Howes: Hi, I'm Lewis Howes, New York Times best-selling author and entrepreneur.

And welcome to the "School of Greatness," where we interview the most influential minds and leaders in the world to inspire you to live your best life today.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr.

Price Pritchett, a psychologist, a best-selling author, and one of the leading experts on breakthrough performance and organizational change.

Today, he's here to teach you how to set a goal so big that it scares you, why failure is a feature of success rather than a sign to quit, and how to start engineering more luck into your life so you can go all in on your biggest dream.

Dr.

Pritchett: If you want to change your life, begin immediately.

Woman: Dr.

Price Pritchett is a renowned expert in fast growth and breakthrough strategies.

Man: He talks about this massive potential we all have in our subconscious.

Woman: Dr.

Price Pritchett.

Dr.

Pritchett: They think in terms of what will the world allow me?

And that really puts boundaries on it.

Howes: Yeah.

So let's dive in and let the class begin.

♪♪ What is one action today that people can take that can trigger them to unlock a breakthrough in their life tomorrow?

Dr.

Pritchett: I think the first thing is to decide on an aiming point.

Some epic goal that scares you.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Something that you really have fire in your heart about is your goal.

It's not somebody else's goal for you.

It's not a should goal or an ought to goal.

It's a my heart goal.

I think it was William James, father of American psychology, who said, "If you want to change your life, there are three rules.

Begin immediately."

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: "Do it flamboyantly.

No exceptions."

Howes: Why do you think so many people struggle with figuring out what their big dream or goals are and making that decision?

Why is it such a challenge for people?

Dr.

Pritchett: Well, a lot of people are fairly content with their life and that's fine.

I think everybody can make a quantum leap.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: I don't think everybody needs to.

Certainly not everybody wants to.

And then you've got people who want to, but they won't give themself permission.

Howes: They won't give themselves permission.

Dr.

Pritchett: Right.

They don't believe in their own potential.

And a lot of people are really risk-averse.

And there's just a lot of psychological dynamics that come into play when someone puts themself out there.

Howes: Yeah.

Dr.

Pritchett: It's kind of funny how people don't want to fail.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: They -- They can't take the punishment of failure.

If you start to make a quantum leap, you're triggering a new set of dynamics.

You're going to deal with a new set of problems.

And, really, it's funny how this idea of, well, I want to achieve big goals.

I want to "succeed," okay?

Well, luck kind of needs to come into the picture.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

I want to get into luck here in a minute.

But I'm curious first about what you think the biggest traps or mistakes that keep people from accomplishing their goals.

Dr.

Pritchett: They think too small.

Howes: Think too small.

Dr.

Pritchett: Most people carry their goals around in their head.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: And it's a little too vague.

It's not quite specific enough.

The simple act of writing down your goal, writing it down, getting it on paper or getting it on your laptop or whatever, that that alone increased your chances of success with that goal by 43%.

Howes: Come on.

Really?

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

Howes: Wow.

Dr.

Pritchett: It just somehow it makes it so much more real.

But I guess it's kind of like some people, if they just make a daily to-do list for themselves, they're more productive the next day.

Howes: But most of us don't write a goal list... Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

Howes: ...where we're gonna get through our goals or pursue our goals and then figure out what's the game plan and how are we gonna accomplish this.

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

Another mistake.

Howes: Yep.

Dr.

Pritchett: People look around and when they're trying to decide on what their goal is gonna be, they think in terms of what will the world allow me to do?

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: And the most simple example I love to give, and it proves that everybody's done this before, is when you went from crawling to walking.

Howes: Yeah.

Dr.

Pritchett: You failed again and again and again.

And people are afraid to fail.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Because failing feels like losing.

Howes: But here's the thing.

When we associate -- when people associate failure with losing, they're always going to feel defeated.

But you and I know that the only way to become successful is you must fail in order to succeed.

So how do we rewire our minds or reshape it, knowing that failure is part of the process of success, not -- and it doesn't equal failure being we are losers personally?

Dr.

