← Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick
Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick
The War Within- How to Beat Resistance and Step Into Your Calling - E-178
00:41:05
Stuck in your wilderness season? Dr. JC Doornick breaks down identity transformation, how to handle the voltage of your calling, and why the arena of play awaits. Listen now.
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Dr. JC
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Dr. JC
So today we're not just talking about stepping into the arena of play. We're also going to talk about the identity transformation that's required to step in and also required to stay in without burning out, selling out, getting overwhelmed, or tapping out. Have you noticed that the world that we live in has been doing most of the thinking for you? That your beliefs, perceptions, reactions, fears and doubts have been shaped by unsolicited outside noise? How easy it's been for you to slip into that default sleep walking mode and label it as life and reality? Yeah, that ends here. Welcome to the make sense with Dr. JC podcast. This is your opportunity to start thinking for yourself, reclaim control, and step back into that role as the shock caller and dominant force of your own reality. It's when you change the way that you look at things that the things that you look at begin to change. So let's wake up, let's rise up, and let's make sense of why and how shift happens. Makes sense. Contents of the material that I'm going to share, as always, are just going to point something out, maybe that you didn't look at or something maybe that you feel synchronistically that you need to look at. But it's all about reclaiming control of our thinking and our thought process and our feelings in a world that's pretty much doing that for us, you know, we're living in a reactive world. So that being said, I just want to transparently share share with you that this journey of this podcast started eight years ago and it really was a self healing journey. And you know, it's like dealing with anxiety and trying to navigate through that part of life where most people kind of quit. And I just decided to press forward and my fears were associated always with public speaking and, you know, imposter syndrome and comparative realities and all that stuff. So I started to do this, you know, as a therapy. It was like voluntary discomfort exposure therapy of sorts. So maybe that's something that somebody needed to hear. So here I am eight years later and it's become a thing. I'm a full time podcaster and also I come to you this morning lacking sleep. Got a lot of things going on in our family. A lot of change, a lot of adversity, a lot of navigating the poop that mysteriously always sits in between everything that we desire and our current reality. You're getting a live broadcast from somebody that is still eight years later, still experiences the same feelings, the same insecurities, the same nervousness and things like that. But I've just changed the way I look at it. So for me, it's very exciting to be here with you this morning. As you know, this gets edited and will drop on the Friday after the live and usually be about 30 minutes. But for me, selfishly, it is just a blessing to be able to come to you this morning on a day that most people would say like, oh, I didn't have enough sleep and there's too much going on. I'm overwhelmed. We're going to talk about overwhelm today, but for me, I often wonder who's getting more out of this podcast, me or, or you? Because I get to take all of these things that I'm working through myself that I'm noticing and share them with you. And the highest form of self actualization is when we take something that we love, something that we value, and we pay it forward. So you'll see at the end of this show, just like every show, I will say, if you learn something today, give it away. That's the way it's going to stay. So what I'm doing right now is taking something that I learned today and giving it away. Why? So that I can take ownership of it. This is called stepping into the arena of play and the cost of playing it safe. Now that right off the bat infers that playing it safe is dangerous. So on our show we look at things differently. I mean, I've played it safe for many, many years of my life. You know, I. I chose the road most traveled, not less traveled. I can say that there's a reason we do that. Sometimes we're not ready for the arena of play. But we're going to talk about that today. I'm hoping that this is going to catch somebody at the right time. Like, this information catches me and you're going to think, wow, isn't that weird that this came today? And maybe we've got some people that are sitting in the stands, maybe. Maybe some people are in the arena of play thinking they can't handle it. And maybe there's a couple of you out there that are just kicking ass right now, and that's awesome, too. But that doesn't make anybody here better than anybody. We're all exactly where we are, and that's just perfect. Let's begin. Begins with a little bit of open curiosity. And I always say, hmm. Which