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How to Create A Life So MAGNETIC Your Dreams Manifest Easily

Commit to something for long enough that you stop measuring its success by early results. Before starting a new project, ask yourself whether you could do it consistently for three to five years with no audience, no income, and no guarantee it would work. If the answer is no, that is useful informa

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The School of Greatness

Key Takeaway

Commit to something for long enough that you stop measuring its success by early results.

Before starting a new project, ask yourself whether you could do it consistently for three to five years with no audience, no income, and no guarantee it would work. If the answer is no, that is useful information. If yes, set a shorter horizon, one year, and re-evaluate honestly at the end.

Howes argues that most people quit right before something begins to take hold. Consistency, even imperfect consistency, is what eventually pulls a project toward you rather than requiring you to chase it.

Episode Overview

What does it actually take to build something that lasts, and what does it teach you about yourself along the way?

In this solo episode marking 2,000 episodes of The School of Greatness, Lewis Howes reflects on the decisions, mistakes, and lessons that shaped the show across 13 years. He shares four lessons from that journey and closes with his current definition of greatness.

  • Show up until it shows up. Consistency across years, not talent or timing, is what built the show.
  • Shift focus from yourself to others. The show grew when Howes stopped asking what he could get and started asking who he could serve.
  • Inner peace shapes outer results. Healing work, retreats, and emotional tools changed how Howes experienced everything else he was building.

The episode is a milestone reflection rather than an interview, drawing on Howes's own story from childhood to fatherhood.

Main Insights

1. Consistency over years matters more than being good on any given day

Howes describes showing up to record episodes during breakups, grief, and financial stress, sometimes rating his own effort a three out of ten. His point is that the accumulated habit of showing up, even poorly, is what built the show to a billion downloads.

The useful distinction here is between consistency as a long-term pattern and performance on any individual day. Skipping months to wait for ideal conditions would have broken the pattern entirely.

A practical question to ask yourself: where in your life are you using imperfect conditions as a reason to stop, when showing up at reduced capacity would still keep the momentum going?

2. Service to others is a practical orientation, not just a moral one

Howes noticed in his late twenties that he was at the center of all his own problems. His relationships, professional and personal, were struggling, and he was the common factor.

He responded by reorienting the show around others: asking better questions, listening closely, and letting the guest be the focus. Life became more fulfilling, and the show grew, when curiosity shifted outward.

This does not mean neglecting yourself. Howes is clear that self-focus around health, family, and inner state is necessary. The shift is from self-absorption as a default to genuine interest in other people.

3. Build something for the person who needs it most, not for the metrics

Howes describes two encounters that clarified why he kept going: a stranger recognizing him inside the Great Pyramids, and an inmate who had been running a men's workshop in prison using exercises from The Mask of Masculinity.

Neither encounter was planned or measurable in advance. Both confirmed that work created for a specific need reaches people the creator never expected.

Building with a specific person in mind, rather than a target audience or a growth goal, seems to produce work that travels further.

Who is the person who most needs what you are working on right now?

4. Inner peace is something you practice, not a state you eventually arrive at

Howes argues that without inner peace, financial success or external achievement does not produce a rich life. He treats peace as a currency, the highest one.

He describes building a set of practices over 13 years: therapy, meditation, breathwork, retreats with Wim Hof and Joe Dispenza, and emotional intelligence work. The tools did not eliminate hard periods; they changed how he moved through them.

Peace at episode 2,000 feels different from peace at episode one, he says, because the tools are now internalized rather than occasionally tried.

5. Your gifts and your calling are not always the same thing

Howes built his early identity around athletic gifts. When injury ended that career, the gifts felt irrelevant without the dream that had given them a container.

He now distinguishes between gifts and talents, things you are naturally good at, and calling, the work you feel genuinely summoned toward. The podcast drew on his gifts, but he believes it is also his calling. He expects his definition of greatness to keep evolving as that distinction becomes clearer.

The practical implication: recognizing a gift does not settle the question of what to do with it.

Frameworks or Models

Three Truths: Howes's closing framework for a well-lived life

Howes asks guests at the end of every interview to name three truths they would leave the world if all their other content were erased. At episode 2,000 he shares his own:

  1. Live a healthy life. Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health together make it possible to contribute more to the people around you.
  2. Live a peaceful life. Without inner peace, Howes argues, it is hard to genuinely give or receive love. Peace is the foundation, not a bonus.
  3. Live a life of service. Once health and peace are in place, you can give presence, time, attention, and support to others in a way that actually lands.

Howes presents these as sequential: the first two create the conditions for the third to be meaningful rather than performative.

Notable Quotes

"I hated school, but I love to learn. I hated school, but I love being coached. And so it was learning how to learn in a different way for me."

Lewis Howes

"The fastest way to become someone people want to be around is to be of service to others. Relationships will take you further than your ego ever will."

Lewis Howes

"Discovering your unique gifts and talents inside of you that God has given you and only you and pursuing your dreams with those gifts and talents. And in the pursuit of those dreams, making a difference on the people around you."

Lewis Howes

Action Items

Suggested exercises inspired by the conversation.

  • 1
    Set a one-year consistency test for a project

    Before starting or continuing something you care about, write down your honest answer to this question: could I do this every week for one year with no income, no audience, and no guarantee it works?

    • If no, ask whether the resistance is practical or fear-based.
    • If yes, commit to a specific cadence and a check-in date.
    • At the end of the year, re-evaluate honestly before deciding to continue or stop.

    The purpose is to separate genuine calling from impulsive enthusiasm before you invest significant time.

  • 2
    Shift one regular conversation toward the other person

    Choose one conversation this week, with a colleague, friend, or partner, where you usually fill space with your own opinions or updates.

    • Ask one question you are genuinely curious about.
    • Stay quiet long enough for them to give a full answer.
    • Resist the urge to respond with your own parallel experience.

    Howes found that letting people answer without interruption revealed things about their character that a back-and-forth exchange would have missed.

  • 3
    Name your current inner peace practices

    Write a short list of what you currently do to manage internal chaos: therapy, exercise, journaling, breathwork, sleep, time in nature, or anything else.

    • For each one, note how consistently you actually use it.
    • Identify one practice you have tried and dropped that seemed to help.
    • Consider what a lower-friction version of that practice would look like.

    Howes's point is that peace is built through repeated use of tools, not occasional retreats.

  • 4
    Write down who you are building for

    For a project you are working on or want to start, describe in two or three sentences the specific person who needs it most.

    • What are they struggling with?
    • What would change for them if the work reached them?
    • Does your current approach actually serve that person, or has it drifted toward something else?

    Returning to a specific person, rather than an abstract audience, can clarify which decisions to make next.

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Full Transcript

Read or copy the complete episode transcript.

