S8E83
· 25:58
Good morning, my friend. I hope you are doing well. It is mind change Monday. Mind change Monday here on the podcast. I'm doctor Lee Warren, and I am excited to be with you today on the 4th day of September.
Speaker 1:Now I told you September, we're gonna do some radical mind shift. We're gonna take command of our own brains. We're gonna look at different ways that we can use that self brain surgery reality that you can change the way your brain works, which will change everything else about how your life works because thoughts become things, and you can't change your life until you change your mind. All these things I say, they're not cliches. They're rooted in neuroscience.
Speaker 1:They're rooted in faith, and they work together to help you change your mind and change your life so that you can become healthier and feel better and be happier. I'm hearing from lots of you that there's stuff you're working on and that September is the time you're finally ready to go deep and learn how your brain works so that you can take command of your thinking and take command of your life. And I'm gonna give you back today an episode that we released last August 31st on the eve of September when we talked about how to make 30 good decisions. Like, we don't really have to take on some dramatic thing. We can just make a little change today.
Speaker 1:We can make a good decision today and carry through that and see what happens. So we're gonna try to make good decisions every day in September, hopefully, for the rest of our lives. But this is a a throwback to that episode. I wanted to give it back to you. I've got a bunch of new content coming for you, but we're having a little trouble with the distribution of the podcast.
Speaker 1:And I'm not sure if you listen on Spotify or Apple or anywhere other than Substack. I'm not sure you're gonna hear this anytime soon. So we're having significant throttling of downloads and some kind of technical problem. The Substack is working on it, but I'm not sure. If you're listening on Apple, I'd love to hear from you, about whether you got this or not.
Speaker 1:You can send me a message lee@doctorleewarren.com or reply on the Substack app. Wherever you listen to podcasts, I would love to hear from you. It seems like August 13th was the day that stuff started not working. It looks like people on Apple and some other podcast, providers are able to see new episodes for one day when they come up, and then they're disappearing all the way back to August 13th. And beyond that, it looks like everything's fine.
Speaker 1:And if that's happening for you, I'd love to hear from you about it. It's not on my end. Substack is looking into what's going on, but there's some sort of distribution problem. It could be a bug or a virus or something, but we're gonna sort it out. But in the meantime, I'm gonna give you back this episode.
Speaker 1:I told you the other day that I was gonna give this to you. We have all kinds of great exciting things coming up to tell you about for September October and beyond. I'm gonna be with you, in different parts of the country for some speaking engagements as the year plays out. I do have one really important announcement, and I hope you hear this. We had announced some book signings that were gonna be happening in San Antonio this week.
Speaker 1:They are not happening. We are here in North Platte. We are not making that trip to San Antonio. The Max Lucado event on 7th on Thursday night, you can sign up at bakerbookhouse dotcom/events. Bakerbookhouse.com/events.
Speaker 1:That's a 1 hour virtual conversation about my new book, Hope is the First Dose with me and Max Lucado on Thursday night. That is happening virtually. He'll be wherever he is, and I'll be here in North Platte. But if he made plans to attend one of those two book signings, please don't drive to San Antonio. We are not going to be there.
Speaker 1:Long story about how that played out, but but those are gonna happen in December instead of September, and we'll let you know about dates. But no book signing tomorrow night. We had announced originally that there was gonna be one in San Antonio on 5th and another one on Saturday. Those are not happening, so please do not drive. Don't show up at those bookstores expecting to see us.
