The School of Greatness - 1049 The 7 Keys To Thriving After A Breakdown w/Chris Lee

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

“For every breakdown in your life, there’s a thousand blessings.”For 30 years, Chris has been traveling the world and has led seminars and workshops for over 1 million people teaching them the art of living abundant, extraordinary, and successful lives! Chris Lee is a close friend of Lewis' and has been featured in over 15 episodes of the School of Greatness!Today Lewis and Chris sit down to talk all about breakdowns and they outline a list of keys to help you thrive and come out the other side of overwhelming circumstances.For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1049Check out the last podcast with Chris Lee: www.lewishowes.com/818Read his book: Transform Your Life: 10 Principles of Abundance and ProsperityMel Robbins: The “Secret” Mindset Habit to Building Confidence and Overcoming Scarcity: https://link.chtbl.com/970-podDr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: https://link.chtbl.com/826-podMaster Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins: https://link.chtbl.com/715-pod

This is episode number 1049 with Chris Lee. For every breakdown, there's a thousand blessings. And so we have two choices in a breakdown. We could dive or we could thrive. If I'm upset with someone and I don't forgive them, they have my power. 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. Drishti Bablani once said, a breakdown is not the end. Even the strongest of people have a breaking point. And Shannon Alders said, one of the greatest regrets in life is being what others want you to be rather than being yourself. today is my dear friend Chris Lee, who for 30 years has been traveling the world and has led seminars and workshops for over a million people, teaching them the art of living abundant and extraordinary and successful lives. Chris is a dear friend of mine who has been featured in over 15 episodes of the School of Greatness, and I'm always excited to have him back on and share his wealth of knowledge. And today is no exception because we are talking about some amazing things.

Firstly, we're diving into what a breakdown actually is and how we can come out of it thriving on the other side. The unhealthy ways we process emotions and how we can begin processing them in a healthier way. How important it is to practice forgiveness of ourselves and those around us. This is tough. I get it. Why we allow of ourselves and those around us. This is tough. I get it. Why we allow words to hurt us so much. How to create an action plan for yourself. The importance of building a support system.

How to learn to trust the process in your life right now, even when it seems chaotic. And so much more. Every time you share this, it really allows us to spread the message to more people and help and inspire more people who might be needing it, even if they don't say they need help. So feel free to share this with a friend right now. Just text someone or post it on social media,

lewishowes.com slash 1049 and click the subscribe button on Apple Podcasts or Spotify right now as leaving us a rating and review really helps us spread the message of greatness to more people. Okay. In just a moment, the one and only Chris Lee. Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the man, Chris Lee in the house. Our resident life coach, master coach on all things living a better life. You've been training people for over 30 years now?

Over 30 years. 30 years in intimate workshops. Started when I was five. You've been helping people figure out how to really handle their past, how to heal trauma, how to deal with tough situations in the current situation of their life, relationships, finance, career, health, all that stuff. You've helped people who've gone through some of the most tragic moments ever. You've seen things, you've heard things that most people should never have to hear, and

you help people find freedom and peace on the other side of their pain. You've been on more than anyone else on The School of Greatness. Episode 30-something was one of the first ones. the other side of their pain. You've been on more than anyone else on the School of Greatness. Episode 30 something was one of the first ones. And we've got a new topic, which is how to really handle breakdown because people are dealing with a lot of overwhelm, upset, breakdown, financial breakdown with the COVID, relationship breakdown, health breakdown. I know I gained some weight during COVID and trying to get it back off. It's just hurricanes. There's all these different things, political breakdowns, there's breakdown overwhelm. And when we are overwhelmed, it's hard to

get clarity and focus on the direction we should go because we're so overwhelmed. And you've got these seven main keys on how to really handle breakdown and turn it into a breakthrough so you can have peace and freedom on the other side. So I'm so glad you're back. And can we first define what is a breakdown? Well, first, thank you for having me back for episode, my 30th time.

I don't know how many times I've been here. I just see, I don't, I see the School of Greatness as a platform that brings a lot of wisdom to people. And I think that what the magic of this is to make things simple for people. And right now, the world, not just me and you, but the world, the planet is going through

an overwhelming amount of stress, an overwhelming amount of changes and curveballs. And so it's important to provide people light. And I think that what these seven keys bring to people is light. And it brings people a simple way of navigating through breakdowns and turning them into breakthroughs. And so a breakdown, to answer the question, is really when life throws you a curveball. And how many of you have experienced life throwing you a curveball? And we get curveballs every day without the pandemic.

Throw the pandemic into the mix and it's a massive curveball. And not only is the pandemic a curveball, but what has happened with the pandemic? We think that we're getting to the other side and then out of the blue, it's worse than ever. And then there's the whole political challenge and landscape, and there's the whole racial challenge and landscape and health. And like you said, relationships, and it becomes, it gets to a point where it gets to a boiling point. And so a breakdown is when life throws us a curve ball or when people act in a way that we don't expect them to act or when we promise to do something or to deliver on something we don't deliver like i promise to lose 20 pounds and i gain 15 right like i promise that i'm gonna you know be patient and i lose my patience right so

when life throws a curveball when people act in a way that we don't expect them to act, or when we don't deliver on our promises, those are the main key breakdowns that happen. And what happens when we reach a boiling point? What happens then? We go into reaction. And what happens is that a little breakdown becomes a massive breakdown. And then that massive breakdown takes on a life of its own. And then before you know it, you're not dealing with the original breakdown. You're dealing with some new breakdowns that the original breakdown sponsors. It's like a snowball effect. And so what happens, and then of course, if you're involved in the breakdown, it activates breakdowns and it just takes everybody with them. It's kind of like that snowball that just, it becomes this tidal wave

that you find yourself lost in the middle of it. And you ask yourself, how did I get here? Right. I was riding the wave and now I'm in the middle. I'm in the wave and I didn't even do anything about it. It's not me. It's like, it's happening around me. And so, and I believe that the pandemic, what it's done is that it has amplified a lot of already existing breakdowns. So if you're going through financial challenges prior to the pandemic, it's probably amplified that. If you've had challenges in your relationships that were kind of neutral because both were busy

and you saw each other every now and then, now you're with each other all the time, the pandemic has amplified that. If you had health breakdowns that you were kind of coasting on and you weren't really addressing, the pandemic has put everybody into total alert mode because people are panicking, especially people that have not taken care of their health are panicking about what's going to happen if I get the COVID virus, you know, and what's going to happen to me and my health isn't good. So I think that the situation that we're living in, you know, and of course the political and all the other stuff, it just creates an environment for massive breakdowns and reactions.

