The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy
Lewis Howes, 2015
This book is simply fantastic! Lewis Howes provides not only information about leadership, he gives the reader practical exercises to help us develop our leadership skills. Each chapter in the book provides a focus on a specific area:
- Create a Vision
- Turn adversity into Advantage
- Cultivate a champions mindset
- develop Hussle
- Master Your Body
- Practice Positive Habits
- Build a Winning Team
- Live a Life of service
All of these areas have been touched upon in other leadership books so nothing necessarily new here. Except that Lewis explains things in a very practical way and gives such easy to follow and useful exercises that there is really no reason for a person to not become “great”. Here are my favorites from the book:
1. Certificate of Achievement (COA)
A COA is a declaration of your vision with an end date. Your COA can be short-term like six months, or long-term like five years. Regardless of the timeframe, it needs to be something that will challenge you to complete but is still possible. Putting it in writing makes it real and makes you accountable.
2. Personal Statement Plan (PSP)
This is the map to your COA. Start by writing down the answers to the following questions:
- Name and Date
- Who am I?
- What do I stand for?
- What is my vision for myself, my family and the world?
- Now write out the top three goals you want to achieve over the next six to twelve months in the following categories; family, relationships, business, money, health, recreation, spirituality, and inner growth.
- Below each goal write a detailed action plan on how you will reach the goal.
3. Visualization
Visualization is the ability to see the results you want to create before they happen. If you can see yourself in the place of your end goal, your mind will allow the reality to happen.
4. What if Synarios
Think about your vision and your goals. Now write down all of the things that you worry about or could go wrong. Let the fear come out. Next, redirect the negative statements to what possibilities could come from each of the possible problems. For example, what if I don’t get any work for a month? This can be turned around to this gives me the opportunity to take a well-deserved vacation and spend more time with my kids. It can also give me more time to work on the details of my business and get the niggly little things in order that often get pushed aside.
These are only a few exercises in the book that I really like and found helpful in my own journey. I recommend picking up a copy of the book and reading it through a few times as you practice the exercises.
Happy reading!
Di