The School of Greatness - 103 The Power of Clarity – 5 Steps to Achieving Any Goal

Episode Date: November 3, 2014

"You've got to figure out what you want first or you'll be given whatever others didn't want that was left over." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed the show and would like to know more, head over to www.lewishowes.com/103 for show notes and more.

This is episode number 103, and you're entering the solo round. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Yes, welcome back to another episode and another solo round.

I know I'm getting into this again. You guys have been asking for me to do more individual episodes. So I'm giving you guys some more of my insights and my stories and my own experiences about greatness and what I'm up to. So this is all about getting clear with what you want. And if you want to achieve something, you've got to have a clear vision about it first. Now, that may seem very basic, but we're going to be getting into that here in just a second. But it's all about getting clear on what you want. So let's go ahead and dive into this episode, number 103 with myself on the solo round.

Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Super Pump today for this episode. And it's another solo round and I'm very excited because I just got back from a long run. I haven't been able to work out in a couple weeks because I took a pretty hard hit on the floor during my last handball tournament playing against Puerto Rico with the USA national team. I was taking a charge against a guy and I just whiplashed my head really hard back. I've never had a headache in my life ever, maybe for like 10 seconds or something. But whenever people talk about when they have these killing headaches, these super nagging, annoying headaches, I've never experienced that for whatever reason. I, you know, I played lots of football and smashed my head against other guys at full speed, but I never had a headache. And I've had this nagging pain headache in the back of my neck and in my forehead for the last two weeks now. And finally, I haven't been able to work out because it's just been so painful. So I've been trying to take it easy and just kind of let my

body relax. And whenever I meditate, it goes away, but sometimes it comes back. And I just went for a long run and it was super amazing just to feel, but sometimes it comes back. And I just went for a long run and it was super amazing just to feel like I could work out again. So I'm very excited about this. And I wanted to do a solo round for you guys again, because just to the last solo round about mentorship, you guys loved it. It's been taking off. So I want to do another one. And I was inspired about this specific topic about vision and about discovering what you want. And there's a problem in the world. The problem in the world is that so many people out there don't know what they freaking want

in their lives, in anything. And it stresses me out just to be around people. Actually, I should take that back. It doesn't stress me out. It inspires me. It inspires me to evoke and ask questions, to support people in discovering what it is they actually want. And I feel like I've always known what I've wanted.

Let's say not for my entire life. I don't know what I want specifically in the next 50 years. I have kind of a vague idea of what I want, but I know specifically what I want over the next couple of years. And I'm very clear about it. And it shifts and it changes. And once I achieve what I want, I come up with new visions and new wants and new desires. So I want to share with you guys a story real quick what happened. I was out to dinner with my girlfriend last night. And we were meeting with a couple of her friends, another couple. And one of her good friends, his name is Steve, he is a really cool guy and he's

in grad school to be a doctor of physical therapy. And I was like, Steve, I'm meeting him for the first time. And sometimes I can be kind of intense with people for the first time. I like to ask a lot of evoking questions and probing questions to discover like how they're going to achieve greatness. And it could be a little intimidating maybe. I'm not sure. But I'm all about evoking and figure out how people can reach the next level. That's really what excites me. So that's the questions I ask.

And so I'm asking Steve. I'm like, so what does he want? And, you know, he's going to be a doctor of physical therapy in the next six months. And I was like, what do you want to do afterwards? You know, what's, what's the dream? And he goes, you know, I'm not really sure. You know, I get, it's, it's a similar response I get from a lot of people. I'm not really sure what I want. And I said, well, if you could have anything, what would you want? You know, if you could have it all, what would it be? And he was talking about being a physical therapist with the military and the

benefits that would come with that and how it could support his family and things like that. And I was like, cool. Is that really what you want or is there anything else? And he's like, well, I used to be a football coach. So I love to have like work on a pro sports team and be a physical therapist for a pro sports team and work on these great athletes. And I was like, that's pretty cool. Is that really what you want? And he goes, well, actually, it's probably a lot of hours, probably like 80 hours a week, and I'd have to work my way up, and it'd be a lot of time and energy. So that's just one option.

