The Art of Manliness - #152： The School of Greatness

00:00:00.000 we're at mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast so there's a guy's

00:00:19.060 name lewis house some of you probably listen to his podcast but he's got an interesting story

00:00:23.420 uh he had aspirations to be a professional football player and he was making it happen

00:00:27.980 for himself uh starting off with the canadian football league and some of the minor league

00:00:31.580 football teams here in the states but then he had an injury that ended his career and he ended up on

00:00:37.940 his sister's couch for a year broke no money and just completely in a funk uh and then he started

00:00:44.540 uh sometimes he started a business online and uh it was a big success and then he went on to other

00:00:50.680 things uh it started a podcast where his goal was just to interview influencers thinkers who uh had

00:00:57.060 insights on how to live a more flourishing life it's called the school of greatness and recently

00:01:02.520 lewis just released a book by the same title school of greatness where he talks about some of the

00:01:06.780 insights that he he's gleamed over the two years of doing this podcast so today on the podcast lewis

00:01:12.340 and i discussed the school of greatness and what it means to live a flourishing life and how to do it

00:01:16.880 all right lewis house welcome to the show thanks brad appreciate it man all right so before we get

00:01:29.160 started let's get a little background on you uh you have a podcast school of greatness i know there's

00:01:33.100 a couple of our i know a lot of our readers listen to it got a book coming out school of greatness as

00:01:37.720 well but what did you do before you had a podcast where you're interviewing influencers and people who

00:01:43.060 are doing awesome things what were you doing before with your life i was uh in my early adulthood i was

00:01:49.480 chasing my dream to be a pro athlete so i played arena football for a season down in alabama and

00:01:55.080 in columbus ohio as well and got it got injured during the season had to have a surgery on my wrist

00:02:01.520 where i broke my broke my wrist and then was in a full arm cast for six months and it was at that time

00:02:06.500 where it was a huge transition point in my life you know my whole childhood i grew up thinking i was

00:02:11.540 going to be this pro athlete and now it's all i'm going to do i had no backup plan i wasn't really

00:02:16.120 good in school um so i put my energy into after school activities like sports and i was sleeping

00:02:23.920 on my sister's couch after i had this surgery because i didn't have any money i didn't have

00:02:27.200 anywhere to stay so i was there for about a year and a half sleeping on her couch recovering and it

00:02:32.300 was a six month cast recovery time and it was extremely depressing and just it was just a lot

00:02:39.520 of uncertainty at this point in my life i was around 23 24 and i had no clue what was next

00:02:45.280 um but luckily i i read a book over christmas break in 2007 that changed my life it was a four

00:02:52.540 hour work week which i'm i know you know tim and i remember reading this book thinking i had no clue

00:02:58.960 this stuff was even possible that you could do this stuff online that you could build a business i

00:03:03.220 didn't know anything about entrepreneurship and it opened me up to a whole world of possibilities

00:03:08.220 so for the next four or five years i worked like a man on a mission to figure this stuff out and

00:03:16.180 figure out how to build something and marketing and branding and networking and public speaking and i

00:03:21.320 took classes on everything and ended up building an online business where i was creating educational

00:03:26.980 courses originally about linkedin and then other social media trainings sold that company and was in

00:03:33.520 another transition phase of my life trying to figure out what i wanted to do and that's how the school

00:03:37.680 of greatness was born awesome yeah i first heard about you with the linkedin thing i just knew you

00:03:41.520 as the linkedin guy yep that was it i was hustling hard on that you're hustling hard at it before like

00:03:46.080 before it was like really big yeah i got in there yep okay so let's let's talk about this uh this school

00:03:52.440 of greatness thing all right it's called the school of greatness that greatness gets thrown out

00:03:57.280 thrown around a lot people are like talking about i'm gonna live a great life here's your great

00:04:00.840 life now blah blah blah uh how do you define greatness in your book in your podcast yeah you

00:04:07.340 know it's interesting because i'm always curious what other people think it means to them and their

00:04:11.240 definition that's what i ask at the end of my every episode yeah you ask me that question yeah and

00:04:16.220 it's it's great to see the responses you know it's a wide range of responses and i think greatness is uh

00:04:22.240 different for all of us but for me right now greatness is discovering and making the most of

00:04:31.000 the gifts and the talents you are born with to pursue whatever dreams you have in your life and

00:04:37.680 then with that making the biggest impact on the maximum amount of people in the world through living

00:04:42.980 your dreams nice you know that sounds a lot a lot like the greek concept of eudaimonia or it's me it

00:04:51.320 means flourishing right it's like well a lot of people translate it as happiness but i like

00:04:56.360 flourishing is a better translation it's just like living your best life possible that's it

00:05:01.240 right okay i like it greatness is eudaimonia yeah there you go and it's different for everyone you

00:05:07.460 know for the mom who's got two kids it may just be like i want to live a great family life and support

00:05:12.540 my husband and also build something on the side you know and then for the the college kid it may be

00:05:17.760 i want to build a billion dollar company and change the world it's different for everyone but it

00:05:22.420 doesn't have to look the same doesn't have to look the same all right so in in your book you you sort of

00:05:26.700 lay out steps to uh developing you we'll say greatness or eudaimonia um your first step was