And I've been blessed to be busier than ever during the pandemic. I've been on Zoom every week. I've been doing live workshops, believe it or not, with all of the precautions taken and people safe. But I could tell you that if there's one thing, which is why I think this is a great thing to talk about, that I had been coaching for the last nine months, just going into this new year and now to now, it's what do I do with breakdowns? And I have seven keys and I think these keys are very important.

And to jump right into it, the first key is get out of denial and accept that you're having a breakdown. What do most people do when they have a breakdown? They usually sugarcoat it, they sweep it under the rug, they distract themselves, they focus on something else. They numb it, they find an addiction.

They do addictions, they overeat, they overwork, they you know use drugs alcohol there's so many ways to avoid breakdown uh or just pretend it's okay you know i don't have a cavity and before you know it's a root canal right you know and so being in denial is what most people do right right and other people when they have breakdowns what they there's other people that actually what they do is they beat themselves up and so they have a breakdown they feel bad and they beat themselves up. And so they have a breakdown and they feel bad and they beat themselves up at the breakdown, like this shouldn't be happening. And so they feel bad about it. Or they want to beat someone else up.

You know, they want to judge someone else or attack someone else, lash out on someone else. And so that's the other thing that people do with breakdowns. They blame. They blame other people, exactly. How could I ever be at fault with this? No, you're doing it to me. You're doing it to me.

So the first step is to accept the breakdown and acknowledge, okay, I'm having a financial breakdown or I'm having a relationship breakdown. It's my breakdown. I'm having it. And so by acknowledging it, and I even recommend writing it down. What is the breakdown that you're experiencing? And by acknowledging the breakdown, and I even recommend writing it down, what is the breakdown that you're experiencing? And by acknowledging the breakdown, you gain power over the breakdown.

How does that give you power over it? Because you're now no longer in denial. When you're in denial about something, it's draining energy because some part of you knows it. There's a part of you that knows that you're in breakdown, but when you're pretending not to know something, whatever that breakdown is, is working on you. And so that's why people get insomnia. Insomnia is unresolved stuff.

People that can't sleep is because they got so much unresolved stuff that it won't let them sleep. And so when you know, when you have a breakdown that you're in avoidance of, it takes energy away. And so by acknowledging the breakdown, you know, acknowledging, you know, it's like thinking you have cancer, that's exhausting. But the moment you're aware, okay, I have cancer, and here's where it is, there's a sense of power, because you now know, okay, there's things like, there's something I could do about this.

Yeah. It's scary to acknowledge it. And that's probably why you don't go to the doctor to do the check-in, because you're like, ah, I don't want this to be cancer, so I'm gonna ignore it. But what happens when you ignore it? And the cancer grows. ignore it? It gets worse because what you resist persists. And so by accepting that you have a breakdown and acknowledging the breakdown, at least you gain

the energetic power to now do something about it versus pretend it's not there. If I pretend I don't have a cavity, there's nothing, you know, the cavity takes over me and I can't do anything about it by accepting, okay, I have a cavity here. So now what can I do about this? Or there's a relationship breakdown. I own that we have a breakdown and that there's a breakdown here. Then I can do something about it. But if I go on through life, pretending everything is okay and being in denial, which is what a lot of people do, they just pretend everything is okay. Sweep it under, which is what a lot of people do. They just pretend everything is okay. Sweep it under the rug. Sweep it under the rug, automatic pilot, but sooner or later, it catches up to you.

And so the first key is to accept the breakdown, to acknowledge the breakdown, to name it. Once you name it, then you've got power to do something about it. Why is it so hard to first accept these things that we don't like? Why do most of us say it's someone else's fault around us? It's my girlfriend's fault, my parents' fault, my kids' fault, government's fault. Why is it so hard to take acceptance of it first? Because it's conditioning. We're conditioned to blame.

We're conditioned to think that it's someone else's fault that we're broke. Or it's someone else's fault that we're upset with them. It's someone else's fault that the situation is the way it is. And so when you blame somebody else, you're blanket blaming like when you blame the government. Or you blame your mom or you blame your dad. It's easy to go there. And it takes me off the hook of course of having to take responsibility which is the second step so the second step is not only to acknowledge it but now I get

to own it I get to take responsibility and look at myself and ask myself how am I creating this how am I causing this causing this? What am I doing to provoke this? And if it's not my fault, because some cases breakdowns are not your fault, how can I interpret this in a way that empowers me? Give me an example where it may not be someone's fault. What's an instance maybe you've heard in one of your workshops recently without saying someone's name? Okay, so my spouse cheated on me. I acknowledge I have that breakdown. Now, how do I take responsibility?

It's not my fault, but how can I interpret the situation in a way that empowers me? How can I see this in a way that I can move forward in my life? How would someone do that? Well, I look at what the lesson is. What am I allowing? What signs did I not pay attention to? What's the environment that I've created in my life where that is even possible? What criteria did I use to choose that person in the first place? I think that there's always signs and sometimes we're in denial. We're back into, no, no, no, everything is great. Then they cheat on me.

And sometimes we create the environment that that happens. And so I think that taking responsibility doesn't mean it's my fault. Sometimes a breakdown is your fault because you're the one that caused it and provoked it and your responsibility. But sometimes it's not your fault. It has nothing to do with you. But if you want to access power, then you get to choose to take responsibility. And maybe the responsibility is how do I interpret this in a way to move forward? Well, you know what?

It's the best thing that could have happened because this is going to lead to something better. This situation is teaching me something. What's the blessing in this? Because I promise you, in every single breakdown that we have in our lives, there's a blessing. There's a learning. There's a growth. If you think about where you are right now, you are where you are as a result of a lot of the prior breakdowns. And so we have two choices in a breakdown. We could dive or we could thrive.

