Let It Go! with Mitch Matthews

22 May Let It Go! with Mitch Matthews

Let It Go! with Mitch Matthews

Hello, there. Welcome to Dream Think Do. I hope you’re doing fantastic no matter where you’re at in the world. Welcome to Episode 177. We just keep heading right towards 200 episodes. It’s crazy to think about. It’s been an awesome journey so far and I’m super stoked about where we’re headed.

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Your tool for overcoming worry

Recommended Books:

Here’s the list of books suggested by DREAM THINK DO-ers:

John C Maxwell’s: “Thinking for a Change.”

Henry Cloud: “Never Go Back.”

William Paul Young’s: “The Shack.”

David Schwartz’s: “The Magic of Thinking Big.”

David Millman’s “Way of the Peaceful Warrior.”

I’m not sure if you can tell, but we’re really trying some new things. Trying to just continue to experiment and take things with DREAM THINK DO to the next level. And you, yes, you, are helping to do that, so thank you so much for that.

In fact, this is a very special episode. I tried something different. We crowdsourced some great ideas for this one. That’s right. We are going to talk about a really important subject. It’s the subject of letting go, specifically around the subject of worry. I don’t know if you deal with worry, if someone close to you deals with worry, but one of the strategies that has helped me involves letting go; letting go of worry.

I put it out there to Dream Think Do-ers around the world, and maybe you participated just to say, “Hey, what works for you?” on the subject of letting it go. Because the idea of it is so nice, so powerful – but in practice, it’s not always easy. So we’re going to talk about that. How do you, in fact, let it go? And we’re going to get specific with some strategies. I’m also going to share some quotes, some books, all sorts of good stuff that comes from you, the Dream Think Do-ers. So stand by for that.

Let me give you a little background about why we’re talking about letting go. Way back in Episode Two of Dream Think Do I talked about worry. Worry is just one of those things that if you’re going to dream bigger, think better and do more in the world, do more of what you were put on the planet to do, you’ve got to let some stuff go. As we dream big, there’s a good chance that worry, negative thinking, those things that keep us awake at night has been a factor. I can tell you, worry has shut down more dreams than just about anything else.

Maybe you’re not a worrier. If you’re not, then continue to listen on behalf of somebody else in your life. But I’m guessing you can identify with being worried from time to time, especially when it comes to going after the big stuff, new stuff, stuff that’s important to you, stuff that feels like you’re supposed to do it, but you’re not quite sure how it’s going to work out. You know what I’m talking about?

Back in episode two, I shared a strategy that a lot of you loved. It’s something I called a “three-bucket strategy.” It’s something that was introduced to me by somebody in the audience of a talk that I was giving on the subject of – you guessed it – worry. During the break, this person came up to me and he was a big guy, a bit intimidating, to be honest.

I found out later he was in the military, had definitely lived through some battles; literally and figuratively. He let me know early on in our conversation that he was a cancer survivor. I told him immediately, “My wife is a cancer survivor.” Before I even realized what I was saying, I said, “Bring it in for a hug,” which I think surprised him. He was so tall I felt like I was hugging his belt buckle for crying out loud.

We talked through some of the strategies that I’d been sharing in my presentation, but then he said, “I’ve realized, especially with going through cancer, through going through the battle, through now leading a team – I just need three buckets.”

I asked, “Three buckets? What are you talking about?” He said, “Well, in life, I’ve realized worries or the temptation to worry, at least, is always going to hit you, right? Things are going to get thrown your way, and you have to decide what you’re going to do with them. I decide which of the three buckets I’m going to put those things in.” I said, “Tell me what the three bucket are.”