stands for, I haven't made up my mind yet, but I notice it interesting. So here's an interesting thing to look at. Did you know that 93% of people die with their calling still inside of them? Wayne Dyer, one of my favorites, used to refer to this as dying with your song still in you. He used to say, try not to die with your song still in you. In fact, this is why a lot of people kind of make this reference that the cemetery is the richest plot of land in all of the world. And the reason why is it's a place full of unfulfilled dreams. So if you think about it, if you were like an archaeologist and you wanted to discover, you know, some. Some treasure, all you'd have to do is dig up the dreams in the cemeteries and put them into play. And, well, you get it, right? Makes sense. And the people don't die because they didn't dream, by the way. They're aware of their dreams. So sometimes we allow ourselves to dream. And it's not because they weren't talented or capable. We believe that everybody here is highly capable. Just scattered. And maybe they haven't established clarity yet. So we always say clarity before action. The reason why is because the moment that they stepped towards this thing that we're going to talk about called the arena of play, the moment that real opportunity showed up, you know that saying, careful what you ask for, you just might get it? They short circuited. So it's not their fault. Forgive them for it. They knew not what they did, but as soon as the heat came into the kitchen, right? And we're going to refer to that today as voltage. They Short circuited. Now, short circuited isn't quit. It means they, they didn't think they could handle it. So we use the O, we use the overwhelm for that. So if you look at the natural reaction of human beings to either fight or flight, that's a natural thing. We're either going to fight or flight. Most of us, and that includes me for most of my life, we choose flight. If you think about it, it's safe. And that today we're going to refer to as being in the stands of the arena. And please, please, please, please understand because I spent a lot of years shaming myself because I wasn't doing everything that I could do. That's not what today's about. If you have the ability, and we call this drifting and shifting, if you have the ability to phase place yourself and say, I am here now and ident, it doesn't matter if you're sucking your thumb on the sidelines or in the sands, or you're in the arena, or you're not even there, or you're in what we call the wilderness. Doesn't matter where you are, but when you catch your drift, it unfolds this opportunity and potential to shift. So don't worry about where you're at right now, because you're one of a kind and that's fine. It's just perfect where you're at. So the reason why people short circuit is for some reason, now get this. The voltage in the arena of play was too high for the identity they were still running on. Now we have this tenant in the Make Sense Academy that goes like this. It's who you are that determines how well what you do works. So what that means is that if you're out there doing the do and for whatever reason, not getting results or feeling like you're failing, it's not that you're not capable, it's just you're not the right person for the job. You yet. I'll get into that more. But that's why when the voltage gets high, it's the identity that we're still running, maybe from a previous version of ourselves that couldn't handle it. It's not that you can't handle it because you can evolve and you can transform, which is what the book is about. So today we're not just talking about stepping into the arena of play. We're also going to talk about the identity transformation that's required to step in and also required to stay in without burning out, selling out, getting overwhelmed, or tapping out. Now, I'll reference one of my favorite all time, probably top 10 books by gay Hendricks, the Big Leap. That was a big distinction. I started to recognize why I would tap out. So it's one thing to recognize that intensity and voltage in life gets to a certain place, but why was I tapping out? And there were some upper limit problems and things. And I'll tell you, face placing myself right now with the podcast, with the book, and a lot of other projects that I've had. I mean, I took a lot of big risks and I've been working my tushy off for very, very many years. And I find myself now in the arena of play, still going through the wilderness every now and then. And I'll hit that. Everything that I've asked for is coming right now. And I remember a time where I was hoping and praying for this, but now I'm in this place where I'm saying, I don't know if I can handle it. So that's why this stuff is so important, is I have learned what I'm sharing with you today, so I don't tap out. I used to talk about this topic called the life plate. And we put things on our plate that we want to eat that we think that we need or that we want or we desire. But then once it's all on the plate, we think there's too much on the plate and we, we start to say that we're overwhelmed. So there's this interesting paradox