00:05:34.780 having a vision for your life i'm a big believer in like having a life plan and all that things but

00:05:40.520 what is the process that you use to create a vision for your life and your business etc i think it's i think

00:05:46.000 it starts off in the most basic way and it starts off with doing the things we used to do we were

00:05:51.480 five six seven years old which is literally playing in the playground dreaming of what we want to do

00:05:57.300 when we grow up and it may sound lame or or or we should yeah it may sound weird but literally i don't

00:06:03.840 think we dream enough as adults i don't think we take the time to go sit in nature alone with no

00:06:10.680 computer no laptop uh or phone or anything and literally lay there and dream what a perfect day

00:06:17.480 could look like for us if we could have anything and do anything because i truly believe we are the

00:06:22.360 authors of our life if we want to be what do we want to create what's the story we want to tell

00:06:27.240 and we don't do that enough in general the people that i'm connected to they're always

00:06:32.140 busy-minded as opposed to calm and dreaming minded so what i tell people is to do an exercise that i

00:06:41.120 have it's called the perfect day exercise and with this literally go in nature for an hour it may be

00:06:47.320 one of the hardest things you ever do because you're so connected to your phone and thinking of

00:06:51.200 the things you want to do but go into nature for an hour no one else take up a piece of paper or a

00:06:58.160 notepad and and a pen and sit there and dream about all the things that you desire all the things

00:07:05.000 you desire for your relationships your health your life the impact you want to have your family

00:07:10.160 the the type of things you want to be working on where you want to be traveling and then i want you

00:07:15.880 to write down like a creative writing uh exercise write down the moment you wake up to the moment you go

00:07:24.020 to bed what a perfect day could look like for you it's just about dreaming and visualizing it

00:07:28.160 so you can actually see it in your mind write it down it could be you know i wake up in the morning

00:07:34.020 in my king-size bed looking over the ocean smiling because i'm sleeping next to the woman of my dreams

00:07:41.540 and i can't believe she's with me it could start off like that and then walk through the rest of your

00:07:47.080 day what are you doing where are you going what are you experiencing what are you feeling

00:07:50.480 everything from there you've got kind of a map a mind map of how you want to live your life if it

00:07:57.000 was the ultimate life you could have to start seeing yourself living it after that there's a

00:08:02.340 second part of this exercise where i have people take out another piece of paper and when i was did

00:08:06.760 you play football back in high school of course i grew up in oklahoma it's a religion here yeah so i

00:08:12.500 don't know if they had this in your high school but for me when i went to college they really

00:08:16.720 incorporated this uh every day i would go to practice i would show up in my locker would have

00:08:22.340 a piece of paper just hanging in my locker that was the itinerary for the day the day's practice

00:08:26.920 and it was so structured down to every minute of what we were doing when we were drinking water to

00:08:33.220 what warm-ups were going to be to the drills we were running it told us everything we were going to do

00:08:38.280 that day and the coaches didn't just say okay guys show up at the uh the field at 330 and we'll see

00:08:44.700 what we create today it wasn't like that it was very structured and organized to in order for us to

00:08:51.440 get everything we've done we needed to to achieve our vision for that game that coming up that season

00:08:56.660 whatever it may be so i want you to create an itinerary for your day from the moment you wake up

00:09:01.280 at 8 a.m 8 30 9 o'clock whatever it may be all the way till 11 o'clock or midnight whenever you go to

00:09:07.420 sleep and write down all the steps you're going to take action towards that fit into that dream you

00:09:13.020 have and create an itinerary for yourself now your perfect day if it was the same thing every day it'd

00:09:19.240 get old it'd be boring so it's going to shift and evolve and change but you want to start creating

00:09:24.240 it now so you can start living that and start being in it you know if we went out to play sports and

00:09:30.260 just said okay guys let's just show up and see what we can create it would probably be a lot more

00:09:34.880 chaotic and it wouldn't be as purposeful or intentional so i want you to do that first

00:09:39.760 exercise because i think it could be very powerful for you yeah yeah i mean i when i i remember doing

00:09:44.320 that in sports my my coaches would have like this they didn't give us the schedule but i know they

00:09:48.180 had their schedule and it was just like right we're moving on to you know defense now we're moving

00:09:52.680 on to special teams like there was no dilly dally it's like okay what's we're doing now yes um and

00:09:57.420 speaking of the itinerary one thing that i did i i this helped me out immensely when i was in law

00:10:01.900 school actually i i my goal was i wanted to be the best right my class yes and so like i created this

00:10:09.620 schedule for me and it was like it was a spreadsheet on an excel it was the same thing every day it was

00:10:15.240 an itinerary down to the minute um and i followed it for three years and it just like it it was a it was

00:10:21.480 a drag it was a grind sometimes but it worked it does man it worked i'll tell you what you know i

00:10:27.780 just interviewed a guy named john maxwell who's a big leadership author oh yeah john c maxwell yeah

00:10:33.380 john c maxwell sold 25 million copies of his book speaks to millions of people around the world

00:10:37.360 and he was like you know people ask me the the key to success in business or life or whatever it may

00:10:42.800 be he said you don't have to be perfect every day you just have to give your best and be really

