Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Robin Sharma on Why Changing the World Starts by Changing Ourselves EP 209

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Today I talk to Robin Sharma (@robinsharma), a multiple-time #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's premier speakers on Leadership and Personal Mastery, named one of the World's Top Leadership Gurus. Robin is the author of the new book The Everyday Hero Manifesto: Activate your positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve the World. Purchase The Everyday Hero Manifesto: https://amzn.to/3SQlqhE  (Amazon Link) Brought to you by American Giant (get 20% off using code PassionStruck at https://www.american-giant.com/) and InsideTracker (get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store https://info.insidetracker.com/passionstruck). What We Discuss with Robin Sharma Robin Sharma generously shares his deep understanding of the principles, protocols, and tactics you could attain to unleash productivity that opens up leading a world-class life and becoming a spiritual heavyweight that lifts the world. Our discussion focuses on the everyday heroes we meet in our life. The unsung people that significantly impact our lives and how each of us can manifest our hidden powers and talent to become the superheroes of our lives. Robin shares how we can attain a life filled with satisfaction, gratitude, positivity, and eagerness to help others. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/robin-sharma-everyday-hero-manifesto/  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/SpAT8KGrwvg  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Did you hear my interview with Dr. Nate Zinsser, a West Point performance psychologist? Catch up with episode 204: Dr. Nate Zinsser on How Do You Create a Confident Mind ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_sruck_podcast Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

Coming up next on the Passion Struck Podcast. The everyday hero manifesto is a manifesto or a manual to help people who might be feeling stuck, let go of victimhood and show leadership, and be productive, and be creative, and make those micro pieces of progress that over time lead to a tsunami of change. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that

you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 209 of PassionStruck. Recently ranked is one of the top 50 most inspirational podcasts of 2022.

And thank you to each and every one of you who come back weekly to listen and learn, had a live better, be better, and impact the world. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for joining us. Or you would just like to introduce this to a friend or family member. We now have episode starter packs, both on Spotify and at passionstruck.com slash starter packs.

These are collections of our fans favorite episodes that we organize into convenient topics to give any new listener a great way to get acquainted to everything we do here on the show. In case you missed my episodes from last week, I interviewed Stanford professor Jeremy Utley and we launched his brand new book, Idea Flow. I also interviewed New York Times best-selling author, psychologist and professor, Dr. Marissa G. Franco. My solo episode was on the power of forgiveness.

Please go and check them all out if you haven't had a chance to listen to them. I also wanted to say thank you so much for your ratings and reviews. We now have over 10,000 of them globally on iTunes alone. If you love today's episode and it's a very special one, we would appreciate you giving it a five star review and sharing it with your friends and family members.

I know our guests love to see comments as well. Now let's talk about today's episode. Have you ever wondered what principles protocols and tactics that you could attain? To unleash productivity that opens up leading a world-class life and becoming a spiritual heavyweight who lifts the world. If so, today's interview will teach you that and so much more. I am so honored today to welcome Robin Sharma. He is a globally respected humanitarian who, for over a quarter of a century, has been devoted to helping human beings realize their native gifts. One of the top leadership and personal mastery experts in the world who has taught business

titans, professional sports superstars, and entertainment royalty, a revolutionary system that helped these luminaries turn their ambitions into reality. His number one international bestsellers include the 5am club, the monk who sold his Ferrari, the greatness guide, and who will cry when you die. They have sold millions of copies in over 92 languages, making him one of the most widely read authors alive. Today, we discuss his latest masterpiece, the Everyday Hero Manifesto.

Activate your positivity, maximize your productivity, and serve the world. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am so honored and humbled to have one of my absolute favorite authors on the podcast today. Welcome, Robin Sharma.

And it's such a pleasure. Thank you. Well, there are many different ways I could kick off this interview, but I thought I would do it by sharing with the audience two daily mantras that I say, and I wouldn't be saying them if it wasn't for you. So the first one I say first thing in the morning when I get up at 5 a.m. is today is a glorious day, and I will live it at excellence with boundless enthusiasm and limitless integrity, true to my visions and with a heart full of love.

