Win It All Wednesday Setup

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Greetings and welcome. Welcome back to the Sweet Spot. Today is Wednesday, but as you know, it's not just any Wednesday around these parts. Around these parts, we call it Win It All Wednesday. It's all about winning this Wednesday, and I'm so glad you're here. 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 performance circles. More than that, I'm your teammate here in The Game of Life. We've been unpacking this week in The Sweet Spot a great book here called The Energy Bus. It's a book that has these 10 wonderful lessons that we are unpacking and learning about that are helping us be really strong and really optimistic as we go through the game of life. And on Monday, we established the foundation. We said the first lesson was you are the driver of your bus. We're not gonna let the circumstances or the history or somebody else's opinion drive our bus. No, you're gonna drive your bus. On Tuesday, Take Action Tuesday, we talked about the tank. We filled the tank. We talked about how desire, vision, and focus remember those three. We said that the desire, vision, and focus, which was the second lesson that this character George learned on the bus, desire, vision, and focus formed a three-part ignition system. And we linked that yesterday to how the brain's reticular activating system is literally wired to orient us and to orient our attention to whatever direction we're giving it. Remember that? We talked about running on clean fuel yesterday, take action Tuesday, and the clean fuel was purpose, joy, and genuine belief. That was as opposed to the dirty fuel that corrodes the engine over time the fear, the anxiety, the stress, the comparison, the negativity, right? That dirty negative fuel we talked about that. So you know who you are, and you know where you're going, and your tank is full. That's where we are because we've been in the sweet spot unpacking the lessons from this book.

Who’s On Your Bus?

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So now that you know who you are, you know where you're going, and your tank is full, Wednesday, will it all Wednesday asks the next great question. Who is on the bus with you? Yes, who is on this bus with you? Remember, our character in the book, George, has a horrible life. Things are going wrong, his marriage, his job, family, everything is going south on him. His car gets a flat, he it breaks down, he gets on a bus, he meets this woman named Joy, and she's giving him these lessons, and we learn the lessons. He learns that you have to drive your own bus, you have to have the right fuel, you have to have the direction. But we are reached a point where the first three rules that we got are good, but the question is who's driving, who's on the bus with you, the bus that you're now driving, and that's where rules four and seven, the really the relational heart of this energy bus, suddenly appear. Up to this point, the author has been talking to us about our choice, our direction, and our fuel. We're clear on that. Your choice, your direction, and your fuel. But that's not enough, sweet spotter. He adds rule four here.

Invite People And Share Vision

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And rule four says you have to invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead. And then he adds another rule. I'm gonna skip to rule seven because they go together. He said, enthusiasm is the secret sauce. Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride. So, rule four, invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead. And then rule seven, enthusiasm, you being enthusiastic is going to attract more passengers and energize them for the ride. Together, rules four and seven. These two rules address something no, no high performer, no individual worth his or her salt can avoid forever. You cannot win alone. This is Win It All Wednesday. You just don't win alone. Anytime you are a winner and you really look at it, other people have been involved in helping you win. Absolutely. You're not gonna win a championship alone, you're not gonna win over a company alone, you're not gonna create a legacy alone, you can't create a family alone. You can live alone and you can be alone, but many of the things you want to accomplish in life require connection. At some point in your journey, in my journey, our bus needs passengers. Especially if we want to be winners at what we do. And how we fill it, how we fill the bus determines everything about where this bus is gonna go and how it's gonna go. And the author writes that the main character, George, needed to do two things simultaneously in order to ensure that his bus was going to get to the destination in the right way. Rule four and rule seven. Rule four was invite people and then and share your vision. Yes, these two things have to be done together. You have to share your vision and invite the people in. Don't just tell them what to do, don't just recruit bodies for seats on your bus, but open the door nicely and lay out the destination and let people choose to get on board the bus. Here's a line from the book. You not only need to invite people to join you, you must tell them where you're going and how you plan to get there so they know what they're signing up for. That's a leadership principle. It's disguised as a bus metaphor, but that's a leadership principle. People need to know where they're going with you and how you plan to get there. The greatest teams in history were not just assembled, they weren't just put together. They were they had they had an attractive force around them, right? The players wanted in, the staff wanted to be contribu uh contributors, the communities and the audience and this and the fans wanted to belong to this, they loved it. Everybody was in this synchro, synergistic, uh, attractive force thing. Because someone cast a vision clear enough and genuine enough, and everyone saw it, people were attracted to it. You cannot attract the right passengers on your bus if you're gonna be vague, and if you're gonna be selfish, and if you're gonna be just sort of closed off. You have to be clear though about what you're doing. People don't like being around vague people that are ambiguous and it's shifty and they can't figure it out. So, this rule about the idea of you inviting people in, gotta open the door and you gotta share your vision. Does that make sense?

