All-In Check In: All-In August #6

Good morning, my friend. Dr. Lee Warren here, your favorite internet brain surgeon,

maybe real-life brain surgeon.

Hopefully, I haven't had to perform real-life brain or spine surgery on you,

but if I ever need to, I'll be grateful.

Glad that you're with us. It is all in August. We are, what is this, day six.

Oh my goodness, August 6th. And we're hearing from people all over the world.

I'm getting emails. I'm getting, I'm in, all in, go for it.

I'm with you, kind of emails from lots of people, comments on Substack.

Remember, if you're not getting the newsletter, drleewarren.substack.com,

that is a huge part of this community.

Please sign up. Please share it with your friends. Make sure you're getting the letter.

We do this self brain surgery school every Sunday since 2014,

and it is incredibly helpful.

Today, we're going to do a little check-in. Just make sure you're on board.

Make sure things are going well.

I just want to to remind you, the textbook for this month, our theme book is

Mark Batterson's book, All In.

He was on the podcast last Monday for Mind to Change Monday.

If you didn't hear the episode with Mark, please go back and listen to that.

It's incredibly helpful.

We have a bonus episode for you today over on the Spiritual Brain Surgery Podcast.

We have a Tuesdays with Tata that we just recorded this weekend.

It's about two people in the Bible who give us two examples of either going

in, all in or not going all in when we have a call to do so.

So go over to Spiritual Brain Surgery and check that out. We got some great wisdom from Tata today.

He is back and on fire for all in August.

So I'll put a link in the show notes to Spiritual Brain Surgery.

Would you do me a favor and subscribe to that show as well?

We're going to have some unbelievable guests coming up on Spiritual Brain Surgery in the coming months.

I'm excited about those. I'm not going to tell you who they are yet,

but some big names and it's going to be some great time over on Spiritual brain surgery.

Today, we're going to just do a little check-in. We're going to look at different

ways that you may be struggling to get started with all in August,

or maybe you started and you've already kind of fallen back into some old habits,

or maybe you haven't found the traction or the action that you're looking for.

So we're going to do a little check-in today.

And I just want to remind you also that the neuroscience basis of all in August

is found in my book, Hope is the First Dose, the treatment plan.

If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to download, buy a copy,

get the Audible. I did the narration myself.

Check out Hope is the First Dose. If you can't afford it, go to your local library.

Most of them will have it, or you can order it through interlibrary loan.

There's lots of ways to get it. I'm encouraging you to read Hope is the First

Dose, share it with your friends.

And so today we're gonna do a little all-in check-in. We're gonna start with

some testimonials from folks that are all-in with us, just so you have a name

of somebody else out there who's doing it. Maybe they'll inspire you to get after it too. Here we go.

Hi, Dr. Lee Warren. My name is Charlene Garrison. I live in Hercules,

California, and I'm all in as I listen to August the 1st podcast.

I was in tears because it just spoke to me so profoundly and it's helped me

to just, you know, propel, just keep moving in spite of all the things that

have occurred in my life that does not define me.

I so appreciate you and Lisa and what God has given you to do.

Thank you so much and God bless you. Hey, Dr.

Lee, this is Janine Klebar from Ball Ground, Georgia, outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

And I am all in and all in August.

I've been all in listening to you for many years, and I am definitely all in for Jesus.

It's time for a little check-in. So let me go back and just check on you and see how you're doing.

It's time to reassess. You know, there's a lot of people that,

if you're like me, that you stumble into something, you don't think about it ahead of time.

You're like, wait a minute, all in August, I didn't start. We'll start today. day.

So if you haven't jumped in with us, send me a voicemail, speakpipe.com slash

Dr. Lee Warren. You can leave a voicemail.

Let us know that you're all in. Let's go back and look at our two power verses

for this month, our two red light, green light verses.

Remember we did Psalm 37, four, three and four, trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And then verse five.

Listen, are you tired of just feeling like your life is banging your head against

the wall or knocking on a door that won't open or like Sisyphus in the Inferno,

just keep pushing that ball uphill and every time you feel like you're finally

getting there, it rolls back down and you have to start all over. Is that how it feels?