And then I say after that, I am grateful. I am forgiving. I am giving. My life is beautiful, creative, prosperous, productive, and magical. And since I've been saying those mantras, my life has changed so much. And it was all due to you. So thank you so much. Such a pleasure. If I've been a bit of a guide, that's great, but you're the one doing the work, so congratulations to you. Thank you. Well, we all have defining moments in our life, and I wanted to ask you what are some defining moments that altered the path that you were on earlier in your life to become who you are today. Great question. When I was in my early 20s, there was a gentleman who lived on my street who was a bond trader. And I saw him living a life that was very contrary. And sometimes three o'clock in the afternoon, everyone else was working. He was reading Fortune Magazine. He was reading this magazine. He was sunbathing. And I used to go on long walks

with him on the weekends. He had these two dogs and we go for walks along the seaside and he said something to me I've never forgotten. He said, Robin, run your own race. If you look at so many of the people who are doing interesting things in the world, their contrairions, they do not follow the crowd, they have the confidence to be comfortable in their own skin. So I think that friendship made a huge difference to me. I really believe in mentors and he was definitely one mentor that shaped the rest of my journey.

I used to be a litigation lawyer and when I was a young lawyer, I clerked for the chief justice of one of the provinces where I lived and I mentioned him in one of the early chapters of the everyday hero man of Festo because he had such a profound influence on me. He was brilliant, he was so ethical, he was very humble, drove a very simple car, carried himself with great dignity, but was really very simple. Yet he was one of the hardest working people I knew. So that was a defining moment. And I think the meeting of the president of Harper Collins, I published a book called The Monk Who Sold is Ferrari in a 24-hour copy shot.

Not a lot of people gave me much of a chance, but I had a vision and I had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to get the message of that book out. So I published about 2,000 copies. I stacked them up in my kitchen. Everyone laughed at the idea, the title, The Monk Who Sold Is Ferrari, some thought it was silly. One day I was in a bookstore, and there were five copies on consignment.

They wouldn't even buy it, it was just on consignment. And I was in the bookstore with my son Colby, who was about four years old at the time. And I went up and I was signing the books because someone once told me that when an author signs a book, the bookstore can't return it. And next to me was a gentleman watching the scene unfold. And I said, Oh, the monk who sold his Ferrari, interesting title, what's your

name? I told him my story. He said, Oh, that's fascinating. Here's my card. I looked on it and said, Ed Carson, President Harper Collins. And about three weeks later, they bought the world rights to that book for the mighty amount of $7,500 and that sent me on this path that I've been on for the past 27 years teaching leadership and personal mastery. Yes, 20 million plus book sales later. What an amazing story and I have been on that similar journey myself as you know being an author is very difficult

to break into the publishing world and it can be a huge impact to your ego as you get just rejection after rejection along the way. I think I've had probably 125 and then when I thought I was only going to send out two more letters, they both hit. And so I was picked up by an agent, but it's just a story I like to tell people because you can never give up your dreams. And that's something you didn't do either. Yeah, it's so true. I think rejection is the price of ambition. And it is stunning how far you can get when you just stay in the ring longer than anyone thinks you should stay in the ring. So I definitely agree with you on that. Well, throughout today's interview, we're going to be talking about two of your amazing books,

your latest one, which I have up here, and we'll make sure we put it in YouTube more prominently. And then a book that completely also altered my life at the 5am club. And I think they have a lot of similar ties to them, which is why I'm going to bring them both together in this interview. But I started Passion Struck because I saw so many people in the world who are suffering. We have epidemics around the world of helplessness, hopelessness, and loneliness. And I wanted to find a way that I could teach people hope, meaning, and connection. And I wanted to ask you how can understanding the inner workings of the everyday hero manifesto

