Manifest ABUNDANCE: 5 Limiting Beliefs Blocking your QUANTUM Breakthrough | Price Pritchett

Price Pritchett 0:00 Everybody's made quantum leaps before they reach school age because you come into this world, you can't speak, you can't feed yourself, you can't get around. And by the age of three, you're doing all three of those things. Now, go and look at what that child did.

Lewis Howes 0:16 Over and over and over again.

Price Pritchett 0:17 Over and over and over again. They had no methodology. They just knew what they wanted, and they were willing to make mistakes to show them the way there. It's that process of being willing to take new risks, change your modus operandi, fail your way to success.

Lewis Howes 0:35 I think you gotta have a dream. The school of greatness. Really? [laughs] Yeah. Please welcome Lewis Howes. What is a quantum leap in the first place? Can you explain that and define what a quantum leap is? And then we'll talk about how people can create that in their life.

Price Pritchett 0:50 In 1974, I moved from Chicago, the firm I was with there, to Dallas, and started my own company. So then, at the end of the 1970s, I decided to change our game and make a quantum leap. And-

Lewis Howes 1:06 In your own business.

Price Pritchett 1:06 In my own business. Uh-

Lewis Howes 1:07 So, so what were you doing then? You were working with corporate clients-

Price Pritchett 1:10 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:10 ... at a certain rate, and you had a certain amount of clients, making a certain amount every year, maybe incremental gains.

Price Pritchett 1:15 Exactly.

Lewis Howes 1:16 Year after year, 5%, 10%.

Price Pritchett 1:17 And it was nice.

Lewis Howes 1:17 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 1:18 You know, business was going well, but I realized that, well, what I was seeing on an individual executive level in terms of the quantum leaps, uh, you know, there's vast differences in terms of people's achievement levels, companies would do the same things because, let's say, you got company A, $500 million company, 7% annual growth, okay? And it's doing good. Company B, about the same size, might be a competitor, and it's half a billion dollar company, and it's growing nicely. But then one day, company A goes out and acquires company C, and it doubles just like that. And I was just fascinated by this because it met all of the things I wanted to do. You know, it... Merger integrations, mergers and acquisitions are the big table. That's the big game. It's the biggest game in business, and that's where I wanted us to play. And so I set, I had set this quantum leap goal for us, which was absurd, which I think really good quantum leap goals are. They're-

Lewis Howes 2:30 They're crazy.

Price Pritchett 2:30 Yeah, they're kinda crazy.

Lewis Howes 2:31 They seem, like, unrealistic.

Price Pritchett 2:33 Yes.

Lewis Howes 2:34 We shouldn't be going after this.

Price Pritchett 2:35 Right. Who are you to think you can do this? But I said, "We're gonna be number one merger and integration experts in the country."

Lewis Howes 2:42 Wow.

Price Pritchett 2:43 And we were in s- six years. I had no business setting out that kind of a goal. And people think, "Well, I don't know how to do this, so I can't do it."

Lewis Howes 3:01 They focus on the means, not the end.

Price Pritchett 3:03 Right. And so it's like, "Well, I, I don't know how to do that, so that, obviously I can't do it." But anything of significance that a person has achieved over their life, they didn't know how to do it when they started.

Lewis Howes 3:18 That's true.

Price Pritchett 3:19 A quantum leap is one of those things that's dead solid perfect within the realm of possibility for you. You just haven't done it yet.

Lewis Howes 3:32 Mm.

Price Pritchett 3:33 Um, but it's, it's a real stretch goal, and the thing about it is, if you set your goal right, it forces you out of your m- current modus operandi.

Lewis Howes 3:52 If you set your goal correctly, how do you know how to set your goal the right way in order to create a quantum leap in your life?

Price Pritchett 4:00 There's several things about goal setting that I think are real key points. Um, if you're shooting to make this kind of an expo- exponential leap in performance, so then first it needs to be a serious stretch goal. You need to scare the horses, you know?

Lewis Howes 4:20 It needs to scare you.

Price Pritchett 4:21 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 4:22 You need to be like, "Oh."

Price Pritchett 4:22 There needs to be some... There needs to be... But secondly, it needs to be a goal that, that, it needs to be a love story around that goal, I think, um, because when you go for a big goal, any goal of much significance, you're gonna have some setbacks. Uh, you're gonna have some obstacles that come along. You're gonna get kind of banged up and bruised up maybe. And you need to care enough. You know, the heart is what sustains you through that. And so there, you know, people talk about a passion for this, for this goal, and I think, well, that's a, a fine word and it fits, but some people say, "Well, I just don't have that passion." Well, you just need to care for it or at least be committed enough to it that you say, "I'm gonna stay the course. I will, I will put myself out there." And I think that, um, it needs to be your goal, not somebody else's goal for you.

Lewis Howes 5:30 Mm.

Price Pritchett 5:30 Not a should or ought to goal. I think a fundamental mistake that a lot of people make is they don't believe in themselves enough, and they don't reach high enough. Who is it? Astro Teller, who's the head of Google X, you know, their innovative arm, that said, "10% can be as hard as 10x." You know, a 10% improvement, not necessarily any improver. Small acquisitions were every bit as difficult to make work as the big ones. Which is kind of a counterintuitive thought. I mean, normally people don't go out with their mind drifting down that path. But with You Squared, the handbook is, it's kind of based on counterintuitive ideas, kind of things that stop you and kind of, you know, make yourself uncomfortable. It, you know, that's one of the points. Well, why would I want to do that? You're an athlete. If you're not willing to make yourself uncomfortable, you gotta get off the field.

Lewis Howes 6:38 Absolutely. Yeah. And so it's almost like 10X is just as easy or just as challenging as 2X, and it's about how you frame it and about going after it the right way is what it sounds like. They're both gonna be challenging, so you might as well go for the bigger leap than the one that's, like, just a little bit more uncomfortable. So, so if people are looking to make more money, make a bigger impact, and work with more influential people in their life, or people that are more disciplined and up to a bigger game, which is what it sounds like that you wanted to do early in your career. You wanted to make more money, you wanted to make a bigger impact, a bigger difference, and you wanted to work with leaders. What was it inside of you that said, "Okay, I'm gonna make this quantum leap"? Was there s- was it a moment? Did you feel like you put in all the work that you needed to? Was it an awakening? Was there a breakdown you were facing in your life where you said, "Okay, I'm, I'm not happy with incremental growth year after year in my personal or professional life"? What was that deciding moment that said, "I'm gonna try something unconventional and completely change the course of my life?"

Price Pritchett 7:46 Boredom.

Lewis Howes 7:47 Boredom. [laughs]

Price Pritchett 7:48 Boredom and, and just-

Lewis Howes 7:49 Lack of purpose with-

Price Pritchett 7:51 ... hu- and hungry

Lewis Howes 7:51 ... uh-huh

Price Pritchett 7:52 I was hungry for, for scaling up. I mean, really a, a major scaling up. I, I thought that we were, we weren't making any mistakes.

Lewis Howes 8:04 You weren't failing enough.

Price Pritchett 8:05 We weren't. I mean, we were on autopilot. I mean, the place it, we were in too smoothly, and it began to just bore me, and I got disgusted.

Lewis Howes 8:14 Why do people get so comfortable?

Price Pritchett 8:17 Why do they get so comfortable?

Lewis Howes 8:19 Yeah, yeah. When they used to have quantum leaps, you know, from not, from crawling to w- walking to running to... And then it's just kind of sitting.

Price Pritchett 8:28 People are so different. I mean, they're so alike too, but they're so different, and some people just have a much higher need for achievement. Uh, some people have a much higher energy level. And some, you know, on and on and on. Um-

Lewis Howes 8:44 The human needs might be different

Price Pritchett 8:45 They're just different.

Lewis Howes 8:47 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 8:47 And-

Lewis Howes 8:47 Some people want growth, some people want achievement, some people want contribution

Price Pritchett 8:50 Some people want to, a job that, th- they want to nurture other people. I, I got a PhD in psychology. I did a year-long clinical internship. I worked on a psychiatric ward. That is not... And I knew from the word go that that was not where I would end up. It just, uh... But you got people, they're drawn to that, and that's a, the wonderful thing about the world, the difference. Uh, but the truth is, I don't care where, I don't care what direction a person is drawn, they can make quantum leaps in that, in that zone, whatever their strike zone is. But I don't really spend a lot of time, I guess, trying to talk people into making a quantum leap unle- unless they have something inside just-

Lewis Howes 9:49 They gotta want it

Price Pritchett 9:50 ... gnawing at them.

