Welcome And Series Context

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It is Trust Yourself Thursday, and you are listening to the sweet spot. Welcome back. Welcome back to the Hold Your Line series. We've been in amazing, in an amazing series here called Hold the Line. Look, we have really gone in on Hold the Line, haven't we? Today's episode is called Trust Your Training. Prepared beats panic. Trust your training. Prepared beats panic. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. I'm your host of The Sweet Spot. It's my joy and my privilege to work with high-level performers. And you're among them. You're among the high-level performers I work with. We're sitting today across the coffee table of life, aren't we? And we're sharing a brew. A coffee brew, that is. And we're talking about this mystery we call life. We're unpacking it. We're unpacking it and we're learning how to hold the line so that when the challenges come, when the test arrive, when the obstacle is in the way, we make the obstacle the way. We make the challenge our way. We hold the line. On Monday, we established the line. On Tuesday, we moved without waiting for the mood to hit us. On Wednesday, we competed without shrinking. We find ourselves here in Trust Yourself Thursday. And Thursday is where doubt can sometimes whisper. Because once pressure builds, once resistance pushes back, the question becomes quieter. It becomes more dangerous. Can I really do this? Are we really gonna win? Do I have everything it takes? Let's go back to the 17th century. Remember that battle in 1631 we talked about on Monday? Remember the Battle of Britainfield, King Gustafus Adolphus? I talked about him. Remember, King Gustafus did not win because his soldiers felt confident. In fact, they were abandoned, they were betrayed in the battle. Do you know why they won? Because they trusted their formation. They trusted their practice. They held the line that they've been practicing. They had drilled their spacing so they knew what to do. They had practiced volley timing. They had practiced their repositioning under fire. They had seen some uh these various formations in practice before. And that's why athletes practice. That's why performers practice. And that's why in the game of life, you and me, you, the both of us, we've been practicing through many dangers, toils, and sneers, we have already come. Yes, my friend, you have practiced. If you've overcome an illness or you're battling one, you're practicing, or you've practiced. If you've overcome some financial pressure, oh you've had some practice. If you've had to be in a tough relationship and deal with it, you've practiced. If you have lost a loved one and you're still grieving and you're going through it, that's a kind of practice as well. Absolutely, absolutely, you are someone who has faced practice. And in 1631, when they were in an actual battle, life and death battle, when the Allied Saxon forces left King Gustafus, they fled. Have you ever been in a situation where the people you depended on betrayed you? And chaos came in? Oh, and had you, oh boy, I've been there where you've been betrayed. Mm-hmm. Oh, yes. It's okay though. Because you know what? You know what happened for King Gustafus? He had practiced holding that line so much with his people that he didn't have to wait for courage. He had conditioned himself for it. And that's what all the experiences you've had and I've had are doing. It's conditioning us so that we can fight the next battle by holding the line even stronger. Yes, back in 1631, they trusted their conditioning. I don't know if the battle was on a Thursday, but if I was there, I'd been like, hey guys, it's trust yourself Thursday. Okay. Yeah, that's what it is about trust yourself Thursday. Trust your training. And if you haven't had a chance to do that, start training and practicing, start seeing it that way. That you are practicing whatever challenge you're facing right now, you're practicing. Trust your training. Now, let's move inside this brain of ours because we're we're about science, soul, and success, right? So we have to talk about the brain, we have to talk about the role the brain plays in this series we're talking about called holding the line, because you've got to hold the line just like King Gustafus did in 1631 when he was in battle. He formed the line and he held it, and he held it. You must do the same thing, and there's a pre a part of your prefrontal cortex. You know I was gonna say that. You have a part of your prefrontal cortex, which is the brain CEOs, it plays a role in terms in terms of evaluating your confidence, me saying, hey, what have you been through in the past that can help you here in the present? And I want you to think about that. What have you been through in the past that has helped you become the winner that you are today? The person that is able to handle what's in front of you right now. That's your prefrontal cortex helping you, letting you know through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. I've seen this before. Not my first rodeo. Yes, your prefrontal cortex is involved, it integrates past experience with present uncertainty. That's what the prefrontal cortex is good at, and that's why you want it online when there's uncertainty. When they were holding the line back in 1631, King Gustafus and the and the guys, their prefrontal cortex was online, they were holding a line, so the amygdala wasn't telling them, you see, the amygdala is just gonna be like, run, run, run, run for the hills, get out of here. That's what the amygdala does, it wants you to survive. It's not gonna, it's it's gonna be like, you know, hey man, and only fight if you you're cornered and you you literally have