help someone overcome these feelings? And why does the world today need daily heroism? Well, so as you know, the everyday hero manifesto has 100 small chapters ranging from how do you maximize productivity to how the world's most successful people build their businesses, live their lives. So the question that you ask is a great question. It's also a big question. What I'd say is society has taught us that a hero is someone who might lead a country. A hero is someone who might win a war. A hero is someone who is put up on a pedestal, but now some man dealt with the mother traces, the Rosa Parks, the Mahafma Gandhi. The through line of the everyday hero manifesto

is really that if you are a human being, you have the opportunity to be heroic. And what about the single mother who works hard or to put fruit on the table every day, or the firefighter, or the person driving the Uber, or the person in the Starbucks, who maybe people around them are doing a job and yet they're merchants of wow. I think the opposite of heroism is really victimhood and I think a lot of people have fallen into the snare of that dreaded

disease of victimitis excusitis. You're right there was a pandemic or is a pandemic there's economic volatility there there's wars, there's social division, and it's very easy for any human being to give away their power and say, I just can't get anything done in this world and escape into too much entertainment, too much alcohol, too much worrying, too much work. And so the everyday hero manifesto is just really a manifesto or a manual to help people who might be feeling stuck, let go of victimhood and show leadership and be productive and be creative and make those micro pieces of progress that over time

lead to a tsunami of change. Well, it's interesting. I love the title of the book because when people ask me how has this podcast been so successful, how have you managed to get millions of downloads in just 18 months? I tell them my strategy from the get go was I followed a higher power who told me that I needed to bring on everyday heroes onto this podcast that people could relate to. Because a lot of times you see people and their life is just unattainable

to someone who's in this victim mentality and they don't know how to take that first step and that first step and it's something you talk about in the book is the most important thing that you can possibly do regardless of what your ambition is and I was hoping maybe you could touch on that just a little bit more because it sounds like such an easy thing to do but it's not. Well, it's the old Lao Tzu philosophy that a thousand mile journey begins with a single step to philosophy, the 1,000 mile journey begins with a single step.

And it's very easy to put Kobe, Jordan, Ali, Mandela, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, etc., etc., up on a pedestal. And one of the things a lot of people do, John, is they say, well, these people are just not like us. Or they say, these people are cut from a different claw. And the reality is, we all have gifts and natural talents, but the key is these people had an idea, and then they out-practiced everyone around them, and they stayed with the mission day after day after day until they went from being an amateur to a professional and a beginner to a master. This morning, during my workout, I read about Sir John Templeton. Have you heard of Sir John Templeton? I have. Yeah, one of the great financial geniuses of all

time. I learned he grew up as a poor boy in Tennessee. He just fell in love with stock picking and he tried this and he tried that. you know he stumbled his way to world class. And so for anyone who might be stuck right now and there's a lot of people one of the first chapters of the everyday hero man of festo is it's okay to be okay. I mean the world is messy right now. If you weren't a little bit frightened, a little bit scared, a little bit insecure, you wouldn't be human. So that's okay. Yet we do have power. We have the power to choose. We have the power to get up a little earlier tomorrow morning and work out versus sleep in. And then we have the power to eat something clean versus something that will drag down our energy. And then we have the power to go to work and under promise and over deliver. And then we have the power to come home and be with our family and listen and connect

and be a great family member. And then we have the power to read a little bit before we go to sleep. And so one of my favorite ideas, and I talk about it in my books, is small daily, seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time, lead to studying results. And so it's not what you do once a year that makes the difference. It's what you do every day. I call them micro winds. And so they're so easy to do that we neglect them. But if you look at the great athletes,

it's every workout counts. And they optimize every workout. And consistency is the mother of mastery and your days are your life and miniature. So every day you make those small little incremental improvements in the areas that are very important to you and over time you create enormous momentum and you don't even see it and then maybe it's three months later but all of a sudden you're in a completely new place. Yes, well, I wanted to touch on two different things that you said there. I recently interviewed Alan Stein, Jr., who has worked with some of the largest NBA stars in the world, and he said,

one of the foundational things that the legends have is what they do in the unseen hours, when no one else is looking and they're putting in the repetitions, which is exactly what Kobe and Jordan and the others that you mentioned, Kratzky, etc., have done. The other thing I wanted to bring up is that I have had the fortune of having a number of the top behavioral scientists in the world on this podcast. People like Katie Milkman, I let fish back, Don Moore, Max Baserman, and one thing that they all have told me, which aligns with what you just said, is that it is our intentional focus on the microchoises that we make on a daily basis that impacts the life that we want to attain longer on. And you called it micro-winds.

