Speaker 1: 0:05

blessings and greetings. Blessings and greetings, so good to have you back here on tuesday. This is take action tuesday and you're listening to the sweet spot, and by now you know who I am. I'm dr derek sweet. I am your host on take action t and it is my pleasure to continue our amazing series here called Run the Risk, reap the Reward. Beautiful souls.

Speaker 1: 0:33

Most people hear the word risk and immediately think of danger, failure or loss, as we talked about yesterday. And yeah, sometimes that's a part of it. And yeah, sometimes that's a part of it. But, as we said yesterday in Making Moves Monday, that's only one side of the coin when we think about risk. Risk is also about other things. It's about other, more metaphysical and maybe even spiritual things, things like courage, faith and growth. You know, risk is about moving forward in the face of uncertainty, taking that risk to keep going. That's what faith is about, isn't it? And discovering what's possible when you don't play small. And that's what happens to so many of us. We play small, we hide, we find fault with what's not working, instead of taking the big risk to see the big reward. Some of us never discover the reward because we're paralyzed by fear, by facts, by statistics. That's why this week, on the Sweet Spot, we're flipping the script and today, on Take Action Tuesday, we're talking about this.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Risk is not just a word, it's a muscle. And here's the thing about muscles. Right, you don't get stronger by thinking about lifting weights. God knows, I wish that were true, because if it were, I'd be so diesel right now, okay. But no, you don't get stronger by thinking about lifting weights. You get stronger by picking them up and doing the reps. And, beautiful souls, it's the same with risk the more you face it, the less power fear has over you. Whatever you're afraid to do, do it.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Remember the Van Gogh effect we talked about, right, van Gogh, the very famous painter we talked about this about a week ago. He said that when that small voice comes up saying don't paint and now this is a world famous painter he said when the voice comes up and says you're not good enough, you're not going to make it, don't paint, you're not that good. By all means paint, by all means paint, by all means do the thing that you are trying to talk yourself out of, that. You've built this argument against yourself. Don't negotiate with yourself. The more you face it, the less power, the fear has over you.

Speaker 1: 3:18

And guess what? The neuroscience? You knew I was going there right? The neuroscience actually backs this up and I promise you today we're not going to talk about the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala.

Speaker 1: 3:28

By now, if you've been listening to the Sweet Spots, you're an expert in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's CEO, and the amygdala, the brain's threat detection center, and you know that risk by now, even though it's only Tuesday, you already know that when you take more risks, you are privileging your prefrontal cortex, your CEO, and you're letting the threat detection center calm down a bit. But today I want to tell you about another system. It's a reward system. Especially, it's a pathway. It's a dopamine pathway called the mesolimbic dopamine pathway and it runs through an area of the brain called the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens. Now, these are big terms. All I want you to know is that this dopamine pleasure reward pathway lights up whenever you pursue something meaningful, whenever you take a risk, a calculated risk, and it works out.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Even if it doesn't work out, but you see how much stronger you are for having taken the risk, you are turning motivation into action using your mesolimbic dopamine pathway. Using your mesolimbic dopamine pathway. When you stretch into discomfort, my friend, when you apply for that job, when you speak up, when you make your move, when you take action, when you take a risk, your brain's mesolimbic system, your dopamine pathway, begins to learn hey, that felt pretty good, let's do it again. And over time, guess what happens? Your bold action, your fearlessness, your feeling the fear and doing it anyway. However, you get it, even if you're going forward but shaky. Your bold action stops that threat center from taking over and from talking you out of things and you start building momentum in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. How powerful is that? And as I said yesterday, not even last week. Yesterday I said look, science is not for everybody. Not everybody wants to hear about the mesolimbic dopamine system. Not everybody's interested in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, but maybe you're interested in ancient wisdom, maybe you love scripture, maybe you love what the ancients have to say.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Here's what the ancients say about taking risks. The ancients weren't playing. They didn't back down from anything. You know what they say in Proverbs? In the book of Proverbs it says the righteous are as bold as a lion. I want you to visualize that with me for a moment. This is you. You're a lion. This is how the ancient scriptures told you to be and want you to project yourself. You are the head and not the tail. You're the lion, the lioness. You have that power and strength. That is a dictum from above, and that kind of boldness. Oh, it's trained, it's built. One rep at a time, my friend. One risk at a time. Bold people they take risks. They're not afraid of falling. They get back up, they move on to the next play, the next move. They don't back down.

Speaker 1: 7:03

So part of risk is also walking in your identity, understanding what you are. You know, rachel Kahn had a quote the reward is in the risk, not just in what you get, but who you become. You're a lion, so look, maybe you've been stuck. Maybe you've just been walking around no offense to walking around like you're not a lion. Maybe you've been walking around like a house cat, which is cool, but when it comes to risk, you got to be a lion, you got to be a lioness, and maybe you're stuck in some other identity. Today I'm challenging you to access your inner lion.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Don't be afraid to share your idea and to speak your mind and to say what's on your heart. Don't avoid the conversation. Don't avoid going to the doctor. Don't avoid changing things that don't make sense in your life. Don't not apply because you've talked yourself out of the job. Sitting on your gifts, sitting on your potential that you haven't unwrapped yet will get you nowhere. So look, you don't need to leap into chaos. That's not what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Just one rep today, one tiny step, something that scares you a little bit. Make the phone call, take the step, trust yourself. That's how you build. Risk muscle, and that's the challenge. Take a micro risk today, something that stretches the muscle just enough. Speak the truth, submit the application, send the message, tell him what you think, tell her what you think, ask the question, push yourself one rep further, train it, train that muscle, test it, test that muscle out. Trust it, don't back down. And then tomorrow you take another one. And even if you fall remember you fall down. But what do you do? Right, you get up. Eight. That was last week's stuff. Go back and listen when you stand, you win. And guess what? From two weeks ago, our series Courage is what Contagious. So, one step at a time, because around here, we don't wait for the fear to leave. We train ourselves, we train our wrist muscles through the fear, because in these parts we recognize this and we believe it when you run the risk, you reap the reward.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Okay now, this is Dr Derek Sweet on the Sweet Spot. You've been listening to. Take action tuesday and I'll see you tomorrow for win it all, wednesday. If you like what you're hearing, if you like the, please subscribe to the youtube channel, like share, and come see me on linkedin if you'd like. Or threads take care. Or threats, take care.