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The School of Greatness is presented by ChatGPT. ChatGPT Work, a new way to work in ChatGPT, can help you organize multi-step projects. ChatGPT Work can use your app's connected tools and files to create things like landing pages, trackers, even web apps. You can also make ChatGPT Work more specialized by installing specific plugins. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting Work Mode. Available on Plus and Pro plans. You've probably been told that if you want something badly enough that you have to chase it. Work harder, push harder, want it more, and the harder you chase, the further away it feels. And I've lived that way for years throughout my entire school life. No matter what I did, I never felt like my effort paid off. And I hated school. I dreaded going to school. I found every excuse I could to not go to school. And I know I talk about this quite a bit, but today I'm gonna show you the proof of how much I actually hated school. And last week, my mom gave me a gift. I didn't even know she had this. But this is a little poetry book from probably first or second grade that she gave me. And I'll show it up on the screen. You can even see it says poem on the back. And it's about poetry week that we had. I don't remember this. But when I go through this, it shows the poem from each of the kids in our class. One says about friendship. Friendship is a special thing. It's like life on a golden ring. Friendship is a silver star shining that I see real far. This is not me. This is another kid's poem. Someone's talking about Easter. Easter and having candy is lots of fun. You run and you play and you have fun. I see another one about spring. Spring has come. Spring is a beautiful place. I see another one about my cat. I have a cat. His name is Pat. He sat on a mat. And I can't forget he has a hat. All these different things that people are sharing their poems about their interpretation of life, their experience at that time. Someone's talking about springtime. Someone's talking about poems. All these different things by all these amazing classmates talking about friendship, sunshine, and everything else. And then I go to my poem. And you can see my poem here. I'll put it up on the screen. It says, School by Lewis Howes. I hate school. I hate school. I hate doing homework. I hate doing papers. I hate school. And that was my poem for this class assignment. Now, for me, it was, again, it was like this dread. Getting up and going to school was an exhaustion. And it was almost like I wish that eight hours a day I was able to learn something that I felt like would be more meaningful to my life. Now, not all school was bad. I had some great teachers throughout that time. I had some great moments throughout school. But the feeling of school didn't seem to work for me, or at least my personality, or the way I thought, the way I felt, the way I moved through the world, and interpreted the world. And it was more of like the system didn't work for me. And funny enough, when I fast-forward my life, little did I know that I would actually launch a school, the School of Greatness. I didn't ever think that I would wanna go back to school because of so much I tried to get out of it. But in 2013, I actually did it. I sat down in my living room with an iPhone, and I started a podcast called The School of Greatness. I had no studio, no team, no audience, no experience of doing a show. But I stopped making my life about me, and I said, how can I make life about serving others? How can I start asking questions from people who are extremely smart, people who have experience, people who have gone through horrific times and overcome those challenges, people who have dealt with extreme adversities, people who have made big mistakes and learned lessons from those mistakes as well. And I wanted to learn from the best. I wanted to create the thing that I wish existed when I was a kid. When I wrote this poem, I Hate School. And again, for me, I wish I learned things growing up that would help me understand navigating life better. I wish it taught me about how to overcome failure, how to deal with rejection, how to deal with my own insecurities and my embarrassments, how to deal with my shame, how to deal with relationship dynamics, how to deal with understanding money, how to make money, how to manage money, how to deal with navigating nutrition and my health, all these things that I started learning with our own school, The School of Greatness. And it worked. And today, The School of Greatness has over a billion downloads on audio and YouTube. And it has been an incredible journey. It's aired on public television across America. It's on airplanes now. And it reaches people in almost every country around the world. And throughout this time, I also didn't know that I would become an author and a writer and a New York Times bestseller. And we've written four books over these 2,000 episodes. Four books. It's crazy to me to think about. The first one, being over a decade old, The School of Greatness, our first New York Times bestseller, that really was distilling the information that I learned from all these great thinkers and leaders and individuals that we'd had on the show for many years. The School of Greatness was the first one. Then, my second one was probably the one that I'm most proud of, is The Mask of Masculinity. This is actually not a New York Times bestseller. Who knows, maybe one day it'll get on that list. But it was the one where I started to reveal a lot about myself and open up about a lot of my insecurities, a lot of my shame, my weaknesses. And I wanted to put them out there in the world so that they would not have power over me. Because I learned early on by doing the show, my definition of greatness within the first couple years shifted after the first couple years. Because for me, it was more about success, results, winning, accomplishment, achievement. That was what my original idea of greatness was when I was growing up. That was kind of what I thought about. If I can be successful, if I can accomplish my dreams and my goals and get big results and people can pay attention to it, then I have made it. But I quickly realized through my sports journey and in my early business journey that accomplishing more did not make me feel better about myself. And when I started to go through the healing journey through this show by starting to interview different experts, healers, spiritual leaders, that's when I said, oh, there's a lot of things that are blocking me from feeling like I'm enough, from knowing that I'm enough, and from feeling a deeper sense of peace and acceptance within myself, even though I know all of the things that I'm ashamed of from my past or my childhood or my insecurities. And once I started to learn how to heal and go in that process, it was one of the most impactful things that I'd ever done. And early in the school of greatness, I did an episode opening up about being sexually abused by a man that I didn't know. And I thought the show was over. I thought my business would be over. I thought all my relationships would be done and no one would like me or be friends with me. And I recorded this episode after I'd started doing my own healing journey, and I waited on it for about six months because I was so afraid about putting it out there. And when I finally put it out there, I was at the place of acceptance and peace, knowing that like, hey, this is gonna be the most you're ever gonna be judged in your life, or maybe one of the most times you'll ever be judged in your life for something in your past. And I kind of came to peace with it being like, all right, if I lose all my relationships, if I lose my following, if I don't have any more money, but I feel that peace within me. And if I can help one man heal from their journey, or one woman heal from their journey of going through something similar like this, it would be worth it. It would be worth it to me. If one person was impacted in a positive way, they felt a sense of peace. They felt a sense of healing. They felt a sense of self-love that they'd never felt before. They didn't have to keep chasing accomplishments to feel enough. And then I would say that this would be worth it. And so that's where the mask of masculinity came from. And it's all about how men can embrace vulnerability, create strong relationships, and live their fullest lives. This was scary for me. It was scary for me to put out there because it meant I got to continue to dive deeper into the things that I was ashamed of. And there was still a lot that I was working through and still have been working through since this book, which was nine years ago now. So this was the second book that I felt like, and still feel like, this is probably the most important book that we've put out there so far in terms of helping men heal and helping women understand the men in their lives and why maybe they're not fully open or fully vulnerable and why, so you can understand the men in your lives. Then we wrote The Greatest Mindset. Unlock the power of your mind and live your best life today. And this is probably the book that I wish I had when I was 16. So this was after 10 years of working on The School of Greatness. This is the book that I wish, it's like, okay, I've learned so many different things now. What's everything I wish I had when I was in school and high school that they wish they taught me? This is that book. And it's really a book about healing, but it's teaching you the lessons on how to optimize your life at the highest levels. And I just think this is really inspiring. From all the neuroscientists, all the leaders, all the sports figures, that was in this book, and it was a New York Times bestseller. And one of the, you know, a lot of the episodes that we do here on the show is around money. How to make money, how to invest money, how to spend money