That's like plan B or C. And I was like, okay, well, what is it you really want? And he was like, well, it'd be really cool to have my own practice by the beach and work like five hours a day and then be able to be there to support my family. But I don't know if that's possible. And so I said, okay, so what is it you really want, Steve? Let's get real here. If you could have it all, what do you want? And he kept going on and all these different options. And again, I say it frustrated me, but it really inspired me to support and evoke questions for him to see what was possible and see what was possible when he got

clear on a vision for what he wanted, when he got clear on just being specific. With specifics in our life, we're able to figure out by whens. We're able to get clear on what we want and by when. If we just say, I want to make a million dollars, well, if you don't give it a timeframe, if you don't say by when, by January 1st of next year, by in five years, March 16th on my birthday in five years, whatever it may be, if you're not specific, then it's going to be really challenging to work backwards and figure out the action steps necessary to achieving that goal, that mission, that dream, whatever it is, that want that you have, that desire. So success really starts with a clear vision of what you want.

Achieving whatever you want starts with a clear vision of what that is with a timeline. Now, this may seem very basic. You may have heard this many times before about goal setting or things like that, but there's a lot that goes along with this. You've got to be clear on the distinctions of what you want, the vision of what you want, but then you've got to also take other steps. And these other steps are crucial. So what I want to go through with you guys is something I go through with a lot of my one-on-one students or group students that I have who pay a high fee for one-on-one consulting with me. And we always start with,

what do you want? What's the main goal? If it's business, we start with a number because that's easy to quantify and say, okay, there's this number that we want to achieve, whether it's a hundred new sales by a certain date, whether it's I want to make $20,000 a month starting in four months at this date. Whatever it is, it's easier in business to quantify and give a timeline and work backwards. And so that's why I have a lot of students that make a lot of money because when they get clear on what they want, it's so easy to figure out the pieces to put it in place to move forward in achieving that goal. So you got to figure out what you want first or you'll be given whatever others didn't want that was left over. Okay. Let me say that again.

You've got to figure out what you want first or you'll be given whatever others didn't want that was left over. So to give an example back to Steve, unless Steve gets very clear on what he wants, and again, I know he's going to get what he wants. It's just when he gets clear, then he'll be able to make it happen. If he doesn't get clear on what he wants, let's just say he's got all these different options, but he actually doesn't go after one of them. He doesn't do whatever it takes.

He doesn't hustle. He doesn't build the relationships. He doesn't find the mentor. He doesn't do all these things I'm going to talk about. Then he's going to be given whatever others didn't want that was left over. So again, he's going to be given whatever others didn't want. So if he really wants to be a, you know, a physical therapist on a pro sports team. But if he doesn't clear on that, then he's gonna be given a different job of whatever's left over that other people aren't competing for. Do you guys see what I'm saying? And that's kind of what I'm, I see in a lot of people who are reaching out to me online who are emailing me who are part of my my, my mastermind group in the school of greatness

academy when they get started out they're kind of left with these leftovers let's say they're kind of left with like the scraps they're left with like stuff that they're not excited about that doesn't really taste that good that's like kind of scrappy and got some extra bones in it you know they're not left with like they don't they don't get the good meat they don't get the the you know the veal they don't get the uh filet They don't get the veal. They don't get the filet mignon. They get kind of like the scraps. That's like not even scraps from today's meal. It's like yesterday's meal, right?

It's like kind of moldy and stinky and like just tastes really nasty and gets caught in your throat and you have to like spit it up. It's just like not the good stuff that's exciting that's like inspires us to take on life and to take on our relationships and have fun and be passionate about what we're up to. And that's the challenge I see

when a lot of people in the world is that they're stuck in situations that they're not completely fulfilled by, they're not completely passionate about, they and then they say, well, it pays the bills, and it has to I have to support my family. So I have to do this. I have to do this job because it supports me and it pays for, you know, I've got three kids. I have to do this. And what would life be like if you were able to create the exact job, the exact position, the exact business, the exact lifestyle around what you're up to in making money?

