Shed Expectations & Write Your OWN Story | Marie Forleo EP 409

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

0:10I firmly believe that taking charge of your mindset allows you to be in the driver's seat of your life and unlock your potential. And that's why I'm thrilled to share that my new book is out right now. It's called The Greatness Mindset. In it, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book that I wish I had 20 years ago. It's everything I've learned in the last decade with the research and the science to help you unlock your mind. Make sure to go to lewishouse.com slash 2023mindset to pick up your copy of my book, The Greatness Mindset, today.

0:54Do you ever feel pressure or judged or critiqued because you don't have kids yet? And I think you don't want to have kids. Is that correct? Yeah, no, it is. So I want to actually hit on all of those because each that you mentioned, pressured, judged, or critiqued. So let's stick with pressured, judged, or critiqued because those are very distinct flavors. So at this stage, I don't get asked as much anymore because I've been talking about it so consistently and trying to be as loving and just straight up as possible about the fact that I've never wanted kids. and real about the fact that I chose consciously or unconsciously a man who already had a child.

1:39So some part of me clearly wanted to be a stepmom because I am. And I love my stepson and he's awesome. So there's that. But I've never wanted to have my own biological kids. Why is that, do you think? You know, I've also never wanted to get married. I just think that we're all kind of born with these innate desires. And sometimes we adopt the expectations of our family, of society, of the culture that we grew up in. For whatever reason, I feel like I popped onto this earth with a very clear inner compass of the things that I would like to explore or learn or experience. and also a very clear compass of those things, which I just am not interested in.

2:27And so in my life, I've always known what I want to go after. And the little plate that has have children and the little plate that's like get married was, I just was like, that's not for me. It's not my path. Earlier on in my life, I had many people tell me that I'm making the worst mistake ever, that I'm going to regret it. Not having babies and not being married. Mostly babies. Yeah, yeah. Mostly babies. Was that I was going to, you know, reach some age and just absolutely hate myself. And like, it would be the biggest mistake of my life that I was going to die alone. And I'm like, I'm going to die alone anyway.

3:03You know, so the feeling judged about it and criticized, let's go into those pockets. Because that's interesting to me. I have had folks and I can understand this. So I do understand it, but I think that there is just room to explore and have a discussion, you know, when it comes to having a conversation around productivity, having a conversation around business growth, having a conversation around priorities, uh, you know, and people can be very bold and courageous on like an Instagram comment where they wouldn't be nearly. So, you know, if you were sitting across the table and just having a conversation, it was like, well, it's easy for you to say, those of us that have kids.

3:47Now, all of a sudden, anything that comes out of my mouth is all of a sudden without merit because I have not given biological birth to a child through my vagina. Like really? Is that where we're going to take this? Oh, and by the way, let's take a look at other folks that I have worked with who have seven kids, eight kids who say, oh, I found value in this principle. And here's how I made this idea work in the context of my life. So I think that it's really interesting to have someone judge another person for their choices. How do you handle being judged for that or for anything? Oh, I give absolutely no attention.

4:26Right. Yeah. I just don't care. I don't because, you know, the more you care about what other people think, the more they own you. The more power they have over you. Yeah. And it's like, I want people to win. That's who I am as a person. I want people to win. I want them to be well. I want them to be successful. If there's anything that I could possibly share that even a tiny nugget of what I share helps them become more of who they want to be, then I feel I have done my job successfully. Do I have all the answers? Absolutely not. No way. No one has all the answers. But I do believe that what we create in our company and the programs we put together and the things that we share help people find their own answers.

5:10So I don't, honestly, I don't care. I really don't care because if someone is going to take the time to either make that comment or that judgment, my perspective would be that there's something in their own life that's not working that puts them in that position of feeling a sense of pain or feeling like they have to judge someone else to justify what's happening in their own life. I just don't think that gets any of us anywhere.

5:45Thank 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 Podcasts 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.

6:35Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

6:52Thank you.