wisely. And we have had a lot of experts come and talk about these topics. And again, these are things that they don't teach us in elementary school, middle school, high school, or even college. They don't really teach us how to understand money, how to make money, how to create value from something for money, how to negotiate with money, how to sell, how to do copywriting to generate sales. They don't teach us these things. So we've had these experts on for years. I've studied this myself for years. I'm still learning. There's different levels to understanding money. And there's one thing to be rich. There's a different thing to be wealthy. And some people are rich, but they are extremely poor internally. So it's understanding and navigating the relationship around money and around the difference between rich, poor, and wealthy. And that's where we created Make Money Easy, which is all about creating financial freedom and living a richer life. And so this is more about understanding your psychology and emotional relationship with money. Can you understand your money identity, your money values? And if money was a person and it walked into the room right now, wherever you are watching and listening to this show, if money was a person and walked in the room, how would you respond? How would you think? How would you feel? What would your body respond to money if it was a person and it walked in the room right now? Based on your response to that, if you really sat with that, you would tell you a lot about your relationship with money. And so this book was more understanding the emotional, psychological, and relationship that we all have with money, how it impacts our decisions, how it impacts our relationships with others, friends, colleagues, intimate partners, and how we navigate our life in the process of this. These books have been kind of recaps of different themes that we have had on this show. And again, for me, it's really about understanding, live your best life, but not by always chasing more, but through healing, through acceptance, through awareness, through understanding yourself and navigating the messiness of this world that we're all living in. In trying to navigate, understanding something that is hard to understand. We don't know why we were brought into this body with the parents that we have in the city that we were born. We don't know why we were born at this time. It's already confusing. We don't have. the clear answers and a lot of our life is figuring out how to make the most of this life and how to navigate the challenges and the adversities and the uncertainties that life brings us all we don't have the answers and School growing up for me. It just felt like I'm exhausted I'm drained and I'm and I'm so bad at this thing called school that I am a bad person I'm a bad kid because I'm so bad at this thing So my identity became tied to my results and when eight hours of my life every single day for 15 20 years was tied to school being there in this system. It was hard for me to get out of the The negative feelings I had around myself because I was doing so poorly in something. That was most of my life that's why sports became such a Outlet for me to express myself. It was my way to be an artist through my body through my actions in a In a container outside of school, whether it be a basketball court You know track and field a football field a soccer field a baseball field as well Wherever it might have been wherever I was playing sports It allowed me to express myself and allowed me to understand human dynamics And those were kind of my greatest lessons my greatest teachers being with coaches Learning from them and learning how to interact with other athletes and being across other competitors as well That's where I kind of got my human lessons from and I Wanted more of that after sports was done with me, you know, I got injured playing arena football You can see the arena football right here that I used to play with I got injured and my identity was tied around sports now because I use that as my way to get validation Since I couldn't do well in school sports became the way for me to get validation and earn self-respect and self-worth Once I got injured playing football arena football broke my wrist for about a year and a half I was sleeping on my sister's couch trying to figure out who am I? What am I meant to do in this life? Why did this happen to me? Why am I struggling? Why do I not have any money? Why am I living on my sister's couch? What am I supposed to do with my life? I've got no skills I've got no identity now and it's interesting because around that time I found a new dream something else opened up and in 2008. I saw handball for the first time ever on the Olympics the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and I saw this sport and it Unlocked a new possibility in my mind that I've been on an 18 year journey Where I moved to New York City I made the USA national team and during the time of making the USA national team Maybe a year or two after that. I started the school of greatness. So I was pursuing a dream Around a sport called team handball before the school of greatness. Then I launched the school of greatness almost 14 years ago now episode 1 Continued playing on the USA national team for many years during the first eight years of the school of greatness and I'm Recommitted to this dream as well pursuing it at this season of my life Almost 14 years in on the school of greatness 2,000 episodes in I just got back from Egypt where we played our Los Angeles handball team played at The Club World Championships So there are these different seasons and different dreams that I've been pursuing while being consistent on this show the school of greatness and I've had the incredible fortune to sit across from amazing guests like Tony Robbins like Kobe Bryant Michelle Obama Kevin Hart Matt Damon Matthew McConaughey Joe Dispenza So many other great scientists and experts that are teaching me and teaching all of us How to optimize that area of life that we're struggling in and today is the episode 2,000 That uncomfortable pressure after meals Clothes subtly feeling tighter bloating has a way of getting your attention seeds DSO1 is a three-time award-winning probiotic in just one week DSO1 reduces bloating's impact in your day-to-day life So you can move and eat more freely get 25% off with code 2 5 school at seed.com The school of greatness these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA These products are not intended to diagnose treat cure or prevent any disease Support for this episode comes from ring whatever shows up around home this holiday season with ring You're protected the holidays get busy fast. You're running errands gifts are showing up at the house Maybe you're traveling and that's a lot happening at once One thing I really like is being able to check in when packages are arriving at the front door with battery doorbell 2k when you've gotten gifts being delivered and you're not always home when they show up Indoor cam is small and easy to set up Just plug it in and place it pretty much anywhere inside an outdoor cam Plus gives you retinal 2k clarity for your yard and outdoor spaces Ring helps you stay connected to what's happening at home So you can spend more time enjoying the holiday moments that matter with ring you're protected shop cameras Doorbells and more at ring.com I've learned the best pieces of my closet are usually the ones I don't have to think about a great t-shirt an easy layer Something I can put on and know it works and one of those pieces for me is quince is 100% organic cotton mesh Stitch sweater polo. I keep reaching for it because it looks put together without feeling too dressed up and What stood out to me right away about this was the quality in the field it's comfortable it looks sharp and it's easy to wear That's what quince does really well They make elevated everyday essentials with premium materials and timeless designs and when the weather cools down They have versatile layers that make getting dressed simple find your next fall favorites at quince Download the quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too and when quince Ask you where you heard about them. Let them know it was the school of greatness. It's the best way to support this show Over 13 years. We have never missed a week 2,000 episodes and underneath every one of them is the same question. What does greatness actually mean? That's the underlying theme Obviously at the end I asked everyone. What is your definition of greatness? But what does it actually mean? And That's something I wanted to learn early on. What is greatness? What is this? Is this something we can all have is this something only? Chosen for a select few who are willing to grind their life out for some big goal or big accomplishment Like what does it actually mean? And that's what I set out to answer Discover for myself and learn from others and by the end of this episode, I'm gonna give you my answer But first what I want to do is I want to give you four key lessons from the 2,000 episodes of what these episodes taught me about building a life that pulls you and pulls your dreams Closer to you. And so that's what this is all about I can't do 2,000 lessons if you want to go back and listen to a lot of these episodes You'll get great lessons from each episode and I and I always love getting emails from people that say hey You know I've been listening to you from the beginning or I started listening to you six months ago and I've been going back through the old Episodes and just trying to get through all of them and for me that inspires me so much I'm so grateful that you are here. I'm so grateful that you're here Building in this life with me on this journey with me a lot of you have seen me go through ups and downs if You've been with me since the beginning or maybe you've come and gone over the last 13 14 