The School of Greatness - 36 Chris Lee: Envisioning your Dreams with the Greatness Transformation Coach

Episode Date: October 23, 2013

Emotional intelligence is the most important ingredient when achieving greatness. In this episode of The School of Greatness we are laser focusing on the mindset that cultivates a powerful being. Being the powerful person of your vision is the fastest path to the results in your business, relationship or health. Our guest in this episode was my leadership coach who I met just about six months ago. He has changed my life and I'm so grateful to bring you the motivator, Chris Lee.

This is episode number 36 with transformation coach, Chris Lee. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Thanks so much, guys, for tuning in today.

I really appreciate it. And we are here in the LA studio with my good friend, Chris Lee. Now, I met Chris about four or five months ago as I went through a leadership workshop on emotional intelligence, and he was one of the coaches and the trainers there. And I had some amazing experiences with Chris. He really allowed me to open up to realize what was holding me back from getting what I want in my life, but also what was holding my heart back. And I had felt some anxiety, some stress, some anger, resentment from time to time growing

up and in college and even in business for the last five years, I'd felt these feelings and I didn't know how to fully let them all go. I'd felt these feelings and I didn't know how to fully let them all go. And it wasn't until I met Chris and he put me through some exercises that really allowed me to become vulnerable, to become open, to become loving. And he taught me how to forgive others and most importantly, forgive myself. Now, I don't know how many of you are really good at beating yourselves up if you feel like you fail at something or if you feel like you hurt someone or lie or whatever it may be. I know that I was the king of beating myself up and I'm sure that a lot of us are our own

biggest critics. This episode can be one of the most powerful next 60 minutes if you allow it to be because Chris is going to share some amazing things about managing your emotions, understanding how to unlock your greatest potential without beating yourself up, how to let go of things that don't matter, really how to understand and recognize your ego. And really a lot of the things that are holding us back or that was holding me back was my ego. And I realized that it was fueling a lot of my success was my ego and this anger that I had for a long time. It was fueling my passion for what I wanted to create, but it was leaving me with a very empty feeling inside.

And it was leaving me with a feeling of uncertainty. And when I went through this experience with Chris and really learned how to develop these skills because it is a skill to learn how to understand yourself, manage your own emotions and recognize what your vision and purpose is for your business, for your family, for your life, what type of legacy you want to leave, then you can start to develop a different pattern for yourself. And I'm very excited for Chris to open up and share exactly what you can do to unleash your inner greatness and unleash your maximum potential.

And he's going to walk through a number of different strategies and processes and steps on how to get out of breakdown. Let's say you're in a breakdown and you're not sure how to get out of it. He's going to show you how to be aware of it and get out of it and move past it and move towards your results and your goals. So I was going to talk about how important connection is in getting anything you want in life, in making millions, having the husband or the wife of your dreams, building this amazing relationship, having this amazing community. It's all about connection. He's going to talk about a lot of things on this episode.

It's one of my favorite interviews so far because it really goes deep into understanding yourself. And once we can master ourselves, I believe we can master anything. So I'm very excited about this. And also, there's going to be one point in this interview where we're going to ask you to pause whatever you're doing. So if you're in the car, if you're working out, wherever you are, we're going to ask you to pause and take a moment to go through a simple exercise for a couple of minutes. So you'll want to find a quiet place or a place that you can really pause to do this exercise yourself.

It's going to be very powerful if you allow it to be. And if you are running right now, if you're in the car off to work or doing whatever you're doing and you don't have a moment to pause, that's okay. I just want you to be aware of it so you can recognize it when it comes up and then use it and do it later when you do have a few moments. So be aware of that. This is going to be a very exciting podcast and I'm very pumped to introduce you to Chris Lee. So without further ado, I'm very excited for you to experience this amazing episode with Mr. Chris Lee. What is up, everyone?

Thanks so much for coming back on the School of Greatness. I am super pumped today. I've got my good friend Chris Lee in LA in the studio. How's it going, Chris? It's going great. I'm excited to be here. I'm very excited because I met Chris about four months ago, I believe it was, when I decided to continue to increase my education about leadership and emotional intelligence. And I went to a specific training where Chris was my coach, and he was the trainer for the weekend. And it was probably the most powerful five days of my life combined. I've had many powerful moments, but together learning about myself and creating self-awareness, it was one of the most powerful moments, but together learning about myself and creating self-awareness is one of the most powerful experiences, one of the most vulnerable experiences that really

cracked me open. Moving, moving. Very moving for me. So I'm extremely excited to have Chris here and talk about what he's been doing for 27 years now. 27 years. 27 years of teaching people about leadership, managing emotions, how to become a top performer in your business, in your life, how to have an amazing relationship with your

family, your friends, loved ones, community, and how to leave a legacy. That's what I would say you really teach people is how to leave a legacy. Absolutely. I've spent 27 years pretty much globetrotting and traveling all over the planet. And I've had the privilege really to be a vehicle for people to discover themselves and beyond discover themselves, discover tools that allow them to handle situations that normally they would react to instead of being reactive, proactive and then what happens is that it increases their effectiveness and it increases their productivity at the end it increases the level of the results results and a lot of people you know we grow up learning certain patterns correct our through our parents through our friends through school through whatever it may be,

we learn certain patterns through what people say on the news. And we start to think a certain way. And those thoughts turn into actions, turn into beliefs, whether powerful beliefs or limiting beliefs. And a lot of people get stuck in this negative victim mindset. Correct. That holds them back from achieving what they want. They may have these goals and these dreams,

but they don't know how to get them because they're stuck in this limiting mindset. Or they actually get to the goals and dreams, but the mindset sabotages what they already have. And so what you're talking about are limiting beliefs. And so what happens is we're like a computer, we're like a hard drive on a computer that starts getting programmed all these limiting beliefs and all these limiting

attitudes and these limiting conversations that become part of our reality. And we start navigating through life with this GPS system that's broken. And we wonder why we get lost. And so our beliefs are like a GPS system that navigates us through life. And then what happens is that we find ourselves repeating the same patterns, producing the same results, which Einstein called insanity, which is repeating the same thing over and over and over, expecting a different result. And so what we tend to do is instead of evaluate ourselves, we tend to go at it harder and faster. And what we do is we actually increase the level of breakdown. Anxiety.

