7 Signs You Will BECOME RICH (Law Of Attraction Explained) | Bob Proctor & Lewis Howes

Bob Proctor 0:00 I carry this in my pocket. When I touch it, sensory factor, touch is affected. It's a light message, goes flying through my body, and it resonates with those cells in my brain, and a picture comes on the screen of my mind. This is a ritual. I've been doing this since 1961.

Lewis Howes 0:17 What, what's on your goal card, before I get to the next thing?

Bob Proctor 0:20 I wanna do $100 million in business. [upbeat music] The amount of money you earn is in direct ratio to the need for what you do, your ability to do it, and the difficulty there is in replacing you.

Lewis Howes 0:35 Mm.

Bob Proctor 0:36 It's the need for what you do, your ability to do it, and the need, uh, the difficulty there is in replacing you. Now, our, in this business I'm in, you can earn an awful lot of money because there's a, a tremendous need for a person that does what I do. I've traveled all over the world, from Shanghai to Buenos Aires to all over Europe, Asia, everywhere. Everywhere they need what I've got. There's a tremendous need. I can earn more money than a neurosurgeon. Now, everybody has a brain, but not everybody needs it [laughs] operated on, you know?

Lewis Howes 1:23 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:24 So, it, it's in-

Lewis Howes 1:25 They need it operated in a different way-

Bob Proctor 1:27 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:27 ... the way you do it.

Bob Proctor 1:28 It's the need for what you do, then your ability to do it. So if a person, if there's a great need for what a person's doing, then they've gotta get really good at it. So you never stop getting better at it.

Lewis Howes 1:42 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:42 You're good at what you do. And I don't mean to flatter you, you are just good at it. I've watched you do it.

Lewis Howes 1:48 Thank you.

Bob Proctor 1:49 And you do it, like I was mentioning, you're sort of the, um... Well you, you're, you're much the same as, uh, um... Drawing a blank on his name.

Lewis Howes 2:06 T- talking about Larry King? Larry King.

Bob Proctor 2:07 Larry King, yeah. Because Larry was a master. Larry never talked about an- L- Larry, he never... It was all about you. You never heard him say I. It was always about, you know, interviewing the person. So there was a great need for what he did. He was entertaining a lot of people. His ability to do it, he was very good at it, so he was very difficult to replace. Now when you're difficult to replace, your stock goes up.

Lewis Howes 2:39 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 2:42 We've learned-

Lewis Howes 2:43 Just getting these notes

Bob Proctor 2:44 ... we've gotta learn how to earn money, and most people don't know how to earn money. Most people think you go to work to earn money. Do you know, I was in a seminar in Phoenix, oh, it was probably a couple of years ago now, and this guy come over and talked to me. I knew him, not well, but I knew him, and he was a doctor. And he told me he was thinking of quitting. I said, "Why are you gonna quit?" "Well," he said, "the medical profession's all messed up now." He says, "You gotta put in more time to earn less money." I said, "Well, that's true." But I said, "Why'd you become a doctor?" Well, he said, "I love it." Well, I said, "What the hell? The fact that you're earning any money is a plus. You don't go to work for money, you go to work for satisfaction." There's two rewards in life. One is material, and the other's psychic. We shouldn't work for money, we should work for satisfaction. You provide service to earn money. Take some recording stars. My God, they earn millions on a recording, but look at the millions of people that are being entertained.

Lewis Howes 4:02 Mm.

Bob Proctor 4:02 Construction workers, air flight attendants, restaurants, there's, the music's playing, entertaining all the people that can hear that music. So they're entertaining all the people. And that's where it's coming, you see? You do what you, you work at what you love to do, and you'll get tremendous satisfaction. Like I love what I'm doing. I would do it for nothing if I had to, but I, I just love it.

Lewis Howes 4:28 Right. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 4:28 I really love it. And so the fact that I love it, uh, why would I wanna do anything else? And that's what I said to him. You get satisfaction from what you, doing what you love to do. So every day when I get up to go to work, I'm doing what I love doing. You provide service to earn money. I have all kinds of stuff that, we have stuff that we sell, uh, programs that we're selling. Somebody buying them now, I don't know who they are or where they are, but I'm earning money right now while we're talking.

Lewis Howes 5:01 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 5:01 And when I go to bed tonight, I'll be earning money, and I'll earn it all night. And I like that idea, you know? Um, because we're providing service. So I think we have to get the money straight in our mind, and I don't think most people have it straight. If you, um-

Lewis Howes 5:18 And if, and if s-

Bob Proctor 5:19 If people don't... You-

Lewis Howes 5:20 Go ahead, sorry

Bob Proctor 5:20 ... you were mentioning if a person didn't like to talk about it, they have a problem with it.

Lewis Howes 5:31 So start talking about it more?

Bob Proctor 5:35 Absolutely. Yeah, if there's somebody that, that you're around, uh, a partner, an associate or something, and they really don't wanna talk about money, you, um, I think there's a problem there.

Lewis Howes 5:51 Yeah. If someone came to you and has struggled with money their entire life, whether they're in their early 20s or they're in their 40s or 50s, and they asked you, "Bob, what do I need to do-" ... to make my first million dollars, what would you say are the most important things they should think and act on next in doing that?

Bob Proctor 6:17 Well, first of all, they gotta believe that they can earn the million dollars. They gotta develop a belief system. Our belief system's based upon our evaluation of something, and frequently if we reevaluate the situation, our belief about it'll change. We've gotta understand that money's easy to earn. I work with our sales staff all the time, um, helping them learn how to earn more money. I work with, uh, members of our staff, different members of our staff, um, helping them develop the desire to earn more money, and then I show them how they can do it. And, um...

Lewis Howes 6:59 How do we believe if we've never seen evidence before or gotten results before-

Bob Proctor 7:04 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 7:04 ... of earning it?

Bob Proctor 7:04 Yeah. It's through the repetition of it. It's through the repetition of, of, of writing it and believing it. I had a, I had an affirmation that I used for years, still use it. I'm so happy and grateful now that money comes to me in increasing quantities through multiple sources on a continuous basis. I am so happy and grateful now that money comes to me in, um, uh, in increasing quantities through multiple sources on a continuous basis. And I just keep repeating that like a mantra. And you write out, you know, I'm so happy and grateful now that I have in my possession a million dollars. And that's where you started out intellectually, then you get emotionally involved. And if you keep doing that, ultimate you're gonna attract the money. Now you've gotta ask, how can money be earned? Money can be earned in all kinds of different ways. We have a, um, a company, MSI Connect. Um, it's a pet of mine, not my partner's [laughs] . I don't think she's too in love with it, but I think it's a neat company. MSI is Multiple Sources of Income Connect, and there's a lotta people there, and they connect with each other. And, um, they set up joint ventures with each other. They set up affiliate things with each other. Um, you can buy different things there. People sell stuff there, you know. Um, they, um, they study money there. You know. You've gotta get into, um, into an environment where money is, um, talked about, where it's understood.

Lewis Howes 8:39 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 8:40 Um...

Lewis Howes 8:41 You, you know, it's interesting you say that because for, for years I have studied money at different levels, and those levels of studying have gotten me to those results. But I've never been able to really... You know, but there, there's always a cap, and you've gotta learn something new in order to break through that cap into a new level. And I've never really understood the stock market. I've always just i- invested in certain things and, and allowed them to just work on their own, but I've never actually taken full ownership of learning it myself. I've always had a financial advisor and things like that. And now I said, "You know what? I just wanna understand the stock market. I wanna, I wanna learn it 'cause I don't know. I'm still uneducated. I don't even know how to buy a..." I bought my first stock, like, a few months ago-

Bob Proctor 9:26 Uh-huh

Lewis Howes 9:26 ... myself. I've invested in stocks and index funds, but I've actually learned how to do it myself. And I was like, "I need to find the best people that are doing this and learn from them and have conversations with them." And it's been amazing in a short amount of time by surrounding myself with people that are doing it at an astronomical level. Just by having a couple conversations, taking the risk and doing it myself and trying it and lear- and fumbling around, having no clue what I'm doing, I'm already seeing growth in a couple of months. But if I didn't have the awareness to ask those questions and surround myself with that knowledge and then apply it and continue to learn from it, I'd still be stuck to where I was before. And so I think that's what we need to... I love the way you talk about the environment, about constantly being curious, asking these questions, and having the conversations because it doesn't matter how successful we are, we'll be stuck to a level of our past knowing until we break through and find a new knowing. I'm curious, for, for those who wanna learn the Millionaire Morning Routine, they wanna master this, they wanna learn what do those, uh, millionaires and billionaires do with their morning routine. You've already shared a few things that you do. What would it look like if you had 90 minutes in the morning to set yourself up to reprogram your, uh, money mindset?

Bob Proctor 10:48 Well, I don't think it would take you 90 minutes. Um, you could spend, um... Oh, God, nine minutes. If you just write down, write it, write this down right now. I am so happy and grateful... I am so happy and grateful now that I have multiple sources of income. I am so happy and grateful now that I have multiple sources of income. Do you know, if you write that out every day for the next 30, 60 days, you're gonna become very, very aware of having multiple sources of income. Wealthy people all have multiple sources. They don't have one or two, they have a whole bunch of them. I don't know how many sources of income I've got. I'm not even interested in figuring it out, 'cause somebody else looks after that. I don't look after it. But I do know that you can do that. That's what Keith did it down in New Orleans. God, he just... [laughs] His life changed so dramatically. And- I'll show you different things you can do, because anyone can. You want to set up multiple sources of income. Do you know, I was flying on a plane to, um, KL. I used to fly Toronto to KL once a month and back. It's 25 hours in the air one way. So-

Lewis Howes 12:30 Wow

Bob Proctor 12:30 ... when I'm on the air, in the air, I either work with names, words, or numbers, and I wrote down one with six zeros, and I thought, "What is the big deal about a million?" You know, you'll often hear people say, "What would you do if you had a million, if you won a million?" And, uh, I got thinking about it, and I played with that on the plane for quite a while, and it dawned on me they do not have one source of income. They don't have a job. Now, some people have a job earning a million dollars, but that's, that's the unusual one.

Lewis Howes 13:10 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 13:10 And then I got playing with it further, and I broke it down. They'd have m- they'd have more than one, and then I got it multiple so, and then MSI. Well, then I got thinking we should run a seminar, teach people, "Earn a million dollars by setting up multiple sources of income." And when I got off the plane, I phoned Mark Victor Hansen down in Newport Beach. I, I was in KL. I woke him up [laughs] in the middle of the night, and, um, I got talking. He says, "Great idea." So we started the Million Dollar Forum, and he got involved, and Bernie Dorman, who just passed away, and, and Jack Canfield and Lee Pulos. In fact, that's where the Chicken Soup for the Soul books came from, from that particular seminar, and we were teaching people to set up multiple sources of income. Well, they earned many millions from that, but that's where that started. And you, uh, are in a beautiful position to set up all kinds of sources of income. So when you think of wealth, you know, you might only earn 10 or 15,000 from one source. You might earn, um, two or 300,000 from another, but you have a lot of them.

Lewis Howes 14:27 Right.

Bob Proctor 14:28 And that's where you'll earn wealth. Like, I don't invest in the stock market. Um, my wife's have bought stocks. Uh, Sandy buys stocks, I think. I just don't pay attention to it. It's not, it doesn't interest me.

Lewis Howes 14:43 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 14:43 I'd rather earn it by thinking, putting an idea to work, than let the stock market do it for me. That's not, that doesn't excite me.

Lewis Howes 14:52 Sure.

Bob Proctor 14:53 Um, I'd rather sit here and think of... If I sat here for another hour after we get off, I could think of a way of creating a source of income and, and it would be a damn good one, because they're all good ideas.

Lewis Howes 15:05 Right. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 15:05 Very creative. My mind is, you know, conditional on that level.

Lewis Howes 15:11 Yeah. What do you think are three skills everyone should learn in order to generate more wealth and generate more income for themselves, or just to improve the quality of their life in general? What are those three skills you wish everyone could master?

Bob Proctor 15:28 Well, you've got to be, you've got to be fairly creative. You've got to have a free flow of energy. Energy has to flow through you. You can't be stubborn. You can't lock in on, on something and not want to let go of it. Um, you've got to have a free flow. You've got to, um-

Lewis Howes 15:46 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 15:46 ... be interested in, in ideas, new ideas. I, I... You were talking about not wanting to watch television. I don't watch much. I love watching Shark Tank, though.

Lewis Howes 15:58 Yeah, it's great.

