The School of Greatness - 360 Listen To Your Own Voice

Episode Date: July 29, 2016

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." Ram Dass If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/360

This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 360, and you've got to listen to your own voice. The quieter you become, the more you can hear, said Ram Dass. Recent studies are showing that our brains love silence. That's right. It loves silence. That's right. It loves silence. However, we are becoming busier and busier and louder and louder and listening less and less to ourselves and to the world around us. Silence allows our mind to sort all the information that has come in and to make sense of it. I want to ask you a question. When is the last time you let yourself be in complete silence? Complete

silence, no cell phone distraction, no iPad, no computer, no other people running around talking to you, no TV, having noise on, but just complete silence with no distractions around you. And what happens when all the noise goes away is self-reflection. It's something that we don't do enough. It's something that we get to do more of because it allows us to move through the world and make better decisions on what we want and what we don't want, on what's going to move us towards our vision instead of what's going to hold us back from achieving it.

Silence is golden, as they say when you go to the movies. Make sure that you take the time for yourself to be quiet, to reflect, to listen to your body, to listen to your heart, to listen to your mind. I remember last year before my book launch, The School of Greatness, thinking that, man, I'm not going to have much time for myself. I'm dedicating my entire life to this book launch and a 15-city book tour and connecting with people. And I'm going to be on planes and constantly on social media and emailing and webinars and podcasts, interviews, press, that I'm not going to have much time to reflect on each moment.

So I decided to take a trip. I took a little journey to Kauai, one of the islands in Hawaii, and my team gave me a challenge, actually. They told me to not take my cell phone or my computer or any electronics, and I was terrified. I said, you know what? Let me just take my phone, and I'll leave it in my room. And they said, no. The real stretch for you, the real challenge and the opportunity is for you to go without your phone or out any electronics and simply reflect in nature. And it terrified me because I probably hadn't done it in 15 years. But when I finally got there and got over the fear, wow, the things I learned about myself, it's like I was healing every single moment. I didn't have my phone on

me or I wasn't constantly distracted by some type of electronic or constantly speaking about something or constantly promoting something. It's like my body went through a therapeutic healing process where I connected to my true self. I connected to mother nature. I connected to the ocean, to the clouds, the sky, the birds, I connected to myself. And it was such a powerful grounding experience that really elevated me and allowed me to go through this book launch in a crazy process, feeling grounded, feeling clear, calm, and knowing what I needed to do. And it was such a powerful experience. You know, Rumi says, silence is an ocean.

Speech is a river. And John Grossman said, silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything. So today, I want you to be in silence for an hour. That may seem like a lot. Be in silence. Go into the woods. Go to a park. Go to the woods. Go to a park. Go to the ocean.

Go for a walk. Go into your room without any distractions, without your phone in the room, without an iPad, electronics, and listen to your own voice. Listen to the beat of your heart and allow it to guide you towards the next step in your journey. It's so important that we do this on a consistent basis. If not daily, we must do it as often as we can. Otherwise, it's easy to be distracted and easy to get caught up in things that don't matter to us, things that aren't going to serve us, things that aren't going to serve the world.

So take a moment today and listen to your own voice. This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 360, and today is a huge milestone. We reached 20 million downloads on the School of Greatness podcast. I am blown away. I'm so grateful. Three and a half years ago when I had a dream and I said I want to do a weekly podcast where I interview some of my friends and learn about their secrets to greatness, never did I imagine that I would hit 20 million downloads in three and a half years

and be one of the top 100 podcasts in the world out of over 400,000 podcasts worldwide. I'm so grateful that you continue to show up, listen, subscribe, and share. I'm so humbled on the guests that I get to interview and get to sit across here in the School of Greatness studios. And it's my pleasure to be a servant to you, to find the truth, to learn myself and share with you what I'm learning.

So congratulations to all of you for making the School of Greatness podcast. Hit 20 million downloads and tweet me on Twitter right now and let me know the first episode where you listened to this podcast and were introduced to me. The first episode that you can remember, just say the number or the name or the title

and tweet me, atlewishouse, and let me know so I can say thank you for listening and for being a part of 20 million downloads. It's freaking blowing my mind. I am so grateful that you continue to show up every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. 🎵