and I think that people probably never assume that they're going to get everything that they want. Well, what I can tell you is if you step into the arena of play and learn how to not tap out, you're going to get everything and more that you want. And if that scares you, that's normal. You're just not ready yet. I'm going to share with you one of the biggest lies that were ever taught in life. And we're taught a lot of them. And the person that taught them didn't know they were a lie. They thought they were arming and equipping us for greatness. You know, nobody ever says, I'm going to teach this person a lie. So the biggest lie that we were ever taught. Most people think that the greatest risk in life is failure. You have to face failure, right? Fail forward. I'm actually going to look at it from a different perspective. I in fact think that the greatest risk in life is success. Now, success is attached to overwhelm, right? Because failure is obvious and to be expected. We just said before Careful what you ask for. You just might get it. That indicates that you don't know how much success you'll get. You assume you won't from previous patterns, but you know you're going to fail. So failure is obvious. Success is very sneaky. That's what I can tell you about this dance that I have with success. Success asks a much more threatening and dangerous question. And here it is. Can you handle what you say that you want? You know, I always think about the Rock, you know, the big wrestler, and he used to say, you know, can you smell what the Rock is cooking? It's like, can you handle this? Sometimes we joke about that, but can you handle the reality of everything that you say you want? The difference between goal setting and goal getting, there's a big gap there. A lot of people set goals and never get them. It's a quality decision when you set the goal and you embrace everything that comes with it, the failure, the overwhelm and all that, and say, I'm in. So that's why I'm. Where I'm at is I accepted it all. I never stopped. If you see a fight and you start to approximate towards it, but then you start to move away from it, you're not going to be in the fight. But if you keep going, you're going to be in a fight. And then you also have this idea of staying in the fight, not tapping out. So most people never discover their purpose because they never leave what we call the stance in life. The stands are fun. There's so many experts in the stands. Aren't there people that are just sitting back and watching and commenting and mentoring people that are in the arena of play? That's what's funny about being a parent. When your kids start playing sports, it's like all of a sudd. Become an expert. I used to say, skate faster, Jackson, run faster, Jeremy. Like, they're like, I know, dude. And those who do leave the stands or the bleachers and step on or even try to step onto the arena of play often retreat the moment that things start working. Now, that's what's funny about the arena of play. Yes, there's adversity and there's challenges there, and that's the nature of being in the arena of play. But what I just said is a lot of people retreat as soon as things start working. I don't know why. Maybe they didn't assume that things are going to work. So they start that natural process of overcoming resistance. We've got Stephen Pressfield on The show this week. And that's that overcoming resistance to their calling. They start creating momentum and they get scared at that. Right? Momentum means like you're being pushed into it, you're being pulled into it. The opportunities arrive. This is in the arena of play. And the visibility of the destination increases and it becomes more clear. The pressure grows naturally. Anytime I would step into the arena and I would get closer and closer to like a big talk that I was doing or a big event or stuff that I'm doing right now. We have a very big call today with some very important people. It's very, very exciting. It's everything that we want. But the pressure is growing and then suddenly they find themselves doing something strange. And that was what we call self sabotage. Self sabotage is a very, very serving activity for us to do. Gets us out of trouble. It's part of the retreat. So they start that natural process of overcoming resistance to their calling and they suddenly find themselves doing something strange. And that's self sabotage. Which, by the way, explains one of the most common questions that I hear from people. This is what people say. They go, why do I self sabotage when I start succeeding? So once again, that's part of what I learned from the Big Leap, One of the best books I could ever recommend to you. Why do I self sabotage as soon as I start succeeding? Why do I keep getting in my own way? What a fascinating thing. We're going to do a whole episode on that one day when we claim that we. I just got to get out of my own way. Well, you're in your way for a reason. It's because you are afraid of the arena of play. And it's natural to be afraid of the arena play. If you haven't made a quality decision, you'll notice some people love being in the arena of