The 5 Steps to Reprogram Your Mind and Break Every Ceiling | Lewis Howes

27:25Lewis Howes:and it's not okay with me anymore. And in that moment, he created a new commitment in his life for his identity. He shifted his identity saying, I am no longer, not just going to drink once in a while, I am no longer a drinker. He didn't say, okay, let me learn how to manage this. Let me learn how to do it just on the weekends. Let me learn how to do this just when I'm on vacation so my kids can't see it. But he realized, if I don't shift my identity around this now, there's no managing this. I don't know how to manage it. I need to be a non-drinker. Not someone who drinks once in a while and who just dabbles.

28:04Lewis Howes:That doesn't work. At least not for him. Because your identity will always win. So he became a non-drinker. He's not had one sip in 15 years. And he created a social experiment for himself. He said, I need to tempt myself as much as possible. He said, you know, people do this in different ways. He said, you know, sometimes you need to eliminate the temptations from your environment. So get rid of all alcohol, this and this. Don't have it around the house. Don't go to parties. Don't go to situations where you experience this identity. But he said, I actually knew myself too well. I needed to have it all around me and to not be tempted with it around me.

28:43Lewis Howes:And I was like, that's actually really powerful. You know, I've never been tempted with alcohol. I've never been drunk in my life. And I was telling him, you know, I could be around people drinking alcohol all around me. I have zero desire to say, oh, I really want to sip or try this because it's not my identity. I don't identify as someone who drinks alcohol, who wants to drink it, who likes the taste of it. None of that. And so he said, I put alcohol out on my nightstand every night. And because that's what I used to do. I would have a couple sips before night and then I had to have this whole process.

29:19So he said, I needed to train myself for at least one year to be around it all the time

29:24Lewis Howes:and not give in. I needed to create a new identity with temptation, not eliminating it all. And I think there's, based on your personality, you can choose how you want to shift your identity. Different things work for different people. Some people, it's just a choice in their mind and it doesn't matter if it's eliminated from your environment or not, it's choosing to just say no. If you still see yourself as the one who procrastinates, the one who struggles with money, the one who constantly gets hurt and cheated on in relationships, the one who isn't disciplined, then you'll always find a way to prove that true because your brain hates cognitive dissonance.

30:02Lewis Howes:It hates being wrong. It wants to see you right, even if it's bad for you. It will sabotage success to keep your identity in the right. And I had to shift my entire language. I went from, you know, I'm trying to be successful. I'm trying to work hard to, I'm the type of person who does hard things with ease. I'm the type of person who's willing to do whatever it takes and things come to me abundantly and freely. That changes everything. It's just a shift in the way you think, in how you speak, in how you feel, in how you give, in how you receive. So how do you start to install this new identity for yourself?

30:44Lewis Howes:Well, you don't wait to feel like it. No one feels like doing something they've never done before when it's really challenging. It's not like, ah, I'm going to wait until the right time and then I'll start feeling like it. I'm going to wait a year from now. I'm going to wait until next New Year's and then I'll start to feel like it. No. You don't wait to believe it 100%. You start acting like it's already true with small decisions, daily proof, because identity is built through evidence. Every time you work out, you're voting for the athlete in you, for the healthy person in you. Every time you move, every time you eat well, every time you don't eat poorly, you are making a vote for the person in you who says health is my identity.

31:27Lewis Howes:I am a healthy person because I'm making a choice that is a vote with that identity. Every time you save, every time you invest, you are making a vote for the wealthy version of you, for the abundant, wealthy, financially free version in you. But those votes matter. Every day is a vote and a decision that decides what your identity is or not. It's not through affirmations. It's not through just saying, I am this person that can support you, but the action must be backed by that saying. Otherwise, you're saying, I'm a healthy person, and then you eat sugar all day. Now you're lying to yourself based on the actions or the votes you take.

32:12Lewis Howes:Therefore, your identity is fractured because you are fracturing it by your words not matching your actions. So we've got to create harmony with our thinking, with our words, and our actions daily. And this does not mean you have to be some perfect human being overnight, but I am a non-drinker. I am a non-smoker. I am a non-drug user. I don't do alcohol, smoking, drugs. It's my identity. That's who I am. That's who I've been for 43 years of my life. This is not to brag about this version of me because I'm not perfect in lots of areas. I have lots of room for growth in other areas of different parts of my identity.

32:56Lewis Howes:but this is just one area of an identity that I don't have a question about. It's not like, well, am I a non-drinker? Well, I don't drink. So I don't feel fractured with the way I think and feel about my identity. There's alignment, there's harmony. So I feel good because it's the truth. End of step three, create a new identity that empowers and serves you.

