725 How to Transform Your Life with Shaun T
28 Nov 2018 · 16 min
Lewis Howes interviews fitness trainer and motivational speaker Shaun T about personal transformation and overcoming adversity. They discuss commitment, mental health, and healing from trauma, with audience members asking questions about storytelling and balance.
Chapters
This is episode number 725 with inspirational icon Sean T. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Colin Powell said, a dream doesn't become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination, and hard work. And that's what our friend Sean T is all about. Some of you may know him as a motivational speaker, fitness trainer, fitness motivator, businessman, and TV personality. He is best known for his home fitness programs for adults and kids, which include T25, Hip Hop Abs, and Insanity, and so many more incredible programs through personal appearances, his workout programs, and the Transformational Academy, his podcast, Trust and Believe with Shaun T, and his book, T Is for Transformation. He is focused on affecting positive lifestyle changes in people around the world, and proving that becoming the best version of yourself is attainable. And he's all about hard work, dedication, determination, and being committed to yourself. And sometimes we say we're committed to ourselves. We might even be committed to ourselves for a little while, but very few of us are consistently committed to ourselves. And in this interview, we talk about how to see the greatest version of yourself, and be committed and consistent in the daily process. I'm telling you, it is not easy. I love to sleep in. I love to not work out. I love to eat sugar and candy and cakes and brownies all day long if I could. I could drink milkshakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm telling you, I love all these things, but I wouldn't be able to achieve what I have and what I'm going to achieve in my health, in my relationships, in my life, in my business, without the consistency, the commitment, and the dedication. And that's what this is all about. In this interview, we talk about how to develop your belief system, because that's really at the core of these things. Why we make poor decisions stems from our belief system. We talk about believing in the process and how to really be aware of the fear that we feel every single day and address it and overcome it. We talk about how to implement the big three C's, which is commitment, climb and conquer, because most of us can do some of it, but it's hard to really overcome all of it. We talk about breaking down your superpower. Do you know what your superpower is? If you don't, you're gonna wanna listen to find out and how authenticity is required for being creative. This was actually from In interview we did on the Summit of Greatness stage in Columbus, Ohio recently, and he just blew the roof off of people who were there, 1500 people from around the world flew in for Summit of Greatness. You can get your ticket for next year, summitofgreatness.com as well for the early bird general admission rates. Go check it out if you want to come next year. But this was from that interview and man, did he blow the socks off of people. So make sure to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com/7 2-5. And as always, tag me @LouisHowes on your Instagram stories while you listen. And make sure to tag Sean T @SeanT while you're listening to this as well on your Instagram story. And let him know what you enjoyed about this most. All right, guys, it's all about how to transform yourself. And I'm excited about this as we're going into the holiday season even more. Transformation is something we're all reflecting on. and what better to bring you than the one and only Sean T. What's your name? What are you grateful for? And your question?
My name is Skye. I'm from Boston, but I live in Los Angeles. I'm grateful for my family and grateful to be here. I'm a video creator, storyteller, producer, and I make videos about health and wellness to inspire others to live their healthiest, happiest lives. So I'd like to ask you what stories need to be told. to impact society, inspire and elevate society to live our most vibrant, healthiest, happiest lives.
What stories, as in your personal stories or what stories in general?
No, what stories in general. What do people need to hear?
So, you know, I always say through struggle comes strength. And, you know, I talk about a secret backpack. In my book, I talk about the secret backpack. No matter what you've been through, if you're here today and you're breathing and you're living today, you can actually reach in your secret backpack because there is a tool that you've gained and you've earned in order to progress forward. And if you were to go through something again, you're like, hey, I kind of been through that, so I can reach in my secret backpack and utilize it. So my challenge to you is tell stories where people have challenges, but don't just show like, oh my gosh, they overcame. What did they learn from this? What is the superpower that they got from it? And more importantly, what is the tool that they have and what tools are they using? I would love to see a video where you literally do some sort of graphic of a tool, like of these people utilizing this power, because we are inspired a lot by video of people overcoming obstacles. But what is that one thing? What is that one thing? And I think society needs to see the, you know, I say truth, trust, and transparency, full transparency. And I'll say this, when I wrote my book, when I talk about my sexual abuse in my book, there are some people who read the galley and they were like, oh my gosh, that's too much. And I'm like, great. I'm like, because there are a lot of people out there who've been sexually abused or raped, and they're so quiet because they're afraid to tell their story. And I'm like, I'm telling a story, and I'm telling a story in such graphic detail. We a lot of times tell a story for the surface for people to get, we want to get a rise, but how deep can you go? Like, how deep can you go for the people who are silent and they are stifled by silence? Like, what kind of stories can you say to give people strength to say, you know what? I need to utilize that tool, and I want to say something, and I.