no other option. You know, the amygdala is a survival mechanism, and God bless it, we need it. But sometimes the battle requires your prefrontal cortex, your thinker, your CEO, your analytic brain to be involved to say, I have made a decision that this is the ground I'm standing on, this will not defeat me, I am holding the line, and this is how we're gonna do it. When you have rehearsed something repeatedly, sweet spotter, the brain system will say, Huh, we've been here before. Do you know what makes a Michael Jordan or uh a Billy Gene King or one of these super athletes? You know what makes them great? They've done it before, they've been there before, they don't flinch when the pressure rises. They don't let the amygdala run the show. Yeah. You see, doubt will rise and run the show if you don't prepare, if you don't integrate every past experience that you've had and say, huh, I know what to do. And if I don't know what to do, I'll figure it out. That's who you are. You know, if you're a student, I remember when I was in medical school and I was really trying to make sure I had really good grades and score super high on exams and tests. I remember being told there were only two types of questions, Dr. Sweet, on the exam. Those that you can figure out and those that you know. That's life. There's only two kinds of situations for you, sweet spotter. Those that you know what to do, and those that you're gonna figure out what to do. There's no backing down, you hold your ground. That's what trusting yourself is all about. Knowing that a part of you can figure this out. And I've watched some of my great, great family members, aunts and uncles, I can't call them out. I want to say their names, but I've seen them solve things, I've watched my parents solve things, I've watched my brothers solve things, my wife, and I've had to solve things. Haven't you had to solve some stuff? That's your training, that's your preparation. Don't ignore it. One of my favorite authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson, I love Emerson. He had an essay called Self-Reliance, and he wrote this in the essay. Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string. Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string. When Emerson says iron string, because I was like, well, what does he mean by that? I had to think about it. When he says, trust yourself, trust thyself, every heart vibrates to the iron string. You know what he's singing? He's describing that iron string as your coherence, your cohesiveness, your strength. When Emerson says iron string, he's describing inner coherence. When you trust yourself, there's alignment between your conviction and your action, what you are convicted about and what you're gonna act on. And that resonance is like an iron string. That resonance is what feels steady, and when you don't trust yourself, well, you fragment. It's not an iron string. So holding the line, my good friend, holding the line requires internal resonance. Be the iron string. Emerson also wrote, To believe your own thought, that is genius. To believe your own thought in the moment, that is your genius. Notice what he's saying. He's saying, genius is not brilliance, it's believing what your private experience has already shown you to be true. You see, back in 1631, Gustafus, my king, my guy, okay, we've been hitting the back in Gustafus, right? The 17th century. At this battle of Britainfield, that Swedish infantry believed in the system they had rehearsed. They believed in it. And they didn't abandon it when the pressure rose. When the when the when the pressure came, they didn't run away from it. They believed in what they had practiced, they believed in what they had been through. So to believe your own thought, that is genius. That's what you have to do today. Trust yourself. Trust the steps were ordered for you. Let the lamp be onto your feet, that you trust it. Operationalize your trust. Self-trust is the first secret of success, Emerson also said. That's not hype, that's not applause, that's real. Self-trust is the first secret of success. You see, for Emerson, success is about faithfully working in the direction that is suited to your nature. You've got to trust yourself. If you're gonna hold the line, you can't hold the lion be doubting yourself, then they're gonna get you. Right? There's a roaring lion out there to get you. So you got to hold the line, you got to trust yourself, you gotta trust your training, you gotta trust the experience, you gotta trust your inner, you trust your God, trust your maker, trust what you believe. Hold the line. It means this you stop envying somebody else's formation because that's not for you. You don't imitate somebody else's line, you gotta hold your line, don't imitate their strategies. Remember, in the ancient wisdom, and you knew I was gonna get here, when David faced Goliath, they offered him armor. They said, Hey David, try this on, use this, that, the other. You know what he had to do? Say, nah, no, that's not for me. I'm gonna go with my little rocks. I gotta do what I gotta do because I can't wear your armor. I can't use your strategy, I can't hold a line with Goliath with the way you want me to. You have to protect your ground. Yeah. Yeah. Because if we've been saying this along all day long, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you you fall to the level of your systems. We've said it a thousand times. Trusting your training means trusting whatever systems you have. It's just that simple. And Marcus Aurelius said it this way: you have power over your mind. We said that yesterday, not outside events. You can't control the artillery, you can't control the other army, you can control your alignment. Stay aligned.