Sometimes I hear from a lot of you and the prayer wall is full of it where we're

just saying, hey, how many times is it going to feel like this?

How many times am I going to try this and it's not working? How long until I

get that abundance, that fresh breeze that we've talked about,

that God has promised us?

How long, O Lord, as the prophet said?

Do I ask you and you do not answer? Do I call for you and you don't answer?

Habakkuk said, how long? How long? Are you wondering that? Are you concerned

and wondering why things don't seem to be making progress?

Maybe it's time to go all in. If you're not with us, check out the book All In by Mark Batterson.

Tremendous book. I'm telling you, if you haven't read it or if you're not a

person that thinks about reading spiritual things or whatever,

if your last 25 books that you've read have been romance novels or whatever,

nothing wrong with that.

But just give me two days, three days, depending on how fast you read,

a week maybe, and just check it out all in.

Listen, I'm talking to you, okay? You're hearing me. Go look at your Kindle library.

Go look at your Audible library. Go look at your shelf. And if the last 25 books

you've read don't include something spiritual, just trust me.

Trust your friend, the doctor. Trust your brother, your pop,

whoever it is that's listening.

No matter how you're connected to me, how you got onto this podcast, just trust me.

Let me write you a prescription that if you're frustrated in your life,

if things are scary, if things are hard, they don't seem to be working quite right, just go all in.

Just give us a couple of days and check this book out. It'll help you check these scriptures out.

Give yourself some prehab so that the next time you hit that spot again, it'll help.

Yesterday we talked about personality types and these tests like the Enneagram

and Myers-Briggs and Strength Finders and all that.

I don't think I made the point quite script these episodes, so sometimes I get

off on a tangent. I forget to say something that's important.

But we talked a little bit about superheroes and how they all have strengths

and they have vulnerabilities, right? Your personality type gives you an opportunity

to understand your strengths so you know what you bring to the table.

But it also gives you an insight into your vulnerabilities. Like where are the

places where my particular personality is going to make me prone to mistakes,

troubles, perils, overthinking, overfeeling, and not making progress.

So I want you to look at your personality type as two sides of that coin,

strengths and vulnerabilities.

Responsibilities, and not to use it as a weapon to hide behind or an idol to

protect yourself so that other people have to worship who you are and how you're made,

and this is how I feel, and that's just how I am, and all of that,

but rather to understand the unique way in which God created you and your purpose

on this planet is to honor him with the things he has given you,

including your personality, okay?

Now let's go to our other power verse, Proverbs 3.

We're going to do five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

He will make straight your paths, okay?

Jesus told us that there's an easy way and a hard way, that life can,

that you come to a fork in the road, and there's an easy way is to just do what

culture tells you and pursue your own goals, and don't put too much stress on yourself,

and it's, you know, you weren't made, You weren't made to have to work so hard,

and you don't deserve this.

And all those things, it's just easy to take that pill that the world's offering

you and just roll through your life seeking your own. That's pretty easy.

There's a hard way, though, and the hard way is to continue to pursue a higher

calling, to get up higher,

to find the stuff he really wants for you, not the easy prepackaged Cheetos

stuff that the world wants to give you, but the abundant, amazing meal at the

table with the king that he has for you.

And it's harder to find that path because sometimes it takes self-sacrifice.

Sometimes it takes Romans 12.2.

Do not be conformed anymore to this world.

Don't be press fit and molded into a person that looks just like everybody else,

but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind, he says.

Be transformed. You want some transformation this month? You want some new, fresh power?

You want some juice in your gas tank that you never had before?

Let's try some transformation.

Let's try it. Don't be conformed to this world, Paul says, Romans 12.2,

but rather be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may

discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let me tell you about your brain for a second. Your brain, I'm going to talk

to a bunch of school teachers tomorrow, a bunch of school teachers and North

Platte educators, and it's not a spiritual conversation.

It's a public school, so I can't bring you, I can't bring them Romans 12.2 and

tell them to transform their lives by renewing their mind and letting God do

that. I can't bring that to them.

So if I thought, what am I going to tell these educators? I can't talk about spiritual stuff.

What am I going to tell them? I'm going to tell you the fact is you can be significantly

happier in your life and more effective in your life if you learn how to get

your brain under control.