Pritchett: I think part of it is just starting with this idea that failure belongs in the process.

If you're not failing, that's the biggest mistake of all.

Because you've stabilized, you've leveled off.

Howes: You're playing it safe.

Dr.

Pritchett: If you think of a continuum, okay, failure on one end, success on the other end, we think of them as polar opposites, right?

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Which you stop and think, "Are you telling me then, Lewis, that failure is a key dynamic in my ability to succeed?"

You would say, "Absolutely.

Absolutely."

And if you start toward a goal and you're not making some mistakes, then you've aimed too low.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: If you know how to do it, you're not staging a quantum leap for yourself.

Howes: So how does someone learn how to rewire their mind or reshape this philosophy that failure is the pathway to success?

And even though when you were a kid, more people encouraged you as an adult, you may not get the encouragement.

So how does someone learn how to feel empowered internally to support themselves when they're failing hundreds and thousands of times on their path from crawling to sprinting in their quantum leap goal?

Dr.

Pritchett: As much as you can, surround yourself with people who are gonna be supportive.

Howes: Yes.

Dr.

Pritchett: Because they're going to have a heavy influence on you.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: The other thing is just try to maintain an optimistic mindset across the board is huge.

Huge because performance begins inside the brain.

Always has.

Always will.

So it's being more mindful of where our mind is, what we're feeding into it.

You'll get a lot more mileage out of reducing, really cutting down on the negative thinking.

That is more beneficial to you than increasing positive thoughts.

Howes: When we're thinking negatively on a consistent daily basis.

Dr.

Pritchett: It can have long-term effects on the body.

You know, cortisol levels in the body go up and, first of all, it just depletes energy, usually.

It's a real energy and not just your energy, but it's depleting on other people's energy, too.

Attitudes are very contagious.

Howes: You have a quote.

I love this quote in your book, "Lucky You."

It says, "So let your deepest desire direct your aim.

Set your sights far above the reasonable target.

The power of purpose is profound only if you have a desire that stirs the heart."

And that's something you mentioned earlier in the conversation about really having something that, like, creates fire in your heart when you're thinking about a goal, not just something like, yeah, it'd be nice to have this thing or incremental growth, but, really, what is that thing that almost kind of scares you a little bit or maybe a lot?

And so I'm curious, what's one mindset shift that you think is holding people back from allowing themselves to believe in something greater and pursue that thing that really stirs their heart?

Dr.

Pritchett: Well, sometimes they feel it'd be selfish.

Howes: Really?

Why is it selfish to go after our big goals and dreams?

Dr.

Pritchett: Well, because quantum leap goals have a big appetite.

They want most of the food on your plate.

Howes: [ Laughs ] That's true.

Dr.

Pritchett: That means that other things fade into the shadows.

Howes: Yeah.

You got to let go of a lot of other things.

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

And I think a lot of people feel like I can't do that, that's all me.

That's just a selfish thing, that I don't need to do that.

I'm not sure I could pull it off anyway.

You know, all this stuff.

And so I mentioned earlier, giving yourself permission to do these big things.

It's kind of funny, when we would -- when I'm out there working with -- on a half-billion dollar merger, and I'm sitting with the top exec in the acquiring company, and they're mashing these two companies together, and it's difficult stuff, you know, and you got emotions running wild, political stuff churning.

Howes: Egos.

Dr.

Pritchett: Oh, yeah.

It's got everything.

And so much of the time, my job is giving him permission to do what he knows he needs to do.

It's saying, here I am.

I'm an expert on the outside.

We've done $350 billion worth of merger deals over the years.

And so I can say, "Lewis, you need to do this and you need to do it today.

Go."

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: And it's like, oh, thank you.

[ Laughs ] And they knew they needed to do it.

And so it's giving ourselves permission to do some of the things that -- that's where our heart lives.

And another reason that you need to have some real emotional you tied up in it is because you're gonna go through some dark moments.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: We talked about the failures, the setbacks, just the punishments that come your way in the process.

