Greetings and welcome. Welcome back to the sweet spot. This is Dr. Derek Sweet. I'm your host here on The Sweet Spot, and I'm delighted that you've made it to Friday with me. But you know, this is not just any Friday on the Sweet Spot. Here on The Sweet Spot, we call Friday what? We call it Finish Strong Friday. That's correct. We want you to finish strong. Now, you may not be feeling particularly strong today, but guess what? We can get past that if we talk it out. And so this entire week we've been talking out a particular topic called How You Stand Under Pressure. This is the fifth of the seven uh series episodes that we want to do, and uh it's about staying solid when you're running on MT. How do you stay solid when you run on MT? I don't know if it's morning for you, but it's a good morning where I am. And if it's afternoon, I want you to have a good afternoon. And if it's evening that you're hearing this, good evening. Good evening. As you know, I'm a board-certified psychiatrist and I work with athletes, I work with executives, I work with first responders and people who are often expected to finish strong when they're already exhausted. For them, there's no off button. They've got to finish, they've got to work. And like you, I've learned that fatigue doesn't just drain energy, it changes how we think, right? So, look, let's remind ourselves what we've accomplished all week. You've done great, you've stuck it out here with me on this amazing series about how you stand under pressure. It's really been good. On Monday, we talked about stabilizing your stance so that panic doesn't get to decide your next move. On Tuesday, Take Action Tuesday, we talked about doing one responsible thing, then pausing, because pressure is managed not by speed, but by sequence. On Wednesday, when it all wednesday, we talked about belief. We defined it as being able to stay upright when things feel shaky or even lost. Yesterday, yesterday on Trust Yourself Thursday, we talked about staying aligned even when doubt or betrayal is ever present. We find ourselves right here, right now, in the middle of Finish Strong Friday, where we're going to name something honestly fatigue. How fatigue doesn't create your limits. I said this last week in the other series we talked about. Fatigue doesn't create your limits, it reveals the ones you've been living under. When people are overwhelmed, they often assume something is wrong with them. I used to be stronger than this. They will say, I shouldn't be struggling like this. What's wrong with me? Maybe I'm not built for this anymore. These are some of the phrases that the mind might say to you. But here is the truth. That might be fatigue talking more than it is anything else. And feeling fatigue doesn't mean you're failing, it means the extra fuel you used to compensate is running low or maybe even gone. When energy is high, you can override yourself, right? You can override your things. When energy is high, you can override an unclear belief. When energy is high, you can override shaky trust. With high energy, you can even override poor boundaries. But when it drops, these defaults show up. That's why people break down late. They don't break down early. Breakdowns usually happen late in games and late in situations. That's why quitting always feels more apparent and louder at the end of things and not at the beginning. You'll find more quitters towards the end. As the water rises, the pressure rises, things don't work out like they should have in the beginning. That's when the quitters will show up. So finishing strong is not about pushing harder, it's about changing how you decide when you're tired. Yeah, here's the most important rule: when you're fatigued, stop making what we call expansion decisions. Only make maintenance decisions. Don't go big and wide when you're tired. Look in and figure out how can I maintain myself, right? That's the critical move because fatigue will lie. Fatigue is a liar. Yeah, you know, fatigue will lie to you. It'll tell you that what you're feeling is permanent. It will tell you that the struggle that you're going through is gonna define you. It will say to you, this moment explains how your future is gonna go. And my friends, none of it is true. Fatigue, you're a liar. Fatigue makes temporary states feel permanent and narrow. That's what fatigue does. And you've got to understand this. You don't make decisions when you're fatigued, you don't believe fatigue, and that's why you don't decide your worth, your future, your calling, your relationships when you're running on empty. And the ancient wisdom speaks directly to this moment in 2 Corinthians. It's not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves, only God gives us the power to be successful. That's the message, Bible. It's not, it's just not what we think. It's just not what we think we can do that lasts. Our only power and success. Anything that matters comes from God. This verse isn't about weakness, it's about proper load bearing. Paul is saying, don't force yourself to carry what was never meant to be carried alone. When we translate this verse into three, when we transfer when we translate this verse, there are three things that come apparent. One, we don't condemn ourselves anymore. Two, we permit ourselves to rely on God rather than keep punishing ourselves with negative thoughts. And three, it tells us stop pushing and stay more aligned with God. Don't condemn, don't punish, and stay aligned. That's how you finish strong. For an athlete late in the season, your legs are heavy, your mind is tired. Finishing strong doesn't mean a hero play. It means going back to your fundamentals, going back to your conditioning, staying locked in, trusting your form and your fundamentals over adrenaline. For someone who's a caregiver, somebody who's grieving, maybe somebody's managing chronic stress, finishing strong today doesn't mean doing everything and getting everything done, or judging yourself if you didn't get everything done. That's not what finishing strong is about today. It means doing what's essential, what you can do, given the version of yourself that you are right now, you're doing the best with what you have. And you're gonna protect yourself so that you can do some more tomorrow. You don't have to spend it all. You don't have to expend all your energy today. Pace yourself. Maybe you're emotionally overwhelmed. Finishing strong doesn't mean that you have to feel motivated and peppy. Just move at a human pace without quitting on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the move. When you're exhausted, don't decide who you are then. Just decide how you're gonna stand. That's it. This is all about stability. The one rule that I just gave you, which is decide how you're gonna stand, might be the most important thing I've said all week. Because it keeps your action clean. And when fatigue hits, when challenge hits, when disappointment hits, when your belief narrows, when your trust wobbles, when the actions around you start shaking, when things don't feel right, maybe that's all we've got to do is stand. Stabilize our stand. Don't ask for more strength. Just protect the alignment, protect the stand, and let that carry you across the finish line. You already have something in you that's greater than what's in the world. You're good. Alright? Hey, this is it. You're too deep in now to go back. It's Friday. It's finished strong Friday, and we're gonna cross this finish line however we can, one step at a time. And you know what? We're not trying to play hero ball here. We just want to protect what God has given us. That's it. Tomorrow is self-care Saturday, and we're going to talk about why recovery isn't indulgence. It's how the ceiling lifts and how your range returns and how your stand gets strengthened. So if you're listening to this today and you've realized that finishing strong doesn't mean that you've got to just burst through and spend all your energy, that finishing strong means that you leave something in the tank for tomorrow. That's wisdom. You've done it, you've gotten it. If you recognize that finishing strong is about stabilizing your stand today, still being in your stand. You know, in the ancient wisdom, they put it this way: after you finish standing, you know what it tells you to do? Stand. Keep standing. It's amazing. It's amazing. So, my friends, beautiful sweet winners, you don't have to finish strong by being relentless. You finish strong by staying aligned when you're tired and being in your stand. Please share this with somebody you love. Make sure you subscribe, it's totally free. And please join me tomorrow for Self Care Saturday. I love you.