5 Things Holding You Back From Achieving Your Dreams w/ Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi EP 1428

0:01I 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.

0:40Sometimes you can't change people around you. You can't look into the heads of other people. But what you can do at all times every day is to do something about what is in your own. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

1:20When do you think is the easiest time in life? When you're younger or when you're older? When you're younger. out of just the fact that you have not learned yet and have not been exposed yet to all of these adult ideas of what you are supposed to do with your life. How do you manage the level that you're at now? I'm not sure what level you're in in the video game. Is it level 7 or 28 right now for you? But how do you manage this level where you're stepping into new seasons, new decade, you know, of the material number of the world you're in, the platform that you're building around the world globally, how do you step into that and master it?

2:12I think before we talked about it already a little bit, that within the last three years, four years, I could really witness in a way how like these type of teachings or let's say my name was really spread out into the world and more and more people starting to also participate in listening to what is it that is being shared out for example and at the same time I can also feel that everything I have to say, everything that I like shared. The reason why I could share all of these things is because the first 35 years before that, I was not the talker at all. There couldn't be any more quiet person than me.

3:05Really? Yes. Until when? When did you start using your voice? I think it happened in the moment where people asked me to explain what I'm doing. And then I just said, look, I'm not just doing my punch. This is not punching for me. So in the martial art, for example. I started to explain, for example, the punch is not just for me something, let's say, physical. It has also something to do with what I do to prepare inside of you before you throw out that punch. Because if you throw out something, if something moves outwards, the question for me is where does it get in because if you throw out punches 500 punches every day you just throw them out where do you get the energy from to throw 500 things out and now different ways how you can express it but for me coming from this field of martial arts where the yin yang symbol does matter and also does matter why it is around means for me i started to explain if you want to throw a punch there are different ways how to throw it if you have a lot of mess already on yourself you probably can just use straight line movements no issue at all but if you look at me small asian i have to compensate for the lack of mess somehow and therefore i need to use another method i need to use different methods to compensate for the lack of mess that i have in comparison to other people so and suddenly out of a question how do you punch starts the talking discussion yeah and and honestly i think this is where the beginning lies where then people found it interesting that apparently there's a whole philosophy just behind like a punch and i said yes how did you i can resonate with the fact that you know you were shy most of your life right you didn't you didn't speak that much up you didn't use your voice as much you were more introverted with your voice is that correct yes so how did you have the confidence and learn that skill of confidence to use your voice when you really didn't use it that much beforehand.

5:30Were you fearful? Were you nervous? Were you afraid? Or how did you step into that? I just had to laugh right now because I just imagined in my mind there were very often also now in school time already. Of course my friends, they were standing in the break time, everybody having discussions. I was always quiet. But internally I could already like feel like i knew what i would say if i would open my mouth it's just that i didn't why not because ultimately i just thought that it's it's pointless um it's pointless because sometimes just sometimes the topics are just right it's superficial or whatever yeah yeah it doesn't bring benefit to anything yeah it's just meaning maybe that you are like profiling yourself but that was it yeah so that's why i kept it for myself but internally observing people watching just listening inside of me the language was always speaking i always knew like what would be my answer if somebody speak to me like sure sure and so ultimately i really think it was for me not difficult at all to then when i was asked to just let it out say it yeah because I already had it inside.

6:55I just had to, let's say, allow my mouth to speak it out. And, yeah. That's beautiful. So you had the confidence because you had the inner wisdom, the inner answers to what you would say already. You just didn't say them before as much. Probably. Probably, but of course to sometimes use proper vocabulary, to use proper rhetorical ways. Of course, this I also had to learn. But in general, when it comes to if I was fearful to speak out, normally not. No. Because I only let out what I already have inside of me. So that means this is something important. Maybe I don't know if there are public speakers or so sometimes listening, but I concentrate on just I can only talk about stuff I have inside yes that's why very rarely I try to come up with new ideas or anything like this uh which doesn't come from me then I don't feel comfortable and it's inauthentic yeah it's not authentic you've been training for essentially 35 years of your life in some different form whether it be physical training mental training emotional training, but specifically for the last 15 years, you've really been having a disciplined life at the temple and you've been practicing martial arts, I don't know, is it five days a week or seven days a week, physically, mentally, emotionally in that discipline and in that practice.

