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Welcome back to episode 21 of the DVP, the Dan Vegas program, brought to you by your host, myself, Daniel Vegas. We're gonna come out swinging here, come out hot, and I want to work on an exercise with you guys. This requires a little pen and paper or your notes in your phone. Pause if you need to. This is specifically for targeted for around those individuals who are sitting in the gap of alignment, not alignment, enlightenment and embodiment, or revelation and embodiment. Meaning you have the knowledge of that next step, that next stage of your life, that next version of yourself. You know what it is you want to do or who it is you want to be. You don't may not know any of the details in between. You might not know the certainties though what needs to happen, but you know you feel it, you feel that calling, you have there's no contentment when you try to avoid it. You know it's there, you're feeling it. There is a place you want to go, a person you want to be, a way you want to live, a way you want to act, a way you want to think, a reason you have for needing to take that next step. And then there's where you are, and there's a separation. I'm talking to you. That gap between enlightenment and embodiment, that gap between revelation and actually living it out. Do this with me. Write down everything you are ready for, and then I am ready for blank statement, or I am ready to blank. And it might take a couple pages if we flip back a few to a similar exercise I did, you know, a couple different pages through here. But think of that place you want to go to, that person you want to be, what you're trying to move and work into, and write down I am ready for this. I'm ready to be this, I'm ready to this, I'm ready for that, whatever it is. Take your time, pause this if you need to, and write out as much as you possibly can think of that image that you have as clearly as you can. I'm ready for this. I'm ready to blank. Once you've done that, once that's done, I want you to read through it thoroughly. Does it capture the full picture, the full image of that place you're trying to go, that person you're trying to be, that life that you're trying to embody? If the answer is yes, if you feel satisfied with it, now that we're back here, hopefully you've written it all down. Knowing that, reading it, seeing it. I want you to go back through, and I don't care if you wrote one paragraph or you wrote one notebook, 30 pages, go back and rewrite every single line in an I choose statement. So if you said I am ready to live intentionally, diligently, I am ready to live a life that I am excited about, I am ready for days full of energy and not crashing at two in the afternoon. I am ready for purpose. I am ready to never hit snooze again. Now I want you to write. I choose to wake up on the first alarm. I choose a life full of purpose and intentionality. I choose energy all day long. I choose to work efficiently, effectively through the entire day. I choose to have ridiculously productive afternoons. I choose blank. Pause if you need to. Once you've written that, welcome back, hello, we're here. I want you to write down, after all of that, I want you to write down, I am that person. I am that, actually use your name. So my name's Daniel. I am that Daniel, or I am that Dan. And write underneath, this is how I think, this is how I act, this is how I decide, how I move, what I do not tolerate, what I take immediate action on, and who I allow in my life. And if you're serious about closing that gap between where you're at and the full embodiment of the enlightenment, knowledge, and revelation that you know is sitting on your shoulders, read that every single day, just for the next week, seven days. If you can't do that, that's a different conversation. I want you to read that. Not the I'm ready for, but the I choose statement, the beginning of the I choose statement, all the way through. I am that person, I am that Peter, that Paul, that Amanda, whatever. Remember, this is how I think, this is how I act, this is how I decide, how I move, what I do and do not tolerate, what I take immediate action on, and who I allow in my life. Because inasmuch as you recall those things, inasmuch as you bring them from the ether, your imagination, somewhere back and focus on them, focus clearly on them. When you say it, when you write it down and you say it, there's power behind that, there's power of life and death in the tongue. When you say it and speak it, there's a sense of clarity that you have. That then brings whatever was out in the distance, makes it real. It brings it to the here and now by you being very, very clear about it. I want to tell you a little story. So I have the gift of having adopted a beautiful dog into my life the last year, as a result of my fiance. She has a wonderful golden, and so that golden has now become a part of my life, our dog. And her name is Sunday. Sunday is brilliant, very high energy, very smart, but also, you know, she'll choose when she wants to listen sometimes. And it got me thinking, what is Sunday for? Like, why do we have her? Why do we have the dog? And in one sense, it's kind of a silly question because you're like, well, obviously, because she had the dog, so now you guys have the dog, you're not getting rid of the dog. Like, yeah. Yes, that's true. But if I choose an intentional life, what's Sunday for? What do I want to do? What is my goal with Sunday? I think Nietzsche said it. And I could be very wrong on that. But it's move forward, act as if you have chosen everything that happens to you, that comes to your life, or put another way, how would you respond? How would you act? What would you do if you were having fun? Taking that perspective, all right. Well, what would