By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
Great conversations run long. Their best ideas don't have to.
uListen is free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, and Claude.
See howTranscript
105 min read · 20,569 words- 0:00 – 1:00
Rethinking the “perfect” morning routine for your season of life
- LHLewis Howes
Sometimes we think about we've gotta have some complicated morning routine, you know, biohacking everything we can in order to optimize our day. And really- I think you gotta have a dream. The School of Greatness. Really? [laughs] Yeah. Please welcome Lewis Howes. Hey, everyone. My name is Lewis Howes, and today I wanna talk about how to create the perfect morning routine for a successful life. Now, there's a lot of information out there about morning routines, and a lot of different content talking about it from different people, but I wanted to share what works for me and what I've seen works for so many people that I've interviewed from the School of Greatness. I've had the great fortune of interviewing some of the greatest athletes, scientists, doctors, researchers, celebrities, artists, activists in the world, and I've picked up some tips here and there about their morning routines and I've tried it for myself, and I've kinda distilled it down to what really works for me at this stage and season of my life. Now, to set the stage here, it all kinda depends on where you're
- 1:00 – 4:33
Sleep as the foundation: recovery, performance, and longevity
- LHLewis Howes
at in your life. It depends if you're in school, if you're a busy mom, if you're in your 20s and you're a career professional, the season of your life, how your morning routine is gonna set you up for success or not. And I wanna talk about what the morning routines and habits that are necessary for success. For me, from all of the research and testing that I've done, waking up after you've had a full night of sleep, getting eight hours, seven to eight hours, is crucial for my success. Just a few nights ago I was up until 3:00 a.m. for a specific reason. I was working late, and I got maybe four or five hours of sleep, and I could feel it throughout the next day. Whether I'm just getting older and, uh, you know, I'm not 21 anymore and I can't pull all-nighters like I used to in college, uh, or whether I'm just doing so much more during my days, I'm physically exerting myself, I'm mentally and emotionally exerting myself, my body and my mind needs time to recover. From Dr. Daniel Amen, who talks about the brain and the science of the brain, your body and your brain needs to recover. You need sleep, and you need restful sleep. Sean Stephenson talks about this as well in interviews I've done with him about sleeping and how it's so crucial, and you can't really make up the debt of missing out on sleep. Say you get three hours a night for weeks and months, it's going to be hard on your mind and body. It's hard to make up that debt that you've accumulated from not putting in the time and the hours. From the longevity experts that I've had on and those talking about anti-aging, they all say sleep is one of the key ingredients to success, in living longer, in living healthier, happier. So focus on sleep. Now, when I was younger, in my 20s, I used to think that sleep is for those who are broke. Sleep is... You can sleep when you're dead. But I'm telling you, you're gonna be, be dying a lot sooner if you don't sleep well consistently. And the brain, the heart, the body, everything needs time to recover. And this is... When you're sleeping, your body is regenerating, so if you are putting in s- uh, you know, hours of training or emotional and stressful, uh, and mental exertion throughout the day, I'm telling you, your body and your mind needs time to cleanse itself. This is when you burn fat, this is when you recover, this is when ideas start to connect. But if you're not sleeping and resting well, it's gonna be extremely hard to perform better the next day. So this isn't, this isn't just for someone that wants to live longer and happier. This is for if you wanna be a high performer as well, and have clarity and focus and energy, and not have mental stress. The brain and the body needs to sleep. So that's one of the first things I wanna talk about. This is crucial. Some people say, "Well, I don't wanna sleep six, seven, eight hours a day," but I'm telling you, if you can get seven in, hopefully eight, of quality sleep... And there are a lot of things you can do to track this. You can get the Oura Ring, you can get WHOOP bands, you can get other things to track the quality of your sleep as well. So I recommend figuring out a structure for you. We've got episodes on this talking about how to create a sleep sanctuary so that your environment, your bedroom, your sheets, the plants that are in your room, are all designed for you to get great sleep. So make sure you're going through some of this and setting yourself up to, to win
- 4:33 – 6:34
Make your bed: a small win that builds momentum and pride
- LHLewis Howes
with sleep. Now, the next thing that I like to do, and I think this is hugely important, this is something that my mom used to tell all... tell me, and your mom probably told you growing up as well, is to make your bed. And there's a great book by William H. McRaven that says... It's about making your bed. And he is a, a Navy admiral that talks about, if you wanna live a great life, make your bed. And this is a massive number one New York Time best-selling book. This speech went viral online, and it's something that is so simple. But sometimes we think about we've gotta have some complicated morning routine that, you know, biohacking everything we can in order to optimize our day. And really, when we go back to the basics, that's when you start to transform your life. Everything goes back to basics. So make your bed first thing. There's, there's something that happens, and I started doing this years ago. There's something that happens when you decide to take pride in your personal space. When you decide to say, "Okay, I slept here. I slept here for, uh, you know, six, seven, eight hours, and I wanna make sure I have a clean space when I come home at night." By doing that, you set yourself up for success, you accomplish something first thing in the morning, you build momentum, and you create pride and confidence in yourself because you did something for you. You did it for yourself. So when you come home at night, you can say, "Wow, the time and energy I spent early in the day paid off for me tonight. Now I can go to sleep in a restful space." So something to consider, try this for a week. Make your bed every morning. It, it's the last thing you wanna do, because you wanna get up, you wanna go to the bathroom, you wanna brush your teeth, and you wanna get on with it. But I'm telling you, if you take those two, three minutes, you come back at night, you'll be proud of yourself for what your past self did to help you in the future. The next thing is
- 6:34 – 8:36
Move your body (and add “structured pain”) to strengthen mindset
- LHLewis Howes
really moving your body, and this doesn't need to be some extreme workout. I like to work out early in the morning. I like to push my body hard in the morning because, again, the second thing is, okay, I've made my bed, I move my body in a physically demanding way. I like to create structured pain every single day for myself. Because when I put myself through safe, structured pain, a workout, sweating, uh, movement of some type that's uncomfortable, I don't wanna hurt myself, but I wanna put myself through pain. It makes me live a h- happier, healthier life. You build confidence, you build momentum. It cleanses the mind. Your mindset gets stronger as well. So exercise in the morning, move your body, take a 10-minute walk. If you've got a dog or an animal, you can take your pet for a walk for a few minutes, and at least do something. It'll help you cleanse your mind and get ready for the rest of the day. The next thing you can do is take a cold shower. This can be for one minute. We have an entire, uh, series of interviews with Wim Hof, and I do an entire breathing exercise. I went to Poland and trained in frozen rivers and climbing mountains in the snow, uh, without clothes on. [laughs] I mean, I did the extreme things to test some of this. But it takes one minute a day to get in a cold shower, and it activates your mindset. It activates your body. It opens your pores. It makes you feel awake and alive as opposed to groggy and, you know, just kind of getting through the morning. It wakes you up. It gets you clear. It gets you focused. And there's so many benefits for your immune system as well by taking a one to two-minute cold shower. Again, you don't need to be extreme and immerse yourself in a cold tub for 10 minutes. You don't have to do that. You can try these things. You can push your body and your mind to the boundaries, to the limits, but you don't have to. You can do a cold shower. You
- 8:36 – 12:40
Cold showers and meditation: waking up the body and centering the mind
- LHLewis Howes