“The first bucket is ‘control it.’ Can I control that thing? Something gets thrown your way, you get to work that morning, and there’s an email in your inbox or there’s a co-worker who gives you a sideways glance or you see negative headlines while you’re waiting for your coffee. You have to decide okay, those are all things that get thrown at us. What am I going to do with it? Can I control that? Honestly, the control bucket is the smallest of the three. It’s important though because, in the end, all we can control is how we respond. We can’t control other people. We can’t control the circumstances that get thrown our way. We can just control ourselves, our emotions, our response, our work ethic, how we’re going to look at something, our perspective, how we’re going to treat others. That’s the control.”

“What’s the second bucket?” He said, “The second is ‘Influence it.’ Can I influence it? I might see a co-worker who is negative, worried, or stressed out. I might see a situation where I can’t control it, but maybe I can influence that by bringing a good attitude or bringing my best self to that situation. Or maybe pouring into someone else and encouraging someone else, I can influence the situation.” I was like, “I love that. Okay. That’s awesome.”

“What’s the third bucket?” He said, “This is probably the most important bucket, but it’s also the most difficult.” I said, “What’s that?” He said, “That’s the ‘let it go’ bucket.” I said, “Ah, man.” Now I joked about it then. I joke about it now. Even when I say it, there’s a part of me that starts to sing “Let It Go, Let It Go.” I will admit. I have never actually seen Frozen, but I still immediately go to that song.

But I said, “Okay. Tell me more about the ‘let it go’ bucket.” He said, “The ‘let it go’ bucket is what you just have to let go. The things that fall outside the control bucket, things that fall outside the influence bucket. It can be anything from the weather to the traffic to how someone else is going to treat you, to that thing that somebody said to you way back in high school or in junior high or last week at work. Things that fall outside of your control.”

Interestingly enough, I’ve shared these three buckets with a lot of different organizations. One tech company I worked with started to realize that these three buckets could help them shape their approach to business. They realized that a lot of the launches, some of the things they were needing to do with improving their technology and improving their products were getting held up because they weren’t using these three buckets. They began to filter ideas and decisions through these buckets.

What can we control? We can control the quality of our product. We can control the experience of our product, but we can only influence our customers. We can’t control our customers. We can’t control the market, but we can influence those things by communicating effectively, by having excellent customer service, by doing our best to try to make that user experience amazing, all of those things.

But then there are certain things we have to let go. We have to let go of timing in some ways. We have to let go of what’s going on in the market. They began to realize some of the things that were in the “let it go” bucket were exactly what was holding them up. They were waiting for perfect conditions, which would never happen, so they said, “Okay. We will let it go.”

Think about how you might apply those buckets. What could you control? What’s something in your world that you can control? My guess is just like my huge friend that came up and spoke to me about the buckets initially, you realize – I can’t control my friends. I can’t control my family. I can’t control my co-workers, but I can control, to the best of my ability, myself, my response, my work ethic, my attitude, how I’m going to look at things.

To be able to say, “All right. What’s something I want to do today to control the things that I can control, those things that are within my power? What do I want to do with that bucket? Or be more intentional with the things that I can influence in my world.” Then that third one, the “let it go” bucket, that’s the one that’s probably key because those are the things that keep you up at night, but also the things that fall outside of your control and fall outside your influence.

I love those three buckets. I love the “let it go” bucket. Although it can be frustrating. You know you need to let it go, but how do you do it?

That’s really where we’re going to focus the rest of our time together because that “let it go” is important. Yes, controlling it, influencing it, to be intentional about those things, the things that go in those buckets, this is absolutely imperative. It’s where it starts. But the ‘let it go’ bucket, that’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our time.

Now as I mentioned earlier, I put it out to you guys, to say, “Hey, if you were going to let something go, how would you do it? What’s something that you do, what’s an idea, what’s a strategy, what’s a quote, what’s a book that’s helped you in regards to letting things go?” You guys came after it in droves. I love it. So if I used your strategy, your book, your quote, your whatever, your saying, I will give you due credit, but I may butcher your name. I apologize. I know many of you. I’ve been able to connect with many of you, but sometimes I don’t always know exactly how to say your name.