00:10:46.920 really good every single day and do it for years do it for years consistently and he said the the

00:10:54.020 compounding effect over time is unbelievable and if you do just a good job every single day and give

00:11:00.820 your best over years you're going to be really successful if you continue to be consistent so

00:11:06.360 yeah it's that you were consistent for three years it was a grind you probably want your you

00:11:10.800 probably weren't perfect every day but you showed up every day doing your best yeah the same with

00:11:15.480 like fitness too i thought a lot of guys people like that you know it's like why am i seeing any

00:11:19.260 progress it's like well have you stuck to the same program and the same diet for more than two months

00:11:25.120 yeah exactly or no you take or to check four cheat days this week yeah and you know expect to be the

00:11:32.200 same so at a carbo reload right exactly yeah well here's a question i have about vision because i'm a

00:11:37.020 big proponent of this but i i've run into this problem right and this it's this right is how do you

00:11:42.480 avoid what some cognitive psychologists called miswanting so like you think you know you think

00:11:49.400 you know you want something and you work really hard years to get it and then you get it and you

00:11:55.000 end up like i don't like this this is terrible here's a perfect example like law school like i thought i

00:11:59.320 wanted to be a lawyer since i was in high school so i busted my chops to get into law school work really

00:12:05.100 hard in law school then i find come to find like i i started when i started interning at firms like

00:12:09.640 actually doing law work i was like this sucks like i i don't want to do like this i don't like 0.76

00:12:14.600 this um how do you avoid that though when you're creating a vision because like it's with vision

00:12:20.180 you're supposed to get very specific and you know very create these very visceral things but then

00:12:23.300 how do you know you want will like something if you don't have it yet i think i think uh when you

00:12:28.920 figure out what you want to experience in your life the the feelings you want to have the people you

00:12:34.360 want to spend your time with the places you want to travel to the smells the tastes when i think of

00:12:41.120 a vision i think of that like how do i want to feel every single day and then does does training

00:12:46.960 for eight hours a day and then to go work for a law firm does that fulfill the desires of the feelings i

00:12:52.760 want to have every single day if so cool but i'm going to continue to pursue it until it doesn't

00:12:56.700 and i think sometimes we need to to go through things that we desire we want until we realize we

00:13:02.440 don't want them otherwise we might always be thinking oh i really want that thing or i want

00:13:06.880 i should i should have gone after that or what could have happened if i went after it but now

00:13:10.520 you know you don't want to be a lawyer anymore so i think it's about figuring out the feelings that

00:13:14.880 you want to have every day and then going towards whatever you want to create the job the career the

00:13:19.420 business you want to have that fits into those feelings yeah but then be willing to adjust

00:13:24.680 be willing to adjust i mean listen when i was in high school all i wanted was a girlfriend

00:13:29.160 into getting to college to play college football that was my vision right and then when i was in

00:13:33.960 college my only vision was to be a pro athlete and then when i was a pro athlete and got injured i was

00:13:39.240 like okay i don't know what my vision is so it's like it's a constant change evolution i look at life

00:13:44.520 like a sport right there's seasons in sports you can't just play in the playoffs and in the nfl every

00:13:51.960 single week non-stop and not have a break you'll die so you've got to have seasons you know people

00:13:57.920 retire after a season because they're like okay i don't want this anymore this was my dream my whole

00:14:02.720 life i played in the nfl for 10 years i'm beat up i'm i want a different thing in my life i'm in a

00:14:07.960 different season of life so it's it's okay if something you work on for years is not what you

00:14:13.200 want anymore um and i'm sure you had that with sports as well you know i used to love baseball i

00:14:17.760 played since i was five years old playing t-ball and then my senior year i was just like i'm burnt out

00:14:23.000 you know i'd hurt my arm and i was just like this sucks it's not as fun anymore like it's not

00:14:28.540 inspiring and so it's okay if my dream has shifted into something new and the thing is uh a lot of

00:14:34.720 people discount this like you learn stuff in the process of course of achieving that one thing that's

00:14:39.960 what i get a lot of emails or letters from guys who are young they're in their 20s and they're like

00:14:43.920 i don't know what to do with my life and they're in that moment they want to make sure like they want

00:14:48.100 they think they have to get it right from the start i'm like no just pick something like do

00:14:53.000 like have a vision and go for it you might not you might not end up doing that thing but like you're

00:14:57.660 going to acquire skills you're going to meet people new opportunities will open up because you have

00:15:01.380 taken action towards that one goal and then you you can feel free to choose your change the story

00:15:06.140 right exactly and brett would you would you say that even though you realize you hated law or it

00:15:10.900 wasn't for you or whatever wouldn't you say that man you're glad that you you took on the law

00:15:16.680 uh and you you did that for years you went to school you practiced and because you learned a

00:15:22.500 ton about how to run a business probably and how to be efficient and how to be consistent and

00:15:26.940 research writing writing that's where i learned how to write was in law school and would you have

00:15:32.080 would you say you'd have a successful blog as it is today without having years of training writing

00:15:37.460 no no of course so you gotta so you gotta look at that as like okay this was you know tools that i

00:15:43.180 learned to make me efficient in my new dream exactly and this isn't gonna last forever at some