Anxiety and stress. Instead of taking the time to evaluate how am I wired up? How am I thinking? What are my belief structures that are leading me to these decisions that lead me to the results? The results you produce in your life are a result directly of the actions you take or that you don't take. But the actions you take or don't take are a direct result of the decisions you make or the decisions you don't make, which is a decision itself. And the decisions come from the belief systems because that's the hard drive. That's the motor. And what I do is I support people in uncovering and redesigning their beliefs.

So why don't we as humans in general, why aren't we aware, say we're in our mid-20s or 30s or 40s or 50s, how come we're not aware of it ourselves? So how come we don't look inside and be like, I'm always in breakdown, I'm always a victim. How come we don't discover that ourselves? Maybe some of us do, but how come in general? Mostly we don't. I mean, there's some things you can see on your own

because they're so obvious, and that'd be like 3%, but there's like a whole 97% of what stops us that we don't see. That's why we hire a coach or we participate in an effectiveness leadership seminar, which is where you and I met. And when you think about an athlete or you think about people that are high performers, they have coaches. The best athletes in the world have coaches. Yeah, and the coaches, what their job to do is to show or to bring light to what people don't see or what the athlete doesn't see. And I don't see myself in action as a human being.

I can't see myself in action. I can't see how I'm moving or I'm not moving or, you know, in the case of basketball, how I dribble the ball, pass the ball, throw the ball. But a coach who's trained and has a trained eye can see that and can coach me and give me information, feedback, which you know how powerful feedback is. It's amazing. Feedback about what's working, what's not working. And that feedback gives me a bird's eye view of my belief systems. And I believe that the most powerful work

we could do with ourselves is by developing the strategies to uncover, redesign, and reinvent our belief system. Because the only way you're gonna have your business be successful Because the only way you're going to have your business be successful, the only way you're going to have your relationships be successful, the only way you're going to have your life be successful is by elevating who you are being. And you bring that into what you're doing, and that affects what you have. Because if we keep repeating the same thing over and over, we're going to have the same result. Right. Interesting. So what are some things, say there's someone's late 20s, early 30s,

they're trying to build a business and for years they haven't been getting the result they want. And they're always seeking new ideas. Maybe they're buying products, but they're not, they feel like they've tried everything. What's something they should do if they're like, I really want to make six or seven figures, but I've been trying and trying and trying and I haven't getting a result. And maybe they're being a victim. Maybe they have excuses, but they're just really stuck up against the wall. Is it looking inside first about who they're being? Well, it could be a combination of things. I think you've got to evaluate, first of all, yourself. Because what we tend to do is when the result's not happening, we want to point fingers. And we become a victim of the economy, a victim of our partners, a victim of the sales force, or a victim of whatever. Investors. And very rarely do we go, you know, wait a minute, let me take a look and see how I'm accountable for this. And one of the key ingredients to transformation, which means elevating the results in your life, is to take full responsibility.

For everything, right? For everything. Whether it's your fault or not. Take responsibility. Most people think that responsibility is about blaming. And it's about credit and blame. Most people think that responsibility is about blaming and it's about credit and blame and responsibility really is about saying, you know what, given I have the capacity, let me take a look and see what am I not providing that is going to bring me to the result.

Does it always mean that I'm going to have the result? No, but there's a lot more leverage and a lot more benefit to being accountable and responsible than to be a victim of something. And so, for example, if I'm committed to generating X amount of sales in my business and it's not happening, most people tend to go to, well, people don't have the money, people don't have the time, it can't be done, the economy. Very rarely do people go wait a minute let me evaluate evaluate who am i being what am i doing that's blocking the sale and who do i need to be and what do i need to do to increase the sale and so it's about taking responsibility for how you're showing up i firmly believe that we attract

to our lives who we're being and most people people don't get that. Most people think that the law of attraction is this out there idea, this esoteric, the secret, and then it's something strange. But it really is something as common sense as one, two, three. The law of attraction is the attitude or the belief that I attract to my life how I'm showing up. And so if I'm showing up in a way that is a millionaire, then I will attract being a millionaire. If I show up in life complaining and scarce and always affirming what I don't have, then I'm going to be pushing money away and success away.

Interesting. I love it. So let's talk about breakdowns. A lot of people seem to be in breakdowns. I'm in breakdowns. You're in breakdowns. We've all been doing it before. How do you discover when you're in a breakdown

and how can you move past it faster to get out of the victim state into the abundance state or the positive energy state or the state of taking massive action to get the results you want? Well, first of all, feedback lets you know that you're in breakdown. So when your girlfriend is through the roof and she's complaining, when your body is

busting at the gut, your clothes don't fit, or you step on the scale and you think the scale's broken. Or when you check in your savings account or checking account and there's minus signs instead of plus signs, and the zeros don't have numbers in front of it, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. So when you are overdrawn in life, you're in breakdown. There's deposits and withdrawals. And when you're overdrawn, when you've taken more out than you're putting in,

whether it's your relationship, your body, your finances, your business, you're in breakdown. And most people ignore breakdowns. Like they wait for the breakdown to become massive before they move. It's almost like you're stubborn. You know, like in some areas you're probably, you know, you manage it well. But there's some areas that you just kind of avoid. Some avoid finances.

Some avoid health. Some people avoid relationships. Some people avoid family, spirituality. And I think that whatever you resist persists. spirituality. And I think that whatever you resist persists. And so a breakdown can be defined as an event or a situation that does not line up with your vision. So if my vision is to be healthy, if my body's not healthy, I'm in breakdown. If my vision is to have a successful marriage, if my marriage is not where I want it to be, it's in breakdown. Right. If my business and my vision for my business is to have a thriving, abundant, you know, six-figure business income, profitable, et cetera, et cetera, and it's not. In other words, instead of being a profitable business, it's an expensive hobby.