Lewis Howes 9:51 They gotta be hungry. They gotta be, you know, anxious about something changing. They gotta want to change.

Price Pritchett 9:58 They do.

Lewis Howes 9:58 'Cause some people know they want something more, but they don't know exactly what it is.

Price Pritchett 10:02 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 10:03 And so they're in the uncertainty of, "Well, I'm not sure which direction I should go in." And here's another problem I see, is people have too many passions. I've got this idea and this idea and this idea. Which one do I choose? And when someone has 10 different passions or different roads that they could go down, how do they know which one they should go down?

Price Pritchett 10:26 That want to factor, that's the X factor. And, um, you know, people talk about willpower. Well, I wanna talk about wantpower.

Lewis Howes 10:37 Mm.

Price Pritchett 10:38 Um, I-

Lewis Howes 10:39 What does that mean?

Price Pritchett 10:40 Oh, it's, wantpower is how much do you want this thing? Again, you know, how much are you in love with this idea? Um, I do think that there are times when we're kind of directionless, or a person certainly can be. And so for that poor soul, although they might be happy, content, doing fine really, but they, they'd kind of like something to change and be bigger and better and more dramatic or whatever. And so sometimes I think we can maybe find that magical era just by playing with a curiosity, uh, or saying yes to a random opportunity that just comes smack in front of us. Um, uh, or maybe deciding, "Well, I'm gonna muscle up one of my superpowers. I'm gonna sort of really get into that because I have fun with that and I'm good at it." So those are things, I think, that one can, can play with when they're n- they're, they're not, um, just-

Lewis Howes 11:57 They're not sure the direction

Price Pritchett 11:58 ... pushing.

Lewis Howes 11:58 Yeah, yeah.

Price Pritchett 11:59 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 11:59 Yeah. And it sounds like once we ... can figure out which direction we wanna go in to make a quantum leap. It's hard to make a decision of which direction to go for some people, where other people just know, "This is the thing I love. I'm excited about this. I have some skills or talent around this idea or this thing, and I'm gonna go all in on it." But once you can figure out the path you're going and the direction you're gonna take, how do you know it's time to take a quantum leap in that path versus, "All right. I gotta figure out my bearings and figure out where I'm heading in this direction and just kind of create some goals and, and get it going. But how do I know when my time is ready for a unconventional growth spurt, for a leap so big and grand that other people think I'm crazy and laugh at me when I talk about it?"

Price Pritchett 12:51 I don't think you will necessarily know. I think you make a decision. One of the chapters in the You² Handbook is Make Your Move Before You're Ready. Um, I'll tell you where big dreams go to die.

Lewis Howes 13:14 Tell me.

Price Pritchett 13:16 They go to the planning place, getting ready place.

Lewis Howes 13:22 Mm.

Price Pritchett 13:23 Um, preparing myself, and it's the biggest con job we work on ourselves. There are so many bones of big dreams [laughs] in that graveyard where people... Th- it's always something, that there's always going to be a set of reasons to wait, and it's like Gilda Radner. That line of hers on Saturday Night, Night Live, you know, “It's always something.” Well, it is. Um, and so when are you gonna take the risk? You pick 10 people at random, and I'll bet $100 that we can find quantum leaps in every one of them.

Lewis Howes 14:10 Really?

Price Pritchett 14:11 Oh, yeah. And if you stop and think about it, everybody's made quantum leaps before they reach school age.

Lewis Howes 14:19 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 14:19 Because you come into this world naked. You can't speak. You can't feed yourself. You can't get around. And by the age of three, you're doing all three of those things.

Lewis Howes 14:34 Mm, it's true. It's pretty incredible.

Price Pritchett 14:37 Now, go and look at what that child did. They were willing to fail.

Lewis Howes 14:45 Over and over and over again.

Price Pritchett 14:46 Over and over and over again. They had no methodology. They just knew what they wanted, and they were willing to make mistakes to show them the way there. And it's the same thing when they learn to ride a bicycle, when they learn to swim-

Lewis Howes 15:03 Mm

Price Pritchett 15:04 ... when they learn to run as opposed to walk. And so those are all... That's not an incremental thing. You can't crawl fast enough to become a walker. It... You know, you gotta change the game. It's a totally different game. Wading is W-A-D-I-N-G in the water, is v- you can't wade fast enough to swim. And so it's that, it's that process of being willing to take new risks, change your modus operandi, fail your way to success.

Lewis Howes 15:39 Mm-hmm. You talk about seeking failure, uh, in one of the chapters of You², and in another chapter about suspend disbelief, I loved a few quotes in this because I believe self-doubt is the pill- biggest killer of dreams. It's what holds us back from taking the steps necessary to fail often, frequently, in order to make those big leaps. And in your, your chapter on suspend disbelief, you started with saying, "Act as if your success is for certain." Most people have so much doubt. Is this possible? What happens if I fail? What happens if I do succeed? The pressure. What about all the judgment I'm gonna get from the actions and the failures? And you say, "If you must doubt something, doubt your limits." I love that line. And one other line that really stood out to me is, "Your doubts are not the product of accurate thinking but habitual thinking." And when I read that, I was like, wow, this is so true. It's not a product of accurate thinking. It's of habitual thinking. We've been thinking limited consistently, and this habit of thinking limited keeps us im- in a limited, uh, state of being, state of mind, as opposed to accurate thinking what is possible. We don't step into that enough. And this whole chapter really opened up for me because I, I... My thesis in life is self-doubt is the killer of dreams. And when we can learn to believe in self, which is something you talked about here as well, needing to believe in yourself, uh, it needs to be your goal, and you need to have a love story around this pursuit. But if we can't learn to believe in self, it's gonna be hard. You can love the idea of your goal. You can have clear goals. But if you doubt you, your dreams are going to die. And I think that's a challenging thing for people to say, "Well, how do I learn to believe in self? How do I learn to have accurate thinking, not habitual thinking? How do I, uh, you know, learn to doubt my limits as opposed to doubting myself, and how do I learn to act as if my success is for certain when I've always doubted me?" What do you say to, to that statement?

Price Pritchett 17:54 Yeah, it's a, it's a killer question. Um, well, you get to choose how you behave. To heck with your thinking Let's say your thinking is what it is, and it's riddled with doubt. It, you're ravaged with doubt. You still get to choose how you behave. Um, and you can, you can act like you've got what it takes. You can.

Lewis Howes 18:28 You can act.

Price Pritchett 18:29 You can do it.

Lewis Howes 18:29 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 18:29 And it's not easy, and you can feel like, uh, like, "I'm faking this. Oh, am I ever faking this."

Lewis Howes 18:36 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 18:37 But, um-

Lewis Howes 18:38 The best actors in Hollywood make a lot of money.

Price Pritchett 18:40 Exactly.

Lewis Howes 18:41 And they're playing a role.

Price Pritchett 18:42 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 18:43 They aren't that role.

Price Pritchett 18:44 That's right.

Lewis Howes 18:44 That's not who they are in their normal life, but they're playing a role, and the better you can act, the more money you can make in Hollywood.

Price Pritchett 18:51 Well, it was, uh, George Burns or someone that said something about, I won't get this precise, but it's something like, "Authenticity is the key. If you can fake that, you got it made."

Lewis Howes 19:01 [laughs] Right, right, right.

Price Pritchett 19:02 You know, uh, but so the, so that's one thing, and just go against everything that's going on inside you because most people are not gonna know. And but there's another thing. Manage your remembering.

Lewis Howes 19:20 What does that mean? Your memory of painful moments?

