Don't Quit Now

We explore the challenging reality of consistency that most motivational speakers don't address—showing up when your body is exhausted, your mind is cloudy, but your soul still wants to win.

• Only 3% of people write down their goals and dreams
• Most people quit around day 16 or week 2 when the initial excitement fades
• Winners distinguish themselves by continuing even when tired or struggling
• The book "Never Eat Alone" discusses networking and relationship-building for success, especially for those without established connections
• Oral cancer has an 84% five-year survival rate when caught early
• Dogs rarely get cavities because they consume less sugar than humans
• Electric toothbrushes are more effective than manual ones for removing plaque
• Consistency isn't about being perfect—it's about showing up even during difficult days
• Self-love means being honest about your feelings while still moving with intention

Stand on business about your goals and dreams, even when it's hard. Show up for yourself, even on your most difficult days.

Chapters

• 0:00 Don't Quit Now
• 4:50 Never Eat Alone: Mindset Chapter
• 8:25 Oral Cancer: Treatment and Survival
• 9:54 Dogs, Dental Health, and Toothbrushes
• 13:05 Building Consistency Through Hard Days
• 16:04 Self-Love and Showing Up Anyway

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:36

This is the Hood to Hooded podcast and I'm going to keep it all the way real, all the way. I'm tired today. This is the part that people don't talk about when they say just be consistent, right. They don't talk about the nights where your body is on E, your mind is cloudy and your soul still wants you to win. They don't talk about that. I feel like my body is on e because it's been a long day working as a doctor and running a dental practice and jen just feeling exhausted on top of homesick. My mind is on cloud because just tired, but I still want to win. I still want to freaking show up. So that's why I'm here tonight, because I ain't no quitter.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Our first segment of the night is going to be called Don't Quit Now. This is a topic that I chose because why most people give up at this point in consistency journey? Why do most people give up? This is the part where most people tap out, not the beginning, not when it's cute and new. It's the moment, right here, day 16, week 2, that first month. It's so easier when life hits for you to just tap out on your goals, tap out on your dreams, all that excitement that you had in the beginning, my Niji. It kind of dissipates you like, dang, I'm tired, too tired to accomplish my goals today. Yep, this is when most people quit. So that's why it's called don't quit. You too close to turn around now. Don't turn around now you can get your momentum. Yesterday we talked about getting over that inertia, all the energy it takes to start, like tonight.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Do y'all know what separates the winners from the wishers? They keep going. People who wish three percent of people write their goals and dreams out. We want to be in that mix. I'm trying to tell you we don't want to be in the mix of just wishing and praying on a fantasy. That's what separates the winners from the wishers, those 3% of winners. They keep going anyway, even if it's messy, even if you have low energy, even if you're barely holding it together, because showing up tired is still showing up too. So to anybody out there in twitch world or around the world, my message for this segment is do not q u I t on yourself, do not quit, not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not ever in your life. Quit on yourself and not on your goals. And yes, we must rest, but remember sometimes, when we make goals, you got to either accomplish your goals or get rest. And I'm not saying don't get rest, that's not what I'm saying. But if you pick a goal that requires you to go extra hard, then you just got to do what you got to do. We always gonna throw in dental school, because dental school is one of those experiences where you just got to go hard, like even when you're tired, you just got to wake up and go hard and have that momentum and that ability to never quit, even when your brain feel tired as hell.

Speaker 1: 4:02

The first, first paragraph of Never Eat Alone the first section of this book, never Eat Alone is about the mindset. We just finished Eat that Frog talking about procrastination, all the different jewels to overcome procrastination and to keep that momentum for your dreams and your goals. So this book that we're tackling now is all about networking for success and relationship secrets. This is important when you're going from hood to hood to tackle those relationships and to learn how to get better at them. We all can get better at relationships. Section one, the mindset mindset. First chapter is becoming a member of the club. Becoming a member of the club, becoming a member of the club relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because in relationships to, in relationship to everything else, nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go its alone. And that's Margaret Wheatley. And then the first. I'll just read the first page.