can do a hot shower and then the last minute, it can be cold to finish it off. Try it for seven days. Just like making your bed, try it for seven days and see what you can create. Again, we'll have more resources below in the description with Wim Hof and how you can watch more about that and, and learn more how you can take this on in your own life. And the next thing you should, is you should definitely try some meditation. 10 to 15 minutes for me of breathing meditation, clearing my mind, really setting an intention for the day, expressing gratitude, thinking about the things I really care about, puts me in a state of awareness. Because there is so much stress, overwhelm, distractions, media, news, frustrations happening in the world that can come into your mindset, that can come into your thoughts, and that can really take over your emotions and your feelings if you allow those things to come into your mind. And so, you want to figure out a way to start the day with breathing and setting an intention for what you wanna create. No matter what happens around you, how are you gonna show up and respond? What is your vision? What are your goals? What are your intentions? What's the type of energy you wanna show up with? Do you wanna be a reactive, negative person today? Or do you wanna be a joyful, loving, caring human being that shows up as a leader? And again, this is a habit that is important to form, because if you're not forming the positive habit, then you're gonna be re- you're gonna be extremely reactive to what is happening throughout the day. You're gonna be frustrated. You're gonna be pissed off at this person. Someone's gonna cut you off in traffic, and you're gonna be mad and angry. And that is going to lead into the rest of the day. It's gonna be hard to get out of that. So you wanna set yourself up. The next thing is really the intention beyond the breathing. So breathing allows you to, again, continue to cleanse the body, cleanse the mind, and create awareness for your life. Setting an intention during this breathing or right after this session is important. So what is your vision? What is your goal? Do you have a, a one-sentence vision for your life right now? If you don't know what that is, write it down. Start exploring it. Create an exercise for yourself and say, "Okay, this is who I wanna be. This is my goal. This is my vision." My vision is to inspire 100 million people every single week to help them improve the quality of their life. That is my mission, that is my vision, and I wanna do it through being joyful, through being loving, through being curious, creative, and having fun. So for me, I'm very clear, and then I create the intention in the morning, well, what am I gonna do today to support that mission? And more importantly, what am I gonna say no to today that doesn't support that mission? What am I gonna say yes to, and what am I gonna say no to? And when you get control around your vision, your mission, your goals, and your intention, then you can start living an intentional life throughout that day. And this vision and mission and goals can change. It doesn't have to be set in stone for the rest of your life. It all depends on the season of your life that you're in right now. So this is just the season of life I'm in right now. When I was in college playing football, my goal was to be a professional athlete, and that was my mission. How can I be in the best shape of my life? How can I, uh, you know, be successful with my college team? How can we go to the championship? How can I get in front of co- uh, co- ... professional scouts and how can I make it to the next level? It just depends on what season of life you're in. After that transition, when I, uh, left football and was trying to figure out how to get a job, my, my mission was, how do I get off my sister's couch and get a job? Uh, okay, what are the goals that I have on a daily, weekly, monthly basis? What are the things I need to learn? And then I took action based on that intention. So you gotta think, think about what is your intention right now? And every morning, just think about that. This doesn't have to be long. Uh,
- 12:40 – 19:13
Clarify your one-sentence mission and schedule your day around it
- LHLewis Howes
it doesn't have to be 30 minutes of intention setting. It's just getting back to what is my intention today? How do I wanna show up, and what do I wanna create, not what do I want to react to? When you come from a place of creation and not reaction, you're gonna be making your life as opposed to really responding to your life in a negative way. So what does a morning routine practice actually do? How does it actually support you? Well, it sets the tone. Again, a lot of people say the first hour is one of the most important hours. It sets the tone. So if you're distracted, if you're groggy, if you're not moving, if you're eating bad foods, if you're on your phone laying in bed, if you're being negative, if you're sloppy, then more than likely you're gonna create that day. It's gonna be hard to get out of that. So it sets the tone for the day. Y- The more positive the first hour, the more powerful the rest of the day. It'll make you more productive. It allows for you to really control your schedule and set your schedule, as opposed to your schedule controlling you, or you reacting to whatever's coming your way. And I love to have a clear schedule of the week, exactly what I'm gonna do. What is everything gonna do to support me emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially, relationally? What am I gonna schedule in? And I also schedule in leisure time, okay? I'm gonna schedule these four hours where I'm gonna do nothing, or I'll do whatever I want, or I'll just hang out with friends. I schedule it in, that way I'm just not distracted by my phone or whatever's happening in the world. I really try to eliminate, uh, the negative distractions from my life the best that I can. And in no way am I perfect, but it's something I try to focus on by having a clear schedule. So when I know where I need to be, and I know what, where I need to show up and how I'm supposed to show up, it, it allows me to stay focused, and it's getting me clearer and clearer towards my mission and my vision for life. That's why it's important to go back and write down what is one sentence your mission or your vision for this season of your life. Who are you? Who do you wanna be? What do you wanna create? What do you wanna accomplish, and why? If you can get clarity on that in one sentence, then you'll create a schedule that supports that mission and vision for you and your life. So have a schedule. If you don't know what you're creating on a daily basis, you're gonna be responding and reacting to what life gives you, as opposed to you creating what you want in life. It also sets you up for lower stress levels. And it can really lower your stress levels because you're accomplishing so many positive moments or tasks for, for yourself the first thing in the morning, and you don't have to worry or think about doing them later. So if you're like, "Okay, I know I wanna get in shape. I know I wanna eat well. I know I wanna drink lots of water today. I know I wanna meditate. I know I wanna breathe at some time," and you wait until after you're exhausted, and you try to wait till six o'clock, seven o'clock at night when you come home from whatever you're doing at work or whatever you're doing, school, you're gonna be tired. It's gonna be really challenging to have focus and energy. This is why, for me, it's really important to learn the skill of Spanish. I wanna become fluent in Spanish one day. That's one of my goals. And I was taking Spanish class in the beginning, the first six months, around six o'clock at night. Now, this was after a full day of work. This was after an intense workout, and my brain was fried. And I couldn't stay awake. They... I'd be in an hour session, and I'd be, like, over Zoom after I'd done Zoom calls all day, and I'd be like this trying to remember stuff. And after months, I was just like, "I can't do this at night." So what I did is I started scheduling it at 8:00 AM. And it's one of the first things I do, 8:00 AM. I work on something that is meaningful for me, something I wanna learn, a skill that takes and requires a lot of my mental energy. And by doing that first thing in the morning, it sets the tone for the rest of the day. I feel more confident. I feel, like, more productive, and I'm doing something I care about first thing. And it lowers your stress, so you can improve in other areas as well. So again, it's setting the tone. It's lowering your stress levels because you're not waiting to the end of the day. You're not like, "Ah, I gotta do this thing later." That, that energy, that stress will, will hurt you in every other area of your life. So you wanna take care of your body. You wanna take care of your mind in the morning. And it allows you to show up to love those things around you, instead of taking out your emotions on people and experiences in your life. It also helps you improve your memory. So having the same routine has helped to show that it will improve your memory when you have the same routine consistently. Now, you can switch up your routine. You can try things over time. But having something that's similar, "I'm gonna do these three, these three things every morning," it really helps you increase your memory. You're far less likely to forget things that you need to do because you know you have your day, your morning, and how it's gonna start, so you don't have to spend a lot of brain power on it later. "Oh, I gotta still work out. I gotta remember to do this thing. I gotta do this thing over here." Like, you don't need to think about it because it's the first thing you do, and you get it out of the way. So it's really helping you boost confidence in my mind. This morning, I got up early. I breathed into some meditation, I made my bed, and I did a hard workout. And now, I came here to the studio to talk about this. And for me, I feel confident. I feel like, man, I've accomplished so much before 10:00 AM, right? I've already done so m- all the things that I care about, I've done, and I feel more confident. So this is what's, this is what's powerful. This is what's available for you, is gaining c- if you feel like you're not a confident person, if you feel like y- you doubt yourself, if you feel like you're unsure of yourself or you're insecure, spend time for an hour, hour and a half in the morning doing some of these things and trying them. Doing things that are uncomfortable for you. You're gonna build confidence in the first hour, and it'll go into the rest of your day. So I'm far more confident in my skills and abilities as a creator, as a partner, as a friend, and as a leader because I know I've put in the things that I care about first thing. So you wanna think about, how can you make your morning routine and habits
