Speaker 1: 0:05

Greetings and welcome. Welcome to the Sweet Spot where science meets soul. Today is Take Action Tuesday and I'm your host, dr Sweet. As you know, I'm a board-certified psychiatrist with a background in sports psychiatry and high performance in sports psychiatry and high performance. So, as both a clinician and a performance coach, I help high achievers optimize their mental game and reach their full potential. In my work every day and do you know, one of the huge, the largest area of work that I do is in the area of uncertainty and the unknown. That's where I find myself having some of the most profound conversations with some of the highest achieving individuals I've ever met in my life.

Speaker 1: 0:52

We all have to face uncertainty and the unknown. Remember, in Making Moons Monday yesterday, we talked about how uncertainty and the unknown were two factors that our ancestors literally had to face. They had to conquer because they had to be in the dark, they had to find shelter and they had to hunt for food and figure out their resources. And we talked about them living between a dynamic tension, this tension between wanting to be safe and, at the same time, having to explore Right. So even in that, our ancestors were giving us an answer that I still use today. You have to be curious as a way of dealing with the unknown. You've got to be curious. You can't just hide and avoid. We talked about that on Making Moves Monday yesterday. Avoiding is only a temporary measure. It does work in the short run, the very short run. But I guarantee you and I've seen it over and over again it comes back to haunt when we avoid. So being curious, like our ancestors were. Like what's around that corner? I wonder what's over here. We have to have that kind of mentality when we're facing the unknown. I wonder if something good could possibly come out of this. I wonder if this might work out for me, as opposed to only thinking about the what-if monster. What if this doesn't work out? What if that doesn't work out? That kind of thing. Our ancestors lived with this level of curiosity, otherwise we wouldn't have fire, right, we would still be walking around in the dark. So fear and the unknown and uncertainty has its advantages. It helps us be inventive, we create things like fire and light, and so that's one answer to dealing with the unknown.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Already, on Take Action Tuesday, you can be curious and, by the way, this works even when you're getting criticized and being like somebody's really making you angry and you're feeling like defensive. We tell people rather than be defensive, try being curious. Why is this person behaving this way? What's going on here? So there's a lot of power in curiosity as an action here on Take Action Tuesday, that can help you. Right, you have a pain somewhere in the body and you think it's going to be cancer or you think it's going to be something that's going to get you into so much trouble with the doctor and it possibly could. That's always a possibility. But if you're curious, you might go get help faster than if you avoid. And so that's the idea.

Speaker 1: 3:40

The power of curiosity helped our ancestors really move forward. And then here's the other thing that they did on take action tuesday here's the thing they adapted. So it was a tension between curiosity and adaptation. They figured out how to be resilient. They figured out how to make things work. They figured out how to heat things up and what to eat and how to survive and what things made them warm and what things kept them safe. And aren't we doing that every day today, like we're figuring out what keeps us together? So if you can be curious, and then, if things work or don't work, the doctor gives you a diagnosis that you're not happy with, you adapt and you figure it out, because the other option is to bury things alive or to avoid them and let them grow. And our ancestors would never have moved forward had they just adopted fear and just avoidance as the actions.

Speaker 1: 4:51

So today I want you to take a deep breath. It's Take Action Tuesday. I want you to picture your biggest goal, the biggest one, the one that scares you, or the biggest task that you have to do, or the call that you have to make, and recognize that that's not your enemy today, that these feelings of anxiety that you have about whatever it is that you have to do that makes you afraid. It's not your enemy, that's just your body getting ready for action. On Take Action Tuesday, there's a saying when you repeatedly face your fears, your brain creates a new pathway for you. It's like creating a whole new trail in the woods. The more you walk on that trail, the clearer and the easier the path becomes. Once you walk on it, the path is not going to appear, it appears. By walking on it, you get it. That's what Take Action Tuesday is about, my friend. All right, okay now.

Speaker 1: 6:01

So look, there's a book I want you to get. It's called Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. It's a book I want you to get. It's called feel the fear and do it anyway. It's a great take action tuesday book. I'll repeat it it's called feel the fear and do it anyway. It's by susan jeffers, I believe, and this book is great. It's very short. I read it in college and it's still applicable today. It talks about how natural fear is, but it doesn't have to control us, that we can feel it and let it motivate us, like it motivated our ancestors to create fire when they saw the dark. Where do you need to create a fire today? Where is it dark and scary and you need to light a fire there? All right, then. This is Dr Sweet. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 1: 6:46

This is Take Action Tuesday and I want you to take an action today. God bless you. Hey, if you want to connect with me, don't hesitate to join me on Instagram, on Twitter, on Threads, on YouTube. Take care, on YouTube, take care. Oh, I'll also see you tomorrow. You know what tomorrow is? It's Wednesday, but not just any Wednesday. It's Win it All Wednesday. Can't wait to see what we got for you there.