Slow Down Sunday Welcome

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Greetings and welcome. Welcome back to the Sweet Spot. It is Slow Down Sunday. Can you believe it? Sweet Spotters, we did it. We got to Sunday. We got to slow down Sunday. And I gotta tell you, it's been one heck of a week. We have had a great time, haven't we? We've been spending time with a book, The Energy Bus, written by John Gordon, a leadership expert. And we've been unpacking this book, we've been circling and highlighting parts of it so that we can grasp the big message. The entire series was called How to Maximize Your Energy. We find ourselves in episode 7, 7 of 7. We are at the end, sweet spotter, at the end of this series. And today's message is called Enjoy the Ride. The universe already is. Absolutely. Science, Soul, and Success, which is what we are all about here on the Sweet Spot. They all agree that slowing down and being present is the key. Welcome and thank you for your time and attention this entire week. Absolutely. Let's slow down. Let's be here. Let's get to talk to each other in a way that we haven't all week, maybe at a slower pace. As you know, I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. As you know, I'm your host here on the Sweet Spot. I am your teammate in the game of life. I'm on your team. Right, so I'm a board certified psychiatrist, and my day job is to work in high performance. This is day seven, the final day of our series, the energy bus. Yeah, and today, Sunday, we're gonna do something we haven't done all week. We're just gonna chill. We're gonna stop. We're gonna take a minute to look up. As you know, on Slowdown Sundays, we we dabble in a little bit of the astrophysics. Not because we're astrophysicists, but because we know the universe has so much to teach us. So before we go any further and bring this journey to a close here, this book, The Energy Bus to a Close, let's honor the full road we've been traveling on our bus. Because some of you have been on this bus since Monday, and you deserve to see the complete map. So here are the ten rules from this book that we've covered. Rule one, you are the driver. Your life is your responsibility, no one else holds the wheel. Make sure that you're at the wheel today. Rule two desire, vision, and focus move your bus. You need a destination before you can move. Make sure you know where you're going. Take a moment. Rule three, fuel your ride with positive energy. What you feed the tank determines how far you go. Rule four, invite people on your bus and share your vision. You are never meant to drive it alone. Rule five, don't waste your energy on those who don't get on your bus. Look, misalignment, it's not betrayal, it's direction. Rule six. Post a sign on the bus that says no energy vampires. No energy vampires. None allowed. Your bus has a culture. Protect it. Rule seven. Enthusiasm attracts more riders and energizers than they do detractors. Rule seven. Enthusiasm attracts more riders and it energizes them. You have more energizers. Your energy is contagious, so is your joy. Rule eight. Love your passengers. Love your passengers. Because vision without love is just ambition. Love is what makes the ride matter. Love is the message, and love is the key. Rule nine, drive with purpose. The why outlasts every how. No why you're driving. Purpose is the fuel that never runs out. And today, rule ten.

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Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the ride.

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Ten rules, seven days, one bus. And rule ten, the one, the one we've been building to all week. It may be the hardest one of all, right? Because this rule, it asks the high performer, that's you, to do the one thing that we might not be always so skilled at. That's to be present. To be right here, right now. You've heard this phrase right here, right now, in the sweet spot a lot. We use that phrase. Yeah, rule 10: enjoy the ride is about being present. Being right here, right now, and being in this moment. Enjoying the ride. So I've got a question. Are you right here right now? Are you enjoying the ride? John Gordon, the author of The Energy Bus, he closes the book with this. In the end, life is a journey. And the goal is not just to arrive at a destination, but to enjoy the ride along the way. In the end, life is a journey, my friend. And the goal, sweet spotter, is not to just arrive at a destination, but to enjoy the ride along the way. That's what the author said. Enjoy the ride. Don't wait till you win the championship to enjoy it, or till you get the promotion or the bonus to enjoy it, or if you get the job that you're looking for to enjoy it, or you find the loved one that you've always dreamed of to enjoy it. Don't wait for the book deal to enjoy it. Or to be fully recovered to enjoy it. Or to lose weight, or to get taller or shorter, whatever it is. Don't wait. Don't wait for the breakthrough. Enjoy the ride now.

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Here.