Price Pritchett 19:22 Yeah. What, what you go back and what you, what you dwell on. Um, when you go back over the years, I mean, I can go back just like that. I can think something, and I can, I can pull up again and again and again all these times that I've been embarrassed, I've been humiliated, I've failed, dropped the ball. Uh, you know, I can dwell on that if I want to, but I can also go back and the times that I pulled it off, the times I, I did it right. I surprised myself, how good it felt when I was good to somebody else. You know, on and on and on. So you get to, you get to dwell on whatever you want to dwell on, and we're too indiscriminate. It's kinda like these two voices we got in our head. We got a hero voice, and we got a villain voice, you know? And who are you gonna give airtime to? Um, people talk about having a coach. Well, the coach that is closest to you is the voices inside your head. You're coaching yourself all the time, and you get to decide which voice you want to hand the mic to. And the villain voice is very compelling, and he's, he's a con artist because so much of the time he's like, "I'm here to protect you, buddy. I'm on your side. I'm gonna keep you from screwing up. I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to embarrass yourself. You know, just listen to me." Now, and so he focuses on mistakes, on your weaker points, and all the why nots. Your hero voice focuses on your strengths, your accomplishments, and so on and so on. They say we have some 50,000 thoughts a day. I don't know if that's right, but you know, that, let's just say it's, that's the realm, that we have some 50,000 thoughts a day. Um, this kinda takes us into this whole conversation, which I think is an interesting, interesting thing to kick around, which is this whole thing about optimism versus pessimism. That's kinda what, if we wanna give big labels to what we're talking about here, um, if you ask people, and I've asked this of crowds, keynote after keynote after keynote, training sessions, and so on, "How many of you in the room would say you're an optimist?" And you wanna... You, I know you would say-

Lewis Howes 22:08 Absolutely

Price Pritchett 22:08 ... your hand would be up. Well, 78% of the people in America label themselves optimists. 17% say, "Yeah, I'm pessimist," and maybe they're kind of even proud of it. But then you, well, there's, there's a few percentages missing, and invariably you'll have someone, particularly if it's a small enough group, and they'll speak up, and they'll say, "Well, you know, I consider myself objective."

Lewis Howes 22:39 [laughs] Right.

Price Pritchett 22:41 You know? "I, I'm, I'm not really optimistic." Well, they're pessimistic. They, they're the pessimist in wolf's clothing, typically.

Lewis Howes 22:48 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 22:48 But the split really in the United States is 50/50. And so you got 50 to 78%, you got 18% of the people that are being a little generous with themselves. And so we kinda grow up, I guess in general you just kinda pick up this message, this idea that you're supposed to think positive, you know, think more positive thoughts. And you may have read about this, but if a... And I will ask crowds this: "Which do you think is more important, more positive thinking or less negative thinking?" And I'll say, "This is not a trick question," and I'll let them wrestle with that for a little bit. And for the group that we're talking to today, it's a very provocative question. Which is more important? Where do you get the most mileage, more positive thinking or less negative thinking? And the studies are unequivocal. It's less negative thinking. Now, you, the, the thing that gets us tangled up is that I guess pretty much all of us think of it as, okay, you've got this linear scale here. You know? And we'll say at the high end, the good end, is optimism, and at the low end is pessimism, negative thinking. Well, studies show that they're actually two different scales. Really? And this is just fascinating to me. Um, you should... Positive thinking is important. You keep it up, keep it high. But if you wanna get your real knowledge, just cut down on the negative thinking. Cut it down, cut it down, cut it down. That's the villain voice. That's the critic in your head. That's the demotivator, that's the discounter, that's the one that raises the doubts, and you can shut it up. It takes practice, it takes some discipline, but people say, "Well, I think I'm aware of my negative thinking," but they're not. About 70% of our negative thinking goes unperceived by us. It w- it is so embedded in our day-to-day behavior-

Lewis Howes 25:05 We're not even aware of it

Price Pritchett 25:06 ... we're not even aware of it. About 70%. It is so much, uh, just ingrained in the way we go about living, uh-

Lewis Howes 25:14 It's habitual thinking.

Price Pritchett 25:16 Yes. And so let me show you how, tell you how it shows up. I've talked about the five Cs.

Lewis Howes 25:20 Okay.

Price Pritchett 25:21 Okay? The sneak attack of the five Cs. Okay, the first one is complaining. Gripping, gripping, gripping. You know, "It's too hot in Dallas." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 25:36 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 25:36 Well, it, it is.

Lewis Howes 25:37 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 25:38 But, that's not gonna change if I gripe about it. Okay, so the first one is complaining. The next one's criticizing. Well, the grid went down today in Texas. We had brownouts. My air conditioners... You know, and, like, there's always someone to criticize. So we've got complaining, we got criticizing. Next one is concern, and I'm not talking about being empathic here and having concern for some other person. I'm talking about garden variety worry. "I'm concerned about this. Well, I'm concerned about inflation. Well, I'm concerned about, you know, the news." All right? The next one is commiserating.

Lewis Howes 26:19 Commiserating.

Price Pritchett 26:20 We come in, and I sit down with this person, and they start their Cs, their C talk.

Lewis Howes 26:28 They're com- they're complaining, they're bitching.

Price Pritchett 26:29 And I say, "I get it, man. Yeah, I understand." I'm not doing anybody any good. When I start commiserating, I'm not doing anyone any good. It's, it's, um... It's destructive to both of us. And then the last one is catastrophizing, which is just when you're really down, you just blow things all out of proportion, you know? But those things sneak in. If you start watching people, watching ourselves, how much we do this... And of course, we're, we're surrounded by so much negativity. You know, y- you go, you listen to the news, you get on social media, and on and on and on.

Lewis Howes 27:14 So we gotta learn how to cut out the negative thinking versus adding more positive thinking. 'Cause you can keep adding positive thinking, but if you've got dirty water in the water, it's still gonna be dirty. So you gotta remove the, the, the dirty, the challenging thoughts to have more pure energy, cleaner energy that can make you more effective, more efficient.

Price Pritchett 27:35 Beautiful. Yeah, yeah. Now, here's what's interesting. It... So we're, we're talking about making a quantum leap. We're talking about change. And really, if you said, "What, what are you all about, Price? What, you know, your life, what, where did you point yourself?" Well, I w- I just got caught up in positioning people to do more with themselves.

Lewis Howes 28:01 Mm.

Price Pritchett 28:02 There's so much out there, and people have so much potential to do things with themselves. Uh, let's arm them. Let's, let's position them to do what they can do with themselves.

Lewis Howes 28:14 You said there was two different scales. One is about optimism and pessimism, essentially, right? Is that what the, the two different-

Price Pritchett 28:22 Yeah

Lewis Howes 28:22 ... sides of the spectrum? And you're saying that if we want to increase our confidence, if we want to increase our belief in self, one of the things that we can do is start removing, uh, pessimism, negative thoughts, negative thinking from our life. But a lot of people might say, "Well, Price, that's great and all, but that just sounds a little too woo-woo-y. That sounds a little too fluffy for me. Just be more positive, think more positively. Is that really gonna help me create more quantum leaps? Um, and shouldn't I have some, you know, critical thinking and really, you know, question and doubt things? Or is that just being, you know... Am I being too negative if I do that?"

Price Pritchett 29:03 Okay. When we, when someone decides they want to make a quantum leap-

Lewis Howes 29:09 Mm-hmm

Price Pritchett 29:09 ... they're talking about major change. Now, let's talk about what happens when change hits, in this case, self-imposed change. Now, I've seen this for decades in organizations where it's major change. You're being acquired, you're being merged, you're being downsized, you're being restructured, okay? And so it's self-imposed when we're making quantum leap, but the same dynamics come into play as when the world, our world, the company we work for or whatever, the organization that we're stuck in, all of a sudden goes, takes a hard right turn. So here's what happens when change hits. The first scan is for danger. That's how we're wired.

Lewis Howes 30:01 Danger. Whenever there's change, it feels like there's danger.

Price Pritchett 30:03 Yeah. What could go wrong here? How could I get hurt in this deal? Um, what's going to happen to me? And all of these me issues come into mind. So Who was it? John Dryden that said, "Self-defense is nature's oldest law"? And so our defense mechanisms come into play. But when change hits, whether it's imposed on us or self-imposed, the first thing that happens is, okay, things are changing and the fir- the future gets a little blurry. So we got a new dose of ambiguity and uncertainty, okay? And people vary greatly in their tolerance for ambiguity. Uh, [laughs] the second thing that happens is the trust level drops in an organization. If you're gonna change yourself, make a quantum leap, the trust level in yourself drops too. The villain voice goes crazy with that. Um, so we got the ambiguity and uncertainty, the drop in self-trust-

Lewis Howes 31:14 Mm-hmm

Price Pritchett 31:14 ... and then self-preservation takes over as a driver of behavior. It does in an organization, and it does in you as an individual when you start to make a quantum leap. Okay, and so we're in the negative zone now.

