To kickstart this fabulous first month of 2020, I would like to give you my thoughts on this month’s must-read book, “The School of Greatness” by Lewis Howes, that can really offer a new perspective into how you can unlock your inner greatness and exteriorize it and how to set goals and work towards them. It is essentially a guide that walks you through the main traits of successful people and how we can also develop those traits to reach our aim.
Lewis Howes is the host of the very popular podcast, “The School of Greatness” and up to date, he has over 800 episodes with very successful and inspiring individuals, such as Kobe Bryant and Jim Kwik, where there is always a lesson you can take away and implement into your life. In his book, “The School of Greatness: A real-world guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy” he highlights the 8 characteristics he noticed in successful individuals and provides us with clear and action-inducing exercises at the end of each chapter to take us closer to the person we want to become and cultivate the mindset of a champion.
So here we have them…the 8 characteristics that all successful people have according to Lewis Howes:
1. They can create a vision
Here Lewis gives us a sense of the importance of having a goal and visualizing it wherever you can. He says that “A clear vision can unleash extraordinary mind-boggling power”. He gives various examples of incredibly determined and successful individuals such as Angel Martinez, the founder of Deckers, and shares his wisdom on how we can visualize our goal in many aspects of our life
2. They turn adversity into advantage
In this part of the book, Lewis talks about himself and his challenges of becoming a professional athlete after facing several injuries, and how he harnessed that adversity into advantage. He further talks about how Kyle Maynard, a quadruple amputee, managed, despite all the adversity, to climb Mount Everest. These stories, all conclude to how we can learn from these greats and turn any adversity that we face into an advantage.
3. They cultivate a champion’s mindset
Here we have Lewis tell us how we can really step up from being just good at something to being fully in the zone, the headspace of the champion. This state is described as “flow” later in the book and it talks about how we can reach that state of flow and use it to our advantage to excel at whatever we want to achieve in life.
4. They develop hustle
The main lesson of this chapter is best summarized by this phrase said by Lewis “you have to be willing to do the work that others are unwilling to do if you want to succeed when starting from a position of disadvantage.” This is a really emotional chapter as we find out the Lewis’ older brother was a former inmate and throughout the chapter, it talks about how his brother stood up from that low moment of his life to become one of the best violin players in the world.
5. They master their body
Richard Branson’s best piece of advice comes in 8 letters: exercise. This idea is stated by Lewis when he says that when you look on the Forbes list of billionaires, “nowhere is the connection between physical health and business wealth more pronounced than with the current generation of entrepreneurs.” In this chapter, Lewis shares with us the opinion of Dr.Amen who says that “when your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain go down” and shows us through various simple and clear exercises how we can also master our body.
6. They practice positive habits
In this chapter, we get a truly different perspective of approaching greatness and we get a list of positive practices we can also practice in our daily life, one step at a time. Furthermore, it also touches on the advantages of making your bed in the morning and how that habit itself can influence your mood.
7. They know how to build a winning team
In this chapter, we learn about Scooter Braun, the man behind Justin Bieber’s career, and how he became such an icon in the music industry by knowing how to build a winning team. We learn about the importance of strong relationships and how we can improve our inner circle and make the most out of the time we spend with other people.
8. They live a life of service
Here, Lewis talks about Scooter’s brother, Adam Braun, and how he started a non-profit organization that helps to build schools for children around the world. It talks about how living a life of service can really positively impact your life, such as longevity.
You can always be of service, and most of the time you can make the difference. With what is happening in Australia now being one example, we can all right now start living a life of service one step at a time. Take the first step, help someone, perhaps you may want to help the animals and people in Australia affected by the fires because if there is one thing that we should always have in our hearts is the acknowledgment that we aren’t alone on this planet and we all need to unite for us to advance and move past any obstacle encountered.
So whether you want to become an elite athlete or become an entrepreneur or even a rock star, this book will surely give you a great foundation for your path to greatness and leaving a legacy!
hARTS magazine 