play and there's no fear associated. It gets them excited. And those people move very fast through life. But it's in the decision and the full radical acceptance of everything that comes with it. So here's why all of this happens. It's because success requires a different identity than survival. Now remember something, we're all wired for survival and safety. Read some books on that. So we're talking about success. And that requires a different identity than survival. And if your identity hasn't evolved yet, and that's what personal growth and self development is for right now, some of you are going to make insights, but then the work has to be done. And it's not just stepping into the arena of play right away. It's starting to like get clear. If your identity hasn't evolved, your nervous system will pull you back towards familiarity, which is totally normal. It's not a bad thing. It's a survival tactic. So if you find yourself still using the identity of survival to try to achieve success, well then now you know. Even if familiarity that you kind of revert to is the very misery that you wanted to leave behind. This is what's funny about goal setting. Goal setting is really your way of saying, I want to leave this scenario for higher ground, for something more. And when we retreat to familiarity, where are we retreating to? We don't know at the time, but we're retreating to the very misery that we claimed we wanted to leave behind. So that's where the definition of insanity is. For the sake of this discussion though, we're going to refer to that familiar place, that safe place, as I said before, as the stands. So most people live in the stands. The stands are safe, they're predictable. And they're very crowded, right? And that's what makes the stand so safe, is they're crowded. They're crowded, they're very crowded. Everyone is a self proclaimed expert in the stands. There's no experts in the arena of play because they're just, they're in the battle and they're growing and they're figuring it out along the way. But in the stands, everybody's an expert and everybody knows exactly what you, if you're in the arena of play, should do. So the people in the stands are unconsciously governed by what I call, and I refer to in the book as your mftpse, your programming, your conditioning, the persuasiveness of what you've picked up since childhood on up. And that stands for your mother, your father, your teacher, your preacher. So those are the people that have had an influence at a time in your life where you didn't really dispute anything, you just absorbed it. And then also we have society. So society in large is telling us what to do or what we should do and what's appropriate and what's not, what success is and what failure is. And you're consuming whatever you've decided is a good idea to consume. And that's making you assume what we consume makes us assume. And then don't forget about evolution. We've been having. Evolution has been paying forward to us what we should and shouldn't do. So these forces are the reason that we're in the stance, right? These forces have conditioned us to seek certainty before movement. So what we say Is clarity before action. Clarity is not certainty. Clarity is just understanding what this is all about. Certainty is waiting for everything to be aligned. All the certificates on the wall and all the planets in alignment before movement. That's part of the lie that that's required that we need to believe in ourselves, that all of these. These are the planets that have to be in a line. We need to believe in ourselves. We need to be motivated right. The timing needs to be right. All of those things and we got to know everything. We think that we need certainty before movement, but certainty is not where extraordinary lives are built. Uncertainty is. Now, you might be certain in your decision to go. For anybody that's in the arena of play, there's a lot of uncertainty. And you know what? We don't care. So I'm wearing my breaking news I don't care shirt today in the spirit of that. So extraordinary lives are built in uncertainty motion. Which, by the way, is why it's scary and why we stay on in the stands. Like, who wants to go jump into uncertain motion? Well, people that have decided to go. So the stands are where certainty and reality get commented on. And this is a huge distinction. The people in the stands are probably unconsciously so wanting to be in the arena of play that they try to place themselves in the arena of play with their certainty and their comments. So I've played much of my life game from the stands, and if I look at myself and I allow myself to be real with myself, that's what I was doing is I was kind of like creating the illusion that I was in the arena of play. So if you're giving advice right now and commenting on someone else that's in the arena of play and you noticing that you're not in action yourself, which is a big thing for you to allow yourself to notice you're in the stands. Okay? So that was my way of letting you know what the stands are and the danger of being in the stands. The potential danger of being in the stands is people in