The School of Greatness - 248 The Trap of the Good Life

Episode Date: November 2, 2015

"We settle for good and don't go for greatness." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/248

This is episode number 248 and it's all about the trap of the good life. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. This is still Greatness Week. We are one more day until the first seven days of the launch of the School of Greatness book is complete and I have some exciting news. Before we dive into this episode, yesterday was a huge day. Why? The launch of the School of Greatness book is complete, and I have some exciting news. Before we dive into this episode, yesterday was a huge day. Why?

Because some big things happened. We were on Fox & Friends in the morning yesterday, early, that went out to 2 million people. Did about a four-minute segment with my friend Clayton Morris on Fox & Friends. Chalene Johnson did a big promotion to her audience. Big shout-out to Chalene. Neil Strauss did a big promo. A few other people were promoting it out. My mom did a video on Facebook that got 20,000 views and people went crazy for, and everyone bought a ton of books because of these things. And we were at number 50 the night before overall in the world on Amazon. And we were at number 50 the night before overall in the world on Amazon.

And then after that surge, we got up to 11 when I woke up in the morning. And then within about an hour, we broke the top 10 in the world of books and sales. All of you guys who stepped up, thank you so much. A lot of you were buying five books, 10 books, 20 books, two books, three books. You were doing everything to step up. And we're still hovering in the 20s right now, looking to break that top 10 spot again. So if you guys haven't bought a book yet, if you've been listening to this for a while, if this is your first time or it's your 250th time listening, make sure to go to lewishouse.com slash book and pick up a book to support the initial launch week of the book.

You guys have been incredible and I appreciate you so much. I was at my launch party in Columbus tonight and a guy said a question that really was interesting to me. And before I go into that question, I'm going to be doing a tour in Cleveland this week, in Denver, in Montreal as well this week. So if you are in any of those cities or nearby, make sure to come and say hello. I'll be signing books, saying hi, speaking, all those things. Go to lewishouse.com slash events in RSVP in the city near you. Now, this guy asked this question. He said, I have a really good life.

It's really, really good. I've got a good job. I've got good marriage, good family a really good life. It's really, really good. I've got a good job. I've got good marriage, good family, making good money. I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing. And I said, before he even finished, I said, you're the one who screwed the most. You know, the one who's got all the challenges in the world, the one who's got, who's down and out, the ones in transition, who's not sure what's next. Those are the ones who I feel like have the ones in transition, who's not sure what's next, those are the ones who I feel like it's easy to gain because you already have nothing to lose.

You're already down and out. Your back's against the wall. You have nothing really to show at the moment. It's easy to gain from there and get clarity of where you want to get to, where you want to go next. When you're in that situation, in that transition, in that identity crisis stage, that confusion, that adversity, it's easy. It's when things are going really, really good, that's when you're screwed. That's when you're trapped because we settle for good.

A lot of people settle for really, really good. And we never go for greatness. And this book was not called the school of being really, really good. It's the school of greatness. And I'll tell you what, this is possibly the most courageous thing you can do is to let go of something incredibly good so that you can strive for something magical and great. Here's why it's a challenge. Because when you've already got things that are going really good, it's hard to leave. Because you're comfortable, you're making the money, and you're really stuck in that comfort zone. And great things never come from comfort zones.

They never come from there. You might have a good life. You might be happy and good and things like that, but you're never fully expressing what your heart desires. If you're working for a company that is good and good money and it's protective and it's keeping you safe and it's paying for your family and making sure your kids are good, that's good and all, but are you tapping into the juice of life?

Are you getting every ounce out of your life's existence? Because we only get one chance at this that we're aware of. We only get one chance at this, and that's the person who gets trapped. It's really comfortable. It's really comfortable. It's good. And then they never go after what their desire is. They never go after their full passion. They never reach for it. They never risk for it enough because they've settled for good. And I'm going to challenge you guys.