00:15:48.700 point it's gonna end you know it is gonna end some point some point whether you sell it you you die 0.75

00:15:54.420 in a hundred years whatever it's going to end right something's going to change and you're gonna

00:15:59.420 move on to something else you're gonna be like i'm tired of writing about men you know like i've

00:16:03.240 written everything i can about what men can do to be manly um now i want to write about

00:16:07.880 girly things i don't know so let's talk about this uh sort of sort of uh segues nicely to the

00:16:15.140 next my next question adversity uh you talk it's a it's an important aspect of living the school of

00:16:21.260 greatness why is embracing adversity such an important aspect of living a flourishing life

00:16:26.380 because it's gonna happen no matter what you know we didn't just we weren't born and we couldn't

00:16:30.940 just talk and walk right away we had to stumble and every day is a stumble towards growing into

00:16:36.460 the person what we want to become so the greatest minds the greatest athletes the greatest businessmen

00:16:43.780 they all face some type of adversity um along the way and the bigger the dream the bigger the

00:16:50.560 challenges roadblocks and adversity you're going to face so if you can't learn to embrace it and say

00:16:56.460 okay this is a challenge this is in the way um all it's telling me is that i need to learn something

00:17:02.580 new in order to overcome it or i need to grow into someone or i need to attract a better team to help

00:17:07.860 me evolve past this adversity but it's when the people who see the adversity and they say you know

00:17:14.320 what it's too much for me to handle i'm not going to take it on uh i'm going to stay where i'm at in

00:17:19.360 my comfort zone those are the ones that aren't able to push past and grow as fast as everyone else

00:17:24.940 because they're stuck in that adversity fear you've uh you have highlighted a bunch of people in your book

00:17:29.800 that you've interviewed and just you come in contact with your uh your business are there any

00:17:34.360 people who stick out in your top of mind that they overcame adversity that allowed them to do

00:17:40.540 something even greater before the adversity yeah of course i mean well i think of kyle maynard as a

00:17:46.160 great example do you know kyle i don't he's a guy who was born without arms and legs and he's got

00:17:52.940 one of the most incredible stories he's climbed mount kilimanjaro on his elbows army crawling up the

00:17:58.740 mountain it took him 12 days to do it he's fought in a mma octagon fight against a guy with arms and

00:18:05.960 legs who he always wanted the dream of of fighting the ufc and he did his a fight he was a high school

00:18:13.300 wrestler against you know people with arms and legs and was a champion wrestler he does crossfit it's

00:18:19.080 just like amazing how he lives his life he lives alone and it's incredible the adversity and the

00:18:24.460 challenges he faces in a world that does not support people without arms and legs how he can

00:18:29.580 continue to be happy and go after his dreams and inspire other people along the way um i think it's

00:18:36.440 a great example i always think of him whenever whenever i'm struggling or feeling like sore or not happy

00:18:41.800 about something happening in my life i'm like man i have arms and freaking legs like i have no excuse

00:18:48.400 to to do what i want to do like here's a guy who doesn't have half the body literally and he still

00:18:55.860 does it so there's no excuse so for me he's a great example of someone who just constantly overcomes

00:19:01.160 adversity every day and is happy that's awesome really cool um so you talk in the book about the

00:19:08.280 importance of of hustling and i'm a big believer right like we i wrote a post several years ago called

00:19:13.120 the world belongs to those who hustle yes i think it's true it's based off an abraham lincoln quote

00:19:18.080 yep um but you argue that there's there are fears that hold people back from hustling what are those

00:19:25.520 fears and how do you overcome them i think uh the fear is um success and failure i think people are

00:19:33.820 afraid they're afraid to succeed um because of what will come from that what responsibilities

00:19:38.580 the platform they have they may not feel comfortable uh having that type of acknowledgement

00:19:43.740 uh they're afraid of that but they're also afraid of looking bad they're afraid of people judging them

00:19:49.600 when they do succeed or if they fail people saying i told you so and i think people get stuck in that

00:19:56.060 the fear of success and failure and for me it's um it's a shame because i believe we're born to

00:20:03.600 to step into the the greatness that we have from the gifts we have and make the most of them

00:20:07.780 and it's just a shame i wish people would hustle more um you know what i think other people are

00:20:14.740 afraid of they're a lot of people afraid of with hustling is they don't want to look like they're

00:20:17.700 trying too hard but i don't understand that i'm like you know maybe you don't need to look like you're

00:20:24.920 dying when you're doing it but i think people appreciate others who work hard after their dreams and

00:20:31.220 go for it and do whatever it takes it's you know the the coach in a basketball team doesn't just say

00:20:38.280 oh you didn't chase for that ball um you know it's okay he he will put on the starting five the player

00:20:45.160 that dives on the court constantly to get the loose balls because he knows that's going to be the

00:20:50.360 difference maker potentially at the end of the game between winning by a couple points or losing

00:20:55.180 those that are willing to sacrifice their body their energy um for the greater good of the vision

00:21:01.980 and hustle you know i'm talking about like diving for the loose balls of life you gotta be like a

00:21:06.820 larry bird exactly most people don't dive for the loose balls in life because whatever they don't 0.97