They refer to it as micro-decisions or micro-choices. But it's something that I think the audience really needs to pay attention to because it's the inputs that you put in that determine the long-term outputs. And I think it's such a profound lesson. So thank you for sharing that. You make such an important point, John. Games are one before you put a foot onto the court. But, speaking of that first thing you said, right? The Spartan warriors used to say,

sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war. And so when you look at Michael Jordan, for example, winning that championship game, he did it because he'd reached a point that researchers call Automatistic. He made the shot in practice so many times. It was absolutely automatic in the heat of the moment. Secondly, I want to say when it comes to micro winds or what I've called in my work over the past number of decades, the 1% wins are the tiny triumphs. They are so important. But really, your daily behavior reflects your deepest beliefs. And that's really important. It's like, where do you transform? Where do you start? You look at your personal story. If you've got a story taught to you that you can't be great, that you can't start a business, that you can't have real love,

you can't be healthy, You can't save money. If that's your story, it's like a victim story talked to you from the programming of perhaps your parents well-intentioned as they were, then your daily behavior will always reflect your deepest beliefs. So the real work is rewiring your story through reading and prayer, meditation,

generally we can talk about the tactics. Yes, well, I think you're absolutely right. It's all those things that are there right in front of your eyes that if you would just do them and put the actions in would have such a profound difference. But I think so often we just sit here in superficiality instead of doing the hard work that comes with rigor and continue determination to do it. So I think those are great things. And I wanted to ask if someone were to start this and you talked about tactics, what is the

foundation for translating our highest ambitions and to work intentional daily results? Well, there's a number of great protocols that I'd love to jump into. You mentioned something important, hard and actually consistent doing of difficult things creates an easy life. That's the paradox of self-mastery and leadership. It's when you do the things you don't feel like doing, you end up with great health, great relationships, a great financial life, a great reputation, a great spiritual life. So what are some of the tools and tactics in the everyday humanifesto? There's probably 500 plus science proven tactics to be more productive, to be more

positive, to be more creative to live a better life. Let's say the starting point is your morning routine. The way you begin your day dramatically sets the tone for your entire day. So you know I've written a book called The 5 a.m. club, I'm great believer in rising at dawn. It's the quietest time of the day. And you take one hour for yourself that I call the victory hour. And then you run what I call the 2020-24, Amula. Simply said, the first thing you want to do is start your day with exercise. So let's say there's some of them, they want to feel better, they want to make some dramatic changes. I would simply say start getting up a little bit earlier. The first thing you want to do is exercise and you want to make some dramatic changes. I would simply say start getting up a little bit earlier. First thing you want to do is exercise and you want to sweat during the exercise

because that will release BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor which optimizes your cognition. It'll release dopamine which will make you feel more inspired, release serotonin which makes you feel better. It'll reduce cortisol, which is the fear hormone. Another practice, first thing in the morning, journaling. Journaling is incredibly powerful to record gratitude, to set your intentions. There's a tool I call the pre-performance paragraph, writing one paragraph of the ideal day ahead, as you see it, is called a pre-commitment strategy that allows you more discipline to live that day.

You talked about early on in this interview, you talked about the power of affirmations. It's a great way to re-script your identity and your identity determines your income and your impact. Obviously, exercising is a great idea. There's a concept I teach called the second-wind workout. If you think exercising is great, why would you just do it in the morning? Why not do it in the afternoon? Final idea that just comes to mind is release the energy vampires and dream Steelers from your life. So, John, I think you can change the world or be around negative people. You can't do both.