years It's been a lot. You've seen me go through again Writing multiple books. We had lots of different kind of businesses within the school of greatness We've done 10 years of the summit of greatness. You've seen me do my USA national team journey towards handball and my dreams there You see me been been through lots of different relationships You know, I've been in a lot of different relationships From 13 14 years ago till now and now I'm married. I've got twins. I'm a father. I've got different seasons of life that I've personally gone through that this school The school of greatness has guided me and you've also seen me make mistakes. You've seen me be an imperfect human being Throughout this entire time. I don't always say the right things. I'd always do the right things Personally professionally on this show off this show, etc But I've always shown up. I've always said how can I continue to improve and be better and I'm going to continue to make mistakes So are you or human beings were flawed? But as long as we have the awareness the responsibility and accountability for our lives I think that's what we can give to ourselves and that's what we owe others as well So there's gonna be a couple parts to this episode Part one, I'm going to share with you the four lessons of the last 2,000 episodes and lesson number one is show up until it shows up So what does this mean? Well, most people quit right before things start coming to them They are a little too impatient. Maybe they're distracted. Maybe you've got too many different ideas So it's hard for you to focus on one and I spoke with a wealthy friend Recently who wanted to start a podcast for example, and he came to me and said Lewis What's the secret to launching the show? You've done this, you know almost 2,000 episodes now. What's the secret? How do I be successful really fast? How do I get it out there make money get lots of views right away and make it a hit and I literally told him Do not launch a show unless you could do it for the next three to five years every single week Knowing that you may get zero listeners zero viewers and make zero dollars and Why did I say this to him because Most people have an expectation, especially if you're already successful You're like I don't want to start something unless I know it's gonna work out Well newsflash not everything works out just because you want it. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe it won't What are you willing to do? How much are you willing to commit to something to show? That it can come to you more effortlessly more it'll come to you the more you show up for it and Just because you have an idea that you want to do something doesn't mean you should do it I have lots of ideas, you know, just because I could launch a shoe company doesn't mean I should launch a shoe company I could sell toothbrushes just because I can sell them doesn't mean I should sell them Is it serving my greatest gifts my greatest talents? Is it serving this season of my life? Is it a distraction from me giving the most to this podcast and other things that I'm working on or is in alignment with that? So just because you have an idea you want to do something Doesn't mean you should but it also Maybe it means you should do something and this is why I like to question and ask people like okay If you want to do a show like this or something on your own that you really want to do Are you willing to show for it consistently? Are you willing to do it because you're truly curious and passionate about it? And I decided this early on when I started out It allowed me the freedom to really keep trying keep growing and allow the consistency of showing up To pull my dreams closer to me and this is what I did The first year of the School of Greatness was an experiment. A lot of people said it's not gonna work. What's a podcast? This was way before podcasts. No one knew what a podcast was No one knew I had to explain people over and over again how to go Click just to find and listen to the show. There was no video Nothing. There was no virality. You had to send people a link one by one to get people to to listen and this was Hard it's very easy to get more virality a day with short clips But it was hard back then and it was a struggle You had to educate people first on what a podcast was But I said I'm gonna do this because I want to build relationships I want to learn from experts. I want to make it about others not about me That's why I said I'm gonna do this every single week for a year and then from there. I'll Re-evaluate and that's what I did I did it every single week for the first year and I got I made no money nothing But I got so much value and the return of that time that energy paid dividends for my soul for my life for my business for my relationships and I Didn't know what the podcast would become when I started it, but I knew it was something that was Calling me. It was like my heart was being pulled in this direction To go experiment with this thing called a podcast That I came up with called the school of greatness when I was stuck in traffic in LA driving around I was going through a challenging time in my life through a breakup I was stuck in traffic and I realized a lot of people around me were also frustrated I could see people, you know honking their horns and screaming that they were stuck in traffic and I thought to myself. Oh This isn't just me other people are stuck as well. Sure. I'm going through my own Internalization of breakdowns in my relationships, but other people are frustrated in life and stuck as well What if there was a way that I could? Create something that I'm excited about to help me learn but to help other people become unstuck also That was literally the idea the school of greatness came about in a car in Los Angeles Stuck in traffic and stuck in my life I didn't know what it would become But I knew I felt called to do it and I knew I wanted to give it a full year of consistency and from there the feedback that that I got from others and the joy that I gained from doing it made me want to continue the second year. Then I think it was year three or four when it finally started to make a little bit of money. I mean, maybe like 10 grand, 20 grand. And I was like, but the value that I was gaining, like I would have done it for free forever, right? It was giving me so much value and I was enjoying it. And I could see the value and the feedback from you, listeners, viewers, of the impact. And I was like, oh, this is something bigger than me. And that's one of the reasons why I kept doing it. Never did I know that it would reach a billion downloads, be one of the biggest shows in the world, help us write multiple New York Times bestselling books, help me connect with some of the most influential individuals in the world that I either have a relationship with or friends with a lot of these individuals or friendly with them. And it's been a game changer. Now, there's been lots of ups and downs. The one thing has been me and our team showing up, us showing up consistently. And we're not always perfect, but we show up consistently. I'm not always perfect. You know, I've been through multiple breakups. I've gone through health challenges. I've gone through financial burdens during the last 13, 14 years. You know, online criticism, humiliation, embarrassment, loss. I lost my father a number of years ago during this time. And there's been a lot of sadness too. But one of the things that we've done is being consistent, even when it's not easy, even when it's not convenient, even when it's not fun sometimes. There's definitely been months where I said, I don't want to do this. I don't want to work. I don't want to get out of bed. I don't want to have to get dressed in a certain way. I don't want to have to shave. I don't want to have to put myself on like I'm a happy person right now. There's been months and seasons where I did not want to do that. And I'm telling you what, there's been a lot of times where I wasn't my best, or I wasn't fully present sitting next to a person where my mind would wander, where I was worried about what's going on in my personal life or some other challenges or the business. And I want you to know, it's not always going to be the perfect environment for you either in whatever you're looking to create in your life. It's not always going to be the perfect health, the perfect relationships, the perfect financial situation for you. But if you can learn to show up consistently and not beat yourself up for not being perfect, because I know I haven't been every time I'm on this show. I mean, you do something, 2,000 episodes, you're going to have some off days. You know, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, they weren't great every single game that they ever played. They've struggled and lost games as well. You keep showing up. It's not always easy, but that's the point. It's the key. And it's learning how to be consistent from episode one till now, episode 2,000. And a lot of people ask me like the key to my success and our success in this show. And I tell people a lot of the time, listen, I have the proof. My mom showed me this now. And I think I have some grade cards somewhere. I got to find that proof too on how bad I was in school. But I have the proof. I wrote a poem during poetry week in first or second grade that says school. I hate school. I hate school. I hate doing homework. I hate doing papers. I hate school. It's funny that I said I hate doing papers and that we've written multiple books that these are like, you know, hundreds of papers in a book. I just had to be, I just had to figure out how I could like learning. I hated school, but I love to learn. I hated school, but I love being coached. And so it was learning how to learn in a different way for me. And a lot of people say like about the success of this show. And I tell people, I was in the bottom of my class. I hated