the stands have the illusion that they're in the arena. This harmful superpower is called self deception. Anybody have self deception superpowers out there? Man, you know, like I had a cape and an SD on my chest for so long. I want to share with you something that I heard from Steven Pressfield. I can't wait to interview him. He's the author of the War of Art. He wrote the Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire, do the Work. I mean, this guy's just amazing. I just read his New book called the Arcadian. He talks about the river beneath you. And this is really, really juicy. He's an upcoming guest, Steven Pressfield, and he talks about this thing called the river of creativity that's flowing beneath us at all times. It's not a destination. If you have the ability to look down right now, you will see there is a river of unlimited creativity flowing beneath you. So the river flows with creativity, purpose, possibilities and unlimited potential. And it's flowing beneath you right now. You don't need to do anything to go find this river. It's already there and it's just waiting for you to notice it and maybe remove the dam. So most people think that they need to find their purpose. I'm going to go out and find my purpose. I'm of the persuasion, which means I don't know for sure, haven't made up my mind yet, but right now at this time, I'm of the persuasion that this is not true, that we have to find our purpose. I think purpose is already flowing beneath us. The problem isn't finding this river of purpose and creativity. The problem is removing the dams. And so what do I mean by dams? Well, one dam is called fear, One is called distraction, the other, resistance, overall overthinking, people pleasing, self doubt, and of course, conditioning. So the river, by the way, never stops flowing. Whether you notice it or not, whether you access it or not, it never stops flowing. You simply stop listening because you've been placing too much energy on the dam. Isn't that interesting? It's not like you've constructed a dam. It's just there because you've been putting your energy on people pleasing, self doubt, fear, all of that stuff. So one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself right now is this. What dam am I currently maintaining that I now know is blocking my own flow? What is the dam? And I'll read them again. Fear, distraction, resistance, overthinking, Overthinker right here. Always trying to let go of things that I'm overthinking, trying to nail jello to the ceiling, trying to build an airplane in the sky, teach a goldfish to climb a tree, drink water with a fork. All impossible things. And I'm trying to let go for me overthinking. But I can see it. I catch my drift. So I can shift. So what dam are you currently maintaining that is blocking your own flow? So I want to quickly share something right now that we are evolving into. We actually have show sponsors coming in now. One of them is an AI platform You guys will hear about that soon enough, which is pretty much how we run our whole thing. But this is a small but massive thing. I'm very much into nourishment and very much into morning rituals. And for about 10 years. So I've been eating these greens bars every morning, every morning for 10 years. And it's the most delicious thing that I've ever done and the most nutritious and natural thing that I've ever done. So today is the first time that I'm exposing this to people. So this is the one that I love. Right? I don't know if you can see it. It's called the greens bar, but it's made by Blue Blinds Bakery, and you can find them naturally@blueblinds bakery.com and I've literally been using these products for almost 10 years now. And it's part of my morning ritual. Like, I've literally been eating these green bars and some of their granola for that long, right? That's partly because they taste amazing and they're just like with a cup of coffee. This is my second cup of coffee, so I've already had my greens bar, and I only take a half of it. So I love them because they taste amazing, but I also love them because they're, first of all, handcrafted. Every single one of them is made by hand, which I think is kind of cool, but also completely made with simple natural ingredients and organic oats. If that's important to you, I'm telling you right now, go get a couple of these products. And my favorite is the greens bar that I've been using forever. Go to blueblindsbakery.com Try one, you'll understand why I've been using these every morning for 10 years. I had a funny conversation with these people. I'm like, I have been using these every morning for 10 years. So they're called Blue Blinds with an S. Blue Blinds Bakery. We'll always put those in the show notes. And they're one of our official new sponsors of the make sense with Dr. JC podcast. Go try a greens bar. So now we're going to move into what I call the wilderness. So let's talk about the wilderness. You're currently in what feels like a wilderness season, a tough season of personal growth. Please listen carefully. Right now, I want you to know that most probably you're not lost. Even though you feel lost, you're