- 19:13 – 23:15
Why routines work: productivity, stress reduction, memory, and confidence
- LHLewis Howes
actually stick? This is a question I get a lot. And you don't wanna throw everything on your plate at once. "Okay, I'm gonna do 20 things in the morning routine to optimize my day." It's gonna be exhausting. You're not gonna be able to do it. Uh, so we wanna start small. Try two or three things, uh, in the morning. Don't go for hours, but just try two or three things. What are two or three things that take five to 10 minutes that you can do? And track it for seven days, and make it the most important thing that day. If you say, "I'm gonna do this first thing in the morning," really think about it the night before. "I'm gonna do this first thing in the morning." You do it every day. If you wanna have a, you know, check it off or an X off a calendar or mark it somewhere on your phone to track it, you're gonna see every day you do it, you build confidence. You're gonna be being your word, which builds integrity with yourself by just following through on these things. You're gonna feel more productive after that first hour. So start small and take it one day at a time. Start with seven days. Don't say, "I'm gonna do this for the rest of my life. This is my new routine." No. "I'm gonna try this for seven days and see how I feel." And then once you complete that, say, "Okay. Let me try this for another seven days." And then keep doing it consistently seven days at a time. I really recommend finding an accountability partner that you can check in with every single day in person or even just a quick text message. So whether you're, you know, in a relationship and you're waking up next to someone and you say, "Hey, can we do these three things for seven days?" And just try it out as an experiment, and you guys keep each other accountable. If you're living alone, text your best friend and say, "Hey, for the next seven days, I wanna challenge myself. If you wanna join me, let's, let's challenge each other, and I'm gonna text you every single morning that I completed this. Can you hold me accountable?" This will support you. Accountability is key. Accountability is key. I like to pay for accountability because it's even more commitment. So if I just have a workout partner, we'll commit to each other, but if I pay for a trainer or a coach, I show up every time. So you wanna stack the odds in your favor, whatever that wor- looks like for you. And if you don't want a coach right now, if you can't afford that, that's fine. You can have an accountability buddy or a friend, and that works, too. You could also post about it on social media and track your progress there and say, "Hey guys, I'm gonna do a challenge, and here's what I'm committed to." That could help you be accountable as well. And if you know people who are waiting to see what you're sharing every single day and how you're gonna run your morning routine, you're more likely to get out of bed and do these things, 'cause you don't wanna let people down. So that's something you do, is have the accountability. And there's lots of different stats out there about how long it takes to create a new behavior or to, uh, to make it more automatic and more, uh, of the norm for yourself. But I've, I've seen the recent studies say it takes 66 days for a new habit to really stick. So what I would suggest is break it down into a week at a time. So seven days, I'm gonna do this. Just don't say, "I'm gonna do this for 66 days." Say, "For the next seven days, I'm gonna do this." And then do it another seven days. And think of it in week chunks, not months and years, c- which can seem overwhelming. And you gotta decide, uh, what you can commit to for at least 66 days so that it can really become part of your day, where you eventually don't even think twice about it. So I get up and I make my bed every day because I've been doing it for so long now. I've scheduled in my workouts in the morning. Most of my wor- workouts are in the morning. Some days I schedule it later in the afternoon, uh, based on my work schedule, but it's scheduled in. So I'm getting it done most of the times in the morning. You know, I'm drinking a glass of water before I have coffee or tea, and I'm scheduling the most important things in first, scheduling in meditation. It's just part of the routine because I've doing, I've done it for so long now. So people ask, "What does, what does my morning routine look like?" So I try to go back to the basics. You know, I've tried advanced things. I've tried tricky things. I've
- 23:15 – 33:23
Fundamentals over biohacking: gratitude, aim, water, and realistic consistency
- LHLewis Howes
tried to... Biohacking, extreme stuff. But what I've found works is the basics, the fundamentals. Just like it works in everything, the fundamentals are key. Something that I'm a big, big fan of is perspective. Every breath I'm taking right now is closer to my last breath of my life. Every day that I wake up, it's getting me closer to my last day of my life. And I hope I live a very long time, happy, healthy, and fulfilled, uh, mission-driven, purpose-driven. That's my intention. But every morning I wake up, I wake up and I just say, "Thank you. Thank you for another day. Thank you for another opportunity to live my life, to experience connection with people, to experience the magic, the wonder, the adventure of this world." It's an incredible thing, what we're doing. We are a, a speck of sand- ... floating around in a s- in a globe that is in infinite space, an infinite universe, and we are here for whatever reason to experience life. Thank you for another day. It gives me perspective. I woke up. A lot of people did not wake up this morning, and I got to wake up to experience it. Thank you. Puts gratitude in my heart. It makes me in a positive mood. And I don't know many people, in fact, I don't know anyone, who is negative that lives a good life. Again, back to the fundamentals. People say, "Well, attitude is everything." I believe it's true. When you come from a place of negativity or lack or insecurity, fear, um, scarcity, frustration, anger, resentment, holding a grudge, when you come from that place of being, you attract more of it. When you come from a pl- even if everything is going wrong in your life and you are frustrated, when you come from a place of positivity, people are drawn to you. You're a magnet for opportunities. You're a magnet for love, fulfillment, joy, uh, financial success. You are, become a magnet for more opportunities in your life when you have a positive attitude, an attitude of gratitude. All these things which are fundamentals, basics. These are things we were taught in growing up, in elementary school. All these things are key, and it's something that I continue to live by because it continues to bring abundance in my life, fulfillment, people, opportunities, connections to help me im- im- improve my mission in my life. So say thank you for another day and express gratitude, and carry that throughout the day. Yes, there's gonna be times where you're frustrated and sad and hurt. You're not gonna be a robot. But I'm telling you, the more you can focus on this as the foundation for your life, the more opportunities will come your way. So that's what I do as a first thing, say thank you. The second thing is I make my bed. We talked about before. Making my bed cleans my space. It sets me up for the later in the day, gives me delayed gratification, which I get to practice consistently. When I make my bed now, I'm not rewarded until the end of the day. Okay, I made it, but I get to experience the joy of a clean space, pulling back the covers, putting my pillow down at the end of the day. So it's, it's making a deposit now that I don't get the cash until later at night. And that helps train us to do challenging things now that will pay off months, years, decades in the future by being consistent in that simple act of making your bed, is a powerful thing. I think about my goals and my dreams, and what I need to create today to get closer to that. If we don't have an aim, Jordan Peterson talks about this in his book, 12 Rules for Life. If we don't have an aim, then we are