 17 years later, I can still get better as a speaker. I have a long way to go to get better. But I stepped into a new identity where my fear was my identity. I am not a public speaker. I cannot speak publicly. I get nervous when I speak. I'm not good at this. That was my identity because that's what I believed. That's what I spoke. That's how I felt and that's how I acted. And you need to shift all those things in order to create a new identity. Okay, I'm not a good public speaker yet, but I'm working to improve every day. Great.

• 48:45Lewis Howes?

  Then act in accordance with that. Feel the tremor, the terror, the nerves, the excitement, the judgment. Feel it in your body. Allow yourself to frickin' shake. Allow yourself to be nervous. Allow yourself to sweat. I don't care if you pee a little. Whatever you gotta do, feel that fear and do it. Do it over and over again. The more afraid you are, the more you need to do it every day, not every week. You need to do it daily until the fear, the shakes become stillness, until the insecurity becomes.

• 49:20Lewis Howes?

  Wisdom until the stutters become sturdiness. Until you become more poised at the ability of the thing that you're most afraid of. And when you can start to embrace the fear by being the fear, stepping into it daily. You'll say, oh, I just got a little bit better than the day before. Oh, man, I could see myself improving because I'm allowing feedback. And I'm allowing myself to reflect on it and know that I'm not going to be perfect. And that's absolutely okay. I don't need to be perfect. I just need to keep improving.

• 49:59Lewis Howes?

  And you may be blocking yourself because you're too afraid to be fear and step into it. And just allow yourself to fail miserably over and over again. Because that's the only way you're going to start to succeed by failing over and over again. And day seven, to unlock incredible freedom for yourself. Is you've got to visualize your future self looking back. Visualize your future self looking back. What does this mean? The path to anywhere worth going requires taking action. I remember a time when I was going through something challenging in my life, a personal breakup I was going through.

• 50:43Lewis Howes?

  This was probably like seven, eight, nine years ago or something. And I remember I was kind of like getting like people were gossiping online. What happened? What did he do? What did she do? You know, what did Lewis do? Did he blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. And I started to get all this like negative talk and judgment on social media. And it felt kind of unfair. And I remember I was interviewing my friend, Robin Sharma, who wrote a book, many books, but he wrote a book called The 5 AM Club. And he wrote many other successful books.

• 51:17Lewis Howes?

  And he, I just met him like two weeks after this had kinda been going on online. And he walks in the door, this is like three studios ago in my apartment. He walks in the door and he goes, hey, Louis, nice to meet you. And he goes, how's it going? And literally, I don't know how to like do small talk with people. I don't know why, why that is, but it's hard to be like, yeah, everything's fine. When something's not fine, I can't just say, everything's good, you know? Everything's fine in my life, but it's like, I'm more of a type of guy that just shares what's on my heart with people most of the time. And he's like, hey, nice to meet you, Louis. How you doing? And I go, ah, actually, I'm not doing, I'm kinda like going through it right now. And I just going through a breakup and I was like getting judged and blah, blah, blah. And I'm just kinda telling him what's going on.

• 52:01Lewis Howes?

  And we're like sitting down and he's like waiting to do the interview. And I'm like, just kinda like, you know, unloading. And he was very calm and very poised. And he goes, I've been through this about three or four times in my life. You know, he's a much wiser, more successful man than I am. And he goes, I've been through a few of these type of things in my life. And he just looked at me and said, everything's gonna be okay and you're gonna get through it. And you're gonna be wiser. And, um, and he goes, this is actually something that you should be looking at and thanking as a blessing for you. You should be thanking this situation or this person who's speaking bad about you or people that are gossiping about you. He said, you should be thanking all of it. And I go, why?

• 52:46Lewis Howes?

  And he said something I'll never forget. He said, a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. And I was like, oh, man, that is so good. But it hurts really bad right now. Can we just get through this and just get to a better day? And he goes, a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. And he said, over the next six months, you're gonna find out who your real friends are. You're gonna find out who fake friends are. You're gonna find out who's in your corner. You're gonna, you're gonna mend these wounds and you're gonna improve and you're gonna reflect on how you can be better. And you're gonna have so much more wisdom moving forward. And it's better that this happened now than 10, 20 years in the future, when it could be a lot harder.

• 53:32Lewis Howes?

  And it just gave me so much peace right before I started this interview with him. And then I go, uh, you know, how can we make this the most powerful conversation you've ever had? He goes, let's start with this. And I go, perfect. Let's do it. That's my intention. And again, a great, uh, a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. I'm not saying you need to have bad days with your ego every single day. That's not what this is about. But sometimes we need to purge, we need to cleanse, and that might be relationships. That might be old behaviors, old ways of being, limiting beliefs. That might be lies that you're telling yourself. That might be people in your life that are no good for you anymore. We need to purge things. We need to cleanse our souls spiritually.

• 54:17Lewis Howes?