Speaker 1: 5:09

I kept asking myself in those early days as an overwhelmed first year student at Harvard Business School. The guy who wrote this book went to Harvard Business School. We're getting a little insight from Harvard. It said there wasn't a single accounting or finance class in my background. Looking around me, I saw ruthlessly focused young men and women who had undergraduate degrees in business. They'd gone on to crunch numbers or analyze spreadsheets in the finance firms on wall street. Most were from wealthy families and had pedigrees and legacies and roman numerals in their names. Sure I was intimidated. How was a guy like me from a working class family with a liberal arts degree, in a couple years of at a traditional manufacturing company, going to compete with per breads from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs who, from my perspective, seem as if they've been computing business data in their cribs? It was a defining moment in my life, in my career, in my life.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I was a country boy from southwestern Pennsylvania, raised in a small, hard-working, still in cold town outside of Latrobe called Youngstown. Our region was so rural you couldn't see another house from the porch of our modest home. My father worked in the local steel mill and on weekends he'd do construction. My mother cleaned the homes of the doctors and lawyers in the nearby town. My brother escaped small town life by way of the army. My sister got married in high school and moved out when I was a toddler, and we're gonna stop there.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Just that first page alone gives us a lot of insight about this guy who wrote this book and how he came from not having those relationships, not having legacy, which is like a lot of us coming from hood to hood. We don't have pedigree, we don't have legacy. I remember my first time even hearing about legacy really was when I was trying to get into dental school. There's something called legacy. If you have a father or mother who has been in the dental program and they groom you to go into the program, that's called Legacy because you're carrying on the legacy. But one person has to make it through for the legacy to even start. For me, going through dental school, I had to make it through for me to break the generational curse for my family, for my legacy to even begin. That first paragraph or that first page really hits home. Hopefully we can continue to dive into this book and get some more meat and potatoes.

Speaker 1: 7:49

I wanted to talk about how oral cancer is treated. Is it deadly and what is the survival rate? How is oral cancer treated? One of the ways is surgery to remove the ulcers or the cancerous tissue, which is why you want to catch it early, before it spreads and it's, and then you lose a lot of the tissue because it does spread. Number two is radiation therapy to kill the cancerous cells in the area. Number three, chemo. And we all know chemo is like poison to the body if it spreads or if it's very aggressive. Chemo is really tough and a lot of people struggle with that and sometimes immunotherapy and targeted drug therapy, just like most cancers radiation, chemo and trying to stop it from spreading. That's the same way you treat oral cancer. Is it deadly? Like many cancers, early detection is important if If you catch it early, it increases your chances of survival by 80 to 90%. But if you don't, then the chances rapidly decline because it's such an aggressive disease. The five-year survival rate for early stage oral cancer is 84%. If it's caught late those numbers drop significantly and most people ignore those early signs. Awareness is everything. If you get a sore in your mouth that does not heal, it lasts for longer than two weeks, bleeds easily.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Yesterday we had some good questions from our tribe about do dogs get cavities? I told you, yes, but it is rare for dogs to get cavities because guess why? That's why you really don't hear about it, unless the dog has the same thing that causes cavities in humans is just the same as the cavities in dogs. They don't eat as much sugar as us. They don't eat a lot of candy. You don't see dogs eating snickers. You don't see dogs drinking red bull because they naturally eat less sugar. They rarely get cavities. They bite and shoot. Yes, they rarely get cavities and their mouths have more natural bacteria balance than ours. Isn't that crazy. But if they eat a lot of processed foods, treats or have poor oral hygiene, yes, they can develop decay. They can, and dogs can have dental extractions, cleanings, root canals done with anesthesia. If you have a pet out there, just buy them treats that clean their teeth naturally. But if anything, just don't buy them a lot of processed treats. I don't own a dog. I imagine they do have some sweet treats for dogs.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I went to the dentist when I was a kid and it was a fun memory. It should be a fun memory, like. A lot of people have terrible experiences at the dentist and I'm trying to figure out why the dentist is turning out mean. I actually work with a dentist my second job as an associate with this guy. He was one of the meanest dentists I have ever experienced in my life. I couldn't even work there that long. So there are some mean dentists but there are also some very pleasant denses and if you go to the denses as a kid, you're probably getting the pediatric denses and they are extra.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Enamel doesn't regenerate, but early stage demineralization can be reversed. It doesn't like regenerate once your enamel is formed but you can stop it from demineralizing by using fluoride to help strengthen the enamel and support remineralization. The last thing we talked about yesterday that I wanted to hit on is the electric toothbrush versus the manual toothbrush. Both work pretty good as long as you're brushing properly, but electric toothbrushes are always going to be more effective at removing the plaque. You can't spin as fast as an electric toothbrush. You can't move the toothbrush as fast. Timers also help you brush the proper time. Most toothbrushes will tell you hey, you didn't do the two minutes and then it'll give you a sad face. And electric toothbrushes are good for people who have mobility issues, braces or poor technique, which is a lot of us have poor oral hygiene technique. Manual brushes work fine but require perfect technique and more effort. If you can afford an electric toothbrush, definitely try to get one. But if you can't, make sure you still brush twice per day. Circular motions, 45 degree angle at the gum line Make sure you brush at the gum line. Soft bristle toothbrush this is discipline at its finest.

