Shawn Anderson, motivational speaker and author, joins Kristin Maxwell to share how to change the world by “going the extra mile.”  An inspiring individual who has built a million-dollar company, biked across the U.S. (twice!), trekked across 5 countries, and written 7 books, Shawn knows how to reach for his dreams.  Listen in as he shares how to create, and keep, the motivation and momentum to go the extra mile in your own life.

Hi, everyone. This is Kristin Maxwell. You are listening to Your Super Powered Mind. I’m really excited about our guest today. We are going to be talking to Shawn Anderson about how to change the world by going the extra mile. Shawn is a motivational speaker. He has seven books with his seventh, The Four Fibs, coming out next month in July. Shawn, his specialty is recognizing the power that each of us has to create change in our lives when we go the extra mile. The thing that’s cool about Shawn is, though he means it figuratively for us, Shawn has also, actually, lived this philosophy in his real world by biking across the U.S. two times and by trekking across five countries, which sounds really, really cool to me. Shawn, welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind.

It’s awesome to be here. Thank you so much for the privilege of sharing time today and talking about all things super mind related.

That’s great. My first question for people as always, what super power did you uncover as the result of mastering your mind?

I’m still a growing young Jedi.

Oh boy. Honestly, in all humility, I’m still a growing young Jedi and in my mastering and possessing any sort of super powers, but in brief moments where I actually hear that inside whisper of, “You can do it,” I’ve used those whispers to grow in courage to follow through with ideas, to build, to create, and as you mentioned, I just finished my seventh book in July. I’ll be walking across my sixth country border to border. What is my super power? It’s that I’ve been born and learned to develop a huge amount of courage.

Wow. Yes. Your story shows that you’ve got a lot of courage. How did you get this courage? Where did it come from? Because so many of us want it but so many of us don’t have it.

I’ve just learned not to really take every time I’ve fallen down or failed seriously. I’ve never given more meaning to my own failure than is necessary to give it. It’s because when we start to give our failures and our defeats meaning and we really start to think that they matter everything and the world is coming to an end when we fail and fall down and lose, that’s when we let fear become the dominant thing that we ever feel. The courage that I’ve learned to develop is that when I fall down, I always find ways to get back up again and just have that self-talk that it doesn’t really matter that you’re down. Get up and go for it again. Because if you don’t get up and if you don’t go for it again, it’s never going to happen for you. The lesson that I really want to share with people is when you do fail. Don’t let fail be the determinant for how you live your life.

Wow. Yeah. That’s pretty profound. Because sometimes when you’re in the middle of a situation where you’re not feeling like you’re doing very well, where you feel like you really are failing, how do you start to switch your brain around to start saying, “Wait, wait. You don’t have to do this”? Do you understand? Sometimes it’s a little hard just to even recognize that you’re doing that.

Well, because I’m always very aware that there’s an ending and I always think of the ending. I think of the finish line because we’re all going to reach a finish line, eventually. If I’m remembering that it’s going to happen and that this is my moment to do and to achieve and to succeed and to take risks and to take chances that the knowledge that the finish line is out there, eventually, gives me confidence to get my act together and not die before it’s my time to die. Being aware that life is short and being aware that you have but one life to live, that’s the most powerful thought you could ever have in helping you pursue the life that you want to live and helping you pursue dreams that you want to give wings to and helping you find the job that you want and creating the relationship that you want and building the body that you want and starting the business that you want. Because someday, you will never have that chance. Use your now while you have a now.

Right. Yes. That’s powerful. We have this phrase, as I said, “Go the extra mile.” How did you come up with that? What happened that caused you to adopt this as your slogan or your philosophy?

Well, if you want to keep on living the life that you’re living right now, just keep on doing the same thing again and again and again. If you want the same relationship that you have, just keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing every week, every month for the last year. If you want to have the same health you have, keep doing the same thing again and again and again. You see, when we do the status quo, when we keep doing the same thing again and again, make the same number of phone calls everyday for work, do the same number of push-ups everyday, we’re going to keep having the same life, but if you truly want to maximize your potential, if you truly want more, a better relationship, better health, better success, financial freedom, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over. You’ve got to do more. You’ve got to give more. You’ve got to be more. That’s where going the extra mile comes in.

Go the extra mile.

Every single day, in every single way, I do just a little bit more. When you practice that premise, that’s the secret to turning everything around in your life. Go the extra mile.

Wow. That’s great. Is there something specific that happened to you or have you always been motivated like this?

Well, the whole extra mile thing really started, and I’ve got a non-profit that’s called, “Extra Mile America,” and that whole idea grew back in 2007. That’s when I took a Forest Gump-like bicycle ride across the United States. So many bad things were happening; bankruptcies were at an all-time high, businesses were closing, banks were closing. I felt, people started losing a basic confidence in themselves to build the life they wanted. They started looking at the government and saying, “What are you going to do to make my life better?” They look to their boss, “What are you going to do to make sure this company survives and then I keep making money?” They look to their spouse, “What are you going to do to make sure that our relationship is better?” They forgot the general premise. That if you truly want to create change, you go the extra mile.

I took my, at that time, 47-year-old non-bicycling body across the country. My staff have developed events in 21 cities. We’re at the privilege of interviewing over 200 people who had been identified as having gone the extra mile in life and overcoming tragedy, defeat, or failure. At the end of that 48-day tour, I gave away $10,000 of my own money to the stories that were most inspiring to me. From there, Extra Mile Day has now started. Last year, 527 cities across the country declared November 1st Extra Mile Day where they recognized volunteers going the extra mile in service and volunteers and to make the community better.

Wow. That’s incredible. That’s a really cool story. We’re going to have to take a really quick break, but before we do that, I want to ask people where they can find out a little bit more about you and to going the extra mile.

Well, again, my name is Shawn Anderson. You can find me at shawnanderson.com. Certainly, if you want to find out more about Extra Mile and recognizing some of the superstars in your community, go to extramileamerica.org.

Great. Thanks. When we come back, we’re going to be talking to Shawn a little bit more about how you can change the world by going the extra mile.

Visit SuperPowerExperts.com/theNET for more!

To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.