8:34The fourth hindrance that you talked about that I've seen is restlessness. Can you talk about what is restlessness and do you ever face it yourself in this practice and in this discipline? So restlessness, there is a nice picture you can always think about. We say it's the monkey mind. Monkey mind meaning there's always one, you're jumping from one thought to another. From one branch to another what it means is that you are maybe having contact with a lot of branches but it's very difficult to really focus and concentrate on one thing specifically now why would i say that it is important to learn and concentrate on one thing specifically because this is the pure expression of what the Buddhist teaching or also the Shaolin teachings are about.

9:48You can spend your time traveling this whole world always visiting different lakes and oceans but the way how you are visiting them is you drive on the coastline of it, watch over it, say, okay, that's the ocean, and then you keep on driving to the next one. Which means what you do is you keep traveling the world, watching at the surface of each of these lakes and oceans. I do think that if you just stay with the Pacific Ocean and start diving down into it, You will never ever again need to visit another lake or ocean in order to make discoveries. So the point is that it is about going deeper.

10:42Going deeper means it is going to give you an insight. And so what is Buddhist teaching about? To give you insights. Into what? sometimes into your body, sometimes into your mind. So what's the problem with the restlessness? You don't gain insight because the monkey all the time is jumping too much and staying too much on that surface area. and now translated it just means that on an average day whatever job you are doing you do it under your possible potential and also what it means is it's like you can't really you can't really embrace what you actually have there it's like you were at work you were supposed to concentrate and work write down your emails but all the time you're already like jumping around making plans for the weekend who to call or that that you are hungry or that you are thirsty, what movie to watch.

12:05This is how you behave when you're at work. Then afterwards you drive home and maybe the family is waiting for you. And now it's a good example, but the children or your wife or your husband want to spend time with you, but they can see very clearly your body is there, your mind is not there. You're not present. You're just not present. So then sometimes the question just is, why do you have then the wife and the husband if you don't pay them the necessary respect and attention that they, let's say, deserve, or also towards your children. And if it's a conscious decision why you don't pay attention to them, well, there's something different, then it's really the question, why do you have one family then?

12:53But that restlessness can also mean it happens unconsciously. Yeah. yeah and maybe for you yourself you don't realize it but people around you they realize very quickly if you are with them or not right and i just think that this is hindering you now in that picture of of reaching that mountain or reaching that goal it's hindering you because whatever you do, you don't do it properly. You jump from one to another. You maybe have touched many different surfaces, but none of them you can really, you don't really have an insight into them. You've been delving deep into it, yeah. The fifth one you talk about, hindrance that holds people back, is skeptical doubt.

13:47What is skeptical doubt? and why do we have it? Why do we have it? I don't know. I really don't know. What it means therefore or what it still means is you need to trust in what you do. Once you have put something into your mind don't let anyone else stop it anymore now i have to be careful how i say this of course sometimes you can see yeah but come on this is now really a really stupid idea it's really stupid so like obviously stupid but what i'm talking about is that if you continuously develop yourself educate yourself train yourself seriously observe yourself try to be honest with yourself listen to the opinions of other people and after After all of this, you finally come up with a plan.

15:05This one now. Don't doubt anymore. The plan that before that you have well thought of, that you have taken time to establish it, where you spend weeks and months of figuring out, should you really do it? it is this type of plan where skeptical doubt is not necessary you don't need it anymore yeah no if you're still in the field or in that area of you are unsure don't start the journey yeah so if you're still in the field of ah that mountain is so high do you really think i can reach the top but it looks dangerous if you're still in that state don't even start right that that this evaluation of your wrists and should you and your benefits and all of this you make that before you make that in the moment where you still have time and space to to look for yourself is it really what you want and make a plan this is what's happening in in those, we call it, 99%, you stay calm, you stay relaxed.

16:27Spend 99 % of your lifetime relaxed. But that 1 % is the other way. 99 % I'm a very peaceful person. Very peaceful. I'm a very easygoing person, I think. And as long as I stay in the 99%, it stays like this. But if somebody forces you into the 1%, then at least it is my attitude which is like this. 1 % is 1%. Inside the 1%, there is no compromise of jumping back into the 99 anymore. That's why the 99 is so big. because you have time to really think about what are you willing to do? What are you willing to sacrifice? What is it worth for you fighting for? This is the 99%. And the 1%, there is the no compromise.