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34:31Lewis Howes:Step four, this is where we start to do the real work because you need to rewire your mind through repetition and emotion. How do you make these changes actually stick? How do you really shift the identity so it becomes a part of you? How do you turn a good day into a great life? I remember sitting in my sister's house on the couch, broke for a year and a half. I had to visualize my future every single day. This is back in 2007, 2008. This was really kind of like the start of social media. I had gotten on social media back in, I think, 2004. I think I got on Facebook around 2004 when it opened up into my college.

35:15You know, this is 22 years ago.

35:19Lewis Howes:when I was on Facebook, when it was just for college kids. It wasn't for the whole world. It was for the exclusive few. This was early days of social media. It wasn't like it is now. I was reading books. I was finding mentors locally. I didn't have all the access to the content I have today. I was finding ways to visualize the future I wanted for myself every single day. I was writing down my vision and printing it off and putting it up on my bedroom wall. I was putting it in the bathroom. I was doing whatever it took over the next few years. I was figuring out how to create an environment to visualize the future I wanted every single day.

36:05Lewis Howes:I knew that I had to feel grateful. This is what I learned from people. It's like, I had to be a certain way. I had to feel a certain way first before I saw the success. I couldn't just wait for success or wait for money or wait for opportunities to come to me to then be happy. I needed to be grateful, be curious, be excited, be passionate before I saw those things. I had to step into gratitude as if it was already coming before those things came. not just say, I'm going to be ungrateful until I have the things I want. And have you ever allowed yourself to truly feel your future? It's a beautiful thing.

36:47Lewis Howes:It is kind of weird because you need to do some emotional and psychological time travel, which again, may just sound weird if you're coming to this channel for the first time and hearing me, and you've never heard me before saying, we're going to do psychological and emotional time travel. You might be thinking Louis is the weirdest person ever. But whenever I psychologically and emotionally go into the future and I experience the results, the moments, the relationships, the feelings of what I'm looking to create in the future, and I experience it now, it just feels, you feel alive. You're like, man, that is incredible feeling.

37:24Lewis Howes:Now, what are the actions and the identity and the thoughts and the behavior and the beliefs that I need to do today to get me closer to that. I love this quote from Dr. Joe Dispenza, who says, your personality creates your personal reality. In order for you to create a new personal reality, you have to change your personality. Nothing changes in our life until we change. Again, your personality creates your personal reality. So you need to change your personality, who you are, who you identify as, your thoughts, your beliefs, your behaviors, then your actions need to match those new thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors to repeat that cycle so you reinforce the identity inside of you through those behaviors, actions, and thoughts daily.

38:10Lewis Howes:And it's like this repetition and emotion, it just repeats, boom, until you become this wave of emotion, this wave of identity, this wave of a being that is walking through life unstoppable on what you want to create because your identity matches that creation. It gives me chills just thinking about it because I've done it for myself and there's still new things I can keep improving on to get to new levels. Repetition and emotion. Those are the two keys to the subconscious because your brain doesn't change from one random breakthrough. It changes from what you repeat daily. Let me say this again.

38:51Lewis Howes:Your brain does not change from one random breakthrough. It might give you a spark. It might give you a new opportunity to lean forward and do something. But you reinforce it, the change, from what you repeat daily. And here's what most people miss. Emotion is what locks this in. You need to feel your heart expanding. You need to feel the joy, the abundance, the bliss, the freedom, the harmony, the peace, the creativity. You need to be able to feel these emotions expanding and rushing like a river, like a golden river flowing through your body. It just needs to feel like joy and excitement and gratitude and love.

39:39Lewis Howes:You need to generate this emotion and then lock that emotion in because that becomes your new pattern. That becomes your new identity. The moments that changed me the most weren't logical ones. They weren't like, okay, I'm thinking a certain way now. I really know this thing to be true now because I'm thinking analytically and now I'm going to live this way. That's not how I do things. They weren't just smart ideas or rational thinking or analytical like, yeah, that makes sense. No, these were emotional. And I'm not saying that I was hysterical, but they were emotions that I was feeling that I was able to anchor and align in my being.

40:21Lewis Howes:And again, some of you might be watching this and thinking, Lewis, this sounds kind of weird. Like, they're emotional, your identity. Like, you might be saying, something's wrong with you. This is just weird or strange. But if you're here this far, if you're listening or watching this far, it's probably because you're not fully accepting what you have in your life right now. You're not fully excited about what you've created. Maybe you're okay with it, but you know you want to create a little bit more. You know you want to experience and feel a little bit differently about what you're feeling.