And the only way to thrive is by taking responsibility. And that's saying to myself, I am not going to be a victim of the situation. Right. And so if I'm upset about something, then it's my job to look at, okay, so how am I perceiving the situation? How am I interpreting this? Sometimes we interpret things that are not even there. Right. Sometimes we're on breakdown over something that didn't even exist. Like I think that my boyfriend didn't call me or my girlfriend didn't call me back. And so I'm interpreting that they don't love me. And so right after they don't love me, I am pissed. And so now I'm in a breakdown over an interpretation that I'm having, and it's not a

fact. And so by taking responsibility, I'm taking responsibility. I'm looking at what was missing for me. What could I have done different? How did I perceive this? How does that perception contribute to this breakdown? What's the lesson here? What's the blessing here? There's so much mileage that you can get out of a breakdown. You know, I promise to lose 20 pounds, I gain 30. So I acknowledge it. Now let me take responsibility. What could I have done different? What can I learn from this?

How am I interpreting weight loss? What am I looking at this? What can I learn from this? What's the blessing here? Yeah. at this what can I learn from this what's the blessing here yeah is it the same interpretation of responsibility when something is seems so unjust what happened to someone whether it be a sexual misconduct a physical misconduct that was that would say no why would this person take responsibility when

someone came out of the blue and hurt them? Is it the same type of interpretation? You're confusing blame and responsibility. So it's not my fault that someone sexually abused me, but it's my responsibility to process this in a way that empowers me. And so I can look at it like, what can I learn from it? What can I gain from this? So they abused my body, but they didn't touch my spirit. My spirit is untouchable.

My spirit is untouchable. It wasn't my fault, because sometimes sexual abuse, and I have been sexually abused, and I blamed myself for years. And I chose to take responsibility for my abuse to identify what can I learn from this. And one of the things I learned is that my body was abused, but I was never touched. And I chose an interpretation that I still matter. It's not my fault.

And I got my power back. And so by choosing interpretations that empower you, that allows you to move forward. What happens if we don't take responsibility, whether it's, again, something like a sexual abuse, a rape or a drunk driver killing your children? I become defined by the event. So I walk around life defined by sexual abuse, defined by bankruptcy,

defined by a prison sentence, defined by whatever the event is. And really at the end of the day, events are neutral. We've talked about this in other episodes. Events are neutral. We're the ones who attach the meaning and the significance to it. And if you look at life from a spiritual standpoint, spirit is bigger than ego. Spirit is bigger than the body. So if you really look at spiritually, no one can touch you because they're touching your body

or they're attacking you, yourself, but not who you really are. And so when I take responsibility, what I'm doing is I'm taking ownership for a situation and I'm looking at it. And the premise is, given I have the power, how did I create this breakdown with my boyfriend? Given I have the power, how am I interpreting the person I'm with in a way that this empowers me? Given I have the power, how can I interpret this bankruptcy in a way that propels me and moves me forward? You see, very few people assume responsibility

when there's a breakdown. It's always someone's fault. I've never talked to anyone who got fired saying I caused it. I've never talked to anyone who got dumped saying I created it, or this was a blessing, or I learned from this. And so there's no power in victim.

And then what happens is we end up suffering for what is Einstein called insanity, which is repeating the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. And then we stay stuck. And so what I'm proposing is that we grab the bull by the horns. We take control of our lives and of ourselves, which is the only thing you really can control. You can't control how other people act, how other people be, but you could take responsibility for yourself. And so if you're in a situation that's toxic, that's destructive, you could be a victim of that. Or you could say, you know what, I'm not going to let that toxicity get me toxic or affect me.

I'm going to create an environment around me where I'm going to transform all that energy into positive energy. It's not easy. It's so hard to do. I know, but transform all that energy into positive energy. It's not easy. It's so hard to do. I know, but it takes practice. It takes practice. So when I take responsibility, what I'm saying is at the end of the day, responsibility is given I am powerful, given I am unstoppable, given I have the tools that I need because I have them from birth, how did I create or allow this? And if I didn't create or allow this,

how can I interpret this in a way that forwards me? I have a friend named Ana Isabel. She, you know her, she auditioned for The Voice and she got rejected. So she was in total breakdown. She calls me up crying. I quit show business. This is horrible.

I'm never going to fit in. Six years of this. And I'm like, well, okay, I get you're in a breakdown. Can you own that this is a breakdown right now in your life? She said, yes, I am in total breakdown. And I said, well, how can you take responsibility for this? She goes, are you kidding? I'm not responsible.

They wouldn't turn around. Shakira didn't pick me. She was upset. And I go, well, that's what happened. Can you change what happened? No. Okay. So I'm not saying it's your fault that that happened, but what can you learn from this?

What can you learn? How could you turn this into something empowering? And she goes, you know what? You're right. This is an opportunity for me to see that there's something bigger for me, that I could use this breakdown as an opportunity to learn from it. I didn't prepare. I chose a song that I wasn't able to sing.

So she really looked at it responsibly. And long story short, she just wrapped her movie with Steven Spielberg, West Side Story, coming out next year. Right. And she's now doing better than ever. But anyone could take any breakdown and turn it around. And so by taking responsibility, it gives me the power to move forward. Because a lot of us get very emotional around an event that happens or a breakdown that happens, right?

It's very emotional. an event that happens or a breakdown that happens, right? It's very emotional. I've seen this with a lot of people that I know that something happens in their life, whether it happens to them, to the world, whether they think it's unfair, a situation, a friend, and they bring so much emotion to it. They bring emotion, they bring drama to it.