17:33You decide, you walk the path, then here we go. And this is what I relate to personally. to this idea of that skeptical doubt. You shouldn't have it anymore. Once you're clear, once you've got the game plan, once you've assessed the risks, all that stuff. Yes. You have this four-step method you call RAIN to help you clear your mind and overcome these hindrances. Can you share what this four-step method is? So for example, once you know or have understood about yourself what type of mental states these hindrances for example represent. The way how we just try to explain to them. Every time one of these mental states pops up into your mind, which means positive emotion, negative emotion, ill will, you feel depressed, you feel weak, you feel that lack of power, you have this restlessness inside of you, or you have, what was the last one?

18:48The skeptical doubt. Or the skeptical doubt coming up. Most important is you need to realize it. Realize that it is just there. Sometimes you realize it, sometimes you recognize it. This is the idea why it's a very, very nice simile to remember those four methods later on what we regard as RAIN. R-A-I-N. And we are at the moment with the R. Meaning you recognize and you realize that apparently at this moment in time you are finding yourself in one of these mental states which are representing hindrances. Okay. now the next step what are you doing after you have recognized that you are in it now starts the point where it becomes very helpful if we start to analyze and analyzing meaning you do everything that is in your possibilities to just ask questions about Why did it come up?

20:10What did it trigger?

20:17When did it exactly come up? How actually did this feeling in the first place get into yourself? When was for example the first time that you realize that you are having this type of mental state. So what analyzing means is you try to look into your past also. Is it something related to the education of your parents? Is it something related to an idea that you caught up from, I don't know, from where so analyzing means that you make an investigation investigation means this time you go deeper this is where we are at the I already oh and yeah third one yeah I is investigation A I'm sorry I said analyze analyze no it's accept it's accept sorry you're good accept it accept it accept it acknowledge it.

21:24The difference is when you acknowledge something and accept something it is that you're not pushing it away. You're not resisting it. You're not resisting it. And the reason for that is as long as something is not accepted or not acknowledged it can't be changed. Because it is still outside of you. see so if i have like a mental state anything like this and i say yes it's there but but i want to have it gone then what you're trying to do in this approach is you're separating you're trying to separate it but this is not the way this method is expressing this method tells you it is there why is it there it's because something inside of you already is resonating with it so it's a matter of you it's your business so now what you're doing is i accept the business i take it i understand okay it's my business that is the acknowledgement the acceptance that you are saying okay i'm going to take care of it this is like that a part why it is important if you reject it if you don't embrace it it can't be changed and then now in the third step now comes the investigation this is where you ask the questions so that means where you try to find out more you want to become familiar you want to take that feeling into your family make him become part of you and make him become friend of you understanding it is a part of you but maybe it's just a misunderstanding of the way how you saw it before This is like the investigation of asking questions.

23:24Finding out more about it. Where does it come from? Who implemented it into your way of seeing the world? And ultimately, the last step after this type of process is what we call non-identification. now non-identification is quite similar to what i tried to express before that you sometimes need to stand above you and see from that perspective how can you support yourself how can you support that person to get into the next development stage, for example. This is one type of non-identification, but at the same time also means nothing stays as it is. Nothing stays as it is. just as sometimes things are so overwhelming entering into your life it can happen the other way around as well and I mean you just need to everybody just look back into your personal life how many bad moments did you have in the past how many times did you suffer in the past how often we were already thinking like this is the end of the world girlfriend left you boyfriend left you, different occasions.

25:03But none of them stayed. That is also the other truth behind it. And the great part, like I also said already in our conversation, is the way how you are able to use either the imagination or just like the abilities of the mind. Yeah. Because you can turn it both ways. Either you see it as why did it come so suddenly or you see the opposite. Yeah. It's going to leave. Right, right. I mean, that's the other side. Of course, in this world we are living, we humans and the society, I think, is more easily being torn towards the positive or towards a very certain side, let's say. But this is because of, I think, the developments of our 21st century, where there are certain values being propagated.

26:20There is no propaganda in learn how to be poor. Learn how to deal with failure. Learn how to not be successful. Learn how to accept the way how you are, not how to make yourself more beautiful and try to stay beautiful. There is a different agenda going on in the 21st century. And based on that, I do think that the mindset also has shifted, therefore, in trying to fulfill the expectations, what is present in our nowadays world. But it's your personal decision. It's really important for me to really say this again and again. I'm not here to judge whether something is good or whether something is bad.