Bob Proctor 15:59 And I like watching-

Lewis Howes 16:00 I just interviewed Kevin O'Leary yesterday. Yeah, he's great. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 16:02 Well, well, they were... You worked with him yesterday, did you say?

Lewis Howes 16:07 I just, uh, had Kevin O'Leary on yesterday.

Bob Proctor 16:09 Yeah. Well, you see, now that guy's mind, it's amazing the way it works.

Lewis Howes 16:15 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 16:15 But you watch all of them, all those sharks, their mind, it, it works like a rocket, you know?

Lewis Howes 16:22 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 16:23 And they, they break things down. Somebody will say something, they break all kinds of things down from what the one thing the person will say. They are very, very sharp, every one of them, and Kevin-

Lewis Howes 16:34 Yeah

Bob Proctor 16:34 ... is certainly one of the sharp ones on there, but they all are. You know? I don't know if there's one any sharper than the other, but they, they've got a very free flow of ideas.

Lewis Howes 16:45 Yep. So flow of energy, free flow, interested in new ideas. What's another skill people should-

Bob Proctor 16:50 I think you have to be service-oriented. You really have to be-

Lewis Howes 16:54 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 16:54 ... thinking of how to do things for people, how to help people, because money is a reward received for service rendered.

Lewis Howes 17:03 Yeah. It's hard to, uh, it's hard to help others when you're always consumed with the negativity in your own life and-

Bob Proctor 17:11 Oh, well, I mean, that's-

Lewis Howes 17:12 ... low esteem mentality.

Bob Proctor 17:13 [laughs] That's why poor people remain poor. [laughs] They're so locked into their problems. But if you, um... Listen, if a person is like that, let's suppose they're really locked in on problems, but they hear what I've just said. They really got to think of serving others. How can I serve others? How can I be of greater service? Um, you're going to figure it out.

Lewis Howes 17:45 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 17:45 Discipline yourself for, let's say, 30, 60, 90 minutes a day, sitting down and thinking of writing down 10 ideas that could be of service to other people, and you probably won't get very good ones for the first little while, but if you keep doing it, they'll keep coming. You know?

Lewis Howes 18:05 Absolutely, or you'll try stuff in the beginning and you'll, you'll learn something from those efforts, and you'll realize how to make them better-

Bob Proctor 18:12 Yeah

Lewis Howes 18:12 ... and y- you maybe, maybe don't stick with them. When I started, I was like ... doing stuff, just hustling around trying to figure it out, and you realize what doesn't work for you until you re- realize what does work. What's something else you recommend doing in the morning routine? I know you mentioned writing down this sentence every day, "I am so happy and grateful now, now I have multiple sources of income." What other things would you recommend for people to, to develop that millionaire mindset in the morning?

Bob Proctor 18:41 Get books on, on money.

Lewis Howes 18:44 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 18:45 Um, You Too Can Be Prosperous is one. You... That was the one by Robert Russell. You Too Can Be Prosperous. Think and Grow Rich. Um, who else have I got there? The Master Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill. Get reading these books. Um-

Lewis Howes 19:14 Yeah

Bob Proctor 19:14 ... and get a partner to read them with. The partner doesn't have to be somebody you're living with, could be somebody on the other side of the country. You, um-

Lewis Howes 19:27 Why, why, why is that important to have a partner reading with you?

Bob Proctor 19:30 Um, well, you usually will do it, and if you take... Here's a great book, Power of Awareness. Now, when you look at this, it's got a red band across the bottom. The Power of Awareness, you'll find it without this red band. Don't get that. This is the one. This has also included Awakened Imagination, Power of Awareness by Neville. This is-

Lewis Howes 20:03 Mm

Bob Proctor 20:04 ... a phenomenal book. This is going to expand the mind. Then get into Master Key on Riches, You Too Can Be Prosperous, and Think and Grow Rich. On money. [upbeat music] This one, Awareness. It's so good. This is one of the better books I've ever read. So the trick, pick a goal that you really want but you have no idea how to do it.

Lewis Howes 20:37 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 20:38 Now, there's gotta be a big learning curve there, and I'm still learning.

Lewis Howes 20:43 Wow. That's inspiring. I love that. And hopefully you can find mentors that can, who have done it, that can guide you-

Bob Proctor 20:49 Oh, I do

Lewis Howes 20:49 ... and you pick the right ones.

Bob Proctor 20:50 Right here, this author. Um, um, these books behind me here. I've got... Let's see here.

Lewis Howes 20:57 [laughs] He's going on the hunt. I like it. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 21:02 Now, here's, here's one here. This is an original my son gave me as a gift, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science.

Lewis Howes 21:12 Mm.

Bob Proctor 21:14 It is a heavy one. Here's another one, The Doré Lectures on Mental Science. These are written by a Thomas Troward. [book thuds] They were written, he... down back around 1910, 1912.

Lewis Howes 21:27 Wow.

Bob Proctor 21:27 They are incredible, and they are my mentors today.

Lewis Howes 21:32 Wow. If you-

Bob Proctor 21:34 He is my mentor

Lewis Howes 21:35 ... [clears throat] if you could only recom- if you could only recommend five books that the world, no other books would ever exist except these five books for people to read for the rest of eternity, and there would be no other books, hypothetical question, what five books would you recommend for people?

Bob Proctor 21:55 Think and Grow Rich.

Lewis Howes 21:56 Uh-huh.

Bob Proctor 21:58 Um, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. I'd recommend my own book, You Were Born Rich.

Lewis Howes 22:05 Mm.

Bob Proctor 22:07 Um, everybody's born rich. Most people are a little [laughs] short of money, that's all.

Lewis Howes 22:11 Ooh.

Bob Proctor 22:12 Um, well, they, they should get into this, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. And then I'm gonna give you one that's a long ways away from that, You Square by Price Pritchett.

Lewis Howes 22:28 Huh. Okay.

Bob Proctor 22:29 It's a little tiny book. Price Pritchett's a, um, is a, um, consultant over in Dallas. He's written a little book, You Square. It's on quantum physics, quantum leaps. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

Lewis Howes 22:44 Wow.

Bob Proctor 22:46 These books are incredible. And it's funny, Troward taught me, he said, "If you come to a point where you can't learn anything from somebody, you go inside." He said, "Go to the font set to regal. Go to the fountain and source. Go inside." N- now, I mean this, uh, uh, in all humility, I have been studying this longer than anybody I know.

Lewis Howes 23:16 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 23:17 There's probably people studying longer than me, but I'm studying for 59 years, and I study it every day. I don't know anybody that teaches what we teach like we teach it. I've had absolutely incredible, um, teachers. So I don't go running around looking for teachers. I've got Troward. What he's written is so rich in truth. He's probably one of the greatest authors of the last 500 years.

Lewis Howes 23:42 Wow.

Bob Proctor 23:43 But the trick though, Lewis, is you gotta keep studying.

Lewis Howes 23:47 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 23:47 And you only will keep studying if you're going after something you have no idea how to get there, but you know you can get there. The way there will be shown as you go after it.

Lewis Howes 23:58 Mm.

Bob Proctor 23:58 Step by step it will come to you.

Lewis Howes 24:00 Why isn't it shown to us before we start going after it? Why, why does it take us-

Bob Proctor 24:06 You wouldn't understand it.

Lewis Howes 24:07 Mm.

Bob Proctor 24:09 You wouldn't understand it. See, the purpose of a goal is not to get, it's not to reach the goal. It's the awareness that you develop as you go after it You're learning who you are. It's becoming aware of who you are.

Lewis Howes 24:23 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 24:24 I was in a seminar years and years ago, and, um, there was this speaker, Bill Gove. Bill Gove was considered the Frank Sinatra of public speakers. He was incredible. He had a handheld mic, and he's looking at the audience, and he said, "If I wanna be free, I've gotta be me."

Lewis Howes 24:48 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 24:48 "Not the me I think you think I should be. Not the me I think my kids think I should be. Not the me I think my wife thinks I should be. If I wanna be free, I've gotta be me."

Lewis Howes 25:02 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 25:03 He said, "I better know who me is."

Lewis Howes 25:05 Wow.

Bob Proctor 25:09 Now, I had a lot of this information at that time. This was years ago. But I was shy, and I wanted to teach it. I was afraid to stand up and ask a question in front of an audience. And so, I made up my mind, I was not only gonna learn to speak like him, I was gonna get him to teach me.

Lewis Howes 25:30 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 25:32 Now, he became a mentor of mine. And I realized then, if I take the areas where I'm a little six-bit short, I'm just not really very good, and I didn't go to school, so there's a lot of areas, I'm gonna get the very best and I'm gonna do exactly what they tell me.

Lewis Howes 25:51 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 25:53 And that's what I did when the man, he gave me this book. He said, "Do exactly what I'm telling you." I did exactly what he said.

Lewis Howes 26:01 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 26:03 15 years or so ago, um, well, first of all, he became my mentor and v- very good friend right up until he passed away. Our company was having financial problems all the time, and I could earn all kinds of money, but I didn't know how to manage it. I wasn't, didn't know how to run a company. I mean, I wasn't designed for that. And, um, I didn't wanna learn it. I didn't even like the subject.

Lewis Howes 26:30 [laughs] Right.

Bob Proctor 26:32 But what you need, you will attract.

Lewis Howes 26:34 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 26:36 And we had a lady come to the seminar, was a securities attorney. She fell in love with what we were doing. She was a, a full partner in a company. And over a period of time, she became our business partner. She owns half the company. But she's the r- she runs the company. She's the president and chief executive of, of the company. I mentioned her last time. You should get her on for an interview sometime, 'cause she is a fascinating person. But she does a phenomenal job here.

Lewis Howes 27:04 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 27:04 Well, so I have found, in the areas that I'm not really good at, I get the very best and I work with them. I don't try and learn what they're teaching. I get them to do that. I get somebody else to do something else, 'cause it's gonna take me to where I wanna go.

Lewis Howes 27:19 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 27:20 I have a young guy here that runs our studio. He's the director of the studio. He, he's absolutely brilliant. He set a goal when he was 13 to work with me.

Lewis Howes 27:29 I remember this, yeah. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 27:29 He was living in Manchester in England, and he watched The Secret and he saw me. He said, "I'm gonna work with him." 13 years later, he's here in the studio and he runs this place.

Lewis Howes 27:39 I love that, yeah.

Bob Proctor 27:40 He's incredible. He can record and send it from anywhere in the world. He can come in here and do everything. And I found that's one of the secrets of getting to where you wanna go. You need help. You gotta have help. You gotta have a lot of help.

Lewis Howes 27:55 You saying we can't just do it all on our own, Bob?

Bob Proctor 27:58 Never gonna do it on your own.

Lewis Howes 28:00 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 28:01 You won't go very far if you're doing it alone.

Lewis Howes 28:03 I'm curious. I feel like you've got, again, decades of wisdom and knowledge from history that you, y- you lived through and experienced personally-

Bob Proctor 28:11 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 28:11 ... firsthand. You said you grew up-

Bob Proctor 28:13 Mm

Lewis Howes 28:13 ... during the Second World War. Uh,

Lewis Howes 28:16 what was the lesson you learned in the Second World War, that time, that people should know about today during this time? Two different crises.

Bob Proctor 28:28 Well, it's only in retrospect that I learned these things, 'cause you go back and I have to go back, and we were all, everything was rationed. So people were getting, uh, accustomed to live on lack and limitation.

Lewis Howes 28:41 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 28:41 And it was part of the programming. And the, what, w- w- in looking back, the great lesson is, don't let what's going on program you. In fact, it's a good point to bring out right now because of this pandemic that's going on. We must not let this program us.

Lewis Howes 29:01 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 29:01 This does not have to define us, doesn't have to dictate where we're gonna go. It's got nothing to do with our destiny. As a kid, everything was rationed. I remember gum, chewing gum was rationed. There's, in fact, there's a good story. I'm gonna take the time to tell you about it.

Lewis Howes 29:21 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 29:22 We would go to the store. Our father was in Europe fighting, and we would send care packages every now and then. They would mail them, and they would get through, and we'd have pictures, you know, of the family and all this stuff, and we'd put a package of gum in sometimes. We would be at the store, and if somebody, if they put a package of gum out, it would just be one little box. It would be gone like that.

Lewis Howes 29:45 Wow.

Bob Proctor 29:45 Because you couldn't buy gum during the war. Wrigley's did not make gum during the war. They couldn't. And one of us would hold the gum while the other one home, see if there was enough money to buy it.

Lewis Howes 29:57 [laughs] Yeah.