school. I was not a good student. It was a struggle every single day to go to school and pay attention. It was exhausting. It was like a drain, a drag. It was like anything I do to get out of it, I tried to do it. But something that I've learned is how to be consistent. And the more consistent I can be, the better I will be. So I'm never gonna be smarter than you. I'm never gonna be more talented than you in a lot of ways. I'm never gonna have those gifts that you have. But something I've learned is how can I just be consistent? How can I show up curious? How can I show up excited? How can I show up interested? And if I can do that, then I can do it consistently. And as long as I'm enjoying the process, I hated school, but I loved learning. And so as long as I continue to learn and I feel like I'm benefiting it, you're benefiting it, the community's benefiting as well, humanity's benefiting and the world is benefiting, then it's something I'll keep doing as long as I feel that way. And there have definitely been weeks, if not months, I have wanted to skip. And a lot of this stuff for me was, I didn't know how to navigate breakups and emotional stuff from relationships in the past. The first probably six or seven years of the show, I was going through different breakups and different challenges. And that was hard. It was just hard because I didn't learn how to navigate my emotions. And so there'd be certain days where I would just be like, I don't wanna do this. And I would show up and I would just do my best, but I wasn't always my best. And I think the difference was me doing it anyways, doing it sad, doing it hurt, doing it emotional, doing it not my best, doing it with a three out of a 10 rather than a 10 out of a 10 and showing up consistently either way. Because I think if I would have taken like six months off or a year off or a couple of years off, it wouldn't be where it is today. I'm not saying you have to do that, but I'm just saying look at your life and see where can you be more consistent and showing up either way. And that is the first lesson for me. The second lesson is stop making it about you. The fastest way to become someone people want to be around is to be of service to others. Relationships will take you further than your ego ever will. There's something that I was struggling with in my 20s. My life was about me. I wanted to be a professional athlete and I went out and did it. I got injured and I said, why is this happening to me? I wanted to go make money and I went out and I did it. But then I wasn't happy with the money I was making and I was dealing with all these struggles. And everything was thinking about me focused, me. I'm gonna go do this. Why is this happening to me? Why aren't I getting what they have? It was all me, me, me, me, me, me. And it was so self-focused. But I'm not saying self-focused is a bad way to live life. I am still, in a lot of ways, self-focused around certain areas of my life. I want to be self-focused around how I think and feel in a positive way so that I can impact others more positively. I want to have some self-focused and self-interest to take care of my health, to be a good husband, to be a good father. I want to have some self-focus. But when it's all about me and not about others, then life just loses its fulfillment, right? So it's not about not focusing on you. Because I think there's a lot of people that only focus on others and they neglect themselves. They neglect their wants, their desires, their needs, their health, to put all the energy on others. And I think that's not the best way to serve yourself and others as well when your cup is not even half full. All right, friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode. And the School of Greatness drops new conversations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around money, mindset, healing, manifestation, and relationships. And if you're not yet following the show, then you're missing all of them. Please tap the Follow button right now and you'll get notified the moment every new episode drops because the next one might be exactly what you need. Now, let's get back to the conversation. That uncomfortable pressure after meals, clothes subtly feeling tighter, bloating has a way of getting your attention. Seed's DS-01 is a three-time award-winning probiotic. In just one week, DS-01 reduces bloating's impact in your day-to-day life so you can move and eat more freely. Get 25% off with code 25SCHOOL at seed.com. Forward slash the School of Greatness. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Support for this episode comes from Ring. Whatever shows up around home this holiday season with Ring, you're protected. The holidays get busy fast. You're running errands. Gifts are showing up at the house. Maybe you're traveling and that's a lot happening at once. One thing I really like is being able to check in when packages are arriving at the front door with battery doorbell 2K when you've gotten gifts being delivered and you're not always home when they show up. Indoor cam is small and easy to set up. Just plug it in and place it pretty much anywhere inside. An outdoor cam plus gives you retinal 2K clarity for your yard and outdoor spaces. Ring helps you stay connected to what's happening at home so you can spend more time enjoying the holiday moments that matter. With Ring, you're protected. Shop cameras, doorbells, and more at ring.com. But I knew I was in an inflection point before launching the School of Greatness because I felt stuck. I told you that I was stuck on traffic and I was going through different relationship breakdowns in my life. Business relationships, friendships, intimate partner that I was in a relationship with at the time. And I realized, oh, the common denominator is me. I can't blame everyone anymore because I'm at the center of all my problems. It's about me, the choices I'd made. And I think that was the first time that I really took responsibility for my life, if I'm honest. It was my late 20s. Sure, I was responsible towards other things, but I'd like, I would blame, I would put, you know, would try to play the victim in certain areas and say, nah, they didn't do something they should have done. And at this point, I said, oh, this is all about me being at the center of these problems. And I started to have awareness around that. And a lot of people said, okay, if you're gonna do a podcast, you gotta make it your name because other people were doing like their name as their show. It's nothing against other people who have their name as their show. But I was just like, the Lewis Howe Show at this season of my life doesn't make sense because that's all about me still. So I said, how can I make this about others? So the School of Greatness came to mind as a show topic because I was like, man, I struggle in school, but I wish there was a school that could actually like teach people something about life and relationships and money. I was like, like a school of like greatness. And then I was like, I like that. I like the sound of that. That sounds more interesting. That sounds like a school that I would love to attend. That sounds like a school that I would love to be a part of. And so the name came to me and I said, all right, yeah, I like this better than the Lewis Howe Show because that just seems so self-focused. Maybe later in my life, like, okay, I can switch it up, but School of Greatness with Lewis Howe feels better. And I want to put the light on someone else. I want to do interviews with others where it's all about them, not about me. Sure, I'm going to be asking the questions. It's going to be my show, yada, yada. I'm facilitating the conversation, but it's not all about me, me, me, me, me, me the whole time. Now, after the first couple of years, a lot of you said, Lewis, we want more of your perspective. So I started to do solos like this one, but the core of the show, 80, 90% of it is still interview focused, is about others and gaining insights and intel and information, research, frameworks from other people, lessons to share with you. And so my life really transformed after launching the show because I just became obsessed even more so with other people and learning about their story. And when you ask an interesting question, you shut your mouth and you let people answer, they will reveal incredible things about their spirit and their soul. And if you become a space for them to share these things, they will have hopefully a positive memory, a positive moment. And life is really about two things, memories of people that you spend time with and moments with those individuals. And if you can have good moments with people, then you're gonna build quality relationships with them. So we have relationships and moments that you get to share with certain people. That's really the makeup of our life, the people you interact with and the moments you make with them. And some of us make miserable moments with good people. Some of us make miserable moments with bad people in our life. And that becomes our life, the memories of those moments we made with the people that we experience them with. And I really believe that our life should be, how do we get to surround ourself with more empowering and inspirational individuals in our lives and make good moments with them so that we have better memories? Because a lot of our pain is stemmed from memories that we interpret in a negative way. The memories from the past that we hold onto block our heart, block our mind from having a growth and abundant life or a stagnant and stuck life. It's how we interpret the memories of the moments with the relationships of our past. Think about it. A lot of the things that hold you back today, you know, for me, a lot of my childhood was around proving people wrong who picked on me. Proving the bullies wrong, proving teachers wrong, proving coaches wrong who didn't think I would amount to much. And holding