What if you could have it all? What if you could do what you wanted, spend time with the people you loved, support the people you love, and make a living around what you love to do, a full-time living around what you love to do? That's what I'm up to. And that's what we're up to today. It's about starting with a clear vision and a clear want with a timeline of when you want to have it and when you want to create it. Okay. So what I like to do, I'm going to give you guys a little bit of an insider exercise right here about how to discover this want and how to create this want and this, this goal. And I want you guys to, this is something I do with, again, a lot of my students. I start off with this exercise. It's called the perfect

day exercise. So I want you guys to get out a blank piece of paper. I'm going to give you kind of like a brief overview of this perfect day exercise. I'm not going to go into it in full detail. I do inside the School of Greatness Academy. So I've got hundreds of members in there right now who are creating and achieving the life of their dreams, their finances, their relationships, their lifestyle through going through a lot of these exercises. If you want to be on the wait list for the next round, the next enrollment, the next academy enrollment, it's at schoolofgreatness.com. You can sign up for the wait list, which will open up here in about a few months. But I want to give you guys a kind of a brief insider of what we go over.

And it's called the perfect day exercise. So I want you to get out a piece of paper or open up your iPhone and take out the notes section. If you're driving, then don't do this right now. Come back to this or pull over on the side of the road and set this out. But I really want you to come back to this as soon as possible if you're driving. So listen along right now and then come back to this and follow through on it because this could be one of the most powerful 10 minutes of your life if you do this. Every time one of my students goes through this exercise, they always tell me so much opens up for them and that it's one of the most powerful things they've ever done for themselves to realize what it is they actually want. Okay, so I'm going to

walk you through this really quickly. It's called the perfect day exercise. Now, there's two parts to this exercise. The first part, what I want you to do is write about a paragraph or two down. And you can type this up on your computer, again, your iPhone, and you can write it down. So I want you to write down a paragraph or two of what your ideal perfect day looks like. Now, your perfect day, you know, is going to change. It's not going to be the same thing every single day. If you did the same thing every single day and had the same conversation, had the same meal every single day, went to the same restaurant, life would get boring. So it's going to evolve and it's going to change. And it's not going to be the same thing every single day. But I want you to just

imagine for a moment what your perfect day looks like, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it tastes like, what experience you have, what your thoughts are, your emotions, your conversations. So I want you to imagine this for a moment. And then you're going to write down what your perfect day looks like in about a paragraph or two. You can get as detailed as you want. You can make it a whole page if you want or a couple pages. But just to kind of get the exercise started, start with about a paragraph or two. So I'm going to give you an example. Mine would kind of look like this. I would write something like this down. And I have one written down, but I don't have it in front of me. So I'm going to go off the cuff here. My perfect day would start like this. I wake up next to the woman of my dreams and my heart is so

full of love because I can't believe how much she loves me and how incredible of a relationship we're building together and we're creating every single day and the fun and the joy that we have. And I'm so blessed and grateful for that moment. Then I wake up, play with my girlfriend, have fun, we cook breakfast together. Then I go out and do a workout and get ready for the day. So I do an intense workout. It might be a run. It might be a lift. It might be a kickboxing class. And then I go and I check in with my team and I check in on what we're up to and creating in the world and how we're serving the mission of my company, which is to serve a hundred million people to make a full-time living doing what they love. How to serve a hundred million people to make a full-time living doing what they love. I check in 100 million people to make a full-time living, doing what they love.

I check in with my team and I create with them and engage and I create content and I'm connecting with influencers. I'm reaching out to friends and I'm following through on my mission, which is to serve 100 million people. Then I come back and I reconnect with my lady. We do a workout together or some type of activity together. We cook dinner or we go out. Then we connect with friends later in the evening, have an incredible night and go back to bed. So that's kind of like what I would write down as a brief of what my perfect day looks like, kind of like a brief overview. And then the second part,

and in this description, you can talk about like how it feels, what it looks like, you know, what it tastes, be descriptive, really paint the picture for yourself of what your perfect day is. You know, again, really be descriptive here, explore the possibilities. If anything is possible, write it down. That's what I want you guys to do. It could be traveling. It could be I'm constantly traveling. I'm with my family. I'm doing this. Whatever it seems like unrealistic, feel free to write that down. If it scares you, that's what you need to write down. Okay. So the second part to this is I learned this from sports. A lot of things that I do, guys, comes from my sports background. And I apply the things that I learned from my coaches in all these different sports I played. I played