Right. You got to check it. Is my business a profitable business or is it an expensive hobby? Right, right, right. And so that's a breakdown. And so I teach people steps to handle breakdown. And the first step, obviously, is to take responsibility. Is to go, you know what?

This is my breakdown. It's not my mom's. It's not my wife's. It's not the economy's. It's so hard for so many people, though. Yeah, because they have a big ego. And so an ego wants to look good, wants to be right, wants to be in control.

An ego wants to have it handled. And so for someone to say, my bad, that goes against the whole strategy of survival. So for some people to say, I messed up or it's my breakdown, that's like sudden death. But you got to step out of that comfort zone because we all know, and we've all heard this, that the only way we're going to create extraordinary results is stepping out

of our comfort zone. And so to turn a breakdown into a breakthrough, the first step is to identify the breakdown, to acknowledge it in a positive way, because you need to know that that breakdown is going to lead to something positive. So give me an example. How would you take responsibility in a situation with a relationship? So you messed up in a relationship.

Maybe you're promised you'd do something and you didn't follow through, Or maybe you're cheating or something happened where you were in a breakdown. What would be that step? Fessing up. Saying, you know what? I apologize. My bad. I messed up. It's my breakdown.

I own it. Right. I take full responsibility for this breakdown. Right. And so what you do is you end up unplugging the other person. By you resisting the breakdown, you just pissed them off more. For example, if you promised your girlfriend or your wife that you'd be at home at a certain time and you don't show up and you come in with an excuse, you're just going to piss her off more. Right.

Instead of saying, honey, I get it. I messed up. I blew it. I promised I'd be here at seven. It's now nine. There's no excuse. Right. It is up. I blew it. I promised I'd be here at seven. It's now nine. There's no excuse. It is my breakdown and I apologize. That's step one.

That's step one. The second step in handling breakdown, whether the breakdown is you promised to lose 10 pounds, you gained 20. So the first step is to acknowledge it. I promised this and I didn't deliver. So I acknowledge it and I really acknowledge it in a positive way. You know, you can even say the word yes. You know, like I promised to lose 10 pounds, I gained 20. Yes. You know, why yes? Because the breakdown can turn into a blessing when you take responsibility for it. So the first step is to acknowledge the breakdown in a positive way. Whether it's verbal or internal, you're seeing that the breakdown is actually an opportunity. Victims, when there's a breakdown, they get mad, they get pissed off, they blame, they don't acknowledge it, they sweep it under the rug, et cetera, et cetera.

Or they beat themselves up. I messed up. Once again, I suck. And what's that get them? Nothing. It gets them to another breakdown. So the first step in handling a breakdown, whatever that is, I promised I would sell $50,000 this month and I sold 5,000. Okay. Yes. Blew it. I own it. I acknowledge it. I'm acknowledging the breakdown. These are all responsible actions that we're taking, responsible steps. Second step is to take responsibility and to identify

what was missing from me that I caused the breakdown or what could I have done different to intervene in the breakdown. So I promised to sell 10,000. I sold 1,000. Okay. Yes, I got it. I acknowledge it. Now, what was missing for me? It's not about the client. It's not about the economy. It's not about your boss. It's not about the resources or the material that you have to sell with. It's about you looking at how you're showing up and how you're being that interfered in the result that you wanted. So how am I being? Maybe I'm just being, I'm not putting passion into it. I'm on automatic pilot.

I'm selling it versus inspiring it. A lot of times if you sell a product, people don't buy it. But if you inspire it, people buy it. Maybe I'm not contacting enough people. I promise to lose 10 pounds. I gain 20. Yes. Okay.

What was missing for me? Rigor was missing. Discipline was missing. A game plan was missing. Saying no to carbs was missing. I didn't do enough cardio. practicing you know i didn't do enough you know cardio you know cardio you know you get to take responsibility identify from a responsible standpoint versus being a victim of the breakdown versus blaming the sun or the goldfish people blame all kinds of right right right so the first

step is to acknowledge it the second step is to take responsibility for it and the third step believe it or not you got to forgive yourself. Because as long as you're blaming and mad and I blew it again, it's really hard to shift by forgiving myself or forgiving somebody else if the breakdown had nothing to do with you. Sometimes we have breakdowns because of other people. You know, my partner blew it or my girlfriend, whatever, you know, But we need to forgive because if you don't forgive yourself and don't forgive other people, you will never be successful. This is like a pearl of wisdom. I'm going to repeat it. If you don't forgive yourself and don't forgive

other people, you will never be successful because regardless of the result you have, you will never be successful because regardless of the result you have that resentment will not allow you to enjoy it you know how many people that are billionaires but are resentful and end up sabotaging their success and end up really not being happy you know not enjoying so you got to forgive yourself and forgive when you're having a breakdown so let's talk about that for a second because it's interesting because I was talking to you the other night about how I've achieved a lot of things. I have a lot of accomplishments and I've got success and money and whatever it may be.

But for years, it was driven by anger, ego, and resentment. That's what fueled my passion to be successful or whatever right and it always felt i would have a lot of ups and downs there'd be big moments and then there'd be like really low lows of hurt pain you know insecurities just frustration and feeling alone right because i was fueled by these negative emotions. Right. It wasn't all the time, but it was kind of underneath everything.

Wanting to prove people wrong or that I was right, they were wrong. Wanted to be number one, someone else to be number two. Not coming from a win-win place, but just like I need to be the best and you need to be underneath me so that I can feel appreciated or loved

or whatever I was wanting to feel. So how does someone forgive themselves if they've for years been thinking a certain way or been beating themselves up or been putting the blame on other people or treating others horribly? How does someone forgive and then continue that pattern and not fall back into the pattern of beating themselves up? Well, forgiveness is a choice that you make every day. It's not like, oh, I forgave and that's it. So forgiveness is just a declaration. It's an affirmation. It's affirming that, you know what, I'm a human being.