Bob Proctor 29:59 'Cause there might not have been enough money. We'd have to put it back. During the Second World War, Wrigley's could not make gum. G- the, the basic ingredient, apparently, for making gum comes from the Philippine Islands. The Japanese, who were in charge of the Philippine Islands, they had occupied the Philippine Islands, you couldn't get in to get the gum. Wrigley seemed to know that the war would be over, they'd be able to get the stuff, we'd win the war, and he'd get the stuff to build the gum. He never stopped advertising Buy Wrigley's Spearmint Gum, all during the Second World War, even though they couldn't make it. Great lesson in there about advertising. People wouldn't believe, that lived through the Second World War, wouldn't believe that they couldn't make gum then.

Lewis Howes 30:42 [clears throat]

Bob Proctor 30:43 Because he just kept enough and he'd leak a little bit out every now and then to different places.

Lewis Howes 30:48 Wow.

Bob Proctor 30:49 Great lesson in advertising there.

Lewis Howes 30:51 Wow. It's kind of like, uh-

Bob Proctor 30:53 But I think the-

Lewis Howes 30:54 Yeah

Bob Proctor 30:54 ... the greatest lesson that I've learned, or, is looking back. M- my mother, God bless her, she was a special woman. Um, she did not let that control her. And I think any really good qualities I've got for growing and building came from her. She raised three of us on her own, and God only knows how she did it. She was like a magician-

Lewis Howes 31:22 Mm

Bob Proctor 31:22 ... because she sure didn't have any help. But she did it.

Lewis Howes 31:26 Mm.

Bob Proctor 31:26 And she instilled us that if you want it, you can get it.

Lewis Howes 31:30 Mm.

Bob Proctor 31:30 You know?

Lewis Howes 31:31 That's beautiful.

Bob Proctor 31:32 But-

Lewis Howes 31:33 It sounds like-

Bob Proctor 31:33 Yeah

Lewis Howes 31:33 ... it sounds like the, uh... You were, you know, holding Wrigley's gum back then, just like people are doing with the hand sanitizer right now. So that was the, this- [laughs]

Bob Proctor 31:43 Yeah, but you see, people are permitting this to program them right now.

Lewis Howes 31:48 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 31:49 If you're not thinking, this stuff's going right into your subconscious mind.

Lewis Howes 31:53 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 31:54 And whatever goes in there, repetition over and over and over, becomes part of our behavior.

Lewis Howes 32:00 If-

Bob Proctor 32:00 And it's, um, you can't deny it, it's there. B- absolutely refuse to let it control you. Understand you can be thinking of how to win, how to get it done, how to go and do better.

Lewis Howes 32:12 Mm.

Bob Proctor 32:12 And you may have to adapt or you may have to change the game, but you can change the game. We are probably going to change the way we operate forever-

Lewis Howes 32:21 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 32:21 ... over the next few months. But we're prepared to do that. That's what Sandy was holding the meeting today with all the company. She was teaching them all, we gotta get together, we gotta bring our mind together. We've gotta understand that this doesn't control us, we control us. [upbeat music]

Bob Proctor 32:40 Think of this for a minute, Lewis. Nothing is created or destroyed. Look here, here's a little cellphone. What you can do with this almost blows your mind, when you think of it.

Lewis Howes 32:52 Yeah. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 32:53 Well, when I was a kid, we didn't have a phone. And we didn't have a phone because we didn't have any money, for the first reason, but the second, um, not everybody could have a phone.

Lewis Howes 33:07 Mm.

Bob Proctor 33:07 We were not aware that there was an infinite number of frequencies. Today, there's, huh, what, a zillion phones.

Lewis Howes 33:17 Right.

Bob Proctor 33:17 Because there's an infinite number of frequencies. This phone is on its own frequency. Yours, it's on its own frequency. If I have your number in here and I hit send, you and I connect, we're on the same frequency. Won't matter where you are, we can see each other, we can communicate, because we get on the same frequency. Well, the good that we desire is already here, it's on a frequency. The way to build this has always been here, we weren't aware of it. But somebody took their imagination and went off into no place, what they were really doing is going onto a higher frequency. And if you'll stay on that frequency, you'll attract everything that you require. That's why, um, Dr. Wernher von Braun, when President Kennedy asked him what it would take to build a rocket that would carry a man to the moon and then bring him back safely to Earth, von Braun said, "The will to do it."

Lewis Howes 34:17 Mm.

Bob Proctor 34:17 The will is the mental faculty that gives you the ability to hold one idea on the screen of your mind to the exclusion of all outside distractions. See, if you take your imagination, do it. You have goals, take your imagination and then take yourself there, see yourself already have completed the goal.

Lewis Howes 34:42 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 34:43 And then hold that picture with your will. When you go there with your imagination, there is a place. Whatever it is you want, you went there with your imagination, there is a place. You stay there in your imagination, you will attract everything that's required for the manifestation of that picture. You saw Brady doing it last [laughs] Sunday.

Lewis Howes 35:09 Yeah, he's a machine.

Bob Proctor 35:10 Yeah. Absolutely phenomenal.

Lewis Howes 35:16 So holding the imagination the picture that you want in your mind-

Bob Proctor 35:19 Uh-huh

Lewis Howes 35:20 ... and then attracting it on the steps to get there.

Bob Proctor 35:22 Yeah. You see, we don't work toward the goal, we work from the goal. You get the goal-

Lewis Howes 35:29 Mm

Bob Proctor 35:29 ... in your mind. Our problem is we measure everything on the physical. And-

Lewis Howes 35:35 Yeah

Bob Proctor 35:35 ... you look at the physical and you say, "Well, I haven't got it yet." If you think, your conscious mind, if you get an image there of your goal, you've already got it intellectually. If you didn't have it, you couldn't share it with me, but if you have it, you can share it with me. You can share with me the idea that you've got in your mind, so you've already got it there, haven't you?

Lewis Howes 36:03 Right.

Bob Proctor 36:04 As you get emotionally involved with that idea, you've got it also on an emotional level. You've got it there. You've got it intellectually, you've got it emotionally. The only place you haven't got it is physically.

Lewis Howes 36:17 Right.

Bob Proctor 36:18 Now, there's a period of time must elapse for that idea that you have intellectually and emotionally, for that idea to move into physical form We understand-

Lewis Howes 36:27 How much time?

Bob Proctor 36:28 Pardon?

Lewis Howes 36:30 How much time does it usually take?

Bob Proctor 36:31 We don't know. We don't know.

Lewis Howes 36:33 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 36:33 That's the only thing we don't know, is the gestation period for an idea. We know what the gestation period is for wheat, we know what it is for a carrot, we know what it is for a baby. Moment of conception, it's about 280 days. We didn't always know these things, but we do now. We don't know what the gestation period is for a spiritual seed, and that's what an idea is. But it grows by exactly the same law. And so if we hold that idea in our mind, it must by law manifest in form. It moves into form. Now, that is called the perpetual transmutation of energy. It's one of the laws of the universe.

Lewis Howes 37:16 Wow. Uh, there was something that I, uh, that you shared, um, just a moment ago that reminded me of an interview I did with, uh, d- uh, Joe Dispenza recently, where he said we're s- we're really good at remembering the past, and actually building a story in our mind about something traumatic that was actually way worse in our mind than it actually probably was in person. We're really good at remembering these stories. But what we need to do, he said, is to remember the future. And when he said that, it kind of triggered something different. It's like what you just shared, it's like have an idea of the future of what we wanna manifest, and hold onto that idea.

Bob Proctor 37:56 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 37:56 And remember the memories of the future, as opposed to holding onto the memories of the past, so we can move into that as opposed to be stuck in the past.

Bob Proctor 38:04 That's totally... You see, that's what that is.

Lewis Howes 38:06 So I love that you shared that.

Bob Proctor 38:06 Yeah. Yeah.

Lewis Howes 38:08 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 38:08 That's, that's holding the memory.

Lewis Howes 38:09 And it's hard for...

Lewis Howes 38:09 Why is it so hard, why is it hard for us to hold onto, or maybe not hold onto, but keep in our minds and imagine the idea of a greater future for us, as, as opposed to constantly being stuck in the past? Why is that hard for so many of us?

Bob Proctor 38:27 Because we're programmed to go the other way. You know, what language do you speak?

Lewis Howes 38:34 Uh, I barely speak English.

Bob Proctor 38:36 [laughs] How about Russian?

Lewis Howes 38:37 [laughs] Uh, privet. Kak dela? Uh, that's all I know. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 38:43 Well, the point is, you were raised with the English language.

Lewis Howes 38:47 Yes.

Bob Proctor 38:49 You don't know another language.

Lewis Howes 38:51 No.

Bob Proctor 38:51 I was raised with the English language. I don't know another language. I was working with people over in Kuala Lumpur a number of years ago, and they had a little boy, four years old. That little boy could speak four languages.

Lewis Howes 39:02 Wow.

Bob Proctor 39:03 They thought nothing of that. There's people speak many more than four languages, because that's the way they're raised. We're the product of our environment from the time we're born. But prior to that, genetically we're programmed. You're, you're genetically programmed at the moment of conception. You get all of Mum's DNA and all of Dad's DNA, and God knows how far it goes back on either side. Well, that is programming. That's in our subconscious mind. And [laughs] that's called a paradigm. That's what it is. It's a program in our subconscious mind. Now, here's the crazy part. You have programs in your phone or in your computer. The people that write the code for these programs are really smart-

Lewis Howes 39:53 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 39:53 ... when it comes to writing code. They really know what the hell they're doing. The people that wrote the code for our biocomputer had no idea what the hell they were doing.

Lewis Howes 40:03 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 40:05 They don't. They did not.

Lewis Howes 40:07 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 40:08 They were writing a code for my subconscious mind and for yours, that's our paradigm, and that probably controls our life to an enormous degree. It did with me until I was 26. Now, I was fortunate when I met Ray Stanbridge and he got me into the Think and Grow Rich book, and that led me into God knows what else. I have been working at changing that program since I was 26. I'm 86 right now. So I've been at it for a long time, and I work at it every day. Most people don't even know that they have the problem, [laughs] so they stay stuck their whole life. Listen, you interview some pretty interesting people. Um, I watched you interview here a, a billionaire a while ago. Um-

Lewis Howes 40:57 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 40:58 Um...

Lewis Howes 40:59 Which one?

Bob Proctor 41:00 I forgot. I forgot who it was.

Lewis Howes 41:02 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 41:02 Anyway.

Lewis Howes 41:02 Ray Dalio, Charles Koch, uh-

Bob Proctor 41:05 It, it was a pretty interesting interview anyway

Lewis Howes 41:07 ... John Paul DeJoria. Yeah.

Bob Proctor 41:07 But-

Lewis Howes 41:07 Yeah

Bob Proctor 41:08 ... the point is, anybody can become a billionaire if that's what you wanna do. You say, "Well, wouldn't everybody?" No, everybody wouldn't. I wouldn't want to put all my energy into that. Now, does that mean I don't want money? No, hell, I earn all kinds of money, and I probably want to earn more, but that's not my focus. We are programmed to live a certain way. And, uh, rarely do we change that. Now, I change it, and I teach people to change it, but most people don't. Stop and think of how few people, um, are really well off. Three, 4, or 5% maximum, if that. And 95% are struggling, and these are, some of these are really bright people.

Lewis Howes 42:02 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 42:03 You've got people that have a, um, a doctorate degree in commerce and finance, and they're broke. How the hell could that happen? Well, they never learned how to earn money. They learned how to count it, invest it, and what to do with it. They never learned how to earn it. School doesn't teach us how to earn money. It's absurd when you stop and think about it.

Lewis Howes 42:24 Right.

Bob Proctor 42:25 They teach us all kinds of stuff that's, a lot of it's useless, but they don't teach us about how to earn money, and money's the medium of exchange that's negotiable all over the world, you know?

Lewis Howes 42:35 Yeah. What do you think of the programs or the programming that hold us back the most? The, maybe the two or three things that are, we're programmed-

Bob Proctor 42:43 Well, we were talking about earlier, the self-image. That's programming.

Lewis Howes 42:47 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 42:48 And, um, I have a little great-granddaughter, and her mother and father are really fascinating. I'm watching how they treat this little girl. It is fascinating. Her name is Nora, and if they do anything, they'll say, "Thank you, Nora. Nora, that is really good." I mean, this kid, I think, is gonna grow up with a, just a phenomenal self-image. Now, they have been studying this all their life, and now they've got a little baby, and the two... watching the two of them working with her, it's phenomenal. You know? But I think self-esteem has to be one of the biggest problems. That's not really taught in school. It's not taught in many homes. Um, you take and get into, um, into any of the sports leagues, they don't teach much about the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind's controlling how well you play the game.