All right. Let’s check out some of the sayings. I loved some of the quotes that you guys brought. Isa O’Hara said, “It’s not my circus. It’s not my monkeys. Does that count?” Absolutely. I love it. I love that quote. “Not my circus, not my monkey.”

Sometimes you have to remember that. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’ll go into a restaurant and I’ll try to enjoy the service, but as an entrepreneur, and as a leader, I’m always striving for excellence, always striving for innovation, always driving to push things, so I’m always scanning to say, “All right. How could this be improved?” I try to stay out of judgment, but sometimes I’ll say, “Oh, gosh, if they just did this or if they just moved that or if they just did this.” My wife, Melissa, always has to remind me in so many words, “Hey, not your circus. Not your monkey. You got it let it go.”

Another one, Ryan Dunfy, I can always count on Ryan. He gave me a great quote from none other than Yoda, the greatest teacher. “Failure is mm-mm.” That is one of those that’s wildly true and wildly offensive all at the same time. But when you look back on your life, isn’t it interesting how it’s often the “failures” that actually are the things that push us forward to help us learn the most in the shortest amount of time?

I’ve mentioned before – both of my boys are interested in making movies, making films. One really wants to be in front of the camera. One wants to be behind the camera, so they just make stuff. About every other week, they’re putting out some short film.

This past weekend, I got to go out and help with a shoot. I was carrying equipment and doing all this stuff, and I saw something. I was like, “Oh, gosh. I could fix that.” Or “If I just told them that, there’s a good chance I’d save them from a problem.” There are times to do that, but I actually chose not to because I thought you know what? If it goes great, fantastic. They’ll learn from that, but if it doesn’t, it’s a really low-risk opportunity for them to learn from it. Now ironically, it did not go the way I thought. It wound up going great for them, so they didn’t get the lesson I thought they were going to get, which is fine, too.

But sometimes it’s about letting people learn and letting things go poorly, especially in low-risk situations. I always say, “Look for situations that are lower risk and let people fail once in a while.” Maybe even that’s yourself looking back and saying, “Okay. That was a failure. That didn’t go the way I thought or hoped, but I learned a lot. What could I be learning? What’s something I want to do differently next time?”

All right, here’s another one from Sarah M. Now Sarah and I used to work together eons ago. Back in the pharmaceutical industry, we used to do training together. I loved it when I saw her post here. She was talking about learning something very important when her son, Jack, who’s now 17, was born prematurely. As you can imagine, it was a very stressful time. She said the neonatal nurse who worked with her taught her something very important. She said, “Guilt is a wasted emotion.”

See, Sarah was upset because she wasn’t able to spend all day, every day in the NIC Unit because she was actually needing to recover from the traumatic childbirth as well. The nurse said, “Hey, you have to let it go. He needs you to be healthy. Guilt is a wasted emotion.” Happy to hear that her son, Jack, is happy and healthy and 17. But it also sounds like that wisdom has really played a part for Sarah to be able to say, “Okay. I’ve got to let that go. Learn what I need to learn, but let that go.” I love that. Thank you, Sarah.

There’s a quote here from a listener who found this from Robert Downey, Jr: “Worry is like praying for something that you don’t want to happen.” It is. Worry is one of those things that if we catch ourselves, it’s also like Sarah’s thing. It’s a wasted emotion. It’s not useful. We’ll talk more about that here in just a little bit.

Tracey B. offered a quote. She said or he said, “The past is like using your rearview mirror in the car. It’s good to glance back and see how far you’ve come, but if you stare at it too long, you’ll miss what’s right in front of you.” Amen. Love it. Love it.

You know what? You guys also shared a lot of great books. Lacy Riddle and a number of people loved Henry Cloud; one book specifically, Never Go Back, all about letting go. Let’s see. Isa O’Hara also shared The Iron Cowboy – a great book about showing that we can go way beyond what our brains tell us we can do.

Patrick Johnson and Troy Church both recommended Dan Millman’s, Peaceful Warrior. That was one that got recommended a number of times. Michelle C. recommended John Maxwell’s book Thinking For a Change.

