The School of Greatness - 135 How to Achieve Your Dreams (and getting started)

Episode Date: February 6, 2015

"Talk is cheap. Action is what really matters." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video and show notes at www.lewishowes.com/135.

This is 5-Minute Friday! What's up guys, Lewis Howes here today. I'm very excited to talk all about how to get started with your dream. Everyone's got a dream. I've always had big dreams my entire life. And one of my big dreams was to be an Olympic athlete. Now, it's pretty big. I know it's a big dream to have because not too many people get to achieve that. But after I was done playing professional football, I got injured, and I knew that I still wanted to be competitive. I

knew I still wanted to strive for greatness as an athlete. And right when I was recovering from my injury as a football player, I was watching the 2008 Olympics. And there was a sport that came on in the Olympics that I'd never seen before, and it just mesmerized me. It was so magnetic and explosive and inspiring that I had to figure out how I could start playing it. The sport was called team handball. It's a big sport in Europe, pretty much unknown in the United States, unless you play middle school PE, then sometimes I play it in middle school. For me, I was automatically so inspired and attracted to the sport. And I got upset. I said, how come I never seen this before? I would have

played this early on had I known it was even available. But I knew then that I had to chase my dream. I had to go after it or else I would always be regretting that I didn't at least go for it. So I just want to give an example about my story and what I did to get on the path of achieving my dream. I was sleeping on my sister's couch in Columbus, Ohio. And I didn't have a job. I didn't have a business at this time. I was just starting out. And there was no team in Ohio that I could play for to learn this sport. So I did some research online first. The first thing is you got to research how to achieve your dream. I knew that I needed to play and learn from the

best. I wanted to be the best. I had to learn from the best. And I saw that New York City handball club, the amateur club in the United States, had won the national championship for a few years prior. So I said, when I get enough money, I'm going to move to New York City and I'm going to learn from the best. These guys were the best in the country. So that's what I did. My goal was to make enough money to, one, get off my sister's couch and feel like I could live on my own. Once I had enough money in my business, then I said, now it's the time to take the leap. It was really scary for me to move from Columbus, Ohio, where I was comfortable. I had my friends, my family was there. It was very intimidating to move to a bigger city where I didn't really know that many people.

But I knew my dream. My dream was to be in the Olympics and to compete for the United States of America and wear USA across my chest. It just gave me chills when I thought about it. And I made enough money. So I eventually took the leap and moved to New York City. No one would pick up my calls or respond to my emails on the New York City team. But I said, I'm not going to let this stop me. I'm going after it no matter what. So I showed up to practice and I said, hey guys, this is my dream to be an Olympian and to make the USA national team for team handball. They all kind of laughed at me because I had never played before and they all didn't believe that I was gonna be able to make it, but I stuck it out and I worked my butt off. So the second part of achieving your dream, the first would be doing the research and learning from the best.

The second would be being committed and doing whatever it takes to achieve that dream. And that's definitely what I did and I'm still on the path of doing. So I was committed. I went to practice every single practice. I got there early. I got to know the players. I learned from the best and I was committed. I did whatever it took. I trained when there wasn't practice to get ready. And that's

what I had to do. I had to be committed. I got to be committed in order to be on the path to achieving my dream. Now, nine months later, there's a tryout for the USA national team. And it's during the USA national championships. And I'm playing with the New York City team. And I'm still not that great of a player. I've got a lot of weaknesses. I don't know the game that well. My ego is getting in the way. I'm still getting upset during certain things during the game.

But I knew what my strengths were. And I played to my strengths. I knew that I was one of the fastest, strongest guys on the court, that I had the most hustle and I was willing to hustle more than anyone else. And that was my strength. It was also building relationships with people who were the decision makers. So I got to know all the people who decided who was on the team. I reached out to them. I told them what I was up to, how dedicated I was to being on the team, what I was willing to sacrifice to be on the team to represent the United States. So I connected with them on a personal level and showed them my commitment. Told them I was willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen and that I had

done whatever it took to make it happen up until this point. I left my hometown. I moved to be with the best team. I've been practicing non-stop. I left my hometown. I moved to be with the best team. I've been practicing nonstop. I've been studying, researching how to become better. And I did whatever it took to get there. So I made the USA national team after that. I was the 16th man on the 16 spot team. So again, I wasn't the best, but I was on the team.

