The School of Greatness
How To Start Your Day For Peak Mental & Physical Performance
Fri, 30 May 2025
Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Peak performance isn't built on talent alone - it's forged through relentless daily habits that most people aren't willing to embrace. I sat down with three absolute warriors who've cracked the code on human potential: Nick Bare, the former Army officer turned entrepreneur who built an empire through military-grade morning routines; David Goggins, the ultra-endurance legend who transformed from a 300-pound nobody into the world's toughest man; and Dr. Andrew Huberman, the Stanford neuroscientist revealing the biological secrets behind optimal performance and recovery. Each guest shared raw, unfiltered insights about the mental fortitude required to push past perceived limitations. Their stories prove that greatness isn't about where you start - it's about your willingness to do what others won't, day after day, until excellence becomes your identity.The Nick Bare PodcastDavid’s book Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the OddsDavid’s book Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War WithinPre-order Dr. Andrew Huberman’s book Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human BodyIn this episode you will learn:The three non-negotiable morning routine elements that separate high performers from everyone elseHow to build authentic confidence through facing your deepest fears and insecuritiesThe neuroscience behind sleep optimization and why your evening routine determines tomorrow's successWhy mental toughness isn't something you sample but something you must live in every single dayThe 40% rule and how most people leave massive potential untapped by avoiding discomfortFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1778For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Nick Bare – greatness.lnk.to/1387SCDavid Goggins – greatness.lnk.to/1660SCDr. Andrew Huberman – greatness.lnk.to/1455SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Chapter 1: What are the key components of a successful morning routine?
They don't let you just kind of relax in the mornings and just do what you want?
Unfortunately not. Yeah. When I got to Fort Hood in 2014, I was a infantry platoon leader, and I lived about 30 minutes away from Fort Hood. So I had to be at work by 6 a.m. So I'm waking up at 4.30 a.m. every morning, and I'm getting to work at 6 for a quick meeting. And then by 6.30, we're stretching out for morning PT, and we do that for an hour.
And that'd be from 6.30 to 7.30 or 6.30 to 8 a.m. And then I would eat my breakfast in my truck, shower change, be in the office by nine. That was my morning routine. And I lived that for four years. When I transitioned out of the Army. So that was ROTC, is that what that is? That was actual active duty military. Okay, but that was in the U.S. or in South Korea? That was in the U.S.
In the U.S., gotcha. Yeah, that's when I was stationed at Fort Hood. I was in South Korea for a nine-month rotation in 2016. Got it. Morning routine was very similar. When I transitioned out of the Army, there was never really the thought of, well, let's change this morning routine up, because it worked.
For me, it was proven successful that it allowed me to achieve a lot of things that I wanted to do throughout the day through backwards planning. Backwards planning and forward thinking. Now, my morning routine, I still wake up early, move my body and sweat, and search for solitude. Solitude for me it is a form of meditation and that's running. So I'll wake up every morning, 5 a.m.
And people ask the question all the time, like, well, if I'm not a morning person, how do I wake up at 5 a.m.? Sometimes you have to train the body. You got to become a morning person. Right. You wake up at 5 a.m. for 30, 60, 90 days. That just becomes routine. That becomes habit.
Well, also, if you're going to wake up at 5 a.m., you have to start sleeping earlier. So you are awake as opposed to exhausted at 5 a.m. So you probably don't go to bed at 2 a.m.
Right. No. I'm trying to get at least seven hours of sleep. Yeah, exactly. So I wake up at 5 a.m., and the first thing I do is I go out in the kitchen, I make my coffee, and I'll check my emails, I'll go through kind of things I have to do to prepare for business that day.
I check my schedule, and as soon as I'm done drinking my coffee, I lace up my shoes, throw on my shorts, throw on my hat, go out for my morning run. Right now, it's anywhere from five to seven miles, and for me, That morning, five to seven miles at a aerobic pace, it's below my max aerobic heart rate, I can really sink in.
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Chapter 2: How can I develop mental toughness?
So let's say someone isn't able to get their morning routine in or they weren't able to wake up early for whatever reason. Life happens. They plan for perfection, but life happens once in a while. How can they mentally stay in a focused, present mindset and not feel behind even when they miss their morning routine?
I think you have to detach yourself from the issue you're experiencing. Go big picture. So to kind of paint a picture of a story that kind of wraps that all up, I remember I was in Fort Benning, Georgia for training. This was 2014, probably. It was before I got to my unit in Fort Hood.
I was a brand new second lieutenant, and we were being mentored by the 75th Ranger Regiment for a few days in training. And these were all captains in the captain's career course. And I was talking to this one officer and I said, you know, sir, when I get to my unit, what's going to set me up for success? How do I become the best officer possible?
