Thoughts Shape Your Reality

Stop Waiting On External Change

Link Thought To Purpose

Calmness As Competitive Power

Your Mind As A Garden

Marching Orders And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome! Welcome to the Sweet Spot. It is Making Moves Monday, and you're here, you're ready, you're gonna do this, we're gonna get it done. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet, I'm your host here on The Sweet Spot. As you know, I'm a board certified psychiatrist. I work in high performance. More than that, I am your teammate in the game of life. And here on The Sweet Spot, we're about science, soul, and success. Every week we choose a theme. Every week we have an idea that we want to explore. This week we're gonna look at a book by a great author that I love. I read them in college, and the book never gets old. It's called As a Man Thinketh. And you know, it's a great book to look into because it speaks to something that we all have become quite accustomed to hearing: that our thoughts, what we think, what's in our heads, really shapes the reality that we experience here in life. Yes, before you check your calendar, before you open your phone, this author had a great question. What are you thinking? What are you thinking right now? Because that answer is already shaping how this making moves Monday is gonna go for you. He took that title right out of the ancient wisdom. Absolutely. For this idea of as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is, as a person thinks in their heart and in their mind, so are they. It's in Proverbs. It's in the book of Proverbs 23, verse 7. Check it out for yourself. So, look, long before neuroscience figured this out, long before performance psychology got into this idea of your thoughts are gonna control your behaviors, your actions, and your reality, James Allen in 1903 had already figured it out. He had already published this book. Yeah, he figured it out. Life tends to follow the direction of thought. So the real move for you today on making moves Monday, it doesn't start on your calendar, it doesn't start in your phone, it doesn't start in your to-do list. You know where it starts? In your mind. You are the architect. Today he said this man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought, he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself mansions of joy and strength and peace. Yes, sweet spotter. Literally, I'm gonna interpret this. You are made or unmade by yourself, by the thoughts that you're forging, whether it's a weapon to destroy yourself today, or with a great thought that's gonna build for you the fruit of the spirit, joy and peace and gentleness and all that good stuff. It's all in our heads. Hmm. Monday doesn't build you or break you. It's not about that. It's your thinking, it's what we have in our minds that hits us before we even get out there to take the action. Your thinking does that before the first conversation even begins. The Stoics saw this pattern early too. They saw it centuries earlier when they wrote Marcus Aurelius wrote, the happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. That just makes so much sense. And you know what? It makes us have to take responsibility for what we're thinking. And it doesn't matter if you're into the Buddhism or the Christianity, I don't know, I don't care what you're thinking. In the Dhammapada, a Buddhist text, it opens up with this line: all that we are is the result of what we have thought. You see, it doesn't matter the culture, the century, it doesn't really matter. The message is clear. We have one shared realization as human beings. The mind goes first, and everything comes after that. What's in your head this morning? What's in your head this afternoon? What are you thinking? So before reacting to anything today, I want you to pause for a moment and ask yourself one honest question. Am I building something right now in my mind, or am I forging a weapon, or am I constructing a prison in which I'm going to live? Because the thought you carry into the day, this Monday, will quietly shape everything that follows for you today and most likely all week long. You see, the author James Allen was putting it this way your our circumstances are not the starting point. The way he wrote it, and it still works a hundred years later. Remember, this was like in the early 1900s, he wrote this. We're in 2026, and he wrote this people are anxious to improve their circumstances, but unwilling to improve themselves, and therefore they remain bound. I repeat, we are anxious to improve our circumstances, but unwilling to improve ourselves, and we remain bound as a result. You see, a lot of us, not you, just not me and not you, just other people. Most people spend Monday hoping something outside of them is going to change, right? I'll get a better break, it'll be a better schedule, they're waiting on a better environment, a shift. But that's not how it works. We can't make the external stuff fit what we want. Even the Stoics, Epictetus wrote, Seek not that events should happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and your life will flow well. Control the controllables. That's your thoughts. That's your thoughts. Own your thoughts. Jay-Z put it this way: I will not lose. Even in defeat, there's a valuable lesson learned. In other words, the real advantage is not controlling circumstances, it's really about training your response. You see how Jay-Z put that? Even in the middle of defeat, well, you know what that tells me? That he's faced some stuff, he's been through some things. To be able to put that out there, right? I will not lose. Even in defeat, there's a valuable lesson learned. He's trained his response. As a man thinketh, as a person thinketh, so are they. Whatever in your mind and your heart is going to determine how you look at the problem or the challenge. So here's the move on Making Moves Monday. Name one thing in your life, one thing that you've been waiting on to change externally, or that you're grappling with, or you're really fighting with, then ask, ask yourself quietly whether the first shift might not be something internal in your mind. Get clarity before your strategy. Get your mind clear. Get your thoughts clear. Because as Alan, James Allen wrote, until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment. And that explains why so many Mondays can feel really busy, but strangely unproductive. You've got to link that thought with a purpose. Motion and busyness is easy. A direction, a vector, a real direction with your thoughts and your purposes really aligned and linked. And you want to think that out. So that you're not aimlessly running around just trying to get it all done. You ever feel that day up in that in that scenario? You feel really frazzled, but that's not how life is supposed to be lived. Even in the ancient wisdom, Paul writes. So I I don't run. If you're an athlete, you know, I don't run aimlessly. I don't box as one just beating in the air. I'm not gonna shadow box the air all day long. