Eric Thomas delivers unbelievable wisdom and great advice in this powerful interview with Lewis Howes from The School of Greatness Podcast. What is your biggest take away?

Eric Thomas Rules For Success:

Eric Thomas’ 5 Rules For Success Motivational Speech:

1. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. USE THEM WISELY!
2. Rise early and beat them to the spot!
3. If you say you’re going to do it: DO IT!
4. Model the successful.
5. You can always be better!

Transcript, Best Parts – Eric Thomas Speech:

1. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. USE THEM WISELY!

You should be grinding for grinding’s sake. You should grind because that’s what you do. You’re passionate about what you do. So you’re waking up every day with this concept of

“I have 24 hours and they’re mine. These 24 hours belong to me and whatever I do in these 24 hours will determine where I’ll be tomorrow and the next day.”

And I think that’s what people need to focus on. Like, get off of this “I wanna make 6 figures”… “I wanna drive this car”… “I wanna live in this house”

I think what people should be focusing on is: I have 24 hours. Like, Oprah only has 24, Bill Gates only has 24, Warren Buffett only has 24 hours and in that 24 hour period I can either break my life, or make my life.

And I’m not saying you shouldn’t have goals. I just think that goals for people is too high on the priority list. And I think what should be on the priority list is going to bed so you can wake up the next day and you can grind it out.

I’m just a dude that believes that you reap what you sow. So if you’re grinding on Monday, grinding on Tuesday, grinding on Wednesday, if you’re grinding 6-7 days a week, for a span of 5 or 6 years, something’s gotta come out of that.

But if you’re only grinding… you know on Monday you’re fired up… Wednesday, you’re back to sleeping in… Thursday you got the funk of the world…

I think if we would spend more time on: “What’s my goal”

Meaning: What do I need to accomplish in this day… to live this lifestyle? and you go after it then I think more people would be successful.

2. Rise early and beat them to the spot!

So I go to bed consistently early. I wake up early. Now, this is why I wake up. Now if you’re listening to me and you’re an entrepreneur you have to hear this.

There are people who graduated Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude… I didn’t. There are people who were born into wealth. There are people who were born into a certain network. I wasn’t.

But here’s the trick:

Even though I don’t have what they have,
I can outwork you.

So if I am getting up at 3 in the morning and as sweet as you are: networks, parents, wealth, opportunities and you’re getting up at 8 I’ve got a 5 hour jumpstart.

I don’t care who you are, if we’re travelling to the same city and I get up 5 hrs before you: I’m going to get there before you get there.

So my trick is, I get up at 3 in the morning because I didn’t know who my biological father was. It took me 12 years to get a degree.So what I’m trying to explain to people is my ritual is: I’m gonna beat you to the spot. I’m gonna beat you to the spot! That’s what it’s all about.

3. If you say you’re going to do it: DO IT!

Innovation is rewarded, execution is worshipped.

Your money changes when you execute. I realized I didn’t have a right concept of success.

Now I understand success is accomplishing what you say you’re going to accomplish. It’s getting done what you said you’re gonna get done.

And lets be honest: If you were to sit back and do a percentage on what you said you were going to do, in a timespan, how would you grade yourself?

If you say 70%, you’re a C. If you say 80%, you’re a B. 90%, you’re an A. 100% (You’re top of the class) So if you can execute every single time…

So as I begin to look at my life, if I say I’m going to work out 21 days in a row and nobody knows about it… Nobody knows I’m going to work out for 21 days,I can kinda sneak away with I’ll do 30, I cheat here, cheat there. But when I call somebody and say: “Hey! I’m going to work out for 21 days and I need you to hold me accountable.”, a part of my working out has absolutely nothing to do with working out. It has absolutely nothing to do with my health. It has absolutely nothing to do with with me caring about my body. It has everything to do with “I told you I was going to do it. and I don’t want you to call me and ask me did I do it and I’d have to tell you I didn’t do it.”

So I realize that every man is where he is because when he says he’s going to do something, not only does he do it, but he does it in a certain timeframe and with a certain quality.

I always think about if I don’t execute how is that going to hurt my family?

So I’m going to say I guarantee you this year could be the best you year of your life if you execute more. I’m not saying you’re not executing. But I’m telling you if you to execute 100% of the time you probably had another comma to your income, another zero to your income. Just by executing, executing within a timeframe you said you’re going to do it, and executing with excellence.

Just do those three things and I guarantee you’re going to go to a whole ‘nother level.

4. Model the successful.

I gotta believe that millionaires do certain things. I gotta believe they have a certain habit. I gotta believe they sleep so many hours. I gotta believe they know their craft. I gotta believe they’re passionate.

So when I take my goal instead of looking at my goal and asking how much money can I make I gotta ask myself what from 8 to 9 what should I be doing, from 9 to 10 what should I be doing, from 10 to 10:15 what should I be doing, thats why I wake up every morning at 3 because for me it’s ok.

Monday do this. Tuesday do this. Wednesday do that. And if do those things, I’m guaranteed to be successful.

5. You can always be better.

Greatness is about making things better Greatness is about getting better.

You know when we were kids Granny used to say:

“Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.”

So for me greatness is about… Nobody knows what I’m capable of. But I know what I’m capable of. Getting better every single day. Never settling.

Never saying “I got a PHD, so I’m finished.”… “I got a few videos that went viral, I’m doing good.”… “I wrote 3 books.”

Eric, you know at the end of the day when you lay your head down to sleep, you KNOW when you’ve given your best. You KNOW when you’ve gotten better. And greatness is challenging the today you and the FUTURE you saying you can get better.

I got average skill, but I got phenomenal will.

I had to really ask myself what do I want to do with the rest of my life. All of us are born with a gift but you gotta hone it.

It’s just not.. You’re not gonna become great. Greatness is upon you. I realized that my gift wasn’t going to create itself. My gift wasn’t going to nurture itself. My gift wasn’t going to perfect itself, that was something that I had to do.

GO ALL IN.

And let me say this to my entrepreneurs: I have a ritual where even with my closest friends… I have boundaries.

So just because it’s my company, it doesn’t mean I can take calls all day. I have boundaries. So you can’t call me at a certain time. Why? I’m working. So if I’m on the phone all day… and I’m saying this to entrepreneurs… you gotta find the gaps. And one of the gaps for entrepreneurs is that they feel like because they own their day they can spend it like they want to. You can not spend it like you want to.

So if you are working for IBM or working for Ford, whoever you’re working for you couldn’t be on the phone all day at a major corporation talking on the phone. So why do you allow yourself to talk on the phone
when it’s your business? You should probably… You should make sure there’s no phone calls going on.

One of my rituals is when I get started there are no interruptions.

When I get started, I don’t care if it’s my wife, my children, they know that for a certain timeframe I’m going all in. And I can’t go all in answering the phone. And I can’t go all in watching tv. And I can’t go all in with the distractions.

Some entrepreneurs ask why am I not blowing up. You’re not in abstraction. You don’t have that moment of your day… I don’t care if it’s 2 hours, 4 hours where you shut the entire world out.

No twitter. No facebook. No instagram. No instagram!

So just for 2 hours I’m going in. And once I come out, then we can do instagram. And I’ll be honest your content probably will be stronger if you have that time of isolation,
of solitude, where you give yourself a chance to think. You give yourself a chance to go in. And when you go in you go 120%.

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Watch the full interview here: