The School of Greatness - Discover Your Purpose & Achieve Peace In Your Life w/ Jay Shetty EP 1371

Episode Date: December 31, 2022

Jay Shetty is an award-winning host, storyteller, Internet personality, and viral content creator. Since launching his video channel in 2016, Jay’s viral wisdom videos have garnered over 7 billion v...iews and gained over 35 million followers globally. He is one of the most viewed people on the internet internationally.This episode was one that resonated the most with you guys in the past and I’m excited for the value it’s going to bring you. I hope you enjoy it!In this episode you will learn,How to unlearn what we think we know about ourselves.Ways to fill your life with a deep sense of loveThe difference between the monkey and monk mind.How to have tough conversations with other people.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The ego wants to be the best of the best or the ego wants to be the worst of the worst. The ego won't accept being in the middle. So you see these two sides of ego keeping us locked away. And so the only way to balance it and bring it all into one is genuine... 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.
Starting point is 00:00:32 Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome to today's special episode. Over the last 1,300 plus episodes, there have been so many impactful interviews that I've been lucky enough to have, and I always like to reflect on some of the most powerful. And this episode was one that resonated with most of you guys in the past, and I'm excited for the value it's going to bring you today as well. So I hope you enjoy today's episode. Now, why is identity something that you focused on in the beginning as something that was
Starting point is 00:01:08 important to talk about in the beginning of the book for you? Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I want to say I'm really grateful to be back, Lewis. Like, you know, having a real friendship in this space and collaborating and loving what someone else is doing. I think first of all, like just the friendship we share is really important to me and meaningful to me. And I feel like, I feel like a lot of people feel like when their career is growing, it's harder when you're older, when your career is growing, when things are moving forward, when we're busier than ever, it's harder to build deep relationships. And the fact that we've done that in the last two and a half years, I think it's testament to who you are and the type of person you are. Of course, man. It's hard to be conscious.
Starting point is 00:01:45 I love you, man. I love you too, man. It's hard to be conscious in creating those relationships when you have work, you have family, you have your relationship, you know, all these different things. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:52 So yeah, back to identity. So I start off the chapter with this beautiful thought from Charles Horton Cooley. And I love telling it because it's just the best. And I think it was written in like the 1900s.
Starting point is 00:02:04 And he said, today the challenge is, I'm not what I think I am. I'm not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am. It's crazy, man. And it's like, it blows my mind. Every time I say it, it gives me the chills. Like I feel it.
Starting point is 00:02:18 And the reason why I start with identity is because I think that's the root of all our challenges. And the first step to thinking like a monk is starting at the root not starting at the symptoms or the superficial or the surface level but let's go to the root if you're playing a role if you're wearing a mask if you're dressed in clothes that are not yours then you end up living a life that's not yours. And in the book, I give this example of method acting. Yes, with Daniel Day-Lewis.
Starting point is 00:02:52 Yeah, I'm a massive movie junkie. And I love method actors. So people like Heath Ledger, of course, from the Dark Knight series. You've got Jared Leto. So Jared Leto, when he played the Joker in, this is not in the book, in Suicide Squad, he used to send dead rats in the mail to his co-stars.
Starting point is 00:03:07 He did not. He did, because he was trying to get into the mindset of how someone that perverted would behave. And then Daniel Day-Lewis, when he was filming for Gangs of New York, he's actually wearing these coats that are centuries old so that he can get into character when he's off camera. Yeah, when he can feel it, right? He's not wearing watches. He's not carrying around his mobile phone.
Starting point is 00:03:27 They're speaking in the accents. And he talks about how he actually went crazy. Because guess what? When you fake being someone for so long, you think it's your reality. And that's what happens to all of us. We play a role at work. We play a role at home.
Starting point is 00:03:41 We play a role with our family. We play a role with our friends. And then we think that role is us. Right. And we lose ourselves. And to me, that is the core reason why we're chasing things that are not important to us. We're unhappy despite reaching accolades, and we feel dissatisfied. So what should our identity be then? Our identity should start with unlearning everything that we think we know about ourselves. Okay. How do we unlearn? So the best method of unlearning is this.
Starting point is 00:04:08 First and I'm going to get really strategic and tactical because I think that people need to know what to do rather than a concept. The first thing you do is write down everything you currently are chasing in your life. Make a long list. Your goals, your dreams. Your goals, your dreams. Accomplishments. Anything that you're currently chasing and pursuing.
Starting point is 00:04:22 Okay. Write them down. You can write down three, you can write down five, you can write down 10, depending on how ambitious you are. Second line, ask yourself, what is the source of that? Where did you get that idea? Did you get that idea from a TV show you saw? Did you get that idea from your parents? Did you get that idea from your mom and your dad, your sister, your cousin? Did you get that idea because your friend just got proposed to on Instagram? Did you get that idea because your friend just got proposed to on Instagram? Did you get that idea because your friend just got promoted? Did you get that idea because you just broke up? Or did you get that idea because you just feel it when you do it that
Starting point is 00:04:54 you feel alive? Ask yourself that. Give me a specific example that you had when you were 15, 18 was like a goal or accomplishment that you were chasing and where it came from. Absolutely. So my goal when I was young was to be an investment banker. And when I really asked myself, where did that come from? It came because in my community, small community in London,
Starting point is 00:05:12 the most successful person financially was an investment banker. So I believed you had to be an investment banker to be successful. So when I asked myself that question, where does that come from? It comes from society's version of success, not mine. And then the third thing you ask yourself is, well, then what is mine?
Starting point is 00:05:29 What is coming from inside of me? And if you just do that three-step process, now what you're doing is you're filtering out the noise and you're starting to listen to your voice. The thing is, you've got a voice inside of you, but it's quiet. It's like, Jay, take note of me. Like, Lewis. And it's just like trying to get through. And the noise of everyone else's opinions is so loud. So this is where you filter it.
Starting point is 00:05:50 How do we start to find out what we truly want then? Not based on what other people think is success. How do we listen to ourselves? And if you've been chasing something your whole life, how do you say, well, actually, that's not what I want. This is. Yeah. One of the biggest mistakes we make is that we confuse inexperience with being unqualified. So because we've not tried a lot of things, we just naturally believe that we can't be that good at them. So if I've never spoken on a stage, I just think, oh, I'm probably not good at that. Or if I've never played golf,
Starting point is 00:06:23 I probably think, oh, I'm probably not good at that. Or if I've never played golf, I'd probably think, oh, I'm probably not good at that. And so we start writing off things without even trying them. So the best method I can share with someone is take the next month, take the next four weekends in the month that gives you eight days and get really tactical every single day. That's why you're playing tennis a lot right now. take the eight days go join a course an online course a workshop go and shadow a friend go to a seminar a conference go to reading a book listen to a podcast go and expose yourself to eight different things in a month eight different things different things in a month and guess what in a month you will have learned what you probably would have learned in eight years because most of us test one new thing a year. Maybe. Maybe.
Starting point is 00:07:05 If that, exactly, right? Like some people don't even do that. But if you do eight different things in a month, and this is how you have to see it. If you went to eight different restaurants in a month, you ask yourself after you eat a meal, I had that burrito or I had that taco. Did I like it?
Starting point is 00:07:18 Right? The first question you ask yourself is, did I like it? You got to try it first. You got to try it first. You got to go to the restaurant. There's no point. So you got to say, did I like it?
Starting point is 00:07:25 The second question you ask yourself is, why did I or why did I not like it? Like, why is so important? I think too many people just go, I like it or I don't like it. Why did I not like it? And the third question you have to ask yourself really, really simply is, do I want to do it again? And if you do, that's where you start uncovering. So my point is, inexperience. Do not misinterpret inexperience for a lack of qualification.
Starting point is 00:07:49 I'm guessing you're doing things in your life right now that you would have ridden off if you didn't try. I know you've talked about writing a bestselling book. You've talked about it with this amazing documentary. I never believed I could do half the things I'm doing today. And you know that because we met when i was just creating content on social media and it's like now when you see things expand you're like you don't know until you give it a go and ask yourself do i enjoy it yes so i grew up very competitive and you talk about competition as one of these i can't remember if it's like four or five different things and competition is one of the things that's actually
Starting point is 00:08:23 like um i wish i had the page right down here five different things and competition is one of the things that's actually like, I wish I had the page written down here. But you talk about competition as like, not the highest level of ourself. Yes. In my entire life, I was competitive, it was driven to beat other people. And in the last seven years, I've shifted so much. I'm still competitive, still wanna win,
Starting point is 00:08:43 but I'm not like hurt if I lose. I'm not upset. It doesn't defeat me emotionally. Whereas before it used to be like, this was my identity, winning, had to win. Now it's like, okay, what did I learn? What did I gain from this experience? Did I have fun? Did I enjoy it? Did I inspire people even if I didn't win in this situation? In chapter two, you talk about negativity and the quote you use is, it is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others.
Starting point is 00:09:12 Does competition and unhappiness link together in your mind? Like if we need to be competitive to be happy in order if someone else loses, how do we manage ourself in this competitive world of winning in sports, of building a bigger business, of these different things, being number one in New York Times bestseller list? How do we manage that with this world we're in,
Starting point is 00:09:37 but also wanting to be happy at the same time? Yeah, what a great question. So the way I see it is that competition in and of itself is not good or bad. And this is like the monk mindset on 99% of things, that this mug is not good or bad. It could be filled with water or it could be filled with poison. Yes. And so competition, I'll give you an example.
Starting point is 00:10:00 As monks, our competition is in how much love and respect we show to each other. That's your competition? That's what you compete on. Or how long can we meditate for? No, no, no. I can meditate longer than you. So if any monk, and I did this plenty of times. Really?
Starting point is 00:10:14 If I sat there and I thought, oh yeah, look at him. He's scratching his back. He got out like that. Your meditation just got destroyed. All the value. And so monks will never ask how long you meditate. They focus on how deep you meditate. And someone who meditates deep doesn't go on about how deep it was.
Starting point is 00:10:30 But you compete for showing respect. You compete for serving each other. You compete for how well you can collaborate. And I feel like you live this. Yes. I feel like you have this. I didn't used to do that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:42 But you do that now. You think like a monk. I feel like we're always trying to find a way where we can be better friends to each other. Support each other. And support each other. Yeah. And so you're competing on that. And that's a positive competition that I think you can have.
