JJ Virgin

Lewis Howes:                      This is 5-Minute Friday!!

JJ Virgin is one of the nation’s foremost celebrity nutritionist experts, public speaker and media personality. Her 25 years in the health and fitness industry, the past ten in holistic nutrition and functional medicine, have earned JJ recognition as the go-to weight-loss expert who can unlock the door to lifelong weight management through her sensible, no fail approach to nutrition and fitness.

Now, she has worked with some of the biggest performance athletes, CEO’s, A-list celebrities from around the world. She’s appeared on major media shows like Dr. Phil, ABC’s Extreme Makeover and many others. She’s also a four time New York Times best-selling author, podcast host, guys, she had done it all.

JJ Virgin:                                  How do we move from a scarcity mindset to abundance mindset, you know?

Lewis Howes:                       Yeah, how do we?

JJ Virgin:                                  How do we? I actually have a really crazy exercise that I take people through that someone took me through. I had a mentor in my twenties that had me do this silly exercise. So, she has you take out a sheet of paper and write down everything you want, okay, and fill it up.

Lewis Howes:                       Like, physical things or achievements, or health?

JJ Virgin:                                  Physical things, so, “I want this car,” just, I don’t know, be materialist.

Lewis Howes:                       Yeah a house and a car, whatever, yeah.

JJ Virgin:                                  And what kind of vacations, jewellery, shoes, everything. Write it all down, fill up the paper. And I still remember sitting in the room, I remember where I was, writing it down and I remember the things I wrote on there. I wanted a teal green Jaguar, and I wanted a condo in Maui and I thought I was thinking huge, big, big, big!

Okay, so then she says, “Alright, so tell me what’s on your list.” And we’re, there’s a bunch of us in here, but she was my mentor, so I’m listing out, and she goes, “Ah! That’s great, that’s great. So, I just have a question for you on the Jaguar. So, why just one?” And I said, “Well, I don’t need more than one.”

She goes, “I didn’t ask you what you needed.” She goes, “So, that condo in Maui, why just a condo?” And I go, “Okay, I’ll take a house.” She goes, “Well why did you want a condo?” So I said, “Well you know, I don’t need much.” So she goes, “No, it’s not what you need. Why not the house?” And I go, “Okay, house.” And she goes, “Well, why not Maui?”

And it was crazy when you start to realise that we limit ourselves every single time. We always do it. So, just that way of starting to go, “Huh! Am I…”

Lewis Howes:                       Even with physical possessions, yes.

JJ Virgin:                                  Yeah, I mean, and that’s just a sign of it. The way you do one thing, is the way you do everything, right? But I’ll tell you that, to me, and I always look at this, this is going to be my vegetable analogy, because in health I think, gosh, so many things would just get better if people would just get a good night’s sleep and eat more vegetables. A lot of stuff gets better, you know? We’re so worried about, “Am I getting enough of this micronutrient?” I’m like, “Eat your vegetables!”

Gratitude is to vegetables, it’s like, gratitude we think of vegetables for health and gratitude for personal development. You want to get more resilient, you want to change you life, the best thing that you can do, is start every single day in gratitude and when I looked back and went, “What helped me get through all of this stuff in the hospital?” The biggest thing was making sure I had my morning routine dialled, and every day it was get up and what are my things I’m grateful for. Three things, write them down.

And find something, right? Find something, they’re like, “I don’t have anything!” I’m like, “You’re awake, you’re alive, your eyes are open, you can do it!” So, those are some of the things I’ve built, the lessons, but that was the big question mark is: Could this be teached without you having to go through all this stuff?

But here’s the other thing is, you never know when all this stuff’s going to happen, and are you ready? How do you get ready? Well, you have to lean into fear, you have to do things that scare you, you have to get out of your comfort zone and you have to actively pursue that, otherwise you won’t. Which is why I think it’s great to have coaches and support communities that all cheer you on from going and doing the hard things. Because in life, we tend to shy away from doing the hard things.

Lewis Howes:                       Hey guys, If you enjoyed this inspirational clip from a past episode of the show, then you’ll love the free book I’m giving away right now. It’s called, The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping. Again, check it out right now, themillionairemorning.com.