Trust Broken And Hard To Restore

Cam’s Career-Ending Injury Revealed

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Love and blessings, love and blessings, beautiful souls. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet, and you're listening to The Sweet Spot. I know you're enjoying the Sweet Spot this week because we've had a guest like no other. We have Cam Clark with us, who has been dropping information, wisdom, all kinds of sagacity here on the Sweet Spot that we are going to use for years to come. Cam, I'm definitely going to come back to some of the insights that you've been sharing on the various days. And I'm probably going to write some of these things down and maybe even create an article out of some of the really deep, deep insights that you've given us. And I'm looking forward to today because we're tackling a topic today on Trust Yourself Thursday that gives a lot of us trouble. Trust. Self-trust. Trust in general. Self-trust is just a part of it. Trust in general can be a huge issue. And when you think about trust, we trust so much. We sometimes people say, ah, you know, I don't have, I don't, trust is not involved in what I do. Oh, yes, it is. Oh yes, it is. You trust those eggs in the morning that they're not poisoned. You don't, nobody tells you that, but you're trusting that. You trust the bus driver or the pilot or the the the Uber driver that they're not gonna drive off the bridge or something with you. You trust so many things that are axiomatic, you don't even think about them. But we're trusting. And even more than that, Ken, when that trust is broken inside of a relationship, I was telling my wife Darcell about it the other day. It's like trying to put toothpaste back in a toothpaste tube. She talked about it this way. She said that sometimes when trust is a problem, it's like you crumble a piece of paper, you you just ball it up in your fist and then you try to open it back out and smooth it back out. That paper never goes back to being smooth. It bears the scars, the wounds, the distortions that come when you've been betrayed. So trust is one of those things. We need it. The world we operate on that. When you're a baby and daddy throws you up in the air, you're trusting that daddy is gonna catch you. Right? You're not old enough to make a decision, to test it out. You're trusting. So I'm interested in you telling us about your experience because I know as an athlete, athletes have to trust their bodies, they have to trust their teammates. They have to trust in their goals to make it. And when they get injured, you were injured. You were deeply injured. I remember they have to trust the comeback, the recovery. I'm wondering if we could talk if you're okay with it about your injury and how trust factored into that. Would that be okay to go into that a bit?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Start a doubt.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah. So when I look at my injury, right, just to fill the audience in. So it was in my second year in the NFL, ended up having a career in an injury, a spine injury, um, a cervical spine injury, was told I couldn't play anymore, was drafted just the year, the year before. So in that time of my life, I didn't have much trust, right? I mean, who I thought I was had been stripped from me. This whole ego, this whole perception, this whole self-identity that I had as being an NFL player, as being one of the 1% of the 1%, right? All of that had it this is dissipated, right? So looking back now, when I look at that time in my life, all I had was trust. I had no plan. When I was told I couldn't, the first person, uh one of the first people I spoke with when I was told that I couldn't play anymore, what was you, Dr. Sweet? And at that time, I didn't know I wanted to start my own company and you know become one of the best at what I do in that field. I didn't know I wanted to go in and become an NFL agent and represent guys at the highest level. All I could do was trust what I did know, right? So I think when it comes to injuries, right, and we can even circle it back to, you know, everyone's not gonna have a career in an injury, but all athletes are going to be injured in in some aspect in some space. You have to trust your story and trust your journey, right? And trust and know that what is for you is for you. And in that, also not just trusting, but controlling your controllables, right? And I'm always going to revert back to that. And trust is one thing, but you trust yourself because of the decisions that you make in the dark, right? I think trust comes from the deals that we make with ourselves daily, right? I mean, we could talk about the the simple, as simple as you might be eating a bag of chips, right? You put them back in the pantry, right? I'm done, right? You tell yourself you're done, but there's a good chance you might end back at that pantry, right? So the small deals that we make with ourselves, right? When we say we're gonna, we wanted to do, you know, whether it's you want to do 10 reps and you only did eight if I'm an athlete, right? If I'm a if I'm a lawyer and I need to redline seven documents and that's my goal, and then I make a deal, I did three and I'll do the other four later because I want to watch this show or whatever, whatever it may be, right? I think it's the deals that we make with ourselves with ourselves that reveal that that ultimately when it is time to trust ourselves, that that's where that trust comes from.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So when you were injured, just to bring this home, you said it was a cervical injury, correct? Yes. And so you were essentially paralyzed, unable to move.