Starting point is 00:10:54 So you can still use, and this is the beautiful thing about the monk mindset, you can use anything in a positive way. Now, in your second question about what does it mean about business and New York Times about seller lists? And being number one This is how I see it If while you're writing your book if while you're recording your podcast if you're sitting there going I hope this is gonna be number one. This better be number one I hope I sell more copies than this person who's launching at the same time because that's the only way well guess what?
Starting point is 00:11:23 Now the quality of your output right now has just dropped. Because guess what? You're now living 75% in the future, and you're 25% right now. And guess what? This 25% is going to define that future goal and result. And your happiness. And your happiness.
Starting point is 00:11:37 Whether you get the result or not. Totally. Whereas for me, when I was writing my book, and of course I want my book to be a best-selling book. Of course I want my podcast to do well. Of course we don't't do anything for it to be last. Like no one does that. But what I do know is that when I'm creating, when I'm producing, when I'm writing, that's all I'm doing. See, the truth is that only 2% of the world's population can multitask. Now, the crazy thing is when-
Starting point is 00:12:01 Who are those 2%? When 2%, when people hear that, they think I'm in in that Oh, I'm in that two percent. Everyone thinks that they're in that but most of us are the 98 percent Yeah, and the truth is there is no such thing as multitasking. What it is is fast switching between two tasks The quality is just dropping because you can actually you cannot do two things at one time You cannot no one genuinely can do two things at once. I guess you could maybe like pat your head and do this Yeah, yeah, yeah You can't do something productive at once. I guess you could maybe like pat your head and do this at the same time. You can't do something productive at the same time, right? Or creative. And so what I'm saying is that when you're sitting here going, this needs to be number one, you are reducing that thing's ability to be number one because it now doesn't have your full focus. Right. So that's
Starting point is 00:12:40 the difference maker that you can want to be number one. There's nothing wrong with that. But you can't keep comparing what number one is to someone else's goal too because everyone's got a different trajectory. Like there are some people that are kind of come in and do really well at one thing and you're going to do really well at another. And that's why competition has to first be in your space. Like don't compete in a space that's not yours. Right.
Starting point is 00:13:02 Because now you're just trying to be someone else again and you get lost in identity. A new identity. Exactly. You talk about the four motivations. One is fear, desire, duty, and love. And as I was reading this, you know, fear is kind of like the making sure you have your basic needs met, right? It's like, do I have shelter? Do I have food? Am I protected? Am I safe? You know, living in fear, it's being driven to get out of that fear, I guess, right? Or driven by that. Then you have desire, which is probably what was most of my life, was one of my main motivation, which was desire.
Starting point is 00:13:35 Seeking personal gratifications through success, wealth, and pleasure. That's probably most of like, I don't know, any teenage boy, you know, who's just like watching the media and seeing what their friends do. They're driven by desire. Girls, money, cool toys, results, success. I don't want to generalize it, but that's what I saw a lot growing up.
Starting point is 00:13:57 Sure, me too. Now, the last two, the third and fourth are duty and love. Duty is motivated by gratitude, responsibility, and the desire to do the right thing. And love is compelled by care for others and the urge to help them. And I feel like in the last seven years, it's been more duty and love.
Starting point is 00:14:15 It's more like mission focused. And there's an amount of happiness that I've never felt before until I reached practicing duty and love. And I remember I never was able to fall asleep at night until about seven, eight years ago without an hour, hour and a half of just anxious, anxiety, stress, concern, worry. And when I shifted from seeking personal gratifications to being motivated by a mission and love and gratitude,
Starting point is 00:14:46 it's like I started to fall asleep within minutes. And it's crazy. But why do we live in this fear motivation and desire motivation when it only causes us a lot of pain? Great question, man. And thanks for sharing your journey too. Because I mean, everyone, as you can see, Lewis is already thinking like a monk. it's great I love it but it's so yeah great question the challenge is that we think things come with emotions feelings we think things come with feelings and emotions and guess what they don't so if you chase money well they might for a moment right or they won't i don't think they even do it's such a false sense of feeling i don't maybe for a moment but it's so short-lived that it's it's not even worth counting almost so it's like when you when you think that i'm chasing money
Starting point is 00:15:36 guess what you will get money yep and that's great money is really important and money is a really important resource but guess what money's not now gonna fill that gap, that void, that feeling, that emotion that you're missing in your life. And so- What are most people missing? We're missing a deep sense of love. I think the biggest need in the world, as we've heard many times before from all the ancient texts,
Starting point is 00:15:56 they summarize it like this, to love and be loved. Like that is the need of humanity, to love and be loved. And when we don't experience that, we then start looking for status. To love and be loved. Like that is the need of humanity. To love and be loved. And when we don't experience that, we then start looking for status. We then start looking for money. Then we then start looking for recognition. To help us give the feeling of false sense of love. Correct.
Starting point is 00:16:16 And the challenge is because most of us didn't experience that from our parents. And this is the key thing. What we crave in life is what we did or didn't get from our parents. What our parents did give us is what we continue to crave, or what they didn't give us is what we continue to crave. So you'll find that most people's love languages that they chase are things that their parents didn't give them. So if their parents didn't give them time, they now crave everyone's time. If their parents didn't give them gifts, they crave gifts. If their parents didn't give them acts of service, they're craving those acts of service.
Starting point is 00:16:50 So it's because of our childhood. And if we don't learn to process all of that experience, which most people never get the time to do. And I empathize with that because I've had to go through that. I've seen me repeating my parents' patterns. What was the thing you were craving? So I would crave, a big thing for me was I would crave surprises and gifts because- That's your thing. Yeah, that's my thing.
Starting point is 00:17:13 Still it's your thing. It's still my thing. Did your parents not do that for you? No, they did. My mom did a lot of it. That's why you still crave it. Correct. So my mom would always, every year on my birthday, she'd always surprise me with the one thing I wanted. And I wasn't spoiled growing up. I didn't have a lot growing up.
Starting point is 00:17:28 But she would get that one thing, whether it was like a Power Rangers toy or whatever it was. Video game. Yeah, the thing is you want it as a kid, right? And she would always surprise me with that. And that became so deep-rooted. Now, I'll give you an example. When I then married my wife, you just expect people to know that? They're going to do the same thing.
Starting point is 00:17:46 Totally. You shouldn't do that. No, because I'm expecting my wife to be like my mom in the sense of I expect her to surprise or show me love in the same way. And she doesn't know that. She's not a mind reader. I can't expect her to know that. So it took communication. It took time for me to explain that.
Starting point is 00:18:03 So anyway, I think that's where it stems from. That desire, you can say it comes from society and education. Of course it does. But I think the deepest place it comes is what your parents did or didn't give you. That's where it comes from. Yeah. Now, this was really cool. I think right now there's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of concern. There's a lot of fear in the world with coronavirus and just people concerned in general of the chaos of their life. Whether it's coronavirus or anything else that's happening, people seem to live in this fear state of mind right now a lot. You talked about the fear of fear and how you had to learn to let go of your fear of fear. What does it actually mean, letting go of the fear of fear?
Starting point is 00:18:43 Yeah. So I talk about how we fear the wrong things. What does it actually mean, letting go of the fear of fear? Yeah, so I talk about how we fear the wrong things. What do we fear? So most of us are fearful of how our friends are reacting, what's happening on social media, and what's the random bit of news that we heard. None of it is fact-based. That's one of the biggest issues. It's worry-based. It's worry-based, and it's also imagination-based. So we become fiction writers. We've all watched too many movies. Now we start writing these beautiful movies in our head. Well, not beautiful, scary movies in our head of what may happen. So our imagination, and Seneca said it best, we suffer twice,
Starting point is 00:19:16 one in reality and one in imagination. We suffer twice. What actually happens to us and then the story we continue to tell ourselves. Totally. Now there's this incredible study in the book that I have to talk about. So they took monks and they took non monks and they competed against each other. So they put this plate where you experience heat. And so what happens is the non monks touch this plate.
Starting point is 00:19:41 Now, this plate heats up gradually, softly. And then at one point it gets really hot for 10 seconds and then it cools down. And so what happened is that when the non-monks touched it, the anxiety and pressure and stress in their brain just triggered straight away, even though it wasn't that hot. It wasn't hot. It was heating, but it wasn't hot to do anything major to you. But the anxiety and stress in imagination or in anticipation went through the roof in the non-monks. Now, this is what's fascinating. When the monks touched it, they showed that it didn't feel anything as it rose.
Starting point is 00:20:12 But as it got to its highest, they felt physical pain, but they showed no trigger of emotional pain because they did not assign any emotional element to that pain. assign any emotional element to that pain. So my point with that is, you can look at the news right now and you can get scared straight away and get incomplete. Freeze mode, feeling stuck, paralyzed, whatever it is, because what you're now doing is you're creating a story of what's going to happen. And that story. And you can cause sickness in yourself.
Starting point is 00:20:42 You can cause sickness inside yourself. Just by the story, not actually. The reality. The facts of the disease hitting you story you can cause sickness in yourself you can cause just by the story not actually the reality that the facts of the disease hitting you or something happening physically to you totally and that story again can be used positively so your story may actually be true but if it's going to be true now you can prepare and that shifts you away from being scared because now you're preparing yes and so the real you can be confident because you're prepared. Exactly. And so we should be shifting our fear energy into preparation energy. Because what fear does is it keeps you locked there, right? We just feel
Starting point is 00:21:15 stuck. I'll give you an example. When you were preparing for big games, when you used to play in the NFL, right? And you're playing American football against some of the biggest athletes in the world. It's like you can either sit there and be scared that you're gonna play this game on the weekend, or you can prepare. And your confidence is in the preparation. So when people go, how do I feel confident right now? Are you preparing?
Starting point is 00:21:35 Are you putting the reps? Are you putting the reps? Are you building your immunity? Are you taking your vitamins? Are you- Drinking lots of water. Are you drinking lots of water? Are you taking the steps that are needed to prepare
Starting point is 00:21:44 for whatever's coming? You will feel more confident that way yeah so how do we learn to let go of the fear of fear though like how do we say okay we're only going to allow it to hurt us when it actually hurts us and not the fear of it is there a process is there just an awareness of this that when you're in anxiety worry stress fear you you just breathe and meditate then? What's the process of letting go of the fear of fear? Yeah, so meditation, mindfulness, powerful tools, but I'd say the process, and I want it to be as tactical and strategic as we can.
