Rise and Lead
Rise and Lead
How to Win the War In Your Mind: Simple Filter and Three Bucket Tool - RAL 86
On this episode, How to Win the War In Your Mind: Simple Filter and Three Bucket Tool, Benjamin explores the transformative power of reshaping your mindset for personal growth and leadership success. Drawing inspiration from the story of the prodigal son, he discusses the profound impact of self-perception and thought patterns on our potential. By taking responsibility for your thoughts, you can cultivate a healthier mindset that propels you toward greater achievements in both personal and professional realms. On any given day you have over 60,000-80,000 thoughts that run through your head, 95% of those thoughts are repeated from the day before, and 80% of those are negative. The life you want starts in your head. This episode is all about helping you control your thoughts so your thoughts to control you.
Episode Quote:
"If you can identify what is feeding a negative and toxic thought you can address it at the root instead of trying to constantly manage the branches. "
This episode, like all Rise and Lead Podcast episodes, is highly practical and motivating. Don't forget to subscribe to the Rise and Lead Podcast to ensure you get notified when new episodes release every month. When you share about the podcast, make sure and tag @benjaminlundquist, and he'll always try and give you a re-post. Remember, the best time to rise and lead is now!
This thought you fill in the blank is not helping me move forward, is not helping me become who I want to become and is not honoring the worth and value and purpose that God has given me. As a result, I'm not going to entertain this thought, I'm not going to fuel it. I'm going to distance myself from anything, everything and anyone who is encouraging this thought to take root. If you can identify what is feeding a negative or toxic thought, you can address it at the root instead of trying to constantly manage the branches. Welcome to Rise and Lead. I'm Benjamin Lundquist, and this podcast is all about personal growth and leadership. Thank you for listening and for being a part of our Rise and Lead community. We're a community of leaders who are passionate about growth, leadership and expanding our impact on the world.
Speaker 1:On this episode, I'll be sharing a simple and very helpful tool that you can use to navigate and direct the thousands of thoughts you have every day and ultimately, over time, win the war in your mind. On any given day, you have over 60,000 thoughts that run through your head. 95% of those thoughts are repeated from the day before and 80% of those thoughts are negative. The life you want starts in your head. You need to control your thoughts and not allow your thoughts to control you. That's what this episode is all about. The Rise and Lead podcast is designed specifically to motivate and equip you to live your greatest life with maximum impact. We are going to find out what makes great leaders great and how you can start growing yourself. Rise, expanding your impact, lead and living the life you have been created to live together. And I want to personally invite you to be a rise and lead partner in spreading the word about this podcast and all the episodes that will follow, so together we can reach more people. Here are a few ways that you can support what we are building Subscribe to the podcast so you can get all the episodes that release every month. Rate the podcast I'm always going for a five-star rating. If you think Rise and Lead deserves five stars, I would greatly appreciate that. Leave a written review if you haven't done so already. Your reviews. They make a huge difference. And finally, share about Rise and Lead with your family, your friends and your social media network. Screenshot this episode and send it to someone, or text someone the episode link. You are helping people rise to their next level by connecting them to an episode and when you share about the podcast as a social media post or story, make sure you tag me and I will always try and give you a repost. Your input, ratings, reviews and shares help our team to continue creating a better podcast to serve great leaders like you.
Speaker 1:We are about to jump into this episode. I like to start with prayer, so let's pray together, god. Many of us are tired of waking up to doubt, insecurity and fear. We want more out of life but feel stuck in a headspace that is keeping us trapped in repeated thought patterns that are not moving us forward toward who you have created us to be. Start a healing journey for the person listening right now, a journey toward a healthy mind, allowing them to reach more of their potential. Remind them of who they are and whose they are, even when they forget or even when they don't believe it. Amen, I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in. It all starts in the mind. A healthy leader has a healthy mind. The challenge is that we are bombarded with thoughts every day that are on repeat. For many of you, you have been thinking about the same things for years, wrestling with the same lies, doubts and insecurities. You want to be healthy, but your mind is stuck. If you have been with a podcast for a while, you know this is an extreme ownership space. We don't cast blame and we don't make excuses. You have to take responsibility for directing your thoughts and you need a tool that can help you do that, and I'm going to give you that tool. What you believe about yourself and your situation will affect everything.