Lewis Howes 31:28 Mm. It's all negative. It's all negative energy.

Price Pritchett 31:31 Yeah, it's concern. It's, uh, concern, concern, concern. And we may be griping, we may be criticizing, complaining, all of this kind... commiserating with the people around us. Um, and so-

Lewis Howes 31:43 It's hard to create a quantum leap in that space.

Price Pritchett 31:45 It is, but it, what is so important is for people to know what's coming. People don't tell them. I think this is one of the things that is a little bit of a problem with a lot of the self-improvement books. "Go do this, do magnificent things. But by the way, en route, let's not talk about that." But you should, because if you will tell people what's coming, it does so much to re- to equip them to, to deal with it. They know what's happening. Um, I always knew if I was doing a keynote, it might be just the top deck of officers in a company or it might be 100 middle managers that you're talking to, but it's, "I'm gonna tell you what's coming."

Lewis Howes 32:34 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 32:34 It's like day one can be very exciting, but there's always day two.

Lewis Howes 32:39 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 32:40 Brene Brown r- dr- talks about day two. You can't escape day two. There's... And, and it goes back to that old saying, uh, um, about the messy middle.

Lewis Howes 32:51 It's messy.

Price Pritchett 32:52 Yeah. And it's kinda like if I want to redo my house, my kitchen, I got this glorious idea of what the kitchen is gonna look like once we redo it and everything.

Lewis Howes 33:04 In the middle of it, you're like, "This is chaos."

Price Pritchett 33:05 Oh, it's hell. Yeah. It's chaos. You got dirt everywhere. You got holes in the wall. You got wires hanging. It's just a mess.

Lewis Howes 33:12 Is this, is this ever gonna look nice? Yeah.

Price Pritchett 33:14 It, it's a passage, and people need to understand it's a journey, but if you don't tell them that, they get lost in the desert.

Lewis Howes 33:22 You see a lot of big companies right now, you know, in the news talking about the changes they're making. You know, the Amazons of the world, the, the Googles, the Teslas, the, the Facebooks, all these bigger companies talking about the transitions, the changes, you know, after the last few years of what happened, and now trying to regroup and re-envision a brighter future for the company. Mass layoffs that happened, restructuring, acquiring companies, changing the names of companies, branding. Um, you know, from work at home to now getting everyone to work back in, in, in a community together in person. And you see this friction in the world, 'cause all this change is, is trying to happen with the bigger companies. You see pushback, you see friction, you see negativity. You see all the five C's you're talking about, the complaining, the frustration. What do companies need to do in order to... And maybe you can't escape some of this stuff. Maybe that's-

Price Pritchett 34:21 You can't. You can't escape all of it

Lewis Howes 34:22 ... that's the messy middle.

Price Pritchett 34:22 Yeah. It, it-

Lewis Howes 34:22 That's the messy middle. You're just like-

Price Pritchett 34:24 Yeah

Lewis Howes 34:24 ... "All right, we're gonna make change. There's gonna be mess."

Price Pritchett 34:26 Yeah. It'll get worse before it gets better.

Lewis Howes 34:28 Really?

Price Pritchett 34:28 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 34:30 So how do, how do companies stay confident in their decision of we are making this quantum leap? Whether they're communicating to the thousands of employees or to their customers globally or just internally, how do they stay confident when the mess is like, this is chaos, and people are unhappy, and people are complaining and quitting and, you know, talking to the, the public and the news? And how do they stay committed to the vision without being rattled too much, and stay positive and have, and eliminate the negative thinking? How do we do that when it seems like people are against you?

Price Pritchett 35:07 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 35:08 Um, and this could be for big companies or for an individual.

Price Pritchett 35:12 I, yeah, absolutely. You, you can play this out on an i- individual level as well.

Lewis Howes 35:17 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 35:18 What you're talking about is resistance.

Lewis Howes 35:21 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 35:25 Um, people... Daniel Kahneman is a world-renowned psychologist, one of the most respected psychologists in the world today. He won the Nobel Prize in economics, not psychology. But he, and he's written several books. But one of the things that is, I mean, again, just one of these killer insights or, or things that the research that he conducted found, was that as humans, we weigh losses twice as heavily as we do gains. We weigh potential losses, imagined losses-

Lewis Howes 36:09 Mm

Price Pritchett 36:09 ... twice as heavily as we do gains. So for example, if I said to somebody, "Flip a coin. Got $100 bill here." If you get it right, you get the 100. If you get it wrong, you pay me 100. And usually people won't take you up on that deal, certainly if you, if the stakes are higher. Um, okay, so let's go back and talk about you changing you in some big, major way or an organization changing, seeking to change itself in some big, major way. People immediately... We're- they're focusing on the negative, remember.

Lewis Howes 36:55 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 36:55 Got self-defense working overtime, um, self-preservation going like crazy, and people are sizing up all the ways they can lose in this proposition. You need to have, in neon lights, a picture of the promised land.

Lewis Howes 37:14 [laughs] Right.

Price Pritchett 37:15 For one thing.

Lewis Howes 37:16 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 37:17 Secondly, you need to get the message across that this is the valley of tears. This is a passage. It's not, it doesn't stay like this. Let me give you an example that... You stay very fit.

Lewis Howes 37:33 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 37:35 You were an amazing athlete. When, let's say if you or I or anybody goes to the gym and we're gonna do a new workout routine. Okay, this week I'm upping the iron. And not just that, I'm gonna do three sets of squats instead of two, and so on and so on. Well, you come out of that sore, okay? But you don't think, "Well, if I keep lifting like this, I will live sore forever." But you don't. You develop the muscles. You work through it. Well, in change, or as an organization or as an individual, you go through psychological soreness.

Lewis Howes 38:21 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 38:21 And people need to know that this is a passage, um, that this, these are the rites of passage-

Lewis Howes 38:31 Rites

Price Pritchett 38:32 ... that you go through to something greater. If you're a good executive, you will get before your people and you level with them, and say, "It's gonna be a [censored] . It's gonna be painful. It's gonna be messy. We're gonna make some mistakes. But look, we've gotta do this. We need to do this, and look what it's gonna be like." And you have to sell the milk and honey.

Lewis Howes 38:58 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 38:58 You know? Um, and as an individual, you've got to keep your eye on that magnificent obsession that represents your quantum leap goal. You've got to live with that thing. You gotta make love to that thing. You've got to, um... So, when I am doing keynote with a group of executives, I will tell them, "Look, consider yourself a doctor, and let's say you're doing heart surgery on somebody tomorrow." Okay? So they check into the hospital today. Let's say they're in at 4:00, they check in about 4:00 or something like that, and you stop by about 5:30. You're the doctor. You're the surgeon. You're the guy that's gonna make this magic happen and make them well again. You're gonna keep them from dying. So you go in and you sit down with the family, and you say, "How you doing? Look, we got this. Now, I wanna tell you how tomorrow's gonna go. About 7:00 AM, um, the anesthesiologist is gonna come in, and they're going to, they'll probably give you something so that you're not nauseous when you wake up. And then they're gonna give you, you know, they'll put in the IV, and they're gonna do this, and you won't get to 30 before you're asleep. And so you'll go into the operating room, and you'll be in there X period of time. When you're through, you'll go into recovery, and I will go and tell you folks how it went. Okay? This is, this should be a lay down. Okay? And then after, oh, I'd say by 10:00, 10:30, we'll have him back in the room, and you'll be able to talk to him. Now, I wanna tell you we're gonna have you out of the bed and on your feet tomorrow afternoon. Okay? Um, you won't feel as bad tomorrow afternoon as you're gonna feel the second or third day."

Lewis Howes 41:09 Mm.

Price Pritchett 41:10 "But you're gonna be back home by so and so, and this is the way it's going." They tell you what to expect, and it is amazing because here's what happens. The doctor's credibility goes through the roof. The patient, that diminishes so much raw terror and fear.

Lewis Howes 41:27 What coulda happened, yeah.