I do if I was having fun with Sunday? What would I do if I had chosen from the get? Like, we got my beautiful fiance and I are like, well, let's get a dog. What would I want for that dog with that dog? Well, if I wanted her to just hang around the house and go on the occasional walk, then training, you know, good recall commands, good obedience, nice to have. Not an absolute necessity, though, because I really only walk the dog, play in the backyard, have fun around the house, as long as the dog knows, you know, wait, stay, like that's pretty much fine. And I feel like that's the case for most people. But she's a really smart dog, she's a really active dog, really intention, intense dog, high energy, great at fetch. Go figure. I don't want just a side piece dog. Like I want, I want a life that is fully engaging. I choose a life that is intentionally engaging, and that includes the dog. I want to go on runs with Sunday. I want her to be a part of our life. I want to be able to trust her, to go out in public, to go be able to throw a ball in a field and know that she's gonna come back and not just disappear. Well, if I want that from my dog, if that's what Sunday's for, if she's for an intentional life, and if I'm saying I choose an intentional life, then every aspect of it is going to be intentional, in as much as the things that I have a decision about. You know, rain, can't choose the rain, but you know what I mean. Okay, that's what Sunday's for. She's an intentional part of my life, and we're gonna, it's gonna be beautiful because she's an addition. Great. Well, now next step is I have to have discipline. As a result of her being an intentional part of my life and having a clear goal of what I want to do with Sunday, that that role that I want her to play in our life, I have to now act on that. Intentionality without any behavior behind it is just happy wishing. It's not a goal, it's not productive, it doesn't, it doesn't serve in any way. I am bringing the life that I want to live into reality every single day by the decisions I make. And so with Sunday, I want, I choose to live an intentional, fun, free life. Which means now I must choose discipline and I have to train her, and we have to work on that, and that's gonna take time and effort. But that is a choice based on my clarity of knowing what I want to do with her, the life that I want to live with, the life I choose to live with her. It's one where she's involved. I don't want to be a person who just leaves my dog at home locked in a cage. That earns her more freedom. We're clear on what we want. We're clear on what we have chosen. Well, now that dictates a necessity for work and discipline. But that discipline allows for freedom. If she's not trained, then I can't go take her to the park and run around. If she's not trained, I can't trust her in a restaurant. If she's not trained, I can't trust her around kids or something. Everything. We're gonna expand this out now. Everything in life mirrors God's design. And that Sunday explanation is, I presume I offer because it's really simple to follow and understand. Like I want a dog, I choose to live a life with a dog that I can do stuff with, and so I'm gonna have to train the dog. And when I train the dog, we're gonna be able to do more stuff. There's gonna be freedom in that discipline because I know that I can trust the dog, and there's obedience there. Because we're very clear on what we're doing and why. Although, I mean, if I'm not going out and about with the dog, there's no sense in really training it or working on that, right? That's us. That's our life. Everything is the same, there is nothing new under the sun. Everything reflects Christ and creation and how He how He created us, how He created everything else. If you or I are not clear, we don't have any vision for what it is we're trying to do or what it is we want, and then choose, then we don't have any step. We don't have any next step. It wouldn't make sense to do certain things and not do certain things, or choose one thing over the other, or sacrifice one thing for another when we don't have any real goal. And then we can't really get mad when things don't go the way we want, or we don't have control over our life because, well, we haven't been very clear about what we want, and we haven't exercised the discipline to bring that thing that we choose and we want from here, from a desire placed on our heart, into reality. Why on earth will God trust us with exceeding and abundant blessings? Which, by the way, real quick pin in that, we are exceedingly and abundantly blessed if in a billion ways. I know I am, but if you're sitting here listening to this or watching this, you don't know how much, how many blessings you are you have: electricity, vision, light, sound, hearing, knowledge, competency, the grace that brought you here. Uh, so okay, that's a quick caveat pin. We're ridiculously blessed in more ways than we could count. But if we're if we're sitting there and we're like, God, like I want this car, I want this house, Lord, I want peace and in turbulent interactions, I want to be the smartest person at work. I mean, cool, all good requests, I guess. But if you can't handle your dishwasher not working, why on earth would God put you in a position where you have to try and handle some big giant stressor at work? You can't handle a dishwasher not working. Having to deal with something at work that maybe involves multiple people would ruin your day. You wouldn't be able to handle it. That's a little hit to the ego because you're like, no, I could figure it out, I could take it. Yeah, fine, sure, whatever. But take it from someone who's had that experience of God going, like, you want that? Here you go, and then it all falling apart. Why would God give us