Lewis Howes 43:52 Hmm. What is the thing that's been on repeat for you every single morning to help program your subconscious mind in your favor? Is there a thing you say? Is there a mantra? Is there a meditation? Is there a practice that helps reprogram in a positive way?

Bob Proctor 44:11 I have a goal card. Carry a goal card with me all the time. My goal is on the card. I touch that. When I wr- when you have a goal and you write your goal, you, you paint a picture with words. Your goal is a picture in your mind.

Lewis Howes 44:26 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 44:26 And you paint the picture with words. When you're writing it, you impregnate it into a group of cells in your brain. When I carry this in my pocket, when I touch it, a sensory factor touches effect it. It's a light message goes flying through my body, and it resonates with those cells in my brain, and the picture comes on the screen of my mind. This is a ritual. I've been doing this since 1961.

Lewis Howes 44:54 Wow.

Bob Proctor 44:55 Um-

Lewis Howes 44:56 What's, what, what's on your goal card before I get to the next thing?

Bob Proctor 44:59 I want to do $100 million in business.

Lewis Howes 45:03 Wow.

Bob Proctor 45:03 We don't do that now. I'm doing it in here.

Lewis Howes 45:10 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 45:10 But physically, I haven't got there. Um, this is Sandy's goal, and it's my goal, and we both got the card signed. It's written in present tense. Um, all your goals should be in present tense. The only thing you put a date on is you're guessing at the date. You don't know what the date is. [upbeat music] Trying to help people become aware that although you cannot change conditions or circumstance, you don't have to let them control you.

Lewis Howes 45:44 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 45:45 We can't control what's going on outside, but we can control what's going on inside, you know? And unfortunately, I don't think many of us have been raised to really understand that.

Lewis Howes 45:57 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 45:58 And it's a lack of understanding that's causing all our problems, you know?

Lewis Howes 46:03 But how, I mean, how, how can you say that to someone who's like, "Well, I don't feel like I have control on the inside, when it seems like everything has power over me"? What's something they could start to shift?

Bob Proctor 46:13 Well, you know, you see, the truth is for, for that person, that would be true-

Lewis Howes 46:17 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 46:17 ... that they're being controlled by outside. We... [laughs] Look at it this way. We are the only creature on the planet that's totally disoriented in our environment.

Lewis Howes 46:29 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 46:30 All the little squirrels, the birds, the every, all the animals are completely at home in their environment. They blend in.

Lewis Howes 46:39 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 46:40 You and I are totally disoriented in our environment. We've been given the mental faculties to create our own environment. However, we go right through school, and we've never learned that. We have higher faculties, and the average person has no knowledge of how to operate with them, how to develop them. We have perception, the will, reason, imagination, memory, and intuition. Now, those mental faculties, they're not just words. They're actually mental faculties that we can use to take control over our world and to create the environment that we want. But unfortunately, we grow up, we don't know that. We've been raised to live through by what we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, our physical senses. And we're, we've been raised to be controlled by what's going on outside. As little kids, "Will you listen to what I'm telling you? Will you look at this?" You know, and so it's all outside. Um, we get our report card, and that tells us what kind of student we are, but it really tells us where our mind was at for a few minutes three weeks ago.

Lewis Howes 47:47 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 47:47 Got nothing to do with who we are.

Lewis Howes 47:48 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 47:49 So I think we're, we're raised in ignorance, actually. There's a very small percentage of the population that have a reasonably clear understanding of who they are and what they're capable of doing. But the ones that do are in the minority.

Lewis Howes 48:08 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 48:09 Our whole company has been dedicated to teaching that to people for the last 50-some years.

Lewis Howes 48:16 Powerful. You, you talked about the five faculties, the five mental faculties, and I know you touched on this briefly in our, in our previous interview. But I'm curious.

Bob Proctor 48:24 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 48:24 I have a new question for you, which of the faculties typically is the hardest to, I guess, master or, you know, become efficient in, to use to your advantage in a positive way, and which is the one that you feel like, um, hurts us the most when we don't master it?

Bob Proctor 48:44 I think reason is probably-

Lewis Howes 48:46 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 48:47 ... is the one that's spoken about by almost all the great leaders.

Lewis Howes 48:51 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 48:51 Um, they've all been complete unanimous agreement that we become what we think about. It's our reasoning factor that enables us to think. Um, Ford says, "Thinking's the hardest work there is," which is the probable reason so few people engage in it.

Lewis Howes 49:07 Mm.

Bob Proctor 49:08 Dr. Ken McFarland, uh, is gone for a long time now, but he was a great educator down in Kentucky. He one time said, "2% of the people think, 3% think they think, and 95% would actually rather die than think."

Lewis Howes 49:21 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 49:23 Now, you know, that sounds cute, but it's true. If you stop and listen to what most people are saying, it's gonna be fairly obvious they're not thinking.

Lewis Howes 49:36 Mm.

Bob Proctor 49:36 If you stand back and watch what most people are doing, it's fairly obvious they're not thinking, or they would never say or do what they're doing. Most people today have their television on the news and they're just soaking up all the stuff that's going on that's dominating the media right now. So they've become a plaything for what's going on outside.

Lewis Howes 50:03 Mm.

Bob Proctor 50:05 And that's why they're living in such fear.

Lewis Howes 50:07 By consuming the media of whether it's true or accurate or not true, you're, you're being manipulated-

Bob Proctor 50:13 Absolutely

Lewis Howes 50:13 ... in a sense. Yeah.

Bob Proctor 50:14 It's not a matter of whether it's true or not. Is this how you want to spend your life, just listening to that?

Lewis Howes 50:21 Mm.

Bob Proctor 50:21 Um, that doesn't mean you should deny it. It doesn't mean that you should say, "Well, that's all false." Um, I don't know whether it's true or false. It's just bad news. I don't want to be involved in it.

Lewis Howes 50:34 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 50:35 Am I aware that it's there? Well, you'd almost have to be dead not to be aware that it's there, but that doesn't mean you have to spend your time thinking on that.

Lewis Howes 50:42 Mm. What's-

Bob Proctor 50:43 I would much rather-

Lewis Howes 50:45 Yeah

Bob Proctor 50:45 ... activate some of my creative faculties and do something that's constructive, creative.

Lewis Howes 50:50 In a time, in a time un- under crisis a- and, uh, worry and, and fear for a lot of people, what should we be thinking about? How should we be, uh, using our imagination in different ways as opposed to fixating on the bad news?

Bob Proctor 51:05 Well, I think a good idea right now would be spend some time thinking about, how are we going to adapt-

Lewis Howes 51:11 Mm

Bob Proctor 51:11 ... when this is gone?

Lewis Howes 51:13 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 51:13 Because we're live- we're gonna live in a different world. We're not gonna be in the same world when this is, um, all blown over than we're in right now. It's gonna be quite different.

Lewis Howes 51:25 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 51:26 People are not gonna be rushing out to big events where there's a lot of people. They're not gonna be rushing to restaurants. I think they're gonna be very careful about what they do, where they think, and where they're going. I was listening to Sinek and he said, "If you're a public speaker, don't look for a stage for a little while because you're not gonna have one."

Lewis Howes 51:49 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 51:51 Now, this also presents great opportunities. It's, um, for us, for my company, we're, um, going online, you know, full speed ahead. Now, fortunately, we built the studio-

Lewis Howes 52:09 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 52:09 ... four or five years ago, so-

Lewis Howes 52:11 You're prepared

Bob Proctor 52:11 ... we're qu- we're equipped and we're ready.

Lewis Howes 52:14 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 52:15 We can, um, we can broadcast. We were, we had a training class going in here, um, just last week with about 300 of our consultants from all over the world. We had a three-day training program for them, and it was very effective.

Lewis Howes 52:32 Online.

Bob Proctor 52:32 We didn't have to come together.

Lewis Howes 52:33 Yeah, yeah.

Bob Proctor 52:34 We did it from right here.

Lewis Howes 52:35 Yeah. I mean, you, you're known for doing these powerful transformational workshops in person.

Bob Proctor 52:41 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 52:41 So for someone, I mean, it's, it's very inspiring for me for someone at your age where would be the excuse of most people your age to say, "Well, I don't understand this technology thing, and I've been doing this, this way of business for so long. It's always worked this way, and I'm not going to try to reinvent or evolve and pivot and grow in this way." So it's really inspiring to see someone your age with your, your level of experience to say, "You know what? I'm embracing it. Maybe I don't like it." Maybe you do like it, but you're embracing it and making the most of it as opposed to resisting. Because what happens when we start to resist in our life, what, what truly happens?

Bob Proctor 53:15 Well, when we resist it, we create it in our mind. That's all we think about. Um, you see, [laughs] I guess my age really has nothing to do with it, but it, I formed that attitude a long time ago.

Lewis Howes 53:30 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 53:31 I didn't like the idea that when you've lived for so long, you've got to cut out, you've got to stop. I thought, "Hell, I don't like that idea at all." Um, first of all, I think we're, we're, I believe we're here to do God's work. God's work is creation, you know?

Lewis Howes 53:48 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 53:48 Um, expansion, fuller expression, greater goodness. Um, and if we're gonna do that, we're gonna be working at it all the time we're here on this planet. We never stop. So age should have no bearing on it.

Lewis Howes 54:05 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 54:07 Um, I had a couple-

Lewis Howes 54:07 You're, you're not s-

Bob Proctor 54:08 ... of people ask me-

Lewis Howes 54:09 You're not s-

Bob Proctor 54:09 ... when we started to build this place, we, we put a couple of million dollars into this, and somebody said, "How old are you?"

Lewis Howes 54:14 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 54:15 And I think I was probably 83, uh, when I started to break ground. He said, "You're 83 and you're gonna spend $2 million building a studio?" I said, "Yeah, like, why not?" I mean, you see, we let things that really have no concern, we let them bother us. We let them control us.

Lewis Howes 54:37 Mm.

Bob Proctor 54:37 Age is a dumb thing to let control you. It's our thinking that controls everything. That's the one point every great leader agreed on. We become what we think about. Well, what's a person thinking? I'm thinking, "If I get old, I gotta stop." Well, then you'll stop.

Lewis Howes 54:55 Mm.

Bob Proctor 54:55 Or I'm thinking, "Well, if I've been here a long time, I've got a lot of experience. I wanna utilize that experience to keep me going as long as I am here." I mean, anybody had their head screwed on right, um, a few years ago would know that this thing's gonna take over.

Lewis Howes 55:13 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 55:14 And if we don't learn how to use it, we're toast. So, you know, I was doing seminars on my iPad, 'cause I can run it right onto a monitor and out through to the universe.

Lewis Howes 55:28 Yeah. What should we be thinking about the most right now, in your mind? If thinking is the most important thing.

Bob Proctor 55:34 I think we should be thinking about our future. I think we should be thinking about the, uh, the greatness, like it's, uh, the school of greatness. I think we ought to be thinking about the greatness that we've got lo- got locked up within us-

Lewis Howes 55:46 Mm

Bob Proctor 55:46 ... and bring it to the surface. Everyone has deep reservoirs of talent and ability within them, and they can bring it to the surface to accomplish anything they want. Now, to sit in fear, um, and wonder what's gonna happen-

Lewis Howes 56:03 Mm

Bob Proctor 56:04 ... that is a dumb waste of your talent and your time.

Lewis Howes 56:07 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 56:08 And unfortunately, that's what most of the media is, uh, promoting right now. To believe in fear is to believe in something you can't see. To believe in faith is to believe in something you can't see. Well, if you have a choice, I think I'd choose faith over fear.

Lewis Howes 56:27 Mm, absolutely.

Bob Proctor 56:29 I think I believe where I can really see something happen. I believe we're gonna have a phenomenal year in our company.

Lewis Howes 56:35 Wow.

Bob Proctor 56:36 In fact, our, um, I have business partner Sandy Gallagher, and, uh, very bright lady, was a securities attorney prior to joining us. She ran a program this morning for, um, our entire company. We have about 70 people i- in the company. She was teaching masterminding to them all-

Lewis Howes 56:56 Mm

Bob Proctor 56:57 ... and saying how this is important, that every one of us get involved in this, that we learn the basics of masterminding that Napoleon Hill, uh, brought to the world, let's say, way back in the '30s.

Lewis Howes 57:13 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 57:14 Now, I think that's what we should be teaching people. Uh, Sandy was on the right track there. So I think we ought to be thinking about what we're gonna build, how big are we gonna do it, where are we gonna do it, when are we gonna start. Our goals have not changed. They're very big, they're very ambitious, and we're not letting this virus slow us down one bit.