27:16But I'm just saying that if you have placed something upon your mind, that right now you are trying with your lifetime to make it become real. But this is what you're trying to put into this life. It's not even an idea that comes from you. I just want to express that I think it can go very wrong to one day find out that you have lived a life and invested your lifetime following up on a vision, on an expectation or anything like this, which first of all was never something initially coming from yourself and afterwards even if you followed up on it and achieved it afterwards realize it doesn't give you what you were looking for in this lifetime.

28:20And that's just how it is. This has been about the five hindrances that hold people back from mastering their inner selves and really feeling more abundance, peace, love, and joy. I'm loving everything we're talking about. And I want to ask you now, I want to transition into a new topic about how to manifest your dream future and how you think we can step into this. If someone has a vision, a dream that they want to manifest something, where do you think we should begin in this process of dreaming and manifesting the future and i know you've talked about uh heaven man earth concept that's helped you manifest a vision is this something that we should think about and if so what's this concept can you explain it So this sentence, heaven, man, earth, heaven above us, man in the center, earth below us, is just expressing from the same, let's say, family of teaching, the same that also we find in the area of the yin and yang symbol.

29:40It's just a little bit more detailed. Meaning, there is something inside of us humans, which we say has some heavenly connection. At the same time, there is something about us humans, which has a very strong foundation rooted in the earth. So, let's start with the earthly aspects about ourselves. So earth means for me, first of all, I can see it. If I fly on the plane, no matter where, if I look down, I know where to look to see the earth. So what does it mean? It means there is something to see. Our whole world is based on seeing. What is it that you can see? You can only see something that has a shape.

30:39something without a shape you can't see but talking about you can see it talking about it has a shape what is the nature of a shape the nature of a shape is separating it's separating what is inside the shape and what is outside of the shape it's separated so one quality of the earth is it's based already from the let's say from the natural side based upon separation based upon this is life and this is death this is growth and this is decay. And now our body, our physical body, how come when we were born we maybe had our like three kilograms, four kilograms baby and now look at how huge we have become.

31:44Not me, you. Look how much like we have grown. Yes. So where all of this come from, very easily said, from the food, from the nutrition from everything that we have taken and give our body to eat or to drink even if it is meanwhile some products are created in a laboratory but even the resources for that ultimately everything comes just from the earth so if you now just follow up on that thought our body is created upon let's say individual aspects from this earth that by nature already are limited in a way limiting inside and outside so limiting that means our body automatically is limited it is what we call nowadays lifetime so simply said sorry for the long explanation sure but that is what it means for me it is no doubt about it i don't need to philosophize around it i can see it this is out of question it's gonna go that is the earth part about ourself at the same time giving me insights you want to change something about that what is it to take care of everything that comes from the earth very easily which means food drinks the breath yeah yeah yeah so that is like how i would use now this concept to in my daily life to just understand okay this body comes from there so the better the quality of the ingredients i put into this the more quality this can generate that is the earth aspect and in comparison now to that earth we have that heaven aspect heaven aspect called like this, because looking up into the sky, it's really difficult to tell where does the sky end.

33:59Meaning, heaven stands for something which is borderless. There are no borders in the sky. And so what is it inside of us humans that I think we have something similar like this. That is for me the way of how you are able to use your mind.

34:29Because sometimes you can use the mind and create something you have never seen in this world. You are creating something in the mind. You have never seen it in person. Why? Because it's not existing yet. Yet you can see it here. This can mean a fear also. A fear of what's going to happen tomorrow. A fear of what will happen to my children if I will not be able to take care of them anymore. So there is something you are projecting already that is not here yet. It's not real. You are projecting it inside of you and the feelings based upon that way of thinking still makes it real to you. Even though it's not in the world yet.

35:17Yes. So this is how you need to be careful what you're creating on the mind. This is the reason why it's so important to know what are you placing inside the mind. Because it's so powerful. Yes. but now assuming that we all do not want to create our own descent or decay anything like this let's say this is not what we want but we want to have something that we would like to create yeah let's say so the question right now is how do i get something from what at the moment is only in my mind into something that it becomes what we would call real when is something real it's real when it's here when also other people can see it not just you in the mind then it's real because like you can imagine you have like some beautiful woman as a girlfriend yeah but no one else sees it nobody else sees it yeah it's only real if there's another witness who sees you and that girl walking together then it's real so and how do we make this now happen it is on the one side of course you need a plan you need a small step-by-step plan and i really think that meanwhile especially like in modern businesses of is very similar like when you make project management you break your ideas of course down into walkable steps so that's why i think i don't need to say so much to it but along this plan along this way of let's say trying to make it become real.