I made mistakes and I forgive myself because I deserve another chance and I deserve to, you know, to everybody has a right to change and a right to transform. So I don't need to be defined by my mistakes. I don't need to be defined by my past. And so if I make a clean break and a choice today to forgive myself, it's something I get to do. And it's something I get to do every day because every day we find clever ways of blowing it. And so you got to, you know, you're your worst critic. And I think that being mad at yourself is wasted energy

because you're the only one that can resolve it. And you can resolve it being mad or you can resolve it by loving and accepting yourself. And I believe that our biggest enemies in life is ourselves. And so by learning to forgive yourself, it's a process. It's not like, okay, I forgive myself. No, it's a process. Part of what I recommend is that you write things down

that you're upset about, that you've done, what I call your guilt list. Make a list of things that you feel guilty about. And then decide that with that list, you could write over the entire list, I forgive myself. Make a list of all the people that have hurt you and the things that they've done to hurt you. And you've got to make a decision to forgive other people. Because if you don't forgive other people, and if you don't forgive yourself, that energy that you need to become a successful entrepreneur, a successful businessman,

a successful husband, a successful human being is tied up in resentment. And I want to say something to you that even though you feel there were moments that it wasn't fueling, it's not true. Your anger was fueling everything. You just had moments of authenticity, but it doesn't mean that that anger wasn't underlying the whole thing. And so you could actually share, because you've been through this, what's been the difference for you as a result of you forgiving yourself because you have and forgiving the people in your life. You're like a different person. It's amazing. And I've started sharing a little bit about it publicly, but not on the podcast yet.

But it's been amazing because it's just I feel great all the time. And when I am in breakdown, I'm aware of it or I get feedback and I'm able to shift out of it a lot quicker than before. And now as opposed to coming from anger, ego, and resentment, really becoming aware that that's where I was coming from before and now coming from love, win-win. Vision. And vision. Yeah. And leaving a legacy.

It's just like, it's so clear to me what to do every single day. And when someone comes in with a negative approach to me, it's just easy to brush them off as opposed to like, hold on to like trying to please them or trying to like support that you know whatever and what's amazing that when you have breakdowns now you're not dealing with that internal breakdown anymore no you're just you're just zeroing in on the issue you're not you know because what happens is that we defense to it right because when we don't work on ourselves we don't forgive ourselves and forgive other people, what happens is life is going to always offer a breakdown. As a matter of fact, the bigger the game, the bigger the business, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the possibility is of a breakdown.

And you want all your energy channeled into that breakdown so that you could address it, transform it. address it, transform it. And as long as you have 90% of your energy tied up in some inward conversation of something that happened when you're five years old or something that happened with your dad that you didn't get over or something that happened with your ex-wife, then you're not gonna be, it's just common sense.

It's like two plus two equals four. It's not gonna equal 10. It's common sense that you're not going to be effective in dealing with a breakdown as you would if you forgive. So that's why forgiveness is such an important step. It's the third step in handling breakdown because by forgiving myself and forgiving others, I'm getting my energy back. Forgiveness, you need to get over being right.'s so hard because some people go why is it so she did cheat on me or my partner did rip me off right or my dad did leave you know and

abandon us or i did get raped yeah i did get raped or i did get you know uh ripped off someone stole my money or whatever yeah so you got to get past being right. Right. Because forgiveness is really not about the other person. So, okay, you're right. That will be between that person and their creator, between that person and their karma, whatever you want to call it. That's not your job. Your job is to take care of you. job is to take care of you. Your job is to focus on your vision. And as long as you're upset and giving your power away to somebody, they got you. So forgiveness is about getting over being right. It's between you and you, and it's an exercise you do with you. I forgave my dad that walked out of my family when I was six. I was 23. But from six to 23, I was so pissed off at him that that fueled my energy and that fueled my life. And by me forgiving him, whether I was

right or wrong, it gave me my power back. So I always say in my trainings that when I forgive, I get my power back. Or your energy or whatever you want to say, right? Yeah, power, energy. Because energy really is life and life is energy. Yeah. So forgiveness is a choice. Forgiveness is really important. And it's about dropping the ego to forgive. Yeah, dropping the ego and give up being right.

It's about you making a decision. Okay, do I want to be happy or miserable? Do I want to have energy to make things happen or not? Okay, well, the answer is yes, that I need to forgive. Forgive self, forgive others. That's an important step. So once I've identified the breakdown and acknowledged it in a positive way, took responsibility, I've taken responsibility for the breakdown, evaluating, okay, so how did I create this? What was missing from me or what could I have done different?

how did I create this? What was missing from me or what could I have done different? Then I forgive self and others. Then I'm ready to make a new commitment. Now I'm ready to make a new declaration. Okay, so what? Now what? Past is over. What's my new vision? What's my new commitment to my business, my new commitment to my body, my new commitment to my relationship, my new commitment to life? And I make a new commitment. And by making a new commitment, it's important to visualize it. And one of the things that I recommend is closing your eyes and doing a visualization. So let's do this right now. Let's put people through visualization and walk them through their vision or their dreams so what i what i what i would say is you know right now wherever

you are just stop what you're doing and take a moment to close your eyes one of the things that i do is i ask people to put their hands over their heart because I think that when things are driven from the heart, the results are extraordinary. You could have things driven from your heart or things driven from your ego. And so before you get started, so I want everyone, because a lot of people are working out when they're listening to this, the podcast, they're in their car. So if you are in the car, if you're working out, feel free to listen along and then come back to this later and really take a moment to do this.