And he pointed across the room to this other officer. He said, you see that guy over there? When it's a fan, when chaos strikes, that guy is as cool as the other side of the pillow. Really? Because he detaches himself. He's not reactive. He's proactive. He has a plan, but he pulls back from 10,000 feet in the air, looks at all the moving pieces and then makes a plan.
So I think what happens with a lot of people and myself included, it used to happen a lot is something goes wrong. Your plan isn't working. Well, now you're in fight or flight. You're reactive. You're trying to just put things back in place. it's often better to just take a step back, take a deep breath, look at what's going on, and how do I deliberately make a plan to adjust and execute?
How does someone train to do that? When you've never done that before and you need to be in control and life feels out of control for these moments, how do you train and prepare to be that cool and calm like that officer was? I think it's awareness and then repetition. So
What's the things you guys did in the Army to train for that? I think it was just through mentorship. You always throughout training have... a non-commissioned officer who has years of experience or an officer who has years of experience. But when I got to my platoon in 2014 in Texas, I was an infantry platoon leader. I was the platoon leader of these 40 soldiers, non-commissioned officers.
I had the least amount of experience out of all of them. You were the leader. Exactly. New officer. My platoon sergeant had 18 years of experience in the Army with multiple combat deployments. But he was reporting to you. Technically. Wow. My squad leaders, my team leaders, they had multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, a lot of experience.
And then I had, you know, junior enlisted soldiers in the platoon, but... For me, I was being mentored by my platoon sergeant, my squad leaders, my team leaders. So the biggest piece of advice I got when I first arrived at that platoon was don't make any changes. This is not your platoon. Allow them to let you in. Just come in and observe.
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Chapter 3: What is the importance of solitude in a morning routine?
Having that awareness and then repetition, consistent repetition will help you get better.
Now, how long you been married? A little over two years now. Two years. Does your wife have a morning routine? And was it different before you guys had your child or after?
My wife has a morning routine. It was definitely different. It wasn't 5 a.m. wake up? It was never 5 a.m. wake up. But for her, it was always, we are routine people. It was wake up. She would go through her green supplement and then water and then coffee and then go work out and train. And both of us, we need to move our bodies to be sane. Having the baby has changed life pretty significantly.
But we've found ways to still implement our plan to achieve our routine throughout the day where we both have to adapt and make some changes. But It's difficult, it's challenging, but it's doable. Yeah.
Why do you think morning routines or creating your own routine that works for you is a common trait of successful people in general versus those that don't have a morning routine?
It goes back to, I'm a huge fan of what the military taught me about setting your, not day, but a mission, a week, a year, five years up for success, it's backwards planning. So it's okay, in this amount of time, for me to get from point A to point B, I now need to go backwards. What do I need to do at this time away and this time away?
How do I set myself up for success to get from point A to point B? So it's backwards planning while you're forward thinking. And anyone who has some sort of routine allows you to, execute and complete your non-negotiables while still achieving your day, your week, your month, your year plan.
And for me, that's why I believe it's, it's so important for myself, but a lot of other successful people, it's because if you don't have a routine, especially a morning routine, you're playing catch up. And especially if you have a lot of responsibilities and obligations, because for me, as soon as the day starts in the office at 8 a.m.,
I don't know what fire I'm fighting, but if I didn't do my three things early on, I don't know what I'm getting to, especially now having a child.
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Chapter 4: How do I stay focused when my routine is disrupted?
Because I've grown in every aspect of challenging and hard. I can't tell you...
one moment of my life where i've grown in easy and it drives my wife insane she's like take a break quite often but i know that when the pressure is there and it's challenging and it hurts and it brings stress and discomfort i know it's on the other side of that and the only reason i know it's on the other side of that is because i've gone through it so many times you know bootstrapping a business
is tough. I've gone through a decade of hurt and struggle and pain, but to see where it's put me, there's no way I'd be there now if it was easy and comfortable. And regardless, I want to work for what I achieve. You know, it's often choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. Mm-hmm. And wherever I get to, when I die one day, I wanna know, I've worked for this. I've earned this.
I'm curious, what was the hardest obstacle you had to overcome growing up?
So I had an eating disorder when I was younger. I was 13, 14 years old. To this day, I can't tell you what caused or created it.
Really?
I just remember I slowly wanted to restrict more food. I wanted to be able to feel more bones. Really? Over my skin. I wanted to be lighter. I wanted to see the scale decreasing. I wanted to be hungry. I wanted to be frail. I don't know why to this day. You wanted to be weak. I wanted to be weak. How old were you? 13, 14 years old.
And I mean, it started getting pretty severe to the point where my parents were taking me to the hospital on a regular basis and they were running tests. I was in and out of the hospital. They diagnosed me with all these different things multiple times. I internally knew I was starving myself. So what did they diagnose you as and what were you telling people?