37:29This can also mean you need to find more and more ways. How does something so fine like your thoughts start to shape into a form? So it is about find ways to give it expression. Can you explain? Yes. Write it down on paper. It is one way of giving thoughts and expression. Speaking about it. Speaking it out to your friends. More people know about it. Writing it onto your fridge. Something where the thought starts to enter into your visible world. This is the small steps that just support you on this mission. These are small things. The next step would be whatever you would like to achieve there.

38:22What skills are necessary?

38:28Do you have the skills?

38:33Now a little bit more, a little bit more nicely drawn. It means you want to go on a mission but at the moment you don't know yet in which direction you have to move. So that means the first thing in order for you to answer this question, which direction to move, is you need to know your location.

39:04And this now translated into, so what is it I'm supposed to do? Who are you at the moment? What are your abilities at this very moment? what do you have available time-wise, financial-wise. It doesn't matter in which situation are you right now. So we need to see where is our actual location. And from there now it starts. At least now you have a hint. If you want to go there, but at the moment you don't know yet where are you located if you're located here you know you need to walk here

39:56east if you are located here it's not east because then you're going to make a long way so that it really depends on where are you located and this is why it's from person to person it's different and i cannot always tell to the same person so you want to go there go east you want to go there too you also go east no because they are not starting from the same position yeah some people have already some education and some experience previously that will immensely help them to already like start from a different uh point so but where have we skills and now this is the part we are also jumping back into what is Shaolin also known for known for abilities of the practitioners which are normally above average human abilities yeah and this doesn't come because we bought it somewhere you practice it Yes, but there is a very specific type now of practice and this is maybe also interesting.

41:17What actually is that original meaning of David Carradine, Kung Fu? Kung Fu. this Kung Fu. Kung Fu meaning it's attaining a skill through hard work. That is important. Attaining a skill through hard work. Why is only this one what we call Kung Fu? Because this Kung Fu is not about fighting at the moment. it is about something that you have for example also developed you also have kung fu it is something that you have you can do you got and if somebody else in this room would like to have the same ability like you he cannot buy it he cannot just like wish to have it there's only one way how a person would ever get to the same skill set like you have he needs to go through the same training effort sweating suffering consistently yeah like you and this is what we regard as these are the skills we are looking for i'm not looking for a skill that i can outsource i'm looking for skills i have them and nobody else in this world can copy if you want to copy well then you need to train you need to do the same right and so that means along this way you also realize in developing those skills right now actually this is a way to make something unique about you and this uniqueness goes hand in hand with the unbroken willpower that you put into it and with that vision of yourself that this is what you want and this is what you're gonna do and so it is a combination it is a combination of you need to work for it but also at the same time have the mindset also that backs up your battle plan yeah and why do you think most people fail to manifest what they want is it because they don't have the discipline, the willpower, the consistency?

43:54Is it because they're not strong enough or willing to develop the strength? Why do they fail at manifesting? I think it is a question of time. In my world, people are repeating the same mistakes over and over again because they haven't overcome them yet. They're still at level one. They keep failing at level one they haven't they haven't beaten that level yet yes master the level yes but it's out of question for me that they will why is that because you can touch three times on the hot heat plate and it hurts three times you touch the fourth time it still hurts fifth time still hurts there will come the day they say no more now no more no more yeah it might take a while i express it maybe like in a funny way but it is even said like this in the teachings yeah you cannot teach someone who is not willing to be taught don't waste your time on people or to teach people that are not having the willingness to learn don't waste this is also the reason why this what i try to present right now we don't have missionaries going out like saying look we have the answers to your problems we don't do that stuff because if people aren't receptive to it it's not going to work exactly if people are becoming ready how how do they know they become ready it's because they start to ask different questions right and once you start to ask the question sooner or later in this lifetime.

45:48Let's just say, what happens after death? Let's just assume this one. This question only we can ask. People that are right now starving in the world, they are not asking what happens after death. People that are feeling too good, they are also not coming up with this type of question. So that means whoever is asking this question already is at a certain level in his life, in his development of the mind. And this is like why I appreciate this type of teaching so much. Because for every person there is the right time. there's nothing to hurry there's nothing to worry it's in each individual hands so why do they fail at the moment i could say because they haven't failed enough yet in order to make the next step or because they didn't see the lesson yet from that failure.