Yeah, don't close your eyes while you're driving. Exactly. You're going to get a lawsuit. They made us close our eyes and then we crashed. Now, this is a powerful experience. I want everyone to have the opportunity to experience this. So if you're at work, if you're sitting at your desk, just literally take a few minutes right now to stop what you're doing and do this little quick exercise. I think it'll be really cool for you

guys. And again, if you're working out, feel free to listen along and just have your eyes open while you're working out. But come back to this when you're done. Take a moment because I think it'll be really cool. So go ahead. Not only is it cool, it's effective in having me grounded in what I want because we are so focused on what we don't want. And we're so focused on stress and focus on anxiety. And one of the things that I do in my seminars is I give people the opportunity just to have a moment to check in with themselves. So what I would ask is I'm going to actually do it with you, Lewis, right now. And through you, we'll do it with all the people that are listening. So just close your eyes and put your hands over your heart and take a deep breath in and let it out. and just take a moment to visualize your life in one year.

so it's a year later and I want you to imagine the life that you're living you've accomplished the goals that you set and more importantly you're feeling and experiencing the feelings and experience that you've always wanted to. Whether it's a relationship, family, health, finances, joy, you are now experiencing it. You are now experiencing it.

So think about your vision for yourself, your body, your health, your mind, spirituality, your vision for your family, your vision for your world. It's a year later and that vision's now a reality. So in your mind, I want you to imagine

moment to moment what it feels like to actually live it. So you've achieved the weight that you wanted. You've achieved the relationships that you wanted. Maybe your dream is to have that soulmate next to you, the woman of your dreams, the woman that you thought was unavailable and she's now lying in bed next to you and you wake up and she grabs your hand and she looks at

you with a big smile and she's crying because she can't believe that she's with you. So just look at each moment of the day, living that. Experience it. Smell it. Taste it. What does it sound like? taste it what does it sound like and in your mind's eye

go through the entire day living and accomplishing that dream maybe your goal was to lose X amount of pounds you're stepping on the scale at the gym and you've hit your goal or your goal. Or your goal is to be united with your family that we're talking to each other.

You're at the dinner table and you're all connected. Or your goal is to have your business finally hit that profit number. And you just checked in with your bank account or checked in with your accountant and you've exceeded it. See yourself experiencing that and enjoying that. And I want you to think back at the last year. What were the limiting beliefs that you needed to give up to accomplish this what were the actions you needed to take so see yourself celebrating health relationships finances family the life you've always dreamed of is now a reality and you can't wait for what's next.

Take a deep breath in and let it out. And open your eyes. What did you experience? What did you experience? What did you see? Share your own vision that you saw in a year happening. For me, I saw a vision of this amazing environment that I was living in.

And all the people that I cared about on my team and my business were people I loved in the world and they were all laughing and having fun and joyful we all had this vision together and every day we were working on this vision with passion and joy and energy and we were all on the same page. If one person had a breakdown, we were supportive and shifted out of it. And it was sunny. It was a big space with a lot of light

and just passion, dancing, joy, energy. That's awesome. For the business. And I just saw us breaking our goals. When you were talking about opening your bank account, I was like, I just saw us breaking the goals every time we'd set goals. Um, because we're coming from this vision and I was picturing myself next to this amazing, passionate woman. I saw her. I know. I saw her, man. I saw her next to you in bed yeah yeah i felt like you know i was invading your privacy chris just saw my room uh before we started my uh my studio

here so uh i saw myself with this woman just crying and smiling and laughing in the morning like you found the home right yeah like what you've been looking for your whole life, you found it right there. Yeah, I saw my hand in her hand. That's incredible. And I saw my family together in the mountains snowboarding and having this amazing experience and coming together because I sour I sourced it, and I'm creating that, and I'm bringing everyone together. And that's the main things I saw. I didn't get in the community much.

Well, and as people hear this, some people are skeptical. They might go, oh, that's so stupid. I want you to know I was one of those people. When I closed my eyes, I saw nothing but black, because I had no imagination. And so one of the key ingredients to success at any level is the ability to close your eyes, to take a moment. And I recommend that you actually do this every single day. Every day, take five, ten minutes to just envision and visualize the life that you're headed towards

and the life that you want. If you've got the power to imagine it, you've got the power to create it. And I think that we don't take enough time to focus in detail. That's why I asked, see yourself in what you're doing every minute of the day. In reality, you want to have clarity from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. What life looks like every minute of the day, you with the woman of your dreams, you having your team exceed and go beyond every goal right you being at top shape emotionally physically spiritually your family being more connected than ever what does every minute of the day look like in a year five years 10 years i have to go out to 20 years so that's just like a little snippet little sample that kind of thing.

And the more you're able to get into it and get over your private conversations about it, the more effective it's going to be. And I think what's cool is it's coming from a place of vision as opposed to reaction or reacting. And Caduce made the example yesterday to me that you know martin luther king came from a place of vision and didn't react to what people did to him the haters the people are negative things he had this vision that he was like here's what it's going to look like whereas malcolm x came from a place of reaction like here's what we're going to do to like react to these situations

well nelson mandela as well when he was in prison, he was surrounded by haters. And when he got out of prison and he got put into power, those same haters told him, okay, now fire everybody that put you in prison. And he goes, well, if I do that, I become just like them. And my vision is unity. And so he came from vision. And the clearer you have in your head the vision that you want, the easier it is to pay the prices to get there. If I don't have a vision for the body that I want, I'm not going to put up with an hour of cardio every day. If I don't have the vision of the marriage I want. I'm not going to put up with the sacrifices of not trying every flower in the garden, you know, and not going and, you know, sampling

different things. I need to have a vision for my relationship, my body. You know, there's a lot of things we like. You know, people like to smoke. People like to eat, party, to drink. People like to eat fattening foods, chocolate and carbs. But if you're focused on your vision, then it makes it easier to say goodbye to those things. Exactly. And I think that a lot of times when we have a breakdown, it's a lack of vision. Yeah. Like we lose sight of why we're here.

We're not sure what we're passionate about. They're like, why am I? Yeah. Just following the motions, doing the norm. So visualizing it, that's an important step, step four, which is to create a vision, to make a new commitment. One of the things we just did, a closed-eye process. It's simple.