Starting point is 00:22:13 The thing is to get really close to that fear. So what we usually do is embrace it, get close to it, get intimate with it. Become the bat. Sit in the bat cave. Literally, literally, yeah. And embrace the fear. Totally. We run away from fear. We like to run away and go, oh, it's not coming with me. Or what we do is we hear one thing and we define the whole understanding of our fear based on that one thing. So it's like someone, and I'll give you a normal example in a normal life scenario.
Starting point is 00:22:40 Someone says to you in the office, you know that they're going to cut a few people. And you don't even check. You don't even know. And now you just made it real. And now you're running with it and you're trying to run away from it. So you're trying to avoid conversations with your boss. You're trying to avoid any conflict. You're trying to, you know, you're just trying to avoid it. And so actually what you need to do is go, okay, let me actually discover that fear let me go intimate with that fear let me ask myself where's that fear coming from what am i really scared of what am i really scared of am i really scared of losing my job am i scared of not
Starting point is 00:23:16 having any money what am i really scared of and when you get to the root and i call it the why ladder in the book so it's asking yourself what am i scared of and then go why am i scared of scared of? And then go, why am I scared of this? Why am I scared of this? Why am I scared of this? And when you can't ask why any longer, you've got to the answer. And that's what you have to deal with. Most of us are not dealing with what we're actually scared of. So that's how you let go. You let go by keep asking yourself. So I'll give you an example of mine. Like if I heard that or if you hear that in your office, that people are getting cut, it's like you just get scared and panicked. But the question is, why am I scared of that?
Starting point is 00:23:48 Am I scared of that because I haven't been working hard for six months? Am I scared of that because I've been skipping meetings? Am I scared of that because I know my boss will probably fire me first? Or am I scared because I've been performing really well and I'm expecting a promotion? Knowing which one it is,
Starting point is 00:24:01 it sets you up to build the path forward. Not knowing that just puts you in this panic frenzy. I think also like doing all the things you talked about, which is discovering within yourself, being aware of it, but then also just have the conversation. 100%. Confront it with your manager, your boss and say, hey, listen, I heard some rumors that there might be some cuts. And I want to let you know that I'm 100% committed to doing whatever it takes to help this company grow. Yes, 100%. I believe in this mission more than anything.
Starting point is 00:24:26 Here's what I've been doing the last three months, and here's what I want to continue to do. Is there anything else I can do? Totally. Like, show them why you shouldn't get cut. Exactly. And you know how to approach that discussion when you know which side you're on, what your fear is.
Starting point is 00:24:41 I remember as a freshman playing football, I was playing Division II football in Minnesota. They usually redshirt all the freshmen. And I went into this with a big ego thinking like, I'm going to start, or at least I want to play.
Starting point is 00:24:52 Right? So I went into it with an ego in the first place. But I also, which wasn't good, but I also went into it with some things that were good
Starting point is 00:24:58 from this conversation. I told the coach straight up, like, I know you don't play freshman, but my intention is to play. What is it going to take for me in order to get on the field you know do I need to get here early do I need to stay late can I sit here in the office with you after the uh before practice and go over game film whatever it was and he was he told me yeah I need you to come in the office
Starting point is 00:25:21 every single day and watch game film with me I need to be with your receiver coach every single day beforehand and doing reps and I just did it and I need you to come in the office every single day and watch game film with me. I need to be with your receiver coach every single day beforehand and doing reps. And I just did it. And I eventually started to play my freshman year. I didn't start in the beginning, but I started to start at the end. And that for me, it was powerful. It's like I addressed it because I wanted to play and I was afraid I wasn't going to play at all and just waste a year of practicing like every other freshman would do there. That was my ego going in like I need to play. But I was also like, I'll do whatever it takes, and I'll practice, and I'll confront it with conversation
Starting point is 00:25:49 and say, this is my intention, this is my vision, and I'm going to do whatever it takes for you. And so I think that in a workplace, you've got to be confronting it and be proactive in your competition. Correct, and that's a perfect example of getting close to fear rather than running away from it. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:26:04 Spot on, man. For me, my whole mission in the last year and moving forward, the next projects I'm working on are all about belief in yourself. I believe self-doubt is the killer of dreams. And I believe that, and you have this amazing graph in here, it's about ego versus self-esteem. How do we build self-belief, self-esteem, self-confidence while also not allowing our ego to be so big and think we can just do anything? How do we balance ego and self-confidence
Starting point is 00:26:34 so they don't hurt each other? Yeah, absolutely. And what we experience most of the time is extremes. So the two extremes that most of us experience are either I have to think I'm the best, I'm the best in the world, I can crush anyone, I'm going to show everyone what I'm like,
Starting point is 00:26:52 or most of us experience the other extreme, which is I'm the worst, I'm the stupidest, I'm the dumbest, I'm the most worthless, I'm the biggest loser. Notice how that's both ego. Really? Yes. Why is the negative? So the ego wants to be the best of the best or the ego wants to be the worst of the worst. The ego won't accept being in the middle. Really? The ego wants to feel the deepest sense of being the
Starting point is 00:27:19 lowest. And that's why victim mentality is actually a substance of ego. Really? Yeah. That's how it's explained in the Bhagavad Gita. Because the point is that you can't deal with just being bad. You have to be the worst. My pain is the worst. Exactly. I think Jada talked about this on your podcast where she was like, you know, I had to tell people why my hurt was more painful than their hurt. And they could never understand how bad it was.
Starting point is 00:27:44 Exactly. Exactly. That's ego as well. So you see these two sides of ego keeping us locked away. And so the only way to get with that and the only way to balance it and bring it all into one is genuine self-honesty. Honesty is the best place to be. And the best thing about honesty is I'm really good at this. I'm really average at that. And I'm really bad at that. And the challenge we have with that is most of us have no idea. We just have zero self-awareness about what we are good at, what we are bad at, and what we're average at. So we think I'm pretty average at everything.
Starting point is 00:28:16 I'm pretty good at everything. And when I hear those answers, I'm like, simple things. Just go and talk to people that know you. Yeah, what am I great at? Ask them, what's my superpower? What do I do differently? What do you think I do that is different than no one else does?
Starting point is 00:28:28 And guess what? I guarantee you, if you ask a colleague, if you ask a friend, if you ask a family member, if you ask people from- They'll say different things too. They'll say different things. But you get to learn about yourself. So real confidence comes from knowing your strengths
Starting point is 00:28:40 and going all in on them. Your confidence does not come from just standing up the right way or just saying the right stuff to yourself. Body language only. And that's important. I'm a big believer in all of that. But what I'm saying is that that doesn't build real confidence. Real confidence comes from thinking, I'm really good at this.
Starting point is 00:28:58 I know I can do this and I love doing it. And really, this is the most important bit. Confidence comes from serving other people. When you see the impact you have on others, and this is the biggest issue, the reason why we have such a low self-esteem today in the world is because people are not serving others. So they don't see the profound impact they have on others. When you put out a video or a podcast and people tag you on Instagram and they say, Lewis, you stopped me from depression or you helped me out of a divorce. Or people, when they watch my content, they'll be like,
Starting point is 00:29:29 that stopped me from committing suicide or whatever. When you see that, you get such a deep sense of self-worth that you matter. And guess what? Everyone matters. Whether you matter to one people or one million people, everyone matters. But if you see your impact on someone's life, you will feel such a deep sense of self-worth. And so whether you're serving at a giving out free food or whether you're serving at a local charity place or whether you're serving through your work. Serve, serve, serve. Because when you take that step, you get a boost of self-esteem. But why do so many of us live in fear and desire mode as opposed to duty and love mode?
Starting point is 00:30:06 Why is that? Like, why are we still focused on self as opposed to service? It's conditioned. It's conditioned, right? I've said this before that we're wired for generosity, but we're educated for greed. I think I just said it to you two years ago when I was on the podcast. It's like, and when I said that, and it's so true, we're wired for generosity, but we're educated for greed. Because what happens is when we're kids, you'll see kids go out of their way.
Starting point is 00:30:31 They want to share. It's part of my candy bar, whatever. Totally, yeah. And then as we get older, we're told that there's less. And this is what the key is. As we get older, we're told there are finite numbers of how many kids get made on the basketball or baseball team yes we're told there's a finite number of college spaces we're told there's a finite number of how many tickets there are we're told there's a finite number of people that are
Starting point is 00:30:54 successful guess what in the theater of happiness there are infinite and unlimited seats and there is a seat with your name on it there is a seat with your name on it. There is a seat with your name on it in the theater of dreams, in the theater of happiness. But you think that because you think that there are only a hundred people allowed in, that if someone else makes it before you, that you don't get in. And guess what? Is there a cap on how many billionaires there are in the world? No. No. Is there a cap on how many millionaires there are in the world? No. No. Is there a cap on how many happy people there are in the world? No. And that's why I really am encouraging Forbes. I want Forbes, forget printing a rich list, print a happy list, print a service list, print a list of who is serving the most in the world.
Starting point is 00:31:48 Wow. That'll be competition based Teresa I don't think she gave any money to her charities right but you get a lot of time and energy yeah you know you look at all the people who made a change in the world Martin Luther King Gandhi like they may not have given a lot of money to stuff yeah you have time and energy you don't to give resources but your resourcefulness your love your time your focus your attention your compassion love that you know resourcefulness, your love, your time, your focus, your attention, your compassion. Love that. You know, resourcefulness of the heart, not of the wallet, I think is key. Love that. And you don't need to have a lot of money to make a big impact.
Starting point is 00:32:13 You don't. And this is the training. See, we've been educated for greed because we've been told everything's limited. There's a limited number of this, limited number of this. And every time you play in numbers, and I think it was Bob Marley who said it, but every time you play in numbers, you'll always be dissatisfied Marley who said it, but every time you play in numbers, you'll always be dissatisfied because guess what?