If you learn how to do self-brain surgery, you can be significantly happier.

Are you wondering when it's time to start? Remember Paul, 2 Corinthians 6,

verse 2, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.

Behold, now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation.

Listen, there's no better time, friend, to go all in. If you messed up and you

didn't start on August 1st with us, it's August 8th.

Get after it. If you did start on August 1st, but it's been fits and starts,

and August 1st was good, and the 2nd was bad, and the 3rd was okay,

and the 4th was bad, and the 5th was maybe, and the 6th was I'm not sure,

and the 7th was I've already messed up a week. Guess what? It's a fresh light.

Now is the day. Reach up.

Tag in and say, I'm all in. I'm ready to go.

So I'm going to talk to these educators, and here's what I'm going to tell them, okay?

Your brain contains somewhere between 200 and 600 billion, with a B,

like Bravo, 200 and 600 billion cells in that three-pound box of flesh between your ears.

200 to 600 billion cells, and those cells are connected by a network of trillions

of synapses. These are little chemical bridges that connect cells.

And what they do is they create little computer programs, okay?

And those little computer programs execute the functions of your life.

And you have it. You know it. You smell a certain thing. You immediately think

a certain thing, feel a certain thing, remember a certain thing,

and start to react in a certain way without even being aware of it.

You smell smoke. Your brain feels fire. It creates the panic and the fear that

you feel without having to think about it, and you know there's danger somewhere.

The problem is that the human brain has a limited palette of chemical signals,

signal hormones that it can use to transmit impulses to you that make you aware

of certain things like danger, anxiety, fear.

Happiness, all those things. There's a limited palette. So the problem is the

sensation of fear that you have when there's smoke or when there's a bear in

the house or when something's really scary and really dangerous is there.

That chemical signal that tells you to be afraid and run is the same chemical

signal you get when the phone dings in the middle of the night and you say, what was that?

And your spouse says, oh, it was nothing. And your brain tells you that Maybe

they got a text from somebody else and you're afraid.

That fear is the same chemical signal in your brain than when there's really

an ax margarita in the house, right?

So the difference in learning how to have a happy life is to learn not to trust,

not to instantly react to those

chemical signals that we call feelings because feelings are not facts.

And every thought that pops into your head isn't necessarily true.

So if we can learn to do that little procedure that I call the thought biopsy,

and take a look at what we're thinking, and then learn how to tell our brain

to think something different when it's appropriate.

We will be on the path to having the most abundant and amazing life because

we are in charge of our brains, but the default state is that our brains are in charge of us.

There's an old song by the late John Prine called Dear Abby.

And remember that old newspaper column, Dear Abby?

And Ann Landers was her sister, and people would write in letters and ask for

advice. John Prine wrote a song about that.

And it kind of reminds me of the neuroscience of what we're dealing with here.

We think our brains are in charge of us. This is what John Prine said.

Dear Abby, dear Abby, my feet are too long. My hair is falling out. My rights are all wrong.

Every side I get up on is the wrong side of bed if it weren't so expensive.

I wish I were dead, signed unhappy, right?

So I told you that story to tell you this. Dear Abby is full of it.

It's not true. You are what you are and you ain't what you ain't. It's not true.

You can change it. So we're here in this time. If you haven't been with us yet,

it's time to go all in. So do a checkup today.

I want to ask you, spiritually, are you all in? Are you going to finally trust

him to keep his promises?

Are you going to finally trust him to be who he says he is, to keep the promises

that he says he will keep, to do the things that he guarantees you,

that he wants to do on your behalf? Are you going to trust him?

Are you going to let him do those things that he's been begging you to let him do? Are you going to?

Or are you not going to? Today's the day. Are you going to check that out?

Think about that. So spiritually, are you all in? How about relationally with

your spouse? Are you going to say, you know what?

I'm tired of the TV being on every night and us falling asleep after we watched

12 episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Walker, Texas Ranger, or whatever, Blacklist.

I'm tired of that. I want to talk to this person I hitched my wagon to for life.

I want to get to know him slash her again. I want to know who this person is.

I want to hear their voice.