on to that. onto that memory from those relationships in a negative way instead of interpreting it differently and showing up differently in my life. And maybe you've gotten into a relationship based on a certain memory or certain thing that you felt like you were supposed to do. Maybe you got out of relationships. Maybe you got into a career because of certain things. Maybe you've blocked your heart. Maybe you've opened your heart. It is based on memories of moments you had with other people. When I started to make this about others, it doesn't mean I wasn't selfish at different times. Like, listen, I'm a human being. I've made mistakes. But my intention was, how do I make this about other people? My curiosity shifted towards others rather than self. And throughout the 2,000 episodes, this just allows me to keep learning because I still make it about other people. And it's been a beautiful, beautiful lesson. Lesson number three, build it for the people who need it. Build it for the people who need it. From day one, the mission of the show has been to serve 100 million lives every single week. We're still going after that mission, but it's what has brought me the right audience. And when you're clear on what you're building and who it's for, the right people will find you and want to be a part of it. They'll want to be a part of the community. They'll want to conspire to support you in accomplishing that mission as well. And every single week, someone tells me an episode changed something in their life or impacted them because of this show. A hard conversation that they finally had, a business that they finally started, a habit they finally broke. The numbers are incredible. But the person on the other side of the screen or other side who's listening is the reason why we do this. Reaching a billion downloads is crazy. 2,000 episodes is amazing. But none of these 2,000 episodes wouldn't happen if it wasn't for you, for you deciding to show up, for you deciding to be a part of this community. And it's just been incredible, literally. I was just in Egypt a couple weeks ago, again, playing with the Club World Championships for handball. And we took a day off to go to the pyramids, the Great Pyramids. And we were, you know, trekking through the middle of the pyramids, probably took 20 minutes to climb up through this tiny little tunnel and go into the pyramids. And in the middle of the pyramids in Egypt, someone stopped me and said, you're Lewis House. I love your show, The School of Greatness. It's made a big impact in my life. And it's just like, it blows my mind that in the middle of the pyramids in Egypt that someone is a fan, is a listener of the show, and talking about how it's impacted them. I meet people all the time, meet people all the time who have been impacted by this, who have talked about listening to a certain episode or being a consistent listener or viewer of the show was an inflection point for them and helped them stay consistent in some other area of their life. We had a, you know, after I wrote The Mask of Masculinity, I was touring on it. I did a book tour. And I was really passionate about this book, still am. But I went to a prison visit one day because I got invited to go to a prison and meet with a group of men with Common, actually. Common went in and brought me and a group of other people here in L.A. to a prison just outside of L.A., maximum security prison, but that had a group of inmates who had committed to not, you know, doing bad things in prison. So a group of inmates who were supposed to be in there for life, but had special privileges inside of this section of the prison because they said they weren't going to get in fights, they were going to have, do the right things, they were going to have good behavior, and they were trying to improve their life in prison. And within 30 minutes of going into this prison, someone comes up to me and goes, an inmate, you know, in an inmate's uniform, comes up to me and says, you're Lewis Howes. And I was like, I thought I was getting punked for a second. He said, you're Lewis Howes. Now this was nine years ago. He said, you're Lewis Howes. I go, yeah. And he goes, I have your book, The Mask of Masculinity, and I've been teaching a men's class in prison with the exercises in this book. And I was kind of like in shock. I go, no way. You don't have my book. And he said, I'll prove it. He literally went to his cell, came back, and showed me this book. Now the interesting thing, we didn't have a paperback at that time, but he had, you know, someone had sent him the book, they took out the spine so it couldn't be used as a weapon, so it wasn't hard, but he still had the cover and the whole book, and it was marked up with notes. And I was like, this is crazy. So I took a photo with him and the book inside the prison, and I'll put this on the screen right here so you can see it. And maybe a few months later, he said, listen, I'd love for you to come back and watch a workshop that I lead with the inmates with the messages from your book. And this is probably the most rewarding five-hour experience that I've ever had. One of the most rewarding was going back and co-leading a workshop with an inmate who had been there for 20-something years, who was supposed to be in there for life for something he did as a teenager, and his name is Lee. And it was one of the most healing experiences of my life with a group of about 20, 25 men, and I brought a few other guys from outside the prison walls to come in and help co-lead this. And it was the most vulnerable real thing that I've ever experienced. It's so healing to hear the things that these men had been through before prison, in prison, and what they were committed to creating for their lives, whether they stayed in prison for the rest of their lives, or if they ever had the chance to get out. And to know that you may be stuck in a prison for the rest of your life, and yet you're going to commit to overcoming your past, you're going to commit to overcoming the pain you've experienced, the pain you've caused, and the harm you've done, and to learn about the lives that they had, the environment that they grew up in, not acknowledging that any of the acts that they did were okay. But to also have compassion for the extreme abuse, the extreme poverty, the extreme drug addiction that their parents went through, the lack of love, care, support that they got, compared to what a lot of us get. To realize, okay, this type of environment may cause harm to this person, who may cause harm on other people. I can still not be okay with certain things that got them in prison, but also understand the things that caused them to react the way they did under extreme circumstances. And then also acknowledge the beauty of the healing journey that they'd been on for 10, 20, 30 years, some of these guys. And the vulnerability, the lessons that they're learning about themselves, even though there may be no hope in sight for the future to get out. It was a beautiful experience. And I was like, man, even if all this book that took a couple years of me to write and work on, even if all that did was help these 20 to 25 men in prison start to heal, start to overcome their past, start to have a different relationship with their lives, to try to create a brighter future for themselves, even though there may not be a lot of hope for their future. This was worth it. The show was worth it. The book was worth it. Everything was worth it. Even if it doesn't make me any money, it was still worth it. And beautiful thing, a couple of years after this moment, this inmate who had my book in prison, who I went back to lead a workshop with, actually got out. And there's a photo of us with him in prison. And there's a photo of us in my old studio, which I'll put that photo up on screen right now, of him out as a free man. And it just shows the power of what he was also able to overcome while in prison to transform his life, to eventually get out. And now he's doing great things for a lot of people who are getting out of prison as well now. And he's transformed his life. And for me, none of this would have happened without this show, without you all being interested in this work, in the lessons, in the guests that we have on, in the books that we create for you that have exercises and more lessons and teaching as well. And it's just one example of the impact. And it's something I'm so grateful for. It's just been a beautiful, beautiful journey. And the lesson here is you want to build it for the people who need it. And when I launched this, I was building it for myself because I needed a lot of help. I need a lot of work to heal my journey, but I was also thinking of others. And when I was healing through my own stuff, through my own men's vulnerability stuff, little did I know Lee in prison would find this and would be leading workshops for men in prison as well. We created the Summit of Greatness, 10 years of the Summit of Greatness since 2015, I guess it was. 2015, 2016 was our first year. And we said, how can we bring this community online to life? So we created a Summit of Greatness. And these are some of the greatest weekends every single year that we would do, bringing the podcast to life. And so many people from these events created incredible friendships. Some people got married from these events. There's couples that got married that have kids now who met at the Summit of Greatness. People who've created business partnerships and launched businesses and made impact. And I think it's just been a powerful journey to know that everything that we do now, I was telling our team this morning that the work we do now has the ability to impact people next year, five years, 10 years, 50 years in the future. And I want to make this and continue to make this for you, for what you're going through. And this is why we really lean into your comments and see what is the biggest challenge? Where's