And there's a lot of great science on emotional contagion that confirms that we pick up the dominant emotions of the people we spend most of our time with. So doing an audit where you ask yourself, who are the people in my life that elevate my joy? And who are the people in my life that steal my joy? And who are the people in my life that steal my joy? Every time you come up with a new idea or they say, you know what, I watched or listened to passion struck. I'm going to do this. I'm going to run a marathon, start a business, repair that relationship. And that person says, I, that'll never work. Those are the people that are keeping you from world class in so many ways. Well, I couldn't agree more. One of the things I teach is a concept

called the mosquito auditor. And I call it that because mosquitoes are one of the peskiest things around us. But oftentimes they're invisible and you don't see their impact on you. And so I tell people they have to get rid of the blood suckers in their life, the invisible suffocators and the pain in the asses.

And those people are all bringing you down and keeping you from achieving this life that you want. So I'm so glad you brought that up because I wholeheartedly believe it's true. And what I'd say is if you're the smartest person in your neighborhood, move to a new neighborhood because we do become our community and we do behave like our conversations. And then people might say, just to be very tactical, as I know you want to be for the people you're blessed to serve, some people will say, well, what are my mother's negative? Or my husband's negative? Well, you have so many choices. That's the power that we have.

We can say no to some relationships, or we can practice selective association, rather than talking to those people every day and texting with them every day. We might talk to them once a month. I think that's great advice. I wanted to jump to a different topic. Today I released an interview with Hindu priest,

Dada Pani, who just released a new book called Power of Unwavering Focus. And in our interview, we talk a lot about the power of focus and the impact of distraction, something that you talk about as well. Why is an addiction to distraction the death of your creative production? All geniuses, if you study Vincent Van Gogh, if you study Nicola Tesla, if you study

Hetty Lamar, the most creative, productive people in the world, especially the geniuses have one thing in common. They spent a lot of time in isolation and number two, they would structure their work environment to spend long periods of uninterrupted time focusing on their singular problem. And we live in a world suffering from what I call broken focus syndrome. We are addicted to our white screens. We are addicted to our white screens. We are addicted to social media. So many people have their notifications on and they answer the phone every time it rings. And so we have a choice. I believe you can change the world or play

with your phone. You can't do both. And so in the everyday hero manifesto, there's a lot of strategies including the type bubble of total focus, or the 1991 rule that shows people how to block out distractions to do real work versus fake work. Let us not confuse, John, busy with productivity. Let us not confuse movement with progress. The 1991 rule is this. For the next 90 days, spend the first 90 minutes of your work day, focusing on that one opportunity that if you exploit it and materialize it to world class will allow you to make your mark in your industry.

And the type bubble of total focus, I learned that from Thomas Edison. I mean, he had a place that he would go to away from his home to do his work in Menlo Park. And I think that's really important. Maybe it's a spare bedroom. Maybe if you, a lot of artists have cottages on the seaside, or maybe you just go to a public library where no one knows you and you work in the stacks. But I think it's really important to have that place, that men little part, that place that you can go to, to get away from your noisy life so you get away from the noise and you'll hear this signal. I think that's great advice.

And I think one of the things that we often do is I like this term, we become our own visionary arsonist. And we're on this path to nearing our highest talents. And then sphere, where is its ugly head? And we start saying things like, I can't do this. I can't create the time. What are the blocks that we as humans face and how do we break free from them? We feel so many blocks. One block is the block to trusting ourselves. I truly believe that instinct is more powerful than intellect. We all have this instinct. We all have these ideas that if we listen to them we could do amazing things. And often though what we do is we get caught up on our intellect, our reasoning. Well our reasoning

is a liar because our reasoning is just a programming that society has taught us. You mentioned higher power early on in the interview. We all have an egoic self and a heroic self. The heroic self is just a wisdom we all have inside of us. That is our higher power. And if we would listen to it, we would be able to do amazing things. So what I would say is that one of the blocks we have is we follow the crowd versus trust ourself

and be faithful to our own ideas. Another block we have is the block of doing what we know we should do right now and instead putting it off until some imaginary time in the future, which will never come. Another block we have is the block to love because we've been hurt. I call it micro-trauma. We get hurt as we go through life. We put a coat of armor or sheet of armor over our hearts. And that's a block. If we worked with love, if we lived with love, if we served with love, our customers,

strangers, our family, our friends, would feel our love and fall in love with us. Another block is fear. But on the other side of our fear lives our greatest opportunity. I mean, the blocks go on. I mean, we're blocked to our genius. We come up with these excuses.