Lewis Howes 57:37 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 57:38 As a matter of fact, we're trying to figure out how can we use this to speed it up?

Lewis Howes 57:42 Mm-hmm. There you go.

Bob Proctor 57:43 It's a gear and you can't, you can't get rid of, eh? [upbeat music]

Lewis Howes 57:49 What's the second, the next thing you do to help reprogram your-

Bob Proctor 57:52 I, I write out-

Lewis Howes 57:53 ... subconscious mind and your favorite

Bob Proctor 57:53 ... 10 things I'm grateful for every morning

Lewis Howes 57:57 Mm. You, you read it?

Bob Proctor 57:59 I write it, read it and write it, yeah.

Lewis Howes 58:01 Yeah. Okay.

Bob Proctor 58:03 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 58:04 What does gratitude do for someone when they feel stuck, when they feel overwhelmed, stressed, their goals aren't happening fast enough?

Bob Proctor 58:12 Well, gratitude's an interest- it's an interesting question, the way you asked the question. In, um, The Science of Getting Rich, in chapter seven, Wallace D. Wattles wrote the chapter on, on gratitude. In it, he said, "The entire process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word: gratitude." The entire process of mental adjustment... If you're troubled, there's some- could, and it could go wrong, um, but you're troubled. You- you've got a big problem you're just not quite sure how to solve, and it's bothering you. Might be something personal or it could be business. Whenever you feel yourself troubled, that's a mental problem. The entire process of mental adjustment, you need a mental adjustment. Sit down, write out what you're grateful for. You'd be amazed what it does to you. The entire process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word: gratitude. Gratitude hooks you up to your source of supply. It opens a channel for good to come into your life. You cannot feel bad when you're thinking of what you're grateful for. It's funny, problems just sort of melt away. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 59:28 [laughs] Absolutely.

Bob Proctor 59:28 It's, it's like some kind of mental magic.

Lewis Howes 59:33 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 59:34 It's better than magic. I re- read, there's a creative writer, I got a mental block on the guy's name, and I should remember it, 'cause it's such a great thing he said. Um, I've worked around magicians. If I work conventions, periodically they'll have, if there's a, a magician working at the convention too, they'll get me to work some kind of a trick with them, so you gotta tell the trick to somebody, so I'm the guy.

Lewis Howes 1:00:01 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:00:01 And I've learned all kinds of [laughs] how these magnificent tricks work. And he said, "When you learn how magic works, it's not magic anymore."

Lewis Howes 1:00:11 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:00:11 But he said, "When you learn how your mind works, it's real magic."

Lewis Howes 1:00:15 Ooh.

Bob Proctor 1:00:16 Yeah. [laughs] That's what I said, "Ooh."

Lewis Howes 1:00:18 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:00:19 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:00:21 So what's the, what's another thing that you do to help reprogram your subconscious mind?

Bob Proctor 1:00:27 Um, I, I consciously think of how I can help people. If I'm-

Lewis Howes 1:00:35 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 1:00:35 ... if I'm in between particular tasks that I'm working on, I'll think of somebody I can do something for. I'm always thinking on how to help somebody else, you know? Um- Emerson said that the law of cause and effect is the law of laws. Uh, whatever you put out comes back. Well, if you go around doing enough good, you don't have to worry about what's gonna happen to you. It's gonna be good. And that's really pretty well how I spend my life.

Lewis Howes 1:01:09 And I know, and I know no one's perfect, uh, me included. And I know even though you've studied this for so long, I'm sure you still have, uh, you know, missteps or challenges-

Bob Proctor 1:01:20 Of course

Lewis Howes 1:01:20 ... where your mind goes back into a place of, you know, a, a, a negative way of thinking. What is the biggest challenge you face with today, even though you've studied this, even though you put these things into practice, even though you're successful? What is that big challenge that you face, Bob?

Bob Proctor 1:01:37 Um, I get caught up in the minutiae and the, the noise that's going on around us, you know, the negative, um, news that we hear. I'll get caught up in it every now and then, and I know it's stupid and I shouldn't. And so when I realize what I'm doing, I'll get away from it, but I do it. Um, I've often mentioned if we just work at getting rid of our bad habits, some of our bad habits [laughs] we don't want to get rid of. We enjoy them. You know? [laughs] Um, but that's really the sec- secret, is replace a bad habit with something that's essentially the opposite, and you take a double jump ahead. Because you're not only getting rid of the bad one, you're adding a good one, so you know.

Lewis Howes 1:02:23 Right. Right. I, uh, I had the chance to interview, uh, Rhonda Byrne on the show-

Bob Proctor 1:02:29 Sure

Lewis Howes 1:02:29 ... a few months ago, and, and I was doing some research beforehand, and I hadn't seen an interview of her in over a decade online. And either I was bad at researching or I just... She hasn't put herself out there. So I was really excited to have her on, and some of the stuff she was sharing was, was amazing. And we were talking about you offline and how much she appreciates your message and your work and your contribution to The Secret. Uh, I'm curious if you could sum up the law of attraction in, in one phrase. What is that idea of the law of attraction for people, if they're still not sure on it?

Bob Proctor 1:03:06 Well, oddly enough, The Secret, I think, led some people down the wrong path with the law of attraction in that we didn't take the time or never got into it in depth. The law of attraction is a secondary law, and most people talk about it as a, the law of attraction. It's a law. Well, it is, but it's a secondary law. Um, and a lot of people were left with the idea you just think about it, you'll attract it. Well, that is a bunch of nonsense. That's not true at all. Um, you do attract what you think about, but your thought patterns control the vibration you're in. Vibration is a basic law of the universe. The law of vibration decrees everything moves, nothing rests. Um, the walls around you are moving. If you go and look at them through a microscope, you'll see them moving. The body in a coffin is moving. It's, um... If it wasn't moving, how would it ever change to dust? The law of vibration decrees that everything moves. We literally live in an ocean of motion. Well, your mind and body is in a vibration, and that's controlled by your thoughts. You activate cells in your brain. Your mind activates cells. That sets up a vibration in the mind and body, and the vibration you set up is gonna dictate what you attract. If you're troubled and you're in a bad mood, you're gonna attract bad stuff to you. You're on a negative frequency. So as long as you stay in that bad vibration, you're gonna attract some more bad stuff. It's just gonna keep coming, and you see it happening all the time to people. Um, it's in the Bible that we-

Lewis Howes 1:04:43 It's probably like when, it's probably like when you're, you know, you're not feeling good and you just want more ice cream or pizza. You want bad things to make you feel good as opposed to-

Bob Proctor 1:04:52 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:04:52 ... let me have a healthy salad when I'm down. You know?

Bob Proctor 1:04:54 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:04:54 It's not what we're thinking. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:04:56 Well, you see, the trick is really to keep yourself feeling good. Feeling is conscious awareness of vibration. The vibration is the basic law, and if you stay feeling good, in a good vibration, you're gonna attract good stuff. You just magnetize yourself to stuff that's good. There's, um, very few people really understand the law of vibration. Everybody is utilizing it every day, all day. You are attracting what you're in harmony with. You always have, you always will.

Lewis Howes 1:05:31 How do we put ourself-

Bob Proctor 1:05:32 Pardon?

Lewis Howes 1:05:33 Yeah. A- how do we put ourselves in a state of feeling good when there's nothing to feel good about-

Bob Proctor 1:05:40 Well, there's always something-

Lewis Howes 1:05:41 ... for some people maybe

Bob Proctor 1:05:42 ... to feel good about. Listen-

Lewis Howes 1:05:43 They're, you know, they're stressed about the world. They're stressed about their job. They're stressed about their health, their family, relationship breakups. How do they change the feeling to feel good when they're in an environment of stress?

Bob Proctor 1:05:57 Listen. There's a law called polarity. The law of polarity decrees everything has an opposite. You couldn't have an up without a down, a hot without a cold. You can't have a bad without a good. If you're looking at bad, that tells you there's gotta be good. You cannot have bad without good, and if you want to feel good, start looking for what's good. And if you start looking for what's good, you're gonna find it. You're gonna find whatever you're looking for. And the idea to say, "Well, you really can't, there's so much bad going on," that attitude is not gonna reward you at all. It's gonna give you bad stuff. You've gotta know that there's always something good. You've gotta find it.

Lewis Howes 1:06:44 Why is it so hard for people to see the good when there's so much chaos around them?

Bob Proctor 1:06:50 Because they're so programmed the wrong way They're really programmed the wrong way. We're, um, we're programmed for bad news. You don't find a good news news station. They don't have good news. People wouldn't advertise, they wouldn't go there. People are attracted to bad news, 'cause they're in a, they're in a bad vibration themself. And when they start to understand that, and then realize they can control it and change it, that's when they'll start winning. See, that's where I was. I was in a bad vibration. Everything was bad. There was nothing good. I mean, I just had one hell of a life up till I was 26. There was nothing good about it at all. And when I was 26 I met a guy that got me on this book, and he started to give me some effective education, and my whole life changed. My income went from 4,000 a year to 175,000 a year in a year, washing floors. He... The first thing he wanted to know, he wanted me to write my goal on a card. He said, "What do you really want?" I said, "Well, I want some money." I figured if I had some money, all my problems would go away. [laughs] I owed everybody and his brother money. And they're always phoning me, "Where's the money? Where's the money?" And I said, "God, if I knew where the money was, you wouldn't have to phone me anymore."

Lewis Howes 1:08:16 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:08:17 And I'd get upset with them for phoning me. And, um, so I said, "I want $25,000." If we had taken, Lewis, if we had taken all the money in the neighborhood where I lived, you wouldn't have found $25,000.

Lewis Howes 1:08:32 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:08:33 I mean, this was, it was a- an absurd goal. And, um, what he, he said, "Write it on the card and read it often." And what happened, it's only in retrospect that I became aware of what happened. Because I kept reading it, he said, like he said to me, "Your way's not working. Try mine. My way is working." He was happy, healthy, wealthy, this guy. So I kept reading this, and what happened is it got me thinking of earning money. Now, prior to that I wasn't. I was thinking of debt. All I was thinking about is debt. I owe this money, I owe that money, they were all phoning me.

Lewis Howes 1:09:09 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:09:11 And since I was thinking about it, I started hear people talking about it. And I remember this guy saying there's good money cleaning floors. I said, "I'm not proud, I don't clean floors." In five years I was cleaning floors in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Cleveland, [laughs] London, London, England. I mean, I was having a hell of a time, you know? Gotta change the programming.

Lewis Howes 1:09:35 Yeah, one of the things that I stopped doing many years ago, uh, when I had no money is I sto- I, I got rid of my TV for a few years, um, because I found myself being tr- you know, caught in just consuming a lot of news or just shows that weren't really supporting me, because I was sitting there as opposed to creating inaction-

Bob Proctor 1:09:56 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:09:56 ... doing something to, to help me earn more, to generate what I was looking for, and to work on my health and wellness, my relationships, everything, not just money. And after a few years, I didn't miss the TV, and I started making more money than ever, [clears throat] and I was in great shape, and all these different things happened. And today I have TV now. I mean, I watch Netflix, I watch sports mostly, but I don't watch the news. It's very rare if I watch the news. And I get criticized for this sometimes from people, because they're like, they're like, "Well, you should be aware of what's happening in the world. You should be educated. You should be, you know, mindful," all these things. And I w- I was... I live in a, in a, in a building here in Los Angeles, and they have a big TV in kind of the, uh, in a, in a general room where people can walk in. And I went in there the other day, and I sat down and sipped some coffee. And literally on this massive TV screen they had four different news channels up at once, kind of splitting the screen in four parts. And for 20 minutes, all they were showing on the news screens, all four channels, was just this bombing, and this is happening here in India, and this is happening in the US, and, and the rioting, and it... All, it just was chaos. And I was just like, man, if I sat here and watched this every single day, my mind would be chaotic.

Bob Proctor 1:11:09 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:11:09 'Cause I'm consuming chaos.

Bob Proctor 1:11:12 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:11:12 And like you talk about, it's changing the frequency. It's turning the channel off and getting into a different frequency is what we need to do-

Bob Proctor 1:11:18 Exactly

Lewis Howes 1:11:18 ... and not consume that. We can still be aware of it. You know, I don't wanna live in a world where I don't know what's happening, but I don't need to watch it all day to still be aware of it. Isn't that right?