wandering in no man's land. If we're not clear on what we wanna create, where we wanna go, what our focus is, where the target is, then we're in this wandering desert where things go to die, where vultures come to pick at you and attack you and take you down because you're not moving in a clear direction. You're wandering in a circle. You're sitting still. You're stuck, and that's where things go to die. This is where the vultures of life come to attack you. Negative people, negative opportunities, s- sickness, disease, uh, bad decision-making goes there. So you wanna think about your dreams, your goals, your aim. You wanna have a clear aim. And this doesn't have to be, "Well, my dream for the rest of my life is this." It can be, "What's my aim for this week? What's my aim for this month? What am I trying to do today to get a little bit better and a little bit farther in my life?" I think about my dreams and my goals, and then I s- I have a schedule that supports this, and that's what's really key. I'm practicing gratitude because the rest of the day isn't guaranteed. I don't know if I'll be here in an hour, in a minute. I don't know. The body could shut down at any moment. I hope I live a long, happy, healthy, fulfilled, purpose-driven life. That's my intention. I'm setting myself up to live that way. But there is no guarantee, zero guarantee. So it's something I think about, is practicing gratitude, and that's really the main things that I really think about. And the easiest... And people ask, "Well, what are the easiest and most important habits to start building?" Going back to the basics, making your bed, drinking water. This first thing I do is I drink a tall glass of water. Most people drink coffee right away or tea. Tall glass of water. What that does, your brain and your cells need hydration, the first thing. Putting something else besides water in your body first is not the optimal way. The brain needs to get activated through water. It feeds off water. So drinking water first will wake you up, will make you sharper, give you energy, give you clarity, give you focus. So I do this, then I sip on a, a Bulletproof coffee, uh, after that. But water is the key ingredient for a healthy life. Then I'm making my bed, and I'm focusing on how can I get eight hours of sleep. I don't get eight hours of s- I don't get eight hours of sleep every night. I try to. I try to focus on it, but life happens. Sometimes it's six and a half hours, sometimes it's seven hours. My goal is always eight hours. And again, this is not gonna be a perfect routine every day. Life happens. But when you set yourself up for structure and success, you'll be more likely to accomplish it and feel more productive. Every time I follow this routine and I do it, I feel like I have a great day. Even if the rest of the day doesn't work out as planned- At least I spent the first hour meaningful, doing the things that matter. So getting eight hours of sleep, from all the longevity experts, from all the doctors, from all the health experts, the brain experts, this is about recovery, recovering your mind, allowing your mind to dream, allowing your mind to cleanse itself, your body, your cells to heal. You need this time, especially with the demands of what a human being has today. Over 100... a thousand years ago, there's more demands and stress than ever before. Going for a walk, if you're not used to exercising. I like to exercise, I like to push myself and have structured pain, but if that's not where you're at in your life right now, then go for a walk. Get a brisk walk. 10, 20 minutes is key. Question people have is, "Describe how you were before and then after you developed strong routines." For me, when I don't have my routine in place, or if I'm traveling and my routine's off, I can feel my day is off. And before, when I didn't make my bed, when I'd get up late, when I'd not sleep well, it was just... Again, I wasn't as productive, I wasn't as clear, I wasn't as focused. I could still get things done and, and have good days and things like that. It's not like my day was gonna be horrible if I don't have my r- morning routine, but I just didn't feel like I was living up to my fullest potential, and I'm a big fan of getting as close to your full potential as you can on a consistent basis. We're human beings. We're gonna make mistakes, we're gonna fall off things, we're gonna slip here and there. But before, I wasn't really able to have as much clarity and focus, structure. It just held me back, and structure always supports me in moving forward. So in terms of mindset, health, everything, it's been a lot better with morning routine. And when I started to develop some habits and routines, I felt better waking up each day. I was able to focus more on my business, my relationships, and everything started to get healthier and stronger. So that is the answer to that question. And it's okay to get off track sometimes, but I found that this, this two day method by YouTuber Matt D'Avella, that I really liked. He has this two day method, and, uh, we'll see if we can find this video and link it up in the description. But Matt says that he never skips the thing you're trying to accomplish more than two days in a row. So again, life happens, you're traveling, you're up late, you, you had to get up early for something and you didn't get to do your morning routine. Don't do that two days in a row, and this is something that's important. Again, it may be something as simple as going on a 30-minute walk, and one day it's raining and so you don't go. But the next day, you've gotta find a way to take that walk, even if it's raining and even if you're not, uh, set up for success, and you don't feel like going. You can never miss two days in
- 33:23 – 35:55
Getting routines to stick: start small, accountability, and the “two-day rule”
- LHLewis Howes
a row. So that's key in, in that strategy with Matt. So I hope this gave you some insights on the morning routine and how to set up your day for success. Again, the fundamentals are key. Get to the basics. Try two or three things for seven days in a row. Don't make big commitments in your life that you're gonna do this for, uh, the rest of the year, your whole life. Just say, "Okay, I wanna try these three things for the next seven days." And we also wrote a book. We have an entire guide called The Millionaire Morning, and you can go to millionairemorning.com, and you can get this short, little guide. It's teaching you everything you need to know about how to break free of the mindset that you can't make millions, about the 10 steps to develop a millionaire mindset, the top habits of millionaires that you can do every single day. We talk about the money math and how to create a plan to achieve your financial goals, and the keys to building the right relationships to grow your business. This booklet has been powerful for so many people, and if you wanna have the optimal morning routine for your life, then make sure to follow the things we talked about in this video. But if you wanna learn about how to earn more money with your morning routine, then this book will support you in figuring out the strategies of what millionaires do in their morning routine to help them earn more money. So again, this video has been all about optimizing your life, having a fulfilled, healthy, happy lifestyle. But again, if you want to learn more strategies, then get, uh, The Millionaire Morning. If you go to millionairemorning.com, you can get this book, you can learn more about it. Uh, we've, we've, we've got a lot of copies out there in the world, and it's fun to see all the results. There's exercises in here, there's a lot of different content, strategies from what millionaires do in their morning routine to help them earn more and become more financially abundant. So check that out at millionairemorning.com, and I'd love to hear your feedback b- in the comments below here on YouTube. Make sure to leave a comment of what part of this video you enjoyed the most or what part you're gonna try. And make sure to share this with a few friends and get them involved. Maybe someone who's an accountability buddy, say, "Hey, come watch this video," and have them leave a comment below of what they're gonna try for their morning routine. I would love to hear your feedback. What else do you do in your morning routine that really helps you to become more successful in your life? Leave some of your strategies, leave some of your tips, the things you do, below in the comments. Would love to learn more
- 35:55 – 39:01
Interview setup: exploring the 5:00 a.m. ‘202020’ approach
- LHLewis Howes
from you. Again, make sure to subscribe to this channel if you enjoyed this, and if you want more on optimizing routines and mindset and habits, then we've got some great content after this coming up right now. I wanna dive into morning routine at the start, because you're a huge, uh, advocate of a very specific morning routine. And, you know, morning routines are talked about a lot on success-minded podcasts and- Uh, high achiever podcast these days, but you have a, a different approach to it, and yours is the 5:00 a.m., uh, morning routine, which is the 202020 plan. And first I wanna ask if you can talk a little bit about what that plan is, why it's more powerful than other morning routines that people might talk about, and then I wanna ask you a follow-up question on it after that.