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 26, in case you're interested. That's in the ancient wisdom that your purpose has to sharpen your effort. So that what you're gonna do, you're gonna do and you're gonna do it with purpose. That's the key. Why are you taking this action? Anything you're gonna do today on Making Moose Monday, why are you doing this? Is it attached to a real purpose? Is this what you really want? Because even in the Zen teaching, if you're not even into the Christian ancient stuff, I'm not I'm saying, even in the in the Buddhist stuff, they say uh there's a Zen T a Zen teaching says, when walking, walk. When eating, eat. You know what that tells me? Be present, be purposeful. Yeah, this is not some productivity trick, this is about purpose and action. It's a discipline, it is a discipline of attention, and when you have that, you walk around with a level of just knowledge. You walk around feeling centered. Because when thought connects to purpose, your effort becomes focused. Are your thoughts connected to a purpose today? So before the day accelerates, before things are going too fast, ask yourself that question what is the real purpose behind what I'm doing today or this week? And get that connected. Right. Because once you have it, you have a calm. Once you know it, it's amazing how that'll calm you down once you say, you know, hey, this is my identity, this is my purpose. Alan put it this way, uh, James Allen. He said, the more tranquil a person becomes, the more calm they become, the greater their success, the greater their influence, the greater their power for good. Self-control is strength. Right thought, he said, is mastery. Calmness is power. I'm just quoting from the book. That sounds almost counterintuitive in a competitive environment, but you know what? Think about the best players you know, the best athletes you know, the best performers. They have a calm. They're when they're really a master of what they do, they're very calm. Absolutely, because you see, they have power over themselves, they understand how to regulate themselves. Marcus Aurelius Systoke put it this way: you have power over your mind, not over outside events. Realize this, he said, and you will find strength. You know what? When you start understanding the power you have over your own mind, your own thoughts to choose your reaction, man, you you really begin to have a zen-like calm. You have you begin to be so relaxed because you understand the feelings can come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Right? That your conscious your consciousness is not anchored to what's happening on the outside. You have something that's greater in you than what's in the world, and you feel it, and you and your being calm today on Monday is not a lack of your intensity. No, you're you're you're in you have that's intensity guided by a sense of control. So, today, as you go out, I want you not to be tossed left and right to really be in control of your thinking because that'll help your emotions and help your behaviors. The last thing I'll say is that the author has this great analogy about the mind, and you've heard it before. He called it a garden. He he really loved this metaphor of the mind being a garden, and I'm gonna quote: a man's mind may be likened to a garden which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. So, your mind and my mind, that's the garden. Is it gonna go wild or are we going to cultivate it? You know what gardening involves pulling up weeds and it's work to keep that garden looking a certain way. Make sense? So, whatever grew in your thinking yesterday, whatever's brewing in your thinking today, it's like a kind of a soil this morning, this afternoon, or this evening. Whenever you're listening to this, think about the soil of your mind, and you are the gardener, you determine what is gonna grow in here. Don't let other people plant things, right? Because even in the ancient wisdom in Matthew, it says, you know, every good tree bears good fruit. Fruit is visible, roots are not, so that's why you gotta check out what's going on underneath. That's right, because your thoughts can become habits, and habits can become character, and character can quietly shape your life. That's what's going on here on Micke Moves Monday. You're gonna guard your thoughts, you're not going to let outside circumstances determine what you think. So, that's your marching orders for today. You've been listening to the sweet spot. Monday is not really about what you want to accomplish. No, no, no. It's about who you're becoming as you move through Monday and what you're thinking. So, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is right, whatever's pure, whatever is lovely, whatever's good, think good things. Absolutely think good things. Peace comes from within. Don't look from it, don't look outside for it. It's already in your thinking. That's how powerful you are, that's how amazing you are, and that's why you are in the sweet spot for science, for soul, for success. This is Dr. Derek Sweet. If you enjoyed this message today, please subscribe. It's absolutely free. And guess what? Guess what? Send it to a friend too. Somebody can always use a message on Monday about how to manage their thinking. I'll see you tomorrow for Take Action Tuesday. We're going in on this book, As a Man Thinketh. We're there are gonna be more revelations, and we're gonna see how thought and action are linked. Love and blessings.