Then Jackie Pezzetti recommended The Shack. That is a great book. I loved the book. It had a big impact on me. I know the author, Paul Young, who is amazing, but Jackie said that The Shack made a big difference for her.

Dixie Gillespie, a good friend, shared this strategy, “understanding that every experience is a gift and an opportunity to grow stronger in personal power and ability. Once you’ve unwrapped the gift and made it a part of yourself, you have no use for the box and the wrapping it came in. Keep what is valuable and discard the rest.” I love that. Think through some of those experiences you’ve had and say, “All right. What’s something I want to keep from that and what’s something I need to let go?”

Julian Watkins, a great friend of the show, sent me a mug. Julian is a long-time Dream Think Do-er. He’s been to three – yes, count ’em – three Big Dream Gatherings. He said that he’s had to let go of a lot of baggage and what’s really helped him is time. He said it makes a difference. “You must allow time to do its thing,” he said. But during that time while he’s been focused on letting go of the baggage, he’s also directed his energy and focus to the present and to the future. He said if he’s found his mind drifting to thoughts of regret about the past, for example, he starts to immediately make a plan for the future.

I love this idea from Melissa Krivacek. She said one of the biggest things for her in regards to letting go of things is to get rid of some of the apps on her phone. At the very least, she said to not use them during specific times like the weekend. Or to have certain blocks of time where she’s not checking her social media, where she’s not checking her email. She said that that can really make a difference in letting it go. She said she’ll notice that if she’s spending a lot of time on social media or a lot of time in the email or especially on her phone that it can drag her back down, and she knew that that was a key part of letting things go. Be intentional about that.

Abby Clark. She said that she’s a huge fan of letting things go. A part of that for her is, “refusing to grasp the victim mentality or having the victim mentality.” She said that a lot of people use the term “survivor.” She said, “No way. Not me. That implies that I barely made it. I’m a thriver.” She went on to say “using what God has equipped me with – an arsenal of newfound tools, which I use to succeed further than I could’ve comprehended.” She’s dreaming bigger than before the struggle that she had to break through. I love that. She’s not just a survivor. She’s a thriver.

A lot of other people along those lines listed prayer as a huge part of it. You know if you’re longtime Dream Think Do-er, I’m a big believer in prayer. Jill Omen, Mike Ahmed, as examples, both said that prayer was a huge part of letting go. Adam Carroll, two time Dream Think Do interviewee said, “There are meaningful events in our life. However, we assign the meaning to those events. We have total control over assigning the meaning that we give to any event.”

Forgiveness came up a lot. Steve M. said, “I did a few things, but forgiveness was the biggest. Unforgiveness is drinking the poison and hoping someone else dies.” He said secondly, “If it involves someone else, I accepted the responsibility for my part in what happened.” And third, “As hard as it is at times I keep moving forward. It’s all about one day at a time.”

Donnie Fitzgerald, a high school teacher said, “God put our eyes on the front of our head for a reason, looking forward and not back. I also like 10% circumstances, 90% attitude. Stuff happens that is often outside our control and how we respond to it is what is most important.” I love it. Now he also says in his classroom, “The number one rule: everybody loves everybody,” and he refers to Will Ferrell offering that wisdom. “Everybody loves everybody,” in Donnie’s classroom. Good words to live by.

Thanks to everyone. That was some of the crowdsourced strategies, quotes, and books that you guys recommend. I love that. I’ve got one last strategy. I want to give you some specific tools to take with you to truly let things go.

There are a lot of different areas that we could cover when it comes to letting it go, and based on the feedback, quotes, ideas, you shared, worry was big on the list of things to let go. For some of you, it was letting go of something that somebody did to you or letting go of past failures.

I think that the strategy that we’re going to talk about can really apply to some of those things, but I’ll just say, I’ll give myself permission to focus here and say that this last strategy that we’re going to go after is first and foremost, all about worry and letting go of worry.