Self-Deals And Daily Discipline

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yes. The the diagnosis, neuropraxia, transient paraplegia for people listening. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

And you in that moment you were still conscious, you were aware that your body could not move or wasn't moving the way it should. Help me and the and the listeners understand if it's okay what that was like and where did trust come in?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I think in that moment, just to be transparent, I wish I had the philosophical answer. I think I was hoping more than I was trusting. But in that moment, I did have trust because I remember my conversations with God in the ambulance. I remember, you know, I still, in that moment, I still trusted him. In that moment, my nobody was there. My mom, dad, support, nobody was there. It was just me. And in that moment, I still, but I was able to, I remember just praying. And I remember saying that there's no way I trusted in the fact that I was not going out. I was telling myself, you're not going out like this. You're not going out like this. You're not going out like this, right? So at the end of the day, I trusted that there was more for me after this injury that I was going to recover, that this wasn't going to be, you know, I wasn't going to be a paraplegic the rest of my life at the age of 23, 24 years old, right? That wasn't going to be my destiny. Right. So I think that's where the trust came in in that moment. Um, and then also I think is as well as is I I had to let go.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Let go. So trust. So, okay, so there are several things that you're talking about. You said you hoped, you trusted, and you let go. Yes. I think there's a message there for all of us. There's a message there for all of us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Hope. Trust and let go.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

So wow, that's just, I mean, I'm I'm just I'm just allowing that to sit. I want that to land.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

It's profound when you frame it that way.

Paralyzed On The Field, Choosing Trust

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Mm-hmm. It's also profound that you're sitting here in front of me, and that you're walking and talking, and that you were blessed to have the miracle of full return of all your limbs. Not everybody is so lucky, not everybody's so blessed. And uh this the fact that you could speak about it, and you also had a conversation with God. You said I remember when I spoke with God. Whatever your higher power is, if you're listening, whatever gives you meaning, whatever gives you hope, whatever your deeper connection is, there comes a time when you're gonna have to trust in that more than anything else. Yes. We talk about a yeah, we talk about alignment here on the sweet spot a lot, about being aligned. Trust is also involved in alignment, finding the right alignment, what we're aligning with, especially moments like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

And just to just to piggyback off of that, I love that. Because the reason that I was praying, the reason I just didn't accept it as fate is because I knew, I know, right? Not new, I know, that there are plans that God has for me. Not just in my life, but to impact and affect others in a positive way, right? To help others achieve their dreams, their goals through their hard work and their sacrifices, right? Me being paralyzed the rest of my life was not in alignment with what the truth is that I've already accepted is the goal and the message and the reason for my life. I knew there was, I there was no way that God was going to allow that to be, that's the Cameron Clark story. Because it's not an alignment. It's not an alignment with who I am and and and what not the injury per se, but the more so the plan that God has to use me to impact others. That wasn't an alignment because before before I played football, before I got good at football, before I was ever drafted, my mother was an educator, right? That was, and if I wasn't doing what I was doing, I think I'd be a teacher. I'd be teaching in some way. That action wasn't, it wasn't in alignment, right? So I love that you said that.

Hope, Trust, And Letting Go

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Understood. Understood. You had a deeper purpose, you had a deeper calling, and you sensed it, you felt it, and it galvanized you, it pushed you forward, and you knew. The ancient wisdom talks about this. Jeremiah 29, I believe, you know, uh 11, I'm not sure if it's 11 or 13, but a lot of Christians listening, they're gonna correct me later. Trust me. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. For I know the plans I have for you to bring you to an expected end, not to harm you. That's what you're living and walking. And it's great that you are not uh ashamed or reticent to speak about the fact that you connected to your higher source, to your higher source when you face that. And I'll tell you, I read an author a long time ago, I don't know who it is, but he said that if you take people up to a mountain and you throw them off, kind of a macabre thing, the first thing they're gonna say is they're gonna call for God. They're gonna find that it's almost instinctive in man to look for something divine, look for something bigger when a really big crisis hits. And I just wanted to say that out loud. It might help somebody. Yes. Oh, goodness. Well, look, I I have to say that I'm I I'm deeply, deeply, deeply impressed with how you trusted and and got past that, and that now you're using your testimony, your um story here to bless others and to to and really that you don't forget it, and that you actually use it to make yourself an instrument because you know that you had a bigger calling, you know that you had something larger to do. Now, I feel like I want to say this out loud too, that sometimes people are are are left in a paralyzed state. Sometimes they're left with deficits that are physical and they still minister. And their life is equally a testimony. And that's the mystery of God, in my view, that they're able to still promote and perpetuate the the power of God as we see them ministering and blessing in the middle of their own affliction. Maybe they didn't have the blessing that you did, but they nonetheless were not stopped. They still, in the middle of the affliction, the middle of the setback, the disappointment, they found a way. And I feel like that makes them even more powerful in some ways. So if you're out there and you're listening and you are facing something and you didn't get this blessing, don't despair. You are valuable, you are accounted for, you are loved, and you are worthy. And you as long as you have breath and you're connected, you can make a difference. And we have to trust that. We have to trust that. Sometimes we're not given the blessing, sometimes we're not given the outcome. But to get back to what Cam Clark has been teaching us this week, y'all control the controllables. You can still trust God. Ancient wisdom says, yet though I'm slayed, yet though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I trust. I have no fear. That's power. Now I don't know how yeah, I don't know how we got here, okay, but I think I think your your testimony and your sharing about your injury and how you overcame it sort of put me in that sort of mode to talk through how we trust after we have faced major disappointment.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah, yeah.