And then what happens is that there's no way out of it because they become victimized by an event or by an interpretation. And so I would say to that person, so how are you interpreting this situation that's causing you to be in this breakdown? Okay, I'm interpreting that I'm being disrespected, that I'm not being loved, that I'm a loser, that I'm never going to make it into Hollywood, that relationships suck, that the pandemic is going to destroy my life, we're all going to die. I mean, we create this Steven Spielberg movie in our brain and that causes us to continue to break down. And so by taking responsibility is by asking that same person, so how can you interpret this in a way that empowers you? Because at the end

of the day, I'm the only person accountable for my interpretation and I get to choose. only person accountable for my interpretation yeah and I get to choose and so by choosing and being mindful of choosing no matter what the event is and empowering interpretation to it that gives you the power to transform the breakdown and the emotion is the thing that's next there right and so the third key which is really important I think that this is one that we all bypass and I I am guilty I bypass it you bypassed it yeah it's too yeah I own the fact that I that I am in a breakdown financially I take responsibility by looking at what can I learn from it how can I turn this into an opportunity how could I interpret

this financial breakdown into a breakthrough but now that I've acknowledged it and acknowledged my shortcomings or acknowledged the situation, I got to process the emotion. Because as human beings, we are emotional. And what happens, most people want to be superheroes, Superman, Wonder Woman, I feel nothing, I'm fine. I could just go through this, plow through this. And what happens is that emotion, we end up stuffing it. And stuffed emotion creates what I call an implosion. If we don't express our emotion in a healthy way, now it's important, keyword, healthy. I don't mean lash out on your significant other. I don't mean beat up, you know, your dog. I don't mean, you know, beat yourself up.

I'm talking about healthy or, you know, scream at people in traffic. You know, you got to process emotion in a healthy way. And one of the things that I do in my workshops, you know this, you've been in my workshops, is I give people the space to process emotion. And usually it's those people who think I have nothing to process, the ones who have the most to process. Because there are two main emotions that we don't process.

Anger. One is guilt, which is all the anger and all of the self-hate and the self-beat up. So we don't process guilt. We carry guilt with us. And guilt is a cancer, my friends.

Guilt will destroy your life, will destroy your relationships. Guilt can create all kinds of things because you're stuffing that guilt and you're beating yourself up for something that either A, is not your fault, because you interpret it as your fault. A lot of people blame themselves

for things that are not their fault. Or B, for something that it as your fault. A lot of people blame themselves for things that are not their fault. Or B, for something that it is your fault, but you've paid for it. Like get over it, get past it. And the second emotion that we don't process is resentment. Resentment is anger towards other people. Resentment is being mad at, you know, whether it's your mom or your dad or a public figure, your girlfriend, boyfriend.

That resentment that we don't process ends up creating an implosion. And a lot of disease, think of the word disease, dis-ease. It's unresolved emotions that is stuffed in your body and it's got to come out somewhere. And that somewhere a lot of times is your organs And there's studies, you know, there's people that probably know more about this than I do But talk to any doctor and i'll tell you the you know, how stress impacts health Yes, you know, it's one of the key factors and so processing emotion is one of my favorite things to coach And basically processing emotion is to acknowledge how you're feeling

And a lot of people are sad and a lot of people are depressed and a lot of people are angry and instead of you know just putting a band-aid over and working through it it's important to take the time to acknowledge it and to process it what are some healthy ways to acknowledge both guilt and resentment so one way is journaling I think journaling is very effective at writing down, I feel guilty because, and all the things that make me feel guilty, what are the things I'm beating myself about,

what are the things I've done. And then the second thing is resentment. Resentment is, you know, processing resentment is writing down the list of all the things that people you're pissed off at, people you're upset with, kind of like, you know, Mean Girls Burn Book. You know, I'm mad at so and so for this.

And so just the energetic experience of journaling is so important. Another way to process emotion is to call someone up and say, I'm in breakdown, I need to talk to you. Like the times you call me, I'm that guy for you. You know, and I'm like, Lewis, let me have it. Come on. And you don't have a lot of people you could do that with. And I have someone who can listen to you. And I listen to you. I don't judge you. Don't you feel good when you talk to me and you clear and then I'm

able to support you in making sense of it. So having that person, having a hug, sometimes all you need is a hug. I hugged the other day and and she said it's the first hug i had in seven months and she started breaking down crying and i didn't let go of course we had our mask on the whole thing but uh you know and it was sometimes a hug sometimes a song play music there's certain songs that you know my go-to and yeah you know anything by anything by anya watermark by anynya, Shepard Moon. This is music that you could play that just allows you to process emotion. Meditation is good.

Catharsis, literally screaming in a room, you know, in your bedroom. Also, another thing, you know what's helped me process emotions as well? Music and listening to the songs that allow me to do that. And not just music, but movies as well. Have you ever watched a movie that you just start crying and you realize that you're crying more than the normal? Like it's hitting something there. So movies help process emotion. What's the unhealthy way of processing guilt and resentment?

Blaming someone, using someone as a punching bag, screaming at someone, saying you're doing it to me, you're the reason why I'm miserable. Blaming your boss, blaming the economy, blaming the president, the presidential candidates, blaming China, blaming whoever. It's not political here, but anytime we blame other people, it's unhealthy. There's no resolve to it. So when we blame someone else, there's no, it's unhealthy. There's no resolve to it. So when we blame someone else, it's never finished.

Well, here's what it does. That's a rocket. It's temporary relief. It gives us a temporary relief because we're like, yeah, you did it. But in the long run, it doesn't resolve anything because you're gonna repeat whatever it is that happened again and again and again.

If someone doesn't take accountability, there's no new moment, which is why sometimes you find yourself having the same issues over and over and over because there's no accountability. And so in a relationship, both people have to take accountability. It can't just be one side. It's got to be both sides. What happens when it's only one side the whole time? Then at some point, the relationship is going to change. Because you either need to accept that person the way they are and go, well, that's how it is. And I love this person unconditionally.

And I'm not going to allow that person to take my energy away, my joy away. And when they're in that moment, I'm going to see it as like a moment. And so I'll just ride the wave. Or that person eventually will wake up to it's not because they're going to be miserable on their own. You're not going to be miserable with them. I think part of the problem is when you join them in the misery, that makes it worse. Instead of just going, okay, this person is having a breakdown. I love you

i'm here for you but if you're going to blame me there's nothing i can do about that i need to step away right because you also get to honor your boundaries and honor your your you know way of being and what you want yeah and so i think that either you need to accept that other person or accept the the situation as is and you know move forward or you need to decide that that's not what you want. And that's true about any relationship, whether it's a boss or, I had a boss that was abusive and mean, and I had two choices.

One is quit, and it potentially would've affected my career, or I decide, you know what, I'm not gonna let that affect me. And so whenever they would start, I would hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wouldn't let it hit me. And I think that if that causes a breakdown in you, then you need to accept it. And you need to take responsibility of how you're processing this and how you're letting it affect you.