the pain point that you have in your life? And where do you feel stuck? I'm still looking for growth in certain areas of my life. So I'm curious about how to get to next levels. And yet I know you might be experiencing some stuckness as well. So I'd love to hear from you in the comments if you can, if you can share one thing that has impacted you from this show over the last 2,000 episodes, whether you've been here since day one or this is your first day. What is one thing that you've gained from the School of Greatness, if you can share specifically in the comments below, it'd mean a lot. And also what's one area of your life where you feel stuck still? Where are you trying to grow? Where would you like to improve? Share that in the comments below. Okay, so lesson number four, your inner world determines your outer world or inner peace is the new rich. You can build everything on the outside and still push it all away from the inside. And the inner work that I've done and continue to do on myself is what finally let the good things stay with me. This has been a journey, guys, not only the show, but the show has brought me to other things from emotional intelligence workshops, to therapy, to meditation, retreats, coaches, gratitude practices, breath work, and I've learned that peace is the highest currency there is. Inner peace, without it, you are a poor human being. If you do not have inner peace, you could have all the money and all the wealth and all the luxury in the world, but if you don't have inner peace, you are not living a rich life. A lot of these things, I try on. A lot of the experts who come on here, I try on. From breath work to meditation, I went to India and did week-long retreats doing meditation and breath work, extremely powerful and profound at that season of my life that allowed me to create a lot more peace when I was struggling in a lot of chaos internally. I took a group of 12 or 13 men, friends of mine, I took them to Poland and did a week-long retreat. This was about six years ago now with Wim Hof at the time where we were immersed ourselves in breath work, meditation, and a lot of ice and freezing cold therapy training to overcome the chaos in our minds and inside of us. We were sitting in frozen ice tubs, 10, 12 of us at a time for 10 minutes breathing. We jumped in the frozen rivers. We climbed a mountain half naked for almost five hours in the snow. It was freezing, but we learned how to overcome it with techniques and strategies during the day on opening ourselves up to peace. Some of the most beautiful things happened with the men in this group during that time. Dr. Joe Dispenza, who I've had on here many times, ended up, he would guilt me almost every time, when are you going to come to my retreat? Me and Martha finally went to this seven-day retreat and it was life-changing. It was incredible. I learned so much about myself during that. They put a headset on my whole head mapping my brain during one of the meditations. We did all these healing exercises. It was so profound. For me, it's not just about how do I do an interview and just move on with my life. It's how do I immerse myself in the experience the best way possible with the time I have available at that season in my life. I've tried to do that over this process. A lot of you have as well. I've seen you do this. Peace today looks a lot different to what it did at episode one and episode 1,000 and now at episode 2,000. Peace feels a lot different because I have the tools. It doesn't mean every day I'm perfectly peaceful, but I'm A lot, in a lot more harmonic state of being because I practice these tools. I've done the work. And it doesn't mean I'm finished and I'm gonna be fine forever. It's a continual process of living in that state. There's so many guests over the years that have inspired me to continue to do the work. And I'd love to hear from you as well in the comments, what guest inspired you to do the work on yourself the most so far. Now there's a second part to this episode that I wanted to start with here. And part two is what we're building towards. So I just shared the four kind of key lessons from 2000 episodes and man, it's been a journey. From talking about, you know, poetry from a kid of what I hated, you know, my early thoughts and my early relationship to life to handball journey to writing multiple books in your time bestsellers to all the different kind of experiences and lessons of healing and growth towards this show, 2000 episodes. But I wanna share what we're building towards. At the 10 year mark, I said it felt like we were just getting started. You know, we're coming up on 14 years in the next few months but at 10 years, I remember saying, we are just getting started. And I feel that even more today. We're constantly reinventing. We're diving in deeper as a team, myself also. I'm at a different season of life. You know, I'm married with kids and I'm thinking about different things than I was day one, episode 1000, 10 years in, et cetera. And the next 1000 episodes for me, I just keep thinking about how can I be of service in greater ways? Where will I be called? I'm so open to where I'll be called for the next 1000 episodes that I wanna be a channel. I wanna be clear and I wanna be consistent towards that call. Right now, I feel called in a certain way to continue to do the things we're doing to reach a hundred million lives every single week. That uncomfortable pressure after meals, clothes subtly feeling tighter, bloating has a way of getting your attention. Seed's DS-01 is a three-time award-winning probiotic. In just one week, DS-01 reduces bloating's impact in your day-to-day life. So you can move and eat more freely. Get 25% off with code 25school at seed.com forward slash the school of greatness. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Support for this episode comes from Ring. Whatever shows up around home this holiday season with Ring, you're protected. The holidays get busy fast. You're running errands. Gifts are showing up at the house. Maybe you're traveling and that's a lot happening at once. One thing I really like is being able to check in when packages are arriving at the front door with battery doorbell 2K. When you've gotten gifts being delivered and you're not always home when they show up. Indoor cam is small and easy to set up. Just plug it in and place it pretty much anywhere inside. An outdoor cam plus gives you retinal 2K clarity for your yard and outdoor spaces. Ring helps you stay connected to what's happening at home. So you can spend more time enjoying the holiday moments that matter. With Ring, you're protected. Shop cameras, doorbells, and more at ring.com. But I feel like there are certain things that have been shifting as well for me over the last year. And I wanna continue to lean into service at the highest level for you. In some ways, that means creating boundaries in my life. In some ways, that means shifting content in a certain way to serve you, which I think will be a best of service for our future together. And I want the show to be known for making a true impact because there's a lot of people that have come and gone in creating shows, in creating podcasts. And there's no right or wrong, good or bad here. There's a lot of people that do things a certain way to chase views or chase money or chase certain things that they're going after at certain times. It's not right or wrong, good or bad, because there's certain times where I was doing certain things as well. But for me, it's thinking about how can we serve? What are the things that we can do to help deeper, serve deeper? And in some ways, that may be saying no to certain types of money. That may be saying no to certain types of content. Even though it might perform better or earn more, does it serve greater? So it's figuring out how do we continue to serve you by listening more to you, by asking you more questions, by seeing your comments and engagement of what you're responding to and diving in deeper of service, service, service. And one of my biggest goals is how can I continue to stay my healthiest? My health journey has gone up and down. Sometimes it's really peaked really well and then other times have fallen off over the last 13, 14 years, 2,000 episodes. But my goal now more than ever is how can I continue to live the healthiest way I can to be of service to you? Because it's hard for me to serve you if I'm not taking care of me. Also, how can I continue to serve my marriage at the greatest level? My family at the greatest level? My dreams at the greatest level? You know, at 10 years, I talked about wanting to keep my childlike joy. Now that I have kids, I get to experience this childlike joy every single day. They bring it to me. So I wanna continue to live a life of play. Remember that it doesn't have to be serious and grinding and hard. It can be like a light discipline. It can be a discipline that also has joy, playfulness, childlike energy, jokes, all these different things. And I think that's what will allow me or allow anyone to sustain anything for a long time, being disciplined and consistent while also bringing as much play and joy to your day-to-day life. And that's what the future looks like for me. And the funny thing is that 2,000 episodes, I don't know if we've arrived. What is 3,000 episodes gonna feel like? I don't know if it's gonna feel like we've arrived then also. It's a constant journey. It's a constant flow of saying, how can we make a big difference on the world and how can we make a difference to you? And if we continue to think about you as the individual every single day, every single episode, thinking about what your needs are, what you're going through and speaking to you directly through these conversations, then the impact will do what it needs to do on the world. But the more I focus on you, what you are specifically going through, I think the better it'll be. And that's