The School of Greatness - 620 How to Win (and Why You Fail)

Episode Date: March 28, 2018

"We can't use our talent to produce outstanding results if we're in reaction mode." It's been a while since I've recorded a solo round for the podcast, but I had something to say that got me fired up. So here you go :) Lately I've been thinking a lot about the difference between surviving in business and life and thriving. It makes a massive difference in how you experience each day, as well as each year, but it really doesn't take too much adjustment to flip from one to the other. This one shift in my life has made a huge difference, so I wanted to record an episode where I break down how to do this. Most of the powerful advice I've been given in my life has been really simple. And this key is no different. But it makes the biggest difference day in and day out in my results. I'm giving you my very best insights and answers in this episode to how I consistently have been able to deliver powerful results, keep progressing, and stay healthy and motivated. And it's not as hard as you might think. Welcome to a straight-talking solo round on some of my best business (and life) strategy in Episode 620. In this episode you will learn: The main reason why people fail even when they are working hard (9:10) The key to winning (11:10) What keeps you from living in a high level of energy (11:59) My recommendation for creating consistent strategy in your life (12:40) The best way to keep your team focused on the big strategy (19:20) The 5 top ways to manage your energy efficiently (26:25) Plus much more...

Oh my goodness, we've got a solo round, episode number 620, How to Win and Why You Fail. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, 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. I am so excited today because I'm doing another solo round, everybody.

And I continue to get so many people that say, Lewis, we love, love, love the podcast. All these guests you bring on are bringing us so much value, but we really want to learn more about you and how you've built everything, you know, how you've built all of your businesses, your strategy, everything you do to how you've gotten to where you are, you know, business, life, relationships, everything. And sometimes I forget about all that we've been building over the last decade. You know, I looked back at a Facebook post I had, you know, on Facebook, they remind you of posts that you did back in the day. And there was a post from nine years ago on my Facebook

profile recently, that was a video of me on some flip camera nine years ago, This is before the iPhone camera. And it was at one of my first LinkedIn networking events that I hosted back in the day. And for those that don't know, I kind of started out with my chops using LinkedIn back in 2008, 2009, building my audience and my network there. And I started to see that there was this need at the time, there was a need. And there was a pain point in the world, really. But in America, the need was people were struggling in their business, people weren't getting jobs, they were getting cut from their jobs. And they needed to find the right connections to create new opportunities, whether it be for jobs or their business. And I remember saying, wow, there's this real pain here that people are facing, a real pain.

And that is, you know, opportunities to connect and really to connect in person. And as I was building my audience on LinkedIn, I realized that the true value came when those connections met in person. So I started hosting these LinkedIn networking events. I had this video of me with about 350 or 400 people in a restaurant slash bar in Cleveland, Ohio, and a couple other cities on this kind of LinkedIn networking tour that I did, where I just kind of came up with it and created it from scratch. up with it and created it from scratch. And I want to go into more about how to win and why you fail on this solo episode and really what I think about. This is some of the stuff that I

think about and talk with on a high level with some of my mastermind members in the Greatness Mastermind or just some of my mentors that are earning hundreds of millions of dollars that are worth billions of dollars that are building things on such a big global scale. These are the types of conversations and things I think about when I'm talking with them. So I thought I'd continue to share with you what I think about and really how to win and why you fail if you're not there yet. So that's what we're covering today on this solo round. Really the key things that I do to build everything and continue to stay ahead of the curve.