And choose an empowering interpretation. And you also need to let go of the emotion. Because it causes emotion in you. Why do we allow words to affect us so deeply? When someone gets mad at us or angry at us or blames us, why do we in general allow it to then ruin our mood? Because we're allowing our minds to interpret those words in a deceiving or in a demeaning or disempowering way. So you could say to me, you're an idiot, and I could smile and go, thank you. Or I could go, oh yeah, well you're this.

And so when I'm in reaction, then I'm being a victim of your words. But at the end of the day, you're the one who's interpreting whatever people are saying to you in a way that you're interpreting it. You can't control someone else and how they are. You can only control how you respond to it. You have the power to interpret other people in a way that empowers you. Or you can let it hit your buttons. The other thing is, you want to look at why those buttons are even still there. Like what part of you feels not good enough? What part of you feels unworthy?

What part of you feels like you can't trust people? And so that's another opportunity in the responsibility realm. But regardless of that, you need to let go of the emotion around it because every time it happens, it happens with an accumulated emotion versus it's a brand new moment.

And I think that as I let go, and letting go is a daily practice. Letting go is making a choice, you know what, I feel lousy, let me just journal about this. Let me call someone up and just share with them about how I feel so I can just have that outlet. And once I let go, of course, the fourth key is to forgive. And forgiveness, and you've done a thousand podcasts around forgiveness, but as you remember, to me, forgiveness equals freedom. When I forgive, I'm free. Because forgiveness is just a conscious decision to let go of negative energy.

And so what happens is that if I'm upset with someone and I don't forgive them, they have my power. And so by forgiving someone else or by forgiving an entity or forgiving somebody in the world, that energy that I, because it takes a lot of energy to be pissed. I hate you. You know, that's a lot of energy. It's draining. It's exhausting.

I hate you. That's a lot of energy. It drains you. It's draining. It's exhausting. And I say that that's energy that we need to create our dreams and to accomplish our vision and to make a difference in the world. And so if I'm upset with someone, it's really hard to go forward in my dreams. And so by forgiving and by making a decision whether they deserve it or not, I deserve it.

So I forgave the person that abused me sexually or abused my body, didn't touch me. I forgave my dad who walked out when I was six. I forgave other people for what they've done in my life. And I continue, by the way, it's not a one-shot deal. I continue to forgive. Every day something happens in my life that I'm like, okay, I make a conscious choice. I forgive this person. I get cut off on the highway. They flip me the bird. I go, peace, brother. I forgive.

So I make it a conscious choice to forgive because I don't want that negativity to affect me. And of course, forgive myself. You know, by forgiving myself, at the end of the day, how do I allow myself to be in the situation that I'm in? Why am I even here? What's going on with it? You know, I forgive myself because I get to be unconditionally loving towards myself. So forgiveness is key to transforming any breakdown to breakthrough because a lot of times we're filled with guilt or filled with resentment and the opposite of guilt and resentment

is self-forgiveness and forgiving other people. What happens if we never forgive ourselves or others? You will not be free. You will be trapped. You will be in a self-imposed prison. And a lot of people, you could tell people that go through life upset and take things personal and reactive, they haven't forgiven. Who have they not forgiven? Is it typically themselves or others? Both. In most cases, it's themselves because at the end of the day, they're the ones that are carrying it because, and of course, there's no one harder on you than you and no one beats

you up more than you. And, you know, that's a whole part of my training is forgiving yourself. Yeah. But, you know but also other people. And it depends on the person. Sometimes people just have had a lot of situations in their life where they were abandoned by a parent. They were ignored by another parent. Siblings and just life.

And I think that we, once again, we implode. We carry stuff with us. We keep it on the inside. And then all of a sudden, 20 years later, the person next to me looks like my dad. And everything they do, it triggers my dad's stuff because I never forgave. Yeah. Crazy. I never forgave.

And as human beings, yes, we're complicated, but we're not that complicated. I think at the end of the day, it's pretty simple. We complicate things. And so when I have issues with my mom or my dad or whoever, if I don't resolve that, if I don't forgive, then I'm not fresh. I'm not free. Why do you think at 55, I have so much energy and passion and, you know, I go into workshops, I spend four days and I'm like on fire the whole time. And people are like, how do you do that? Because I am a constant self-cleaning oven. I am always doing this.

I have a breakdown, I isolate it. Don't wait for it to accumulate with new ones. I have a breakdown, I isolate it, I acknowledge it, I accept it, I even write it down. I journal, I write down, I'm having a breakdown about this. How did I create this? What can I learn from I write down, I'm having a breakdown about this. How did I create this? What can I learn from this?

What's the blessing in this breakdown? How could this lead to growth? And if it's not my fault, how can I see this as an opportunity? Then I identify the emotion. I am pissed. And I allow myself to get pissed. And I use every bad word under the sun, and I scream it, and I let it out. Or if that's not necessary, I'll call you up and go, Lewis, I'm having a breakdown. I'm pissed about this and I do that with you as well. And you just listen. You're like,

are you okay? Anything else? And I'm like, no, I feel new. And it's great to have people like that. And we all have angels in our lives that are willing to listen to us. But remember, the purpose of talking to someone when you want to let go of emotion is to let it go, not to complain. Because sometimes people just call the complaint and it goes nowhere. When I let go of emotion, I do it from a place of, I'm communicating this to get it off my chest

and to get it out. Yeah, in a healthy environment. Not at the person. No, I'm not gonna take it out on the person I'm mad at and go, you've ruined my life. No, I'm not going to take it out on the person I'm mad at and go, you ruined my life. You know, no, that's not going to, that doesn't serve me. If anything, I recommend to that person that's upset in the moment to step away. To go, you know what, let me process my emotions.

I don't want to say anything that might offend you. Or I don't want to do anything, you know. Why is that so hard to do though? Why is it so hard to say, thank you for screaming at me. Let me take a step aside and go process this and come back to you. Why is that so hard to do though? Why is it so hard to say, thank you for screaming at me. Let me take a step aside and go process this and come back to you. Why is that so challenging? Because it triggers you.

