While there are tons of successful people in the world, the self-made, comeback stories are the ones that tend to be the most compelling. Stories like Tony Robbins, Sylvester Stallone, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Arnold Schwarzenegger. A newer version of this story is Lewis Howes — a top 100 Podcaster, best-selling author, and ex-professional football player.

Here are four lessons I learned from Lewis Howe’s first book “The School of Greatness.”

1. Create & Align Your Life With Your Vision

As a kid, Lewis was 100% committed to his vision to become a professional football player. After years of hard work, he finally achieved that vision. But it was short lived as a freak injury ended his career suddenly and left him feeling lost on his future.

As he found out, when you have no vision you will lack identity. A vision is something that defines you, it’s not simply a goal you can achieve. Your vision needs to be specific and makes you jump out bed on both good and bad days. It should inspire, motivate, and make you become a better version of yourself.

“A powerful vision emerges when we couple our dreams with a set of clear goals.” — Lewis Howes

Creating a vision takes time but once created it can help you transform your life. To start crafting your vision, spend time thinking about big picture life goals and desires.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What do I want to create in my life?
• What type of legacy to do I want to leave?
• Where do I want to live in my lifetime?
• Where do I want to travel? What experiences do I want to make?

Another great way to help create your vision is to constantly invest in yourself. Whether you are reading books, listening to podcasts or walking on fire at a Tony Robbins seminar, it all will help you understand what you want in life. Once you create your vision it will be easy to make decisions as anything you do will either move you closer or further from it.

2. Develop a Winning Mindset

As an ex-professional football player and current professional handball player, Lewis has some great sports references in the School of Greatness. One of the big lessons is taken from the elite athletes; ones like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, and Michael Phelps. For everyday people, these athletes look like they are living in a different world and in some way they are. Top athletes in any sport are clear about what they want to achieve. They have fully committed their vision.

This is the mindset you have to create to achieve your goals and make your vision a reality. It doesn’t just come to you, it takes a lot of work. These athletes didn’t get to the top of their sport by doing the minimum amount of work. They are the first to practice, last to leave, and thinking about their goals 24/7. This is how you need to feel and think about your goals. Your goals should be top of mind all the time. Whether you are writing your goals in a journal daily, visualizing your goals as complete or constantly talking about your goals.

All of this work will pay off, not always monetarily but almost always in the form of belief. Once you begin to cultivate a winning mindset you will instill a belief in yourself that is unwavering. If you believe you can accomplish your goals then you will. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t you are right.”

Check out these epic quotes from Lewis Howes!

3. Write in a Journal Daily

Lewis a huge fan of writing in a journal on a daily basis and can help you design a successful life. Start this daily habit by spending time each morning writing in a journal. It doesn’t need to be legible or read by anyone else but it should be focused toward creating your future. Start by putting yourself in a peak state by focusing on your accomplishments and three things you are grateful for in your life already.

Journal writing is important in the morning because while you slept, your subconscious mind did not. Instead, your mind was trying to find answers to the problems you are currently facing. This is why you might wake up with an answer to your biggest problem, have vivid dreams or have an “aha” moment showing in the morning. By writing in your journal you can capture some of these ideas and take action.

Write your top three goals down that you are trying to achieve in your life every single day — burn them into your memory! When you verbalize and write down these thoughts you will become more aware of your thoughts and understand what you are trying to create on a daily basis.

The majority of time journaling is in the morning but I’ve taken Lewis’ advice to spend 5 minutes writing before going to sleep. Here’s how:

• Write down all the things you reacted to or failed at during the day. Were you rude to someone at work? Did you get angry when someone cut you off in traffic?
• Write down all your wins for the day!
• Ask yourself the hardest questions you are trying to solve so your subconscious mind can get to work on them while you get to sleep.

Journaling will also allow you spot patterns, solve problems, gain clarity, and keep you aligned with your vision.

4. Always Give Back

As Lewis achieved more success he soon began to realize that personal achievement is important but giving back and helping others is even more important. He has helped build schools with Pencils for Promise and loves how impactful his podcast is to the millions of listeners.

“Slowly but surely, moments happened where I witnessed and started to understand the value of giving back and being in service to others. This may be my most important lesson to date.” – Lewis Howes

When you climb the ladder for success don’t forget to look back and help bring someone else up. Giving back could come in many forms — donating money, time or creating a business that helps others. Find a cause you love and find a way to give others more opportunities.

As Lewis ended his book, “Greatness is a voluntary degree. Its study is self-administered. That means it’s all on you. And you get out of life what you put into it.”

What did you think of his book? Comment below!