Striving Without Presence

What Starlight Reveals About Now

A Breath That Brings You Back

Stoicism Buddhism And The Present

Be Still And See The Ride

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Right here, right now. This moment on this bus with these passengers on this road. This moment on this bus with these passengers on this road. Do you get it? The author is not telling you to stop striving by any stretch. He's telling you that striving without presence is like being on a bus without windows. You're moving, but you're not seeing anything. You're not enjoying the ride. You're grinding, you're driving, you're driving. You're really your foot on the gas. Your wheels are your hands are gripping the wheel. You ever been there? Oh my god, I'm describing myself. Holy cow! Wow, yeah. Sometimes we're moving and we're driving the bus. We've got the passengers, right? We've got the sign up and everything, but we're really not looking left or right or anything. We're not the bus ain't got no windows. Does your bus have windows? Oh man. Oh, you're kidding me? You gotta be kidding me. That's such a great one. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's why here on Sunday we really spend time in the astrophysics, we spend time in the universe. We we go where few people go. You know, in Star Trek, you know, we boldly go where no man has gone before. That's in Star Trek, you know, one of my favorite shows, by the way. Oh, I love Star Trek and that kind of stuff. It's probably why every Sunday is astrophysics here on the Sweet Spot. Yeah, I want to take you today somewhere where no man has gone before. It's into space. Because the universe, if you will let it, it is the greatest teacher of this rule 10 from this book. The energy bus. Rule 10. Enjoy the ride. Oh, yeah, the universe is a great teacher for that. Here's what astrophysics tells us. When you look up at the night sky and you see a star, we've said this before, we said this last week, last Sunday. When you look up at a night sky and you look up at this and you see a star, you're not seeing the star as it is right now. You're seeing it as it was. You see, the light from the nearest star beyond our sun, Proxima Centuri, takes at least five years, four four and a half years or something like that to reach our eyes. The stars in the Orion constellation, that's between 250 to a thousand, maybe 1,500 light years away. Don't quote me on those numbers. The Andromeda Galaxy, the faint smudge that's visible to the naked eye on a clear night. You've heard of it, heard of it. That is over 2 million miles, 2 million light years, excuse me, not miles, light years from where you're standing. Every time you and I look up, we're looking back in time. You you and I are seeing a universe as it was, not even as it is. And it's hard to grasp that because we think we're seeing it in the present, but a lot of it has already happened. And here's what that means for your bus on Slowdown Sunday. Most of us are driving the same way we look at the stars. We're living in the past. Have you been there? Replaying some old pain, an old failure, an old mistake, replaying just the good times, the old conversations. Or sometimes we're living in the future, anxious about what's gonna happen, anxious about getting to the destination that we haven't even reached yet. Anxious about the passengers who haven't gotten on the bus yet, and what's up on the road ahead, afraid, worried, tense. We're not right here, we're not right now. We're really in the now. We're really present to the light that is actually reaching us in this moment. Take a breath with me right now, in through your nose, and even slower out through your mouth with the exhale. It's so important to take that deep breath because you know what that does, it puts you back into right here, right now, when we can focus on our breathing, being present. You know what astrophysicists call the study of the present universe? As it actually exists right now, they call it observational cosmology. Yeah, and it requires all these instruments like a a telescope, like a James Webb telescope or something like that, interferometers and gravitational wave detectors, all that kind of technology just to see what's actually what's actually here. They use all that to get a clear picture of what's right here in the universe. And yet, for us to be present, it costs us nothing. No telescope. We just have to be willing to stop every now and then, take the deep breath, like I just asked you to. Look up and be present. Rule 10 from this book, The Energy Bus, is not a soft idea, it is the most advanced state a human being can occupy. Because it means that he or she is in the present. The universe has been practicing it for over 13 billion years, and now it's your turn. Absolutely, it's your turn. You want to stay grounded, you want to be in the present, you don't want to miss the journey and miss the ride. The whole point of it is not the destination so much. Stoic, philosopher, you know where I'm going. I always quote Marcus Aurelius. I think I quoted him every single day here from meditations. He's the emperor, the philosopher, the man who governed an empire, while quietly writing to himself in the dark. And you know, Marcus Aurelius arrived at the same place this author, John Gordon, who wrote this book, The Energy Bust, did. And even the astrophysicists and the jazz musicians like John Coltrane arrive at these places. That the present is the only place where life is actually happening. Confine yourself to it. It's liberating to know that. Even in Buddhism, that ancient Buddhist wisdom, they echo this thought. The present moment is the only moment available to us. That's what it says in Buddhism. And it's the door to all moments. I'll say it again. The present moment is the only moment available to you and me. And it is the door to every moment, to all moments. The door to all moments. Yeah. It's the door to the future. It's the door to the past. It's the present. When you are fully present, when you are here, when you're right here and right now with me, where we're in this moment, we carry our history with us. We carry the wisdom of our history, not the weight of it. When you're fully present, you move towards your future with intention and not exactly. Yeah, the present is not a prison. Yeah, the present is the only place from which you and I can actually drive. Drive our bus. You don't want to be on a bus where the bus driver is in the past, do you? I know I don't. I don't even want to be on a bus where the bus driver's on the future. Where you want the bus driver's mind to be? Exactly. In the present. It's so important. So important that we grasp this truth today. On Slow Down Sunday. You've been executing, you've been performing, you've been delivering, you've been protecting, you've been loving, you've been grinding, you've been fueling, you've been driving, you've been doing all week, all month, all year, maybe all your life. You've been so busy. So much to do. And today, Sunday, slow down Sunday. I'm not asked, I'm not asking you to do any more. I'm asking you to receive something. I want you to receive the beauty of this moment. The gift of this breath that we just took. The miracle, actually, and I'm not using this word lightly. The miracle of you and I being alive, the miracle of us being able to have this conversation together, to be together, of being alive on this bus, on this road, with these people, headed to the destination. Yeah. You know what? We've earned a right to enjoy this ride. We don't have to wait till we arrive. Let's enjoy it now. Yeah. Yeah. The universe has been expanding for billions of years. Over 13 billion years, billion of years. And look, look, it's produced you. You. With your bus, your passengers, your why, your vision, your love. Yeah. You've been produced. We've been produced. As the astrophysicist Carl Sagan said, and I said this last week: we are made of star stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself. You are the universe. Remember, we talked about the helium and we talked about the hydrogens, we talked about the carbons and the iron and all the various elements that uh compose the stars, and when those stars exploded, somehow they found their way into our DNA. You and I are the universe, and we're enjoying our own ride. We're like, listen, we're divine beings having a human experience. We've been fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 4610 has been speaking to people like us who've been driving buses so fast for over 3,000 years. The psalm is so clear. We quote it so often on the sweet spot, you can probably tell me exactly what I'm about to say. Be still.