football, soccer, basketball, track, and baseball in high school. And then I played three sports in college. And then I played professional football. And then now I'm playing on the USA national team for team handball. So I've played lots of different sports. I've had many different coaches. I've played all over the world in these sports. So I picked up a lot of different things from many different coaches. And what I learned is how to apply this to kind of my life and how to make my life a sport, right? And how to play the game, really. If life is a game, then how can you win? And how can you make sure everyone wins around you? And this is all I've been trying to do is learning new things and

constantly exploring and testing and applying what I've learned from my other experiences in sports and applying it to business and relationships and giving back and serving and adding value to the world. And that's what I'm up to. Okay, so the second part of this is an itinerary. So your perfect day itinerary. Now in football, we had an itinerary every day of practice. The greatest coaches at least had this for us. And it would be in our locker. Before we got to the locker room after school, we would go and there would be an itinerary printed off and handed to or just like sitting in our locker, right?

So right when we get there, I put my book bag down, start putting on my gear and changing, putting the pads in. And then I would look at the itinerary and go over it and see what we're going over today to prepare myself, right? So I know exactly what's going to happen next and then what to get ready for and make sure that I go over the plays that I need to cover for today's exercises and practice slots, right? And just be ready. And so kind of have like an agenda of what I'm going to do. Because if I don't set an agenda

and if I don't have an itinerary for each day, then how am I going to achieve what I want? Specifically in business, it's really hard to achieve what you want. Once you discover what you want, it's hard to achieve it if you don't have a detailed map, a detailed game plan, a detailed itinerary of the step-by-step process and the reverse engineering of how you're going to get there. And the reason we had an itinerary every day is because we had a goal for each week and for the entire season that we had written up on the chalkboard in the locker room. The whole team created these goals together. And so our coaches said, this is our team.

We're going to have goals, and then we're going to do whatever it takes to get those goals. Our coaches set us up for success by giving us a daily plan to reverse engineer to achieve what we wanted to achieve each week, which is a victory. And then at the end of the season, which was going to the playoffs, that was the plan. If we did not create the step-by-step, very detailed outlined itinerary, then we were going to be given whatever others didn't want that was left over. Again, we were going to be given whatever others didn't want that was left over, which means losing because no one wanted to lose.

So if we didn't plan to win, we were going to be given that. Okay. And this is kind of like the same thing. If you're not clear on what you want and you don't game plan every single day and have the coaches and the itinerary on how to get there, you're going to be given whatever others didn't want that was left over. Okay. Whatever job, whatever money or income, you know, you're gonna be given government support, whatever's left over, you're going to be given that. And that's what you're going to be living with. Okay. So you got to be very, very clear. I hope this is resonating with people. All right. So the second half is the itinerary. Now in the first half of the perfect day exercise,

you wrote down what your day looks like. You've expressed it. You are detailed. Now in the second part, you're going to be detailed to the hour. So from the hour, the moment you wake up, let's say 7am, you're going to write what happens from 7 to 8 and then 8 to 9, 9 to 10. You're going to go through all the way through the day until you go to sleep and you're going to write down sleep, whenever that is, 10 o'clock, midnight, whatever. Okay? And if it's half hour increments, then you're going to write every half hour.

Whatever it is, you're going to write that in. If there's a four hour window, you're going to write work from nine to noon. Okay. And you're going to be very detailed about what you're going to be creating. So the perfect day itinerary is so valuable because you've just descriptive and your visual and you're writing out these, um, you know, descriptions of what your perfect day looks like. If you don't have the step-by-step time markers of what you're going to be doing and how you're going to be doing it, then it's probably not going to happen. It's just going to be this fantasy you think about and maybe some parts of it will happen, but not the whole perfect day. So again, you want to apply these lessons, these exercises. Again,

this is something I learned from sports. It's not something I created. It's just something I learned and put together and facilitated for my life and for students to reach their success. Okay. So be very detailed. So the first half of the page is going to be you exploring what you want, writing it out, expressing it, how you want to feel, what it looks like, how it tastes, you know, where you're traveling to, who you're spending time with, those types of things. Then you're going to be very detailed for the hour by hour, what happens throughout the day. I want you guys to do this right now. Like write this down and do this right now. And maybe some of you are even listening and doing this right now. And if you are doing this, I would actually

