The School of Greatness - 307 You Were Born to Overcome

Episode Date: March 24, 2016

"Think of your failures as the greatest teachers in the world." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/307

5-Minute Friday, episode number 307. You were born to overcome obstacles. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. Maya Angelou said that. And there have been a lot of people lately who've been talking about the stresses of

life, the obstacles of life, the defeats that they're going through, the challenges, the failures they're having. And I'm telling you, you've got to embrace all of this messiness that comes to your life whenever it happens. Tim Story, someone I brought on recently for the podcast said, you must turn your mess into your message if you want to be great. If you want to be great, you've got to turn your mess into your message. You know, adversity is one of our greatest teachers.

We learn the most about ourselves. We learn who we really are in moments of adversity. I welcome the adversity. I love the challenge because it allows me to separate myself from others who are unwilling to get messy. It allows me to show others what I'm made of. It allows me to show myself what I'm made of, what I was born to do. We were born to do great things.

We were born to make, to create, to love, to ignite, to excel, to accelerate, to inspire. But somewhere along the way, we lose this passion. We lose the gift inside of us. We lose it to the failures that come at us. Time after time, we get hit. Things frustrate us. Things happen that don't go our way. And some people take that as losses in our lives. Some people take that as we are losing. I take that as lessons. Don't take these failures as losses and that you're a loser. Take them as lessons to inspire and move you forward to be your greatest teacher so that you can learn, grow, expand, and explore how to navigate this incredible world that we live in

to do what you were born to do. These are our teachers. If you want to be great, you've got to enter the school of greatness. Think of your failures as the greatest teachers in the world showing you exactly the lesson plan of what you need to do to overcome this failure so that you can achieve what you were born to do. That doesn't mean you have to be a billionaire or end cancer or solve all the world's problems, but being great could mean being the best mother to your children, being the best child to your parents and to your family. Being the best athlete on your sports team.

Being the best student. Doing whatever it is to make the most of the unique gifts and talents you were born with. You're here to discover what your talents are. You're here to discover what your dreams are. And then it's your duty and responsibility to walk through life moment by moment to pursue that passion and that dream inside of you. And along the way, you're going to inspire others in that pursuit. You know, Terry Goodkind said, if the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way. That's right.

If you feel like everything is good, everything is easy, you've got it all figured out, there's no challenges in your way, then you're probably going the wrong way. I'm not saying you should be looking for challenges and trying to fail constantly, but I'm saying that you should be taking some risks in your life. You should be stepping out and reaching out on the skinny branches of life. Don't take it the safe route all the time. You're not going to achieve anything great playing it safe. Mary Tyler Moore said, You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you. What an incredible concept that in order to express and showcase courage, we need to have

something challenging happen for us to be able to show up with courage in that process. Just think about that for a moment. When was the last time you were courageous? When was the last time you had a challenge or adversity in your life? Maybe you're going through it right now and you've been shying back from it. You've been hiding from it. You haven't allowed your heart to sing and you've been keeping your voice locked inside of you. I want you to take a moment right now and stand a little taller. Stick your chest out a little bit more. Stretch your arms out and say, now is the time. I'm ready to step forward. I'm ready to share my voice, to express myself, to move past this pain. I'm ready to turn my mess into my message.

I hope you guys enjoyed this very special 5-Minute Friday. My name is Lewis Howes. If this is your first time here, thank you so much for joining. We do these type of inspiring messages every single Friday. And every Monday and Wednesday, we release a new interview with someone inspiring who's creating something magical in this world. I believe we're all here to create some type of magic. We're all born to do something great. And greatness is different for every individual.

Think about what your definition of greatness is. Think about it right now inside. You can either say it out loud. You can think it internally. Whatever it is, take a moment. What does greatness mean to you? Is it shying in the face of adversity? Or is it expressing courage when adversity hits you?

I love you guys. Again, if this is your first time here, please subscribe to the podcast over on iTunes and Stitcher. And if you enjoyed this powerful message, then share this with your friends. Post it on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn. Tag me on Instagram. Snapchat me, Lewis Howes everywhere. I want to hear what you guys think of this. Please share it out.

I want you to be great. I want you to have the tools and the information to overcome any challenges you have. I want you to be able to step into your greatness every single moment because you were born for greatness. It's inside of you, and I believe in you, and I got your back. Thanks again for being here. I love you very much.

You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Thank you.