Price Pritchett 41:29 And the next morning when it just goes just like clockwork, just like you said, okay-

Lewis Howes 41:34 Felt better, then I felt worse, and then, yeah.

Price Pritchett 41:36 Yeah. And we need to tell ourselves that kind of thing.

Lewis Howes 41:40 Mm. It's so hard, like you said, because we remember a past that is painful, and we, if we can learn to manage your remembering, like you said, and, and not focus on those painful moments that stick out in our minds as these crippling moments from childhood, but think about all the growth and all the opportunity and all the goodness that came when we did put ourselves out there instead and we focus on those, when we, we manage your remembering like you talked about, it gives us more faith and hope for a greater future in these challenging times. And I think that's a hard thing to do if people have never trained how to do it, so I love that you're talking about this because it is all in the managing of our mind. Of our memory, of our remembering. And, you know, as Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about, he says, "Remember the future." You know, the quan-

Price Pritchett 42:34 Yeah, ain't that a great line?

Lewis Howes 42:35 It's a great line. You talk about manage your remembering, he talks about remember your future. Of like imagine this quantum leap that's going to happen, and focus on that. Sure, there might be some bumps and challenges and adversity and friction, but focus on the end and fall in love with it. You talked about falling in love, and the first line of this chapter on falling in love, you said, "Quantum leaps won't happen if you're living life with a lukewarm heart." It's hard to really get exponential growth if you just don't care about it that much. If you're like, "Well, I wanna work hard because this person wants me to do it," you're probably not going to enjoy the process as much as if you fall in love with it. Fall in love with the pain, the problems, the friction, all of it. And, and that love story at the end that your dream is connected to. And that's what I love about this. You, you bring in the emotion of love and that feeling behind the pursuit of what we're going after to it, not just let's set goals and make money and accomplish things. It's love your life, manage your remembering, and really pursue it all in. And I love that about this book.

Price Pritchett 43:53 Was it, uh, that, that line, "The world isn't changed by people who sort of care."

Lewis Howes 44:00 Mm-hmm. Who sort of care. Yeah.

Price Pritchett 44:01 Sort of care.

Lewis Howes 44:02 Yeah. I sorta care about it.

Price Pritchett 44:03 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 44:03 A little bit.

Price Pritchett 44:04 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 44:05 It's not gonna change.

Price Pritchett 44:06 Does it cut it, does it?

Lewis Howes 44:07 Yeah. You gotta really care. You gotta... A- and here's one thing. People say, "Well, you know, what if I don't have the support? What if I don't have the, the team? What if I don't have good mentors or I didn't go to the good education or, you know, my partner doesn't support me in going after this quantum leap?" How can someone navigate that? All the, the, the things are stacked against them. How can they overcome that to creating a quantum leap? And how can they tap into or rely on the unseen forces when it seems like they have been dealt a bad hand, they don't have many options, and everyone is against them? How can they create that abundance factor, that quantum leap with all this?

Price Pritchett 44:53 Have you run across this book by Maria Konnikova called The Biggest Bluff?

Lewis Howes 44:58 Yeah, I had her on the show. She's great.

Price Pritchett 45:00 She is great. And the thing I love is that story she tells in the book about this study that she did. Well, actually, I guess this guy named Ingo Fielder, I think he was an economist or something again. But he does this study of... He, he studies poker hands online, hundreds of thousands of them over a six-month period, and what he found is that the best hand, having the best hand won only 12% of the time.

Lewis Howes 45:29 Isn't that crazy?

Price Pritchett 45:29 It is absolutely crazy. The... So the vast percentage of the time it was the best player. And so I think what we're talking about here is, and, and what I'm trying to do in You Squared is here's how you play. There are always gonna be constraints, um, always gonna be limitations. And if we can hack that and, and use them to our advantage, um, because so much of the time, well, we need constraints. Sometimes I'm, I'm gonna try to write a blog and I, I can't figure out what in the heck to write because, well, there are too many things. But if, if Kim, you know, who's over our publishing wing, if she comes in and says, "I would like for you to write a blog about X."

Lewis Howes 46:20 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 46:22 Oh, it's a, it's a funny... Uh, all of a sudden I've got some constraints. It's, it's boxed. And then she says, "And we need it by day after tomorrow." And, you know-

Lewis Howes 46:33 It can only be this many words.

Price Pritchett 46:34 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 46:35 And yeah.

Price Pritchett 46:36 Yeah. And it can't be like anything you've written before. You know, I don't know, but the constraints... We're pretty helpless without constraints.

Lewis Howes 46:47 Yeah. Having structure actually allows you to be more creative and more artistic in my mind.

Price Pritchett 46:51 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 46:51 And if you're just like, "Okay, paint me a painting. Here's a canvas. Like, go," it's like you don't know. You can do anything you want, but when it's like, "I want you to paint with oil or acrylic or pencil, and I want you to paint this specific thing in your own style," then you have some direction, you have some, some borders, some guideline where you can be extremely artistic.

Price Pritchett 47:14 It's kind of funny, and really that's what goal-setting does for us as an individual. It gives us, it gives us direction and it gives us some framework. Here's the sandbox.

Lewis Howes 47:24 Yes.

Price Pritchett 47:24 You know? Here's this glorious sandbox.

Lewis Howes 47:27 Go play in it. Yeah. But most people are trying too hard. People are trying really too hard. They say... And I learned this in sports growing up. So there's, there's kind of a paradox to this because there needs to be consistent effort, there needs to be effort over time. You have to be consistent in showing up. You can't just show up once in a while and, and put in zero effort. Um, you know, and definitely working hard consistently over time made me a better athlete, made me better in business. You know, all these different things. But here's a story from your book that I love that I'm gonna read. Um, it's a true story. It says, "I'm sitting in a quiet room at the Microsoft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. It's just past noon, late July, and I'm listening to a desperate sound... to the desperate sounds of a life or death struggle going on a few feet away. There's a small fly burning out the last of its short life's energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the window pane." The w- the, the whining wings tell the poignant story of the fly's strategy: try harder. I'm just gonna push through this window. And then we've all seen this story. We've all seen and witnessed flies pounding against a window, but it's not working. The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass. No fly will ever be able to break through that glass. Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching its goal through raw effort and determination. The fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill. And across the room, 10 steps away, the door is open. 10 seconds of flying time, and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is right there. It could be so easy. You go on to finish this story, but... And you talk about why doesn't the fly just turn around and see a different possibility 10 feet away and just fly into freedom? And, and he doesn't, or she doesn't. This fly doesn't do this. Most of the time it never happens. Why is that reflective to human beings, where we try to just, we see a wall, we just try to push through it. We just hurt ourselves. We just grind it out. We hustle harder, but all we need to do is turn around or do a 360 and see a different possibility, and walk more effortlessly towards our desired future and our desired vision. But at the same hand, there is effort and consistent hard work that creates results as well. So how do we think of that paradox and, and move towards something in an unconventional way rather than a conventional, hard way?

Price Pritchett 50:36 Well, you, you highlight a real important thing here in the book. Selective persistence is very important. And so how do we know that we're being smartly, selectively persisting-

Lewis Howes 50:56 Yeah

Price Pritchett 50:56 ... as opposed to just being dumb?

Lewis Howes 50:58 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 50:58 You know? And, and at best, shooting for incremental-

Lewis Howes 51:02 Mm-hmm

Price Pritchett 51:03 ... improvement of some kind or other. I think this is the, this is the crux of a quantum leap. It's so hard for people. I think it's harder than the doubt thing.

Lewis Howes 51:12 Wow.

Price Pritchett 51:12 Although they're kind of married, I guess, in a way.

Lewis Howes 51:14 Really?

Price Pritchett 51:15 It is so hard for people to change their approach. It's easier for somebody to start something brand spanking new, like, "We're gonna start a rock and roll band." Well, that was outrageous.

Lewis Howes 51:29 That's unconventional. Yeah, yeah.

Price Pritchett 51:30 I mean, that was a rabid dream of some kind, but it wasn't like changing from something else in that same genre, so to speak. Um, I find this hard even for me and our company to really change the game. Um, that's why your goal needs to be really, really a stretch goal.

Lewis Howes 52:02 Really.