Need to go deep. I think also listening, I think that's great. Thank you for sharing that. I think also really listening to what people are saying is their biggest pain. Whatever they say, the biggest pain is whether it's your friend, your close friends, whether you just are seeing these conversations on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram and people talk about the same pain over and over again, that's the video you should make that speaks to the pain. I think because that's the one that people are gonna resonate with the most. It's gonna help them the most and it's probably gonna be reach farther than just some generic video. So speak to the pain.
Thank you so much. And good luck, Scotty.
Where's the mic at? Name what you're grateful for and quick question.
All right. My name is Matt Conti from Yorktown, Virginia. Grateful for you, Louis, but Sean, like, I can't even say how much you've changed my life. Sound instructor. I've been for about five years.
Thank you. So.
Like, I feel like I've hit my high, like you're talking about when I was an instructor teaching five classes a week. But then I went down. What do you do to prepare yourself on the way down for that low? So it's to turn it back up.
Yeah, I can tell there's a little bit of pain. And while I can't obviously interview you, it's like, how do you go back up? And I was saying, like, when you-- I was talking about the secret backpack before. A lot of people forget about what they did before, you know? Number one, you have to look at what you did before to get to that highest point where you are. But then you also have to combine it with who you've enhanced yourself into as a person. Because I don't believe people change. I just believe they enhance who they are. And so there's the you that's back there that you're grabbing a baton from, but who are you now? Like you have to connect to who you are right now and what are your needs and your wants right now? And that's going to give you the power to push back up. You might, I don't know, but you might be in a different relationship. You might have kids, you might have moved a job or a house. And so all of these things that surround you are changing your roadmap to success, but you have to then go back and be your own GPS.
Snap. Cool.
Hi, my name is Penelope. I'm from Berkeley, California, and I apologize for taking a chance at a second question, but in Lewis's documentary, he talked about hiding all of these things he was feeling inside and they were being exposed through the different mannerisms and behaviors. And he talked about when he opened up about being sexually abused, that was the first time where he was able to tap into his potential. and you talked about being sexually abused every single night when you were eight years old. At what point did you start opening up to people about that? And then how can you inspire all the people in this room to stop hiding the things that they're uncomfortable with and talk about it so that they can reach their potential?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. So the first time I opened up about it was in therapy. I actually told my mom, How old were you? When I was 21 years old, I told my mother. But it wasn't much of a help because it was more emotional. And then so I started going to therapy. The first time I went to therapy and I was like, oh, this is gonna work. But it didn't. And then, okay, here comes a little emotional. Okay. So then I met Scott. My husband, Scott, right? And so I was the happiest I had ever been in my entire, I was so happy. I was like in love. But at 2 o'clock every night, I would start a fight with him. I would start a fight with him. I would like leave, this is in my 30s. I would leave the room and he would be like so confused. Like I would literally wake up mad. And I would take him on this like horrific journey at 2 o'clock in the morning. often. And then I was like, I need to go back to therapy again. I'm like, I don't know what's happening. And so I would go to therapy every day. And then it was this one afternoon where I had to call my therapist. Like, I was so distraught that I couldn't even make it to her office. And she was like, you know, what's going on? I had never really talked about that before. And I was telling her what was happening. And she just said to me, When were you sexually abused when you were a kid? And I was like two o'clock in the morning. So every night at two o'clock in the morning, not every night, but every night-ish at two o'clock in the morning, it would happen. And so once I realized where that was coming from, once I realized where it was coming from for me, then I was able to understand where it came from and not push it off the scot. So now go to your question, when did I start telling everyone about it? Believe it or not, at that time, I had started to write my book and once that happened, I stopped writing my book because I had to release this in order to try and motivate other people. And so when it finally broke inside of me, and when I finally realized wholeheartedly what it is, what the full struggle was, that's when I was able to talk about it. But I had to talk to myself first. I didn't know what that was first. And so, yeah, that was probably, that was tougher than the actual abuse. because it was realizing how I was affecting the person I loved the most and taking them on this journey, and they didn't deserve that. And so I had to talk to myself. And the minute I could tell myself and look in the mirror and tell myself, that's when I was able to tell other people. And thank you. Thank you so much. Hi.