love to see a one page. I want you to take a photo of this and I want you to post it on Instagram and tag me at Lewis Howes and put a hashtag perfect day. I want you to tag me, upload this to Instagram and tell people what your perfect day looks like and what you want. Another part to achieving what you want and making it a reality is putting it out there to the world and telling people and letting people know what your goals are, what your vision is, what your want is, being clear on it so that you can be held accountable by your peers, by your community, by your family. When you are very clear

and you put this out there, it's going to make you say, okay, now I got to step up and do this. And again, we put our goals up on the chalkboard and we would announce it, right? The whole team knew what it was and we announced it and we kept each other accountable. This is our goal. This is what you said you wanted. This is what we said we wanted. We got to do the work to make it happen. Let's go, right? So I want you to post a picture on Instagram. So write this out right now. The first half of the page is describing what your perfect day looks like, what it entails. You know, it's more broader terms like I'm doing these things, I'm hanging out with these people, these friends, this is how I'm feeling.

And then the second half is very, very detailed, right? It's like hour by hour, here's what happens from 7 a.m. to midnight. Here's what I'm doing. So I want you to write it on a big piece of paper, my perfect day at the top. And then write a paragraph or two just below that, describing what it looks like, what it feels like. Then below that, you're going to put your hour markers from 7 a.m. to midnight, what happens every hour,

what you're going to be doing to make that a reality, the action steps to make that reality, okay? And then you're going to do doing to make that a reality, the action steps to make that reality. Okay. And then you're going to do the next step, which is posted out there on Instagram. Tag me so I can see it at Lewis house and hashtag perfect day. Cause I want to see what you guys are up to. And I'm going to keep you accountable as well. I'm going to check in on some of you and make sure that you're actually following through with this. Okay. Biggest thing is people need someone to check in with them, make sure they're accountable. this. Okay. Biggest thing is people need someone to check in with them, make sure they're accountable.

So I want you to do that. Now there's another part to this. It's writing up a specific goal and framing it. So you've got your perfect day, but what's your day looks like. Okay. You got your perfect day. You put it out there. Now you kind of get a better sense. And by doing this exercise, you should really see, you know, if what you're doing right now, are you living your perfect day? If not, why are you not living your perfect day every day? Why are you not living your perfect day every single day? And again, it's going to evolve. It's going to change. It's not going to be the same thing every day. So don't think of it like that. Think of it as like a guideline of what it should be feeling like, what it should be looking like. Think of it as a guideline of what it should be feeling like, what it should be looking like. But when you write this out, ask yourself, am I living this every single day right now?

Am I living the spirit of this perfect day exercise every single day? If you're not living the spirit of the exercise, why not? We really only, you know, not really only, we only have one chance at this life that we know of. There's, you know, not another life that we're aware of or that we're going to, you know, that I'm aware of at least. Maybe there is, but there's only really one chance at this life that you have. And once it's over, you don't have another chance at this specific life. So if we have the possibility and the opportunity to live our ideal day every single day, then why aren't we doing it?

And why aren't we taking the steps to do it? And maybe it's not going to happen right away. And maybe it's going to take a couple years to happen. But at least we can work towards it. And at least we can support ourselves to get there faster. And then once we get there, we can help others get there as well. Again, it's not about keeping it for ourselves so that we live an awesome life or have a perfect day. It's about giving back and supporting others around us so everyone is lifted up to a higher

standard, a higher level, and a higher greatness, okay? So the next step to this is writing one specific goal, one specific tangible goal. I want to lose 20 pounds. I want to make $5,000 on a speech. I want to sell a book deal for a million dollars. Whatever it is, I want you to come up with a specific goal. Most of you have business goals because most of you are entrepreneurs who listen to the show or are launching a product or something. But if it's a relationship goal, that's fine as well. If it's a relationship goal, that's fine as well. If it's a health goal, that's fine as well. It's got to be very specific though.