We'll get into that in a second. And also, if you haven't got my latest book, TheMillionaireMorning.com. Again, TheMillionaireMorning.com. Again, TheMillionaireMorning.com. It's the morning mindsets, habits, and routines that will make you rich. This thing is taking off. Over, I think, 13,000 copies shipped worldwide right now in the last couple of months, and it continues to just every single day. Hundreds of people are ordering the book, giving it to their friends. It's a short, quick read. It's only 40 pages. It's a small booklet. And it gives you all those strategies to help you earn more money today, not in your future, but right now. What are the millionaires

and billionaires doing in their morning routine and their mindset that you can start applying now? It doesn't matter where you live, what resources you have right now, who you grew up with, it doesn't matter. You can apply these things to your life right now. And the book is free. All you do is pay for shipping and handling and it ships worldwide. Go to themillionairemorning.com right now

to get your free book. All right, guys, I'm super pumped about this. Again, solo rounds, so it's just me. It's just me and you connecting on how to win and why you fail. And I was having a conversation earlier about this. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately, because sometimes go ahead and just nod right now. If you ever feel like you are stuck where you're behind, like you're behind on payments. You feel like you don't have enough money really for the next six months.

And you're just kind of paying month by month. Or maybe you've got a couple months of money saved up to pay rent and bills and salary for your team, whatever it may be. And you're constantly trying to pick up and you're constantly trying, you're reactive. A lot of the times it's reactive. It's like, what do I need to do right now to survive this month or the next two months? And there's a level of stress that surrounds our heart and our body when we are constantly reactive. So we may have a business, we may have a job So we may have a business, we may have a job,

we may have a relationship, we may have a vision or a dream for ourselves. But if we are constantly in reaction mode, it is hard to be our fullest, most present, most loving, authentic, and in flow selves. So again, if we are always in reaction mode, that means there's a level of pressure and stress surrounding our chest, engulfing us in this energy that holds us back a little bit. It doesn't allow us to break free and achieve our vision and our dreams at the highest level. And that's a challenge. You're never going to be able to get into the flow if you're always reacting. So this is the key.

The key that I always come back to because sometimes I'll catch myself. You know, when I get really busy, I've got a lot of different projects happening at one time. I've got a team of people that are working on a lot of different projects. There's deadlines, there's interviews, we're creating courses. We're writing books. We're hosting events. I'm getting opportunities to speak all over the world. There's things happening constantly. Life happens. And sometimes life can feel overwhelming.

And Tony Robbins said this quote. He said, the higher your energy level, the more efficient your body, the more efficient your body, the better you feel, and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results. The challenge is, we aren't able to use our talent to produce outstanding results if we are in reaction mode. And that's why you fail. You fail, I fail when I'm in reaction mode, when I'm reacting to what's happening in the industry and feeling like I need to switch things and do things differently and just react, react, react to try to catch up, catch up to what other people are

doing or catch up because I'm comparing myself to someone else or someone else's business or someone else's books or whatever it may be or podcast or events. And when we compare and when we try to catch up, it's almost impossible to produce outstanding results. So how do we win? We win by getting into the flow as frequently as possible so that we can have the opportunity to create outstanding results. And when we build momentum of outstanding results day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year over year, if we are creating outstanding results in our energy, in our effectiveness, in our execution, and we are getting results over and over again, it is a beautiful sight

and it is one of the most beautiful feelings. I'm feeling it now in my life. I've felt it many times before. And there are times where I get sidetracked. There are definitely times where I get sidetracked. But when I continue to show up and do the best I can, there's one key thing that I want to talk about that most people forget. And I see this all the time. So here's the key. This is going to sound extremely simple because most things in life are simple. But this is the key, the key to winning. And why most people fail is they don't have a strategy,

strategy, strategy, strategy. Now we start the year off great with a strategy, right? We think about, you know, our vision, our goals, what we're going to commit to doing every single day and every single week. And then after about a month, that goes out the window because we just got to get caught up. We just got to react, make enough right now, figure these things out. There's so much coming our way. We've got these big dreams, big goals. We forget to take care of our health.