Starting point is 00:32:28 Someone's always going to have more. Someone's always going to have more. I was speaking to a friend recently and this friend was telling me that he bought a home, which is very expensive, very, very expensive, and he went to a party at someone else's house
Starting point is 00:32:43 and he told me that when he was getting a tour of this party he found out that this person had a painting on his wall which cost the amount his house cost. Shut up. And so he was joking with me. He was like that guy's painting in the house. He's got my house on his wall. Wow. And that just puts things into perspective and you think about that like and then you look at someone like Jeff Bezos and you think oh well he's the richest man in the world but does he have the most fame? No, he doesn't. Does he have the most beauty, subjective decision? Does he have the most strength or power?
Starting point is 00:33:15 Maybe not. And so no one has the most of everything. So when you measure yourself by numbers, you'll always be second, third, fourth, fifth in something. And I think by measuring yourself by needing to have the most of anything is probably a recipe for unhappiness. I'm like, well, okay, I'm not going to have the most of anything, but I'm going to have the most money. You're still going to be unhappy. Totally. Even if you have the most of something, it doesn't mean you're going to be happy. Totally. be happy totally i think it was albert einstein who said it best that not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted and and i love that because it removes
Starting point is 00:33:54 this belief that things are finite and limited and they're not if you want to be happy and successful if no matter that there are 700 000 podcasts if, if that is your dharma, if that's your calling, if that's your purpose, like you can do that. There's no cap on how many successful soccer players that can exist at the same time. Or how many books are out in the world. There's no cap. There's no one stopping you.
Starting point is 00:34:18 And that's the mindset that we're educated for that scarcity and greed. And what's the difference between the monkey mind and the monk mind? Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. So the monkey mind is what we experience on a day-to-day basis. The monkey mind is restless. The monkey mind is jumping from branch to branch. The monkey mind is trying to find a bigger banana. The monkey mind is constantly just like feeling flustered, dissatisfied, scarce, and overthinking everything. The monk mind is the exact opposite.
Starting point is 00:34:48 The monk mind is calm and composed. The monk mind knows to be focused and aware. The monk mind knows. So everything in this book and everything that we're talking about is the transformation from the monkey mind that we experience to the monk mind. The monkey mind is almost the enemy to the monk mind. It's the opposite. Yes. And how does someone who is living in a sense of scarcity, because there are people living in scarcity where they're unable to pay their bills, they're unable to
Starting point is 00:35:16 provide food for their kids, they're single moms, they're stressed, they're stressed, they're overwhelmed. It's hard to get into a sense of abundance when you're in scarcity and stress. So how does someone find purpose in chaos when they can't even get out of the thinking because they're just trying to survive? Yeah. So beautiful question. My biggest answer is, first of all, I empathize with anyone who's been in that situation. I can't ever say I've been in that situation in the same way, but I've experienced similar things. You've seen the feeling in your life.
Starting point is 00:35:51 Yeah, in my own way. And I've seen my mom go through stuff like that. I know that my mom worked really hard to raise me and my sister while working, while running around. And I've seen my mom be that incredible powerhouse of a person. And the main thing I would say is what you can do right now is find meaning in what you do make what you do meaningful passionate and purposeful you don't need to suddenly look to become an entrepreneur or start a side hustle or find some more time find meaning and the way you find meaning as you genuinely stop press pause for
Starting point is 00:36:23 a second and go what am i living for like what am i living for right now and if you're living for your child and if you're living to provide and put food on the table that is a beautiful thing that we should celebrate more and sometimes it takes us a moment to stop and celebrate that and so i would say find meaning because you can't always find happiness you can't always find happiness. You can't always find positivity. But you can always find meaning in that position. So I'll give an example. I lost someone really important to me, a mentor, a few days back. I can't be positive about that.
Starting point is 00:36:54 You can't be happy about that. Yeah. It's hurtful. You feel sad. You feel lost. But guess what? I can find meaning in it. Because I can make a list of every lesson he taught me and make a plan to try and live every one of those lessons.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Wow. That's beautiful. And so if you're in a really tough situation right now, don't look for positivity. Don't look for happiness. Look for meaning. That's a good one. And not trying to get yourself out of pain too quickly or discomfort or frustration, which I've been in a guilt of being like, I'll just be positive or whatever to people. But I think it's like, you know, have your experience.
Starting point is 00:37:25 Yes. Live your experience and find meaning as quickly as possible. Yeah. And create a commitment to how you want to use that meaning moving forward. Okay. I may not be great tomorrow, maybe not next week, next month. But I'm going to use this meaning to serve other people, to continue to do what I love, continue to be great to my friends,
Starting point is 00:37:45 my family in the best way possible. And when you start doing those small things with love and kindness, so much more opens up. It's like when you, when you can be trusted with the small things and the small moments, you get trusted with more and more and more. And so like, it helps to just in that moment, and it's in those painful moments that you realize how powerful you are we all know that like you really recognize it and and what you said was beautiful about not rushing through the pain because and and you know this example has probably been shared before but if you have a wound and you've cut yourself it's like you can't rush the healing you can't rush it if you broke your arm i mean and you've been through so many bodily injuries you can't rush it. If you broke your arm, I mean, and you've been through so many bodily injuries, you can't rush the process.
Starting point is 00:38:28 It's going to take six weeks minimum to heal a broken bone. Correct. Yeah, minimum. And you've got to sit through that. It's painful. There's no injections you can take. There's no videos you can watch. There's nothing you can listen to.
Starting point is 00:38:36 But our challenge is we try and rush through the pain rather than reflect through the pain. We try to rush the healing process too. We try to rush the healing and you can't rush healing. And healing is meant to be slow because it buys you time. We try to rush the healing and you can't rush healing and healing is meant to be slow
Starting point is 00:38:45 because it buys you time. It buys you reflection. It gives you so much space to slow down. To slow down. And that's what your body's calling out for. And this is our emergency.
Starting point is 00:38:54 Like, how many times have you heard it where you slow down, you slow down and that's when you fall ill? Because guess what? Your body has been trying to tell you
Starting point is 00:39:03 to slow down. When you feel pain, so I write about it and think like a monk, pain makes you pay attention. That's what pain is for. Notice this. Notice this. Look at me. Look at me. It's like a crying baby, crying for attention.
Starting point is 00:39:17 When a baby's crying, you don't just go, ah, it's crying. You don't just go, oh yeah, we'll just put it in another room and forget about it. You go to it and you find its needs. Whereas without pain, when something's painful, we're just like, oh yeah, I'll just forget about it yeah we'll just put it in another room and forget about it right like you go to and you find its needs whereas without pain when something's painful we're just like oh yeah i'll just forget about it i'll escape from it i'll do something else you have to go into that i'll numb the pain i'll numb the pain without alcohol or whatever yeah 100 that's that's usually our response is what can i do to numb this work more have sex more drink more whatever whatever it is rather than let me actually become alert. And guess what?
Starting point is 00:39:47 The pain just gets higher and higher and higher and higher because unfortunately until it really hurts, we don't stop. Or you need more and more to numb it with. So true. And so you go down the extremes of life, right? So true. Now, what's been the most painful thing you've had to experience since, because I know leaving the monkhood was painful for you, because this was a mission of yours that you wanted to have for your whole life. And I think
Starting point is 00:40:08 you were there for three and a half years. So what's been the most painful thing, I guess, in the last six or seven years since that time that you've had to reflect back on, take notice of, pay attention to, and reevaluate? That's a great question. I think for me, it was in 2016, I moved out to New York. So just let me paint a picture of 2016. I moved three jobs. I got married. Wow. I moved country. And I just just started a whole new life. Like my life just transformed. So we went through all of that with my wife in one year. And by the way, all of that was surprises. The job change was surprises. The country change was a surprise.
Starting point is 00:40:47 The marriage was not a surprise. We planned that. But apart from everything else, everything was a surprise. Now, I said I like surprises so I can roll with it. But my point is that's a lot of transition in a year. So much transition. And I felt the burden of being in a new city where we had no family we had no friends and my wife who loves being around her family and no one understands just how close she is to them i felt this burden
Starting point is 00:41:13 on me that i had taken away her time with her family and now she was alone so i was going out to work and she'd be crying at home and i was thinking she's got no friends she's got no support and i know you can relate to this with moving and relationships and so much going on. And so it's like, I'm dealing with that. And guess what? Six months later, I have to leave and move on and work on a new career to build everything myself.
Starting point is 00:41:36 And then I'm four months away from being broke. And so on top of all of this, I've now got four months away from being broke. I've got enough money saved for four months to pay for rent and groceries. And that's it. In New York City. And that's it. And guess what? Even on top of that, I've got 30 days before my visa runs out and I'm kicked out of the country. So I can't even live here anymore. So not only have I just got married, moved job three times, changed career again, had to move into a apartment, four months of being broke,
Starting point is 00:42:04 and I might get kicked out in 30 days, and my renewal for my visa costs $15,000. So that's going to eat into those four months. I have probably never been under that much emotional, physical, and mental pressure in my life. Like, genuinely, I felt it. And I felt my body change.
Starting point is 00:42:22 My breath was more stressed. I would be breathing faster, shorter shorter breaths not deep breaths Heartbeat not working out you get into lazy habits you start craving junk food sugar Do you have energy living in a 500 square foot apartment with my wife? Which is which is tiny like everything's in that space and guess what we both work from home So I'm now sitting at a desk hunched over trying to figure stuff out She's trying to cook in the same room. Like I'm trying to just trying to figure out what to do.
Starting point is 00:42:48 And I remember the next morning sending like 100 emails to people and just being like, this is who I am. This is what I can do. How can we serve? And that was the same year that I ended up meeting you later in that year. And the beginning three months of that journey was so stressful. Like, they were so stressful because I was like, what if I have to move back to London? What am I going to say to her parents?
Starting point is 00:43:11 I mean, I just took their daughter away. Like, I've lived in New York City for six months and my life's falling apart. Like, you know, so much. And I've got all these views, but there's nothing happening here. And we met. But you also, I mean, at this time,
Starting point is 00:43:24 you're also growing so much how are you able to create and reach this impact with your videos that's growing while you're under so much stress and uncertainty and i stopped a bit at that time like things slowed down i remember like things slowed down i remember i wasn't creating as much as i was because i don't enjoy creating from stress or pressure and i don't think you can really create something from stress and pressure so we really slowed down at that time and when I was creating I was creating from a place of recognizing that I could share what I had learned and what I had grown in so far so anything I was sharing was like this is what I've learned so far so that was the biggest pain that I've been through in the last seven years for sure. And all I can say is
Starting point is 00:44:06 that I remember coming home to my wife knowing that this was going to be the truth and I came home and I said to her, I said to her, I guarantee you
Starting point is 00:44:13 this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to us. What? The pain? The pain. I said that to her the night I came home and then she gave up.