something that we can't handle? Why would He give us the freedom to steward, let's take a car? Why would He give us the freedom to steward, say you want a Range Rover? That blessing and that gift. If you're not responsible with the bicycle you have or the car you have, you don't take care of it, you don't care about it, you've never thought about a maintenance record, and you don't have the funds to pay someone else to do it. You've not been intentional with that asset, with that gift. I'm not going to call it an asset. Cars are not assets for the most part. You've not been responsible with that gift you have. You don't have a vision with that gift that you have. So you don't have the discipline to treat it well. And so you don't have the freedom then to use it to do more. So why is God gonna give you something else? A bigger gift is just a burden if you're not capable of handling it. A bigger gift is just gonna weigh you down. It's gonna be a challenge, it's not gonna be something that you can handle or steward well or deal with. In the same way that I am very clear about the life I choose with Sunday. That choice dictates actions. It requires something. It requires something that's gonna be challenging, sure, maybe. It requires discipline. But the clarity that calls out, that calls for discipline, that then, so that that clarity calls for discipline, and that discipline then leads to freedom. You know, Nala Stomps, you got have you heard of her, or you've seen stomp, stomp, you do the Nala Stomp. That guy travels all over the world, or all over the US at least with Nala. And they go on adventures, have fun, they meet people. She's wonderful. And I don't know if she's just like that or if he if he trained her or whatever. But she listens to him, they have a great relationship. The dog listens, and so they have the freedom to go do all sorts of stuff that I would argue 85% of dog owners could not do. Because they don't either have the discipline with their dog or the trust. And so without the discipline of trust, you don't have the freedom. And really, without a vision of what you want to do, there's no reason for that discipline or trust. So I think sometimes we can get stuck in this middle section of like, why do I need the discipline? Discipline so hard, it's challenging. Yeah, and if you're doing it for no reason, like if there's no reason, it could be a waste of energy and effort. But if you're very clear on what you choose, and even if you don't get the choice, if something is thrust upon you, some men choose greatness, some people have greatness thrust upon them. If something's thrust upon you, choose how it will fit into your life. Choose how you're going to work on it, navigate it. And then when you've gotten very clear, make your choice and get very clear about the details. That will lead you to action. That action requires discipline, and through that discipline, you'll find the freedom to enjoy, to experience that that you chose. It's true for the dog, it's true for the job you want, it's true for the relationship you want, it is true for the money that you want, it is true for the house, the family, the peace, contentment, the spirituality, the faith. It's true for the body and the health that you want, it's true for the home that you want, it's true for the yard that you want, the flowers. If you don't have a vision about having a nice little flower bed around your mailbox, it makes no sense to till the soil, keep it clean, get some flowers, yada yada yada. And you'll never enjoy the flowers. But if you think and you know that is what I choose. I want that, and I'm going after it, cool. Go take care of it, make it happen, and then voila, you enjoy the freedom of the beautiful flowers. It might sound silly, but it is all the same. There's nothing new under the sun. That process is the same, whether it's for a dog, flowers, home, or your biggest and wildest dreams. So if you feel that weird gap between revelation, between enlightenment and embodiment, I would challenge you. Get very clear about what it is you want, very specific, choose it, and then move every single day into it, being disciplined, being thoughtful. And it is a choice every single day. It's going to be challenging because if you are not refocusing your attention and your time and your effort, your assets, meaning like your lifetime energy, if you are not focusing every single day on bringing that to bringing that reality to life, because it's there, in as much as it's in your mind, it is there. So if you're not focused. Bringing it to life every single day, then you will default to your patterns. Or people will say we don't follow the level of our whatever we follow to our like standards. You'll default to that standard or your patterns. And if you feel like there's a gap, then you already feel like you're called to more. You might even know exactly what that is. So be intentional every single day. Otherwise, your mind's gonna know, hey, we know this, we're good with this, we're just gonna sit back to here. But I know you're meant for more. You know you're meant for more. And if you're sitting there going, not really, like I'm kind of chilling, I'm happy with my life, I would challenge you because we are called to life and life abundantly. If you feel a gap of separation at all, that is a calling, that is a nudge, that is conviction. Don't ignore it. Lean into it. It will require something, it'll be challenging. Lean into it. Be very clear, take action, and then live in the freedom of that discipline. This has been a beautiful evening. Thank you very much for tagging along, for joining me for episode 21. Crazy of the DVP, the Dan Vegas, the Daniel Vegas program. Have a lovely, lovely evening, morning, whatever it is where you are at, and I'll see you next time.