This strategy actually comes from some timeless wisdom. Specifically, this strategy actually came to me after reading something that had been written nearly 2000 years ago. So I would definitely put it in the timeless wisdom category.

Now, this timeless wisdom actually came from some Scripture that was written. I’m not sure where you’re at, where you stand as far as faith or spirituality or the Bible. I’ve been very open in the past that that’s a big part of who I am, but I think this wisdom, no matter what your background, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, I think this is something that can pay off for you, something that might help. But I always want to give credit where credit’s due.

In this case, this wisdom comes from a book in the Bible in the New Testament called Philippians. It was written by a guy named Paul. He was writing to a specific group of people. This group of people was pretty stirred up. They were pretty worried. What I love is in some cases that the guidance is more theoretical or like from a 30,000-foot view, but in this particular chapter, in this particular Scripture, I think Paul gets super specific. In some ways, he lays out a strategy that is now really being confirmed by science, so I love that. I love it when something 2000 years old stands the test of time, not only from wisdom but also through science as well.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Specifically, in this Scripture, Paul says, “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.” And he goes on to get specific here and says, “Tell God what you need, and thank him for all that he has done.” For me, I connect with that. That’s my background, but even if you’re just going to table the God part for right now, that’s okay. For right now, that’s okay. “Don’t worry about anything,” he said, “instead pray about everything.”

Now, you might see that on a poster. You might see that on a sign. “Don’t worry about anything. Let it go. Let it go.” Now I do believe that the prayer part is really important and that for me is very, very important, but let’s just take it as the “Don’t worry about anything. Let it go.”

Unfortunately, just saying, “I’m not going to worry about that,” does not work, at least in my experience. In fact, science actually verifies this.

Positive psychology is a relatively recent school of thought within the world of psychology. Positive psychology is not pop psychology. Positive psychology studies not just the minds of people who are sick or have problems, but the minds of people who are happy and successful, to understand what can be learned from healthy minds as well.

One of the things positive psychology finds is that if you try to focus on forgetting something, you can’t do it. You can’t just force your brain to forget about something. In fact, you wind up doing the reverse. If you try to say, “I’m going to forget something. I’m not going to think about that thing,” what do you wind up doing? You literally wind up gravitating towards it.

It almost makes it magnetic. You are attracted to it. Your brain can’t help but fixate on it.

Here’s the thing. What I love about this timeless wisdom that I’m talking about from 2000 years ago comes just a couple of verses later. So Paul said “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.” But he doesn’t stop there.

In Philippians 4:8. He says, “Now,” – and  this is the specific strategy – “dear brothers and sisters, one final thing…”

So it’s like the crowd leans in. That’s what Paul’s doing. He’s like, “One final thing. Of all the things we talked about, if you only remember this thing, remember this…”

This is where he goes. He says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” So what’s the strategy? He’s saying, “Let it go.” Now he’s also saying pray and if that’s who you are and that’s what you do, awesome. I totally recommend it. But even if not, let’s just say he’s saying, “Let it go.”

But he’s saying, “Don’t stop there,” and this is the strategy here, “you’ve got to replace it.” You can’t just let it go, you have to replace it. If you’re going to let something go, you’ve got to replace it.

I used to use a word picture when I would teach on this. I would use a word picture, and I would have a glass, just a clear glass up on stage. I would pour into that glass orange pop. Why? Just because I’ve never really liked orange pop, and it just makes me cringe. I don’t like the taste of it, and when you think about electric orange, bubbly liquid out of context, you’re thinking that’s the last thing I’d put in my body.

Now you might love orange pop, and so this may not work for you, but let’s just imagine that this orange, bubbly pop pouring into a glass that represents worry. Just imagine that orange, bubbling liquid just pouring into that glass, filling it up. If you’re a worrier, you know what I’m talking about or if you know a worrier, you know what I’m talking about, how the worry just creeps in. It just starts to build up and starts to impact everything.

