Overcome Your Fears & Achieve Greatness | EP 932

0:00I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy and if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life but you wanna make it easier, you wanna make it flow, you wanna feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to The Daily Motivation Show.

0:49Majority of people, they have that story of depression. You know, you stop believing in yourself and you suck and you're just not good. where it can bring you to your knees, you know? Yeah. And that's what happened to me. I was brought to my knees. And a lot of people, maybe they go through it differently, but I think that's part of the process. I mean, that's part of you coming face-to-face with who you really are. And what are you going to do about it now? And I think from there, that's how you learn. At least that created a real hunger for me to go out and actually study the great ones. You know, study the people that have had great success because it leaves clues.

1:24The formula for success is there. But we all have these stories that you can all come in here and I can tell you my story. There's underlying, like there's always stories of jealousy. There's stories of, okay, I'm not good enough. There's stories of I don't have what it takes and the self-doubt and envy and all that stuff wrapped up in different stories. And that's just mine. And I was able to start reading books, reading about people's lives, biographies, and then learn from that. And then you start learning how to use vision. you know close your eyes where every morning and every night kind of the first thought on my brain was okay how am i going to get better at what i do i maybe that's a feeling of love too like i love playing football i don't love practicing per se but i love catching footballs and i fell in love with that and i fell in love with the process of what it takes to be great they say talent is overrated and it really is don't get me wrong you need some talent but if you want to be an excellent You want to be a mover and shaker.

2:21You want to be somebody that has a legacy at what you do. If that's important to you, this is the way to do it. The hard part is finding that, is finding that passion, finding that love. But I believe, especially for young people, if you just, you just got to keep putting your head out there and be willing to get it chopped off because it's going to come. I wrote a letter to my kids at the Hall of Fame. The critics are coming. The pain is coming. You have to go through that. That's where beauty is or the fear. And I always talk about that. Like life takes off on the other side of fear. And you have to be willing to sit there in it and ride that wave.

2:53Now, the transition after I get done playing, that's where all that self-doubt comes back. And that fear comes back. And the anxiety, it all came back to me. Did you feel that right after you retired? Yeah, right after you retired. And I had a job. I had to go through the same thing again. I got beat to my knees again. Really? After my third year working for CBS, my contract is coming up. And I loved working there. It was shot out in New York, but I did not like getting on the plane, going back and forth. And even more than that, I wasn't giving them everything that I could give them. Not because I wasn't trying either.

3:24Meaning I wasn't coming from a place in my heart. If it's not here, it comes off as rehearsed. It's not a good performance. Your performance, it's just not good. And it doesn't feel good to me. That sucks. I'm having anxiety before shows. I'm nervous. And I don't want to feel that way. But mine was from fear. I was so scared that I was going to screw up every time. and scared of showing who I really am because what if that's not good enough? And so you work your ass off trying to do it funny or to do it without stuttering or whatever it is. And a lot of guys struggle. Just watch players that make that transition on TV.

3:59It is hard because you have to show who you are. You have to put everything out there just like you're on a football field. It's hard to let everybody see who you really are. I was sitting, we're on vacation in Spain, just me and my wife sitting in a courtyard in a cafe. she starts talking about the contract negotiations with CBS and I'm almost done with my contract negotiation and I'm going to negotiate another three years. But I kind of don't want to be there. I never told her. I never told my management team or anybody else. I'm sitting there and the wife saw, yeah, so you got to be pretty happy with it.

4:30It was a good deal they offered me. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And all of a sudden this wave of just fear came over me. Like my body started getting cold and I start sweating. It was the feeling of fear, just like absolute fear. And the thought came into my head that what if I peaked? What if the best of me is over? And that's a scary feeling to be in. I started crying and she's like, what's wrong with you in the middle of this pain? Over the last three years, I have not felt that aliveness, that excitement. I haven't felt it in three years for what I do. You doubt yourself. You're like, I'll never be great again.

5:07Like I was on the football. And obviously I had a great career. It's like a hall of fame career. And you're like, so now I never get to experience that again. Wow. And I'm 40 years old at this time. And I'm like, I got 40 more years to live, 50 more years to live. And I'm going to be talking about football games, talking about old, like 30 years from now. Yeah. It was glory days. It was, it was a scary feeling. And, but I'm glad that that happened because off of that, I called up my, my manager and I called up my agent, my television agent. They're like, yeah, it's a good deal. It could, we're all, we've been negotiating back and forth.

5:40It's over. And they're like, I think I'm, I think I'm having second thoughts. I don't want to do it. And, uh, they were both like, shut up. Yeah. Right. Right. And then, you know, my, my agent was like, this is a mistake. I mean, these jobs don't come along and you're, you're not going to, you're not going to get a job at Fox. I mean, what are you going to do? And I said, I don't know, but I can't, I can't not do this. I cannot live like this. I'm so tired of being afraid, being afraid when I'm on air, tired of being away from my kids because that was getting to me i was like i'm out i don't know what we're gonna do but something's gonna work and that that really changed my life that was like another pinnacle moment in my life that i could either go this way or i can go that way and i was like i'm going that way i'm gonna go to the road that i don't want the sheer thing i had people close to me the loved ones are like are you a fool like you can't you can't walk away from that i'm like well something's gonna work and that's what that's where the phrase life takes off on the other side of fear i was like i am afraid right now there's no doubt about it this is scary but i believe that's where the good stuff is that's where the gold is that's where the diamonds are made that's where you will achieve greatness if you go up to what you're afraid of but you know in your heart you have to do but you go anyway you

7:04Thank 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.

7:54Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.