Well, well, well, you made it. You made it to finish Strong Friday here on the Sweet Spot. We've been all week working on a series called You Don't Need a New You. And we find ourselves today in episode five of seven. Can you believe it? We've already done four episodes on You Don't Need a New You. Happy Friday, beautiful souls. Sweet spotters, sweet winners, sweet masters, the sweet ones. Welcome back. Welcome back to your favorite sweet spot. And I'm really glad you're here. I really am. As you know, I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. I'm a board certified psychiatrist. I work with athletes, executives, first responders, students. I work with moms and dads. I work with individuals who bear all kinds of responsibilities, all kinds of performers at all levels. And more than that, I'm your fellow traveler. As you know, we've been sitting at the coffee table of life, sharing a brew, a coffee brew, trying to live well, not just endure the weak, but live well and build together the kind of life we would love to live. We've been trying to make sense of this mystery, this thing we call life. So, sweet spotters, as you know, we've begun every series, every episode that we've been doing here with this idea that look, the quiet truth is that most of us are afraid to say it, but we're not broken. We're just tired. We're overstimulated. We're disappointed, maybe. We're a little bit angry, we're a little bit bitter, we're a little bit resentful. Something might be going on. We might be just feeling out of sorts, but we're not broken. We're not gonna go into the whole unbroken thing. We're gonna really work on the idea that we have a deeper identity. The soul in science, soul and success of the sweet spot tells us, the ancient wisdom tells us that there's a force that's greater inside of us than any force in the world. And this week, we've talked about clarity, we've talked about precision, we've talked about energy, and we've talked about trust. That's in the series, uh in the episodes that we've had previously. Please go back and listen if you haven't had a chance. So today on Finish Strong Friday, we're bringing it all together. We bring it all together, and here's the thing: the mistake that most people make at the end of the week is this they think that finishing strong means giving everything that's left. But the ancient wisdom, oh boy, the ancient wisdom tells us a little different. In Ecclesiastes verse 7, in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, the message Bible, it says this the end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. In Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8 in the KJV for the more classically trained uh traditional Christian. Let's look at it. What are they what does KJV say? It says, look, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. The verse is not about effort, it's about judgment. Strong endings, and remember we're talking about Finish Strong Friday here. Strong endings, my friend, don't come from force. They come from patience and restraint. That's an insight that I want you to spend a moment with. You don't always have to force the ending. Sometimes it's your patience. It's your pause. It's your restraint. That's the key to a great finish. Here's the psychological insight. Under fatigue, people confuse depletion with dedication. Oh, they stay up late when nothing useful is happening. They push and they push so that they could feel that they're doing something, but nothing is really being accomplished. They push conversations that should wait. They keep going not because it's effective, but because stopping feels like failure. A lack of courage. Sometimes all that busyness is fear. But from cognitive psychology and physiology, we know this. Decision quality actually drops before your effort does. You can still what does this mean? It means that you can still be trying hard while making bad choices. Let's make it practical. Finishing strong today might look like ending work when your focus is gone, not when your guilt eases. Don't wait to feel not guilty to stop. Just stop. Maybe finishing strong today is about leaving one email unanswered because it deserves a better answer from a better version of you tomorrow. Finishing strong today might look like saying, hey, this is enough for today, and really meaning it, and having the courage to stop and come back tomorrow when you're fresh. And here's the key line to remember, beautiful soul. You finish strong by protecting what's left, not by emptying the tank. I'll say that again. I will. I'll say it again. You finish strong by protecting what's left, not by emptying the tank. That applies whether you're an athlete finishing a game, an executive closing a week, a caregiver heading into the weekend, a student ending a long stretch of study, whatever it is that you do, a police officer at the end of your shift, wherever you find yourself, doctor, lawyer, businessman, housewife, househusband, whatever you are. Let me say this clearly and kindly. Stopping is not quitting. Pacing yourself is not weakness. And rest is not something you earn after you suffer. You don't earn rest by suffering. You don't have to suffer first in order to rest. You can just rest. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is self-care Saturday. And we're gonna talk about why rest is not indulgence, but a skill, an actual skill set. Did you know that? That rest is a skill set, something you can practice guilt-free, and that the best, the most elite performers know this and they do it. So if this conversation today, this evening, or whatever time you're listening to it has helped you, I want you to subscribe. I want you to subscribe because it's free, there's no charge. And if you know someone who's always complaining about having to finish and they're exhausted, share this with them. Until tomorrow, my beautiful sweet ones, close the day gently. Protect your energy, and remember you don't need a new you to finish strong. Let's build this together. Love and blessings. See you tomorrow. Dr. Sweet Out.