The #1 Thing Holding You Back In Life | EP 846

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

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0:43Who you are is a moment of time. And in any moment of time, there's the possibility of you expressing something new that you've never expressed before. Right. Something that's not based on anything other than the moment you're in. it's like literally an opportunity for you to show up as something new of your own creation everybody has a possibility everybody has the opportunity for that and it is a way of living life it's and it's not like oh this guy's found a secret to everything no i'm a human being too i'm wired a certain way it's there now the question is how aware of that am i and how responsible can i be for that playing out in my life am i going to own that or is that going to own me.

1:28And it's a real choice. I was crazy about this girl. You know, like it was very passionate. And this was a time in my life when I was a musician. So, you know, I'm playing in a band and there's this beautiful woman who loves me. You know, like life is amazing. Life is good, man. But now when I look back on that, there really was no look down the road. There was no like, what's this about? It was all very much riding that particular a roller coaster. Living in the moment of fun and adventure. Right, but the problem was nothing was getting created. There was no this is what we're up to. There's no vision coming to life.

2:05Right, but that was on a very personal level. There was no thought in my head like, so where does this go? You know, it was just like, well, let's see. There was this kind of very fundamental experience of dissatisfaction. Like, no matter what I did, it doesn't matter what I do, you think the next thing is going to solve it. And then you get there and the problem's still there. And you might not fully have fleshed out that problem yet, but you know it's there. If there was anything I wish I'd really identified, and I don't mean this from a space of regret, I really don't, but it would have been kind of neat to identify the hole that I was trying to fill.

2:41You know, it would have been neat to see what I'm doing. I'm just happy that I did identify it. People go through their whole life and never, there's no introspection. There's a kind of force for life that you have when you're 20. There's just a kind of forward trajectory that maybe I'd have used it for something else. But then when I look back, I think, like I really had to go through the darkness to realize that that wasn't the light. Because when you're in that, you think this is the, like I'm going somewhere, you know? And then there's a point where you're like, I'm going nowhere. I'm going nowhere.

3:18You can't create a breakthrough in something until you come to terms with what's already there. So you have to see what's already there for me. So everybody has a relationship to something like money. There's already something there. The question is, what is it? And were you good at making money before? No, I was terrible at it. Because it was never a thing for me. It was never an authentic thing for me. It was all, they fill a hole. To buy something to feel better about yourself. And, you know, I feel better now that money's in the bank. And then I started to think, well, what if it's just a transaction?

3:52What if life took me out of it and it's just a thing, a way to make something multiply? Like, how do I do that? I lived with a lot of mystery about money and just avoided it. Like, you know, that sounds like a lot of work. You pay attention to it. Like, I don't need to know that. Right. And I'm looking for lots of short circuits and how to do things. And then the other thing that was pretty massive for me was I realized that if you start with the financial aspect, you're always operating in some paradigm. You're always in some network of thinking. And so identifying what my network of thinking was, like, what was it?

4:28And so I realized that there was, believe it or not, a number that I thought that if I did that number, I've kind of done it, right? You feel good about yourself. But it wasn't even like, in any sense of the word, a massive number. But I thought like, that's the number. When you kind of peel back some of that, you'll realize that the number is what you think you can do based on other things. Based on your life and experience and your skills. And other views that you have of yourself. So I had this magic number. And again, it wasn't like a crazy number. But what I found myself doing is I'm sitting in front of a laptop and I've got the Excel spreadsheet up.

5:02And I'm looking at the number and I'm like, where did that come from? how did I end up with that? You know, and I was about to give the next year of my life to it. And every thought and every strategy and everything was about that number. And then I thought, well, what if I doubled it? If I doubled that number and gave my word to it, that number would demand something of me. Like it's now telling me that what I'm doing ain't it. Man, that sent me off on a pathway, like a vein of thinking. what I started to realize, like, everything was happening in this kind of network of conversation that I'm in with myself.

5:39And when you change the outcome, it completely short circuits the thinking. That thinking can't produce double. It can. It won't do it. You have to change the way you think. I have to change the way I think, and I have to really challenge what I think is possible. Like, really challenge it. And I noticed, like, there was a massive emotional attachment to that. like oh my gosh so significant like it can't be done guys like me can't do that I don't have the education so I started to think from the future I put myself there a visionary doesn't see the future a visionary is coming from it they're coming from the future and they're standing here and looking at what they're doing right now and asking themselves is what I'm doing right now aligning with that and if it's not I need to stop stop even though like well none of this could maybe turn it if it's not aligning with that stop right in this moment and so at the beginning it was a series of that of stopping what i'm doing and you know you've got an attachment to what you're doing because it'll produce that other number i did the first year or two i doubled and doubled and when you start you hit that cycle you know you're realizing like it's all the only thing is limiting you is what you're thinking

7:09Thank 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.

7:59Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.