And so it's -- it's got to matter to you, but that's when life takes on real meaning and that's when you grow.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

You've got a graph that talks about what contributes most to career success.

Not a precise formula, but in this graph, it talks about luck being the number-one factor that contributes towards career success.

Dr.

Pritchett: We talked about the biggest success story in your life, or my life or anybody else's, it would be that moment of conception, your greatest success story ever.

So you had two parents.

You have a mother and a father.

Well, the mother, the maximum number of egg follicles that she will have in her life is supposedly between 6 and 8 million eggs.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Okay.

You were one of those gametes.

One out of 6 to 8 million.

Howes: Impressive.

The amount of sperm your father has.

Dr.

Pritchett: And the sperm is quadrillions.

Howes: Trillions.

Dr.

Pritchett: Quadrillions.

Howes: Trillions.

Quad-trillions.

Dr.

Pritchett: Quadrillions.

So you're that gamete -- gamete number two, we'll call this first gamete the wonder egg and we'll call this gamete number two the super sperm.

One out of quadrillions, okay?

Those odds are just absurd to begin with.

But then... Howes: Them coming together.

Dr.

Pritchett: ...the connection at that perfect timing.

I mean, you will never again be that lucky.

But there are things that we can do to engineer luck into our life.

It does not have to be, we shouldn't allow it to be just a random event.

Howes: You're saying that there is a -- a strategic or scientific way that we can influence more luck in our lives.

Is that right?

Dr.

Pritchett: Absolutely.

Howes: So how do we create more luck?

Dr.

Pritchett: First of all, we tell luck what we want.

Howes: We tell luck what we want.

Dr.

Pritchett: Tell luck what you're shooting for.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: When you set that goal, get it out of your head and down on paper.

Luck plays favorites.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Luck has a bias.

Luck prefers the optimists.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Why?

Because, first of all, they see luck's opportunities when he lays them in front of him.

And secondly, the optimist will take the chances.

Howes: That's true.

Dr.

Pritchett: And if your heart's not in it, back to that goal thing, luck doesn't get very interested, either.

It goes looking for someone that's fevered up, man.

Howes: It's excited.

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah, someone that is cranked.

And luck wants to see you working.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: If you're not doing anything, luck gets disinterested and goes to try to find somebody that's going to put some energy into this.

Howes: Yes.

Dr.

Pritchett: So tell luck what you want.

Believe in it.

Be positive.

You know, when luck comes before you, do something with it.

Third thing.

Most of your lucky breaks in life will come via people you know, somehow.

Maybe someone you just met or someone you hardly know.

In fact, a lot of times that happens.

Howes: The weak ties.

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

It wants to see you out in the world.

It's kind of like, don't go fishing in your bathtub.

You know, you're not -- You know, if you're trying to become a famous artist, but you won't -- you'll put a few of your paintings up on the walls of your garage and leave the door open.

Howes: Yeah.

It's not enough.

Dr.

Pritchett: No.

And so you need to be out there and you need to -- you need to be a new, fresh, different experiences.

And those things are big.

Then you need to give your mind time to speak to you, your deep mind.

You could call this giving yourself a meditative period every day.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Taking a long, slow walk, not trying to work on a -- a problem, just letting your mind -- But in our coaching and training stuff around you squared and the quantum leap strategy, we talk about the quantum leap ritual and it's just setting aside a chunk of time every day, probably at the same time of day, sit down, clear your mind, let the prefrontal cortex go offline, and let the theta and alpha waves start to play.

And this is where the deep mind, it kind of opens the door and it lets things seep up from your unconscious.

It's probably the closest to magic in terms of creating luck for yourself.

Howes: That's so good.

Dr.

Pritchett: One last one I could mention.

Bring luck to other people.

Howes: Mm!

Dr.

Pritchett: We live in a world of reciprocity.

You can call it karma.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: It's uplifting to you.

Just the act of giving.

Howes: Service, giving.

Dr.

Pritchett: It will -- It brings all of these positive chemicals alive in your body, the dopamine, the serotonin, the oxytocin, and, you know, all this kind of stuff.

