Your Next 24 HOURS Can Change Your Life | Eric Thomas EP 789

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

0:12I think what people get confused is they're grinding with a goal. And I'm not saying you should have goals, but you should be grinding for grinding sake. You know, you should grind because that's what you do. You're passionate about what you do, you know, and so you're waking up every day with this concept of I have 24 hours and they're mine. This 24 hours belongs to me. And whatever I do in this 24 hours will determine where I'll be tomorrow and the next day. And I think that's what people need to focus on. Like, get off of this. I want to make six figures. I want to drive this car. I want to live in this house.

0:44I think what people should be focusing on is I have 24 hours. Like, Oprah only has 24. Bill Gates only has 24. Like, Warren Buffett only has 24 hours. And in that 24-hour period, I can either break my life or make my life. I just think that goals for people is too high on the priority list. And I think what should be on the priority list is going to bed so you can wake up the next day and you can grind it out. And I'm just a dude that believes you reap what you sow. So if you're grinding on Monday, grinding on Tuesday, grinding on Wednesday, if you're grinding six, seven days a week for a span of five or six years, something's got to come out of that.

1:27But if you're only grinding, you know, on Monday you fired up. Wednesday you back, you're sleeping in. Thursday you got it. The funk of the world is on. Like I've heard people say. Hump day. Hump day. Every day is hump day. Like Wednesday is hump day. Like Monday hump day. Tuesday is hump day. Like every day is hump day. And I think if we would spend more time on what's my goal, meaning what do I need to accomplish in this day to live this lifestyle, and you go after it, then I think more people will be successful. Interesting. Yeah, but they spend too much time, like, scoreboard watching. They spend too much time on their, I want this car and this house to live this lifestyle.

2:07No, that's the wrong part. You can think about the goal and have that in your mind, but then think, okay, I'm going to hustle every day to make it happen. And not just hustle every day. I mean, you should be specific. Like, look, I've got to believe that millionaires do certain things. I got to believe that millionaires have a certain habit. I've got to believe that they sleep so many hours. I got to believe that they know their craft. I got to believe they're passionate. You know, and so when I take my goal, instead of looking at my goal and asking, how much money can I make? I've got to ask myself, what things do I need to do every single, like from eight to nine, what should I be doing to be a millionaire?

2:45From nine to 10, what should I be doing? From 10 to 10, 15, like what should I be doing? And that's why I wake up every morning at three o 'clock, because for me, it's OK. Monday, do this. Tuesday, do this. Wednesday, do that. And if I do those things, I'm guaranteed to be successful. When I can, what happens is I create this habit that my body believes that, all right, 930. All right, you wake up at three, which means I'm getting five to six hours of sleep, which is pretty good. Right. But here's a trick. When I came to California, my body still woke up at three something because it's accustomed to going to bed at a certain time.

3:22My body doesn't really know what time it is. Like my body's not it's not knowledgeable time zones. Right. My body just knows that this is the time we normally wake up. So I go to bed consistently early. I wake up early. Now, this is why I wake up. Now, if you're listening to me, you're an entrepreneur. You have to hear this. There are people who graduated magna cum laude. I didn't. There are people who were born into wealth. There are people who were born into a certain network. I wasn't. But here's the trick. Even though I don't have what they have, I can outwork you. So if I'm getting up at three o 'clock in the morning and as sweet as you are, networks, parents, wealth, opportunities, and you're getting up at eight, I've got a five-hour jumpstart on you.

4:07Like, I don't care who you are. If we're traveling to the same city and I take off five hours before you. Not out of 10, I'm going to get there before you get there. So my trick is I get up at 3 o 'clock in the morning because I didn't know who my biological father was. It took me 12 years to get a degree. So I wake up earlier because that guy who is deeper than I am, who has more advantages or opportunity than I have, when we get our contract to that same company, when my contract gets to that guy, that CEO reads my contract at 3.30 in the morning. He's like, This dude is serious. So I know this guy graduated magna cum laude, but he sent me his contract at nine.

4:48Eric sent his at 330. Like, you got to give me a shot. You got to give me at least an interview, right? For the 330, you got to give me an interview. So what I'm trying to explain to people is my ritual is I'm going to beat you to the spot. I'm going to beat you to the spot. That's what it's all about, right? For those of us who play basketball or those of us who play football, sometimes it's not about being the greatest talent. it's about beating a person to the spot. So if I beat you to the spot and I got an open shot, it doesn't mean I'm the greatest, but I beat you to the spot, right? I created my own shot.

5:19I created my own space. That's what the crossover is about. The crossover is about creating your own shot, creating your own space. And the way I have become a millionaire and the way I've become one of the top motivational speakers in the world, nobody knew who I was six, seven years ago, is I created space. I created space. I've given myself an advantage that others don't have and is it hard? No, not really. You just wake up earlier You can take naps during the day Right, so it doesn't mean you have to stay up the entire day But it does mean you have to get to the spot before everybody else I have a ritual where even if you're my closest friend I have boundaries So just because it's my company it doesn't mean I can take calls all day I have boundaries so you can't call me at a certain time.

6:05Why I'm working So I'm on the phone all day and I'm saying this to entrepreneurs, but you got to find the gaps and one of the gaps with Entrepreneurs is that they feel like because they own their day. They can spend it like they want You cannot spend it like you want to you So if you were working for IBM or you're working for Ford, whatever you're working for You couldn't be on the phone all day at a major corporation talking on the phone So so why do you allow yourself to talk on the phone when it's your business? Matter of fact, it's yours You should probably you should make sure there's no phone calls going on.

6:37It's your business. So one of my rituals is when I get started, there are no interruptions. When I get started, I don't care if it's my wife, my children. They know that from a certain time frame, I'm going all in and I can't go all in answering the phone. I can't go all in watching TV. I can't go in with the distraction. And so some entrepreneurs are like, why am I not blowing up? because you're not in abstraction. You don't have that moment of your day. I don't care if it's two hours, four hours, where you shut the entire world out. No Twitter, no Facebook, nothing. No Instagram, which we love the most.

7:16No Instagram. We love that Instagram. Oh, so just for two hours, I'm going in, and then once I come out, then we can do Instagram. And I'll be honest, your content probably would be stronger If you had that time of isolation, of solitude, where you give yourself a chance to think, you give yourself a chance to go in, and when you go in, you go 120%.

7:48I am so excited for you to finish the rest of your day strong. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description and it'll take you to the full episode of my other show, The School of Greatness. Make sure to come back tomorrow for another episode of The Daily Motivation Show.