Speaker 1:We are not going to be there, and I will give you new dates when those are going to happen. We have exciting things coming up like I said, but today, I'm gonna give you back this incredible thought process. It's a mind shift about, hey, I don't have to solve every problem today. I just have to make some good decisions, and then life will start playing out in a better, more produce more reproducible and healthier way. We have some big concepts I wanna talk to you about in September.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna bring you one of them in a day or 2 about the difference between looking at your life as the journey, as a refugee versus looking at it like Odessa's, like conquering the world, conquering hero, returning home after having been victorious, or like Sisyphus in Dante's Inferno, the guy who feels like your whole life is pushing a rock up a hill only to see it roll back down and having to start all over again. And we're gonna talk about those two concepts, Odysseus versus Sisyphus versus refugee status, and how that plays into the Christian life and how we're supposed to view the world and what we're supposed to think about our lives. And we'll talk about all kinds of things like Saint Augustine and Albert Camus and Jack Kerouac and how we all can think about those 3 guys smashed together to understand how we ought to be viewing our own lives. I'm working on some great new content for you. But for today, I wanna give you this idea, 30 good decisions.
Speaker 1:Think through it. Don't get caught up if you hear me mention something that happened last year. If I mentioned the year, that might have been 2022 instead of 2023. Because, again, this is an old episode, but it's designed to give you a concept that's gonna be helpful in this radical mind shift that we're trying to make in September. And in the meantime, I gotta get back to working on some technical issues, and we're trying to sort out why you're not getting new episodes and why there's a 2 week gap in stuff that I did give you that you're not getting.
Speaker 1:And I'd love to hear from you to let me know if this is happening on your application or not. In the meantime, I'm gonna let Lisa tell us the good news because I'm always telling you, my friend, that you can't change your life until you change your mind. And Lisa reminds us every day that the good news is you can start today.
Speaker 2:Hey. Are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule. You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place where the neuroscience of how your mind works smashes together with faith and everything starts to make sense.
Speaker 2:That place is called self brain surgery. You can learn it and it will help you become healthier, feel better, and be happier. And the good news is you can start today.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Lisa. Hey. So glad to have you listening today. I'm doctor Lee Warren, and I live in Nebraska in the United States of America with my incredible wife, Lisa, my father-in-law, Tata, and the super pups, Harvey and Lewis. I'm a neurosurgeon and an author, and I'm here to help you harness neuroscience, the power of your brain, faith, the power of your spirit, and good old common sense to help you lead a healthier, better, happier life.
Speaker 1:Listen, friend. You can't change your life until you change your mind, and I'm here to help you learn the art of self brain surgery to get it done if you like the show. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode and tell your friends about it. If you tell 2 or 3 friends this podcast was helpful to you, imagine how much good we can all do around the world together. I'm doctor Lee Warren, and I'm here to help you change your mind so you can change your life.
Speaker 1:Let's get after it. Good morning, friend. We did it. We have made it all the way through all in August. I hope you're doing well wherever you are.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be an amazing day. I hope you read the book, Mark Batterson's book, All In. If you didn't, it's always out there. It's been just a tremendous resource for me over the years. I've read it several times now, and I think it's just a great way to get your head around what it means to really go all in your life with with God to to really pursue him and his desires.
Speaker 1:And as we talked about before, the reason that we want to have an all in life is because once we change our appetite to become hungry and thirsty for the things that god wants us to be hungry and thirsty for, that's when we start to really realize what it means to have an abundant life even though we also have hard things that come along, even though we have circumstances that are not what we want. We talked about that hammer time, like picking up the hammer and getting after it. And don't be afraid to start over when things go wrong, when you don't make progress, or when you fail. Pick up the hammer. God delights to see the work begin, he says.
Speaker 1:And I just wanna take you back to where we started this month. We started it all in August by saying, let's get some let's get some words in our head, some ideas that we can line up behind. One of them is, Psalm 37. Right? We talked about Psalm 37 and how one of the secrets to to really having an abundant all in life is to stop worrying about everything.
Speaker 1:Fret not yourself, David says multiple times in Psalm 37. We had these red light and green light verses. Go back and listen to that episode again and get you a highlighter and go through scripture and highlight things where he says don't or stop or quit. Put red on there, stop sign. And when he says do this, go there, trust, put some green in there.
Speaker 1:And just look at 30 Psalm 37 again. Fret not yourself. Trust in the lord and do good. That better be a green highlight. Dwell in the land of and befriend faithfulness.