Starting point is 00:44:19 I literally came home, I looked her in the eyes and go, this is the scenario and I just want you to know that I guarantee you this is the best thing that's ever going to happen to us. And I said to, and this is, this is a monk statement that we used to repeat. I said to her, I'm just not going to
Starting point is 00:44:31 judge the moment. Don't judge the moment. Because what we do is we try to label moments as good or bad. And when you label a moment as bad, it now does not have the opportunity to become good. I'll give an example. If I go, I don't like this book. This book's bad, right? And I love this book. But if I say that, guess what? I will never pick it up and recognize the value that's inside of it because you've labeled it.
Starting point is 00:44:54 And we label stuff. Like we label, oh, that restaurant's bad. But when you label a moment. That person's bad. That person's bad. Now you can't learn from that person. Oh, a great one. That's a really good one.
Starting point is 00:45:03 As soon as you start labeling people or anything as good or bad, you can't learn from that person oh a great one that's a really good one as soon as you start labeling people or anything as good or bad you limit it you stop it from being something else and here's the truth every moment can evolve into being anything if you give it the opportunity to right but as soon as you say it's got no value anymore you lose it and so for me i had to say to myself don't judge the moment and i'd keep repeating that I had to say to myself, don't judge the moment. And I'd keep repeating that to myself. Don't judge where you're at. Don't judge this. What's happening.
Starting point is 00:45:30 Yeah, don't judge it as negative. Don't just start saying it's negative. Because guess what? We've all been in positions where a gift turned into a curse and a curse turned into a gift. That's true. Right? We've also been in the opposite. Where our dreams came true and it ended up not being what we wanted.
Starting point is 00:45:41 Exactly. And it fell apart and it led us into the our dreams totally why is it that so many people that win the lottery yeah go broke yeah gifts can turn into curses too but because we label them as the best moment in our life or the worst moment in our life whereas when you approach things to neutrality and just what you have on the table you can be like okay what am i going to do next that's why the greatest quarterbacks are neutral energy they'll get a little excited they'll get a little fist pump in there every now and then, but they're not hyped every play, and they're not negative every play. They have this calm. They see the field. You drop a pass,
Starting point is 00:46:14 and it's like, a little bit, let's go. But it's very neutral. Even when you score a touchdown, unless it's maybe the Super Bowl or a big championship at the end of a game, in the middle of the game, you want to keep it pretty like even keel paced so you can prepare for the best or the worst. That's great. Yeah. But you're always up and down. It's like your energy levels will go up and down
Starting point is 00:46:34 and you'll be exhausted. You need to have energy in life. Totally. And if everything is tied around a story of this is bad, this is wrong, I'm in a bad place, I'm messing up, I'm going broke, that energy is going to pull you away from service. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:46:48 Or creation. Or creativity of how do I get out of this place. So I think it's really powerful. I love that. And I used to have a coach, and I think a lot of coaches use this, or at least he used to say to us. He would be like, if you lose, cry for a day. And if you celebrate, if you win, celebrate for a day. Yeah, that's it, man. And then move on the next day. Get back to training. Don't win, celebrate for a day. And then move on the next day, get back to training. Don't live in the past. And what we do is when we lose, we cry for a month.
Starting point is 00:47:13 And when we win, we just move on. Which means that our negative experiences hold us back and weigh us down more than our positive experiences. So we're actually allowing, because we don't immerse ourselves in winning and growth, we only submerge ourselves in positive experiences. So true. So we're actually allowing, because we don't immerse ourselves in winning and growth, we only submerge ourselves in negative experiences. Yeah, we need to celebrate also. We try to celebrate. I've been, you know,
Starting point is 00:47:34 that's been part of my life as well is like moving on too quick. And now we try to like, let's enjoy, let's go to lunch or dinner and really like appreciate this moment and celebrate this moment and even have a dinner
Starting point is 00:47:43 with some friends and family. Otherwise, what are we working so hard for? 100%. And we almost feel like we can't do that because that makes us complacent. Right.
Starting point is 00:47:53 But that's my point. It's never good enough. Exactly. But if you win, celebrate for a day. If you lose, cry for a day and move on.
Starting point is 00:47:59 Simple. And you've learned so many lessons over your years. As a monk, you learned a ton of lessons moving to, you know, getting married, moving into a new country, building companies,
Starting point is 00:48:10 launching products and books. And you've had ups and downs. What's been the biggest lesson in the last 12 months for you? Because you've learned, you've created so much in the last 12 months. You've done so many things. What's been the biggest lesson for you in your life? Oh, that's a big question.
Starting point is 00:48:30 What was my biggest lesson in the last 12 months? I want to give you a really, I want to give you the real, I'm going to think about it. Whether it's something new or something that you already knew, but you had to relearn for whatever reason. I think I'd have to say that it's a, and I was saying it to a friend on the phone this morning when I was on the way to you and i was just i was just sharing it with him because he was having a moment in recognizing this there's a wonderful verse in the manu smithy which i talk about and think like a monk it's a monk book and in the verse it says when you protect your purpose your purpose protects you Your purpose protects you. Now, I want to unpack that. What I mean by that is your purpose is like a rare jewel and a rare gemstone.
Starting point is 00:49:19 And imagine you were walking around with the most expensive diamond or jewel in the world. How would you protect it? You want to just wear it on your chest like a baby. Holding it. Yeah. Putting a pillow around it, a blanket. You'd be like, yeah, protect it you want to just like you want to just wear it yeah you want to just wear it on your chest like this like a baby holding it yeah putting a pillow around a blanket you'd be like yeah protect it you'd protect it and so your purpose is like that and guess what people are going to tell you every day that that jewel is not worth anything they're going to tell you that that jewel is actually valueless it doesn't have any impact on your life. They're going to try and take away that value. They're going to tell you that there's another jewel out there that you need to have more value. And what ends up happening is you don't, I love the word, look at the wording, protect your purpose. You have to protect it. So what happens is your success grows,
Starting point is 00:49:58 you get more opportunities, more ideas, more things coming your way, temptations, more ideas more things coming your way temptations but they can all take you away from your purpose distractions and to me i'm repeating this for myself because i'm like i just want to stick to what i was born to do and i'm so grateful that i get to do it i'm so happy i get to do it and i want to keep protecting it i don't want to get lost in the waves you know you don't want to just get chucked in the waves of the ocean and just get lost and just not know where you're going. So for me, when you protect your purpose, your purpose protects you. So that's been your biggest lesson? That's my biggest lesson. Why? Do you feel like your purpose has been maybe distracted in some ways? I don't think it has, but I'm saying it so it doesn't. You're reminding yourself. Yeah, I'm reminding myself. Like I'm
Starting point is 00:50:39 preaching to myself right now. Especially being in Hollywood and the temptation of all these opportunities out here. Totally. And I think for me, it's a bigger lesson also because it gives me more faith. So I always encourage, and this is actually, actually, this is why it's my biggest lesson. I encourage so many people that I coach, so many people that I mentor, obviously everyone in my community and audience and everything, to go and follow that, go and live that purpose. follow that go and live that purpose and i see time and time again that when i see people trying to live their purpose they are protected that it things work when you're playing in your dharma and your purpose things work things move you feel momentum happen they happen and i'm not saying they happen without effort but they happen they move whereas when you're not you just constantly feel like you're grinding up against you know know, a wall. I know. Challenges. Just constant. So what is your purpose and when did
Starting point is 00:51:30 you discover it? Good question. What is my purpose is simple. It's always has been since, not since the beginning, because I discovered it afterwards. My purpose is making wisdom go viral. And I've stuck with that. I've kept it that way because to me, and there's more to it, making wisdom go viral through entertainment, I would say, is my purpose. Because I believe that that is something that is uniquely my goal, impact, and service. And that's why it has to be yours. It's your passion. It's your love. It's your talent.
Starting point is 00:51:59 It's everything in one. Correct. And the beautiful thing is I'm not limited to a platform. So that can be books. It can be podcasts. It can be TV shows. It can be thing is I'm not limited to a platform. So that can be books. It can be podcasts. It can be TV shows. It can be movies. It's not limited.
Starting point is 00:52:08 And this I learned by reading. I was reading after, and this was after my video started to get seen. This wasn't before I did it. It wasn't like I sat down and I wrote this fancy tagline. I was reading Salim Ismail's book
Starting point is 00:52:20 called Exponential Organizations. And in this book, he talks about something called an MTP, a Massive Transformational Purpose. And he says that every major person organization in the world has an MTP. So an MTP has to be aspirational, it has to be massive, and it has to be service and purpose based. So Google's is organizing the world's information. Notice it doesn't say we're an SEO company. Notice it doesn't say we do Google ads. They're organizing the world's information.
Starting point is 00:52:52 That's how big they're dreaming. And when you're organizing the world's information, you can do driverless cars, you can do Google Glass, you can sell Google ads, whatever it is. And so Ted's is ideas worth spreading. That's what they are, that's what they're about. So Jay Shetty is making wisdom go viral. That's what I'm dedicated to.
Starting point is 00:53:08 So when did you discover it? Because it wasn't when you were 10, it wasn't when you were 21 in college. I'd say I was 30, probably two, three years ago. I'm 32 now, so I'd say like two, three years ago is when I discovered it. So 30 years old is when you discovered your purpose. Correct.
Starting point is 00:53:23 So what was your purpose before that? My purpose before that was finding my purpose. It's like that process of just like, my purpose before that was 14 years. So I've been online for four years. I've spent 10 years offline talking about the same stuff, sharing the same messages in talks, in universities, in small seminars, in coaching and mentoring.