  Cleanse our egos that are holding us back. Cleanse our environment. Cleanse the words we're using. Cleanse the, the foods we're eating. Cleanse the content we're consuming. Cleanse the clutter. And sometimes these things every once in a while, hopefully that'll happen that often to you. They allow you to make your soul better. And we've got to be thinking about our future self. When he said that to me, I go, huh. That gives me an idea and it literally hit me in that moment. And most people say hindsight is 2020. And in that moment, for whatever reason, I was almost like, you know what?

• 55:01Lewis Howes?

  I have future hindsight now. I have future hindsight because usually, like, and I, I literally in that moment, I flooded back to maybe 10 years prior was like, oh, man. When I broke my wrist and my dream was over playing professional football and I was sleeping on my sister's couch for a year and a half. And I had no money and I was a truck driver, then a bouncer, then I was just broke, jump, jumping around. Then I was begging people for food and I was just scrapping around life for a couple of years. And I remember thinking, God, it sucked so bad being in that environment, that situation. I felt like a loser.

• 55:42Lewis Howes?

  And then I reflected, oh, hindsight's 2020. As I look back, that's actually the thing that developed me to launching my business, to creating the School of Greatness, to becoming a better human being, was all that challenge, all that mess, all that adversity, all that struggle. It got me like boom, out of myself, out of my, it's what I created my fearless and started going all into my fears. It's like, it's what allowed me to shake life up and go create what I wanted to create. I'm not saying it was enjoyable, but if I look back, I'm like, man, I'm actually grateful all those things happened. What if I didn't break my wrist? I wouldn't have created the School of Greatness and been able to reach millions of people to help them improve their life. Maybe it was a blessing, the thing

• 56:27Lewis Howes?

  that was one of my biggest pains and biggest challenges and things that was the hardest thing. I look back at my father. If my father didn't get into his accident, I don't think I would have been as resourceful as I am. Cause I kind of always had him as a backup plan. He always said like, go play football, go do your thing, then you can come work for me. He was always there. And it was a great thing that he was there. But I don't think I would have had the courage to go do things on my own. I wasn't born a leader. I wasn't born to go create on my own. It was when that experience forced me to go create on my own. Now I'd much rather have my father in my life, but I can't control

• 57:09Lewis Howes?

  that. But what it created for me was an environment and experience to go become something that I was meant to become. And I said to myself, you know what, Robin, this is giving me future hindsight. And if everyone could think two years, five years, 10 years in the future, when they're going through something challenging, or they feel stuck right now, or they're in a relationship that they don't love, or they're in a job they don't enjoy, or their business is going bankrupt. We need to start having future hindsight. Our future self, our higher self. We need to jump in the future, not have 2020. Hindsight's always 2020 when you jump back.

• 57:52Lewis Howes?

  We need to jump in the future and start asking our future self, "Why is this happening for me?" And live in the future and say, "This is happening for a reason, so that you can overcome this, so you can get better, so you can improve, so you can move out of this environment, so you can rid yourself of these people that are holding you down, whatever it might be, so you can shake you up in life and start living more authentically." Because most of us haven't been living authentically most of our lives. We've been people pleasing, we've been projecting, we've been living in fear, we've been judging ourselves and judging others. And we need to start shifting this. We need to live in alignment with our true identity, with our higher self. And in order to do that, we need to think in the future.

• 58:37Lewis Howes?

  And I love this quote from Matthew McConaughey, from his famous, famous speech that he gave when he won the Oscar. Matthew McConaughey, we've had on the show a couple of times. I loved this quote in his speech, one of my favorite speeches he gave. He said, "When I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, 'Who's your hero?' And I said, 'I don't know, I gotta think about it. Give me a couple of weeks.' I come back two weeks later, the person comes up and says, 'Who's your hero?' I said, 'I thought about it, it's me in 10 years.' So, then I turned 25, 10 years later, that same person comes to me and goes, 'So are you your hero?' And I was like, "No, not even close. No, no, no, my hero's me at 35."

• 59:20Lewis Howes?

  So you see, every day, every week, every month, every year of my life, my hero's always 10 years away. I'm never gonna be my hero. I'm not gonna attain that. I know that I'm not. And that's just fine with me because it keeps me with somebody to keep chasing. And I want you to think about who your 10-year future self is. But not just this version of you, the greatest version of you, the highest version of you, the most conscious elevated version of you ever. And imagine he or she is 10 years in the future. And you're going through this situation in life right now.

• 1:00:02Lewis Howes?

  And you're looking up to yourself, who has more wisdom, more clarity, more peace, is living in alignment, is their true authentic nature, not just pleasing everyone around them, not just going with the flow, but living the life you're meant to live. And you ask them, why is this happening right now? I want you to reflect and just listen for 10 minutes. Turn your phone off, turn your computer off, turn the distractions off. Be present, close your eyes, and listen to what your future, greater, highest self has to say to you right now. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you

• 1:00:47Lewis Howes?

  on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.