- SPSpeaker
You know, Lewis, I've been teaching morning routine, uh, for 24 years. I wrote a book years ago called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, uh, where I talked about the ritual of early awakening, and I talked about the 5:00 a.m. club. You know, the Spartan warriors, I learn a lot from them. These are human beings that were fierce in their resolve to do amazing things. The Spartan warriors had nobility and honor. Uh, look at the world we're in right now. We need to do what it takes to become stronger as well as more compassionate. The Spartan warriors' mothers used to actually say to them, "Come back on your shield, come back victorious, or don't come back at all."
- LHLewis Howes
Wow.
- SPSpeaker
And the Spartan warriors also used to say, "Sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war." And so we live in a world, obviously there's COVID, but I think this is a time of incredible unrest. We've got social unrest for all of the unjust- injustice that is- has been out there for so many years. We've also got a financial crisis, which I believe is going to get much worse.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SPSpeaker
And, uh, we've got... We- For, for sure. I'm, I'm no, uh, financial expert or an economist but, I mean, if you look at, if you look at all the quantitative easing happening right now, and if you look at the low interest rates and all the encouragement that we buy more and spend more right now to pump and jumpstart the economy, we're just pushing, uh, an- the inevitable collapse-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SPSpeaker
... further down the road, I believe.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
So I think we have, you know, we have the coronavirus and we've ha- have some early optimistic trials on the vaccine, which I'm very encouraged about, and then we've got all these other things, including an environmental, uh, catastrophe in the making. So with that context, uh, I think one of the most important things a human being can do is press the pause button each morning while the rest of the world is asleep and ask yourself, "How can I fortify my mindset? How can I insulate
- 39:01 – 42:59
Why 5:00 a.m. matters: fortifying mindset, heartset, healthset, and soulset
- SPSpeaker
my heartset? How can I optimize my healthset? How can I escalate my soulset?" The four interior empires that I've introduced in The 5:00 AM Club, so that when I walk out into the world, I'm creative, I'm productive, I'm compassionate, I radiate positivity, and I have resilience in case I get knocked down. And so I think one of the best ways you can do that is this 202020 formula that I've been teaching to the billionaires, the NBA stars, the film icons, and many of the most successful people on the planet for, uh, as I say, 20- uh, 24 years. And, uh, very high level, Lewis. The 202020 formula is simply this. You get up at 5:00 a.m., and anyone can get up at 5:00 a.m. One of the gifts of a human being is neuroplasticity. We are built to change. So please, I would encourage, you know, if we recite our excuses long enough, we actually believe they're true. We are built to change. We are built to grow. We are built to own our heroic nature. And so according to University College London, if we do any practice or habit for 66 days, we reach a point of automaticity where it becomes easier to do that new habit than not do the new habit. Once you wire in the new habit, for the first 20 minutes, 5:00 to 5:20, you move, because you can release BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which promotes neurogenesis. It optimizes your brain. Uh, if you move first thing in the morning, you release serotonin, which makes you feel good. You release dopamine, which, you know, sets you up for inspiration. Second, we can get into it more deeply, but second pocket from 5:20 to 5:40 is reflect. You know, while the rest of the world is asleep, there's such quietude in the air. This is where you can pray, you can meditate, write in a journal, sit in quietude so that you're focused on living your life and your priorities through the day. And then the final pocket of the 202020 formula that I talk about in The 5:00 AM Club is grow. You'll never get old if you grow. You'll never become obsolete in your business, even in a time of great volatility if you're growing. You'll always stay happy if you grow. So 20 minutes at the end of this victory hour, that's what I, what I call it, uh, you spend some time listening to a podcast like Lewis Howes on School of Greatness, a man adored by the majority of humanity. Um, [laughs] you listen to, uh, an audiobook, you read a book, you study your battle charts. And anyway, that's a, a really rough general way to explain the 2020 formula that is currently helping millions of people navigate this hard time.
- LHLewis Howes
Does it matter the sequencing of 202020? Do you need to move first? Can you meditate first? Do you grow la- you know, or is that a, uh, a process that is proven scientifically?
- SPSpeaker
The process has been proven in the trenches of elite performance for a long time with my clients.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And having said that, you know, I would say the 202020 formula is v- minimum viable morning routine.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And you're a biohacker. I'm a biohacker. I'm a productivity hacker. I'm a life hacker. And so I would say, do what's right for you. You know-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... it's like this whole field of personal mastery and leadership that we inhabit. I, I'm, I'm not one to say you must do this because we all have different learning types. We're all on different journeys.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
Someone m- might be right now upgrading their spirituality, so they connect with their crusade and their higher power in this time of house arrest.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
Other people are creating their master work right now.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
So I think we have to find the routine that, the morning routine that works best for us.
- 42:59 – 48:31
The 202020 formula: Move, Reflect, Grow (and how rigid it should be)
- LHLewis Howes
What about people that say, "You know what? I'm just a night person. You know? I like, I think at night, I work out at night, that's when I meditate, uh, you know, I strategize the next day at night and I just... I've tried the morning, it just doesn't work for me." What would you say to that?