Speaker 1:I want to summarize a story that was shared by Jesus and is recorded in Luke, chapter 15. And it's best known as the parable of the prodigal son. In this story are two sons, and the younger son goes to his affluent father and says father, I want the inheritance that is owed to me. This is significant because for a son to ask for his inheritance before his father has passed away was saying that his father was as good as dead to him. So the father gives the younger son his inheritance and the younger son goes out and he lives a lavish lifestyle with this inheritance. He's got a lot of friends and he's attracting a lot of people and he is spending a lot of money. Well, there comes a point where the money has run out and then, to make matters worse, a famine comes to the land and I don't know if you have been in a situation like that where something happened that was challenging and then it's like a situation made your original situation worse. So this son has no money, his community has left them because he's adding no financial value to that community and a famine has hit the land. So he finds himself working in a pig pen taking care of pigs to try and make ends meet because he's got no source of income. As he's taking care of these pigs, the thought comes to his mind as he's reflecting on his situation the servants back home are eating better and being taken care of better than I am right now. I need to go back home. But as he looks at his situation and his circumstance, the thought comes to his mind that he is no longer worthy to go home as a son. He needs to go home as a servant. Because of the choices he had made, he looked around and began to devalue himself and surrendered his position, status and standing within his own family. He wrote himself off, believing that redemption and restoration were beyond possible for him, and that thought kept running through his head I am no longer worthy. I am no longer worthy. I am no longer worthy.
Speaker 1:We'll get back to this story in just a moment. The average person has approximately 60 to 80,000 thoughts per day. That's a thought every 1.2 seconds. 80% of your thoughts are negative and 95% are repeated. Think about this Almost all of your thoughts are carryover thoughts from the day before. Let me say that again Almost all of your thoughts are carryover thoughts from the day before. If you don't do something with your thoughts, something to disrupt and direct your thoughts, what you think about today will become what you think about tomorrow. You have to remember you are not your thoughts. You have thoughts, but you are not your thoughts. But your thoughts significantly impact your mental health, overall well-being and your future.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep coming back to this point again and again. You are responsible for stewarding your mind. Well, I've had people tell me don't think like that. Put your mind on something positive, tell yourself. That's simply not true about you and your situation. To be honest, it doesn't always feel that easy. If you've been listening to Rise and Lead long enough, you know I'm about to bring you a tool that works. First, I want to give you a filter so you can have language to name and describe your thoughts and secondly, I'm going to give you a tool to categorize your thoughts, giving you some direction on what to do with them.
Speaker 1:When you have a bigger thought that keeps entering your head, a thought that has the potential to impact your life and leadership, ask these three questions. Number one is this thought helping me move forward? Number two, is this thought helping me become who I want to become? And finally, number three, is this thought honoring the worth, value and purpose that God has put in me? No more ghost thoughts. Name and describe your thoughts. This thought you fill in the blank is not helping me move forward, is not helping me become who I want to become and is not honoring the worth and value and purpose that God has given me. As a result, I'm not going to entertain this thought, I'm not going to fuel it and I'm not going to allow it to take root. I'm going to distance myself from anything, everything and anyone who is encouraging this thought to take root. I am going to cut it off at the root. If you can identify what is feeding a negative or toxic thought, you can address it at the root instead of trying to constantly manage the branches. Let me say that again If you can identify what is feeding a negative or toxic thought, you can address it at the root instead of trying to constantly manage the branches. Answer these three questions Is this thought helping me move forward? Is this thought helping me become who I want to become, and is this thought honoring the worth, value and purpose that God has put in me? Call out your thought for what it is.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about the three bucket tool. The three bucket tool. Imagine you are looking at three buckets in front of you right now from Home Depot or your local hardware store. These are five gallon paint sized buckets. As a bigger, often repeated thought keeps floating around in your head, you need to drop that thought into one of the three buckets in front of you. Your three buckets are the nonsense bucket, the contemplation bucket and the action bucket. Bucket number one is the nonsense bucket. This bucket is for thoughts that are not backed up by evidence, they are not in alignment with what God has said about you and they undermine your identity as a child of God. These thoughts are garbage with no value to you at all. The filter questions I just shared will help you identify these thoughts. Drop these thoughts in bucket number one. Cut them off at the root and let them go. Anyone who loves you and wants to see you win will tell you that these thoughts are nonsense.