You got to be, it's got to be tangible and specific. So I'll give an example. And again, this is what I did back in high school and college. I would write up my goals and then I would frame them and I'd put them right above, you know, when I was in a college dorm, I would put them right above my, you know, my bunk bed so that I could, you know, I could see it every time I went to bed and every time I woke up. And then, you know, after school, I'd put it just next to my mirror in my bathroom and I'd look at it constantly when I go to the bathroom, right? So I'll give an example. I was terrified of public speaking. Once I got done playing professional

football, you know, I got injured. A lot of you who know my story, I was injured and had to sleep on my sister's couch for about a year and a half while I was recovering from a surgery. And I was in this full arm cast for six months. It was just not a fun experience. You know, I look back at it as one of the best experiences of my life for what I learned, but it was definitely a struggle. And I was, you know, just uncertain about so much of my life. What was my life going to be about at this point? You know, my dream was over. So I had a new dream. I said, you know, I'm terrified of speaking public, but I'm really inspired by guys who can just command or ladies who can command a stadium

or a large audience. You know, someone like Tony Robbins can just command a stadium of thousands and thousands of people and get them excited and off their feet to take action. And I thought, man, if I could do that, if I could inspire people to see what was possible, then take action and actually make it happen, that's making an impact. When you're causing other people to make a change in their life to get better, that's making an impact when you're causing other people to make a change in their life to get better. That's making an impact. And I said, you know, that'd be awesome to be able to do, but I'm terrified. I can't even speak in front of five people without stuttering over my words, stumbling over my words, without feeling insecure, feeling stupid. You know, I had a major learning

disability my entire life. I was always in the special needs classes in elementary school, middle school, and high school. When I went to a private high school, I had to do special testing before I could get in. And they said I had a second grade reading level when I went to eighth grade. So they put me in the special reading tutor class. It was a one-on-one with a tutor every single day. When other kids were off doing recess and stuff like that. I had to learn to read because I had a really challenge reading my entire life. And it's still, you know, a challenge sometimes today. And I have a challenge reading out loud without messing up words. And I have a challenge spelling.

So I had these challenges. And I remember thinking, it would be awesome to be able to overcome this challenge and speak in public. And it'd be even cooler if I could get paid to do it. What if I could share my story and get paid to do it? And I remember saying to myself, you know what, I've never spoken in public before except for my high school senior speech that I had to do and it was terrifying. And I said, in a year, I want to make $5,000 to do a speech. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but this is my goal. So I put a specific date down. I said, I'm just going to test this out and see if what I learned in sports, I comply to my life. And so I put down $5,000 speech and I put down the date right below it and I signed it. And it was like a year away from the date that I was signing it, right?

So what I did is I framed this. I put it up on my wall. So it was like a certificate. It was like this award that I had been rewarded $5,000 on this date for giving a speech. And I awarded myself, right? So I want you guys to think about this. And I want you guys to do this. I want you to think of a big goal that you want to achieve within the next six months or the next year. And I want you to write it down and frame it and then sign it

with the date of when it's going to be achieved, like it's in a certificate you're giving yourself. And what I did is I started reaching out to people who were making money speaking. The only way to make it happen is to find other people who are doing it. And then I started researching about public speaking. I started reading books. I started watching public speaking videos online. And I was watching like the world championships of public speaking. And I was just like fascinated and blown away by these guys on how commanding they were on stage and their presence and their storytelling.

Just everything about them was so inspiring and passionate and unrolling. It just made me sit on the edge of my seat. I said, God, it would be so awesome to do that someday. I want to do that, right? So what I did is a friend of mine, I'll never forget this. I was in Barnes & Noble, Columbus, Ohio, Easton Shopping Mall. For anyone who knows Columbus, Ohio, they know of Easton Shopping Mall. Sitting in the Barnes and Noble near the window, near the entrance. And I'm sitting there and I'm

talking to a friend of mine, Felix, who was a salsa dancing guy that I would have met up with salsa dancing every now and then and became friends through salsa. And when I learned he was a motivational public speaker, professional speaker, I said, hey, man, can we catch up for coffee someday? I want to learn about how you do this. And so since I already had that connection and bond with him through salsa, we had that kind of experience together. He was happy to connect with me. And I said, dude, how do you do it? How do you make money speaking? Like, I'm terrified. He said, first off, you got to go to Toastmasters. Toastmasters is what changed the game for me. And it's what gave me the confidence to be able to speak in

front of people. And I said, I never heard of Toastmasters. I was like, what is this? He goes, it's an international community where there's clubs all around the world and you join and people and they teach you how to be a better public speaker. He said, first thing you got to do is sign up. And so I just trusted him. I said, okay, if this is how you're going to do it, I'm going to go do it. So next week I, I found like five different Toastmasters clubs in Columbus, Ohio. And I went to each one. I wanted to see what they were like. I went as a guest to each one and I wanted to see what they were like, where, who the best speakers were in the city. And I was like, I'm going to go find the one that's got the scariest for me, which was the best speakers, and they're all making money.