Just close your eyes and see the life that you want. Play music, nice soft music. I recommend Enya. She's awesome. She might be playing in the background at some point here. Another thing I recommend for vision is something called a vision map. I know you've talked about that before in this podcast. But creating a visual image of the life that you want,

a visual, tangible image of what you want. And one of the things I recommend is that you get construction paper, go to one of the Walgreens or CVS or one of those stores that buys school construction paper, and then get different magazines. If you want to have this amazing house on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and you see that picture, cut it out and put it on the map. Put it on the board. It's called a vision map or a treasure map. If you have a vision of this beautiful hot babe, this dream woman, this goddess of the universe of your dreams, and you see a picture of her, put her on the map. If you have a vision of money, then you put symbols of money on the map. If you have a vision of money, then you put symbols of money on the map.

If you have a vision of spirituality and God and connection, then you put symbols of that on the map. I recommend that you put a picture of yourself in the middle and around the map. You put different results that you want. And have fun with it. Get creative with it. Even cut out words that represent the life that you want or the ingredients that you want in life. For example, if you're lacking passion and you cut out the word passion, put it on your map. If you're lacking forgiveness, then you put forgiveness. If you're lacking

vision, so you have words on the map, you've got tangible results on the map, and that's something that you could have in front of you in your office. You could have it at home. And then every day, let's say your vision is to lose weight and to have a body with very little body fat. Six-pack. Six-pack, 12-pack. Whatever you want to have for your body, then you have a picture of that guy on the map. And so that's like a daily reminder of where you're headed. So that step is really important to make a new commitment to create a vision. And step number five, obviously, is to create an action plan because if it just stays in vision, it's fantasy.

So you've got to create an action plan. Take massive action. That's what I talk about a lot, taking massive action. And there's a lot of entrepreneurs that email me, and I'm sure you get this a lot with your students when you coach, who say, I want to make money. I want to make $20,000 a month, six figures, seven figures. I want to make millions. And I say, awesome. I say, why?

Well, I just want to make money. a powerful vision of service as opposed to just making money, then that vision is what's going to allow you to what you said, make the sacrifices every single day to take that massive action. You need to be inspired and you need to be passionate about the why. Cause if we just, yeah, if you're creating a business, you can't be passionate about money.

And some people get, it's like people that are the, you know, I get a lot of actors that come to my seminars. I train all, I train a lot of Hollywood and they come into my seminars. People that are, you know, I get a lot of actors that come to my seminars. I train a lot of Hollywood, and they come into my seminars. People that have already made it, people that want to make it, people that want to be, people who are, people who are that want to be at peace. But a lot of times people come and say, I want to be famous.

Okay, is your goal to be famous? Why? Why? Exactly. And what I usually find is that when it's an ego-driven reason, it just pushes it away. Or you'll get it and you want to do drugs and commit suicide or you're coming from a, you know, you're always upset. Well, you talked about emotional intelligence and everything we're talking about right now is a continuation of the topic of emotional intelligence. And every study that you could find has determined that the key to success is emotional intelligence.

And emotional intelligence comes from forgiveness and learning how to handle breakdowns, having a vision. But it also comes from learning how to handle your anxiety and your stress and your emotions. And that's something that we got to get a handle of. And what you're saying is so important. So when people want to be successful and make millions of dollars, if there's not a why behind it, if there's not a pure vision that inspires them, it will be a short-lived success. Yes. A good friend of mine who's been on the podcast, James Altucher,

he made, I think he sold one of his companies for 20 million or something. And then it was either 15 or 20 million that he had earned from selling his company. And then he spent a million dollars a month for 15 months until it was all gone. And he had to ask his parents for money to buy diapers for his kids.

Oh my God. He blew it all in 15 months. Right. And then he was depressed for a couple of years. Then he built it back up, sold a company for 20 million, did the same thing again. Again.

He does three times. That's insanity. He does three times repeating the same thing over and over until he finally figured out his why. And now he's coming from a different place of vision and he's consistent and he's aware. But it took him 40 years of like making all this money. He was really good at making money, but it's miserable and depressed.

Well, I've worked with hundreds of people that were already millionaires and blew it. I mean, every month I have them in my seminars and people that want to become successful. And the common denominator of what's lacking in terms of whether it's consistency or getting there is vision. And so that action plan is very important to create a plan of action to surround yourself with people that will support your action.

You want to lose weight. You can't surround yourself with people that don't care. You want to be healthy. You can't surround yourself with people that don't care. You want to be healthy. You can't surround yourself with people that go out and party every night. You want your business to be successful. You can't surround yourself with people that are broke and losers. And I don't mean loser to judge. I mean loser in terms of negative people that blow off their money.

There's a saying in Spanish. I'm from Puerto Rico. And there's a saying in Spanish. And it says, basically, tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are. How do you say it? Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres. Dime con quien andas, tell me who you are with. Wow.

Y te dire quien eres. I'll tell you who you are. So true. And it's so true. It's so true. You know, if you want to be successful, you got to me who you are with. Wow. Y te diré quien eres. I'll tell you who you are. So true. And it's so true. It's so true. You know, if you want to be successful, you got to surround yourself with successful people. You want to be in a committed marriage, you have to surround yourself with people that are in committed marriages. It's not the guy going, hey, let's go to a prostitute place.

Let's go pick up hookers. Let's go party. Let's do drugs. It's not going to work. And I think that that's a big mistake. Let's go party. Let's do drugs. Yeah. It's not going to work.

And I think that that's a big mistake. So the action requires that I recommend creating buddy systems. They work. You know, it's like when I was in college, the only reason why I got through college, because I hated college, I hated studying, was because I was such a creative person. I felt like my wings were trapped. But you know what got me through, and I did really well in college college was there were 10 of us that did the entire four years together. Like every exam, every final, every project.