00:21:12.380 want to look bad or they want to look stupid or like they're trying too hard but tell me when you

00:21:16.860 watch someone diving on the court who was the guy for the calves uh last playoffs um delo duveva or 0.96

00:21:24.320 whatever his name is i don't know if you watched the nba playoffs last year no but there's a guy who

00:21:29.120 should not have been on the court he is like i feel like i could beat him in a one-on-one game

00:21:32.920 but i'll tell you what he scored like 20 points a game and he was diving all over the place like

00:21:38.060 getting kneed in the head diving into the stands saving loose balls everywhere and everyone loved this

00:21:45.260 guy on the team and in the stands because man they saw someone who was hustling and giving his all

00:21:50.920 for his dream and for me that's what's inspiring when people do hustle and dive around on the court

00:21:55.880 of life not when people are just like trying to play it cool and act like they have it all figured

00:22:00.880 out and just don't care that doesn't inspire me like the tryhards i like that um so here's a related 0.97

00:22:07.940 question is i know a lot of people who are really great at hustling and how to work hard and smart

00:22:14.800 but the thing is they still seem not to get anywhere in life because they don't have any

00:22:20.420 self-initiative right like they're good if someone tells them exactly what they need to do right um but

00:22:27.100 when they're left on their own they just can't get going they can't self-start so any advice for the

00:22:33.180 people out there who are struggling with with being a self-starter i think uh know your weaknesses and

00:22:38.320 if you're not a self-starter then hire a coach and have them stay on you every single week if that's

00:22:43.980 how you operate we all operate differently i feel like i'm a great self-starter i know you are

00:22:48.880 but i also know that no matter how much passion and commitment i have and how great of a person i am

00:22:57.520 when i work out i can work out with the best of them and i can work on my business with the best of

00:23:02.260 them but i tell you what when i have a coach who's in the gym with me i'm always going to push a little

00:23:07.620 bit harder i'm always going to have a little bit better form i'm always going to be a little bit

00:23:13.360 more intensified in my workouts and i'm going to get a better result because i have a coach no matter

00:23:17.960 if i am great on my own but nine times out of ten that one time i might take it easy or take a longer

00:23:24.640 break or leave early because i'm tired because i'm just like well i did enough so i recommend having

00:23:30.980 that coach to keep you in track constantly and i have a coach in a lot of areas of my life and my

00:23:35.120 business my health my relationships and uh i rely on those to keep me in track give me the feedback

00:23:41.160 it doesn't mean i'm not doing all the work on my own still but i rely for feedback to make sure i'm

00:23:46.580 on the path to achieving my vision currently how does that i've always been curious about this i've

00:23:50.760 never done that i know a lot of people use coaches dude you would crush it what what would like what

00:23:55.720 do you do with like a business coach or like with a career coach you would crush it man i mean

00:24:00.260 because you're dominating so much right now just i just know if you had a coach once a week that you

00:24:06.260 talked on the phone for 15 minutes um for your business let's say you would tell them okay here's

00:24:12.880 my goals here's my game plan here's my vision here's what i want and then the right coach would

00:24:17.580 really guide you to helping you keep on track and accelerate it faster than when you wanted to achieve

00:24:23.300 it and i think it would happen extremely well for you and you would love it so i recommend checking it

00:24:28.360 out and trying it for a few months finding someone that you're really inspired by in business who's

00:24:32.660 a great coach and uh either hiring them or or seeing what arrangement you can have because it'd be an

00:24:38.140 interesting experiment and it'd be a great blog post to say why men should hire coaches or not or not

00:24:43.020 hire coaches or not do it all right so let's getting back on track with our uh our greek theme here

00:24:48.880 eudaimonia i like that school of greatness school of eudaimonia um aristotle said that you know we are what

00:24:56.440 we repeatedly do for excellence is a habit and you have a chapter in your book about habits and you

00:25:02.620 you've talked to a lot of successful people you've done a lot of research in the in success and uh are

00:25:07.620 there any habits that you've seen that a lot of highly successful people have in their life yeah you

00:25:14.580 know brian tracy also said successful people are simply those with successful habits and um we can

00:25:22.180 we can have a lot of us has bad habits right uh but the the most successful people the most the

00:25:28.980 wealthiest people in the world the people who have the biggest businesses they do things differently they

00:25:34.280 have different habits and some of them uh just for like the the richest people in the world when i was

00:25:39.620 doing research on this they maintain a to-do list they wake up three hours before they start working

00:25:46.540 to set themselves up for the day and they have rituals before they start the day they don't just

00:25:51.480 open up the phone right away in bed and start emailing they follow a process first um they also

00:25:58.760 educate themselves constantly they're reading books they're listening to audio books they're

00:26:03.880 learning constantly they have a learner's mind they are networking five hours each month at a minimum

00:26:11.620 they're connecting with people new people to build new relationships they read 30 plus minutes a day

00:26:18.140 they exercise four days a week i recommend five days a week myself they eat minimal junk food they watch

00:26:24.900 one hour less of tv a day than the average person uh they teach good daily success habits to their

00:26:31.880 children there's lots of things that they do they write down their goals they focus on accomplishing a

00:26:36.540 specific goal and they believe in lifelong educational self-improvement these are a lot of those things