Speaker 1:Delight yourself in the lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. He says, you wanna stop feeling like life is you're pursuing all this stuff in your life, and you're feeling hungrier and hungrier and more and more tired and more and more worn out and more and more stressed out and more and more at the end of your rope and you just can't seem to get enough of whatever it is that you're chasing. He says, hey. Change your appetite. Delight in the Lord.
Speaker 1:Taste and see that I am good, he says in Psalm 34. Jesus said, I'll give you the bread of life. I'm the living water. I'll give you this water then you'll never be thirsty again. If you pursue the right things, you find yourself really feeling the right feelings that you're pursuing all along.
Speaker 1:Now you're just pursuing them in the right way, and you're getting after it. Commit your way to the lord. Trust in him, and he will act. Listen, friend. If you're at the end of your rope and you're not sure, trust in him.
Speaker 1:Give him a try. You've you've been doing it on your own for so long. You've been carrying the ball, running the place, calling the shots, and it's just not working. Now it's time to go all in and try something different. Doctor Phil says, how's that working for you?
Speaker 1:Right? If you keep doing the same things you've been doing, you'll keep getting the same result you've been getting. And finally, it's sometimes just time to rest a little bit. So on 377, be still before the lord and wait patiently for him. That's a green light.
Speaker 1:Fret not yourself, That's a red light. Over the one who prospers in his way. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Don't worry about how the other guy got ahead of you or somebody got more attention than you did or whatever. He's gonna take care of you.
Speaker 1:Just give him time. Refrain from anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It tends only to evil.
Speaker 1:The more you worry about yourself, the more you stress out about this hard life, the more trouble you generally tend to have. It's true. So red light, green lights. Go back to Proverbs 3. We talked about 3, 5, and 6.
Speaker 1:Trust in the lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes. There's a red light. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
Speaker 1:There's a green light. Right? Psalm 37 and Proverbs 3, that's where we started this month. And so I just wanted to bring you back those for a little bit. Don't forget Mark Batterson's amazing book, All In.
Speaker 1:If you haven't read it, go check it out. It's worth it. And I just wanna give you a couple of other books. If you wanna really try to get your head around what an all in life looks like, Eugene Peterson wrote too. Running with the horses is a kind of a look at the book of Jeremiah and what it means to really commit when God calls you to something hard, what that looks like, and it's amazing.
Speaker 1:And then his other book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Listen. You don't just achieve some state of having it all figured out and all of a sudden everything gets easy and you don't ever have any more problems again. That just doesn't happen in life. And what we keep thinking is going to, and then we're really discouraged when it doesn't work out that way.
Speaker 1:Well, a long obedience in the same direction will give you a different perspective on that. And I think it's worth reading those 2 books. And, finally, John Swanson's book, I've been telling you about it for several days, but he's got a little book. It's free on Kindle Unlimited if you have that service from Amazon. But John Swanson's book, A Great Work, is about the book of Nehemiah, and it's just fantastic.
Speaker 1:Great way to to think about doing a great work in your life. And really, all in this all in lifestyle is about lining your heart up and lining your mind up with what god has in store for you. Mark Batterson says, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the lord will do amazing things among you. God wants to do amazing things. Right?
Speaker 1:He's simply waiting for us to consecrate ourselves. So what are you waiting for? You are one decision away from a totally different life. It's now or never. It's all or nothing.
Speaker 1:It's time to go all in and all out for the all in all. That's how he finishes the book. Just tremendous book. Please read it. It's it's one decision away.
Speaker 1:You you're you're one decision away from changing the course of your life. And that decision is I am gonna stop trying to be the offensive coordinator of my own life, and I'm gonna let him do it. I'm just finally gonna go all in and see if all those promises he made are actually true. You have nothing to lose. You can keep doing it the same way you've been doing it.