Starting point is 00:53:43 I've been doing the same thing for 14 years But I didn't realize it was my purpose until very recently But I just did what I enjoyed and naturally try to get better at it So if we don't know what our purpose is and we're working towards finding our purpose. It's okay That's actually where you're gonna spend most of your life Discovering what your purpose is and that's the best bit because i think a lot of people are like well i don't know what my purpose is totally there's so much pressure how do i find it the pressure of finding your purpose is crazy will stop you from finding your purpose literally the pressure is so heavy and that's why it's not about
Starting point is 00:54:17 finding that it's just starting with the basics what am i good at and i talk about it i break down dharma in here and i talk about what are your passion? What is your expertise? What is your compassion? Because that's really important. What is your compassion for the world? Like, what problem do you want to solve? I often, people will say there's so many things I could do. There's so many things.
Starting point is 00:54:36 I'm like, my question is not what causes you the greatest joy. Sometimes my question is what causes you the greatest pain? Make that your purpose. Make that your purpose. If you don't know what your joy is, you definitely know what your pain is. What do you not like in the world? What do you not like?
Starting point is 00:54:48 And so for me, Go serve that thing. 100%. So for me, the greatest pain I see in the world is people not reaching their potential. I know. That is painful. That causes me more pain
Starting point is 00:54:59 because I believe that there is someone out there who is stacking shelves who has the cure to cancer. There is someone out there who's Or is a talented singer. Is a talented singer. There is someone out there who is stacking shelves who has the cure to cancer right there is someone out there or it's a talented singer it's a talented singer there's someone out there who's not living to their potential and i think we're better people we're better partners and we're better parents when we live to our potential so that's what i'm trying to solve and i'm not saying that's the biggest thing sure to say it's my thing whenever i work with people i'm always telling them to find your purpose focus on what you're most passionate about or what you you have the most pain around. It's the same thing. So it's like, do the thing you
Starting point is 00:55:28 love the most and keep doing it until you either discover that's it. Or maybe I don't love that anymore. Like I played so many sports growing up. I used to love baseball. I used to love soccer. And then I got bored with it. I got burnt out by it. It wasn't a love of mine anymore. It wasn't a passion. And then I switched to football and it was like, oh, this is a passion. And I'm actually more gifted physically for this sport than I would be for soccer. I was too big for soccer. I couldn't run seven miles a day right now on the field. But I think you need to try lots of things and you might think it's a passion, but you might get burnt out and discover, eh, I don't love it anymore. What else is there? And keep trying new things.
Starting point is 00:56:05 Like you said, eight new things a month. Yeah. Until you discover. Until you discover it. And it might take you until you're 30, 40, 50, right? It doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:14 Like, it doesn't matter. Like, the fun is in the growth and the journey. Like, for me, the last 10 years before this happened, and my life changed, it was like, those were fun. I was happy. Right. I wasn't unhappy because of that. Because I didn't have. Because you didn't know the like, those were fun. I was happy. I wasn't unhappy because of that
Starting point is 00:56:26 because I didn't have... Because you didn't know the exact purpose of your life. Yeah, exactly. And now I'm very clear on it and I'm happy for it to evolve too. Like, I don't think
Starting point is 00:56:35 it has to stay the same. I may sit with you in two years' time and tell you something completely different and I'm okay with that but I can only work with what I have now
Starting point is 00:56:43 and I think we start trying to postpone our purpose or find a date by which you have to. You put a deadline on your purpose. It doesn't make any sense. Like if you really care about it, how can you put a deadline on it? I know. You just keep working towards it. What are three skills that everyone should try to learn in the next one to two years that will help them in their life tremendously.
Starting point is 00:57:07 No matter who you are, where you live in the world, three things we could start to practice, learn, master that'll improve our life. Yeah, that's a great question. You ask me a lot of great questions. Every question, that's a great question. You reminded me of something which I'm gonna share is a bunch of years back, I went to the launch of Eric Schmidt's book, How Google Works.
Starting point is 00:57:32 Nice. And I was in the audience. I didn't get to interview him or meet him or anything like that. But I remember sitting in the audience. And there was someone else there who was interviewing him and talking. And they were like, and someone asked this question from the audience. So a student got up and they said, what do you think is the number one skill that students should be focusing on? And they said, everyone should become data analysts.
Starting point is 00:57:49 They're like, everyone in this room should become a data analyst. And I was sitting there going, I know nothing about being a data analyst. And I think sometimes we throw out these careers or like hard skills and technicals and it's like, well, not everyone's going to vibe with that. So I just want to share that because I think so often, like, we get bad advice like that. I'm like, imagine I pursued becoming a data analyst. And you have to also know the perspective of the person you're getting that advice from. So your perspective, your three things
Starting point is 00:58:15 that people should be taking on is gonna come from your world perspective and your experience, so it's worked for you. But what would you think? So I'd say the first one for me is learn how to have a conversation with yourself. Like just learn how to have a conversation with yourself. Like if you don't know, if I'll give you one of the studies that I share in the book, which I absolutely love,
Starting point is 00:58:37 men and women were asked either to be alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes, or they could give themselves an electric shock if they were bored. They took the shock. 30% of women chose an electric shock and 60% of men chose an electric shock because they didn't want to be alone with their thoughts. For 15 minutes. For 15 minutes. Why is that? Because we have not learned to have a conversation with ourselves. Or even love ourselves. No, we haven't. And I think that starts with a conversation. I think you. No, we haven't. And I think that starts with the conversation. I think you're right. We don't love ourselves, but that starts with learning to talk to yourself. So find time for you to talk to your own mind, to talk to yourself, to understand
Starting point is 00:59:14 yourself, to find out. How many of us, when you go to a restaurant, you know whether you're going to go back or not, right? You know whether you like it. When you go watch a movie, you know whether you're going to like it or not. So yeah, let me just say that again. Let me explain what I'm saying there. When you go to a restaurant, you know when you walk out whether you're going to go back there or not based on whether you like the food. When you watch a movie, you know whether you're going to recommend it to your friends based on whether you like it or not. Why do we keep visiting the same people, the same places, and doing the same projects when they don't lift us up? So many of us are not aware of the same people that we hang around with that bring us down,
Starting point is 00:59:51 the places that don't feed us, they drain our energy, and the projects that don't light us up. But we keep going back there because we don't talk to ourselves. Because we don't talk to ourselves. I can ask you, hey, did you like that restaurant? But when do we ask ourselves, hey, do I want to hang out with that person? Does that person want to be in this relationship? Do I want to be in this job? We just get scared of those conversations. So we avoid them. So that's first tip. Learn to have a conversation with yourself. Learn to have a
Starting point is 01:00:16 conversation with yourself. The second thing is know how your mind tricks you. So we used to play this game in the monastery where every time you lose to your mind, you put a scoreboard up and you put a one for the mind and zero for you. When you lose to the mind, meaning what? Like, so let's say you make a commitment. So I make a commitment that I'm not going to eat sugar. And then you do. And I do. The mind beats you. The mind beats me to it. So I'm going to put a one for the mind and a zero for me. It's great. It's great. It's competing with yourself in a good way. It's fun. Yeah. And people do this with like, I guess now with like dollar jars or whatever, like you put a dollar in, but that doesn't make sense because you end up making money every time you swear. So, but if you beat your mind and you put it, it's great. So you have to start learning the tricks of your mind. When and
Starting point is 01:00:59 how does your mind fool you into making bad decisions? That's good. If you know that. Where did it fool you the most that it was the hardest for you to overcome? Great question. I'd say the number one time that my mind has fooled me. The greatest temptation. My mind's gonna be me but it hasn't. Or what's the longest for you to let go of something? The simplest answer I can think of straight away is sugar. Like I love chocolate but that's not a good enough answer. Like that's or what took the longest for you to let go of something? The simplest answer that I can think of straight away is sugar, like I love chocolate and stuff, but that's not a good enough answer.
Starting point is 01:01:27 Like that's definitely true. Like from before being a monk to being a monk, it was like the last thing you're like, ah, can I really let go of this? Yeah, I think the biggest thing was, it's probably ego. Like it's wanting to, it's like walking into a room expecting respect,
Starting point is 01:01:44 walking into a room expecting to be dealt in a certain way. Wow. To be like treated with royalty. Treated with, you buy your own hype, right? You fall for the stuff like that. Do you still fall for this sometimes? I think we all do. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:57 I think I would be in ego if I didn't say I did. Like ego, that's the trick of the ego. The ego makes you think you're untouchable and the ego makes you think that you are you know that nothing about you can can ever go wrong or you're you're perfect or not even that but the ego can bring you down nothing can hurt you correct when the moment you think you can't be brought down you will be brought down the moment you think that you can't, like one of my teachers would always pray that he never,
Starting point is 01:02:29 and he's been a monk for 40 years, he would always pray that he would never fall to his temptations. And we said to him, you haven't fallen to your temptations for 40 years. Why do you pray for that? He goes, I haven't fallen because I pray for it. Wow. He was like, because I pray for it, because I'm aware. Not just because I think it's going to, yeah. He's aware. And there's a beautiful story of, what's
Starting point is 01:02:48 his name? Benjamin Franklin, where he talks about before he died, I believe he had 13 or 14 precepts. These were qualities that he wanted to live by and gain. So they're like simplicity, integrity, virtues, all these powerful things. And he was asked when he was on his deathbed, which was the one he didn't accomplish? And he said the last one, that was humility. And that's like the display of humility. Like you can't think you're at humility and then be humble. Like that's not possible.
Starting point is 01:03:16 It's an oxymoron. How do we stay humble with greatness happening? You know, if you're achieving your dreams, you're making an impact, you're doing great stuff, how do you stay humble? I think the biggest one is surround yourself with people who are constantly better than you.
Starting point is 01:03:29 And when I say better, I don't just mean materially. I mean, when I'm around my monk teachers, I just feel filthy. Right. Like they're so pure. Yeah, they're so pure that it's such a mirror reflection.
Starting point is 01:03:40 I'm around them and I'm like, whoa, I've got so much. Yeah, I've got so much like dirt. Yeah. And that's a good thing. Like I love being around them and they'm like, whoa, I've got so much. Yeah, I've got so much like, duh. And that's a good thing. Like, I love being around them. And they don't say that to me. Like, they don't make me feel that way. It's just that you get a mirror.
