The School of Greatness - 402 Explore the World

Episode Date: November 3, 2016

"You owe it to yourself to explore." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/402

This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 402, Explore the World. Mark Twain said, travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. I am on a journey right now in India. I just landed. I've got here and I'm about to go on a journey. I'm about to explore a new part of the world. I've never been to India. I have friends who are from there.

I have friends who've traveled there and I've heard incredible things. A lot of people tell me that it's about to be a shock on my senses. I'm about to smell things I've never smelled. I'm about to see things I've never seen. There's gonna be the richest and the poorest all in one place

and it's gonna be a little chaotic is what I continue to hear. Now, I'm excited about this because I know it's going to expand my horizon. It's going to open me up to a new way of thinking. I grew up in a small town, Delaware, Ohio. For those that know me well, they know I'm from Ohio. I've got a lot of pride for Ohio. But this small town left me with very small views. Now, luckily, I have a father who's a pretty intelligent man, a pretty worldly man.

And he brought my family when I was five until I was about 11. We had seven different exchange students from all over the world. So even though I lived in a small town, in a small place with only about 25,000 people, there really wasn't much to do in this town, I was learning from people who lived from all over the world, people who spoke different languages, had different cultures, who cooked different foods. I was learning things at such a young age, even though I never traveled. Now, I always had this desire to explore, to get out. I had a curious mind. It's probably why I

interviewed so many people on this podcast. So when I was 13, I left to a private boarding school in St. Louis, Missouri, and I traveled out. And when I went to a new place surrounded by a different environment and met a different type of individual, I expanded. I grew. My views, my insights, my mind, my emotional intelligence, everything grew. Now, I kind of became addicted to this exploration and these journeys that I go on. Ever since I was about 13, I started to travel a lot. First, it was for sports. Then it was for business.

Then it was for pleasure. Now I mix it into my life in all different types. Earlier this year, I was in Egypt, in Cairo. Then I went to Ghana. Then I went to Buenos Aires in Brazil. Then I went to Iceland. And now I'm in India. And again, I continue to meet people from all over the world and it expands my horizon,

expands my views. If you're not traveling, at least getting out of your comfort zone of your city and exploring your state or exploring different parts of your town to get started, then you're missing out on a huge opportunity. You know, William Feather said, one way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure. And if we're not going out to adventure in new places, then we need to find the adventure within on a daily basis.

You know, Helen Keller said, life is either a great adventure or nothing. If we're not exploring, if we're not learning, if we're not growing, then what are we doing? We're doing nothing. I'm so excited about my journey in India. I'm going to be exploring in Delhi for a few days, going to the Taj Mahal to explore that. And then I'm going to One World Academy, a meditation retreat center, where I'm going to be learning more and going through an inner journey, an inner exploration, an inner adventure. I feel like we have a couple

of different opportunities to explore and adventure in our lives. We can do this in a physical sense. We can go to a new place and explore and learn by being in a new environment. We can connect with different people and have an adventure with a new environment. We can connect with different people and have an adventure with a different type of mind and someone from a different type of background with a different worldly view. And we could go on an adventure every single moment of our days,

of our life, inside of ourselves. We always have that opportunity, but so many of us stick to what's normal, stick to what's comfortable, stick to what we believe is the truth because it's what we were taught. We were taught one thing from one person, from one place, and we believe that's all that's available for us. When really the more I explore, the more I adventure, the more people I interview on this podcast, I realize, wow, I don't really know that much at all. I am actually extremely ignorant to what's possible, to what I could create, to what is possible in the world.

Continue to expand your mind. I'm not saying you need to be wishy-washy from all of your ideals and have no beliefs because you're so all over the place. You can still have your beliefs. You can still have a great foundation, but continue to learn and open up and see what else is possible. This five-minute Friday is all about getting you to commit to exploring. I want you to go on that trip that you've been thinking about for a long time.

Yes, I'm talking to you right now. You've been thinking about traveling somewhere that you've been putting off for years. If that's you, send me a tweet at Lewis Howes and let me know if you've been putting off going years. If that's you, send me a tweet at Lewis Howes and let me know if you've been putting off going on a trip you've always wanted to go. I've always wanted to go to India. So when the opportunity arose where I had the chance and I got invited to do something cool and something interesting, I said, you know what? The year is over. I've completed my summit of greatness. I'm almost complete writing my book. I've got a lot of things complete already. Let me just book the flight and make it happen.

And I'll adjust the rest of my life and my business accordingly. I'm not going to let my life or my business get in the way of my growth and my adventures. So I challenge you. That's right. I challenge you to book that flight to that place you've always wanted to go. Figure out the date, book the flight, and make it happen. You deserve to go on an adventure. You deserve to explore.

If you've got to take your kids and your husband or your wife with you, then go do it. If you've got to go solo, make it happen. You only get this life once. And what if you go another 10, 20 years and you never take that trip, you never explore, you never adventure. And then it's your last day. And you look back at it and you say, man, I stayed in my small town or my comfortable place in my country. I never left and I never got to experience what was possible. Give yourself the opportunity to experience something new, something different

than your comfort zone. I'll leave you with this. Oprah Winfrey says, the biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. You owe it to yourself to explore, to adventure, to go on a journey, and you owe it to yourself to live the life of your dreams. Five Minute Friday, episode number 402. I love you guys. I'm on a journey right now in Delhi, India. If you are here, make sure to send me a message at Lewis Howes and let me know. Let's connect. Let's meet up at a cafe or something. I would love to say hi to you. And for those that aren't here, I hope to connect with you on my next adventure. So send me a message right now on Twitter, at Lewis Howes, and let me know what city you live in, in the world.

I'd love to know where most of you are from so I can connect with you when I do travel to those destinations. Because next year, when the book comes out, I will be doing a tour all around the place at the end of the year. So if you want me to come to your town, let me know, send me a message. If you want to host an event for me for my book tour, I'd love to hear from you. My name is Lewis Howes. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you're looking to take your life to the next level, then look no more. You're in the right place. If this is your first time here, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and share this with your friends. If you know that someone would get value out of this as well. I love you all so very much.

Thank you for being here. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Bye.