I'm not saying quit everything you're doing right now and go for your dreams with abandon. I'm saying to take a look at your life right now and ask yourself, are you on the path? If everything's not going great for you right now, that's okay. As long as you're on the path and you're on the journey and you're in the pursuit of the greatness, you're in the pursuit of discovering and tapping into and drinking up the juice of all the great flavors you can taste. If you're in the pursuit of it, but you haven't yet achieved it, that's okay.

Because there's always going to be another milestone. There's always going to be something greater to achieve. But if you're not on the path of it and you're not in the pursuit of it, then you're going to be trapped in that good life. And the good life, it sounds tasty and yummy. And yeah, I want to have a piece of that, but I'm telling you what, it's one chance, one life to make an impact, to make a mark, to leave a legacy. It's hard to leave a legacy when you're just living good and you're not risking anything.

and you're not risking anything. No one in history that I'm aware of left a massive legacy by living a good life, by not risking anything. They risked it. And here's the thing. I talked to this guy afterwards at my event tonight in Columbus. I said, listen, you've got everything going for you. You've got a lot of good things happening.

What if you left it all and actually risked for something extraordinary in your life? What if you risked it all and everything blew up in your face? You failed miserably. You couldn't do it. You spent a few years trying and you risked it all and you failed and you fell on your face. What's the worst thing that could happen? The worst thing that can happen is you probably get back to where you're at in your life right now. You could probably get back to the job you have. You could probably get back to the finance you're making. You could probably get back to living the good life you were once living before. And maybe it takes six to 12 months to get there, but you could get back there. Kunijun, he said, absolutely, I could get back here. This is easy. This is my comfort zone. This is what I'm comfortable in. So I could easily get back to this place. So I said, wouldn't it be great to at least go for it one time and say, you know what? I have

no regrets. At least, at least I can look back in my life and say, I went for my dreams. I went for it. I risked for it and it didn't happen, but at least I went for it and I can feel great about going for it. So I want you guys to think about today. I want you to evaluate and ask yourself this question. Am I giving 100% towards my vision for my dreams in an extraordinary life, business, relationship in this moment? Am I going for it? Or am I settling for something that's really comfortable and good? And again, maybe you guys want to settle for something really comfortable and good.

I'm not saying that's bad. I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just saying that it's hard to leave a legacy by being just good and not risking. It's those that are willing to risk are the ones that make the biggest impact on the maximum amount of people around them. And for me, greatness is about discovering and cultivating our unique gifts and talents we were born with to pursue our dreams and make the maximum impact around us. I hope you guys enjoyed this mini episode today. Not a five-minute Friday, not a full solo round,

but this is Greatness Week, so I'm doing things a little bit differently this week. We're going to have more episodes and interviews coming up in the following week, but I'm going in. I'm deep. I'm in preacher mode this week. This is Greatness 2.0 week. I'm on literally like three hours of sleep a night.

I am so fueled by my vision that it's been so challenging to sleep. And again, during the playoffs, it's important to take care of ourselves. But sometimes there's a few days where you just got to do whatever it takes to show up in a powerful way and let your vision fuel you forward. And for me, this week has been incredible. fuel you forward. And for me, this week has been incredible. I've been so blessed and grateful for all the people stepping up and supporting for everyone promoting. And the promotion keeps coming and coming the press I'm getting people mailing to the newsletters, all the podcasts I've been featured on, I feel like the luckiest kid in the world right now. And I'm so so grateful to be living my dream of vision I had had eight years ago that's now coming true,

coming full circle. And in a day or two, we're going to find out whether we collectively make the New York Times bestseller list, which will be a fun mark to make as well for me and for the community. So I'm going to let you guys know. I'm going to keep you guys in the loop and make sure to follow me online on Instagram and on Twitter and Facebook at Lewis Howes because I'm posting everything there about what's happening during the launch and what's going to be happening with the list. So if you haven't bought a copy yet, make sure to go to lewishowes.com slash book and buy a few copies right now. Get one for yourself and a few for your friends. Let me know when you get one and just tweet me with your receipt so I can check it out and thank you. And check out lewishouse.com slash events to see me on the road for the next five to six weeks because I want to see you and hug you and high five you and listen to you and

hear about all the incredible things you're up to in your life. So thank you so much. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.