00:26:42.540 awesome what is your daily your morning routine looking like right now so i spend about um when i

00:26:48.200 wake up right now i'm i'm trying to wake up at 7 a.m every morning it's it depends on travel and

00:26:53.740 everything but the goal is 7 a.m i wake up and then i do a a process where i write down what i'm grateful

00:27:00.580 for or write in my journal for what i'm grateful for and what i want to create today so my intention

00:27:06.880 for the day how i want to feel what i want to create and then i do a 13 minute guided visualization

00:27:11.800 this is something i started doing back in college i started it the month before i broke the world record

00:27:17.460 for the most receiving yards in a single football game and it was the best season of my life and i just

00:27:23.600 decided to to continue doing it because i was like there's something to this grounding what i like to

00:27:29.340 call it's a grounding um where you really connect to what you want to create so i do a 13 minute

00:27:35.120 guided visualization it's just an audio with some music that a guy this yogi is talking and kind of

00:27:40.260 guiding you through what you want to create for the day uh i do that then i go and make my bed i wake

00:27:46.600 up and i make my bed to the best of my ability why is that okay why did you decide to start making

00:27:51.820 your bed i i didn't do this until um about two and a half years ago i didn't start making my bed i used

00:27:57.460 maybe once in a while i'd make it but it really just kind of like when you had company coming over

00:28:01.720 right exactly i'd like throw the sheet over or something um but when i started making my bed and

00:28:07.920 i'm going to challenge every man and woman listening if you don't make your bed i want to challenge you 1.00

00:28:12.820 to make your bed every day for the next seven days right after you wake up the first thing you do

00:28:18.640 make your bed and take a photo of it and tweet me at lewishouse or tag me and brett on instagram

00:28:25.560 with a photo of your maid bed and i want you to tell me how it feels after one week by doing it

00:28:31.980 so why i do it for a couple reasons one it creates momentum in the day it creates a completion

00:28:39.140 action in the day so i'm completing something i'm getting a task done and that builds momentum as

00:28:46.100 opposed to just being lethargic and like walking into the next thing and reacting so it's it's it's

00:28:51.120 activating the day by completion the second thing it does is it clears the energy you know when i come

00:28:56.280 back into the room and i see a messy bed i'm like having a cluttered mind just by that uh happening

00:29:02.780 so i clean the bed make it nice i pick up the room if i have clothes on the couch or whatever i put that

00:29:09.440 away so that when my i know my bed is complete my room is complete it's clean you know our moms were

00:29:15.860 right we should make our bed and clean our room every single day and i should have listened to her 0.97

00:29:19.380 because it's had incredible effects and the clarity for the rest of my day and when i do it over time

00:29:25.580 it just gets better and better you know the momentum builds over time when you do it so you're

00:29:29.940 going to start to feel those effects so i recommend making your bed then i go for my workout uh almost

00:29:36.920 every morning i'll do some type of workout right now i'm in an off season i'm not training heavily

00:29:42.260 with the usa national handball team so my workouts more cross training and uh lifting running playing

00:29:48.620 pickup basketball different things to keep me maintaining um then i come back i'll do some

00:29:54.820 light stretching on my floor take a shower have a green juice green smoothie as well and then i

00:30:01.520 kick start and go into whatever the first meeting is are working okay yeah interesting i like i like

00:30:06.860 listening about other people's morning routines that's awesome um yeah so we there's this myth in

00:30:13.100 america that's really popular and i i'm kind of drawn to it as well uh it's this idea is that

00:30:18.720 there's the self-made man right like you start and there there are a few examples like i think one of

00:30:24.200 the best examples of an actual self-made man was frederick douglas he started off as a slave ended up

00:30:30.720 being this publishing magnet basically um but for the most part like there isn't self-made men there are

00:30:37.880 usually a great success has a team supporting them yes and you have a chapter dedicated in your

00:30:43.500 book about you know developing a team around you yes so what what sort of people should a man have

00:30:49.540 on their team to be successful in life and i'm not just talking about business i'm talking about just

00:30:53.240 all aspects of is it just like having a team of friends having family is it having an account i mean

00:30:58.280 what is it what's a team that a man should have in his life it's different for each man based on their

00:31:03.960 visions and their goals i believe but you know i don't think there's any self-made man i mean we

00:31:09.280 were born needing support of of other people and based on the support that we had from our parents

00:31:15.620 our siblings originally we grew up a certain way based on that team then from school we grew based on

00:31:24.020 that team of teachers of peers uh of staff then from our our you know our sports teams as well from

00:31:30.560 those coaches like we grew with teams with armies of people supporting us whether we knew it or not

00:31:36.060 and i think it's important that we are very um specific about who we want to spend our time with

00:31:42.740 i think i don't know jim rome or someone said you know we are the the average of the five people we

00:31:46.600 spend our time with and i believe it's completely true and for me i'm always looking to find and

00:31:54.460 attract quality people on my team that means friends who are going to inspire me and lift me up

00:32:00.080 that means mentors that means coaches that means people on my specific business i'm always looking

00:32:06.120 to add um great people to to increase the business to add new talents and new skills and i think it

00:32:13.720 depends with where we're at currently in our emotional and physical development on who we attract and what