Enthusiasm As A Leadership Tool

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And then the other rule that went along with this, the author said, is be enthusiastic. Now, why would he say be enthusiastic? The reason is enthusiasm is a magnet. When you're enthusiastic, you attract, you attract things, you attract people. Not only that, you energize what's around you. So it takes rule seven here, takes rule four further. It says your enthusiasm is not a personality treat, it's an actual tool, a recruiting tool, a retention tool. It's an envy, sort of an energy transfer mechanism. Don't you like being around people who are positive, genuinely positive, not fake positive, but genuinely positive and genuinent enthusiastic? The author writes that enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos, which means inspired or filled with the divine. When you bring that level of inspired energy to everything you do, you know what happens? Other people feel it. Energy is transferred. People feel your energy, and then they want to be around you, and they want to be on your team. If you're not getting people on your team, part of this kind of think about what energy you're giving off. If you're gonna walk in and be like all negative and like it's a bad day, and you're gonna be pointing out all the stuff, and you're gonna flatten the room with not without giving any energy back, well, then that's the issue. And remember, it comes from the Greek word enthusiasm, comes from the Greek word entheos, which means inspired or filled with the divine. Let that breathe for a second. Filled with the divine. That's energy. That's not manufactured hype or forced positivity, that's genuine, overflowing energy that comes from a person who truly believes, who actually believes, in where they're going and what they're about. Have you been around those kind of people? Aren't they fun to be around? Are you one of those kind of people? The author Gordon he says that you lead from the heart by becoming the CEO. That's right. Becoming the CEO of your workplace. But what's interesting is that we think of CEO as chief executive officer, and I know quite a few, but that's not what this author meant. He meant chief energy officer. You leave from the heart by becoming the chief energy officer of your workplace, of your home, wherever you're functioning. Are you the downer, are you the Debbie Downer, or are you the chief energy officer? Not fake, but bringing some enthusiasm into the moment. It can change everything. Because before there was strategy, before the structure, before your systems, you know what people are reading? They're reading your energy. The energy you, as a leader, as a parent, as a husband or a wife, as a father, as a student, bring what you bring into the room. You could be a patient and your doctor walks in the room, and if she has the wrong energy or he has the wrong energy, you're gonna feel it right away. So because energy is important before structures, before systems, before strategies, it's super important that you figure out your own energy and your enthusiasm. And if you want to be a winner, you've gotta have that level of enthusiasm. And that's why this is one of the important lessons that this character had to learn on this bus. Remember, this dude had a bad day, he ended up on a bus, and he's getting 10 lessons. We just got like four of them, right? He knows he has to drive the bus, he knows what kind of fuel he has to get, the direction he has to get, but today he's learning that he's gotta invite people on the bus, he's gotta be enthusiastic about the bus, he's gotta share the vision. That's what we have to do, brother and sister, sweet spotter.

Become The Chief Energy Officer

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And the reason this is important, and the reason this works, I'm gonna give you the neuroscience. Why? Because here on the sweet spot, we're all about what? Science, soul, and success. And here's the science of enthusiasm, the science of why you and I really ought to take pride and take real caution to be sure that we're not a downer. Because there's such a thing called mirror neurons. Mirror brain cells. Yeah, your brain contains a class of neurons called mirror neurons. They go back to the early 1990s, they were found. And these brain cells, these mirror neurons, they fire when you perform an action and when you observe someone else performing that same action. So they're a part of a neurological architecture that underlies things like empathy and imitation and social connection. It's why people kind of do what other people do. So, and here's what this means in a room full of people, right? When you walk into a room with positive energy and the people around you begin to sync with you, emotionally and neurologically, your brains start to sink. And the research on this sort of emotional contagion stuff shows that our systems are designed to pick up what other people's systems are doing. It's why when people are clapping, everybody claps, we're laughing, everybody laughs. When people want to run, they all run in a crowd. The brain has this mirror-neuron thing going on and it's real. That's why certain coaches I've noticed over the years could walk into a locker room and they can change the locker room just because of their energy. Certain leaders can make everything feel and make everyone feel like everything is exciting, and we're gonna make this happen. Some players, even on losing teams, can make everyone around them feel better. So enthusiasm is not a soft thing, it's not an optional thing, it's a biological force, and science, the science says that you're either using it intentionally or you're losing it um passively. Where are you on the enthusiasm scale? If I asked you today, how enthusiastic are you as a person? 10 being super enthusiastic and energetic, one being like flat with no enthusiasm energy, where do you fall? Because your energy is not private, in case you think that it's never private, it belongs to everyone in the room. People know and read that. Absolutely. So think about that today as you move through Win It All Wednesday. And as we close on Win It All Wednesday, I want to speak to somebody today who's doing everything alone. You had the vision, you had the desire, you've been filling the tank, you've been listening to the sweet spot, you know what we said on Makey Moves Monday, take action Tuesday, you're you're in Win It All Wednesday, but you're doing it alone. This is for you. You've been treating the bus like it's a solo vehicle. You've been afraid to invite people in, and you have probably have good reasons. You're afraid to share your vision anymore. You're afraid that your enthusiasm would look like some kind of weakness or like you're being naive. I want to say this to you directly today. Isolation is not discipline. It's not, it's a trap. Silence about your vision is not humility. And keeping people off your bus is not protecting you, it's limiting you. You will get more done in team fashion. The greatest performers I've ever worked with, the ones who sustain excellence over years and decades, are the ones who learned eventually that they need passengers on the bus. Not passengers who drive for them. Remember on Monday we took care of that. We said you got to drive your own bus. But you want passengers who will help you stay buoyant on your journey. Passengers who fuel the journey, who see the destination and say, you know what? I believe in that. I like what I'm seeing here. I I can get with this, I can mess with this. I wanna I wanna help. How can I help? One of the greatest things I love in full circle, our practice, or even here with the sweet spot, is when somebody says, hey, I want to can I get interviewed, or can I can I jump in? What can I do? Or they give me a topic or an idea. It's it's so amazing. It reminds me that I'm not alone. And that's why we've been opening up the sweet spot recently to interviews. I hope you saw the interview with Darcell Deluxe. Uh, hopefully you saw the interview with Cam Clark as well. I don't know if you saw those two. And we have so much more. We have Roger Hines, we have so many more great names uh coming up. Kendall Glassby is coming up. Oh my goodness, Leon Gray. Oh, we there's so many, right? Anyway, I'm digressing, I digress. So you want passengers on the bus, and trust me, we got a lot of passengers here on the sweet spot coming up for you. What I want to leave you with today on on the sweet spot, what I want to leave you with on when it all wednesday, here's what I want to leave you with. Vision without invitation is loneliness. Enthusiasm without direction is noise. But if you take your vision and you add the invitation to it, you invite others onto the bus, and then you combine that invitation with genuine enthusiasm, that's how you get to your destination with joy, with freedom, with love. That's how you build championship culture, that's how it gets built. People should feel that enthusiasm. When I do the sweet spot, I'm I'm in, I'm all in. I love it. That's why sometimes I'm laughing at you like, why is this dude like why is he so happy? I don't know. I'm just that's the entheos, that's the divine inspiration. You've got it. All of us have got it. Just