40:51Lewis Howes:You know you don't want to be stuck or blocked in the things that you've been stuck or blocked in. It's using the emotion to feel something differently. High stakes pain, high stakes breakthroughs, unshakable truth. And when we use that emotion, we can start shifting with that daily action. And that's what it's all about. It's all about that. So if you want to reprogram your mind, you need daily practices that have actual feeling behind them. And when you're not just going through the motions, like I did my workout this morning and I was excited beforehand. And afterwards, I was like, oh man, this is good.

41:31Lewis Howes:I'm doing something that my identity is reaffirming, that I'm a person that works out. I'm a person that's healthy. I'm a person that is doing something hard. I showed up and I did what my trainer wanted me to do. And it doesn't mean I always wanna do it, but I'm willing to step into it and acknowledge it. And that's just another vote for me and my dreams towards reaching the Olympic dream of being an athlete and playing with the USA handball national team at the 2028 Olympics. It's a vote for living a super long, healthy life so that my daughters can grow up and have a father when they're an adult that they can connect with physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, who is healthy and thriving and able to move in all ways.

42:14Lewis Howes:It's like thinking into the future version of myself that wants to experience this life in a beautiful way. You need the daily practices that have actual feeling behind them, actual motion. Don't just do a gratitude list or just go through the motions. Feel it. Experience it. Feel the warmth of gratitude in your chest. Let your heart expand. Let it rush through your body. Let your brain and your heart connect so you feel electric through these actions, not just going through the motions. Because I'm supposed to work hard and I'm supposed to make my bed and I'm supposed to work out and I'm supposed to eat this chicken and rice.

42:51Lewis Howes:you don't just go through the motions. That is a dull life. Living in an identity and not having the emotion tied to it is also not going to create the feeling you want. So you need to feel the warmth and gratitude in your chest. You need to feel the electricity, the aliveness, the joy, the abundance, the expansion, the freedom. You've got to feel it. Don't just visualize the goal, feel the pride of reaching it. Speak your future into existence out loud, not just thinking and analyzing, feeling, experience it because your brain learns fastest when your heart is involved. So step number four, rewire your mind through repetition and emotion.

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44:15Lewis Howes:And with over 100 new and used EV models available right now, there's truly something for every lifestyle and budget. The way forward is electric. Learn more at electricforall.org. I am big on simple daily habits that support how you show up. And this is about building a routine that helps you eat, sleep, thrive, repeat. Nature's Bounty is all about helping you thrive from your head to your heels. You can support your heart, bone, nerve, and muscle health with magnesium glycinate. And if you want a little extra heart support, there is Vital Heart Rapid Release Soft Gels made with magnesium and CoQ10.

44:49Lewis Howes:And for digestive and immune health, Probiotic 10 delivers 20 billion live probiotic cultures in a one pill per day formula, which makes it easy to stay consistent. And if you care about building habits that support your goals, this is one way to stay intentional with your health. Nature's bounty. It's in your nature. Learn more at naturesbounty.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Step five is to protect your mental environment. Why do people make progress and then slip back?

45:24Lewis Howes:Oh my gosh. How many of you have ever made progress and then, but I'm gonna go back into default mode, back to the familiar, back to the comfortable, back to where it's safe. Or how many people do you know in your life friend, family member who's like, oh, they got motivated and then fell right back. And sometimes when people fall back, watch this. When people fall back, they almost slip even further back. It's like, okay, someone tried to lose weight and start working out and they lost a couple pounds. Then they slept back to their old weight and then they gained 40, 50, 60 more pounds. It's like the shame and fear of rejection or failure made them just go so far they're much back in an identity that they not want to be in.

46:13Lewis Howes:And this is not a good thing. It's not a good thing to let a failure or a fallback make you fall even farther back than you're comfortable with. So I've had to walk away from friends, loved ones. I've had to create boundaries with people. I've had to distance myself from people not because they were bad people but just because our energy our vision our values we're no longer in alignment we're no longer matched and it doesn't mean that they're they're wrong or I'm right or I'm wrong and they're right they were protecting their own limitations right and I was protecting what I'm trying to create I was trying to grow past my limitations not protect my limitations and I want you to ask yourself who in your life is constantly reminding you of who you used to be.

47:01Lewis Howes:Who in your life is reminding you of who you were when you were a teenager, who you were when you were in college, who you were when you were broke, who you were when you were in a bad relationship. Who in your life is reminding you of that? Sometimes the hardest conversations you need to have are with family and friends who love you the most. And it doesn't mean you need to kick them out of your life or remove people. or it doesn't mean you have to be that drastic, but you do need courage. You do need to have uncomfortable conversations with the people in your life who you feel like are trying to put you back in a box.