I mean, we're in the same major. We're studying the same thing. And we just did it together. It just makes such a difference to have people that are committed to the same thing you're committed to. So that's part of the action plan. Having a team of people or even what I call a buddy. You know, a goal buddy. You know, last night we were talking to somebody who's part of a buddy, like a goal group.

And they actually had buddies. Right. And having a goal buddy. You want to lose 20 pounds? Then hang out with somebody who's committed to losing 20 pounds or whatever. Do it together. Or health. Maybe they're not committed to losing 20 pounds or whatever. Do it together. Or health. Maybe they're not committed to losing weight, but they're committed to health and support

each other. So true. You can't do it alone. No. It's going to be a lot harder. It's funner to do it with people. I love making money. I've got 15 companies and they're all successful.

Right. But the reason why my companies are successful is because I've got awesome people that work with me. And we're a team. And we're all committed to the same vision. And so the action requires an action plan. You got to crush it, like Lewis would say. You got to crush it.

You got to really get committed to it with passion based on your vision. Surround yourself with people that are committed to the same thing, and that will lead you to the action. So let's talk about, I feel like I could talk about this for hours with you, but we'll keep it a couple more questions. Let's talk about enrolling people in your vision. How does someone learn to become a master enroller in them, in their life? Because when you said before, it's not about selling someone some product. Right. It's really about selling the energy that you bring to the idea, to the result they're going to get. So how do you enroll your team in your vision

or just anyone in your vision? Getting a partner, getting a relationship, anyone at all. What's kind of some steps to mastering enrollment in anything? I believe that life is all about enrollment. I believe that the reason why my businesses have been successful and the reason why I've been able to accomplish all my goals and succeed at it is because I've been a master enroller. And if you look at people that are successful and people that are creating extraordinary accomplishments in their lives, it's because they have one thing in common. They're powerful enrollers.

If you look at visionary leaders, they have that in common as well. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., you know, these are people that had a vision and enrolled other people in the vision. had a vision and enrolled other people in the vision. And I think that what makes the difference between a true leader and a manipulator or a dictator is that a leader inspires and a dictator or manipulator, what they do is they force. And so to enroll people in your vision, you need to, first of all, walk the talk. You got to be an example and you got to believe if you're, if you're not buying it, you can't sell it. You got to walk the talk.

You got to buy, you got to, you got to be enrolled. The first person you got to enroll is you, right? You know? So, you know, you've inspired people to take their lives on, but the only reason why you're able to inspire for people to take their lives on is because you took your life on and you're inspired. And so you've got to be willing to lead by example. So that conviction and that passion on the bigger vision of what you're inspiring people to do. So if you're inspired by your business, then it's going to be a lot easier to inspire other people. But if you're in your business for the wrong reasons and you're just doing it to make money and you don't really care about what you're up to, then you're in the wrong business. You need to be in something that inspires you. And a lot of times what's missing in terms of

people's success in business is that they're not inspired by it. you know i've met actresses that can't make it and i'm like do you really want to be an actress do you do are you in love with the craft and they're like well no i just want to make money or i want to be famous i'm like well you'll never be a successful actress right because meryl streep is someone who is inspired and is in love with what she does you know she's somebody that she is you know that's who she is in life she just she just takes on the role and she loves being a storyteller the fame the money the rest of it that came as a result of it yeah and so i say that to enroll others in your vision the first step is to be inspired once you're enrolled and you're inspired,

you need to have an intention that's clear. And so intention is, what is my goal? So my goal is to enroll Lewis in being my partner. So my intention is Lewis will be a partner in this business. So I'm clear about my vision and I'm clear that I'm enrolled and I'm clear about why. Right. So now my intention is in my declaration is Lewis will be a partner in my business as a result of the next conversation I have with him. So I'm already putting my butt on the line for my intention. So I would say the first step is for you to be the example and for you to be inspired. The second step is to have like a declaration or a promise or a commitment. It could be a written one or it could be an internal promise or note to self.

Lewis will be enrolled in my vision, in my business, or whatever it is that I want Lewis to do by the next conversation. So intention. And intention could be a minute. It could be an hour. It could be a day, a week, a month, a year. A moment. A moment. But there's got to be a pure intention in it.

Sure. And if you look at everything you've accomplished in your life, Lewis, it's come from you being inspired because you're the source. And it's come from your intention to have other people involved in it. Yeah. So once you got your intention clear, you got to create, which is to me the third step, and that's create the relationship. People don't care what you know until they know how much you care. You could be the smartest guy in the room. You could have every degree.

You could have every credential. And people don't get you. They're not going to care what you have to say. And some people bank on what they know. And I'd rather not know as much but be committed and connected to people than to know so much and not care about people. Be the biggest carer. Yeah.

Biggest lover in the room. Totally. You've got to be the kind of person that people want to hang out with. People got to want to be with you. Right. And so for all of you that are listening that have your own business, this is priceless what we're talking about. Because for you to be successful and for you to be what I call an enrollment machine, like this amazing enroller that people, that you walk in the room and people go, I want to be with that person.

I don't know what they're offering. Because before you even open your mouth, you're enrolling. And Lewis, you have that. You walk in the room and people turn around and go, okay, who just walked in? And there's this joy and there's this egoless as a result of being with me. Egoless, loving, vulnerable. And that was a joke. That wasn't my ego. Okay. I have no need for that, really. But, you know, you show up and people are inspired. Right. And so that's a key to enrollment.

And that is by choosing, you know, obviously what we talked about, forgiving and letting go of the past and being in the moment and just choosing to show up. Enrollers are present in the here and the now. And so I say that creating relationship is a critical step to enrollment. And to create relationship, and you learned this recently, you got to keep in mind there are different personality types. There are people that are very controlling and they require a different part of you. There are people that are very supportive and soft and they need a different part of you. There are people that are very analytical and they just require a completely different part of you.