one of the things that I think about for the next 10 years, the next 1,000 episodes, et cetera. And a lot of people ask me, Lewis, what does greatness mean to you? You ask this question all the time to others. You ask about people's definition of greatness. And in 2,000 episodes, this is the question underneath all of them. What does greatness actually mean? And what is your definition of greatness? Again, I've asked my guests that question for years. And my answer to this question has changed as I've evolved. Early on, I think it was more about accomplishment. It was about winning. It was about success. It was about being the best. But it's definitely changed today. And so my definition of greatness today is discovering your unique gifts and talents inside of you that God has given you and only you and pursuing your dreams with those gifts and talents. And in the pursuit of those dreams, making a difference on the people around you. And I truly believe that is greatness today. Maybe that changes in the future. Maybe I get a different perspective and something changes. And there's also a difference between the gifts and the talents you have and your calling. So maybe this will be a future edit or adjustment to the definition for me. Because right now, it's about discovering the unique gifts and talents inside you to pursue your dreams. And in that pursuit, making the maximum impact on the people around you. But I'm assuming in the future, it'll be around pursuing your dreams, but then really pursuing your calling. And dreams are not necessarily our calling. And the gifts that you have aren't always gonna be your calling. Because me, my gifts early on that I discovered were around sports, playing sports. That was like a gift. But then when the dream of being a professional athlete ended, it was like, oh, well, who am I? What are these gifts? Are these gifts still relevant? Are these talents still relevant if the dream is gone? And so I think those gifts and those talents don't necessarily mean it will be the calling that you end up doing, that you end up pursuing or being a part of. So for me, this is a part of my gifts and my talent, but I also believe this is part of my calling as well. But I didn't know like, oh, I was gonna do like a podcast or make this show that would have thousands of episodes. I didn't know that was gonna be my life. I knew I wanted to make an impact. And I feel like I've used gifts and talents in order to do that with this show. But there might be a greater calling. And I think that will be a part of greatness as well for the next thousand episodes. And the thing that inspires me is that everyone has a different definition of greatness. You know, when I ask people, sometimes I'm surprised by people's responses and I'm like, oh, that's a really unique definition. And it also tells you about what is meaningful to the person that you ask as well. And there's no right or wrong here, no good or bad, but for me, it's all seasons of life. And I think I've just been inspired because I'm curious about other people. It lets me see behind the curtain of how other people think when they share their definitions. And one of the questions I typically ask towards the end as well is, what are your three truths? Something I ask at the end of almost every interview before the definition of greatness is I ask if all your content were erased and it was your last day, but you could share three lessons behind to the world, and this is all we would have to remember you by, what would those three lessons be? Or what would those three truths be? And this has evolved for me as well after 2000 episodes. But I wanna keep it as simple as possible for you because I think simple is always better. But for me, truth number one would be live a healthy life. Live a healthy life in the total sense of the word, physical health, mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health. And if you can focus on living a healthy life, being healthy, then you're gonna be able to make a bigger impact, bigger difference on your friends, your family, loved ones, communities, classmates, peers, careers you work in, teams that you work with. You're gonna make a bigger impact on the people around you by living a healthy life. You're gonna be more inspiring to the people around you. You're gonna be able to help them more. You're gonna be able to serve them more. You're gonna be more clear-minded when you have clear health. No one's gonna be perfect. We're gonna go through our challenges and ups and downs, but live a healthy life would be my first one because it will make everything else better when you are healthy. Second truth, live a peaceful life. This is probably a newer one for me because it's hard to, a lot of people say love for one of their truths, which I agree with as well, but I truly believe that if you don't know how to live a peaceful life, it's hard for you to give love and receive love because you're always living in chaos within yourself. This connects to health in certain ways, but when you live a peaceful life, you're gonna live a loving life. And the third one, once you have the first two, that's when you can truly do the third one, which is to live a life of service. The greatest reward is not in what we gain. It is what we're able to give to others. That doesn't mean you have to give money or donations or possessions to people, but if you can give them presence, if you can give them a sense of peace, if you can give them time, attention, if you can give them your love, your support, whatever it is that you can give, it's a beautiful thing. It's not about what we gain, it's about what we give to others that makes a difference. And I truly believe the greatest feeling of success is when you are able to give to another and improve the quality of their life. And that's something that we're trying to do here in the School of Greatness every single day, every single episode, is how can we support you? How can we help you improve the quality of your life? Because if we can improve our life and you can improve your life, then humanity as a whole is better. And imagine a world where everyone was thinking and acting and living this way. There would be a lot less chaos in families, a lot less chaos in relationships, a lot less individual chaos. There would be a lot less chaos in communities, cities, countries. There'd be a lot less war. There would be less domestic violence, less sexual abuse, less suffering in the world if we're able to live by these three truths in this definition of greatness. And now I wanna end this 2000th episode the way my interviews do as well. Because at the end of all the interviews, I ask those two questions, but I also acknowledge my guests. And for 2000 episodes, I've tried to see the person in front of me and tell them what they mean to me and our interaction and to the world. And today, instead of the guest being the person in front of me, the guest is you and the person is you. And everything that came to me over these 13, almost 14 years came through people, came through me interviewing people, asking them questions, following up with them, reading through the lines, reading their body language to try to gain some information to give to you to help you. And I've always called this show our show. So today, I want to have, I wanna give you the last word actually. And so if you can go in the comments, I've already asked you to come in a couple times But if you can go to the comments and tell me what this show has meant to you Maybe that episode that changed something for you that you really remember Maybe there was a quote from someone that you wrote down that you that you still think about daily Maybe you remember where you were when you saw an episode or saw something that got you through a challenging time I'd love to hear from you What your biggest takeaway was? And I want to thank you for being a part of this 2000th episode. I Can't wait for the next one and the next 1,000 to go and I want to acknowledge you for Showing up in your life for showing up today for being a part of this episode for caring enough to stick around at the very end to caring enough to show up consistently here and To care enough to lean into the messy stuff that we share here A lot of this stuff is not Light, it's not superficial. It's not You know on the surface I'd like to go a little deeper and I'm sure I can continue to go deeper as we go So I want to acknowledge you for showing up for doing your best to do the work For doing the best to reflect and be aware of your own life the mistakes you've made the shame the challenges that you've been through reflecting on them and Giving yourself permission to accept the past and improve who you are today For what matters in your life, whether that's your friends your family your kids your spouse your parents Whatever it might be for you. What matters to you the dreams that you want to bring towards your life as well I acknowledge you for showing up for being consistent for taking care of yourself for consuming information and content that is Empowering for your life and If no one has told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved You are worthy and you matter and I can't wait to see you in the next episode My friend I hope you're enjoying this episode right now because we are on a mission to impact a hundred million lives every single week And every follow here on this podcast helps us reach more people Make sure to hit the follow at the top of this show's page right now It's a single biggest thing that you can do to support the show and the impact of us reaching you every single time We have new episodes. I appreciate you and I can't wait to see you in the next episode 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 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 Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them. 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