Price Pritchett 52:03 Because if, if you s-

Lewis Howes 52:04 It requires you

Price Pritchett 52:05 It requires it.

Lewis Howes 52:06 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 52:06 There's no way on, on Earth I could do it with this, this same approach. And so it forces innovation, it forces creativity, it forces you toward the fast lane. Um, and then people fall into that thing of, "Yeah, I don't have this, and I don't have this, I don't have this." And, uh, yeah, that's okay. We're teaching you how to play the hand. Your cards suck, but man, you've got good enough cards if you will play the hand right.

Lewis Howes 52:34 Right.

Price Pritchett 52:35 Um, but I think that really is a tough one for people. Uh, to... Really what you're asking them to do is take a new set of risks. And immediately what happens, just like Daniel Kahneman says, we start weighing the losses heavier than the potential gains. "Well, if I did that, God, the downside. What if I do this?"

Lewis Howes 52:54 What if I lose it all?

Price Pritchett 52:55 "What if I lose it all? Or what if I make an absolute idiot of myself? What if, what if my mate leaves me?" You know, I don't know. And w- and we go into that cat- catastrophizing stuff usually, and, and we lose sight of the goal. We quit romancing that stone, okay? You know? And, um, so it's a, it's a tricky thing. And it goes back to that core issue you talked about, Lewis, of self-belief. Um,

Price Pritchett 53:29 that... And we're asking people to become childlike again.

Lewis Howes 53:35 Ooh, man, I love this. People... Why are people afraid to become childlike when they're adults?

Price Pritchett 53:41 I guess part of it is this thing, they've gotten to the point where they don't bruise and scrape themselves as much.

Lewis Howes 53:49 Mm.

Price Pritchett 53:49 And they become more self-conscious. Kid doesn't give a damn that it's got food all over its face. It's learning to feed itself, you know?

Lewis Howes 53:57 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 53:58 [laughs] And the kid, let's say it's, it, it can wade, but it can't swim. It wants to swim. "My big brother can swim, all my friends, they can swim already. This sucks." You know? And so they strangle themselves. I mean, they get strangled, they choke, and all this kind of stuff, and they're splashing water everywhere, but there is this fierce determination to pull it off. There, there's another thing that I love. Uh, I, I wrote a blog some time ago called Naive Ambition. I love it. And that's what we see in younger people, is that- Uh, I don't-

Lewis Howes 54:36 That was you with the rock band.

Price Pritchett 54:37 Yeah, exactly.

Lewis Howes 54:38 Like, "I'm gonna go be a top 100 Billboard in a couple of years."

Price Pritchett 54:41 Yeah. And a, a willingness to take new risks.

Lewis Howes 54:45 Oh.

Price Pritchett 54:45 And if... The thing is, we don't study the downside of the way we're doing it. We don't st- we don't identify the risks that we're taking now because we're, they're just part of our lifestyle and our everyday habits.

Lewis Howes 54:59 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 55:00 But we're taking some real stupid risks because we hadn't started the rock band, I was risking, well, I wouldn't have been as popular. I would have never had a record that made the top 100. Um, you know, and on and on, the joy that we got out of that. If we could've kept on doing in my company the same things that we were doing when I started the company, uh, we took some risks, set outrageous goals. But anyway, uh, it's, it's hard for people. Um-

Lewis Howes 55:32 It's a bit challenging.

Price Pritchett 55:32 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 55:33 Vince Lombardi has a quote, I think this is it, where he says, uh, "If you're not fired up with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm."

Price Pritchett 55:41 [laughs] Yeah.

Lewis Howes 55:42 Another quote is, "The world makes room for passionate people." And I love the meme that I've seen online of a baby, uh, you know, in diapers trying to walk. Just a photo of a baby, and the, the meme says, "You know, a, a child falls 1,000 plus times while it learns to walk," and it never says, "Hmm, when I'm falling over and over, maybe this walking thing isn't for me." The baby never thinks that. The baby just keeps trying to get up and walk even though it smashes its face and scrapes its elbows and, you know, falls over and over in front of others. It doesn't stop trying to walk, and it doesn't think, "This isn't for me."

Price Pritchett 56:20 Yeah, and it doesn't, it doesn't stop to think, "I don't know how to do this," obviously, so I'm gonna-

Lewis Howes 56:26 I stop

Price Pritchett 56:26 ... do it.

Lewis Howes 56:26 Yeah. It keeps going.

Price Pritchett 56:28 That's ridiculous. There are so many things that you're capable of doing that you don't know how to do. That's, I think I said this earlier. The, the anything of significance that any of us have pulled off in our life, we didn't know how to do it initially. I didn't know how to drive before I started driving, and you learn how to drive. And we could go on and on and on, and it's, it's bizarre how we reach the point of we won't put ourself into that cockpit again, you know? It's just...

Lewis Howes 57:09 We get scared. We get comfortable-

Price Pritchett 57:10 Well, well-

Lewis Howes 57:10 ... and we get scared again

Price Pritchett 57:11 ... I think it's psychologist R.D. Laing that said, "If I don't know I know, I think I don't know."

Lewis Howes 57:17 Say that again.

Price Pritchett 57:18 "If I don't know I know, I think I don't know."

Lewis Howes 57:21 How interesting.

Price Pritchett 57:23 And I, and it's this kind of stuff that goes on in our heads. And, you know, well, that's a wrong assumption, but it's kind of how people go around living.

Lewis Howes 57:37 Yeah. How do you keep that childlike energy inside of you at this stage of your life after, you know, decades of being in the work and researching and psychology and writing books and having a lot of success and transforming your business into different things and, uh, you know, just continually evolving as a human and a business leader? How do you stay childlike and not get too comfortable with just, "Oh, I'm just gonna go incremental now"?

Price Pritchett 58:04 Well, first of all, I'm guilty. I, I'm not as good at that as you might think probably.

Lewis Howes 58:10 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 58:11 I think it's kind of interesting because if you think, this is the way our life starts. We accumulate, we grow, we get better. We, and we're accumulators. We're accumulators, and we're muscling up, and we build our social network and our net worth and our information base and on and on. There's a, there's a wretched thing that happens. I'm gonna say if you want a pivot point, about in the late '50s, and there's an inversion, and we start this way. And we take fewer risks. There are several things that drive this. Um, one, we may be comfortable enough financially. Our energy level goes down.

Lewis Howes 59:02 Mm-hmm. You're not as hungry anymore.

Price Pritchett 59:04 We're not as hungry.

Lewis Howes 59:05 Right.

Price Pritchett 59:05 And so there's some complacency that sneaks in and so on and so forth. How do you keep yourself energetic and wired up and keep the fire? I think-

Lewis Howes 59:15 And maybe you don't need to. Maybe it's not-

Price Pritchett 59:17 Well, it-

Lewis Howes 59:18 You know, maybe it's not a, an, a priority

Price Pritchett 59:20 ... I, I think we need to kind of, though. I think we need, we need to be doing something that we want to do. Um, I love to write, and I can still write. That's beautiful. It doesn't take a lot of energy to write. Um, I, I don't fight the road like I used to.

Lewis Howes 59:39 You're not traveling as much. Yeah.

Price Pritchett 59:41 You know, I'm not out there-

Lewis Howes 59:42 It's a big give in

Price Pritchett 59:43 ... driving projects-

Lewis Howes 59:44 Yeah

Price Pritchett 59:44 ... flying all over the planet and all that kind of stuff. But I, I need, I need to be on the move. I, you know, I g- I get disgusted with myself sometimes following the same route to work, same route to work, same route to work, spend the same hours a day, go back home. You know, you know. And so I need variety. I, but I think some people don't need as much. Some people don't have the, don't need adventure in their life like I do. But I think if you're playing to your strengths and you're giving your- s- letting yourself, um, do things that you love to do, that's one thing.

Lewis Howes 1:00:26 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:00:27 Another thing is, l- just let's go to this core ideal of energy because you brought it up, and it's a very important word to me. When I was with the firm in Chicago, this firm called Management Psychologists, I'd just be- I'd gotten my PhD. I'd finished up my time in the Army. I was an officer. I was in the Pentagon, and I can make that sound really cool.