I'm ordinary. I can't do these kinds of special things. So what do we do? If our story is we can't live a beautiful life, we won't even install the habits and do the things that will cause us to live a beautiful life. Yeah, and I wanted to touch on an aspect of that because in one of your chapters, you talk about the fact that trauma can be one of our biggest teachers. And I'm someone who's undergone more

trauma than a human probably should. But I got into this rut and I talk about it with the audience trying to be vulnerable that I was screwing myself up. I was not dealing with the trauma and instead, I let it just sit there in the back of my mind and over time it causes such extreme consequences that you end up feeling numb, you end up getting disconnected from people.

It ends up breaking relationships, it ends up impacting your career. And one of the things you talk about is the need to deal with the stuck points that are impacting you and get rid of them. So I thought it was one of the most important chapters of the book, and I was hoping you could talk about it. And I was hoping you could talk about it. I'd be happy to. I've suffered a lot as well. It makes me think John of Roomy, the great philosopher. He said, keep breaking your heart over and over again until it opens. And in the everyday here in Manifesto, there's the chapter, trauma is a teacher. But there's also a chapter where

I explain I was on a flight to Paris one day sitting next to an artist and said, I pick relationship partners that break my heart and I said, why would you do that? And he said, because I do my best art with a broken heart. And I think that's a really important point. Like when our hearts are broken or when we're suffering, in some ways were most alive. The ego is cracked and we

can be real and we talk real and we trust our art and we sometimes put our magic into the world. So trauma can be a profound teacher. We have a choice. We can suffer from trauma. Maybe it's a divorce, maybe it's an illness, maybe it's some of the things you've experienced and we can either close and You talked about repress it, but as Carl Jung the legendary psychologist said

Those repressed feelings that we ignore come back to haunt us in difficult ways and in the everyday hero manifest I make a caption that you don't really hear a lot of, but as you move through the micro and macro trauma that's repressed, the shamed, anger, the sadness, the sorrow, the disappointment, sometimes the rage, as you bring it to the surface through journaling or therapist or prayer or walking in the woods and start to release it, that block begins to leave step by step. And this is so important as those blocks and all that baggage begins to leave, we become free. And our native creativity, our energy,

better health, start to emerge. That is our natural selves that was covered up by all those lower grade emotions. And so here's the link. As you heal trauma, you increase your health, you increase your energy, which increases your productivity, and as you increase your productivity, you bring more value to the marketplace, which increases your income and your impact. So some of the chapters of the everyday humanifesto talk about the value of suffering in a society

that teaches us where a happy, smiley, smiley face ignore how you're really feeling, I call the toxic optimism in the book, and be real and learn how to press a healthy human being is happy and sad. There's nothing wrong with it. It's called being human. It is. And I think one of the most important sayings that I've read of yours is, if we could change

ourselves, the tendencies of the world would also change. And I thought it was just so profound and I was hoping you could just dive into that a little bit more. Sure, well, so easy as a human being to blame. If the economy was better, my life would be easier. If my background and my mother or father

were more functional, I would be OK. If there wasn't a war here, if there wasn't climate change there, I would be OK. To change the world, we must start by changing ourselves. In the book, I talk about the four interior empires. Mindset is very important right now, but I believe in mindset, heart set, health set, and soul set. Mindset is our psychology, as human beings we have more than mindset. We have our emotionality, what I call heart set.