And I found that one, and it was so intimidating. I was like this 23- or 24-year-old punk with a huge cast on. They were all 30s and 40s speaking all over the country. One guy had his book on Oprah, like, and I was just like, man, I'm out of my league here. But that was exactly what I needed to get up to that league was to be exposed to it and to just make mistakes over and over in front of that league to get that feedback, to be around it, to be hearing them to be watching them to immerse myself in what they were creating was such a powerful experience for me. And so at the end of the year, I went there every single week and I gave 10 speeches in

the year. And I went from being so paralyzed, reading off and I would type out my entire speech and work on it for weeks. And then I would read word for word off a piece of paper. This is how bad of a public speaker I was. I would stand behind the podium, look down the entire time, and read off the paper. And I felt so embarrassed. And I felt so ignorant and so lame and stupid.

But I knew that I needed to go through the pain of humility and embarrassment to get to where I wanted to be, which was a confident public speaker on stage and taking my public speaking to the next level. And gratefully, uh, you know, they were supportive of me just fumbling around my words and looking like an idiot. They were supportive and gave me great feedback and no one was negative. Really. They were just like, here's what you can work on. And so each week I came back and I came back and I was like starving for feedback and hungry to get to the next level. So I just put myself through the pain every single time. And wouldn't you know that just after the year mark, I got a $5,000 speech and it was

a testament to putting a goal out there, framing it, then working backwards, creating the itinerary for myself to go each every week, having the structure, creating the itinerary for myself to go each every week, having the structure, the support system and everything I needed to get to the goal. Now, it didn't happen on the specific date. It happened like a month later or something or a couple months later, but it happened. And, you know, sometimes when I put my goals and frame them, it doesn't all happen on the date. Sometimes it happens before the date. Sometimes it's even bigger and better. But I'll tell you what, I set myself up to win by making the intention, putting it out there, framing it, looking at every single day, then having the

itinerary to back it up and take the action steps. So you got to get clear on what you want. And success starts with a clear vision of what it is you want. And this may shift, this may change. If you're in college, you may want a job when you're done with college right now. But maybe once you get the job in a year, you're going to realize that's not what you want anymore. So things are going to shift, they're going to evolve, they're going to change. That's okay. And that's good. You want to have change. But it starts with a clear vision of what you want. And you got to figure out exactly specifically what you want first, or you'll be given whatever others didn't want that was left over.

I can't emphasize this enough. You'll be given whatever others didn't want that is left over in the world, in the universe. Whatever is left over, you're going to be given that, and you're going to receive that, and that's what you're going to get, And it's not going to be what you want. So you got to be very, very clear. Okay. Then I want you guys again to write out your perfect day. So here's a recap of what we're covering today.

You're going to be clear on what you want. Very, very clear. Then you're going to write out your perfect day. So in broad terms, a paragraph or two, what it looks like, what it feels like, who you're spending time with. The second half of the paper on the perfect day, you're going to write out your itinerary, specifically hour for hour when you wake up, when you go to sleep, what you're doing, what you're doing to take action to make that perfect day a reality.

You've got to back it up with action. You can't just talk about it or dream about it. You've got to do it now. You've got to take the massive action and be consistent so that it's repeated. Then I want you guys to write up a very specific goal in your business or your life or your health or relationships that you want to achieve in the next 6 to 12 months. Be specific. Write the date of when it's achieved by. Sign it.