The Neuroscience Of Enthusiasm

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gotta access it. Listen, nobody wants to get on a bus driven by somebody who looks like they don't believe in the in what they're doing or they'll they don't want to get to the destination. No, your enthusiasm and my enthusiasm is what's gonna recruit people to you. And you want to be a winner on Wednesday? Start by being enthusiastic, be more enthusiastic, and the ancient wisdom backs us up, and then we're out. Remember Nehemiah? He was a cupbearer for the king of Persia, right? Nehemiah in in the ancient wisdom, that guy, interesting dude, right? Wasn't a big time general or a politician, wasn't a man of like real power, but he had a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Remember that story? You should go read it. I think it's chapter 2, Nehemiah 2, 17, right? He he said, Come, let's rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He shared it, right? And enthusiastically he said, We will no longer be in disgrace. See, he didn't try to build a wall alone. He did it, he invited people, he had a vision, he spoke up, and he shared the destination with clarity and conviction so that enough people who were around them, they didn't say, Ne, go kick rocks, get out of here, whatever. No, they were like, nah, I'm gonna help you. I'm getting on your bus. And that's what you want today, sweet spotter. It's Win It All Wednesday. Who's on my bus? Okay, who's on your bus? And I know you got a lot. I saw my mom the other day, and I was telling her, Mom, I'm impressed with you. You have like a lot of friends, and I'm impressed with how many of them are around you, how genuine they are, how you know they're just they're such great people. I will I would call them by name, but I don't want to get myself in trouble with her or her friends, but she has a tremendous friends bus, a bus f a bus full of friends. Mom, I want to get on your bus. So, rule four and rule seven in this book, the energy bus that we're talking about, written by John Gordon, really tells us to not only drive our bus. But bring people on board, share the vision, and it's backed up in the ancient wisdom, it's backed up in stoic philosophy, it's it's important. So as we close this Win It All Wednesday, let me uh challenge you. Let me give you a sweet spot challenge today. I want you to identify one person you've been doing life or work without. You've cut them out. Someone who belongs on your bus, but they haven't been invited. Maybe it's a collaborator, it's a teammate, maybe it's a mentor or friend, somebody whose energy fuels yours. Name that person. Name that person. Is there somebody that belongs on your bus today? Reach out today. Don't wait for tomorrow or event. Today, make it now's always the right time. And share something about where you're going, your vision, your project, your season. Invite them in. And ask yourself honestly. Ask yourself this today. What does my energy say to the people around me? Does it say the destination is real? Does it say I believe we can get there? Does it say I want you on this ride? Does it show energy? Does it show enthusiasm? Are you the chief energy officer? Are you the CEO of your space today? We often call the prefrontal cortex of the brain the CEO. Well, this is the CEO, but it's the chief energy officer. In every room you go to today, in every phone call, in every interaction, I want you to be enthusiastic. This is the sweet spot. This is when it all went to, and this is Dr. Sweet. Love and blessings. I'll see you tomorrow. And if you enjoyed today or if it spoke to you today, I would like you to share this with someone who could use a boost, who maybe needs to get on your bus or you need to jump on their bus. And let's let's go on a ride together. And if you haven't subscribed, I want you to join my bus for sure. Love and blessings.