Sometimes I would just let that glass sit there. You know how pop just bubbles, especially if it’s right at the top? I filled it right to the top and it would just be bubbling and popping and sometimes pouring over the sides. You just think about for a second. Worry is like that; sticky, bubbling. It gets on everything.

Then I’d say, “Okay. Now let’s just say it. We’re going to let it go.” I would pour out that orange pop and the glass would be empty again. What’s Paul saying here? “You’ve got to do something with the glass because you can’t just let it go. You’ve got to replace it because,” and I would bring the orange pop back up, and I would say, “If you haven’t replaced it, it’s just going to fill right back up with that orange pop again. It’s going to fill right back up with that worry.” He’s saying, “You’ve got to replace it, so here’s the strategy.”

I’d pour out the orange pop again. Here’s the word picture. I would go back to that list of what Paul listed out. Like, “Okay. One final thing. Fix your thoughts. Fix your thoughts on what’s true, what’s honorable, what’s right.” In this word picture, I would take out Play-Doh. How fun is Play-Doh?

I would take out this Play-Doh. I’d start to put the Play-Doh in the glass. I’d say, “Whatever’s true,” and I’d put some blue Play-Doh in the glass. I always say, “All right, think about what is true? What’s something that you know for a fact is true?

I can remember I was doing this one day. I literally do this activity, especially when I’m feeling tempted to worry. I was doing this activity once and I was in an airport. One of the things I said was, “All right. I am going to focus on what is true. What is true?” Something that I know is true is that love is powerful. Love is powerful, and you can see it everywhere as long as you’re looking for it.

Here I am sitting in this airport. I’m keyed up. There are lots going on. I’m going to an event. I’m going to speak to this large crowd. There are always things that can go wrong, all of that stuff. There’s always plenty of things to worry about and I’m looking around saying, “But love is powerful. I can see love everywhere if I’m looking for it.”

I look around, and I see this elderly couple sitting at the same gate that I’m at, amid all the people. Stirred up people are running. People are running late. I look over and I see this elderly couple. I don’t know. I’m guessing they’d been married for years, but they’re sitting together, and they’re holding hands. How cool. I was just like, “Yes!” Their life probably isn’t perfect, but just seeing an elderly couple hold hands. They were obviously in love. How beautiful is that?

Then I scanned and saw a mom taking care of her kid and just loving her kid. I saw somebody helping somebody else. I was just like, “Okay. The world’s not perfect, but love is powerful.” That is true, right?

Think about that list again. Think about what is honorable. What is honorable? I’d take another big chunk of Play-Doh, a different color of Play-Doh and put pink in the glass. Starting to fill this thing up. What’s honorable?

I was thinking about that the other day and interestingly enough, you guys know we do these Big Dream Gathering all across the country. Every time we do it, we feature somebody in the area. Whenever we come to a town, a community, a campus, we feature somebody in the area that’s living out a dream.

Recently, we were in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We featured these three young men, these athletes, these former football players from Southeast Missouri who had come together to mentor young men, to mentor these at-risk kids in their community. They created something they called “The Young Honorable Men’s Club.” And it was clear, “Honorable” was in their name, and honorable is who they are.

That’s just so cool. It’s not because they’re rich. It’s not because they’ve had everything easy or come to them. They’ve all had struggles, but they decided to do something that was right, do something that was honorable. It’s just that much harder to worry when I’m focused on something that’s honorable.

You go through that list. What is right? What is pure? What is lovely? Each time I do that in my word picture, I’d put a little bit more Play-Doh in this glass, filling this glass up with these different vivid colors; purple and green and all of that. What is lovely? Lovely is all around us. Ugly is all around us, too: division, hurt, hatred, regret, all of those things. But lovely is all around us, too. We just have to look for it.