At one point they thought I had a parasite and a worm from Mexico, from a vacation. They thought I had celiac disease, so they had me eating no gluten for a period of time. And one of the last tests they did on my body was they put me under and they put a tube down my throat to look into my stomach. And what they realized was the food from the day before was still sitting in my stomach.
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Chapter 5: What role does physical activity play in peak performance?
The clinics and the emergency room section. But this last trip we ever took, we pulled into the Hershey Medical Center. And instead of turning left, we turned right on this one day. And it was the outpatient clinic. And we pulled into this building. And on the building, it read eating disorder clinic. And at that moment, I knew it was like, I'm caught.
Ooh, because they did everything else, and they're like, oh, he doesn't have this stuff. He's doing it himself. Yep. How long did that take? A year, six months? It was probably a year.
Really?
It was a year. So you were essentially lying. You knew the whole time, but you were doing all these tests, but you just didn't want to say, I'm doing this intentionally.
Right. Wow. So I remember that day where we walk up and I can picture it like it was yesterday. We walk up these set of stairs into this outpatient clinic and I sit down with this doctor and he literally just confronts me right away. We know what you've been doing. We know you've been starving yourself. Wow. And I broke down just crying. And I turned to my mom and said, I'm done.
I'll fix it right now. I was that embarrassed that I didn't want to be in that room. I didn't want to come back to this place. I'll make a conscious effort to get better. We wrapped up this session and we went home. And I remember opening up the pantry thinking I need to start eating again. And I grabbed this box of Pop-Tarts. And I pull out a package and there's two Pop-Tarts per package.
And I turn it around and it says 400 calories in two Pop-Tarts. And I'm thinking, this is probably more than I've been consuming in a day. For most days. And I ate these two Pop-Tarts, which was, at the time, relatively one of the most challenging things I've ever done. And I had a very, you know, I started eating and putting weight on after that moment.
To say it was like a switch flipped, it wasn't that by any means. For years, I had unhealthy relationships with food. That slowly got better. That's what made me want to study nutrition in college. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to know more. But that, for me, was a pivotal point in my life. It was very long ago, but... I still can remember a lot of those moments like they were yesterday.
But it was, I think, fundamental and a foundation for who I am today and what I'm interested in, what I'm passionate about, possibly a reason I want to and enjoy helping others, especially in health, fitness, nutrition. But that was challenging for me when I was younger, for years.
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Chapter 6: How can overcoming insecurities lead to personal growth?
I thought it was cars. I thought it was women. I thought it was money. I thought it was everything. The one piece I was missing was me having the courage to face myself. And once you do that on a daily basis, it's not about the running. People are going to be, you have to start working out. Where I got my work ethic from, was the hours I had to spend learning this.
When you sit down and you're not smart, and you have a disability, and you still wanna be at the top of your class, I didn't wanna just get by. When I realized that I can learn through hard work, and I can beat the valedictorian in school, but I got put in 10 hours more a day than he does. You know what kind of strength comes from that?
When you're sitting down, that guy, that valedictorian study for an hour, and you know, I caught you. I caught you. And I am dumb. But I have the work ethic to catch you. That's where David Goggins got really invented. Was at a kitchen table with 20 spiral notebooks that were empty. And then three months later, they were full. And when you can go through that, I still have them in my storage unit.
You go through these spiral notebooks of your life and you realize this is how I learned. This is unbelievable. There's no miles. It's not about the miles. It's that, having a discipline every day to say, for me to learn this one math problem, it's gonna take me 10 hours. And that's where, and you realize through hard work, you can outwork anybody, no matter how bad they are.
but that's the part people don't wanna dive into.
Yeah. When someone's lacking confidence in themselves, what's the answer you would give them if they're like, how do I gain more confidence?
It starts with yourself, man. You gotta start diving into those things that you are afraid of. You don't gain confidence by going to the spot that makes you feel good. It's gonna be a false reality. And the second life gives you that challenge, all you wanna do is go back to what made you confidence or what gave you confidence. It's that happy spot.
No, what gives you confidence, what gave me confidence was spending years at a kitchen table trying to learn how to read and write on my own, realizing I can't learn the way you learn. I can't. But I can learn. What gives you confidence, not being afraid, is overcoming the fear. I used to stutter severely bad. So right now, I don't know how many people are gonna watch this.
You know what gives me confidence? Is knowing I no longer care if I sit here and start stuttering to you. That's what gives me confidence, is facing these things, overcoming them. And maybe not overcoming them every day, but facing them, and facing them, and facing them. Pretty soon like this, you know what man, this is where it's at. It's not in that comfort zone.
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Chapter 7: What is the 40% rule and how does it apply to potential?
We need to lock things down, make sure everything's in its place because we are very vulnerable in sleep. Mm-hmm. Nowadays, this might manifest as, you know, you need to go to bed at 1030 because you have to get up at six, et cetera. And then right around 830 or nine, you start finding yourself running around doing various things.