And that makes you more willing to accept risks.

It makes you more optimistic.

Those chemicals are working at good things.

And so when you're giving to others, you're giving to yourself.

Howes: Yeah.

What is one way of thinking or one habit that creates bad luck for ourselves?

Dr.

Pritchett: Feeling that we're a victim.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Feeling sorry for ourselves.

Feeling helpless.

I am a huge, huge believer in personal accountability.

If something goes wrong in my world, the world is typically not inclined to bring me to fix that for me.

Howes: No.

People aren't gonna come rescue you.

They got their own problems.

Dr.

Pritchett: That's right.

Howes: When we give luck to another, what are we saying to God or to the world when we're constantly generating luck in others?

And I'm talking about how do we make sure we're not only a giver to people who are takers?

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

Howes: And not thinking, how can I also return the favor in the future?

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah, or giving it to get something back in return.

Don't think in terms of getting something back in return.

Don't -- Don't count on -- Don't even -- Don't even talk about it.

Don't expect to get praise for being a generous person.

Do -- Do some things anonymously.

And I think, and there's one other thing.

It's kind of kin to what you're asking, I think.

And it's this whole thing of gratitude.

Be grateful that you can give, that you're in a position to give, and everybody is in a position to give.

I don't care if it's a compliment.

I don't think it's -- I mean, I don't care if it's just giving someone a pat on the back, asking someone opinion and saying, "You know a lot about this.

Let me ask your opinion."

Well, that's kind of, you know.

That makes the other person feel good.

Howes: Yeah.

Dr.

Pritchett: But be -- be grateful for all the stuff.

Gratitude is a huge thing.

And you talk about getting the negativity out of your head, you know, reducing the negative thinking.

Gratitude is just, every day, stop -- when the situation -- you're bummed out about a situation, you're frustrated, you're feeling sorry for yourself, think, "What have I got to be grateful for here today around me, you know, in my world?"

Howes: Yes.

What is the quantum leap framework that you talk about?

Dr.

Pritchett: Well, a lot of people, one of the reasons they're unsuccessful with their goals is they don't really have a strategy or they try too many things, they're flailing about.

Usually, if you want it to go into a new area and it looks overwhelming, what do I need to learn?

What do I need to do?

Usually, there's a very small handful of things that have the big leverage.

And we have these.

First, you need a super clear, huge, important, lovable aiming point.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: Okay.

Something that is -- is going to stretch you and -- and -- and it's important to you.

So pick a very ambitious aiming point.

Second, practice relentless pursuit.

Be the crawler.

Stay at it.

Stay at it.

Take the failures as a coaching lesson.

Where's the lesson here?

Okay, adapt.

Go on.

Don't take yourself to the bench and sit the rest of your life out, wishing you'd done something.

Aiming point.

Relentless pursuit.

And then the mind work, and the mind work is -- do the necessary mind work.

What is that?

Well, that is disciplining your thinking like you would discipline your body or discipline your child or whatever, you know, you follow discipline the way you drive, for Pete's sake.

You stay between the lines, you know?

You don't run stop signs.

Okay, well, put a stop sign in your mind when the negative stuff comes in.

The other part of the mind work is the ritual, that daily opening your mind.

First of all, you read through your goal because that keeps the gold front of mind, and if it goes out of your mind, luck quits thinking about it, too, okay?

And during that kind of a ritual, like I said, that's when your intuition can -- is free to kind of surf this bubble up through your head.

And the fourth one, which sounds so simplistic and nobody does it, and it's the tracking.

Howes: Tracking.

Dr.

Pritchett: Track your results and measure progress.

When I go to the gym, that evening, I'll mark on my calendar.

If you're not tracking, you're hiding from the truth.

Howes: Mm!

Dr.

Pritchett: Because tracking is like a truth serum.

It says whether you're following the quantum leap ritual, whether you're following this whole you squared method of aiming point, pursuit, mind work, and tracking.

Howes: If you were like, I can only give myself three pieces of advice to use to create an incredible life for myself, what would that be for you?