00:32:19.520 we see we need um but it's all about the team and i had a guy scooter brawn on who is uh justin

00:32:26.980 bieber's manager who discovered justin bieber on youtube built this you know amazing empire around

00:32:32.320 him he was just like you know you cannot achieve greatness on your own it's impossible and and your

00:32:38.400 team may never be do it the way you want to do it as well they may never do the things you really

00:32:44.760 want to do the way you plan on it but you can't do it without them you can't go to the next step without

00:32:50.120 other people supporting it you couldn't do all the video all the writing all the design all the coding

00:32:55.420 all the email marketing the social media and the content creation all on your own and be where

00:33:00.880 you're at right now it's taking a team of people to support you to get there and maybe those people

00:33:05.960 don't do everything you want them to do the way you like it but they get it done and sometimes it's

00:33:11.260 even better and so we just have to be aware of that and embrace the part of the process and i think

00:33:16.860 of uh you know individual athletes who may be like you know tennis players or golfers who you think

00:33:21.460 like they may be their self-made or they they train on their own but they have probably teams of 50

00:33:26.400 people from the trainers to the coaches to their families to their training partners um you know

00:33:32.720 the sports psychologists like everyone plays into their success and if you don't have the right people

00:33:39.620 on the team it might hold you back well then how do you go about developing this then right so i'm

00:33:43.720 gonna ask you like the you're the expert networker you're the linkedin guy um how do you uh network and

00:33:49.140 and meet these new people and you're and to be able to find these people that you can bring into

00:33:53.720 your team i mean for me it's it's always been who inspires me who am i attracted to who's doing

00:33:59.360 things in the world that i want to do that i want to be like that i want to embody and embrace and from

00:34:04.340 there it's developing those relationships it's going out and making them happen it's you know we all

00:34:09.660 we can all do it in a different way i do it through my podcast you do it through your blog and

00:34:13.780 podcast where you're attracting people to you but you're also you know i created the podcast so that

00:34:18.980 i can have a platform to interview people like you and people like john maxwell and people like

00:34:24.520 tony robbins because i wanted to build relationships with these inspiring individuals and learn from

00:34:29.980 them and create partnerships long term so we can all do it different ways early on i just did it

00:34:36.300 through emailing people on linkedin and going to networking events and adding value to these

00:34:40.580 individuals i think when you ask them for help it's a big turnoff i know you probably get a few

00:34:46.000 hundred emails a day from people asking for advice and it's a turnoff sometimes but when we come to

00:34:52.640 people saying hey i want to add value to do to you here's how i can support you and it's going to take

00:34:59.000 none of your time and i don't want anything in return that's a much better way of building a

00:35:03.300 relationship with someone yeah for sure yeah i think that the adding trying to add value to someone's

00:35:07.800 life we had a john corican on the podcast and he's written some pieces for us as well and he's that's

00:35:12.560 big thing it's like just find ways to like improve people's lives make their lives easier and it could

00:35:17.660 be as simple as just like if you know someone is in a particular industry right maybe it's your boss

00:35:22.960 or some co-worker at your office like shoot them a link uh to an article that might help them with

00:35:29.420 the problem they've been working on just like i thought this would help that's it and don't don't

00:35:33.160 ask for anything just like there it is don't ask for anything and the more you do that over and i did

00:35:37.300 this with tim ferris for about three years when i read his book i would email him like every four to

00:35:41.620 six months because i really wanted to build a relationship with him and i would email him

00:35:45.800 whenever he would have a new book or something he wanted to promote i would promote it as hard as i

00:35:50.080 could and and show him and be like hey man i just shared this everywhere i emailed to my list like let

00:35:56.480 me know how else i can serve you and i would do that for years until eventually we became friends we met

00:36:02.140 in person and then he invited me to come speak at his conference and you know and the relationship

00:36:06.940 has grown from there but that's what i do it might take years to build a relationship with someone you

00:36:11.520 want to be on your team or have just connection with and it's going to take giving and giving and

00:36:18.400 giving for years potentially in order for that to happen all right that sounds some great solid

00:36:23.240 advice there now you you in the book talking about how service is the capstone yes in the the capstone

00:36:29.660 class in the school of greatness and why is that i mean what what how do you take this idea of being

00:36:35.780 great personally and and transferring that to like being great for the wider community you know i'll share

00:36:44.540 a story with you you know my my dream as a kid was to be an all-american athlete and then to be a pro

00:36:49.280 athlete and i remember working so hard to be an all-american decathlete i was an all-american

00:36:57.360 decathlete and then all-american football player and i remember there was just like my mission was

00:37:02.460 to do that and then right when i achieved all-american decathlete i was up on the podium in front

00:37:07.840 of the whole stadium at this at the track and field national championships and i got my award i was happy

00:37:14.560 for about 15 minutes and then i was depressed and nasty the rest of the night around my teammates

00:37:19.760 around my coach around my family i was just like i didn't want them around i was miserable

00:37:23.940 and it wasn't until and i was the same way after football when i got that in the same way after

00:37:28.940 pro football i was like i was just nasty when i would achieve my goals i wasn't happy and later

00:37:35.020 in life i really discovered that the reason i wasn't happy or fulfilled was because i was going after my

