The School of Greatness - 298 The Power of Perspective with Steve Weatherford

Episode Date: March 3, 2016

"You can get over and around adversity, but you can't let it stop you." - Steve Weatherford If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/298

This is 5-Minute Friday! Hey guys, this is Steve Weatherford, philanthropist, 10-year NFL veteran, Super Bowl champion, fitness enthusiast, and this is 5-Minute Friday. Today, I wanted to share with you guys the greatest tool that I have acquired and developed over my life. It has enabled me to achieve things in my life that I never dreamed that I could achieve. It's helped me to handle adversity. It's helped me to find true and long-lasting happiness. And it's also allowed me the ability to defy the improbable. It's perspective. And I'm just going to give you a quick story in my life, how I have used perspective to achieve

things nobody thought that I could achieve. We'll go back to 1996. I'm a freshman in high school. I'm 5'7". I'm 108 pounds. And I've always been a relatively athletic kid. But I lack the elite size and strength to compete at an elite level. And at that point in my life, I could have used perspective to accept the fact that, you know what, I'll probably never play college football. And I'll certainly never play college football, and I'll certainly never play at a professional level, but I used perspective at that juncture of my life to not view the current situation of being undersized as something that was going to stop me from

achieving my greatness. I used it as a motivator to push me to change that thing about my body and about my ability so I had the opportunity to play on the varsity basketball and football team and possibly maybe even have the opportunity to play in college. So what I ended up doing was going to the library and empowering myself with the knowledge of nutrition and training modalities that I could apply into my own life. And I grew from 5'7 to 6'3 and 108 pounds to 220 pounds when I graduated from high school. I played four sports. I was All-State in all four.

I was an All-American in two. I enabled myself the opportunity to get a scholarship to the University of Illinois and then the opportunity to play professionally for 10 years, live out my dream, win a Super Bowl, and the only thing I did was use the tool of perspective to motivate me and instead of stopping me. Perspective allows you to control your ability to view every situation in your life. I said to myself at 14, I can do this.

I can achieve this. I can overcome this. Instead of dwelling or accepting all of the things in my life that I couldn't control, I took the leap of faith. For all of you, I encourage you to write a list of reasons why you can do something and not dwell on what you can't do or what you can't control. All of the successful mentors in my life that I've had, whether they're Tom Coughlin, 25-year NFL head coach, two-time Super Bowl NFL head coach, Michael Strahan, Hall of Fame NFL

player, or Donald Trump, a guy that's mentored me financially, they all have the common denominator, the commonality that they feel like they just can't lose. They all have an optimistic perspective. They, in their life, they acknowledge the negative and the things that could happen, but they don't dwell on them. To all of you out there listening, the only thing I ask of you, the way to use perspective is to view your life and your adversity as an opportunity and a challenge to propel you forward. Don't view it as a dead end or an obstacle. You can get over it, you can get around it, but you can't let it stop you. For any questions, comments, concerns, guys, get at me on Twitter, on Instagram, on Snapchat, on Facebook, at Weatherford5, or Facebook is Steve Weatherford.

Lewis, thank you so much for having me on the School of Greatness, Friday 5-Minute. I want everybody to go out there and achieve greatness because it's in every single one of you and it comes down to one thing, guys. Perspective. We'll talk soon. Thank you. you