Speaker 1:But if you do, gonna keep getting the same results you've been getting. And I'm just here to say, if you're listening to my podcast, there's a pretty good chance that it's because your life isn't always the way you want it to be, and you're looking for some answers on maybe some other things you can try. We talk a lot about neuroscience. September's gonna be a lot more of the neuroscience stuff. We talk a lot about faith, and we talk a lot about our doubt and the and the places in between, the things we think we know.
Speaker 1:Right? And then you're gonna be hearing more and more about my new book, The Hope is the First Dose as time goes on here. We're getting into the self brain surgery aspects of how we change these things. But but right now, as we end up August and by the way, today's my parents' wedding anniversary, so happy anniversary, mom and dad. August 31st, as we finish up this month, take stock of how you've done with this idea of going all in.
Speaker 1:And if you're not there yet, start with September. And I have a good idea for you for September. Okay? Here's a good idea. September has 30 days.
Speaker 1:It's one of the months that has 30 days and not 31. So what if we just said, okay. Let's don't try to make huge systemic changes. Let's don't let's don't say we're gonna change the whole world this month. Maybe you will.
Speaker 1:But on a personal level, what if you just made 30 good decisions for September? Let's just make it really simple. Let's say, for September, we're gonna make 30 good decisions. What does that look like for you? I have a pretty good sense that you already know some good decisions that you need to be making.
Speaker 1:Okay? Now could you you could look at that multiple ways. You could say I'm gonna make the same decision 30 times. Right? I'm gonna work out every day, some kinda exercise every day.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna read my Bible every day. I'm gonna pray every day in September. Those are 30 good decisions you could make. Every day you get up and you say, I said I was gonna do this today, and I'm gonna do it. And you check the box.
Speaker 1:You get that neurotransmitter improvement of keeping a promise to yourself. You make the progress with your fitness or your finances or whatever it is. You make that same decision every day for 30 days. You could do that. Another one, though, would be to make 30 different good decisions.
Speaker 1:Just some good decision to make every day. Today, I'm gonna call my sister that I haven't had a good relationship with. I'm gonna just finally break the ice. 1 of us has to move. I'm gonna make that call, and we're gonna reconnect and try to repair that relationship.
Speaker 1:That's one good decision you can make. The next day, it might be, you know what? I'm not gonna open that bag of Fritos I was about to put my hand on. I'm just not gonna do that today. I'm gonna put that down.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna not open that pack of cigarettes and have that second pack today. I'm gonna make a decision. Today. I'm gonna make a good decision in regards to this thing. Right?
Speaker 1:The next day, it might be, hey. It's Sunday. You know what? We stopped going to church around COVID. Maybe you're saying that.
Speaker 1:We got out of the habit. If we're gonna go back to church today, that's a good decision that you could make. You can make a good decision that you're gonna start having quiet time every morning. Get up 15 minutes earlier, go to bed 15 minutes earlier at night, read a book, spend some time in word, listen to some worship music, say a little prayer, listen to the quiet still voice of God, and try to find some direction. Maybe make a new habit of 30 days of having a quiet time and see how that changes your life.
Speaker 1:I guarantee you that's one that if you're not doing that, if you have a a ad, a 15 to 20 minute quiet time in the morning, that will change your life. And if you need some direction on that, if you don't wanna can't figure out how to do it on your own and maybe you're new to this whole idea and you want a little music and a little scripture and some good words and you can take about 15 minutes, go to first 15, firstonefive.org.first15.org is a great website. He does a daily devotional. Takes about 15 minutes. You can listen to it in audio form.
Speaker 1:You play some music or you can read it. It comes to your email inbox. So So whatever works for you, but you could use that, the first fifteen dot org, as a part of your quiet time. You could go to John Swanson's 300 words a day and read him every day, except for Saturday. It doesn't release on Saturdays.
Speaker 1:You could come to this podcast every day. Whatever. Just spend some time doing something different every day. So what if in September, if we said, hey. I'm just gonna make one good decision every day.