And there's people that are just outrageous and spontaneous and passionate and they need a different part of you. And there's people that are just outrageous and spontaneous and passionate, and they need a different part of you. And a master enroller will redesign themselves depending on who his audience is. They're a chameleon. Yeah, chameleon. So, creating relationship, I would say, is a key step to enrollment. Right. That'd be number three. Right. to enrollment. That'd be number three. So vision, your vision and you being inspired is one. Two

would be the intention, like this is going to happen. Three is creating a relationship. So what do I do once I have a relationship with my audience? The fourth step to enrollment, in whatever that is, would be to discover their vision. What are their needs? What are the client's needs? What does the client need to be successful or need to feel safe or need to be, you know, why your product? What are you offering? What does that have to do with your client's vision? And so finding out what your client's needs or finding out what your girlfriend's needs or your wife's needs or your children's needs, there's something to be said about one of Stephen Covey's habits for highly successful people. It's first seek to understand others, then ask to be understood. So I first need to know what you're about before I tell you what I'm about.

I first need to listen to you, understand you, look to understand you before I'm trying to get you to understand me. And usually we got it backwards. We want people to understand us and we get upset that they don't understand us. But I think that what we need to do is first listen to other people, find out what their needs are.

So once you find out what their needs are, what their vision is, and you're able to actually have them visualize it like what I did with you, you can tell them, close your eyes, see yourself in a year, see yourself accomplishing that result. Once you have people and their vision, then the next step is to offer the offer, whatever that offer is, whether it's a product, whether it's a relationship. Call to action, yeah. Not yet. No call to action yet. Not yet. You're offering. Gotcha.

You're offering the resource, whatever that is. I've got your vision. Okay, now here's the offer. Okay. Here's how what I've got your vision. Okay, now here's the offer. Here's how what I have matches your vision. And once people see that it's a match, and it's my job to have them see it's a match, then to call the action. So we got a match, and here are the steps to accomplish it.

So you do the call to action, and then you make it so simple, digest it for them, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3. Don't make the call to action complicated. If it's complicated, uncomplicate it because people like it simple. Have it be real simple and inspire them to the call of action. Now, what happens if when the call to action comes up, people's circumstances come up, you have to go back to you being inspired, step one. Sure. Step two, intention. Step three, creating the relationship.

Uh-huh. Step four, generate the vision with the person, find out what they want. And then step five, once again, make them the offer. What's the offer? And then step six would be the call to action. What's the action plan and inspire them to take the action? And the final step is the follow-up because a lot of times we get people we want, but then we don't develop them.

I have friends that are in network marketing. Network marketing, there's a lot of network marketers listening to you right now. It's one of the most powerful forms of business today. People make a lot of money. But the true successful people in network marketing, which is maybe 5% of the 100% that go in, and that's even high, but 5% make good money with it, it's because those people are good at enrollment and developing people. It's called duplication. And so once I have people taking action and people committing to whatever it is that I'm committed to them to do,

then the follow-ups, same thing in these trainings. You get people to go to the training, but if you don't follow up with them, they're not going to go, and it's not going to happen. Right, right, right. So those are key steps to enrollment that would work and that I use every day. I don't use all the steps all the time. Sometimes it's just the intention and the vision. Sometimes it's just creating the relationship, but they work.

Right, right, exactly. Well, I feel like we could talk for hours absolutely stuff i do too i do too i would love to get you back on it for sure a couple months or something whenever you're back in la and we'll do it absolutely lots of whatever whatever whatever you you want i'm here for you i'm inspired by you i appreciate it and i appreciate the invitation and uh for people that want more information, follow me on Twitter. You know what? Where are you at?

I'm at Chris Motivador, which is in Spanish for motivator. And I also have a fan page that is Chris Lee Motivational Trainer on Facebook. Okay, cool. We'll link this up in the show notes, schoolofgreatness.com. So make sure to check that out.

Connect with Chris. Leave a comment on the show notes about what you're inspired by the most what chris said send him a tweet feel free to ask him a question english or spanish any any question i'd be more than happy to provide coaching and support and you know lewis and i work together on a lot of things and we're going to be doing a lot of stuff in the future together for sure. I'd be more than happy to provide support to all the people

that follow you. Awesome. I appreciate it. Final question. That's what I ask all my guests. What's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness is having my life and my actions and my results line up with my vision.

Perfect. To me, that's greatness. I love it. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Bye. And there you have it, guys.

I hope this was helpful and supportive for you in understanding where you're at in your life. Again, if you're already very successful in your business, with your marriage, with your health, what are some things you could do to take it to the next level? Where are some areas in your life that aren't working for you? What's not serving you? that aren't working for you? What's not serving you? What's holding you back from getting everything you want on all domains, not just half of the domains?

I want you to really take a look at this episode again and take down some notes. If you head over to schoolofgreatness.com, we've got all the show notes there. You can look into this. You can connect with Chris over on his Twitter, at Chris Motivador. And again, take a moment to visualize what it is you want in your life. Visualize your biggest dreams,

your biggest passions, and ask yourself the question, am I doing everything in every moment to follow and pursue my dreams and my passion? And if I'm not, why am I not? What's holding me back? How much longer am I going to start keep living someone else's dream until I make a decision to start living for myself and follow my dreams? How much longer am I going to be building someone else's empire instead of putting the time and energy to creating a vision for what I want in my business and building my own empire and my own legacy? Again, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. For me, it's very powerful to continue to practice understanding these principles and these strategies and practicing it on a daily basis because if you get out of practice of it, it's easy to slip into poor habits, limiting beliefs.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Again, check out the show notes at schoolofgreatness.com. If you enjoyed it, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook and say hi to Chris on both Twitter and Facebook. I appreciate you guys. Thanks so much. And make sure to go out there today and do something great. Outro Music I'm gonna let it go Outro Music We're going to let it burn, burn, burn, burn. We're going to let it burn, burn, burn, burn. We're going to let it burn, burn, burn, burn. We're going to let it burn, burn, burn, burn.