just actually starting to prepare. And I want to teach you about this place called the Wilderness, that if you change the Way you look at the wilderness, you're going to get excited right now because a lot of people are in the wilderness. Pressfield describes the wilderness as a period of what he calls exile. And that's a season where nothing really makes sense. Confusing crossroads. Great time to be approached by a cult, by the way. We've got a woman coming on the show soon, by the way, who was, I think, 15 years the top, top, top representative of Scientology who's just woke up one day and said, like, what the am I doing? She's coming on the show to just talk about, like, hard control environments and stuff like that. But I promise you, when I ask her how she got involved in it, she was in the wilderness when it happened. So that's a season where nothing really makes sense. And it's a season where old identities stop working. What you used to do and who you used to who are no longer working, they don't apply. And it's a season where you no longer fit in the stands. Even the stands feel uncomfortable. It's a season where you no longer fit in the stands, but don't yet feel comfortable in the arena. So it's like neither here nor there. The stands, there's the arena, but then there's the wilderness. And maybe you're in the wilderness. Most people think that the wilderness is a hardship or a punishment or a tough time, a tough season. This is a great reframe right now. I think it's actually what I call necessary recruitment. It's where old versions of you go to die. So if you're in that tough season right now, what I'm saying is maybe you're there in preparation, on your way to the arena of play. There's some work involved in that, and there's an old version of you that's ready to die. I've experienced ego death with plant medicine and all of that stuff. I can tell you that first we have to identify and pull the weed before we plant the seed. So that's what's happening. And I'll credit Jessica Ortner of the tapping method for that. She says, you gotta. You gotta pull the weed before you plant the seed. But it's where old versions of you go to die. And it's where the interface response system, which is what I teach in the book, and all of those processes start helping you, right? Start helping you navigate. Because it's not fun. It's tough. So the four steps of the interface response system is perceive, like, okay, I'm in the wilderness. That might be what you're doing right now, and then pause and process it, ask questions about it. What version of me has come here to die? What is this preparing me for? And then proceed. And the wilderness is actually the pathway, the passageway to the arena of play. You can't just jump on the arena of play by skipping the wilderness. You know why? Because you're going to jump into the arena of play as an older version of yourself that is not equipped for the arena of play. And you won't be able to handle the voltage. So the wilderness is actually the process. It's the process. It's where your character gets forced to upgrade. That's why it's uncomfortable. That's why it's considered a messy, tough season. And it's where your soul gets stronger and your future self is forged. The wilderness is where your soul becomes stronger. And you get you pulling the weeds out, preparing for the seeds. And your future self. Remember, who you are determines how well what you do works. If you get that right and you get clarity before the action of the arena of play, you're going to kick ass and you're going to have an amazing time. So Kim Tucker Gray says, wonder if the wilderness can be a collective place, too. Interesting. What you're describing sounds like America right now. You know what? I never make my mind up about anything, but I think I resonate with that. If you look at America, but, you know, I wouldn't just blame America. I would say the world, you know, it's. This is not the only place that's a little Wilderness E. But yeah, just being a human right now is tough. But if we look at it that way and we say, well, why is this happening? How is this happening for me? What is this preparing us for? Because a lot of people think it's preparing us for doom, but that's not the way I look at it, because I get to choose how I look at it. And if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change, I'm going to agree with you, Kim. That's a great insight. Welcome to the make sense with Dr. JC podcast. Kim Tucker Gray from Substack. I think we're being recruited for evolution. I think we're getting forced into becoming a different version of ourselves so that we can better handle what's coming. And I can tell you humanity is meant to survive, you know, so maybe this is all necessary. Great distinction, Kim. So the wilderness is the process. It's where your character is forced to upgrade and your soul gets stronger and your future self is forged. You don't walk through and go through the wilderness because you're lost or because you're failing. You go through the wilderness because you're evolving. Whenever somebody approaches me and claims that they're failing or that