And we have our physicality, what I call health set. And guess what? We have a spiritual life, which I call heart set. And we have our physicality, what I call health set. And guess what? We have a spiritual life, which I call soul set. And as you work on those foreign-tierer empires, what starts to happen? The ego, the voice of fear within us starts to diminish. And our heroic selves, which are native selves,

start to shine. And when we start to become the highest versions of our best visions, what do we do? We go outside into our communities and we're light versus shadows. We're kinder to strangers. We do work that inspires. We push value into the marketplace. We become better human beings. And so every person we meet, we leave them better than we find them. And step by step, we do our part to build a better work. Yeah, it's such a powerful message. And both in the 5 a.m. club and in the everyday

hero manifesto, you often talk about the 9% to 5% versus the 5%. And in the 5am club, you write, members of the majority often get stuck in the mindset of superficiality in their work. The whole approach is light, no real preparation, very little contemplation. The 95% don't invest painstaking attention into the tiniest of details and fail to refine the smallest of finishes like the great masters. And then you write the minority of exceptional creative achievers operate under a completely different philosophy.

What is that philosophy? Well, there's a lot of elements to the philosophy, but one part of it is OAD and obsessive attention to detail. So, in the 5AM club, I talk about, I used characters, it's written in the form of a novel, as you know. But there's that example of deceding the lemon wedges. And that came from an experience that I had. I was working on a book in a hotel,

and I ordered some lemon tea as I love to drink when I'm writing and the room service attendant brought in the tea and I noticed the kitchen had cut a piece of lemon in half but someone had taken the time to DC the lemon wedges so they wouldn't go into my tea cup and that speaks to something very fundamental. Too many people in the majority, what they do is they want the rewards of world class, but they're not doing what world class requires. They mail it in, they don't do their work with exquisite attention to detail

to make everything beautiful. Deceiving the lemon wedges is a great metaphor for what the top five percent do. Whatever they do, they do it with such care, such obsessiveness, such devotion to mastery. I think that's really important. I love the word devotion. Yesterday, I went on a country walk

and I'm working on a new book, so I'm here in the European countryside. And John, I came across a church and the door of the church was open So I thought I'd walk in so I walk in no one was in there and there was a nun at the front of the church And she was playing this old wooden organ and she was singing now. I want to make this point No one was in the church until I walked in there But she was singing like there were a thousand people there Wow, and sat on, yeah, and I sat on that pew and tears came to my eyes. Because this is not about religion, it's about devotion. This woman, with no audience,

was devoted to her mission. And so you ask, what did the top 5% do? They're devoted. They are devoted to practice. They are devoted to their vision of being world champion. Great people in business are devoted to their craft. Great human beings are devoted to their faith. They're devoted to their family. They're devoted to their habits.

They're devoted to getting up when they fall down. Well, I want the listeners to hear what you just said because it's one of the most closely guarded secrets of legendary performers. So thank you for going into that. I am so ecstatic to hear you writing another book because when I started reading the intro to the manifesto, I thought this is the last book you're ever going to write. But I wanted to ask you about it because this book was written over 16 months, you wrote it during the pandemic, and it's one where you really poured your heart and soul into this. Why was this book so meaningful to you, and why do you think it's different than other self-help books or personal

development books that are out there? Great question. Why is it so meaningful to me the everyday hero manifesto because my name is on the front cover. You're only as good as your last book. I think there's a very short fall from you being top of your game and you being or someone being obsolete. And so it's very easy. I think when you're most successful, it's most dangerous because it's very easy to repeat your winning formula. So with the everyday, you're a manifest

of my commitment. And you're right, the place where I was at when I finished it was, I'm not going to write another book. That's where I was at. Often as a creative person you can feel like that. I was obsessed with making that book, the single best book. I've ever written the 5am Club is a big global bestseller. I wanted the everyday here to manifesto to be so much better. Yes, I wrote it over 16 months in a pandemic. I probably re-wrote it. The manuscript, I probably re-wrote it 20, 25 times. I want every line right. I want every model right. I would change the words, this isn't right.