Starting point is 01:03:52 When you're around people who are transparent, you get a reflection of yourself. So I get that when I'm with them. So first thing is spend time with people who are more spiritually elevated and more conscious because you get a reflection without them even saying it. The second thing is keep increasing your goalposts. Like most of us are not, our goals should keep us humble, not other people's goals. We try and think other people's goals keep us humble because we're looking at what people are doing.
Starting point is 01:04:16 It's like your goalposts. Should never be achieving or it should be bigger and bigger all the time. Yeah, bigger and bigger all the time. And the third one is always thank the people who gave you the gift that is being recognized. Like if you're being recognized for a gift, someone gave that to you somewhere. Thank your mentor. Thank your mentor. Thank your teachers.
Starting point is 01:04:37 Give it back to them because I think we forget that. You start thinking you're self-made. And I don't think anyone's genuinely self-made i just don't think that's true because someone had to give you an interruption an interaction exchange a skill a gift an idea whatever it was so that's the second one i think oh yeah and the third one skill the third skill these are really fun questions the first one is to have a conversation with yourself learn how to have a conversation second is know how your mind tricks you and be fully aware of it. And was the humility
Starting point is 01:05:05 a part of that or no? I would say that was just my personal example of what I think I can struggle with sometimes. Okay, and the third skill that everyone should learn. The third skill
Starting point is 01:05:13 everyone should learn is how to have difficult conversations with other people. So hard. Because I think that marriages are made of it. Dating's made of it. Friendships are made of it.
Starting point is 01:05:29 I think sometimes we've had some difficult, like in the sense of I had to call you up and say, and it's like, I think we're good at that with each other. And that's why our friendship is strong because I think we're honest with each other. And I feel that you feel comfortable telling me stuff. Like we've had email exchanges where you've been honest with me
Starting point is 01:05:43 and I've been honest with you. And I'm like, I think that's good because i think when you don't have tough conversations with people your your relationships just just sit on the surface and they never go anywhere and you learn about how deep the relationship is through the challenging conversations you learn like if you break up because of one bad conversation whether a friendship or family member whatever whatever, if you like distance each other because you can't handle this hard conversation or a challenging one, is the relationship strong?
Starting point is 01:06:11 Do you wanna be around this person more? Or maybe you shouldn't be around this person. So I think you learn about each other and you learn about the relationship during that. I think that's a good one. So those are three good points. Relationships is something that you talk, is probably the most engaged points on
Starting point is 01:06:27 instagram and on your social media content your videos i'm assuming 80 of the biggest ones are around relationships so assumption maybe i'm wrong but it seems to be like it triggers people relationship information why is it so hard to be in an intimate relationship and this is a general question but what's the best way to enter an intimate relationship with the intention of it working out long term yeah why is it so hard to be in an intimate relationship and what's the best way to enter one yeah with the intention of having a beautiful experience together long term. I think it's so hard because people don't know how they want to receive love and they don't know how to give love. And like we said earlier, that the old wisdom is like to love and be loved is the biggest need. But we don't know how to love and how to give love.
Starting point is 01:07:21 And we carry so much of our baggage from previous relationships and experiences and we bring them into a new person so it's like that person treated me like that that must mean all men or all women are like that which means now when i'm with this woman i'm going to look at her through the lens of the last person that i was with and look for them to to to create this experience again, right? Exactly, yeah. Find evidence of why this person is this way. Exactly. And so now you're approaching each person with the baggage of the last person,
Starting point is 01:07:54 which doesn't make sense. You're not coming at it from a fresh, new experience with the same lessons for yourself, but we start applying the lessons to the other person. So I think that's the reason why we struggle to have an intimate connection. Now, one of the things I talk about in here are the five types of attraction. Yes.
Starting point is 01:08:09 And the reason why I think this is the best way to figure out... Attraction or love? Language? No, no. These are the five types of attraction that I talk about. Go ahead. So the five types of attraction are physical, financial, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And I'll explain what I mean by all of them. So physical is obvious. She or he is hot. Attract'll explain what I mean by all of them. So physical is obvious. She or he is hot.
Starting point is 01:08:27 Attracted to them. I'm attracted to them. Financial or wealth. I like what they own. I like what they have. I like what they've achieved. I like that he went to Princeton or Harvard. I like that she's a scientist or a CEO.
Starting point is 01:08:40 I like that she's a supermodel. You like their status, right? So you're attracted to that. The third thing that we're attracted to is people's mental abilities. This is like when you're attracted to someone's mind. You just love the way they think. You love the way they articulate themselves. You love all of that. You're attracted to that. The fourth is the emotional. This is when you're attracted to someone's emotional intelligence like oh they're very caring they're compassionate they they're supportive they have these good traits and the fifth and final is spiritual
Starting point is 01:09:12 where you're like you're you're connected to that person's values on a very deep level like what they really live by now notice the first three I equate them to chemistry and the last two I equate to compatibility. So the first three are chemistry. And most of us get involved in a relationship based on the first three. But here's the issue. You can feel chemistry multiple times per day. You can feel it with the receptionist. You can feel it with your personal trainer. You can feel it with the barista at the coffee shop. You can feel it with the waiter or the waitress. The spark. You can feel that with your personal trainer you can feel it with the barista at the coffee shop you can feel it with the waiter or the waitress spark you can feel that anywhere like you can find someone attracted by one of those qualities every single day and the challenge is we get into
Starting point is 01:09:54 a relationship based on simply one of the first three and there's nothing wrong with that as a starting point it just can't be the end point and so what we do is we keep convincing ourselves that the first three of chemistry is more powerful than the last two of compatibility and we're letting chemistry do the heavy lifting and it can't and it can't we're making chemistry do the heavy lifting the heavy work they're like pull and push and like okay like you you just take care of this that's why so many people rely on good sex to save a relationship. Always be in conflict. Totally.
Starting point is 01:10:29 If the values and the compatibility are not there and you're relying on chemistry, there'll always be some conflict. Always. Yeah. And chemistry really easily is those top three and which is good to have. So you should, but my point is. You need to have both. You need to have both. But you can't just say because I'm mentally attracted to how that person thinks, that's good marriage material.
Starting point is 01:10:48 That's not good enough. You can't say, because we make broad generalizations. We say things like, oh, because he or she has a top degree from a top college or a business school and they're at a top company, they must be really kind, loving, and organized. It's like, what? Like, how did you just... And be a good parent, yeah. Yeah, must have been a good parent. How did you just draw that parallel?
Starting point is 01:11:09 And so that's the way I would talk about entering a relationship is, it can start with the first three, but don't let it end without the last two. Yeah, have the emotional and the spiritual, the values along the way. That has to align for a real long-lasting relationship. I feel like I could do this for another three hours. is amazing so good i want to finish with one uh one thought
Starting point is 01:11:28 about service because you live a life of service i feel like my mission is to be of service to you you are in my business in my relationships with my friendships it's all about service for me as well and this is a i think it's a quote from the bhagavad gita is that what it is the plant trees no so this this one is like a famous statement that we share. It's a statement, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you say, plant trees under whose shade you do not plan to sit. I remember you told me that.
Starting point is 01:11:52 This one's from the Bhagavad Gita. You told me that a couple of years ago, and I remember that really blew my mind. Because in business, when I started out, I think it was a lot of like, okay, let me do this for you, and you do this for me. Let's do reciprocal type of stuff. I was in the online marketing world where it was about joint ventureships. It was about affiliate marketing and I'll do this and then you promote me, right? And then I started to shift it. When I got to the podcast seven years ago, I said, I'm just going to bring on people I like and I'm just going to serve. It comes around cool,
Starting point is 01:12:23 if not cool. And it's hard, I think, to switch that mentality, but it's so rewarding to come from a place of giving and service to literally wanting to see other people succeed, whether they help you or not in return. How do we get to that place of that mindset when we're like, but I really need some help right now and I really want someone to support me in return and I don't want to give all my energy to someone if they're never going to give me anything in return. How do we balance that?
Starting point is 01:12:50 Yeah, that's such a smart question because I think the challenge is that we become overly compassionate often to people in a certain way. So what I mean by that is being compassionate and being giving isn't about spending your whole day with one person who needs your attention and affection if your purpose is to do something different. So for example, you're putting out this podcast.
Starting point is 01:13:16 You put out video content. You write books. This is serving lots of different people in lots of ways. And you're not expecting, apart from the person buying the book and getting the value from it, you're not really expecting them to do anything for you. You're not asking them to come and champion for you
Starting point is 01:13:31 if they don't want to. So you're already planting those seeds. You're already sharing in that way. And I think the mistake we make is when we are overly compassionate to one person and then we're doing it, expecting that they're going to do something back. Right? So the only way to... So don't be overly compassionate expecting something in return yeah don't just just if you see yourself don't do that if you're gonna just don't do that if
Starting point is 01:13:53 you're gonna feel that and that's okay like that doesn't make you less compassionate doesn't make you a bad person like if i don't want to and i have rules about there are some people in my life that i don't ask for favors because i don't ever want to be in a position where I'm having to ask them because not that they wouldn't do it or whatever. I just don't want to do that. It's just not who I am. And it's like, but that's fine. And there are certain people in my life that I won't give to because I know they're going to keep asking for stuff. And so you have to protect yourself.
Starting point is 01:14:18 And I think self-protection and being honest with yourself is the best way. So my favorite analogy in this is if someone's drowning in the ocean, if you're fit and healthy and you're a lifeguard, great, you can go and save them. But if you're not, you might need to call the real lifeguard to come and help them out. And that's what real compassion is. Real compassion. If you can't help someone, if you're feeling toxic one day, you're feeling negative one day, you're feeling you're not really giving from your heart, it's better to introduce them to someone or find someone else who can help them than to go in there with all these toxic emotions and now you're expecting them to return the favor it's better to not do it if you're going to do something
Starting point is 01:14:56 and in your heart of hearts you're actually feeling bitter and regretting it it's better not to do it because guess what you weren't compassionate when you did it with that intention compassion's about intention it's not about the result like two people could give the same amount of charity one person gives it for pr one person gives it because they care about the kids who's happy the person who gave it for the kids the person both people's money had the same impact but the intention is what defined what happened so if you're big begrudgingly going out there and helping someone but getting in your heart of hearts you're like oh i can't believe they asked me who are they like i don't even like them like they never helped me and then you help them that guess what that's not compassion protect yourself deal with it deal with
Starting point is 01:15:41 that toxic emotion so i don't help people that when i feel like that and i give myself that that space say no or no yeah i'll be honest with them i'll say i in honest in the best way that you can have i don't think i can support you on this because i don't feel right about it or it doesn't make sense to me or whatever it is like fit or it's not that i fit and i think that's actually stopping yourself from being a people pleaser yes because we we actually are not compassionate, we're just people pleasers. We actually just want people to think we're like magnanimous and amazing,
Starting point is 01:16:10 so we'll go to everything to support everyone. But it's like- We're resentful people pleasers. Exactly. We please, and then we're resentful that we had- Exactly. Didn't get what we wanted. And then now we want to make them feel guilty for not doing it back.