they're stuck, I always say, well, maybe you're just in the place or the phase of your growth where most people quit. Isn't that an interesting way of looking at it? Maybe you're not stuck. Maybe you're just at the point in the journey or where most people retreat to the stance. I love looking at it that way. Because then you look at your challenge, your stuckness, and you say, maybe I'm in the wilderness. And maybe this is the big boss at the end of the level of the video game that I have to byPass to collect $200. You know, collect, pass, go and collect $200. So you don't go through the wilderness because you're lost or failing. You go through the wilderness because you're evolving. And remember, if you don't like this, that's fine, right? No, nobody has to, like, embrace anything because we're all looking to be safe and survive. But if you're interested in finding out how to unstuck yourself, this is valuable stuff. Just to be clear, the wilderness is the necessary passage that we must go through to transform and evolve into the version of ourselves that can handle the arena of play and the voltage in it. Going to talk about voltage now. Without this evolution and transformation that's taking place in the wilderness, the arena of play can seem less like play and more like a source of overwhelm. So if you've stepped into the arena and you can't handle the heat in the kitchen, it's because you probably didn't get there via the wilderness. And that's what sucks about success. And you know what else sucks about success? We're not wired for it. We're wired for safety, comfort, and survival. So here we are. We're going to go against all that because we want to succeed, whatever that means for you. So let's talk about handling the voltage. Now. We're going to talk about why people leave the arena. Maybe they're afraid of the arena, but why people are in the arena and why they leave it. And that's because it's where everything changes. All of a sudden, everything changes. So the moment that you start stepping into your purpose, take note of how the signal and the noise gets louder, you might think that you're going through a tough time because you're in the Wilderness. When you step into the arena it gets even louder. And the bigger your commitment and the bigger your goals and dreams, the bigger the noise. Right now the challenges that I'm facing, which I can handle because I've evolved, are massive, massive. And they're frequent. So the synchronicities, by the way, in life increase in frequency. Those are big distinctions and signs and signals. And we go, oh my God, I just noticed this. And I. Because you're like, when you're in the arena of play, you're awake, you're clear, you're noticing everything, which sometimes is a disadvantage, right? People begin paying more attention to you. So there's all that money starts to flow, responsibility starts to escalate, accelerate and grow. And suddenly the voltage of both opportunity and responsibility spikes. So when you have voltage spike, it's typically overwhelming because it is opportunity, everything. Careful with Jasper, you just might get it. And responsibility, responsibility is scary because we don't know if we can handle it. So most people think that they failed because they weren't good enough. My observation as usual, because I look at all observations is different. I think many people fail because they became successful faster than they became capable. Which is why we say become clear and capable. Who you are determines how well what you do works. Where is that done? In the wilderness. If you're in the wilderness, I'm jealous because you are preparing, you are training, you're doing the reps that are going to make you kick some ass in the arena. Anybody ready to kick some ass in the arena? So most people think they failed because of the fact that they weren't good enough, right? The different observation is that they failed because they became successful faster than they became capable. So the opportunity arrived before the identity was ready. That's why we think we can't handle it. The blessing arrived before the nervous system was prepared. Overwhelm. And then we retreat and we say, oh this is not the right time. There's too much going on. This is not right for me. We used to say if you don't succeed, try and try again. Now we say if you don't succeed, try something else. We're just 5th degree black belt ninjas in bullshit. So the dream arrived before the discipline did. Where do you build discipline, by the way? In the arena. So if you think you need to be disciplined to succeed, well then go build it in the arena along the way. You see, the voltage isn't the problem. It is the part of stepping into the arena. The voltage is going to be there in the arena that's not the problem. Just like fear, it's not a risky thing to assume fear is going to happen. Voltage is going to happen. You step into the arena, you're going to notice everything amplifies. So the wiring is the problem. Our wiring. And that's why evolution and transformation is so important. This is why one of the foundational teachings inside the Make Sense Academy is once again, I