Speaker 1:And you know what? You could send me a voice mail, speakpipe.com/docterleewarne. You could say, here's my good decision for today. I'd love to know who you are, where you are, and just say, hey. Today, I made a good decision.
Speaker 1:I I broke the ice with my, dad that I haven't talked to in a long time. We had a falling out, and I'm gonna fix that. I'm gonna just try. I'm gonna make the phone call. I'm gonna send the text.
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna decide. I'm gonna start investing a little bit of my money instead of spending all of it. I made a good decision today to stop drinking alcohol at night. I made a good decision just for today to to do that thing that I've been feeling a tug in my heart that I was needing to do for a long time, to make a good decision. So what if in September, we took this idea and just made 30 good decisions?
Speaker 1:What would that look like? I think it would change a lot of things in your life, friend. So let's do it. Tomorrow's September 1st. So you had all day today to think about going all in, finishing that idea up, and continuing that into September with 30 good decisions.
Speaker 1:What if we made 30 good decisions for September. I've got some great guests coming on to the show in September. I'm so excited. This Friday, I'm having a conversation with my friend, doctor Daniel Amen. He'll be back on the show in a few days.
Speaker 1:Gonna have a wonderful talk with several other people. I'm excited to tell you about it. I'll save it for another time to release those, names to you. I don't wanna get ahead of the cart, but I'm I'm really excited about the conversations we're gonna have on the podcast this month. And it's just gonna be some great new things starting season 6 in the middle of the month.
Speaker 1:And I'm really grateful that you went all in with us. I'm really grateful. If you listen to every episode, if you're with us every day in August, I would love to hear from you. Send us a voice mail, speakpipe.com/doctrleewarren. Say, hey.
Speaker 1:I went all in and listened to all the episodes I'm with you. Or just let us hear from you and how it's going and what this is doing for you. We'd be really encouraged and excited to hear from you. Listen, friend. Life's hard.
Speaker 1:I know it is, but you can't change your life until you change your mind. And that's the whole purpose of this podcast. So let's getting up every morning and having this conversation, drinking coffee together, praying and talking about how your brain's wired and how your faith is connected to science in in ways that make sense. And that's the reason we're doing it is to try to encourage you and try to encourage me and Lisa and Tata to keep going and be all in. And you know what?
Speaker 1:You can't go backwards. We have to go forward. We're gonna finish this month up with our theme song. I brought it to you several times this month. Tommy Walker, my friend, has a song forward.
Speaker 1:We're going forward. We're not looking back anymore. We're going forward. We're finishing up all in August. We're going into September.
Speaker 1:We're gonna make 30 good decisions in September, and we're gonna keep going forward. Love to hear from your friend. Speakpop.com/doctorleewarren, or you can always send me an email lee@doctorleewarren.com. I'd love to hear from you. Remember, the good news is you can start today.
Speaker 3:With many twists and turns. But I'm not looking back. I'm walking straight ahead, believing what you've said on that you're gonna be with me no matter what life brings out. Faith. You're gonna lead me by your grace.
Speaker 3:I'm going forward to the I'm going. I'm going. I'm going for a ride.
Speaker 1:Hey. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to the show so you automatically get every episode. And if you like the show, you'll love my weekly letter. Check out my writing at doctorleewarren.
Speaker 1:Substack.com. Doctorleewarren. Substack dot com. Get the free newsletter every week for my best prescriptions for becoming healthier, feeling better, and being happier through the power of faith and neuroscience smashing together via self brain surgery. Doctorlewarren.substack.com.
Speaker 1:And if you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at wlewarrenmd.com slash prayer. The theme music for the show is Make Us 1 by Tommy Walker, graciously provided for free by the great folks over at tommywalkerministries.org. Check it out and consider supporting them. Tommywalkerministries.org. Remember, you can't change your life until you change your mind, and the good news is you can start today.
Speaker 1:I'm doctor Lee Warren. I'll talk to you soon. God bless you, friend. Have a great day.
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