CBS reporter Lee Cowan asked President Obama if he would consider running for a third term if it were legally permissible during their interview Sunday.
"If you could run for a third term, would you?" Cowan asked.
"No, I wouldn't," Obama said. "Number one, Michelle wouldn't let me. This is a big sacrifice and a great privilege, but it takes a toll on family life. This is a process in which the office should be continually renewed by new energy and new ideas and new insights.
"Although I think I am as good of a president as I've ever been right now, I also think that there comes a point where you don't have fresh legs, and that's when you start making mistakes or that's when you start thinking that you are what's important as opposed to the mission being more important."
Obama said that he felt he could look back at the end of his presidency and say the country was in better shape than when he first took office.
The Constitution limits him to a maximum of two terms.
Obama, unprovoked, brought up the idea of a third term last summer during a speech in Africa, remarking he thought he'd been a "pretty good president" and that he would win if he could legally pursue it.
"I actually think I’m a pretty good president," he said. "I think if I ran, I could win. But I can’t. So there’s a lot that I’d like to do to keep America moving, but the law is the law."