Bob Proctor 1:11:27 Do you know, I think anything that, that's, I don't know, very important that you know, you'll, you'll overhear it in conversation. You don't have to watch-

Lewis Howes 1:11:38 Absolutely

Bob Proctor 1:11:38 ... the news to get it. You're gonna get it. Somebody's gonna tell you. So [laughs] I agree, you know. It's a waste of time sitting there and soaking all that up, because it, it does you no good, and it does you a lot of harm. You know?

Lewis Howes 1:11:54 It does a lot of harm.

Bob Proctor 1:11:55 When I was saying-

Lewis Howes 1:11:56 The more you do, if you... Yeah

Bob Proctor 1:11:57 ... it makes you feel bad. If you feel bad-

Lewis Howes 1:12:00 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 1:12:00 ... feeling is a word we invented to describe our conscious awareness of the vibration we're in. When you are feeling bad, you're in a negative vibration. When you're feeling good, you're in a positive vibration. That's just a basic thing that we could go by. So how do you feel good? Well, there's all kinds of ways to feel good. Think of something really pleasant, you'll start feeling good. Do something kind for somebody, you'll start to feel better. Help somebody out somewhere, you'll start to feel good. Share a good idea, you'll start to feel good. When you're feeling good, you're in a good vibration, you're gonna attract good stuff to you. Most people don't understand that feeling is conscious awareness of vibration, and the vibration you're in is dictating what you're gonna attract.

Lewis Howes 1:12:53 Ooh.

Bob Proctor 1:12:54 It's a basic thing.

Lewis Howes 1:12:55 That's so true.

Bob Proctor 1:12:55 It's so basic But it's not understood

Lewis Howes 1:12:59 It's hard for people to change the way they feel-

Bob Proctor 1:13:01 Oh

Lewis Howes 1:13:01 ... because they get, I feel like they get trapped in it. They're like-

Bob Proctor 1:13:03 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:13:03 ... "No, this is what I'm feeling." It takes them days to get out of it until they go to sleep, wake up, and maybe that resets the programming 'cause they got some sleep. I don't know. But I feel like... And I've been there many times in my past where I would hold onto things for weeks, months, and, and hold onto the negative feeling, so I get it. I've been there. But it's so much better when you can shift it faster, or just be aware of it. And I'm not saying don't feel, um, grief and sadness and anger and frustration. These are all feelings we, we probably should have a balance of feeling, but don't hold on to them.

Bob Proctor 1:13:37 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:13:37 I feel like that's what's hurts us in the long run, when we hold it o- on to those feelings.

Bob Proctor 1:13:42 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:13:44 Because I'm sure you still feel angry and upset and let down and sad at times, right?

Bob Proctor 1:13:49 Do you know, I don't get angry.

Lewis Howes 1:13:55 That's good.

Bob Proctor 1:13:55 I can't remember the last time I got angry. I may be not very pleased with people sometimes, but I, I don't get angry.

Lewis Howes 1:14:05 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:14:05 No, I really-

Lewis Howes 1:14:06 You might be disappointed.

Bob Proctor 1:14:07 I used to, I used to get angry. I used to have a hell of a temper. I had red hair, too. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:14:12 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:14:12 I think red heads have bad tempers. They, that's what they say. Well, it was true with me. Um, I can't remember the last time I was angry. I just-

Lewis Howes 1:14:23 What do you think-

Bob Proctor 1:14:23 ... decided it was a, a really silly waste of energy, you know?

Lewis Howes 1:14:28 Hmm. What do you think shifted for you in, in deciding that?

Bob Proctor 1:14:32 Oh, there's no question about what shifted, it's the studying. You know, you study, if you study the right material, you're raising your level of awareness, and people that are angry all the time are on a pretty low vibration. They're, they're not really very with it, you know?

Lewis Howes 1:14:50 So how long were you angry for in your life? How many, how many years did it take to-

Bob Proctor 1:14:54 Oh, well, when I was-

Lewis Howes 1:14:55 ... until you finally said... 40, 50, 60? How old were you?

Bob Proctor 1:15:00 Oh, I was probably... I'd probably be 60.

Lewis Howes 1:15:07 60.

Bob Proctor 1:15:07 At least. Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:15:08 And how, how young are you now, Bob?

Bob Proctor 1:15:10 I'm 86. Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:15:13 You look great, man. I hope I look as healthy and young as you at 86.

Bob Proctor 1:15:16 Well, I'm still going strong. I have no intentions of slowing down.

Lewis Howes 1:15:20 That's amazing. So at 60 you feel like you started this-

Bob Proctor 1:15:21 When I say I haven't been angry for a long time, probably, you know, it was probably up around 60 when I... I think I eliminated it, you know, as I was going along, and I realized, I think I got to the point where I realized just how silly it is to get angry. And you start to see other people getting angry, you think, "Why are you doing that?" You know? They feel justified and that kind of... You know?

Lewis Howes 1:15:45 Where do you... Yeah, where do you think you'd be if you let go of anger at 40? Where do you think you'd be in your life now?

Bob Proctor 1:15:57 Further ahead than I am.

Lewis Howes 1:15:59 Really?

Bob Proctor 1:16:00 I don't really know where, but oh, yes. There's a tremendous amount of energy that's wasted in anger. It's a dumb waste of energy.

Lewis Howes 1:16:11 Wh- why do you think we get angry?

Bob Proctor 1:16:13 We don't learn to control ourselves.

Lewis Howes 1:16:14 What is in, what is in our mind?

Bob Proctor 1:16:16 You know-

Lewis Howes 1:16:16 Hmm

Bob Proctor 1:16:16 ... if a person would take... Do you have a little book, As a Man Thinketh?

Lewis Howes 1:16:23 I've had it before, but I, I think you actually sent me one. But I, I might have given one copy away. I-

Bob Proctor 1:16:27 Well, I'm gonna send you another. I'm gonna send you another copy.

Lewis Howes 1:16:29 Yeah, yeah. I might have it, but yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:16:31 Yeah. Um, if you take the last chapter in As a Man Thinketh, it's on serenity. When you start reading that, and you read it every day, if you wrote it out every day, I often have people write it every day for 90 days. It changes your life. Um, it starts off, "Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It's the result of long and, uh, patient effort in self-control." You see, anger is when we're not in control of ourself. We're letting something outside take over. You're letting another person or a situation, maybe a flat tire, control your being, you know? The tire's flat, so the tire's flat, so what the hell? Get, get it fixed, you know? Um, but we let, we let stuff control us, and we've gotta stay in control.

Lewis Howes 1:17:37 I wanna ask you about, uh, money and relationships.

Bob Proctor 1:17:40 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:17:41 You, you've been around the block a long time. Um, you've seen a lot. You've met a lot of people. You've, you've had many different relationships in your life. Uh, how important is it to have alignment around money mindset when you're in an intimate relationship with your, your intimate partner or a business partner? What conversations should we be having around money to make sure that the partner we're in business or life with is going to support us as opposed to be a, you know, kind of thorn in the side o- of energy, if you will?

Bob Proctor 1:18:22 Well, I think money plays a very, very big role in our life. We should control the money. We should never let money control us. I love earning it. I love giving it away, too. Um, if you're in a relationship, um, understanding money in the relationship plays a very big role. You can't have one person with a, let's say, a poverty consciousness and another one with a prosperity consciousness and, and expect to have harmony in that relationship. It's just not gonna be there, 'cause there's too many things where money comes into, involved in the decision-making and conversations. And if you're not on the same page- There's trouble in River City, you know, in The Music Man, you, um... [laughs] And that's just the way it is. So I think it's very important. But the truth is not many people understand money. Very few. You know, I was mentioning my business partner, Sandy Gallagher, she was a securities attorney when I first met her. She came to a seminar, and, um, she ended up being my business partner. She owns 50% of the company, and she's the CEO of the company. She runs it. But she's a damn genius when it comes to money. On, um, I have a pad here where I write things I'm grateful for. The very top thing, Sandy's financial genius. I- that's number one in, uh, my gratitude list every day. Um, I've earned millions and millions of dollars, but it wasn't until she st- until, until she became a business partner, about 15 years ago, I guess, um, that everything in my life changed with money, 'cause she knew how to manage it. And if you don't know how to manage it, you're not gonna do very well. I don't know.

Lewis Howes 1:20:39 When we live in a state of fear, what does that do to us? And when we, the second part to this, when we feel that fear and we become aware of it, what should we be thinking or doing or acting on in order to shift into a more positive sp- state?

Bob Proctor 1:20:55 Do you know, that is one hell of a good question.

Lewis Howes 1:20:59 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:20:59 And it's a question most people are not able to answer.

Lewis Howes 1:21:02 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:21:03 First of all, the cause of fear is ignorance. That is the cause of fear. And so if you follow the ignorance, it doesn't start out as fear. The ignorance starts out in a conscious level as doubt and worry.

Lewis Howes 1:21:19 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:21:21 That's on a conscious level. We're doubting or we're worrying. Then we take whatever image comes into our consciousness of the doubt and the worry, and we turn it over to our emotional mind. That's what causes the fear. Well, that fear then has to be expressed through the body, through the only instrument it can be expressed through, our physical body. It sets up a vibration known as anxiety.

Lewis Howes 1:21:46 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:21:48 Anxiety is not expressed. Anxiety becomes suppressed.

Lewis Howes 1:21:52 Ooh.

Bob Proctor 1:21:53 We suppress it. And the suppression then turns to depression, which turns to disease, which turns to decay. You see, you're talking about a track a person gets on, it's a very negative track. It's ignorance, don't worry, fear, anxiety, suppression, depression, disease, disintegration. Now, the polar opposite of all that, the opposite of ignorance is knowledge.

Lewis Howes 1:22:24 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:22:27 There's only one way to get to knowledge, and that is to study.

Lewis Howes 1:22:31 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:22:33 Now, unfortunately, um, school didn't do the job that it was designed to do for most of us.

Lewis Howes 1:22:42 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:22:43 School should teach us to love to study.

Lewis Howes 1:22:46 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:22:46 That's really what it should do.

Lewis Howes 1:22:47 Not to, not to, not to dread studying and homework-

Bob Proctor 1:22:49 No

Lewis Howes 1:22:49 ... and tests. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:22:51 They should teach us to love it-

Lewis Howes 1:22:53 Yeah

Bob Proctor 1:22:53 ... because study leads to the opposite of don't worry, which is understanding. See, it's study that leads to understanding. We understand how to handle the fear.

Lewis Howes 1:23:04 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:23:05 It's understanding come... that enables us to, cause us to understand where the fear starts. The understanding then, we wanna say, what do we understand? We wanna understand this whole universe operates by law.

Lewis Howes 1:23:20 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:23:20 One of the laws is the law of opposite. The opposite of don't worry is understanding.

Lewis Howes 1:23:25 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:23:27 Now, if the don't worry leads to fear, what's understanding leads to? Understanding leads to faith. The faith leads to expression. Well-being and expression. It's not depression.

Lewis Howes 1:23:45 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:23:46 It's not suppression. It's not anxiety. The faith leads to well-being. The well-being then is expression, acceleration, because we're at ease. We're not at... There's not disease. So you're dealing with polar opposites.

Lewis Howes 1:24:00 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:24:00 There's two different sides to things. And when we understand that, our world starts to change. It's by understanding that that we learn how to deal with these pandemics when they hit.

Lewis Howes 1:24:15 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:24:15 And they will hit. There will be others. There always has been, all down through history. If you look back, there's been things like this happen in the past. And unfortunately, the masses are sort of paralyzed by it.

Lewis Howes 1:24:29 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:24:32 And as a people, we add to that paralysis by feeding them more of what scares them. What we should be doing is helping them understand what the hell's going on.

Lewis Howes 1:24:44 Why do we do that as people? Why do we feed people more of what scares them as opposed to what you and I do, which is try to be solutions?

Bob Proctor 1:24:49 Because that's what people want.

Lewis Howes 1:24:51 Why?

Bob Proctor 1:24:51 That's what they buy.

Lewis Howes 1:24:52 Why?

Bob Proctor 1:24:52 People don't buy good news. People buy bad news.

Lewis Howes 1:24:57 Why, though?

Bob Proctor 1:24:57 Can you imagine if everybody that tunes into CNN tuned into the School of, tuned into the School of Greatness every week?

Lewis Howes 1:25:05 It'd be amazing.

Bob Proctor 1:25:06 Can you imagine if everybody that tunes into Fox s- tuned into your School of Greatness every week? Have you any idea the impact you could have on the world?

Lewis Howes 1:25:15 That's what we're trying to do

Bob Proctor 1:25:16 It'd be enormous.

Lewis Howes 1:25:17 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:25:17 It'd be enormous.