- SPSpeaker
I've had a lot of night owls-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... who have-
- LHLewis Howes
That's a great excuse, isn't it? To be a night owl. [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
I've had a lot of great, a l- a lot of night owls who have said, uh, "You know, I could never be a morning person." I've had a lot of people who've said, you know, "Grandma couldn't get up early, Grandpa couldn't get up early, my parents couldn't get up early. I don't have early rising genes." You know? And what I would say is, if you don't read that book you've been resisting because you don't think it's for you, you might just miss your new favorite book.
- LHLewis Howes
Hmm.
- SPSpeaker
If you fall in love with your most closely cherished beliefs and you're not open to trying new things, you might miss your new fa- trying your new favorite food. If you say, "Well, here's the kind of friends that I hang out with, and I'm not open to anyone else," you might miss that new friend or that new mentor who will transform the way you run your craft and live your life. And it's the same for the morning routine. The 5 AM Club, I mean, it's just... I, I've had so many people read the book, run the models in the book, live the message, and a- achieve what they never thought they'd achieve.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And so what I would say to a night owl, or a lot of people say shift workers or whatever, I would say give it a try. And don't just give it a try for, for a week, you know? Give it a try for three weeks, four weeks, the 66-day minimum.
- LHLewis Howes
Hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And then judge by, then judge by your results.
- LHLewis Howes
Hey, it's Lewis here, and I would love to connect directly with you. Text me the word YouTube to my number, 614-350-3960 to receive weekly inspirational messages from me. I did this for, I was getting up at, uh, not, not that I was in competition, but I was getting up at 4:50 AM, Robin-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- LHLewis Howes
... for a few months a couple years ago, and I was doing a 5:00 AM workout. And that's how I do it. So I was spending an hour in the morning working out at 5:00 AM, then I was coming back and meditating and strategizing for the day. And it was extremely challenging for me for the first month. Um, but then it got better and better and I started to make it a, a you know, something that I was proud of. You know, I would call it beating the sun. I was like, "I'm gonna beat the sun tomorrow, and I'm gonna wake up" And the first 20 minutes are not fun for at least a month. And maybe it's never fun in the first few minutes, 'cause you could... It always feels more comfortable to sleep until your body really starts to find a routine and a rhythm that, okay, you're just going to bed by 8:00 or 9:00 and you start to appreciate that process in a different way. You might have loved being up late before, in its own way, but this is a new way to find appreciation. So, uh, I'm not in that space right now. My, you know, my girlfriend moved in and I said, "You know what? I'm gonna allow myself to sleep in a little bit with her and experience something different" But I tell you what, I always feel more productive when I'm consistently waking up earlier, um, even if it's uncomfortable.
- SPSpeaker
Well, th- there's a line in The 5 AM Club which is, "All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end."
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And so you were telling, uh, I don't think you'd mind, but before we-
- LHLewis Howes
Go ahead
- SPSpeaker
... started recording you, you were sharing how you're running more, and it's, it's like the first time you run. It's like the first time you ski, it's like the first time you fall in love, it's like the first time you play chess. I mean, we, we, we, we stumble before we walk, and then on shaky legs we embrace the new habit. And that's the very nature of personal transformation. I mean-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... every master was once a beginner, every professional was once an amateur. And so this, this, this idea that we need to be masters right out of the gate, that we need to, you know, get up at 5:00 AM and instantly it should be easy, well, falling, like a great relationship isn't easy. Building a world-class business that stands the test of time isn't easy. Uh, becoming a, a maestro or any kind of a virtuoso, it's, there, it's always a process. I mean, I know you, you interviewed Kobe, well, I think what made Kobe Kobe was his intense, rigorous practice over many, many years.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
You know, he just out-practiced out everyone around him. And I think, you know, we live in a world of easy. We want the easy morning routine versus the morning routine that'll give us the b- greatest payoff. And I just, there's a reason, Lewis, that a lot of the great saints, sages, poets, military leaders, world changers, got up at 5:00 AM and before the sun. I think it's the quietest time of the day. You, if you look at willpower researchers, we wake up with the most willpower when we first wake up.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
You have the most mental focus before-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... the phenomena attention residue takes over and cognitive bandwidth is high. And you know, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's been profound for me.
- 48:31 – 1:08:51
Night owls, neuroplasticity, and building the early-rising habit
- LHLewis Howes
How does someone be consistent in their discipline, you know? When most people say, "I'm gonna do this for three months or six months" but then, ah, interruption, COVID, ah, um, I got sick, ah, something, someone in the family needs, needs me, and I'm up all night. And what's the difference between what Kobe did for two decades in the NBA where he was disciplined? How was he able to stay motivated and how are the greatest able to stay motivated where others seem to lack the motivation and discipline to be consistent? Because anyone can do it for a few weeks, but how do you do it for years and decades? What's the difference between that?
- SPSpeaker
I- it, it's an excellent question, and I, and I would say first of all, in COVID right now, may we give ourselves permission to be gentle with ourselves.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
I think, y- you know, even this whole idea that we must be machines in terms of our morning routine or even our pre-sleep rituals, this, these messages that are out there that we must be monomaniacally consistent and flawless human beings for us to wear our badges of honor in society as leading members of the cult of productivity. You know, I, I-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... I'll just, I'll confess right here to you right now, I su- I sure am no guru and I slip. I slip, you know. I, I slip on the 5:00 AM club. I have had, uh, those, those evenings where I feel like a few extra chocolate croissants. And I, I just think we must give ourselves permission to be humans. I think, you know, I was flying, uh, on a little plane, um, from White River, South Africa to this game reserve, and the pilot let me fly the plane for a little while. And he kept on saying, you know, "The winds are gonna push you off course, and just, you know, ke- keep that," I think it was the altimeter or whatever, "but just keep it in the center." And so the, the currents, Lewis, would pull me off course, and then I'd just, you know, look at the dial and I'd come back. And I really believe, you know, that's, that's, that's how we l- live our days-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... as human beings. I mean, I'll get up and sometimes there's a current, like you said, you know, a child who kept you up at night, or it's the pandemic, so maybe you're worried, or maybe you've lost a job. And so those currents will take us off course. And so our job is just to steer back on course each day.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
It's, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're not perfect human beings.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah. So it's okay to, to sleep in once a week or to, to miss, miss the routine once in a while. It's not gonna affect your overall, you know, results or process. Is that what I'm hearing?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. I think, you know, if you wanna commit to the 5:00 AM club, you wanna commit to a world-class morning routine because the way you begin the day profoundly sets up the way your day unfolds.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And this, again, this is not a anecdotal. You get up in the morning and you run the 202020 formula that I w- explain in the book, you will create the flow state. You will release serotonin. You will release dopamine. You will release BDNF. You will increase your metabolic rate. You will boost creativity. You will, uh, increase your willpower. You, you know, all those things. I mean, we, we want, we all have the ability as human beings to a- arrive at our own original form of greatness.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
We have not been schooled, we have not been taught, a lot of us have not been mentored on the mindsets, heartsets, routines, rituals that will create and allow us to live our personal genius. But, you know, if you look at the greatest women and men who have ever graced the planet, these were so-called ordinary people who just set up their lives in such-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... a way that their native gifts saw the light of day.