We forget to work out consistently. One thing trips over another thing. And then our strategy goes out the window and we're just back to reaction, reaction, reaction. And you can't live at a high level of energy in your body if you're reacting. Again, you're not going to have a high level of energy if you're constantly living in this scarcity mindset, this mindset of I need to survive, I need to survive, I need to figure this out now because if I don't, then I'm not going to have

enough next month or a couple months. And if we're constantly living in that stress, fear, survival mindset and mode, our body is going to break down, which is going to break down our energy. body is going to break down, which is going to break down our energy. And the more it's broken down month after month, we're going to continue to react and the cycle continues and we won't be able to produce outstanding results like Tony Robbins said. So what do I recommend? I recommend having a strategy session with yourself every single Sunday or every single Monday morning. And if you work at a company and you have your own job, then you can do this by yourself. You can do this with your

spouse. You can do this with a friend. You can do it with someone in your family. But having a 15 to 30-minute strategy. What is a strategy that we're going to create for this week, for this month, and for this quarter, right? What's the strategy for us to get ahead? You know, we've gotten a certain place right now. Maybe I'm happy with my results. Maybe I'm not happy. So what's going to get us out of this situation to start getting ahead,

to not be where the puck is now reacting to the puck, but where the puck is going to be in the future. So we're ahead of the game. And that's the key, is to get ahead of the game of the life that you're playing. What is the life you're playing? What is the game you're playing in life? And how can you always stay ahead so that when the puck goes to a certain spot, your vision is so clear that you're headed in that direction, not where the puck was and trying to catch the puck. You're in front of the puck. The puck gets batted around.

It comes your direction perfectly for your stick and you slap that sucker right in the goal every single time. Slap shot into the goal, shot after shot. It's just like a beautiful sound. It's just like pops it over right past the goalie in the corner pocket. Boom, score. That's what it's all about. But if the puck is always in front of us and we're just chasing or chasing, we're just

skating ahead, skating ahead, trying to hit it. We can never hit it. It's exhausting. It is so exhausting and it holds us back mentally, emotionally, physically. And we feel like we just want to give up a lot. We feel like we're behind. We feel like we're failing. And that's not what you want to feel because your feelings will generate energy. They will generate the way you show up. If you don't feel a certain way, you're going to show up a certain way. So how do we stay ahead? Strategy is the key.

I remember I've got a high level coaching program called the Greatness Mastermind. These are seven, eight figure entrepreneurs, some of the top people in my community who are creating extraordinary results, who have big audiences. They're creating big results in their audience, Big audiences, they're creating big results in their audience, impacting the world in a positive way. They have a growth mindset and they are committed to constantly growing. They are part of the Greatness Mastermind and we've got this incredible group all over the world. And last year we had Brendan Bouchard, who is a high performance coach, master trainer,

all these things, incredible, number one New York Times bestselling author. He's been on the podcast. And he broke down, you know, really the keys of building your business. And the number one thing that most people focus on is selling. Sales, sales, sales. But they don't focus on the thing that they should be focusing on, which is strategy. Strategy should always be at the top. Where are we going? What are we doing to innovate? How are we going to stay ahead and be where the puck is going,

not where the puck's at right now and always being behind? And you can think about this in any area of your life. You don't have to have a business to think about this, but you've got to have a strategy for your life. The key ingredients of your life need to have a strategy for your life. The key ingredients of your life need to have a strategy. What is your health going to be like? What is your relationships? What are your finances? Again, do you feel stressed because you don't know how to manage your money? And you're constantly out of sync financially. And you don't have anything saved up.

You don't know where to put your money and investments, and you're living month by month, check by check. If so, then you're in reaction and stress mode. And you've got to learn how to at least set up the systems, having a strategy to set up systems for your finances. Now, I'm not going to say that strategy and the system is going to automatically make you wealthier, but it's going to give you more peace of mind, which is going to allow you to have better energy to make your body more efficient. And when your body is more efficient, you're going to feel better. And then you're going to be able to use your talents to produce greater results to help you earn more cash, to help you bring in more revenue for your business, side hustle, your job,

whatever it is that you're doing to bring in more money. And that's one thing. You've got to have that strategy. Same thing for your health. I'll give an example. There are times in my life where I am a machine with my health. I am so efficient. I am on it with the things I eat. I'm on it with my workouts. And then there are other times where, you know, again, life happens and I allow myself to get behind and I allow myself to be chasing the puck as opposed to be in front of the puck where it just comes to me and slap it right into the back of the net. puck where it just comes to me and slap it right into the back of the net. And that's a challenge. And I allow myself to do it because I always think, you know what? I was a pro athlete.