keep saying it. It's who you are that determines how well what you do works. The wilderness starts to make more sense when you evolve. The arena and the voltage start to make more sense when you evolve. It starts to look like the training grounds of preparation for the arena. And then the arena starts to look like, hey, I'm getting pretty freaking close. Sometimes you're not failing the assignment. Sometimes you're simply not the right person for the assignment. Capital Y, E T yet. The yet is a big part of it. You're not failing. You're just not the right person for the job. Yet. So let's get you to be the right person for the job. Let's talk about playing big without burning out. So the solution isn't less ambition, by the way, right? Don't. Don't be afraid of. Of dreaming big and playing big. The solution is a stronger identity. Because the arena isn't game day, by the way. That's not like game day. The arena is practice. It's training. The arena is a repetition. That's another mis. Misconception about the arena is like you're supposed to win all the time. The arena is your training. The arena is a place of transforming and becoming. So every challenge that you face is asking this question. Who must you become to hold this next level? Not achieve it. Hold it. You're going to reach levels in the Arena. But how do we achieve it? And how do we refrain from tapping out? Because achieving something once is easy. Very easy. To achieve something once or for a moment, becoming the person who can sustain it. However, that's the work. That's the work. And some of you are in the process of that right now. And I'm excited for you. That's the transformation. That's the game. So here's the good shift. Maybe your life doesn't need a new strategy. Maybe it needs a new identity or an evolved next level identity. Maybe the wilderness isn't blocking your path. Maybe it is the path. Maybe resistance, as Pressfield talks about, isn't evidence that you're moving in the wrong direction. Maybe it's proof that you finally are moving to something that actually matters and the right direction. And maybe the arena of play isn't waiting for you someday. Maybe it's waiting for you right now. It's not like you have to like take a five year trip through the wilderness. It's just a decision. Embrace the fear, Embrace the voltage, embrace the overwhelm. It's all coming. But you set that North Star and you make it bright and sexy and as valuable as the air that you desire when your head's underwater. You don't care. Breaking news. You're not going to care, okay, if the responsibility of the arena scares you. It's just that you're not ready yet and that's fine, okay? But now maybe you can see it. Maybe you've caught your drift and you're ready to shift when you're actually ready. Stepping into the arena is still scary, but becomes exciting, scary, exciting, scary. Where in your life are you still sitting in the stands, by the way? You can be in the arena in one place and still sitting in the sands in another, which is fine. I'm in the stands in some areas. But right now I haven't decided to go into the arena of play. What wilderness are you resisting that may actually be there to prepare you? If you're resisting the wilderness, you're resisting the preparation and the training. And are you building the identity required to handle the voltage of the life that you keep asking for and praying for? Hoping and praying is an interesting thing because we'd never typically say, and if you give it to me, oh, Mr. God, oh Mr. Universe, I embrace and understand everything that comes with it. Fear, overwhelm, voltage, all of that. And I'm. I want it anyway. Try that. When you go to your bedside and pray tonight, let the God know that you're ready for all of that. Watch what happens there. You want to kick that prayer up a notch, let them know that you're ready for it and you understand the reality of everything that comes with it. And you're building the identity required to handle the voltage of the life that you keep asking for. So the arena of play is waiting. Not for the fearless. You don't have to be fearless to step into the arena play. And it's not for the perfect and it's not for the finished, the person that's arrived at something. It's for the willing. It's for the willing to just simply become. So wake up, step in. The game is ready and it's underway. The river's already flowing and your seat in the stands was never meant to be permanent. It's an interesting sport we're playing where the people from the stands can step onto the field. The seat in the stands was never meant to be permanent Make Sense that's it for today. To support the make sense with Dr. JC podcast. Be sure to subscribe, like and share as well as follow the Make Sense substack for free daily quotes, live streams and blogs. And remember, learning without action is just another form of distraction. If something hit home and you learned something today, give it away. That's the only way it's going to stay. See you next time. Makes Sense
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- [42:37]
Dr. JC
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