Alignment, Purpose, And Higher Plans

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And then we must do our part. We must do our part, but uh, I know we keep it on the religious path here, but my grandmother used to always listen to a gospel song that says, the battle's not yours, it's the Lord's. And entrusting ourselves and doing what we do or achieving, aspiring, whatever it is. Control your controllables, as Dr. Sweet has said, and understand what's out of your hands. In that moment, that wasn't my battle. The only thing there was nothing I could do, there wasn't a workout I could have done to prepare for it. There wasn't anything I could say, I could suggest in that moment. The battle wasn't mine. You know, so I had to come to peace. I had to make peace while also hoping, right? So aspiring and not, you know, yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Well, I know we've been beating the ancient wisdom down here quite a bit, but I feel as if that's where you go when things are really bad or things are really challenging or you're facing something that's overwhelming. You go to what gives you meaning. You go to what gives you the sense of power. And maybe for some listeners out there, it's the it's the teachings of Buddha. Maybe it's Muhammad and maybe uh it's Christ, whatever it is. For us, it's the ancient wisdom of the Christian walk. One of the things that I remember uh is this idea of trust in the Lord with all your heart, lead not to your own understanding. Sometimes self-trust can be distorted. And you do have to have a divine metric, something that's a little higher that you can believe in. Because what you're looking around you, it doesn't make sense in the natural. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't look like it, like somebody looking at you at at different points in your journey. If you the wrong person in front of, you know, the wrong person in front of you might have written you off. Yes. But you've trusted not only in your own understanding, but in something higher, something bigger. You knew that you knew that you knew that you had a bigger journey, like a bigger purpose. And I believe that that's what the idea of faith is all about.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

And you have to know that in despair and the depths of whatever you're going through, the lowest of the lows, whether it's whatever it is, whether it's loss, whether it's death, whether it's transitions, you have to always be able to aspire, right? If you can't hope for something better, then you're you're as good as dead, right? So maintaining the ability to aspire, right? So what it didn't go my way. So what, you know, this whole, maybe this relationship didn't turn out the way I thought it would. Maybe this business partnership, this mentorship, whatever it may have been, it didn't turn out the way that I wanted it to turn out, right? But there you all you can never let go of your hope. And you owe it to yourself, right? Not to anyone else, but to yourself. 100% to yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

As you say that, I'm reminded in the ancient wisdom that David, the warrior, had to encourage himself in the caves sometimes. Sometimes you have to encourage yourself. Sometimes you have to put on your music, sometimes you have to dance like nobody, like nobody's watching. Sometimes you got to go for the walk. Sometimes it's about doing some breathing, praying, whatever it is that you pour back into yourself. Because you've got to encourage yourself when nothing is around externally to encourage you. That's when you trust yourself. You're not just flesh and blood, you're also spirit and soul. And that's the key. Have a deeper awareness and understanding. And if we don't stop here, brother, we'll be having this conversation. You know how you and I can just go. All right, we'll be having this conversation on trust for quite some time. I hope that this helped someone today process trust to see that it's not neat, it's not perfect, but something is possible when we tune in. We've been listening to The Sweet Spot. It is Trust Yourself Thursday. We've been speaking with Cam Clark. We'll be joining you again tomorrow, beautiful souls, for nothing less than Finish Strong Friday. Cam Clark, is there anything you'd like to say?

SPEAKER_02 20:34

I appreciate you all. Hope you all had some nuggets that you could take from the day and look forward to seeing you all on Friday.