Productivity Expert: Why FEELING GOOD Is More Important Than Being SUCCESSFUL! | Ali Abdaal EP 659

0:03Hey everyone, this is Lewis Howes and I am so excited to invite you to the Summit of Greatness 2024 happening at the iconic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. This is more than just an event. It's a powerful experience designed to ignite your passion, boost your growth, and connect you with a community of other inspiring achievers. Join us Friday, September 13th, and Saturday, September 14th for two days packed with inspiration and transformation from some of the most incredible speakers on the planet. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your life, unlock your potential, and be part of something truly special.

0:38Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com slash tickets and get your tickets today and I will see you there. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

1:01I know people, I'm sure you know people who sold companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. They're miserable once they sell the company. they were happier working towards the goal and they all start new companies because they're like either they start companies or they start podcasts that's their thing or they write self-help books because it's like they need some new pursuit you need some new pursuit what do you think really makes people successful the thing that makes people successful is knowing what they want and actually just working towards it knowing what they want and working towards it and adjusting course along the way and it's just that thing of like gps a goal plan system if you have a goal you have a plan you have a system to follow the plan you just change the plan if it's not working you're going to be successful um and this is not successful in terms of like you have to make all this money or you have to whatever get a six six pack abs it's success in terms of whatever you want it to be that's why the subtitle of the book is how to do more of what matters to you to me success is knowing what matters to you and then just doing the thing doing more of it doing more of it or like working towards it and there's this thing it's not the pursuit of happiness it's the happiness of pursuit when you're pursuing something that you actually enjoy that's meaningful to you.

2:04That's literally the pinnacle of life. The pursuit is what creates happiness. The pursuit is what creates that feeling of success. Yeah, it's interesting because before I used to be a type of guy that always wanted to achieve my goals. And I achieved a lot of them, you know, from sports to business to whatever it might be, different milestones that I had from my teens and 20s and early 30s. And I would accomplish a lot of them. And I realized that wasn't the thing that made me feel peaceful and fulfilled, accomplishing it. It was fun, it was cool, but it wasn't like now I feel better about myself.

2:37It increased some confidence, but it also made me realize, oh, I still have sadness and pain and suffering inside, so this isn't the answer to being peaceful and joyful and fulfilled and happy. And I started to, when I started to go on my healing journey and really kind of like dissecting the past and creating different stories about my past and finding meaning from the past and having harmony around it, I started to set different goals and actually realize it doesn't matter if I accomplish this goal. What matters is what I do every day on the pursuit and the path. Like, did I show up doing what I said I was going to do for myself and for others?

3:19Was I consistent in my ways of being? Did I respond well? You know, my majority of the time, I'm not a perfect human being, but did I respond well in situations that were frustrating or triggering? Did I care about other people? Did I want other people to succeed? And did I do my best to empower them and give them tools and trainings to succeed? Did I show up with good attitude, good energy, you know, majority of the time? Did I make it about others, not about me? All these different things. And if I accomplish the goal, cool. But if I don't accomplish the goal, can I still be proud of who I was and how I showed up every single day.

3:53And that makes me feel good. Now, part of my ego wants to say, ah, but if you don't accomplish the goal, you're a loser, right? Part of me wants to think that. And that's part of the reason why I've created such big goals because I'm like, it might take me 10 years. I don't know. But what I can create in the path and who I become in that path is going to be so much greater than the actual accomplishment. And I think if we start thinking that way, about who we're becoming and how we're showing up and how we're being on a day-to-day basis, we'll be a lot happier with who we are. So that's what I think about.

4:31Like, I want to accomplish all my goals. I want to hit my financial numbers. I want our team to grow. I want, you know, all these things. I want to be healthy, but it's also like, it doesn't happen. You know, what can I control and how can I just be consistent with that? People think that success makes you feel good, but it's actually that feeling good makes you successful. have something you can feel good every day of the thing and like crucially like i think because there's no point in being super successful rich and famous if you don't feel good yeah like what's the point what is the point of working that hard to get those things if you still don't feel good about you yeah but feeling good will just make you successful in terms of it doesn't matter if you have those things or not because you feel good about you yeah 100 and people you usually will attract good people around you yeah and you're also more likely to be productive and creative and less stressed and feel good productivity.

5:19And more financially successful or whatever it is. Like all the good things happen when you can just focus on the process and focus on enjoying it. And, you know, it's useful to have an idea of what you want. Like, you know, as you said, you have these goals, but the way I think of goals is it's not about the goal. The point of the goal is to set your direction. It's like, I'm not fixated on the destination, but at least I know what direction I'm heading in. Because otherwise, you know, we all have so many options. Anyone listening to this has a ton of options in their life. Even if you feel like you don't have any options right now.

5:46Compared to someone who's not able to listen to this podcast, you have a ton of options, objectively. Yes, yes. But a lot of uncertainty and anxiety comes from this thing of like, I could go in this direction or that direction or this direction or that direction. But one of the best pieces of advice I got in medical school was from one of the senior colleagues who I really looked up to. And he said, this was around the time, I think it was four years in out of the six year course, and around that time people start asking you, what do you want to specialize in? What specialty do you want to go for?

6:11And you don't need to decide until like six years later, But people kept asking. And this guy asked me, Dr. Adcock. Chris. So Chris asked me, what specialty do you want to go into? And I was like, oh, I'm not sure. You know, I've got some time to decide. He was like, okay, but one piece of advice is that it's much easier to steer a moving ship than a stationary ship. So what he said was, I'd recommend you just pick a specialty and start working towards it. And you can always change your mind. If you don't like it, then you can steer it in a different direction. And I was like, okay, Chris, sure, I'll do that.

6:41So I picked plastic surgery and I just started working towards it. Now I got connected with these cool plastic surgeons. I became the web designer for this really cool like charity that does like reconstructive surgery in developing countries. I joined these hackathons where my skills with computer programming combined with this plastic surgery stuff, I made friends along the way and ultimately realized actually now I've met a lot of plastic surgeons. Don't think it's a life for me. What I really like is I love the emergency side of things. I mean, maybe I want to go into anesthesiology, anesthetics as we call it.

7:09And it's like moving in that direction allowed me to steer the ship. and I think that's the point of goals the point of goals is it just gives you a direction to head in and it gives you a path and you can ask yourself is this the right path? am I on the path towards the goal? and do I want to be on the path towards the goal? and either which way it's okay if you're not on the path to the goal and you want to be it's like cool you change something if you are on the path and you realize the goal is not what you want you change the goal either way you're making progress you're moving

7:44Thank 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.

8:34Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.