Frame it. Put it up on your wall, wherever you're going to look at it the most throughout your day, on your bathroom, in your bedroom, wherever it may be, and you're going to look at that. Then I want you guys to post on Instagram, at Lewis Howes and hashtag perfect day, what your perfect day is. Post a picture of it on Instagram and let other people know, hey guys, I did this cool exercise called the perfect day and I just wanted to put this out there because this is how I

want to live my life. And I want you guys to keep me accountable. Here's what it looks like. Here's what I'm spending time with. Here's what I'm up to. Uh, most of those days to create this now, now keep me accountable. If you see me slack on this, let me know. And, uh, and I appreciate the feedback. Put that out there. Find yourself a mentor guys. We just did a show on mentorship, episode number 100. This is episode number 103. We just did one on mentors and finding a mentor. You've got to have a mentor. Again, I had a mentor when I was doing public speaking to help me get to my goal.

You've got to have one or it's just going to be that much harder. I had a mentor when I was learning the salsa dance. I'd meet with him a couple times a week and he'd go over all these different moves and combinations for me to learn. You've got to have a mentor. I can't emphasize that enough. Go to lewishouse.com slash 100 to listen to the episode about how to find and discover and connect with powerful mentors that will change your life forever. Then you got to take massive, massive action and hustle more than anyone else. You got to shift, adjust, be so inspiring, passionate, and enrolling that you bring others

along with you to support you in your goal. You've got to have a team. You've got to have a support system. If you try to do it all alone, it's going to feel very weighted. It's going to feel very heavy, stressful. You're going to feel lonely. So don't do it all alone. Find people to support you,

family, hire people to support you in your business, you know, hire people in your health, coaching you to achieve the fitness levels you want, the weight you want, the lifestyle you want. I hire people constantly to coach me in relationships, in business, in my life, to coach me in relationships, in business, in my life, in my sports. I'm constantly hiring people to support whatever goals and dreams I have. So these are some of the tips and strategies for really getting clear on what you want, finding and discovering the clear vision and then making it happen. And success starts with that clarity and being clear.

And if you don't know what you want, then start with the perfect day of how you want to feel and what you want your perfect day to look like. And once you figure that out and you just write it out, here's what I want to be doing. I want to be on the beach. I want to be traveling. I want to be spending time. I want to be giving back, you know, writing it out. I want to be with loved ones. That's going to support you in discovering clear vision of what you want. Okay. Now, this is something I'm extremely passionate about. And I love talking about this stuff. If you guys have any questions, go ahead over to lewishouse.com slash 103. That's episode 103.

And I want to hear about what your guys' vision is. I want you to post it in the comment section. lewishouse.com slash 103. Tell me what you're up to. Tell me what you want. Tell me what your vision is. Tell me what your perfect day looks like. Post a picture up on Instagram at lewishouse hashtag perfect day. Success starts with a clear vision of what you want. I can't emphasize this enough. And there are so many friends that I have out there who constantly

ask me, you know, what can they do? But really got to know what you want first before you can get what it is you want, okay? Taking action before knowing what you want is useless. You got to get clear on what you want, at least for the next week, at least for the next month, for the year, before you graduate, before the job is up, whatever it may be, be clear and then take action on that. I am super grateful for all of you. This is an exciting next

round of 100 episodes. We're on 103 right now. I am super pumped. I've got a lot in store for all of you. Greatness is coming at you with full steam ahead. I am super pumped. I'm going to be doing a lot more videos here coming up soon and I'm going to be doing a lot more videos here coming up soon. And I'm going to be doing a lot more podcasts.

We're doing two a week. We might be upping it to three a week here in the next few months. But I'm so excited about what I'm bringing to you guys. The interviews with the influencers and the inspiring people I'm meeting. I can't wait to introduce you to them. They're so inspiring to me that I'm pumped to share their wisdom with you and ask them the questions that are interesting to me and let you guys connect with them as well. Thank you guys so much for being a part of this community, for being a part of the School of Greatness podcast.

I am so inspired by you every single day. I was just running yesterday here in LA and someone shouted out my name. He said, Lewis. He was in the car driving, stopped at a stoplight. He goes, Lewis Howes. Hey, man, I love the School of Greatness podcast. Keep it up. And I was running by him. I go, thanks, bro. Thanks for listening.

And we're like passing in LA. So I appreciate you guys' enthusiasm. I appreciate you guys' passion. If you see me anywhere in the world, say hi. Let me know what episode you love the most. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Woo! Bye. Thank you.