00:37:41.740 dreams from a place of proving people wrong i was like i'm going to show you why i'm great i'm going

00:37:47.940 to show you why you're wrong and whatever you say about me isn't true and i'm going to do this in

00:37:54.060 spite of you and so i had i was driven by anger and this fuel of resentment as opposed to serving and

00:38:02.180 inspiring other people and inspiring myself and when i started to shift that and realized that okay

00:38:07.900 i need to come from if i want to achieve my dreams it must come from a place of serving me inspiring me

00:38:14.540 and impacting people around me otherwise i'm going to always feel unfulfilled because it's coming from

00:38:19.840 a place of proving others wrong or only self-serving and that took a while and a lot of pain and

00:38:26.660 frustration for me to figure that that lesson out and all the people that i interview who are at the

00:38:31.340 top of their game they have some type of mission that is bigger than them they have some type of

00:38:36.380 service or some type of charity that they're connected to or committed to in their business it's not just

00:38:42.020 about making lots of money they have a deeper mission of why they want to make money or why

00:38:46.920 they want to achieve their dreams or why they want to be a great athlete and that continues to fuel them

00:38:52.400 in a positive way so i look at living a life of service as something we all must embody on a daily

00:38:58.920 basis that doesn't mean we're trying to cure cancer every single day what it means is we open the door

00:39:04.400 for someone at a restaurant we smile at each person when we walk down the street we say hello we give

00:39:11.000 an extra second longer hug we do those little things every day that are going to lead into bigger

00:39:17.180 moments for people's lives as well and we figure out how can we impact people and serve other people

00:39:22.460 in our businesses and our community and our relationships and by doing that we're going to

00:39:27.420 be much more fulfilled and it's going to be sustaining our life a lot longer yeah and my experience has been

00:39:32.380 this is that whenever you have a service mindset it actually you get better because of it of course

00:39:38.960 right um when you're when you're working for something that's other than yourself and i think

00:39:42.100 that's what a lot of like personal development blogs and books are missing it's all about okay

00:39:47.020 you got to look you got to exercise and you have to do all this things like but for what

00:39:50.320 right like it's like okay i look ripped i look shredded i've got lots of money i'm living the

00:39:55.900 location independent lifestyle now what exactly and it's just like you get you have that moment of

00:40:01.700 jeez i just i don't know like you have the existential crisis and in my in my life in my experience

00:40:06.300 i look back at my life when i've when i've done the my i've been about my peak performance is

00:40:10.160 always when i'm working for something bigger that's not just me like when i football it's a

00:40:14.460 perfect example like i trained so hard and like i threw my body on the line so hard not for me it's

00:40:20.700 like i wanted like to help my team out yeah like i wanted to help the team get to state that was the

00:40:25.600 goal um and now when i'm exercising i have to come up with some sort of other reason beyond state it

00:40:31.560 has to be like okay i'm doing this six pack yeah then just a six pack it's like that won't last

00:40:35.480 exactly the donut will look so good you'll be like i want the donut i want the donut but so i i exercise

00:40:40.820 you know because it helps my mental game helps me be strong for my family you know it'd be a service i

00:40:44.880 want to be useful etc etc um yeah it's like i feel like having that service or mindset can actually help

00:40:51.400 you catapult your own personal development exactly i mean there's so many stories that i know you hear

00:40:57.360 and i hear from people who are 40 years old that like that made all the money that got the boats

00:41:02.820 and the houses and the cars and then they're like what am i doing and they actually like changed

00:41:07.100 their whole lifestyle around because they're like this doesn't feel good anymore like i went after 0.89

00:41:11.720 the stupid stuff and that's not serving me and they find out kind of the meaning of life which is to 0.93

00:41:17.760 you know give more meaning to other people and uh and then they switch it around so i think if we 0.99

00:41:22.620 can create a lifestyle where we're we're making money i think money's great you know i'm i love

00:41:27.440 money and i love experiences i don't really buy a lot of things i don't care about material things i

00:41:33.320 like to have access and experiences and a nice lifestyle but i want to make more money to serve

00:41:41.460 more people and that's why i'm creating my business the way i am awesome so hey lewis has been a great

00:41:46.520 conversation uh before we go though where can people learn more about your work they can go to

00:41:51.560 lewishouse.com um or my podcast the school of greatness awesome lewis house thank you so much

00:41:58.080 for your time it's been a pleasure i appreciate it like i say it was lewis house he's the author

00:42:02.320 of the book the school of greatness you can find that on amazon.com and bookstores everywhere you can

00:42:06.680 also check out lewis's content at lewishouse.com uh and you can also check out his podcasts uh the

00:42:12.340 school of greatness on itunes or stitcher whatever it is you listen to your podcast

00:42:15.800 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:42:23.260 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at art of manliness.com and again if

00:42:26.840 you enjoy this show and you get something out of it i'd really appreciate it if you'd give us a

00:42:30.500 review on itunes or stitcher whatever it is you use to listen to the podcast i'd really appreciate

00:42:35.500 it thank you for your continued support and until next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay

00:42:39.480 manly

00:42:40.200 you

The Art of Manliness - November 04, 2015

#152： The School of Greatness

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