Hello. My name is Gina Molinari. I'm originally from New Jersey, but I.
Live in Columbus now.
What part of Jersey? We'll exit.
No, I'm actually in Parsippany.
Oh, okay. I like it. Not really near the part way. So I'm actually on two pretty major journeys at once. And this is something that I really struggle with. Oh, yes, I'm gonna get emotional. So I'm not only on the journey of entrepreneurship and building my business, but also to transform my physical self. And I know one supports the other. But how do you prioritize and focus when you want to go bananas so hard in both?
What was the last part?
Sorry, how do you go so bananas in both? Like balance your life.
Yeah, so it is about balance. It's about recalibrating every single day. And so first of all, I don't want to say I'm sorry that you're going through this. I'm going to say congratulations because there are, there are so, can I go closer to her? Listen, Gina, there are so many people out there, no, there are so many people out there who they're going through this and they're silent. It's just like when Penelope, right, asked me, like, when am I gonna break the silence? But you know, you know you need to prioritize. So everything else around you has to flow from everything that's around you. So your business is, Don't mean it's in a negative way. It's a materialistic thing. Like this is things that I don't know if it's going to help other people or it's going to make money, but that can't thrive without the happiness of you, the happiness of the internal you. So it's not really about balancing and prioritizing them. Like you are the most important. And here's what I can promise you. If you focus on you every single day and you make you the priority, whether it's nutrition or whether it's exercise, that business is going to in such a way because the energy that's going to take over your body because you've given to yourself. And then so the last thing I'll say is have a mirror moment every single day. Because a lot of people, and I'm going to say this because you mentioned that you were on this weight loss journey and this physical journey and fitness. There are a lot of people who you may look at that might have the six pack who look in the mirror and don't like what they see. And I tell them to have a mirror moment as well. So instead of looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, oh my gosh, like I got to lose this weight, you have to look in the mirror and be like, your hair is lit today. You have to look in the mirror and even if you feel like, and I'm a full disclosure kind of guy, even if you feel like you got too many extra curves, that booty might be sitting right that day. So for me, I tell people like, right, sitting right. So what is your best, I call it what is your best asset, right? Because here's the thing, I don't have my before picture here, but when I looked at my before picture, because that's why I started this journey, I hated my face. And I still wake up today and every day and I'm like, oh my God, I still feel like I have that fat face. And so full disclosure, but now if I go through that moment, I used to go have the mirror moments that I'm telling you about. And I'm like, well, what do you like on your body, Sean? And I was like, you don't have to like it. No one else has to like it, but you have to like it, right? Have your mirror moment. Give yourself time every day, even if it's 10 minutes of Jumping Jacks and push-ups. But you prioritize you and everything else. I promise you will fall into place.
Give it up for Sean T, everybody. Give it up. Give it up. We love you.
I love you, too. Thank you.
Oh, I love this man. And if you enjoyed this as much as I did, then make sure to share this with your friends. LewisHowes.com/725 tag me @LewisHowes on Instagram and @SeanT, let us know what you enjoyed most about this, the thing you took away. Again, a big fan of Shaunta and all he does to support humanity and really transforming more than just health and fitness, but transforming the inner world, the mental state that we go through to help us be consistent and committed and conquer long term. That's what it's all about. Again, share with your friends. Check out Shaunta as well. Make sure to follow him, support him on all the good things he's doing because It's got a big program coming out very soon, so stay tuned to that information. Colin Powell said, A dream doesn't become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination, and hard work. If you want to live an average life, then you don't have to work that hard for it. You can kind of coast. But if you want to create a magical life, a life of abundance, of freedom, of impact, of influence, then it will take hard work. It will take determination. It will take sweat. That's what it's all about. But you must create pain in your life so that you can overcome the obstacles that average people are unwilling to overcome. Those people create average results in their life because they're unwilling to experience the level of pain that you are willing to experience. So if you're willing to take on that pain, then get ready for magic to start to unfold, because it's about to be so much more beautiful on the other side of pain. I love you guys, and as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.