Starting point is 01:16:23 So I make a conscious effort to support the people I love, to make an effort with the people I love and do more there. And that's fine. Your compassion doesn't, you don't have to be this overarching person who's like doing it for everyone. That's part of the journey. It's going to take time to get there. I appreciate you, man.
Starting point is 01:16:39 I love our hangs. I love our time together. I love this. This is going to blow people away. This is going to inspire and impact a lot of people. I got one final question for you, but make sure you guys get this book. I'm telling you, this will be the book of the year. Go get it.
Starting point is 01:16:53 Get a few copies for your friends. Think like a monk. Train your mind for peace and purpose every day. I rarely read books, but this is one I'm almost finished. And just going through the rest of this while I'm here, I'm like, this is unbelievable. Everything he's talking about, the monk method,
Starting point is 01:17:09 everything else you want to get it. There's going to be one tool in here that's going to change your life or support you. Go get this book. I highly recommend it. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it in stores. You can find it on your website,
Starting point is 01:17:19 on your Instagram, on social media, Jay Shetty everywhere. Go follow him. Are you, are you, what are you on Instagram? Are you, I am. Jay Shetty. There used to be something else on Facebook.
Starting point is 01:17:30 It used to be Jay Shetty IW. Yes. Yes. Yeah. On Facebook. Is it still there? On Twitter. I think it's still there on Twitter.
Starting point is 01:17:35 It's on Facebook. Just search Jay Shetty. You'll find him. And what else? How come else can we support you with this book right now? Is there something special if they get the book? Yeah. So right now for Is there something special if they get the book? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:17:53 So right now, for anyone who pre-orders, everyone's getting access to an exclusive workshop that I made, which are four steps to train your mind for peace and purpose every day. Wow. It's a video that we made just around the book. And you get these four incredible steps that you can practice. Really simple. And some reflection exercises as well. And, you know, my real… So when they get the book and how do they get that? So, if you pre-order the book
Starting point is 01:18:06 from thinklikeamonkbook.com, you get access to the workshop. It will be sent to you. And if you pre-order the book from anywhere else, you can go to thinklikeamonkbook.com, submit your order confirmation or number, and you'll still get it.
Starting point is 01:18:18 So, thinklikeamonkbook.com to get the bonuses. Exactly. And anything else of where you're touring and what's happening in the future will be on there. Absolutely. Yeah, everything's going to be on that website. And I think of where you're touring and what's happening in the future will be on there. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:18:26 Yeah, everything's going to be on that website. And I think the big thing for me, Lewis, honestly, and I know you can relate to this, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. It's like if my videos have impacted anyone in any way, like if they've had even the tiniest impact on your family member or loved one, if my podcasts have like been useful to you, you you know it's like i really encourage you to go and support me on this book like i really appreciate the help because it's like we've just been putting out so much content like free like three videos a week two podcasts a week like we're creating all of this to serve and serve and serve and this is one thing that i want you to have in your home yeah and and i believe that it's my best work it's unbelievable man so i really yeah here's the thing you einstein you quoted einstein in here yeah uh at some point where it's like something
Starting point is 01:19:10 like you don't master something until you learn to share simply or something like that if you can't explain something simply you don't understand it well enough exactly and it's hard to train your mind for peace and purpose every day in a complex, chaotic, scarcity-minded world or environment at times. It's really hard to think, how do I find peace? How do I find happiness? How do I have a conversation with my mind? How do I not let my mind trick me? How do I stay in a neutral environment and reaction when I want to react to everything?
Starting point is 01:19:41 It's really complicated to do these things. when I want to react to everything. It's really complicated to do these things, but you break it down in such a simple, beautiful, easy way where it doesn't overcomplicate. It simplifies. And I think that's why this is a, you're doing a disservice to yourself
Starting point is 01:19:55 and the people that you love without, if you don't buy this and get this for your friends and family, I'm going to get a bunch of copies and give them away. I'm going to have them here in the studio and hand them to people that come in. This is the book of the year.
Starting point is 01:20:06 Make sure you guys go get Think Like a Monk. It's going to really transform everything in your life and help you. Give it to a friend who might be struggling or just wants more peace. It doesn't matter. You don't have to be in so much pain, but if you just want more to life, get this as well. Thanks, man. Highly recommend it. ThinkLikeAMonkBook.com.
Starting point is 01:20:24 This is, I asked you the three truths question the last time, but I don't know if it's different or not now. And I'm gonna go- I don't even remember what I said last time. I don't either. I'm gonna go look back at it and see what it was and compare the two. So let's, you've learned a lot in the last two years.
Starting point is 01:20:38 So would this be different? We'll see. But if this was your last day and you had to take all of your work with you, all this book, it had to go with you into the next world you're going to, wherever that is, and there's no more videos of Jay Shetty,
Starting point is 01:20:50 no more content, no more Instagram, no more social media, and it all had to go away with you to the next place, what would be three lessons you would leave behind for us to live by? Oh, that's such a good question, man. It's like, that's like, oh, what would I say? Three lessons for us to live by.
Starting point is 01:21:07 This is all you could share with the world. The first one I'd say is you can't be anything you want, but you can be everything you are. That's great. The first day I shared that publicly was at the Summit of Greatness. That's right. I remember that. I gave the keynote at the Summit of Greatness. I shared it that day because it was a reflection i'd had for a long time but i think i'd have to say that because
Starting point is 01:21:28 i think we get so lost trying to be everyone that we don't become anyone and then we don't find the one that we're meant to be and so i'd say that's the first one there's the second one that i'd say is and this is we know this through studies and science and everything. It's like just don't miss an opportunity to tell someone how much they mean to you. Like just don't, and I said it better than that somewhere. I can't find it right now. But I mean that like just don't miss an opportunity. Like I was saying that with my mentor, I always told him I loved him. Always.
Starting point is 01:22:00 And now that I can't tell him anymore, I'm just glad I did tell him. You're not regretting it. Yeah, totally. So, like, don't ever leave someone without telling them how much they mean to you because you don't know when they'll leave. Oh. And so, like, that is just, like, never let your last interaction with someone, you know, be a bad one. Be a bad one or be a missed opportunity to express love or just generosity. Especially the people you love, right? Like you may have bad interactions with people you've once or twice or a business, but the people that are close to you and you love the people you
Starting point is 01:22:33 will regret it with. Don't just don't, it's just not worth living with. Yeah. Um, the last, the only thing you'll be able to share left to the world, what is the final truth? Don't settle. I just don't settle. You don't, you don't, just don't, don't think that you're at the peak of what you were meant to do because you probably don't know unless you try. And so for most people, I feel like just don't settle because I think we just give in too early and don't settle for service. Right. It's like, that's the reason, that's the intention. It's like service is the one that's pulling you along. And so don't settle for service. The world needs service. The world needs your service. The world needs your genius. The world needs your passion. And you just don't know it yet. Like, I feel, I look back and I'm just like, God, like, I would have just been sitting there working in a corporate job and not known all the people I know now and connected with this amazing community and met you.
Starting point is 01:23:31 I just wouldn't have had it. If you didn't go for it. If I didn't go for it. If I just settled that my service was this. So don't settle for service. Service deserves the best of you. Yeah, man. Dude, I really appreciate you.
Starting point is 01:23:43 I appreciate you. I love you. I love our friendship. I'm really grateful for the amount of attention to service you have in the world because your commitment to making content go viral, making the information that we all need to go viral is so profound and powerful. And you've been through so much in the last few years, good challenges, opportunities, growth, different things, and I really admire how you continue to show up, how you continue to lean into the practice
Starting point is 01:24:11 every morning of meditating, of doing your best, and you're not perfect, but you constantly show up with your best, and I acknowledge you for that, man. I'm grateful for you and our friendship. Thank you, man. Me too, man. I want to say, too, everyone who's listening to Lewis, and I know you've all loved him for many years,
Starting point is 01:24:24 but it's just like you've all loved him for many years, but it's just like, you've been the same since we became friends. And my rule for friendship is I trust consistency. So I don't like people who change with the times. Or I don't vibe. Those people don't survive around me for long amounts of time. Hopefully I grow and get better. No, you grow and get better. I mean, the relationship and the connection, the friendship, the kindness has stayed the same.
Starting point is 01:24:48 Of course. It's never dwindled in tough times for me. It's never become more in successful times for me. You've always been the same in that way. And those, I think, are positive, powerful friendship traits when someone is continuing to love, continuing to show up, continuing to be kind to you no matter what you're going through, you know? And I think that that, you really, yeah. You learn a lot about someone on how they don't show up for you
Starting point is 01:25:12 when you're going through a challenging time. That's why challenges are the best. And you learn a lot about someone when they only reach out to you when they see you succeed. Yeah. And so make sure you're always showing up for people consistently either way,
Starting point is 01:25:26 good or bad, high or low, whatever it may be, be consistent. Like that quarterback in the game, just be consistent. And if you're going
Starting point is 01:25:33 for a tough time, the best lesson you learn from a tough time is who really cares. That's it, man. And so it's a great, and it just lets you drop. Like everything drops
Starting point is 01:25:41 and you just know. You purge friendships. It's the best. It's the worst and the best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got to find the meaning and the challenges and that just know you purge friendships it's the best it's the worst and the best yeah you got to find the meaning and the challenges and that's where you find the meaning that's it jay shetty man thank you man thanks so much i hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening,
Starting point is 01:26:10 then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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