I want to go all in with this relationship. I want to really pursue it and remember

why we're together in the first place. How about that? How about financially?

Hey, I'm so tired of constantly being worried about money.

I need to take a look at where all my money's going. I need to start thinking

about paying myself first and tithing and paying myself first so that I have

something at the end of the month I can invest and have my money start growing a little bit over time.

And then my money is starting to make some money for me.

And I start understanding that buying assets that appreciate and pay me something

over Overtime is a wiser choice than buying liabilities that just cost and take money from me over time.

And maybe if I start thinking that, maybe if I start reading a little bit more

and understanding a little bit more about how money works, maybe a couple of

years from now I'll be in a better position.

Maybe I need to go all in with that idea financially. Have you thought about that?

Are we all in with our health? Are we saying, hey, I'm tired of my body pushing me around.

I'm tired of giving in to my cravings. I'm tired of overeating.

I'm tired of numbing myself with Cheetos or alcohol or whatever.

I'm ready for my body to be a temple again. The Holy Spirit lives inside me.

I need to give him a better place to live.

I'm ready to start being more active. There's resources for you,

friend. Are you all in with your health?

Are you all in with your brain? Are you going to learn how to make your brain

better and change your brain so you can change your life? And today's the day.

So my question for you today, friend, is are you going to take the easy road or the hard road?

Are you going to go all in or are you not going to go all in?

And if you are all in with us, send me a voicemail and let me know.

And if you tried and fumbled and starting over, let me hear from you.

Speakpipe.com slash Dr. Lee Warren. And if you're just now getting started, that's great.

Go back and listen to the first episodes and catch up with us and get after it. Let's go.

If you ever looked at a U.S. soldier's uniform, on the sleeve there's a U.S. flag.

And when you first look at it, it'll look funny to you because it seems to be facing backwards.

It's not the stars and stripes are in the order that you don't normally see.

The stripes are pointing backwards.

You normally see the stars on the left and the stripes to the right.

Well, in the soldier's uniform, it's the other way. And it's not a mistake.

The reason it's that way is that patch is supposed to represent what it would

look like If a soldier was holding the flag and running forward into battle,

the flag would trail behind them, right?

The flag flying backwards is because the soldier is running forward.

And my friend, I want your flag pointing backwards because it's time to go forward.

It's time to stop looking back, beating ourselves up, living in shame,

living in regret, living in fear, living in anxiety, being depressed about the

choices we've made in the past or the way that our life has played out because

you have a life yet to live and a story yet to tell.

And it's time to trust him, that he'll keep his promises. It's time to get that

beautiful brand of yours under control.

God made you unique with a personality that nobody else has and a perspective

on life that nobody else has.

And you can share his glory and his image in a way that only you can do.

But in order to do that, you've got to change your mind.

That's how you change your life. And the only way to do that is to go all in.

And the good news with that is you can start today.

That was good. Do me a favor. Share this with your friends, okay?

The downloads are going nuts this month. You're getting all in.

The community's building steam. I can feel it.

And today, let's try to get to 10,000 downloads.

Let's try to get 10,000 people to listen to this episode.

If we're going to do that, you're going to have to share it with four or five

people, okay? Take a second.

Copy the link. Text it to somebody and say, hey, go all in with me.

We've talked about this. I know you're trying to make some changes.

I know you want to do this. Let's do it together. Let's go all in.

Download this episode. Listen to it today. Let's talk about it tonight.

Text me with what you thought about it. What are some decisions you can make

against yourself? Send it to five or ten friends today. Just take that time and do it.

And if you're not subscribed to the newsletter, please join us in the newsletter community.

We do deep dive into cell brain surgery every Sunday since 2014.

DrLeeWarren.substack.com is the newsletter. DrLeeWarren.substack.com.

Sign up for it. It's free. It'll really help you. Okay, and we'll be more connected.

We can communicate we can talk about things on a deeper level Okay,

so do me the favor of sharing this episode right now Send it to somebody that

you care about and say hey friend Let's go all in together and let's see what

happens I want people all over the world to go all in and I know you do too

And so let's share it. Let's get it out there.

Let's make it happen You can change your mind and you can change your life my

friend and the good news is you can start today.