- LHLewis Howes
It's funny r- how no one ever teaches this stuff unless you had a parent or an older sibling that's, that you were able to model and mimic. Like, "Oh, my, my dad gets up pretty early," or, "My brother gets up and does his violin or f- practices sport," whatever it may be, "and I wanna be like that and I wanna try that." It's, you know, we're not taught this in school.
- SPSpeaker
You know, Lewis, I, um, when I was a kid I wasn't believed in by a lot of people. I marched to my own drumbeat. I had a different way of seeing the world. I was very sensitive. I was very creative. Very much a, a dreamer in many ways. And, uh, I didn't fit in with the cool crowd. And in grade five I had a history teacher, and her name was Cora Greenaway, and she was one of the first people in my life who believed in me. And we all need a Cora Greenaway, and may you and I and everyone listening from around the world or watching from around the world, may we be a Cora Greenaway to someone else. And what I'm suggesting is all it takes is that one person who coincidentally shows up in our life, and maybe it's a book, maybe it's a podcast episode, to introduce us to a new frame of reference and a new way of living. Might even be w- that's why I love reading so much, you know? It's, it could be one idea in a 300-page book, and that idea opens you up to a new galaxy of possibility, and the hand that puts down the book is a fundamentally different hand. I mean, all it takes is one new insight to change the way you see the world.
- LHLewis Howes
That's very true.
- SPSpeaker
And so, yeah, and that's why I'm su- on such a mission and I've been on such a mission for 24 years to remind people of who they're meant to be. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "If you have not discovered something you're willing to die for, you're not fit to live." And I, I believe we all need to find our mighty mission and our crusade.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Doesn't have to be lofty. It could be delivering pizza by Uber Eats. It could be a, you know, a teacher. It could be a lawnmower. It could be a, a coder. It could be a grave digger or street sweeper. All, all- Labor has dignity, but, you know, th- there are no extra people on the planet and I think, you know, that's why I appreciate the work you do so much. I mean, we do have greatness within us and society has brainwashed us and heartwashed us into thinking that the great ones are cut from a different cloth.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And it's not, it's not true. As, as a matter of fact, in The 5 AM Club I say, you know, "Genius is less about genetics and, and much more about your daily habits."
- LHLewis Howes
Wow, that's true. That's ... I mean, I c- that's, that resonates with me because gr- growing up a kid that was, you know, dyslexic and still struggles with reading and writing today, and was in the special needs classes, I never thought I was gonna amount to much, and I didn't have belief in myself until I found a spark and belief in myself-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- LHLewis Howes
... and then I started leaning into that gift, which was sports, and started to realize, oh, I have some vision and I have some coordination and I have some speed. Even though I was never the fastest or strongest, I had some height. And so I'm gonna lean into this gift that was here and see if I enjoy this gift and see if I like this gift and see if this brings me joy, and it did and I continued. And, uh, then I built routines and habits around that gift and kept pursuing it unt- as far as I could pursue it until it was no longer a dream, or until the gift was no longer there, until I wanted to pursue other things. And I think, um, you know, even if y- whoever's listening or watching, even if you didn't think you were talented or smart enough at some point, there's something inside of you that is talent. You've just gotta keep trying things and see what brings you that joy and that uniqueness. At least that's what I would say.
- SPSpeaker
Well, you know, j- just to, just to hitchhike off of that, Lewis, I think no one will believe in, in you until you believe in you.
- 1:08:51 – 1:30:39
Discipline over decades: self-compassion, seasons of life, and rest as strategy
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah. I think that's key because, you know, I started about a year, year and a half ago, I started saying, "Okay, I'm gonna write my- I'm gonna start working on my next book." And about overcoming self-doubt. 'Cause I think what you said in the beginning of this interview is if, if people can take away one thing from this interview, is what you said in the beginning, where it doesn't matter if the world believes in you. If you have billions of people that say, "You're the greatest, you can do it," if you don't believe that you're capable, you'll never be able to live up to that potential or achieve those goals. And the opposite, if the world is saying, "You are crazy, you can't do it, this is a dumb idea, you'll never be enough, you suck," it doesn't matter. Because if you firmly believe, it only takes one. It only takes one either way, and most people don't understand that self-doubt is the killer of dreams. And if they can figure out how to eliminate the noise from the outside, but most importantly eliminate the noise of the inside that keeps them from their dreams, then they can achieve them if they learn that process. And I was, a year and a half ago, saying, "Okay, I'm gonna start working on my next book project." Then a few th- things came up in my life. You met me at a time, which I acknowledge you in a deep way, because you met me at a time where I was going through, um, some, some challenges with a breakup, and also just people, whatever, gossiping about me, whether they knew what happened or not. And I was like, "Wow, I thought I knew my friends." And I s- I started to quickly know my friends after these few months of, of challenge. And I was really grateful for the wisdom you gave me. You said, you know, "This is a blessing. It's a blessing for the ego to go through this type of thing because it allows you to have more compassion, more humility," everything you've been saying in this interview, and allows you to purge relationships in your life and purge ideas, thoughts, processes that maybe don't work for you anymore. I was planning to start writing this book a year and a half ago, and I started working on the proposal, but something wasn't clicking. And I was like, "Okay, well this is an excuse and I'm not gonna allow writer's block to hold me back. I'm gonna keep going through this." So I kept doing it every single month, working on the proposal, but still didn't feel, I didn't feel excited about it. I didn't feel proud of it. Something was off. And then I felt guilty 'cause I was like, "Huh, I'm not putting it out when I said I wanted to put it out. I'm not completing it when I said I wanted to do it." But there was a lot happening in my personal life as well. And I said, "You know what? It's gonna, it's gonna come when it's ready and I'm not gonna put pressure on myself anymore." In this kind of year and a half plus season of not doing anything, quote-unquote, has actually been a lot of insight, reflecting, research. And I just now in the last couple weeks have dived back into the process, 'cause I feel like, wow, I've actually gathered so much data from the last year and a half of not working on it that I feel like I have the information I need now to move forward. So I think this time of reflection can always be powerful. I call it strategic messing around, where you're like playing more, you're doing other activities, and things are coming to you in a different way.