Many people worry about that and they think, oh, I'm really stressed because I actually need to go to sleep. And here I am wide awake. It tends to subside very quickly. So just the knowledge that that's a normal, healthy spike in alertness and activity, I think can help a number of people. I want to make sure I mentioned that. Yeah.
The other thing is preparing the mind, as you said, turning thoughts off. Turning thoughts off is a skill. We've talked before, gosh, almost a year or more now ago about Yoga Nidra. Yes. Which is there are many, many Yoga Nidra scripts available on YouTube free of cost. The ones I particularly like are the ones by Kamini Desai, K-A-M-I-N-I-D-R-A. M-I-N-I-D-E-S-A-I. Kamini Desai.
I just really like her voice. I don't know Kamini, never met her. These are free scripts. They're yoga nidra scripts that last about 20 minutes. They involve some breathing, some meditation type stuff. But they teach you to turn your thoughts off, which is really wonderful. Because a lot of people, they just get stuck in this rumination. Now, is there an ideal protocol prior to sleep?
It depends because some people find they have their greatest clarity after the kids are asleep and they're sitting there. So I wouldn't say don't work or do work. You know, you do want to avoid strong stimuli before sleep. So do you really want to watch, you know, a politically charged or violent movie right before sleep? Well, that depends on how triggered you tend to be by politics or violence.
Some people aren't triggered. Other people are. But You know, that aside, you don't want to go to bed either too hungry or too full because that can inhibit your sleep. So for most people, that's going to be finishing your last bite of food about two hours before bedtime. But I confess there are days when...
I work, work, work, and arrive at a place, a hotel, order some food, and just eat a massive meal and then pass out. Again, 80-20. Try and get it right 80% of the time. What's harmful of being too hungry or being too full before you go to bed? You'll have trouble falling asleep and you'll wake up in the middle of the night. Both extremes. Both extremes.
And I'm not a nutritionist or nutrition expert, but what I've found works for me personally is I fast until about noon-ish. Mm-hmm. Each day, and then my lunch is low carb, so I tend to eat some grass-fed meat, some veggies, maybe some starches if I trained, and a piece of fruit. If I didn't, I don't.
And then I also have an afternoon snack, but then in the evening, my meals tend to be relatively low in meat and protein, and higher in starches, which activate the tryptophan system and the serotonin system, which makes it easier to fall asleep. You can repack glycogen during the night, so you can do muscular work the next day. Training of any kind, but also thinking. Your brain uses glucose.
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Chapter 8: How do experiences shape our understanding of success?
Relax. Okay. And what about... working out and sleep. So you work out in the morning, afternoon, night. How does that affect the sleep when you work out and how you work out?
Yeah, well, I want to be fair to the fact that people have different schedules and different constraints and that work, you know, getting that 150 to 180 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week is essential. People should be doing some resistance training regardless of goals or in order to maintain muscle because it's so important to avoid injury and maintain metabolism, etc.
So you need to get it in somehow. But you then have to ask yourself what's happening around that workout. So are you going into a brightly lit gym at 11 o'clock at night? In blasting music and are you drinking three espresso energy drink before you go? You're going to be awake. You're going to have a hard time going to sleep. It's not just the workout. It's the context around the work. Yes.
My preference is always to work out as early in the day as possible. That's my preference. I don't always accomplish that. People should also know that if you work out at the same time for three or four days, your body builds in an anticipatory circuit. You will feel an energy increase a few minutes before that workout. So if you are working out at 10 p.m.
at night and you're finding it hard to go to sleep, if you can shift that workout earlier in the day, you will soon become a morning person. It might not be as natural as somebody who naturally wakes up at 4.30 or five in the morning, But let's say you want to get on an earlier schedule. You want to get that morning light, but also force yourself to work out in the morning.
And then by the second or third day of doing that, you will start to feel more alert as you arrive to the workout because there are these anticipatory circuits. That's cool. Working out late at night, some people say cardio, okay, but not weight. Some people say, I think it's highly individual. And I don't think there's ever been a really good study addressing that. Regularity is key.
I think for me, the best times to work out are three hours after waking up, 11 hours after waking up, just based on body temperature rhythms, or immediately, like get up and just put the shoes on and just go. And I don't tend to do that last thing very often these days.
I tend to wake up and move through the morning a little bit like a lazy bear in the sunlight and then you wait for my caffeine caffeine. But every time I do that early morning workout, I feel much better and more alert all day. You fall asleep probably easily. And I fall asleep much more easily. And there are The other thing you can do to fall asleep is this might seem a little counterintuitive.
I said that you need to lower your body temperature by one to three degrees. You can take a hot shower or do a sauna, which you would think, well, it heats you up. But when you actually heat the surface of the body, your brain cools off your core body temperature. unless you stay in that heat for a very long time. So you take a brief, I don't wanna say how long people should shower.
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