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By the way, if you haven't heard our series of alignment, you want to check that out.

Two Kinds Of Problems To Solve

Emerson And The Iron String

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For some people, okay, I don't have to trust. Trust God. You can't trust yourself, trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own. That's why it says in Proverbs 3, 5, 6, trust God, message Bible, from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure everything out on your own. Sometimes you can't figure it out, but trust them, trust in something bigger than you. Trust in your higher purpose if you don't believe in God. Notice the tension here. Trust does not eliminate uncertainty. It was never meant to do that. The reason you have trust is that there is uncertainty. What trust does is it anchors you within your uncertainty. You're trusting. I'm trusting today. I trust it's going to happen. I trust that this outcome will be better. Absolutely. Absolutely. Even in Buddhism, they talk about be a lamp unto yourself. You know what that is? That is self trust. That's not ego. That is self-trust. Holding the line on this self-trust Thursday. This trust yourself Thursday means this, my friend. You stop outsourcing validation. Don't ask other people to reassure you. You stop scanning for applause and for for uh confirmation. You stop comparing your formation to someone else's. This is your battle. Form your line, have your values, trust the repetition that you've been through, trust the practices you've been through, the experiences you've been through. You've been prepared. You faced surgery, you faced financial pressure, you'll face rejection, you face loss, you face grief, you'll face hard times, and somehow, some way you've come through it. You're right here, right now, in Trust Yourself Thursday. Wow. So audit yourself. Conduct an audit. You know how the IRS likes to audit people's taxes? I want you to audit your training, audit your experiences, audit yourself. What have you rehearsed consistently? Have you breathed? Are you able to breathe normally under pressure? Do you take some deep breaths? Do you prepare yourself if you have a presentation? Or do you really go to practice? Do you really look at film before the performance? Do you really have a daily discipline of prayer and and and and do you meditate? Do you visualize? What do you do? What do you do so that when doubt comes, when the challenge comes, you have a plan. You know how to hold your line. You can regulate your emotions. Because when doubt whispers, you can't wait for that moment to start thinking what you're gonna do. You have to be ready. You have to be ready. And you know what? Say this. We're gonna end with this. Your affirmation. I've trained for this, I'm prepared for this. My system is intact, my formation is gonna hold. Absolutely, absolutely. I'm prepared. I'm ready. I'm holding the line. This is the sweet spot, and I'm standing in it. Tomorrow, beloved, we're gonna talk about finishing what we started here, okay? Because we're in it now. We're too, we're too deep to go back right now. We're holding the line together. I'm with you. I'm holding with you. Shoulder to shoulder, I'm standing right there with you. Don't give up. We're right here, we're right here, we're right now. This is not an accident that you're listening to this today. No accident. Tomorrow we're gonna talk about finishing strong. Finishing what we started, what you started. Because endurance is where many people lose the line. You've got to endure. So, my brother, my sister, if this strengthened you today, I want you to subscribe, follow. I keep saying it at every episode because some people think that they have to pay if they subscribe, and that's not true. What we're doing is building a community that stands steady. And if you know someone who could benefit from this message who needs to deepen their self-trust, send it right away. All right? All right now. For science, for soul, for success. This is the sweet spot.