That was one step closer to achieving my goal of being in the Olympics. We did not qualify in the Olympics. We did not qualify for the Olympics, however, I'm still on the path every four years of achieving my goal. And as long as I'm healthy, as long as I'm active, as long as I continue to improve myself, then I know I have an opportunity and a chance to achieve my dream. My next step was I knew that I wanted to be a professional handball player at some time and play in Europe. And since Spain was the world champions, I said, that's where I want to go. I

want to go to Spain and play with the top team in Spain and learn from some of the best players. Because if I really want to step it up, I got to be playing with guys who've been playing their whole life, playing every single day, that are playing against great competition in the world right now. So what did I do? When I first got to the club in New York City, I started putting it out there. I started saying, this is what I want to do. I want to go play in Spain someday. I want to go play in Europe. I want to be a professional handball player and I want to play with a top team. I had no clue how I was going to make it happen. I don't speak Spanish. And I wasn't sure how it would happen, but I knew that was my intention. That was my goal. And as long as I was true on my attention and on my goal, then it didn't matter the mechanism for how it was going to happen.

I was telling everyone on the team this, that that was my goal. That was my dream. And one of the newer players that came on the team, his name is Christoph, I told him, you know, I really want to go play in Spain. This is my goal, that was my dream. And one of the newer players that came on the team, his name was Christoph, I told him, you know, I really want to go play in Spain. This is my goal, my dream. He said, I want to support you. I really like what you're up to. So he made some emails and some calls for me and reached out to some of his former teammates who used to play in Spain. Long story short, connected me with a coach in Spain

for one of the top teams, Ademar Leon, and I ended up having the opportunity to go play there. The coach said, come on over and you can play sometime. You can play as long as you want and practice with the team. And again, I had no clue what to expect. I was intimidated and a little fearful of going over there. No one spoke English. I had a translator with the coach. None of the players spoke English. And I'd never been to Spain. And these are guys who were way better than me. And I was just this American

and only played for a couple of years. But I said, I'm going to regret this if I don't go after it. This has been my dream. This has been my goal. This is what I've been talking about. Talk is cheap. Action is what really matters.

And so when I had the opportunity, I jumped on it. I bought a flight and went to Spain two weeks later and spent two weeks with one of the top teams in Spain, in a city called Leon. And I had an amazing experience. I got to practice twice a day with the team, learn from the players, learn from a great coach. I got to play in a professional handball game.

I got my first goal. All my dreams started to be happening and they started to be achieved because I was willing to do whatever it took. I was dedicated and committed to taking action and sacrificing anything else to make it happen. And it was that commitment and dedication that allowed me to start achieving part of my dream. Now, again, my dream is still to play in the Olympics, and I have not achieved that, but it's been an amazing journey. It's been a few years now since I started, since I first had this dream, and I've had great experiences, relationships, memories

along the way. I've had some injuries as well. I've pulled my groin. I've busted up my elbow, my face. I've had some pain points, but it's going to be a challenging road up and down in order to achieve your dream. The bigger the dream, the bigger the challenge as well. So I just wanted to share this with you guys really quick and let you know that any dream is possible. I think Walt Disney said, if you can dream it, you can achieve it. And I think it's completely true. It's just a matter of the action plan and the commitment level that you're dedicated to in order to achieving that dream. So I hope you guys enjoyed this quick little story today about my dreams and learning about

kind of how I feel and act when I have a dream. And in the comments section below, go ahead and share with me your big dream. What's something that you want to achieve right now? What's something that maybe you've been dreaming about as a kid that you haven't taken action on yet? Why haven't you taken action on it? What is it you're really afraid of? And go ahead and lay out a couple action points of what you're going to do moving forward

in order to start the process of achieving that dream. So again, just post in the comments section below. I'd love to hear what your dream is. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll see you guys soon.