Lewis Howes 1:00:50 [laughs]

Price Pritchett 1:00:51 But, uh, anyway, I was starting with this firm in Chicago, and we were doing management executive assessments, like I said. And early on when I was doing this, you know, the head guy would come in, they'd say, "Okay, let's talk about this candidate." You know, and w- I'd be saying, "Okay, here's how he stacks up here and here's how he stacks up here, and I think he's a good candidate, bad candidate, whatever." And he would say, "Well, Price, what do you think about his energy level?" And I'm like, "His what?" You know, I'd never, I'd never even thought of the term or anything. And he says, "Energy level." And time and time again, I've heard this guy say... He was a very astute psychologist and very smart man, and he said, "In my professional opinion, the single most important factor for success in the business world is a high energy level." He ranked it above everything. Looks-

Lewis Howes 1:01:45 Intelli-

Price Pritchett 1:01:45 Brainpower-

Lewis Howes 1:01:45 Intelligence, yeah

Price Pritchett 1:01:47 ... um, social skills. He... It wasn't that he discounted some of these other things. There are a lot of things that come into play. We know that, but he said the number one thing. And so I was intrigued by that, and I, but I started watching it 'cause I've evaluated hundreds of execs over the years. And then when we started doing merger integration work, I was studying companies more, and I began to look. I think that the corporate energy level is the most overlooked asset or factor when p- when people talk about corporate culture. People don't pay a bit of attention to it, it seems like. Well, now think about this. If you go to the dictionary and you look up the definition of energy, get this, the formal definition, the physics definition is the capacity to do work.

Lewis Howes 1:02:41 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:02:42 I think that is a beautiful line. Well, why do we hire people? Why do we promote people? To, for their capacity to do work.

Lewis Howes 1:02:50 Right.

Price Pritchett 1:02:50 If they c- if they don't have the capacity to do work, we fire them. We demote them. We pay them less or whatever. The capacity to do work, okay, so how do we maintain that energy level?

Lewis Howes 1:03:05 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 1:03:05 Well, if you stop and think about it, when there's no energy, everything stops.

Lewis Howes 1:03:11 It dies.

Price Pritchett 1:03:12 It dies. The machinery stops. The human being stops. Everything stops. And the people with lower energy, I saw them, they just weren't as big an achie- achievers. They might have killer brainpower, but the energy level wasn't there.

Lewis Howes 1:03:28 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 1:03:28 Uh, the motor, you know, they just... Their metabolic rate, whatever you wanna call it, it wasn't there. Um, I think some people just come more gifted than others. I'm convinced of that, first of all. Some people come with a four-cylinder. Some people come with a 12-cylinder, okay? Some people, they come with a good, strong engine, but the- they put low octane, watery gas. They don't eat right. Uh, some don't keep their motor tuned. They don't, they don't, they don't work out. You know, they just don't stay fit, and the energy level goes down. So I think that... You used the word friction earlier, and there is a good side to friction, as we know. We need friction in life. I mean, that's what's going on when you're pumping the iron or you're, you're doing those workouts on the, you know, on the Grid Iron or whatever. Um, and you have to use muscle to build muscle, and it's kinda like you gotta spend money to make money. And s- so the, some friction is good. Uh, you need something to be responsible for. They found, studies have found that in nursing homes, give this elderly person a plant that they've gotta take care of.

Lewis Howes 1:04:52 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:04:53 They live longer.

Lewis Howes 1:04:54 Really?

Price Pritchett 1:04:56 Yeah, and talking about living longer, there was a study, and we were talking about optimism, pessimism, there was a fif- famous 50-year study of nuns, one of the best longitudinal studies ever. And they tested them at the beginning of this period, and the optimists lived 10 years longer.

Lewis Howes 1:05:16 Come on.

Price Pritchett 1:05:17 10 years longer than the pessimists. And so what this says to us is that pessimistic thinking is more dangerous than smoking.

Lewis Howes 1:05:26 Wow.

Price Pritchett 1:05:27 Because smoking, if you don't smoke... Well, if you do smoke, it takes, if you're a man, takes five and a half years off your life, so they say. That's the last statistics I saw. If you're w- woman, it takes seven years off your life.

Lewis Howes 1:05:38 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:05:39 I don't know why, but that's, those are the statistics. So I mean, if you don't think it's important to manage your mind, you know, to manage that mental traffic that's cruising through your brain, it's a longevity game that we're talking about here.

Lewis Howes 1:06:00 That's huge. I wanna, I wanna check out that nun study. That seems interesting.

Price Pritchett 1:06:03 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:06:04 10 years, people lived longer by having more optimism than pessimism in a 50-year study. That's incredible. I believe it, though. You know, when I, when I see people that are... I was talking about this this morning. There are some people that I know who are more rigid in their thinking. They are more guarded, closed off, less forgiving in their way of being and in their energy, and they seem to have more pain physically, more chronic illnesses, more... They get sick more frequently, catch a cold more frequently, things like that. And when you see someone that just can learn to let go of the past, uh, is more forgiving, maybe they don't like something, and they express it, but then they move on They're not suppressing emotions, but they're not being the emotion. They're not saying, "I am an angry person." They're saying, "I'm experiencing anger and sadness." It's different than I am versus I am experiencing. And when they can move through the emotions and let these things go, the pain, the, the problems, the stress, the anxiety, the, the betrayal, the hurt, all these things-

Price Pritchett 1:07:12 Yeah, let's, let's-

Lewis Howes 1:07:13 They feel more free

Price Pritchett 1:07:14 ... let, what's the line about that? Uh, that's like drinking poison-

Lewis Howes 1:07:18 Yeah

Price Pritchett 1:07:18 ... to want another person to suffer or something like that.

Lewis Howes 1:07:20 Yeah, exactly. Forgiveness is about that. Yeah.

Price Pritchett 1:07:23 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:07:24 It's a, it's a huge thing. I see people that suffer physically because in their mind they're holding on to more negative quality of thought.

Price Pritchett 1:07:32 My dad, he lived to be 102.

Lewis Howes 1:07:36 Wow.

Price Pritchett 1:07:38 And he w- he was a p- he was an optimist. He was a positive thinker. But it wasn't like he was Pollyanna-ish or anything like that. But the thing about it was he wouldn't dwell on miseries.

Lewis Howes 1:07:51 Mm-hmm.

Price Pritchett 1:07:52 I mean, he was so good at, I guess you'd just call it displacement. I'm not gonna wallow in that. That's not fun. There's this bumper sticker, I think it's the favorite bumper sticker I ever saw. It says... [laughs] And it was a picture of a bumper o- on an old rusted, dirty car. The, the, the bumper sticker was worn and everything, but it said, "No use being pessimistic. Wouldn't work anyway." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:08:18 [laughs] That's true.

Price Pritchett 1:08:19 You know? And, and that was kinda my dad's thinking. He just wasn't gonna put himself through that, and it was just kinda who he was-

Lewis Howes 1:08:28 Yeah

Price Pritchett 1:08:28 ... or he'd developed it. And I, my, I need to tell you this. He had, as a very small child, he had had a leg injury with his, uh, left leg.

Lewis Howes 1:08:39 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:08:39 And for all the rest of his life, that left leg was stiff. And my dad, I never saw him contemplate the idea of even parking in a handicap place.

Lewis Howes 1:08:49 Wow.

Price Pritchett 1:08:49 I, I never heard him gripe about that really. It was just like how he chose to deal with that, that trauma.

Lewis Howes 1:08:58 Yeah.

Price Pritchett 1:09:00 Um, that again is a choice.

Lewis Howes 1:09:03 Yeah. You, you, he had a, you know, a handful of cards, and that was part of his cards. One of his legs doesn't work as well or was stiff, or he had a limp or whatever it was. He could have held on to that and been frustrated about why it happened-

Price Pritchett 1:09:16 Bitter

Lewis Howes 1:09:16 ... or his parents didn't set him up for success-

Price Pritchett 1:09:18 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:09:18 ... or whatever reason, but he made the most of it and he said, "Well, at least I've got another good leg and I can walk on it. At least I've got my thinking skills. At least I'm healthy in other ways." And I think that's a lot of it, is the perspective and gratitude around life. There's a lot of things we could be sad and frustrated about that, that happened to us or that didn't happen to us, that we wish would have, and we can hold on to these things, or we can say, "You know what? Man, you know, 150,000 people didn't wake up this morning in the world."