And it triggered me, but not over the years, it becomes easier. Yeah. You practice it enough. Everything is practice. Yeah. Look, you could scream anything you want at me

and I'm going to look at you and say, I love you. It's crazy. I know, but I have practice. Yeah. I apply this. I'm not saying this because it sounds say, I love you. It's crazy. I know, but I have practice. I apply this. I'm not saying this because it sounds good. This has saved my life.

Because I can tell you how many times in my life that I have spared relationships. I mean, look, I'm like anybody else. I'm emotional. I grew up in Puerto Rico. We're Latin. We're passionate. I've wanted to quit, walk away from things, tell people to go F themselves, and I just breathed. What was the thing for you that took the longest to let go of, or to forgive, or to not react

when you reacted for so long to a conversation or whatever breakdown? What was the trigger that you had to finally let go of, that took the longest to let go of? A friend that I gave everything to that I helped in their career they got a career I set them up with the best contacts they became self-made all because of me and that person basically betrayed me and stole my stuff mmm and then that triggered me in a huge way of abuse abuse abuse taking advantage of i'm worthless and i and i really had to double down on this and go wait a minute how am i interpreting this i'm

making their drama mine they made their choice because of whatever they're living how can i use this and how could i see the blessing here well Well, the blessing is I gave them tools. The blessing is I helped somebody that was literally on the street become successful. I started looking at the blessing and I was able to shift my energy away. Because remember, the nature of thought is what you think about expands. And so if you're in the gutter and you're in those dark conversations, they expand and they take over. And by making a conscious shift into blessing and opportunity and what's the positive here. For every breakdown, there's a thousand blessings.

For every single breakdown, I don't care what the breakdown is, there's a thousand blessings. And if we only focus on the breakdown, we're not going to be able to see the blessings. And so by really making a conscious choice to shift my energy, even though I don't feel it, I think part of the breakdown is like, I got to feel it. Well, guess what? Commitment and feelings are two different things. I'm not saying I always feel these things. I make a choice.

These steps are choices, not feelings. I don't feel like accepting anything, but I accept it. I don't feel like acknowledging the breakdown. I acknowledge it. I don't feel like being in an ownership. Sometimes I do, but a lot of times I don't feel it. But I do it anyway because I know it serves me. I don't feel like letting go.

Sometimes I want to harbor and be empowered by being pissed at you, but then I realize that's only hurting me, so I let go. I don't feel like forgiving. Hell no. Blame that person. Sometimes it feels good to go, it's their fault. Yes, but there's no power there. And so I forgive because that energy

is necessary because life is challenging without my drama yeah there's so much going on and the world needs leaders that are going to be focused and use their energy and i say that there's two things that should be your biggest goals number one live your best life possible should be your biggest goals. Number one, live your best life possible. And number two, make the biggest impact possible. And so anything that takes you away from those two things, you need to handle because it's on you.

If you're upset with people and if you're in reaction, that's on you. And so by forgiving, you got to forgive. And people who don't forgive blame people in the present and they're not really mad at them they're mad at people from the past yeah so like if i didn't forgive my best friend that i had an eighth grade because he betrayed me every time lewis you do something to me that makes me feel like you don't care about me i'm gonna be pissed at you you know and and have there been situations in my life with you where i felt that you know you didn't call me back or you didn't do this on time yeah because you're human and it wasn't

personal you just were doing what you're doing and there are times i don't do that with you but you don't get upset with me but if i were if i was hanging on to stuff that happened in the past every time you do anything that looks like that past it's a trigger it's a it's a trigger and I'm in a total up your breakdown which means I get my power away yeah so forgiveness is really important because you create a clean slate you create a clean slate a new moment there's no such thing as a new moment if I don't let go of the old one oh that's true being because you're always living into that moment, that old one.

Right, right. And so making a new commitment is getting clear about, okay, so now I've forgiven. What's my vision? What's the environment I want to create in my life, in my relationship, in my business,

in my health, in all areas of my life? What do I want to create? What's my intention? Where all areas of my life, what do I want to create? What's my intention? Where am I putting my energy? And I recommend picking a word that describes what's that intention, what's your intention word? So pertaining to the breakdown, whatever the breakdown is.

So if the breakdown is health, what's my intention with my health? If my breakdown is my relationship, what's my intention with the relationship? An intention is a word. My intention is understanding. My intention is peace. My intention in my health is confidence or persistence, discipline, financially, wisdom, you know, whatever that is. And getting clear on my new commitment and my intention and the environment I want to create, my why, we've talked about that before, then I'm able to set a new commitment, which is to make a new goal that will fix or transform the breakdown. So my new goal is to release 25 pounds. My new

goal is to create the most loving environment in my relationship. My new goal is to generate that million dollar additional income that I want to create. Generate 100,000, whatever the money is. But my intention and my goal go hand in hand. And so I declare that intention and I declare that goal. And that commitment, that's step five, right? Yeah, make a new commitment. Step six, of course, is to create a plan of action.

So what's the new action? Including the new interpretations, the new attitudes. So my new action is I'm going to start seeing life in a positive way. I'm going to let go of my old triggers. I'm going to trust my partner. I'm going to trust my partner, I'm going to trust the process, whatever that new action requires of me. Maybe I've lacked discipline with my health,

so my new action is to have discipline in my life and work out and go to the gym. And I also, I recommend writing down what your intention is, what is that action plan, and identify what resources do I have. Because creating an action plan, you also need to include resources. Who can support me in this new action? So my new actions to transform my relationship, what support do I need so that I have the best outcome in my relationships? If I'm committed to taking action in my health,

what support do I need? So step six is identify that action and identify the support for the action. I think the support part is the huge thing because a lot of people say, well, okay, here's the commitment, here's the actions I want to take. I want to work out five days a week. I'm going to eat this much. I'm going to be loving in my relationship. When my partner yells at me, we set the intention. We create this

action plan, but it's very, very hard to follow through after a couple of weeks with anything without a team, what I like to call a personal advisory board. So this is who is the expert in this that I admire? Who is a model who has the relationship that I want to have? How have they done it? Who is the fitness person, the business person, whatever it is in the breakdown, find a team to support you because I think the advisory board... I get chills because I'm telling you, every single result I've created in my life in the last 30 years, my business success, my health success, relationship success, all has to do with taking action and having a team. You have to because our breakdowns are more powerful over a certain amount of time. Well, the other thing is, here's the thing.