Dr.

Pritchett: Take more risks.

Howes: Uh-huh.

Dr.

Pritchett: Believe in myself more.

Howes: Why believe in self more?

Dr.

Pritchett: We don't test ourselves.

If you don't take yourself to failure, you don't even know.

It's not just failure this first time.

It's, you know, you keep on and, you know, in working out, you know, if you're lifting weights, the saying is, the last few reps are the ones that count.

It's not the ones that come easy on the front end.

People need stretch in their life.

They need friction.

Howes: I think self-doubt is the killer of dreams.

I think when you have a big goal or big dream and you doubt yourself, you limit yourself from taking the action, building the energy, allowing for luck to come into your life.

You're just more insecure.

You're less willing to take the risk when you doubt yourself.

Ah, you're more, you know, on eggshells.

And I think learning to believe in yourself is one of the greatest tools that you can have.

And you don't need to be smart to develop that.

Dr.

Pritchett: I think we got to put ourselves out there and find the edge of our capacities.

Howes: Yes, yes.

Dr.

Pritchett: And learn that failure is an advantage, brings, you know -- failure is, it's not a bug in the system.

It is the system.

Howes: Yes.

Dr.

Pritchett: It's a feature.

You know, use it, man.

Howes: [ Chuckles ] Exactly.

Dr.

Pritchett: We don't test our limits.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: And so we never discover what's inside.

Howes: Yeah.

Dr.

Pritchett: We need purpose.

We need a sense of direction, goals, something -- I think goals are magnetic.

In fact, that's another thing that Alfred Adler said, the psychologist.

He said that goals are teleological.

They pull us toward them.

And he says -- I think it was George Land that said, your future does every bit as much or more to shape you than your past.

Howes: That is fascinating.

What is it?

What did he mean by your future does everything to shape you as much as your past does?

Dr.

Pritchett: Well, if you set a goal that means something to you, you really have -- your heart's invested in that thing, then it starts shaping your life.

Now we know that we've been shaped by our parents, our teachers, experiences in life, all of that kind of stuff, a huge shaping.

But what you're pursuing shapes you, too.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

Dr.

Pritchett: And big goals.

Like I said, you don't just achieve more, you become more.

Howes: That's true.

Mm.

So the smaller the goal we have, the less likely we're gonna become our greatest self, is what I'm hearing you say.

Dr.

Pritchett: Oh, yeah.

I think that's a very safe conclusion.

Howes: Interesting.

Dr.

Pritchett: And if luck accounts more for career success than any of these other factors -- Howes: Than talent and all these things.

Dr.

Pritchett: Yeah.

Then we should be courting luck.

Howes: A couple final questions for you.

I think I asked you this the last time, but I'm curious of your three truths.

If you had to distill all of your work into three lessons, what would those three truths be for you?

Dr.

Pritchett: You are the most powerful person in your life.

It's not your daddy.

It's not your boss.

It's not your mother.

It's not your best friend.

You are the most powerful person in your life.

And you have been for a long time.

Secondly, you have an amazing capacity for change.

Truly amazing capacity to change.

And third, you are the solution to your future.

Howes: Yeah.

Dr.

Pritchett: Own it.

Howes: Yeah.

That's beautiful.

And what's your definition of greatness?

Dr.

Pritchett: To look back at your life, I don't care if you're 35, 45, 65, whatever, and -- and say I put myself out there.

Howes: Mm.

Dr.

Pritchett: I put myself out there.

I didn't play it too safe.

I think we have to do that to be able to say I came anywhere within eyesight of greatness.

Howes: Mm-hmm.

If today's conversation moved you, there's so much more where that came from.

Make sure to scan the QR code on the screen, or visit greatness.com/tv to follow the "School of Greatness" podcast and sign up for our free newsletter.

And stay tuned for more episodes on the "School of Greatness" right here on public television.

Again, my name is Lewis Howes, and if no one has told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.

Now it's time to go out there and do something great.

♪♪ ♪♪