- SPSpeaker
You know, I, I think, Lewis, instinct is 100 times wiser than the intellect. Our intellect, right? Like most people, we're running our lives from our intellect, but the intellect is just the sum total of what society has told us is possible. Intellect. That, that's just what's been done before. That's what the experts tell us is possible. Well, look at Banister and the four-minute mile. No, a human being, if a human being runs a mile in under a four, in under four minutes-
- LHLewis Howes
They'll die. [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... he or she is gonna blow up.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
But in the weeks and months afterwards, people started doing it.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And then you just, y- you talked about, you know, Elon Musk and what he's doing. You look at the great scientists. You look at Galileo, es- who said, you know, the, the Earth is round. And it just goes on and on. And I think any great creator, any hero, any history maker, any human being who wants to live life fully, completely, spiritually, creatively, we've got to learn how to trust the silent whispers of our instinct over the chattering voices of our intellect. And, you know, when you were talking about your book on overcoming self-doubt, criticism is a symptom of greatness.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
You know you are making traction around your creative ambitions when the cynics, critics, naysayers come out to play. That's when you know you're doing something great. I mean, I, I'm really big into documentaries, and I watched a recent one on Miles Davis. And Miles Davis, you know, great mu- you know, a legendary trumpet player, as you know so well, and he suffered, you know, a, a challenging childhood. He came from a, you know, a fairly well-off family, but he, he suffered from a lot of racism and then he started playing trumpet and he became really good at it. And he played with his heroes eventually, d- uh, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, I believe. And then like a lot of people, they start playing like their heroes. But it wasn't until he said, "I've mastered the game, so now I can destroy the game." What did Picasso say? "First master the rules so you can break the rules."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And so Charlie Parker technically bl- you know, world class at playing the trumpet according to the traditional rules, but his instinct said, "This isn't where I wanna go."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
"I wanna, I wanna go blue ocean. I wanna go green sh- green field. I wanna do what no one else has done. And this is where my, my creativity and my instinct is leading me." And so he got into his late '60s Bitches Brew album, where he experimented with cadences and styles and rhythms that no one had ever heard before. And in the documentary his son said, "You know, Dad never kept his old albums at home." And the documentarian said, "Why not?" And he said, "Because he wasn't interested in what he'd done before."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
He was only interest- he was only interested in where he was going. He told John McLaughlin, the guitar player who played with him, he said, "In this session, I want you to play as if you don't know how to play guitar." So all I'm saying is, you know, you're right, and we can talk about the tactics, but living your truest life as an artist, as a productive, as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a someone trying to make the world better, it begins with you doing the interior work.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And that's why the 5 AM Club is so powerful.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Because you're giving yourself an hour while everyone else is asleep, the, the time of the lowest digital distraction, but the time of the least interruption, the time of the ... It, it's the time of greatest quietude. And you're up at 4:15 or 4:30 or 5:00 AM and you have one hour to pray, to meditate, to visualize, to read the classics of the great women and men of the world who all will say and reinforce with their own mindsets and heartsets, "Trust your instinct. Learn to love yourself. Be too ... Do not be too much in the world and of the crowd-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SPSpeaker
... so that you learn to trust your values, your instincts, and take your craft and your life where you wanna take it versus where society wants you to take it." And what ... If you can start doing that through meditation, journaling, verbalization, visualization, reading, me- mentorship, et cetera, then you're a f- you're an army of one against the world, and I think that's how the great heroes roll.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Um, I'm loving this. And do you think there are, from all the, the great leaders you've talked to of this moment right now, the, the billionaires, the, the CEO leaders, the financially abundant leaders to high performers, are those successful and wealthy people doing anything different than unsuccessful and wealthy people in this moment?
- SPSpeaker
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think, um ... L- let, let me just, if I may, I've worked with a lot of super wealthy people, and one thing I wanna emphasize is there are a lot of extremely wealthy people and money is all they have.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And so I believe there are multiple forms of wealth. As a matter of fact, I do believe that once you pass a certain threshold of net worth and a- an annual income, you actually add complexity to your life which destroys happiness-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... and tranquility and peace of mind.
- LHLewis Howes
Yep. You have to learn to be happy in spite of the wealth you create.
- SPSpeaker
The happiest cohort I have ever met in my life are ski instructors. I'm a level one ski instructor, which means I barely passed the grade.
- 1:30:39 – 1:56:30
Trusting instinct, handling criticism, and doing the interior work that creates greatness
- LHLewis Howes
I believe that. Man. Um, a- and in the first interview, we talked a, we talked a little bit about self-doubt, and I wanna bring in, bring you up and go a little deeper in that because we talked about it-
- SPSpeaker
Sure
- LHLewis Howes
... here as well. I'm curious, is there a difference between building self-confidence and eliminating self-doubt?
- SPSpeaker
I don't know. I'll, I'll have to think about that. What I would, what I would say is I, I'm gonna be very contrarian here. You know, so many people are talking about mindset.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And you know this from our first interview. You know, it's like mindset is everything. It's like if you only build a PMA, positive mental attitude, the world will be okay. Well then, if that was the case, I- I'm gonna actually be a little bit dramatic and I would say that's the big lie of positive thinking.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Now, does positive thinking not work? It does work. But a positive mindset without a purified heartset leads to an empty victory.
- LHLewis Howes
Ooh.
- SPSpeaker
So what I would say on your question about self-doubt and what we try to do is we try to remove- we try to build confidence ps- psychologically. We meditate-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... we visualize, and we read the books, and we watch the podcasts.
- LHLewis Howes
With our intellect, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
With our intellect. But as human beings, we are these four interior empires, emp- empires I teach in the 5 AM Club. It's not just mindset. It is our psychology, but it's also our emotionality, our heartset. And then it's our third interior empire, our healthset-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... our physiology. And then it's the fourth interior empire that I wish more people were talking about because it's not weak, it's brave. Our fourth interior empire, our spirituality. So I would say when you use your morning routine or your nightly ritual or spend some time every day working on your four interior empires, that's when you release your ego. And when you release your ego, when there's no more darkness, all there is is light.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And that, that mean- that's who we are. Our, our truest nature is pure creativity, vitality, love, heroism, compassion for other people, honor and honesty. So what I would say is the missing link in self-confidence and turning down self-doubt is read the positive books, listen to positive thinking gurus, and get your psychology to world-class because your daily behavior does follow your deepest beliefs. No question. But then do something that not a lot of people on the planet are doing, which is do your heartset work. Which is if you've got anger, sorrow, resentment, shame, guilt s- repressed within your subconscious, within your heartset, well then you're at war because you've got a positive mindset, but a toxic heartset. So doing that emotional hearing is the game- healing-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SPSpeaker
... is the game changer. Then you get into healthset. Massage, you release the toxicity from massage, reiki, acupuncture, et cetera, sweat lodges, et cetera. And then you do the soulset work where you connect to your higher power, your inner hero. You do those four things, you start to dissolve self-doubt.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah. Can we, can we achieve great things with pain and resentment and anger living inside of us?
- SPSpeaker
Well, it depends on what you define as great things.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
I, I think a lot of great companies have been created by very damaged people.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. And great music-
- SPSpeaker
So-
- LHLewis Howes
... great art.
- SPSpeaker
Well, f- for sure. I mean, I was once on an airplane from New York, I believe New York to Paris, sitting next to an artist and he said, "You know, I look for romantic partners who break my heart."
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
And I said... [laughs] I said-
Episode duration: 1:56:30
In the uListen app, the transcript lights up word by word as you listen. Get uListen
Transcript of episode 7NHMXpVHNbQ