I've got this. I can take a few weeks off. I can sleep in. I can eat late. I can do whatever I want. I can have those extra five, six, 10 donuts in an hour and I'll be fine. Like it's not going to affect me. And it always affects me. You know, time and momentum will either work in our favor or work against us. So if we have positive actions and a positive strategy followed by positive execution daily, consistently, that momentum will work in our favor. And if we have a lack of strategy and a lack of execution, that will build into momentum and will create a negative result for us. And it happens every single time. And again, I try to trick myself and say, you know what? I've worked

really hard. Let me just take three weeks off and not move my body and not work out. And I'll just lounge around because I'm not feeling good. And it always takes more time and I freaking always, it pisses me off because I'm like, I'm better than this. I'm better than this. And then it takes me a couple of weeks to start training again to get back into it. And it's just like you lose time, you lose energy and you keep chasing and reacting to life. Strategy. So here's something else practical. You know, if you have a business, when's the last time you had a strategy meeting with your business partner, your team, your coach, your mentor of where you are headed?

When was the last time? And I try to do this every Monday and every Friday with my COO, Cesar, which some of you have heard of or see me post about on Instagram or online. And we are constantly strategizing. And some people may think like, well, that's too much like wasting time. You're just wasting time talking about ideas. But really, we're researching the science of our mission and the results we're getting each day and each week.

We're tracking numbers. We're tracking sales. We're tracking impact. We're tracking happiness with our team. We're tracking customer happiness. And if something is out of whack or something is not growing, then we know that we've got to rethink the strategy. And as the world is innovating and evolving and changing, technology is innovating, evolving,

and changing. People are innovating, evolving, and changing. We get to innovate, evolve, and change as well. Not reacting to competitors or comparing ourselves to other people, but making sure we're running our race based on our mission and our vision and always being true to the vision and the mission of what we're looking to create. And so if you don't have a vision for yourself yet, then I recommend my first book, The School of Greatness, which breaks down the eight principles to greatness and gives you clear exercises on how to create a vision for yourself, setting

goals, creating the strategy, things like that. I highly recommend doing that for your personal life, your business. The School of Greatness book, you can get it on Amazon. Very powerful stuff with a lot of exercises there. Because a lot of people say to me, well, how do you find your purpose and your vision and your goals? The School of Greatness book breaks it down chapter by chapter. You can get that on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or anywhere else online.

But this is why people fail. And why do people win? It's, you know, the people that you see winning, right, the ones who are thriving, the ones who are thriving in life, thriving in their careers, you know, whether it be in music or acting or business or art,

it doesn't matter, real estate, the ones that are thriving have a clear strategy, and they're thinking, okay, what's the thing I can do now that will pay off in six months, a year, three years from now? What can I do to invest in something now for the future? And those without a strategy aren't thinking about the future and investing in themselves. They're thinking about what can I do right now to pay my rent, to stay afloat, to breathe, to survive.

And you've got to be willing to take a step back and say, okay, I need to take this time once a week at least. What's the strategy? How do I get ahead? What am I going to do? And if you can't figure it out on your own, that's why you hire a coach or you find a mentor or you ask someone who's done it before, been there before,

and say, you know, I'm just feeling stuck. Can you give me like a clear, you know, some clear strategy or some ideas and how we can create a strategy together? That is the key. You know, mentorship, I've had incredible mentors. I've hired coaches my entire life who give me great ideas. You know, I was just meeting with Ed Milet a few weeks ago in Laguna Beach. And this guy has had an incredible, you know, career in business, you know, made a lot of money.