Price Pritchett 1:09:46 Exactly.

Lewis Howes 1:09:47 "I did. I'm here. Even if I have a hand that I don't love and I've got this challenge and this thing happening, and this betrayal and this sadness, I'm still here. I can enjoy this moment. I can manage my remembering. I can remember the future of the leaps that I'm going to step into when I make a decision and a choice that I love my life, and I'm gonna step into a love story about me in spite of all the pain." And I think when people can start to do that, their life starts to transition in a big way. Um, and, um, I'm just such a big fan of this book. I love that it's... You, you know, you're looking at a dyslexic here, so someone with a 36-page book, this is like gold to me. 36 pages of pure wisdom and, uh, practical insights. I guess impractical, but really practical insights that will support you in, in creating more abundance, creating more opportunities, and really feeling empowered to take action in your life. Uh, I, I've got tons of these copies. I give them out. You²; I want people to get a copy of this. A high velocity formula for multiplying your personal effectiveness in quantum leaps. Not incremental or gradual leaps, but in quantum leaps. If you want to, uh, really optimize life, you can quit trying harder, you can think beyond what common sense would allow, you can make your move before you're ready, and look inside for the opportunity of any challenge in your life. Make sure to get this book. You've got a lot of different books. Um, we'll have to have you come back on and we'll talk more about some of the other ones. But I think this is what a lot of people could use. At least, you don't have to obsess over this, but at least have the information around how you can stop trying harder, stop being the fly that is hitting a windowsill over and over trying to get free, and look at things differently and turn your life around a little bit and see where the open door might lead you. Uh, so I want people to get a copy of this book. You've also got a masterclass that I want people to check out as well. If they go to pritchettyou2.com, uh, they can, uh, get access to that. Or if you go to pritchettnet.com, you'll have information around your masterclass and how they can get access to that. You have all your books up there as well, and so many other things. Uh, my goal is to do a workshop with you one day and hopefully do a one-day or two-day with you at some point. Um, I'll have to convince you at some point and make sure we can do that in the future. But, uh, you've got a lot of stuff over there, and you don't have as much interviews or videos of you, um, but you've got a lot of writing and materials, and you've got this masterclass. So if people want more of you in video format, they can check out this masterclass for sure. Um, before I ask you the final couple questions, how else can we be of service to you?

Price Pritchett 1:12:39 Oh, I don't know. This is a gift. Uh, it's not only just delightful, just fun, uh, kicking ideas around, it's, uh, really gratifying, and so I appreciate that. And, uh, um, as I said earlier, you Have the most charming way of interfacing with people, your guests.

Lewis Howes 1:13:00 I appreciate it.

Price Pritchett 1:13:01 So I appreciate that. Um, I don't know. I would not ask anything more. I feel hugely gifted with this.

Lewis Howes 1:13:12 Yeah. Well, we're grateful for you. We appreciate you. And, um, I acknowledge you, P- uh, Price, for, you know, the consistency you've had in your life to try new things, to pursue a path that was more meaningful for you when one thing didn't work out the way you wanted it to. Uh, for really assessing all the different people you worked with, you know, performers and corporations and different people to give you the insights to be able to write this book, which has helped a lot of people over the last 24 years now, I think it is, when you wrote this book, 24 years ago.

Price Pritchett 1:13:46 Actually, it was written in 1989.

Lewis Howes 1:13:48 Oh, '89. I thought it was '99 or something. So 34 years ago, right? No, what is this?

Price Pritchett 1:13:53 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:13:54 About 33 years ago.

Price Pritchett 1:13:55 34 years.

Lewis Howes 1:13:55 34 years?

Price Pritchett 1:13:55 Something like that.

Lewis Howes 1:13:55 Wow, so it's over three decades-

Price Pritchett 1:13:57 Yeah

Lewis Howes 1:13:58 ... this book is old, and it... But it's got timeless wisdom.

Price Pritchett 1:14:01 Yeah. It's-

Lewis Howes 1:14:01 Still relevant today more than ever.

Price Pritchett 1:14:03 Yeah. It, it, uh, it sells more today than it ever has. It just-

Lewis Howes 1:14:07 Crazy

Price Pritchett 1:14:07 ... kind of... It's a, it's a nice incline. I like the line.

Lewis Howes 1:14:10 [laughs] It keeps going exponential.

Price Pritchett 1:14:13 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:14:13 I love that. And it's amaz- Isn't it amazing that... You know, I don't know where you were at in your life when you wrote this 34 years ago, essentially, but you wrote a book. You said, "Here's the information that I'm gathering in my mind from all my experience. I'm gonna put it out on paper." And, um, you know, you didn't do the traditional way of doing a book. You didn't go with 300 pages. You went 35 pages. You... I think you self-published this originally, so you didn't go traditional. You did all the unconventional ways of doing it.

Price Pritchett 1:14:44 Right.

Lewis Howes 1:14:44 You followed your program.

Price Pritchett 1:14:45 Right.

Lewis Howes 1:14:46 And it continues to serve you 34 years later, which is cool to see that one piece of content continue to serve you, but also impact hundreds of thousands of people 30-plus years later. That's, that's amazing.

Price Pritchett 1:15:00 That's fun.

Lewis Howes 1:15:01 That's incredible. Well, I, I wanna again acknowledge you for your wisdom, and for being on the show, and for sharing so much of the insights that you have. It's, it's really making a difference on my life, my business, and on so many people's lives, so I'm very grateful for you. This is a question that I ask everyone towards the end. It's called the Three Truths. It's a hypothetical question and scenario. Imagine you get to live as long as you wanna live, but it is the last day on Earth for you. You get to continue to create or actualize things as you want, um, but for whatever reason on this hypothetical scenario, you have to take all of your work with you on your last day on this Earth. So lights go out, you gotta take this book with you. All your masterclasses, all the content, this interview, it's all gone from this world. Hypothetical. And you can only share three lessons with the world, three truths that you would leave behind, and we don't have access to anything else of your content. What would you say are those three lessons or truths for you?

Price Pritchett 1:16:04 I maybe should stick with this. I've said it many times to a group of people when I would start to present to them. I'd say, "I wanna share with you three great truths." That's how I start. "First of all, you're, you are the most powerful person in your life." I would say... And someone said, "No, no, no, look, I'm 13 years old. I'm, you know, whatever. I've got a dominating this or that." I'm sorry. You look at a, at a three-year-old go into a fit and [laughs] you, you realize... I mean, so, uh, that would be truth number one. You are the most powerful person in your life, 'cause you have the power of choice, and so on and so forth. Point two, you have an amazing capacity for change. And three, you are the solution to your future. It's not your daddy. It's not your boyfriend. It's not your boss. You are the solution to your future. And I want you to remember the first two points. No, no, no. You are the most powerful person in your life.

Lewis Howes 1:17:34 Those are great truths. I love it. Again, my final question. Before I ask it, I want people to get the book, You². It's 36 pages. It'll take you 30 minutes to read this, uh, but you'll be devouring it for years and going over and over again the content inside. But it'll be an amazing investment for you, so make sure to get a copy of this. Get a few copies. I like to give them out to friends. You², High Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness in Quantum Leaps, not incremental leaps. Um, final questio- question, Price. What is your definition of greatness?

Price Pritchett 1:18:08 I guess it would be how much good you've brought to the world.

Lewis Howes 1:18:12 Mm.

Price Pritchett 1:18:14 How many people you've touched. That's... And that kinda gets behind why You² is the kind of piece it is. I wanted to put the cookies on the bottom shelf. I, I know the world. I know that most people are not gonna read a book that thick. Um, I love books. I'm a crazy reader. I want it to be short. I wanted it to be inexpensive. I wanted it to touch as many people as I possibly could. And so that's why it's shaped the way it is. That, plus, as I mentioned when we were talking before the session here, um, I just naturally write really tight, but I know that the more you can compress the message, the more powerful it becomes. And, um, I didn't, I didn't want to lose anybody.

1:19:17 The, the life force is constantly recalibrating and, and getting clarity on where your head is-

1:19:23 Yes

1:19:24 ... uh, as part of it. But one, for sure, get up, get up early, meditate, you know? And e- everybody does it in a lot of different ways, but, uh, like I don't... I... Meditation for me isn't get quiet and bre-