We don't see ourselves in action. So as a human being, I'm in it. And so if I'm able to call you up and go, hey, I'm having a challenge here and I need support with these decisions I'm making and these actions. And you're able to go, wait a minute, you're going in the wrong direction. You need to go into this direction, which is why coaching is so important. Huge. Coaching is so important. Having coaches, having mentors, having your team, your tribe is critical to action because most people, and I'm included, when it comes to the action, later. You can say you want to take the action, but then the time comes.

You can write it down. You can create this amazing plan. But when it's 6 o'clock at night and you're supposed to work out and you're tired. And you're exhausted. And you're like, oh, I'm just going to sit here and eat ice cream. And the breakdown continues. Versus you have someone that you could go, wait a minute, let me call so-and-so because I know that they're going to hold me accountable. Having a support system is having people hold you accountable.

Exactly. And accountability, here's my definition of accountability. You ready? Accountability is love. Being held accountable is someone saying I love you. When you saw me that I was 30 pounds heavier than I am now and you went, Chris, I love you, you have changed my life, but I'm about to change yours.

You are overweight. It's not working. And no one is willing to tell you. Right, people are scared of you. I'm like, why? No one wants to tell you. you sat me down and and i was i cried and it was emotional and it was like you know what i've been about everybody else but myself right and you know and you were and you it's funny because the student teaches the teacher right and you're like you've done so much for me i want to do something for you now and i think that that and i'm like and i i

didn't cry so much because of the situation i I cried because I'm like, my God, this person loves me, cares about me. And you're like, I don't want you to die. Right. You know, and sometimes forget that that was a moment. And so when, when people hold you accountable and, and of course I'm that for so many people, I'm that for you and you're that for me and we're that for each other. But when we have people that we either hire or we, you know. Or friends. Friends, we empower to hold us accountable to what we say we're going to do is critical for any success and to turn any breakdown into breakthrough. And I think it's scary sometimes with a friend or someone you know to reach out and say, hey, I want to hold you accountable. Because they may not be ready for it. They may push back against you. They may say, screw you.

Well, it depends on who you're asking. I mean, we're friends, but you also know I'm going to hold you to task. I always have. And I think that having somebody professional in your life is really important. I always think, my point of view, of course, I'm in a career of this, but I think the most important investment you can make as a human being is in yourself and in coaching. Having a coach or having a tribe or having a mentor.

I've been coaching you for what, six years? I'm your go-to person. And that's an important decision to make. And having people coach, I've got people that coach me. Sometimes you coach me. It's important to have that because on our own, we're not gonna take the action. It's tough.

And if we do, if we do, it's hard to be consistent. Very hard. Because you've got 20, 30, 40, 50 years of habit. And you're like, okay, I'm going to now work out. You know, okay. It's a challenge. And I think in this step right here, even just a side note is, if anyone listening or watching, create a list of your biggest breakdowns.

Think in the last three months, what is the thing that creates the most emotion for me? I don't know if this is what you would recommend, but I'm thinking to myself, write a list of every time I see something political, it drives me crazy. Every time my partner says this to me, it drives me, it triggers me here. Your health breakdowns, relationship breakdowns, triggers. Financial breakdowns. Financial breakdowns. Write a list of the biggest ones. That's right. And I think you can't tackle them all at once probably, maybe you'd say otherwise, but I think figure can't tackle them all at once probably. Maybe you'd say otherwise, but I think figure out what's the one that causes the most stress of your life.

Absolutely. How do you eat a watermelon? One bite at a time. Yeah. Focus on one thing and then circle it as the main thing you want to focus on and say, okay, who are the people in my life who can support me? Maybe you don't have a lot of money. You can't hire a coach right now. Well, go through the steps. I wouldn't jump so i would i would step number one okay accept and acknowledge here's where i'm having a breakdown yeah number two take responsibility ownership if it's my fault how did i create it right if it's not my fault what can i learn from it how is this a blessing three what emotions am i experiencing anger i'm pissed I'm pissed off, I'm sad, I feel guilty. And how can I let go of this emotion?

And make a list of ways you could do that. I'm gonna meditate and I'm gonna call someone up for support. Four, what do I forgive myself for? Make a list of things you forgive yourself for. Who do I need to forgive and why? And remember, this is all a choice, not a feeling. Step number five, make a new commitment

in that specific area. What am I committed to creating? What's my vision? What's the intention word in that area? Number six, what action do I need to take? Who are the people I can call up to ask for support? And step number seven, celebrate the results. If I accomplish it, seven, celebrate the results. If I accomplish it, I celebrate. That's something else we don't do. How often do you take the time,

you, Lewis, to go, wow, I accomplished this. I'm doing it a lot better now. You're better now, but before, we've talked about this before, you didn't do it. You would accomplish this major thing and then go on, okay, here's the next project. And here's the next accomplishment. What are we saying to ourselves when we don't celebrate the accomplishment, small or big? We're invalidating it. We're not giving it credit. We're thinking, well,

I got lucky or it was going to happen anyway, or it was a lot of work and I'm glad I did it. And now I need to do something new. I'm as good as my new accomplishment. And so I think it's important to take the time, and this is something we could all do, is make a list of the top five things that you have accomplished in your life that you're proud of. I'm proud of this because, I'm proud of this because I graduated college.

Why? Because it's a miracle I graduated college. I barely made it through high school. I became a self-made millionaire at 32. It's a miracle because I grew up without any money. I'm in a long-standing relationship I'm proud of. I used to jump from relationship to relationship. And so making a list of the things you're proud of, celebrating your results when you accomplish it, do something nice for yourself. Buy yourself a gift. Take yourself on a vacation.

Do something good for you. Just take yourself to dinner or something, yeah. Whatever. It could be dinner. It could be a massage. It could be a day at the spa. Or do something you like to do that sometimes most people don't do what they want to do. They do what their partner wants to do.

In other words, I like to go hiking. And so take yourself hiking. But do something nice for you. And if you don't accomplish, and of course, what did you learn from the result? And if you don't accomplish it, guess what you do? Go back to step number one. Accept and acknowledge that you didn't accomplish it. Step number two, take ownership, responsibility.