And, you know, he took me on a flight on his private jet back from Vegas when we were both speaking at a conference with Grant Cardone. And I just spent some quality time with him where he was really talking about the power of mentorships and the power of, you know, a personal advisory board and coaches and, and constantly being able to bounce ideas and just be around these people who have been there

already, who have achieved something that you're looking to achieve in that general area. So if you're not surrounding yourself with these people that can constantly just bounce great strategy and great ideas around you, then it's going to be that much harder doing it on your own. You know, that's one of the reasons why I created the Greatness Mastermind. If you want to check it out, it's greatnessmastermind.com. And you can apply if you meet the requirements. These people are making seven figures a year in their business. And it's a high, powerful group where we create strategy together. And each person earns more every year than they did the year before. And that's powerful

when you can be a part of a power group that supports with big ideas, you know, work curating and bringing in and facilitating some of the most brilliant people in the world in business and teaching their strategy to my group. And that's what it is. When you have the right strategy, then you can take the right consistent actions to stay ahead in your life and in your business. You know, I cannot emphasize this enough. Strategy for your health. You know, what is the game plan? How are you going to set yourself up

to win every single day so that you know you have peace of mind? All you need to do is show up and execute because you have a clear game plan. There were many months where I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to go up to the gym for an example. I'm just going to go up to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym five days a week. And I did this for a while because I was like, I know how to work out. I know how to lift. You know, I was an elite athlete.

I can train with the best of them. I can work my butt off. And I was like, I'm just going to go up there and lift. And I never really had growth. You know, I was kind of just maintaining because I was like, I'll just do treadmill here and there. I'll lift a little bit, but I didn't have a clear game plan. And when you have a clear game plan, all you need to do is show up and execute. You don't have to show up and then think about what you're going to do every single day and think about what's the next exercise or

think about what's the next call I'm going to make in my business or think about the next steps I'm going to take in my career. You have a clear vision with a clear strategy and you execute. Then every week you analyze and say, how is the strategy working for my life in every area? Is it working or is it not working? Am I growing and learning or am I maintaining and keeping my head above water? Again, I've noticed that the more demands we put on ourselves, the more challenge it is to have more time flexibility because there's so

many more opportunities that come to me that I get to manage. And I manage the time differently. And I have to manage my energy efficiently. And that's why I think you should focus on a few different things to help your strategy continue to be bulletproof. One is take care of your body. You know, you've got to eat well, work out, sleep well, and take time away from your screens. You know, I just went to Hawaii for four and a half days and I left my phone and computer at home in Los Angeles so I can completely disconnect and take care of my body because I was feeling the stress starting to come. So I knew I needed to get away. Another thing to be productive, number two, is to batch your workloads so you can focus on blocks of time and then take a break so you're not constantly in reaction mode.

Oh, there's an email coming in. I got to respond. There's this I got to do. I got to do it now. No, batch your workload so you can focus for blocks of time. The third thing that I recommend so you can create more time, freedom, and better energy and a better strategy in life is to delegate anything you don't need to do yourself. If someone else can do it, and if it's not helping you get closer to your vision, and

if you're not the best at it, then you should be delegating that task. The fourth thing, again, taking vacation and breaks. You know, we talked about batching, but if you're not spending time on breaks, whether it be getting away for a few days or just leaving your phone at home when you go out to dinner or go to the movies. I like to do that a lot where I just leave my phone at home. My girlfriend, she brings her phone so I can still navigate and drive around and check things if I need to if there's an emergency, but it gives me four to six hours of just being present and not reactive, not like, oh, here's an email, here's a social media tweet, whatever it is.

So that's the fourth thing. And the fifth thing is to surround yourself with good people. When you remove the toxic relationships and draining people in your life, you have more energy. Again, that energy brings you more clarity. That clarity allows you to use your talents to produce outstanding results, as Tony Robbins would say, as opposed to just reactive, constantly in stress mode.