Speaker 1:Here's an example you are watching other people's social media highlight reels and you start telling yourself that you are too late in life, you have missed your opportunity and you need to dream smaller and settle for average. That thought, right there, belongs in bucket number one. Drop it in the bucket and cut that thought off at the root. Bucket number two is the contemplation bucket. This bucket is for thoughts that are incomplete. These are tip of the iceberg thoughts. There is a whole lot more going on that needs to be processed. You need to think some things through, you need to ask more questions and you need to get with the right people who can help you paint a full picture of what is really going on. Incomplete thoughts can spell disaster when it comes to life direction and decisions. Let me say that again Incomplete thoughts can spell disaster when it comes to life direction and decisions.
Speaker 1:Here's an example you enter college as a pre-med major with plans of one day becoming a doctor. This is a dream you've had since elementary school. Your organic chemistry teacher is not great and you had a lot of personal things going on during the semester. Lot of personal things going on during the semester. Final grades drop and you discover that you have failed your organic chemistry class. Your first thought I am just not meant to be a doctor and I need to change my major altogether. Don't base your future career direction off a single failed class. This needs more contemplation.
Speaker 1:Drop this thought in bucket number two and finally bucket number three. Bucket number three is the action bucket. These thoughts are about execution and require you to move forward in faith and step out of your comfort zone With this bucket. A lot of these thoughts don't need more prayer. You already know what you need to do. You just need to have the courage to do it and get it done. With this bucket, your thoughts are ready to move toward action. A few questions to consider. What is God wanting me to do with this? What can I do with the resourcing, time and energy I have right now? What will I regret not doing if I sit on this and do nothing? And what is time sensitive? That requires a response right now?
Speaker 1:Here's an example you have thought about making a career change for a while and you have your sights set on working for Nike, one of the largest shoe brands and athletic brands in the world. This thought keeps coming up, but your resume seems inadequate and you don't have enough experience. And you don't have enough experience. One of my guiding principles is this If you can't shake it, you better lean into it. You finally drop your resume, not planning on hearing anything. Fast forward a few years. Not only did you get hired, you are now working as a project manager for the Jordan brand.
Speaker 1:This was the story of a good friend of mine who took action. He put the idea in the action bucket and he did something with it. As you are flooded with thousands of thoughts every day 60 to 80,000 to be exact Take a breath, use the three question filter and then start putting your thoughts into buckets. If it's nonsense, let it go. If it's incomplete, start processing the thought with your trusted community. And if it requires action, engage, move, step forward and execute.
Speaker 1:Here's the second half of the prodigal son story. The prodigal son is in the pig pen and that thought keeps coming back again and again I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy because of my choices and my current circumstance. He heads back home with that thought in his head. He is going home, not as a son, but he is going home as a servant. And as he approaches his own house, he sees a figure running towards him down the road. The figure is none other than his own father, who is racing toward his son to save his life. For the son to disrespect his father the way that he did that was a death sentence for him to return home. The father is on a mission to save his son's life and the father is saying to his son even though I was dead to you, you are not dead to me.
Speaker 1:I can imagine the younger son going right into what he has rehearsed in his head Father, I'm not worthy to be a son, just take me back as a servant. And I can imagine the father picking the son up, looking at him in the eyes and saying whoever told you that you were no longer worthy? You have always been worthy and there was never a time in your life when you were not my son. The father then goes on to reestablish the identity of his son by putting a robe of royalty around him, by putting rings on his fingers and sandals on his feet, as if to say you have always been my son and royalty has always flowed in your veins. Remember that this story is called the Prodigal Son, but I think it's really about the father and about the incredible love of a father toward his kids. I don't know who this is for, but for someone listening right now, I want to remind you that you are worthy because God says you're worthy. Walk in that truth and let that thought take root in your mind. Let me conclude by saying this the life you want starts in your head. You need to control your thoughts and not allow your thoughts to control you. Use the filter and use the three bucket tool and over time you will start winning the war in your mind.
Speaker 1:I hope this episode impacted and inspired you. Send me a DM and let me know. I read every message that comes in. Make sure you screenshot this episode, share it with someone and post it to your social media accounts. Don't forget to tag me so I can give you a repost. I know there is someone you know who needs to hear this episode. Thank you for sharing, subscribing and rating the podcast. Seriously, that means the world to me. Look for new episodes to release every month. You won't want to miss those. Thank you for taking the time to invest in yourself. You are worth it. Remember the best time to rise and lead is now. Thank you.