Step three, let go of the emotion. Step four, forgive myself, others. Step five, make a new commitment. Step six, action plan, a support team. Step seven, celebrate the results. Yeah, and there's a number of different actually research studies that have talked about the importance of celebrating your wins, your results. We had a psychologist come on, Dr. Ivan Joseph, who talks about, he creates a brag list when he's going into a new situation,

like up for a new job or some setting, he creates a list to remind himself of how powerful he is. Right. And he's scared. That's wonderful. He calls it his brag list. I actually created an acronym out of it, big results, accomplishments, and goals.

Nice. Right down a list from everything, from junior high to high school, college, and goals. Right down a list from everything from junior high to high school, college, and beyond. Remind yourself of maybe you feel like you haven't done anything big in a while, but you've done it before. Even just accomplishing high school, college, or whatever it may be.

And the value of that is if your self-esteem and if your self-worth is a little low, sometimes you need to remind yourself of what you're able to deliver on. Yes. I actually did this with somebody who, it's been a while since she had a hit record. It's been a while since she's been on TV. And she was just kind of going in for an audition. And she kind of lost her, kind of her mojo.

And I'm like, think about what you've done. Make a list of 10 things that you are proud of and can you believe that there are things on that list I never knew that that person did and I'm like are you kidding me you sold out 13 stadiums what you did this what kind of person does that and she literally went oh my, me. And went and crushed the audition and got the deal that she needed. And it's so important to celebrate your results. Yeah, you got to remember who we are sometimes.

Spend too much time focusing on what we're not. Well, I think living in guilt and resentment takes us downward spiral as opposed to letting it go and moving back into our dreams and our possibilities of what we're going to create. Yeah, so at the end of the day, breakdowns are actually blessings. It's all how we choose to see them.

It's the interpretation, which I think is the key word that goes into all these steps is no matter what happens, we need to interpret it as a blessing for us, not happening against us or not in our favor. There's two things that I think that are important. One is trust the process. Why is it so hard? Because we create Steven Spielberg's screenplay of everything that could go wrong. So trust the process is trusting that everything that's happening in my life is happening in my favor.

One of my favorite quotes, life is rigged in my life is happening in my favor one of my favorite quotes life is rigged in my favor it's by Rumi and I heard Arianna Huffington talk about it on her interview with Oprah Oprah asked her what's been the key to your success and Arianna Huffington created Huffington Post powerful leader you've had her on the show and her quote is life is rigged in my favor and that woman's been through everything I mean it's public that she's been through a divorce and her husband left her for another man she's had health issues she's had partners rip her off and she's like every single breakdown in my life i have chosen

to interpret it as rigged in my favor yes think about how powerful that like it's set up for me it's just a perception and i think trusting the process is trusting that even though right now it's dark trust is going to get light even though right now we're in a pandemic trust we're going to get to the other side even though right now your health isn't a challenge trust it will become better because it's at the end of the day it's transforming fear into faith. Fear is the expectation of everything bad that could happen. Faith is the knowing that everything's going to turn out beautiful.

I call it the Peter Pan principle. You know what that is? The Peter Pan principle, Peter Pan was, if you ever saw the movie Hook or any of the incarnations of Peter Pan, there was a scene, at least in Hook, where Peter Pan was trying to fly and Peter Pan kept crashing and getting frustrated and in total breakdown. And his life coach, Tinkerbell, which was Julia Roberts, flies into his ear and goes, Peter, what's the problem? And Peter's like, I want to fly. And Tinkerbell says to peter well that's easy if you want to fly think happy thoughts and peter shifted his mindset and started thinking happy thoughts and before you know it he's flying

and as human beings you want to be happy think happy thoughts because no one can make you think anything you don't choose to think so i know it's not easy. I know it takes practice, but it takes support. But this at least makes it a simple step-by-step process that people can follow. And I think trusting the process is a great mantra to have. Backing it with these steps, action, responsibility, accountability, you can't just say, I trust it's all gonna work out, I'm gonna sit here.

It's the action steps. But you know what, at the end of the day you got to have faith yeah you know and faith is the one thing i mean look when i i remember studying man's search for meaning victor frankl and a concentration camp he goes the only thing that kept people alive was faith yeah was having some meaning on the other side like a reason to live and i think that you know they could take everything away from you but not the power you have to have faith and to choose. And to think positively or create a story of a positive event that could happen, not the negative things we think about all the time.

And surround yourself with positive people. That's so important. It's huge. And if you can't have everyone positive around you, then take responsibility. This is amazing, Chris. You're on Instagram, Chris Lee Motivator. Yes. You've got a book out, a great book, Abundance and Prosperity.

Transform Your Life, 10 Principles of Abundance and Prosperity, forward by Lewis Howes. Yes, you can get the book on Amazon. You do workshops all around the world. Where can they learn more about a workshop that you might go to? Just on Instagram or my Facebook page, Chris Lee, Motivational Trainer. Okay, cool. So follow you there. Get your book.

Go check out this man at a workshop. He'll change your life as he changed my life many times over. Always grateful that you're here. I acknowledge you for being an incredible gift to so many people. So many people love you when you come on here. So we're very grateful that you're here I acknowledge you for being an incredible gift to so many people so many people love you when you come on here so we're very grateful for you and this is gonna help a lot of people who are dealing with massive breakdown right now so thank you for clearing it up making it easy for us to understand and I love you and appreciate you I love you I appreciate you and I love your audience I mean I get messages from your audience

every week they love you and it's great to be here and I love your audience. I mean, I get messages from your audience every week. They love you. And it's great to be here. And I am excited about 2021. It's around the corner. Everyone's excited. So this is amazing. Thank you, Chris.

Appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you, my friend, so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, make sure to spread the message of greatness forward by sharing it with a friend, lewishouse.com slash 1049. Or just copy and paste this link wherever you're listening to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any podcast app you're listening to and share it with a friend there as well. Make sure to check us out on YouTube. Subscribe.

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And in a time where so many people hate themselves and don't choose to love themselves first, I think it's one of the greatest gifts you can give to the world is by truly learning to love yourself and fill your cup up first, so you have more to give to other people around you. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately more to give to other people around you. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that I'm super grateful for you and you are loved, you are worthy and you matter. And you know what time it is? It's time to go out there and do something great.