47:35Lewis Howes:And maybe that uncomfortable conversation or series of uncomfortable conversations will create a healthy boundary where that person will continue to respect your boundaries and grow with you and make you even stronger together. Sometimes it might distance yourself or create a barrier because they don't like you changing. They don't like you improving. They want to see you as someone who's a victim or someone who holds this old identity because it makes them comfortable with their identity. People slip back because they stay in the same environment that created the old version of themselves. Your mind is always being influenced, always, by the content you consume, the podcasts you hear, by the people you eat dinner with, by the content you scroll through before bed, whatever it might be, if you're serious about reprogramming your mind, you have to protect it at all costs.

48:26Lewis Howes:You have to guard your mind. There's a great quote from Jen Sincero when I had her on the show. She talked about this exact same topic when she came on the show and she said, the main reason they don't support your growth is because you're killing off the person they love. When you decide to change, you're killing off their buddy and you're screwing up their reality because you fit into theirs. When she said that, I was like, wow. Yeah, when you're improving your life, you're killing off the version of yourself who is the best friend of someone, who is the family member of someone. And that person is no longer there.

49:03Lewis Howes:Even if it's not the person you wanna be, that version of you is no longer there because you're not that identity. You are a new identity. So if people in your life are accepting of who you were, but not accepting of who you're becoming, it doesn't fit into their reality. It's not comfortable for them because you want to make a change. And this was huge for me. I had to change and I still get to change. It's like a constant process at different seasons of life. I'm a father now. I'm a married man now. I've got kids. I've got different levels of responsibilities. I get to step into a way of being that I've never been before.

49:42Lewis Howes:When you're single, you can do different things with your time, with your energy. You can hang out with different people. When you're in a relationship, you've got to evolve if you want to make the relationship work. And then when you get married, you've got to evolve to a new level of communication, of commitment, of all these different things. You've got to keep evolving and improving and growing to thrive in that new season of life, to thrive in that new relationship, to thrive in that new business, whatever it might be, to thrive in the new body you're looking to create. I had to change the conversations that I was in, the content I consumed, the people I hung out with, the energy I allowed around me, I was much more intentional and I am much more intentional now.

50:22Lewis Howes:And I get to continue that B. I'm sure when my kids grow, it's like a whole new level of growing. So you got to be thinking about what are the non-negotiables for you to have in your physical environment, your digital environment, whatever it might be. The news environment. The truth is your environment either reinforces your future or it anchors you to your past. and you can't build a new mind in an old environment. You can't. You've got to be creating a new mind and a new environment at the same time. That is step five, protect your mental environment. I want to give you a challenge right now as we wrap up.

50:57Lewis Howes:This is a 30-day mental reprogramming challenge. If you are ready for change, if you are someone who is looking to create a greater future for yourself, where do you start? How do you walk away from this video and create real results in your life? Well, I want to start you simple and I don't want you to get overwhelmed. For the next 30 days, I want you to commit to this. Number one, catch your thoughts, be the observer, and notice the patterns that keep showing up. Again, we talked about this earlier. Catch your thoughts, be the observer, notice the patterns that keep showing up. If you need to write these things down at the end of the day, do that.

51:39Lewis Howes:Number two, interrupt the negative loop. Literally say stop out loud if you have to. Like if something's going on, just say stop, stop, stop. Like stop to yourself. Stop. Whatever you need to say to interrupt the negative loop, say stop, stop. Don't let old thoughts run unchecked in your life. Stop and be aware of them. Number three, choose your identity daily. Every day, ask, who am I becoming right now? Who am I becoming? Is this closer to the person I wanna become? Every day, choose your identity daily. Who am I becoming right now? Number four, create a daily mindset ritual. Just five to 10 minutes, visualize who that version of you is, that identity, speak that identity, and feel that identity, that future identity that you want to experience.

52:36Lewis Howes:And number five, audit your environment. Remove what pulls you back. Have uncomfortable conversations with people in your life that are making you feel like they don't want you to thrive. Have that conversation with them and look at what pulls you forward. Maybe it's new groups, new mentors, new whatever that'll serve you moving forward. And if you do this for 30 days. You won't just think differently. You will start showing up differently. And that's when your results start to change. It's not going to happen overnight. This needs to be a daily building of belief through actions, thinking, and words.

53:17Lewis Howes:Because the people who outperform everyone else aren't more talented. They don't just work harder. They think differently. They see opportunity where others see fear. They act when others hesitate. They trust themselves when others are looking for permission from other people. And that all starts in the mind. And you don't need a new strategy. You need a new internal programming. It's about the program in your mind. Because the version of you that has everything you want already thinks differently, already decides differently, already shows up differently. And the moment you start thinking like that person, my friend, your life will start to match it.

54:03Lewis Howes:I want you to share the biggest takeaway you've had from this episode. Leave a comment below, share this with a friend, like this video right now, make sure you're subscribed as well here on our channel. And I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

54:47Lewis Howes:Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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