The School of Greatness - 325 The Prize and the Process

Episode Date: May 6, 2016

"The process is the only way to get to the prize." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/325

This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 325, The Prize and the Process. What's up, everyone? So the other day I was watching a video by my friend Eric Thomas, the hip-hop preacher who I've had on the podcast, and he was speaking to a group of college football players. And he was talking about the prize and the process. And I loved this. I love this analogy. He said, you know, so many people in the world are focused on the prize.

They want the prize and they want it right now, especially millennials. They're focused on the prize. I want to make money. I want to achieve my career goal. I want to be the head of marketing and I want to start at the bottom. I want to be at the top once I get out of college or I've already had 20 years of experience and I should just have the top experience right now. I should just have the top credentials. I should be making the money that I want to make. I should have the relationship I want to make. I should have the

health I want to have right now. I should be at the exact weight that I want to be at. People are focusing on the prize. And this is something that I love because the process is the only way that's going to get you to the prize. But so many people want to skip the process. They want to skip the pain. And I'm telling you, in order to achieve the prize, the weight goal you want, the health you want, the relationship you want, the inner peace that you're looking for in your life. Maybe some of you have it all, but you're inside, you're feeling so much stress and so much turmoil and so much uncertainty and you're unfulfilled and you're wondering why, why am I unfulfilled right now?

Why am I achieving everything I want? I look great. You know, I've got the six pack, I've got all the money I want, but man, I just feel unfulfilled. I don't know what the point is. And no matter what spectrum you're on, you've got to experience the pain in order to achieve the prize. The pain is all part of that process. Now this could be 10 years, 20 years of putting in the experience to mastering

the skill, to going through the peaks and the valleys. You know, we've got to learn something first. And in that learning process, we need to master it. We need to master it and fully immerse ourselves. And we're not going to be great at it when we first start out. So there's going to be a period of the process. We've got to learn, grow, make mistakes, get feedback, learn, grow, make mistakes, get feedback, learn, grow, take massive action, get some results, and then get more feedback to get to the next level.

That process is going to create and cause so much pain in you. And that's why I talk about in my book, you know, the importance of experiencing something every single day that creates pain, that allows you to feel pain. Now, I'm not saying you should go and break your leg or something to feel that type of pain, but I'm talking about pushing your mind, your emotions, your body to the limit every single day. You know, this morning I got up and I'm training for the U.S. National Championships for Team Handball right now. It's a week away. And I got up and I ran 10 kill sprints.

And literally at the end, I was on the ground on my back, could barely breathe. My chest, I felt like I was going to throw up. My chest was in so much pain from the amount of pressure and the amount of oxygen that I wasn't breathing. And for me, it was just this moment of this really sucks. I don't want to do this. This is miserable in some senses. Now, listen, five minutes later, I was fine. I was able to give up.

I was able to breathe. And I'm fine today. I'm fine the rest of the day. But I experienced a certain amount of pain that is part of the process for me to be ready in a week from now to be in shape, to be conditioned so that I can go six games, full-time games, and be ready to go full speed and not be lagging behind. If I didn't put in the pain, if I didn't experience the pain in the process to getting there, I would not be able to set myself up for the prize of going to the championship and winning a championship. I would go there out of shape, exhausted, making mistakes because I didn't experience pain and I didn't go through the

process of getting to the top. And so many people miss this. They want the easy fix. They want the quick advice. I get so many people emailing me, calling me, asking me questions. Can you give me advice? Can you tell me what to do? Can you tell me how to do it?

I'm telling you, there is no real secret to achieving anything you want. The secret is putting in pain every single day. It doesn't mean all day you need to be in pain, but experiencing some pain every single day that could be learning something new could be painful because you already have a certain wealth of knowledge and learning something new. It causes you to say, Oh, I don't know how to do this. That's painful. So I need to learn it. I need to master it. And then I need to take action, execute, executing on something, putting something out there, a product, an idea, uh, and a conference and events, coaching, putting your, your next idea out there is painful.

And that's why so many people wait. They wait six months because they analyze the design of the logo. They analyze the whole process. They need to make it look perfect and they're not willing to experience the pain and just put it out there. So today guys, I want you to commit to experiencing pain on a consistent basis and the pain that is going to open you up and move you forward in a process that is going to help you achieve your prize, whatever that prize looks like for you. But you've got to be willing to put in the pain over a period of time, the process, in order to achieve your prize. The process is what fulfills us more than anything. It's actually not the prize.

If we got the prize every single day, it was just given to us without putting in any of the pain, then it wouldn't be worth it. You know, it's the journey. This is a cliche, but it's really the journey that we get to fall in love with. If we're constantly just making money by doing nothing and achieving everything we want and have a perfect body by doing nothing, by just showing up and being lazy all day, that's not rewarding. That's not fulfilling.

You know, the process, the growth, those who learn and grow are the most fulfilled. Those who stay stagnant and stop growing slowly start to die. So experience pain every day by committing to the process. And you know what? You may never achieve the actual prize that you want, but that journey, you're going to learn so much along the way in that process, that that's going to be the prize. That's going to be the daily, daily putting in the work, the habits that you form, the people you meet, the experiences, the lessons you learn, that will be the prize over time. And the actual prize of achieving the end goal is a nice little

cherry on top, but it's not everything, guys. I've achieved so many things in my life and been completely unfulfilled because I wasn't going about it the right way and in a fulfilling way. So I hope you guys enjoyed this five-minute Friday about the process and the prize. I appreciate all of you who have been loyal listeners. Again, we do podcasts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and we've got a lot of great interviews we've done already this year and some incredible guests coming on in the near future. And my job for this podcast is really to facilitate some incredible conversations for you and to bring on people that don't necessarily go on other podcasts. My goal is to continue to differentiate this podcast from any other platform online, from any other show or podcast

or video show out there, and to really curate something special and unique for you. And I hope you guys have experienced that, and I hope you continue to come back because you know that you're going to get something great here at the School of Greatness podcast. Again, this is not the school of average. This is the School of Greatness, and that's why I'm very particular with each guest I bring on each topic I talk about. And every time I put something out, I will not put a guest on here that I don't feel is up to a level of greatness in regards to what I want to put out there into the world. So I appreciate you guys. If you enjoyed this, let me know. Send me a tweet over on Twitter or let me know over on Instagram at Lewis Howes.

I love you guys. I appreciate you. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Bye.