Speaker 1: 12:33

It was my idea to do this challenge because, number one, I really want to be a streamer. But as a dental professional, that's a hard task, especially running a dental practice. That's a hard task, especially running a dental practice. That makes it even harder because at the end of the day, I still have a lot of paperwork to do, a lot of things going on, but I didn't want to get into the mindset of just not doing what I want to do. I like streaming. I enjoy streaming, even though sometimes it gets difficult.

Speaker 1: 13:01

I know that in order to be a streamer, you got to show up every day, or at least a lot. So I say, you know what? I'm going to challenge myself to see if I could do one hour a day something that I really like, without quitting and not letting dentistry overtake every part of me, because dentistry has a way of just consuming every part of you and, as a dentist, you have to be consuming your work. I want to do something different. As a dentist, you have to be consuming your work. I want to do something different. Step outside of the box, get online, use my oral hygiene education, reach people around the world, save teeth globally. Build my community, a community that shows up for me and where I can show up. I read something where it said how do you want to build an audience or a community of supporters or a tribe when you don't even show up? You can't take days off from your tribe, like you can't take days off from communication. So that hit home for me. So I said you know what I'm showing up, regardless Whenever my tribe, get here, I will be here.

Speaker 1: 13:56

I have to really develop my consistency muscle, guys, because yes, I'm a doctor, but what is a doctor if you can't be consistent. I can't let my consistency muscle atrophy. We cannot let our consistency muscle atrophy. That means get weak, lose all the nutrients and the minerals and just drift away. A lot of people just let their consistency, their discipline, their self-esteem, their self-love all the things that build character, just disappear. Because it's sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it is hard.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Showing up here ain't easy and I want y'all to know that it's not easy to show up every day. But anything easy may not be worth having. Sometimes you got to do some things that aren't too easy. Get you out of your comfort zone, and that's what it's all. Get you out of your comfort zone, and that's what it's all about. Getting out of that comfort zone. I didn't have all the energy, but guess what you got? To have heart. That's all I need to go live is to have heart and have fun. All these other requirements. That's why I honestly also did the consistency project, because I didn't want to get in my own head like, okay, but what am I going to say? Am I consistency project? Because I didn't want to get in my own head like, okay, but what am I gonna say? Am I gonna have the perfect words to say? Am I gonna have the perfect back. I just wanted to show up. That's what consistency is showing up, and sometimes that's the hardest thing to do.

Speaker 1: 15:15

It's weird when you overcome one of your hard days and I imagine I'll have more hard days and honestly I was missing my mom a lot today because I can't just pick up the phone and call her. I can't just like bask in her momminess and, being eight years old losing her, I don't think I'll ever heal that part of me. So some days that depression tries to sneak back in, that sadness tries to sneak back in on my hard days and I just start to miss my mom. So I'm a work in progress for the rest of my life when it comes to that. If anybody out there has ever lost a mom or ever lost a parent or somebody that you really love, especially at such a young age, then you can feel my pain. That's another reason why today was hard and bittersweet.

Speaker 1: 16:07

That's why being consistent isn't about being perfect, it's about showing up, and it means loving yourself enough to show up even when you are struggling. And self-love is being honest with how you feel and still moving with intentions. Today I'm honest with how I feel, but I'm still moving with intention and still not letting it rob me of my peace, my happiness or my joy. Don't let your mood today dictate your destiny. Every day is a new day. So tomorrow it will be a new day and you can just show up for yourself, tired, but just don't ghost yourself.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Don't ghost your audience. This is Dr yourself. Don't ghost your audience. This is Dr Cheetah's Sunflower. I see you to all my out there on Turtle Island. I hope you guys have a wonderful night. I send you positive vibes and if you can't show up for yourself, just let me be a reminder that you can do anything you put your mind to. Shift your mindset today. Show up for yourself, even when it's hard, even when you have those difficult days. Stand on business about your goals, your dreams, your business, whatever you want to do in life. Stand on business about it. Thank you for joining me and I will see you guys tomorrow. Peace out, guys.