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Oh yeah. Be still. Be still and know that I'm God. Be still.

Week Recap And Closing Blessing

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Sometimes when I say that, people think I'm pushing being idle or being passive or being indifferent. It's not about that. It's about stillness. In stillness you know. In stillness you see. In stillness the ride becomes visible again. And what you see is that you were never just driving. You are actually being carried by grace, by purpose, by love. Something far greater. Far greater and far larger than any one bus on any one road. Be Still, and know that this Sunday, that this Sunday, that which is greater in you has been beside you all along. You know, there's a saying I heard Wayne Dyer, one of my favorite God rest of the soul. Wayne Dyer, wow, what a what a beautiful man, what a beautiful spirit. He said, if you knew who stood beside you and who was standing beside you always, you would never feel fear again. Since we're reading this book, The Energy Bus, I'm gonna paraphrase Wayne. If you knew who was driving this bus with you, you wouldn't worry so much. That's the whole book. That's rule 10. Enjoy the ride. That's what the author John was trying to tell us. That's the idea. Absolutely. Seven days we've been doing this book. We got ten rules out of it. On one bus with one driver. Monday you took the wheel, you were the driver, and you are the driver. Tuesday you filled the tank, desire, vision, and focus. Wednesday you packed the bus. Remember, enthusiasm, it's contagious. Thursday you protected the bus. Hey, not everyone can get a seat. Friday you found your why. Drive your bus with purpose. Saturday, you loved your passengers and yourself. And Sunday, today, slow down Sunday, you looked up, you saw the stars, and you remember what the astrophysicist Carl Sagan said. We are made of star stuff. We are a way the universe gets to know itself. And you remember what Marcus Aurelius whispered in the dark. Confine yourself to the present. And you felt what the psalmist in the ancient wisdom declared across 3000 years. Be still and know I am God. Yeah, and you've heard our author, John Gordon, with the simplest, hardest, most human instruction of all. Enjoy the ride. The bus is yours, sweet spotter. The passengers are already chosen. The culture is set, the energy is protected, the purpose is clear, and the love is real. Now look out the window. This is the sweet spot. And you're on the bus. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. You're the driver. The tank is full. The passenger and the passengers are aboard. The destination is already set. And the ride, every mile of it, that's the point. I'll see you tomorrow for Making Moves Monday. Love and blessings. Subscribe and share. This is the sweet spot.