It’s interesting. My teenage boys, one came in the other night. He was just getting home, and he came running in. He’s like, “I got to have the camera. I got to have the camera.” I asked, “What is going on?” I thought maybe there’s an accident in the street or whatever. But he says, “The sunset right now is amazing. Where’s the camera?” He ran upstairs to grab his camera. He was getting it. Wanting to capture that lovely sunset. That’s what I’m talking about.

Or maybe you find yourself having dinner with a friend or with your family, and there are a thousand things going on around you. There’s a thousand things you could be doing, but you choose to just be in the moment. That is lovely. You don’t try to rush. You don’t try to make it perfect. You just enjoy it. That’s lovely. I would love that.

Again, this glass is filling up. One of the last things here, again, that list. What’s admirable? I think about it. I try to look around and sometimes and say, “All right. What’s admirable? What’s somebody doing that’s admirable?” Again, my word picture, that glass, just a little bit more Play-Doh. I might look on social media and see somebody doing something that’s admirable. They help someone. They made an impact. They’re changing the world for the better. I don’t know what that might be, but you think oh, my gosh. That is admirable.

Here’s an area I need to watch it myself. You’re a Dream Think Do-er. My guess is you want to have an impact on the world. But sometimes when I see somebody doing something that’s admirable, instead of being inspired by it, I’m tempted to compare myself to it. This is one I have to really watch for. So whatever it is for you, just be aware that along this path, there are also things to watch for.

Don’t compare to. Be inspired by. Don’t be compared or don’t compare to. Be inspired by. Who’s doing something admirable? Why is that admirable? Be inspired.

What’s great is when we go back to this word picture, and there I am on the stage with this glass. Now the glass is full of all these different colors of Play-Doh. I grab another bottle of orange pop, and I start to pour it into the glass. Now here’s the thing is that there’s still little recesses where the orange pop can puddle. Maybe can get through just a tiny bit, but there’s a whole lot less space there for the orange pop to get in. Yes, there might be a little bit. Yes. You’re never going to be able to stop all of those things that could cause you to worry, that could give you the temptation to worry. Those circumstances are always going to be thrown at you, but if the glass is full of other things, you’ve replaced that worry. You’ve let it go, and you’ve replaced it with something better. It’s amazing how powerful that can be. That worry just can’t get in, and it can’t stick around nearly as long.

I’ve got some “replace it” phrases and questions for you to just bring this home. One of the things you can do is to be able to say, “All right. Today, right now what are three things I could be grateful for?” We’ve talked about gratitude being the brain’s super food. It’s one of those things that could be so powerful, but what are three things I could be grateful for? Or to be able to think of a time where maybe you were tempted to worry, but things worked out. The things worked out maybe even better than you thought. Or to be able to say, “All right. Who’s someone you could admire?” Even take that next step, how could you encourage them today?

Some of the people that left comments said, “Hey, if you’re needing some encouragement, encourage someone else. You can’t help, but get it on you.” You can’t help, but benefit from it. Or to be able to say, “Hey, what’s something I’m going to do today to focus on the good stuff? That list: what’s true, what’s honorable, what’s right, what’s pure, what’s lovely, what’s admirable? What’s something I want to do specifically today to focus in on the good stuff?” Maybe it’s even one aspect, one of those words: what’s true, what’s honorable, what’s right, what’s lovely, what’s pure?

Give yourself that permission. Don’t just let it go. Be intentional. Take that next step and replace it and as you do, just see where it takes you. Sound good? I’m guessing as you do that, you’re going to be able to dream bigger, think better and do more. Do more of the crazy cool stuff you were put on the planet to do. That’s what we’re all about here.

Hey, if this episode helps you, please share it. Share it with somebody that could use it today. Share it on social media. Share it wherever you’re at. Share it via email, but let’s keep spreading this because we do want to encourage each other to let it go. I know I can’t do it alone, and that’s why I’m so grateful that we get to do this together.

Thanks for being a Dream Think Do-er. Thanks for bringing your awesome, because I can tell you, the world needs it. Talk soon.