Facing the Fear Until the Fear Disappears | Erwin McManus EP 545

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to The Daily Motivation Show.

0:11Is there a shadow that you still have to face, and how do you overcome it if you do? I think there's always a shadow. For me, it's deeply rooted. I remember one time my wife asked me, could you stop telling people that there's a hero inside of them waiting to be awakened? And I said, I can't stop because I'm always speaking to myself. My shadow is that I will never live in my life the most significant moments that I'm supposed to step into. That I'll never create that beautiful thing. Really? That I'll never create that lasting work of art. I'll never write that sentence that will be transcendent and will speak into people's lives for generations.

0:52And I do have this sense inside of me every day of, I know I'm supposed to do something that matters. And I don't want to live beneath that. My inner world is always all these voices in my head going, you're never going to accomplish the things that you're created to accomplish. You know, you're never going to rise up to the full capacity of what you were designed, you know, to create. And so the other day I had this epiphany, this moment. You know how I used to hear things like, you need to die without any potential? And all of a sudden I just saw it in a new way and it really set me free. And I said, on my tombstone, I wanted to say he has so much potential.

1:29because when you have potential and you actualize it, you get more potential. And when you activate that and actualize it, you end up with more. And so here I am, I want to redefine 65. Like I want to redefine the 60s. I want to live a life so extraordinary, so ambitious, so courageous, so adventurous that no one thought it could be lived in the 60s. And if I die anywhere in here, I want people to be sad that it was a tragic end to the beginning of a story. I want every year of my life to look like the beginning of my story. Wow. How do we create that for ourselves to make every year look like the beginning?

2:06One, you have to stop living a life of obligation and start living a life of intention. I think that for so many of us, a huge part of our journey is we feel so obligated to live the life other people want us to live. For me, my liberation and my freedom and living my life most fully has been every time I can block out those voices that tell me that it's not okay. You can imagine, like, here I am. I'm a Christian. I'm a pastor. I started Mosaic, but I designed clothes. Do you know how many people hate that I do that? How dare you make a jacket for$10 ,000? You know, what about the poor? How dare you make money?

2:42But you don't want to make money from the church, but you can't make money from outside the church. No matter what I do, there's always haters. There's always someone who's going to think I should live my life differently. I remember one time someone said to me, I love the fact that you don't worry about what anyone thinks. I go, it's not true. I've worried so much about what people think. It matters to me so much. I see one criticism on social media and I feel devastated. I see one like attack on the DM or something. And I'm just like, oh, I'm such a bad human being. And what's so strange is I usually hear the critique and I accept it and go, yeah, you're right.

3:20I need to change or to grow or I need to fix this. And I realized most of my life I've lived with those voices and they have so much power. The only difference is that my inner voice that tells me you need to live this intention has always been more powerful. I wish I knew how to silence all those voices. I've never figured that one out, Lewis. But I do know how to make them powerless. How? Your intention. You need to know what your life is about. Because how can some stranger know what your life should be? But the problem is that if you don't know what your life's supposed to be, that stranger has more power over you than you.

3:57So you need to wake up in the morning and know what your intention is, what your life is about, what your calling or purpose is. This time when I started a fashion company, the first time my wife thought I was out of my mind 10 years ago. And she was like, what are you doing? You're like designing clothes and bags and stuff. And this time when I told her, honey, I'm starting another fashion brand, she goes, I'm so happy for you. She goes, I've never seen you happier than when you're designing and creating. That's cool. And she could just see the joy in me. And my daughter, Mariah, came up to me.

4:24She said, Dad, I know you do a lot of things that matter, but when I watch you creating and designing, I never see you happier. And so I realized I have to give myself permission to do things that bring me joy. That sounds ridiculous, right? At 65, I should have already had permission to give myself joy. But I feel such the weight of the life I've lived, of the reputation that I have. Believe it or not, Jesus really matters to me. at an incredible level. I would never want to do anything in my life like to dishonor who he is. I carry the weight of that so deeply. And yet at the same time, it's never been Jesus who's limiting me.

5:02I've actually felt tremendous freedom in my relationship with Jesus. I feel like - To express yourself. Yeah, like from God's end, he's like, go design clothes, dude. I feel like God's like, go create, go do that, go explore. Who cares what anyone else says? I actually think God is the one on my side going, just go for it. You only have one life. Don't look back and go, I wish I'd tried this. Maybe my shadow is always the sense of inadequacy, but it fuels me because I just remind myself every time I risk something, I aspire someone else to risk. Every time I create something new, every time I redefine who I am, I'm giving someone else permission to redefine who they are, to create something new themselves.

5:44Every time I innovate, I'm giving someone permission to innovate. and so I don't feel like I live my life for myself and yeah, I don't know how long I'm going to live but I'm going to tell you, if I live in my 70s, I will redefine the 70s and if I live in my 80s, I'm going to redefine them I'm committed to living every decade of my life as if it was my first one I'm just getting started, I'm just beginning anew I'm an amateur and I'm creating something exciting

6:13Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

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