Lewis Howes 1:25:18 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:25:19 People want bad news. It resonates with the way their mind is programmed. They're programmed with negative information.

Lewis Howes 1:25:26 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:25:27 Their paradigm is all bad news. It's what we're programmed with. Now, is everybody? No. There's a small select group of people that don't fall into that category, and they are always working diligently trying to lift everybody up. It's not an easy thing to do, but every now and then, oh well, a Lewis Howes will come along and start a School of Greatness, and he'll call in different people that feed into that concept, that are in harmony with that, that resonate with that. And so it makes it interesting for the listener, and then that's how it goes.

Lewis Howes 1:25:59 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:25:59 And that's what you're doing, and that's what I'm doing.

Lewis Howes 1:26:02 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:26:04 And it's not a losing battle. It just appears like it is.

Lewis Howes 1:26:07 [laughs] Just-

Bob Proctor 1:26:08 I'm winning.

Lewis Howes 1:26:09 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:26:10 I think you're winning. Now, we're not, we're not drawing the numbers that CNN's drawing, but the ones we draw are saying, "Absolutely."

Lewis Howes 1:26:20 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:26:21 You got it.

Lewis Howes 1:26:22 You got it. We're making an impact on them, for sure. I'm curious-

Bob Proctor 1:26:25 We are

Lewis Howes 1:26:25 ... I want to ask you more about self-doubt, 'cause this is something I've been fascinated with for the last few years, as I, I spent most of my life dealing with trying to understand how to overcome doubting myself and achieve the sports goals, business goals, relationship goals that I had throughout my younger years. And I became obsessed with learning how to eliminate doubt, and I've been researching this more and just trying to learn from people like yourself on how you have dealt with self-doubt over the years, and how you think anyone who feels like they're doubting themselves, what can they do to go from doubt into confidence? What do you think is the path?

Bob Proctor 1:27:04 Okay, that's a good question. It ties in with the previous question you asked.

Lewis Howes 1:27:08 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:27:08 What do we do with fear? S- fear comes from the doubt. So the doubt becomes the cause of the fear-

Lewis Howes 1:27:14 Mm

Bob Proctor 1:27:15 ... which is the cause of the anxiety, et cetera. The doubt is the cause. Fear is the effect. What is the polar opposite to doubt? Understanding.

Lewis Howes 1:27:25 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:27:26 It's understanding. That's the opposite of doubt. So what is it we want to understand? Well, if it's me that's entertaining doubt, why am I entertaining doubt? If I were to find out who I really am-

Lewis Howes 1:27:41 Mm

Bob Proctor 1:27:41 ... and I believe everything that's been taught down through the centuries, I would have no doubt. I would be realizing that I could do anything, and the only thing that's causing the doubt is a lack of understanding. So I'm gonna keep studying. I'll gain a better understanding. I don't doubt myself. I don't doubt what I can do. Um, does that mean that I can do everything? No. When doubt appears, I'll eliminate it, and I'll eliminate it fast, 'cause I'm gonna figure out how to do whatever it is I'm doubting.

Lewis Howes 1:28:14 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:28:15 And you see, if it's me that I'm doubting, it's because I don't understand me well enough.

Lewis Howes 1:28:20 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:28:21 I did a broadcast the other day, it was all over the place, we had thousands into it, on self-image, and we've got to get a better image of ourself. We have to get a true image of ourself, understand who we are, how our mind functions, realize this physical instrument we're living in is nothing but an instrument. It's the instrument of the mind, and the mind expresses itself with and through this thing we call our body. Well, let's understand that better. This thing, you got enough power in your one hand to light up that building you're in for probably a month.

Lewis Howes 1:28:57 Mm. Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:28:57 There's about 11 million kilowatt hours per pound potential energy locked up in the electrons in the atoms of the body. Well, that's the invisible power that's in me. I want to understand that better. How, what... That's the physical side. What's the higher side? Higher side is my intellectual side, and that is the intellectual factors that I ran through earlier, perception, the will, reason, imagination, memory, and intuition. There's six of them. And, um, as I understand those more, as I understand my intellectual factors, I'm using the things, and I'm utilizing and developing the things that separate me from all the rest of the animal kingdom, of which I'm a part.

Lewis Howes 1:29:38 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:29:39 Then I can tap into the spiritual essence of who I am, because we're spiritual beings, and that's where the greatness lies.

Lewis Howes 1:29:47 Mm-hmm. Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:29:49 It lies in understanding the spiritual essence of who we are. You see, our spiritual DNA is perfect. It requires no improvement. It requires no modification. Our spiritual essence is perfect, and that perfection is within us. So the trick is figuring out how to express it in a greater way.

Lewis Howes 1:30:09 Yeah, and not get trapped into a different type of expression through bad news or friends or parents' beliefs or whatever it is that-

Bob Proctor 1:30:16 Exactly

Lewis Howes 1:30:16 ... tries to shut us down, correct?

Bob Proctor 1:30:19 Exactly.

Lewis Howes 1:30:20 So it's-

Bob Proctor 1:30:21 And they will try and shut us down, because we're coming up, and we're saying, "I'm gonna do this." They'll say, "You gotta be out of your mind. You're gonna quit that good job? Are you crazy?" We gotta be strong enough to say, "I'm gonna follow my dream."

Lewis Howes 1:30:32 Mm. Amen to that. I'm a big believer in that.

Bob Proctor 1:30:35 Like Martin Luther King, "I have a dream." He didn't say, "I have a plan."

Lewis Howes 1:30:40 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:30:40 He didn't say, "I have a bank account." He didn't say, you know... "I have a dream. I have a image in my mind. I have a g- beautiful picture that I want to execute in my life."

Lewis Howes 1:30:53 Self-image. Uh, I love this topic about self-image. How do we reshape our self-image to serve us as opposed to bring us down?

Bob Proctor 1:31:03 Well, it's interesting. Maltz, Maxwell Maltz actually discovered self-image as we know it today. He was a cosmetic surgeon, and he found- If he operated on a person, maybe they had a distasteful scar on their face, and he removed the scar, he said sometimes there was a phenomenal change in the person's personality. But he said other times they'd remove the scar, it was very successful, no change in their personality. That led him to postulate that we not only have this physical image that reflects back from the mirror-

Lewis Howes 1:31:42 Hmm

Bob Proctor 1:31:42 ... we have an inner image of ourself. It's how we see ourself.

Lewis Howes 1:31:47 Right.

Bob Proctor 1:31:48 Now, that inner image is an idea, and that idea is generally planted in our little life when we're infants, and it's planted by virtue of the, the environment that we're surrounded by, how we're raised. If a child's raised with praise, they're gonna grow up very confident individuals. If a child's raised with criticism, they're gonna grow up very insecure. So you see, this image that we have, it's a picture of how we see ourself, but most of us, that image was planted by people that didn't know what the hell was going on. They didn't know the war was over, and they were planting... They were developing a little mind. It was a mind. They were shaping it like fresh clay.

Lewis Howes 1:32:39 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:32:39 They didn't understand that. It was a kid, they're looking after him, we feed him, we keep him warm. What the hell? You know, that's our responsibility. No, it was a mind, and they were developing that mind, and if they didn't understand, what were they gonna put in? Well, the- all they could give to the child is the insecurities that they had themself. So that was the picture that the kid grows up of themself.

Lewis Howes 1:32:59 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:33:00 Now, I grew up very insecure. I was born during the Depression. When I first went to school, the Second World War had just broken out, so everybody's rationed for everything. It was hard times. All the men were away fighting in Europe or South Pacific. There was no men doing anything. The women that were there were driving the trucks. They were cops. They did everything.

Lewis Howes 1:33:19 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:33:19 So there wasn't a whole lot of time used for developing a little mind. So I just grew up and picked up what I could, and I grew up very insecure.

Lewis Howes 1:33:29 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:33:30 It wasn't until I met a man that gave me this book and gave me some damn good instruction that I started to pay attention to who I was. And I have never stopped being fascinated with studying me.

Lewis Howes 1:33:44 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:33:45 I, I am the most fascinating subject that I've ever come across, and I have found out that you and I are exactly the same. We only appear to be different. Our physical body looks different. We choose different vocations. Some earns more or less than the other, but our potential's exactly the same.

Lewis Howes 1:34:04 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:34:04 We both live in a physical body. We both have these higher mental faculties. We're both spiritual beings. We both draw on an infinite source of supply. We're the same. So the trick, I think, for the person that has insecurities, that hasn't got the strongest image they want, they should find a damn good mentor. That's what changed my life. That's what the School of Greatness is for doing for people that are tuning into it on a regular basis. Because I don't think you have any slacks on here. I don't think you have people coming on here who don't know what the hell they're talking about. I don't think you have c- people come on here just to make a noise. I think you come on to pick the best of their mind. You're gonna pick their mind for your listening audience.

Lewis Howes 1:34:48 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:34:49 You've got a big name out there, so, uh, you know, it's... A lot of people listen to you, pay attention, so... And that's why, because you're giving them the right information. So as we start to gather this information about ourself, our image starts to change, and I start to see I'm not this skinny kid that doesn't know what the hell's happening, that did poorly-

Lewis Howes 1:35:08 Hmm

Bob Proctor 1:35:09 ... in school. I'm a spiritual being. I have a marvelous mind. I can think. If I can imagine it, I can hold it in my hand. I can do anything that I want. I've got a little book here. This is a little book I've been studying.

Lewis Howes 1:35:28 What's that called?

Bob Proctor 1:35:29 This is the book The Secret was based on.

Lewis Howes 1:35:31 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:35:32 This is the original.

Lewis Howes 1:35:33 What's it called?

Bob Proctor 1:35:34 The Science of Getting Rich.

Lewis Howes 1:35:35 Huh.

Bob Proctor 1:35:35 The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles. In fact, we're gonna be teaching that online. Um, I think starts the first of May. We have hundreds of people registered, and we're gonna be teaching it online. Science of Getting Rich, it's a wonderful book. I will have it sent... I'll have a book sent to you.

Lewis Howes 1:35:54 Oh, thank you, sir.

Bob Proctor 1:35:55 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:35:55 Appreciate it.

Bob Proctor 1:35:55 Yeah. Um, but now, I've had this book for a long time. I just keep reading it, keep reading it, keep reading it. Um, Think and Grow Rich, I keep reading it, keep reading, and all the books behind me. I got thousands of books. I am absolutely fascinated with studying who I am. And when I'm studying me, I'm studying you-

Lewis Howes 1:36:16 Mm-hmm

Bob Proctor 1:36:16 ... because we're really all the same.

Lewis Howes 1:36:17 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:36:18 The only difference is in results and understanding.

Lewis Howes 1:36:21 What, what's the thing that you wanna learn and understand, that you feel like, "You know what? I haven't fully grasped this concept or idea-

Bob Proctor 1:36:28 Oh, wow

Lewis Howes 1:36:28 ... and I really wanna get, uh, to another level"?

Bob Proctor 1:36:32 Well, I'm always wanting to get to another level. Hopefully, I'm at a higher level today than I was yesterday. I, uh, I'm in here around 5:30 every morning studying.

Lewis Howes 1:36:41 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:36:42 Um, that's how I start my day here. Well, you see, there is no end to the growth. You, you always wanna grow. So you're created in God's image. Now, there's a problem with this. Because we're raised on our physical senses, we grow up, and what we've done is had God created in our image, in our mind. Not that we're created in God's image. We're taught that we created God in our image.

Lewis Howes 1:37:19 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:37:20 So now we're trying to figure out, how can the man be omnipresent? How can that person be everywhere? And because we're locked in on a physical level, we get lost. When we understand that you have infinite potential, there is no top. There's no beginning, no end. See, when it comes to school of greatness, there is no finish line.

Lewis Howes 1:37:45 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:37:47 When it comes to personal development, there is no finish line. So how can you tell how well you're doing? By the results you're getting. By their fruits, by their fruits you'll know them.

Lewis Howes 1:37:59 Mm. Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:37:59 By the results they're getting. If they're not getting the results, they don't know. So if you're going to get a mentor, get somebody that's getting the results.

Lewis Howes 1:38:08 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:38:09 Or you don't want them.

Lewis Howes 1:38:10 Right. [laughs] What's the area of your life you feel like you still wanna grow more? Maybe it's not getting the-

Bob Proctor 1:38:15 All of them.

Lewis Howes 1:38:16 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:38:17 All the areas. All the areas. I wanna grow in all areas of my life.

Lewis Howes 1:38:20 Yeah. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:38:22 I, I never sto- I never wanna stop growing.