That is right. And I just basically it became a mission bordering on an obsession for 16 months. Well, I love the book. And the motto of this podcast is to be better, which is great positivity in your life, live better, which is all about improving productivity and impact the world, which is all about service to others. And so when I picked up your book and I've read the bottom three things on it that you were trying to convey into it. It just matched up so well to what we're doing here on the podcast. So I

wanted to ask if there was one thing or two things that you wanted or reader of this book to take away from your hard work, what would it be? I would say number one, it is a hypnosis sold to us from the world that people who live beautiful, creative, productive, healthy, spiritual lives are different from anyone of us. These people have just learned to run a different philosophy, and they've installed different habits, daily routines, and ways of operating. And I've tried in the book to share so many of those. Once you learn them and then of course execute around the ideas daily,

when you stumble, get back up, you will definitely find strong gains. The second thing I'd say is even the longest life is a short ride. And so do not postpone becoming the human being you want to be and doing the things that your heart says will bring you joy and make a difference in the world because who knows what tomorrow breaks. And if you fall and the people laugh at you, people think you're crazy. All progress and greatness belongs to the misfits, oddballs and eccentric. Yeah, I think it's so important that you brought up the fact that life is finite and I think It belongs to the misfits, our balls, and eccentric. Yeah, I think it's so important that you brought up the fact that life is finite. And I think it's interesting that if you would be doing a keynote and you told people

that they had 20 years to live, how many of them would stay? Then if you said you have 10 years to live, then five years, then one year, then if you said you have five hours, I guarantee everyone would leave the room, but we don't trip our lives that way. So thank you for bringing that up. Well, Robin, I know you are easily accessible through many of your books, but if a listener wanted to know more about you,

what's the best way that they can do that? Sure. Robin Sharma.com is the mothership to sign up for my newsletter. I send out content rich videos and handcrafted blog posts on leadership productivity, elite performance, and spiritual success. Also, on Instagram and YouTube, they can just search RobinSharmaSHrma.com.

I've got hundreds of YouTube videos. And if they want to get the everyday hero manifesto, people love the audio book. That's unaudible. And the book itself is on Amazon, of course, and in all good bookstores. And I want to mention portion of my royalties goes to help children suffering from leprosy, mission that I'm on. What a worthy cause. Well, Robin, thank you so much for taking your valuable time and sharing it with our audience. It means so much to me and I know so many of my listeners. I want to congratulate you, John. First of all, thanks for the invitation and congratulations to you

for the impact you're having and all your success. Thank you so much. If you couldn't tell, that was one of the most impactful motivational podcasts I have ever done, and I wanted to thank Robyn so much for coming on the show, as well as Harper Collins for giving me the honor of having him appear. Links to all things Robyn will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that are on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show and making it free for our listeners.

Videos are on YouTube at John Armiles where we have well over 400 videos showcased with exclusive content. Please go check it out and subscribe. Advertiser deals and discount codes earn one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show and make it free for our listeners. I am at John Armiles, both on Instagram and Twitter, and you can also find me on LinkedIn. And if you want to know how I book amazing guests like Robin Sharma, it's because of my network. Go out there and build your network before you need it.

You're about to hear a preview of the PassionStark podcast interview I did with Juliet Funt, who is a tough, loving advisor to the Fortune 500 and a warrior on a mission to decrapify work. Her book, A Minute to Think, Reclaim Creativity, Conquer business, and do your best work was nominated for the next big idea club. What we need to do is change the tenor of work when the lever is on as well. We can't just keep retreating into vacation days to solve it. And so that is unaddressed why? Because it's a really hairy tricky complicated problem to change behavior and systems

enough to make the lever on time pleasant, but that's what we need to do. The challenge is to not use time off as a reason not to change time on. The fee for this show is that you share it with those that you love and care about. If you know someone who is looking to improve their life and take it to the next level, then definitely share this episode that I did with Robin Sharma. The greatest compliment that you can give this show is sharing it with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And we'll see you next time. Live Life Hashin Struck.