So how to win and why you fail. The key is strategy. And Eleanor Roosevelt said it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. So you've got to focus on not hoping for a better future. And I hope I get out of this mess I'm in right now. And I hope I can make more money in the future. And I hope I lose the weight. And I hope I find the guy of my dreams or the girl of my dreams or the partner of my dreams. I hope, the guy of my dreams or the girl of my dreams or the partner of my dreams. I hope. I wish it happens in the future. No. Plan. Create a strategy. Plan. And then execute. Is it working or is it not

working? Let's strategize again. Every week, you should be thinking of your strategy, dreaming about your goals, dreaming about your vision, and saying saying what's the thing that's going to get me closer to that Today and this week and then evaluating it at the end of the week or at the start of the week you Matter in this world. You have a powerful gift and a powerful Presence when you allow yourself to have full energy to have full energy, to have full authority over who you are in

this world, when you don't hold anything back, when you don't take yourself for granted, when you allow yourself to surround yourself with positive people in this world, you have an incredible gift and an incredible talent. And now is the time to start stepping into who you were born to be. This is not a practice round. This is, for all we know, all you've got this one life right now. It's time to set yourself up to win. I don't want to see you fail anymore. I don't want to see you sacrifice anymore. I don't want to see you, you know, barely breathing your head out of water anymore. I don't want to see you chasing the puck. I want to see you in front of the puck. So when the puck comes to you, you knock it right into

the corner pocket, just past the goalie and you score every single time. That builds confidence, that builds momentum, that builds more positive habits in your life, and you start to attract what you want. You know, this momentum builds an incredible magnet around you. And when you build momentum in your business or your career, your relationships, your health, people look at you differently. They sense this aura. You become a superstar because you've learned a secret that most people can't figure out. And that's the secret of momentum and allowing momentum to carry you and to push you forward in life. And the more momentum you have, it's like this super engine.

It's like this jet fuel just launching you into your dreams, launching you closer and closer to your dream life and just putting you in the right place and in the right position for your dreams to happen effortlessly. And when you set yourself up to win with a clear strategy and you stay focused on it, you build your life around the strategy and then you execute, you are creating a fuel for amazing energy in your life. You're becoming a magnet to possibilities, a magnet to abundance, a magnet to incredible access. You become the center of your dreams and they start coming to you from every direction. This is your life. It's your time to step up and to create the life of your dreams. Gosh, I got to do more solo rounds. I'm loving this. Episode 620, my friends,

lewishouse.com slash 620. If you enjoyed this, how to win and why you fail, please let me know over on Instagram. You can take a screenshot of this and post it over there. Tag me at Lewis Howes over there on Twitter. Share with your friends. Again, if you know some friends who you feel like maybe are stuck or who could use this for inspiration, share it with them. If you want me to do more solo rounds, just message me on Instagram at Lewis Howes and let me know that you want me to do more. And feel free to type in the topics that you want me to talk about. You know, this is, again, it may sound simple strategy, right? That may sound like a simple topic, but most people forget to think about their strategy. And I see it all the time.

We've got a couple thousand members in our inner circle entrepreneurship group online. And a lot of the challenges they face is they feel like they're just barely getting their head above water. They're stuck. They're behind. They're chasing. And I see it. You could still be making good money, but feel this sense of

stress on your chest, because you don't have a good strategy. So it's simple idea. But most people aren't executing it. And it holds them back. Again, Tony Robbins said the higher your energy level, the more efficient your body, the more efficient your body, the better you feel, the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. Again, if you haven't left a review yet, please leave a review. Again, you were born for more than just feeling stressed and feeling stuck in your life. You were born to fulfill your dreams, to figure them out, to realize and actualize your dreams. And you were born to become a magnet of abundance, a magnet of opportunities in your life. But you must be willing to create the strategy and constantly reinvent the strategy as time goes on.

I love you so very much. It means the world to me that you're a part of this community. In my mind, the best community of conscious achievers in the world. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. you