Lewis Howes 1:38:24 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:38:25 I never wanna stop learning.

Lewis Howes 1:38:26 Is there a specific area for you that you feel like you, you need more work on than others? Obviously all areas, but is there one?

Bob Proctor 1:38:33 Well, well there's, w- well, all of them, because my company's nowhere near where I want it. We have... I picked up a pen way back in 1973. I was living in Glenview, Illinois. I had just left the Nightingale-Conant Corporation. I worked with Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant for five years. And I sat down and I said, "I'm gonna build a company that operates all over the world."

Lewis Howes 1:38:57 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:38:58 I'd absolutely no idea how I was gonna do that, but I knew if I could think it, I could do it, because that's what all the great leaders have agreed on. They've disagreed on virtually everything else. We operate today, the Proctor Gallagher Institute operates in 88 different countries.

Lewis Howes 1:39:14 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:39:15 We have consultants that operate, that teach our material, that represent us in 88 different countries. When we stream a program, we go into around 115 countries. Now, if you'd asked me, "How are you gonna do that?" when I started, no idea. But I did know this: if you set a goal and you know how to do it, the goal probably isn't any good.

Lewis Howes 1:39:38 Ooh.

Bob Proctor 1:39:40 It probably isn't any good.

Lewis Howes 1:39:41 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:39:42 'Cause if you know how to do it, you're gonna go sideways. It's a repeat performance.

Lewis Howes 1:39:45 Wow.

Bob Proctor 1:39:46 You gotta go after something you have absolutely no idea how you're gonna do it.

Lewis Howes 1:39:51 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:39:51 Now, I've had the good fortune of working with, uh, Edmund Hillary. He, um, was a beekeeper from Auckland, New Zealand. He was the first man to climb Mount Everest. He went there in '51 and he failed. He went back in '52 and he failed. But in 1953, he and Tenzing Norgay stood on top of the mountain. But he couldn't tell you till after he got there how he was gonna do it.

Lewis Howes 1:40:18 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:40:19 And nobody could tell him, because nobody had ever done it.

Lewis Howes 1:40:22 Before we continue this video, make sure to subscribe below and turn on the notification bell right now so you don't miss out on these great videos every single day.

Bob Proctor 1:40:31 [upbeat music]

Bob Proctor 1:40:35 This is one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. I'm gonna read it through, it's only about 20 lines, and then we'll talk about it for a few minutes.

Lewis Howes 1:40:48 Great.

Bob Proctor 1:40:48 "My mind is a center of divine operation. The divine operation is always for expansion and fuller expression. And this means the production of something beyond what has gone before, something entirely new, not included in past experience, though proceeding out of past experience by an orderly sequence of growth. Therefore, since the divine cannot change its inherent nature, it must operate in the same manner in me. Consequently, in my own special world in which I am the center, it will move forward to produce new conditions, always in advance of any that has gone before." I'm going to, um, I'm just gonna photograph, I'll take a picture of this page and I'll, I'll, uh, I'll send it to you. That-

Lewis Howes 1:41:38 Please.

Bob Proctor 1:41:39 The start of this is the key. My mind is a center of divine operation. Now, if I held a basketball here, there's only one point in that basketball that's center, isn't there?

Lewis Howes 1:41:52 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:41:53 And that's determined by the outer measurements of the ball. Agreed?

Lewis Howes 1:41:57 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:41:58 There's only one center in this studio. I don't know where it is, I don't even know how to find it, but I know somebody would know how to find it. In all things, there is only one center. This literature says, "My mind is a center," which would indicate there's more than one center.

Lewis Howes 1:42:15 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:42:16 So if you study this long enough, and I finally figured out why, this, the man that wrote this is one of the most brilliant writers I think I've ever studied, Thomas Troward. My mind is a center. When you're deal- when you're dealing with divine operation, you're talking about infinite, there is no outer ring, so any point's center.

Lewis Howes 1:42:36 Hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:42:37 Your mind, Lewis, is a center of divine operation, and the divine operation's always for expansion and fuller expression. This means the production of something beyond what's gone before. So there's something coming, it's gonna be better than everything in the past. I'm gonna send this to you. I want you to read it every day for 90 days.

Lewis Howes 1:43:00 Okay. Yeah. Send it to me. I'll print it out.

Bob Proctor 1:43:02 This will stretch your mind. When you say, "What are you study?" I want to, I want to expand my awareness. I want a greater awareness of my relationship with the whole scheme of things.

Lewis Howes 1:43:13 Isn't it crazy that we are standing on a moving ball in the middle of infinite space?

Bob Proctor 1:43:21 Yes. Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:43:23 When we, when we think about that sometimes, that it's, we're on a little ball, a little dot on a little ball that's rotating-

Bob Proctor 1:43:30 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:43:31 ... in the middle of infinite space. [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:43:38 [laughs] Moving at a ridiculous speed. Do you know, the more you study this, the more you realize what a magnificent creation you are. When you stop and just take a look at your hand, there's enough potential energy in that little finger to light up this building for probably a month.

Lewis Howes 1:44:07 Mm.

Bob Proctor 1:44:08 There's about 11 million kilowatt hours per pound potential energy locked up in the electrons in the atoms of the body. We are a m- a living dynamo. The blood circulates through your body, hundreds of miles of passageway, every 33 seconds, carrying all the food in, all the garbage out, boom, like that in one sweeping change. For you to move any part of your body, you must activate brain cells. The brain is an electronic switching station. The more we study and look at this, the more mind-boggling it is. You know, we're t- we're God's highest form of creation. Um, that's taught in all religions. There's only a half a dozen religions. There in California, you've got, I think 500, but everybody starts [laughs] their own there.

Lewis Howes 1:45:05 [laughs]

Bob Proctor 1:45:07 And the truth is, you can start your own religion there, and many do.

Lewis Howes 1:45:10 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:45:11 But there's a half a dozen major religions. They all teach essentially the same thing. We're truly God's highest form of creation, and we act sometimes not much better than some of the animals that we keep as pets, you know? You, I think, shows like yours can do such an enormous amount of good.

Lewis Howes 1:45:41 Mm, thank you.

Bob Proctor 1:45:41 Well, what you really do, you provoke people to think about a lot of different things. And if people will begin to think, thinking is the highest function we're capable of, and thinking can be taught. Unfortunately, it's not being taught, but it can. You know, it's highest function we're capable of, you know, so it's, um, it's worthwhile learning.

Lewis Howes 1:46:16 Absolutely. I think a lot of us are... We're not taught to think. We are conditioned to react i- to what's-

Bob Proctor 1:46:22 Oh, no question about that

Lewis Howes 1:46:23 ... happening around us, and we, and we react. We don't think before we react. We just react, and so that's what causes us a lot of stress and overwhelm.

Bob Proctor 1:46:31 You know, Victor-

Lewis Howes 1:46:32 Uh, um-

Bob Proctor 1:46:32 ... Frankl wrote a marvelous book, Man's Search for Meaning. I don't know if you're familiar with it.

Lewis Howes 1:46:37 Yep.

Bob Proctor 1:46:38 He, um, well, he, he was a marvelous author, and he said, in every situation, between the situation and your response, there's a space. It might only be a, a millisecond, but in that space, you have the ability to choose how you're gonna react or respond. When you react, whatever you're reacting to is in control of you, whether it's another person, a condition, or a circumstance. When you respond to the same thing, you stay in control.

Lewis Howes 1:47:15 Ooh, so when you react, they're in control, the environment is. When you respond, you're in control.

Bob Proctor 1:47:21 Yeah. Um, Sandy Gallagher, my partner, she was... She has a niece, and her niece was at her house one day, and I happened to phone, and she says, "Would you talk to Anna for me?" And, um, she was having a problem with her mother. And I was thinking, well, probably you're right, but I would imagine your mother thinks she's having a problem with you, you know? And, um, what they were doing, she was reacting, and I got, I got explaining to her. I said, "Listen, doesn't matter what happens, doesn't matter what happens, you have a choice. You're either gonna react or respond. When you react, you have lost control of you, and you've given control to the other person, or the conditions, or other circumstance. When you respond, exactly the same situation, nothing's changed, only you respond." You could say, "I wonder why she's saying it like that. I wonder why she wants me to do that now. I wonder why she's upset with me." Well, her mother apparently, if I get this story right, apparently got ahold of Sandy and wanted to know what the hell was going on with Anna [laughs] when she went home. She was so different. That's what... That's a huge lesson to learn.

Lewis Howes 1:48:48 Mm-hmm. I wanted to go back to, uh, a question around conversations with partners in your life and money, 'cause I think we-

Bob Proctor 1:48:59 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:48:59 ... you know, you started sharing some other powerful idea, and then I kept following up on different stuff. What types of conversations should we have with new intimate relationships we get into, new business partnerships we get into, around money in order to make sure that we are aligned on money conversations and money in general, and make sure they're a good fit for our life long term, whether in business or intimacy?

Bob Proctor 1:49:27 Well, I think you, um... First of all, I think you observe the other person's behavior with respect to money Um, some people are very, very frugal. They just don't want to part with any of it. It was like if they hold onto it, it's gonna grow or something. And, uh, you would have a pretty, pretty serious job on your hands try to get them to change that because that is very deeply ingrained, and it's usually inherited. It's usually genetic. Um, I think you have to stop and talk about how it's earned, and then talk about giving. We've got to learn to willingly give and graciously receive. Um, that's very important we get that down right. And find out what the other person's attitude is in giving money. I think tithing is a, um, probably one of the best ideas that have ever come down the road. Now, some people say, well, tithing, they think of giving money to their church, and then they wonder what the church is gonna do. I said, "It doesn't matter what the church... If they burned it, it wouldn't matter. It's that you're giving on a regular basis, a percentage of all you earn." I says, "The farmer does that with his crop, you know? Farmer will take a percentage of the crop and put it back in the earth. And, um, I think we should take a percentage of what we earn and do good work with it, you know?" Find out what their philosophy is about money. Frequently, if I start to work with somebody, one of the first things I ask them is what the most they've ever earned in a year. I don't really care what the answer is, but I want to know what the answer is, 'cause that'll tell me where their paradigm is with respect to money.

Lewis Howes 1:51:36 Hm. And what if people don't like talking about money?

Bob Proctor 1:51:42 Well, that, [laughs] that's a signal in itself. They have, um, they got a bad relationship with it if they don't want to talk about it.

Lewis Howes 1:51:52 How could someone have a better relationship with money, uh, if they're afraid of it? How do we start to reprogram that relationship?

Bob Proctor 1:51:59 Well, money has no power. Money has absolutely no power other than what we give it. First of all, money is a, is a piece of paper with ink on it. We give it the value.

Lewis Howes 1:52:15 Hm.

Bob Proctor 1:52:15 Um, I have, um, a book here by, um, Robert Russell, um, something about prosperity. Most of the books I have on money don't really talk much about money.

Lewis Howes 1:52:40 Hm.

Bob Proctor 1:52:41 Uh, Think and Grow Rich doesn't talk much about money.

Lewis Howes 1:52:45 Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:52:45 It's a philosophy. It's about you. It's what makes you tick. Almost all the books, I've got a number of them here, um, on money, they don't talk much about money. They talk about it's the attitude, it's the, uh, it's the programming. It's how you util- how you use the money. If a person's income is not continually growing, then it's dying. Our income should be continually growing.

Lewis Howes 1:53:23 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:53:23 And I think you should always want to earn more. The... Not to have it, but to be able to use it, but it's gonna cause you to reach. To earn more, you have to provide more. Money's a reward received for service rendered, so you got to provide more service, so whatever you're doing, you got to do it better than you're now doing it.

Lewis Howes 1:53:46 Right. I've always thought that the, the amount of money you make is directly related to the amount of value you bring into the world and your ability to package and position that value in order to receive it.

Bob Proctor 1:54:01 Oh, no question about it.

Lewis Howes 1:54:02 There's, there's a lot of pe- there's a lot of people that a- add a lot of value in the world, but they don't know how to package it so that they can, you know, earn... To, to, to receive the money and have someone give it to them. Um, and so it's learning kind of those skills. Yeah.

Bob Proctor 1:54:16 Well, the earning of money is, is an exact science, and it's, it's governed by law.

1:54:21 If your body becomes sweet and pleasant, it's called health and pleasure. If your mind becomes very pleasant, it's called peacefulness and joyfulness.

Lewis Howes 1:54:30 Mm-hmm.

Bob Proctor 1:54:31 If your emotions become pleasant, it's called love and compassion. Only if your surroundings become pleasant, it's called success. Only to achieve success, you need