Ep. 231 - Master Gardener of Your Soul

"Our minds are like gardens; they grow whatever we allow to take root."   

Join Rob as he utilizes "The Rudder of the Day" - by Dan Miller to serve as a springboard for today's discussion.   

The first 60 minutes of each day will set the stage for what that day will hold.  Be very careful how you start your day.  In those first few minutes you are planting the seeds for your effectiveness, influence, health, and spiritual vitality for that day.   

• What seeds are you going to plant in your mind today? 

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Links:      

• The Rudder of the Day  - by Dan Miller  
• 48 Days Eagles Community

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If you want to participate in a group chat with fellow audience members on a similar path, you can join the community on our Telegram chat group:  

• t.me/allaroundgrowth    

Subscribe to the All Around Growth Podcast channel for show updates ONLY:  

• https://t.me/allaroundgrowthpodcast  

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• How To Leave a Rating & Review in Apple Podcast App
  • This really *does* affect the algorithm...
  • ...as of recording in November 2021 - I would invite you to do this!
  • The podcast game is changing - help us with a rating and review!

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Have a Question or any feedback for Rob?

Send me an email at allaroundgrowth@gmail.com

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning and welcome back to the show, everybody. Today is Friday, November 19th. This is episode number 231 of the All Around Growth Podcast. And today we will be discussing content from The Rudder of the Day, written by Dan Miller, author of 48 Days into the Work That You Love. It's been a little while since we've taken content from one of these devotional books, but for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to the some of the challenges that occurred yesterday. Not challenges. But without further ado, let's get right into 48 days, the rudder of the day, and utilize what Dan Miller has to say to shed some light on life and help give us a new perspective for when we have days like that. The title of the reading today is Master Gardener of Your Soul. Our minds are like gardens. They grow whatever we allow to take root. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner than or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals within himself the laws of thought and understands with ever-increasing accuracy how the thought, forces, and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny. Close quote. From As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Quote, the thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives. Close quote. Louise Hay. When our children were young, we chose to eliminate the TV from our home. Of course, they were devastated at being deprived of this basic human provision. All the neighborhood kids got to spend unlimited time watching MTV and the other popular shows of the day. However, over a short period of time, it became obvious that our home was the most popular gathering place in the neighborhood. We played games, created sports events, and actually talked to each other. We emphasized to our children that our minds are like computers. The process, they process what we put into them. Yes, our children grew tired of hearing my cliches like garbage in, garbage out, but we confirmed the principle of putting positive, pure thoughts into our minds as a prerequisite of getting positive, clean, productive results. Today, all three of our children are avid readers and learners. They have a wealth of knowledge about specific areas of interest and have developed unique areas of specialty. Quote, I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Close quote. I often tell people that if you read approximately 20 minutes a day, you will complete one book per month. That's 12 new books a year. We are told that you can be an expert on any topic if you will read three books on that subject. Do you see how easy it is to set yourself apart from the average person? The mind is one of God's most amazing gifts to man. Scientists tell us that we use approximately 2% of the brain power available to us. Quote: A room without books is like a body without a soul. Close quote. G.K. Chesterton, who lived from 1874 to 1936. Control your own destiny by controlling what goes into your mind. The books you read, the thoughts you think, the TV you watch, the conversations you participate in, the people you associate with, and the music you listen to combine to create your future. Are you sowing the seeds for the life you want five years from now? And as always, guys and gals, before we ask ourselves the question that provides some direction for today, some direction for the conversation to come, we'll take a quote from the Bible. And this comes from Philippians chapter 4, verse 8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. In the direction for today, what seeds are you going to plant in your mind today? Woo! Isn't that a question, huh? So I want to ask you guys when something happens in life and you huh you know it it leaves you it leaves you wasted, you know? It just takes the wind out of your sails. You feel gassed. Sometimes that's a a single event that can happen uh just in a day, short amount of time. Sometimes it's a series of small events over a course of many days, weeks, or even years that leaves you, you know, how often though, when you feel like that, do you wake up the next morning and ask yourself, what seeds are you going to plant in your mind today? For those of you who are in the telegram group, you will notice that at approximately 6.30, 640 a.m., I shared a video from YouTube of an audio recording by Earl Nightingale from the 1950s, titled The Strangest Secret in the World. And for the past few weeks, I have tried to get back into the habit of spending some morning time doing yoga and listening to that. And in the past, what I did was I would put that on and do a kettlebell workout, and uh I'm I'm I've still got this nagging shoulder injury, but I think that going through this functional medicine process of understanding that the four pillars of health are nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress, I am trying to incorporate more movement in my life and make less excuses as to why now is not a good time. So that is what I'm doing. Getting up a little earlier, going to bed a little earlier, and I do a yoga routine, and then as soon as I complete the routine, I put this video on the television relatively loud, take a cold shower, and go about my morning of getting dressed, making some tea, and preparing to walk the dog. And then come back in and listen to the rest of it while I finish getting ready. And uh in this case, it was just simply grabbing this book off the shelf instead of sitting down to collect my thoughts. And I think that the reason I was able to tackle that uh conversation yesterday, or not tackle it, because I didn't actively engage, I wasn't on the offensive with this. I was just approached to talk about some very challenging things with no preparation and uh you know was able to handle it quite well, speak professionally and respond accordingly and confidently. Um will luckily be able to have the follow-up conversation that I think both of us would like, provided there's some terms that are met. Like, what are we going to talk about? And then what's our objective? So the reason I think I was able to respond in the way that I did is because I have been consistent with involvement in this community, this 48 Days Eagles community, reading content on the regular by Dan Miller, reading books such as Think and Grow Rich, consistently listening to The Strangest Secret in the World, something that I have probably listened to well over a hundred times this year, this year of 2021, just in the mornings doing exactly what I outlined previously. So, when I face some sort of when I experience something in life that leaves me feeling like that, a little bit emotionally drained, when it's a confrontation in a not necessarily positive way, and it also seems like a one-sided conversation where you're not being heard, that can be that can be challenging to say the least. But when you're doing other things in life, in an effort to regain balance in what you've recognized to be an unbalanced life that you're living, it becomes much easier to ask yourself the question of what seeds are you going to plant in your mind today, especially after a day that wasn't really optimal. And that's important. This might be the biggest takeaway from doing this podcast in quite some time. It's allowed me to understand that consistency does pay off. This is another example in my life where I can look back and reflect and understand, better understand that is why I'm doing what I'm doing. And I'm glad that while I was walking the dog this morning, thinking about how I was going to approach today's episode, I'm glad that I decided to pull this book off the shelf. Because when life on life's terms happens, I find myself more frequently looking to this community for inspiration and support. And I know that for those of you who listen and uh aren't a part of this community, that maybe this seems or are a part of this community, I don't know, that the way in which I speak about it probably oftentimes sounds like a sales pitch. And I get it. And if that sounds a little cheeky and like not your style, I I also understand. But the reality is that sales is a fundamental part of life, and this is something that is coming straight out of the strangest secret in the world. No matter what we do in life, we've got to sell somebody on something. Our family on our ideas, our the management on the ability to understand the own experience, our own experiences, if that's what we desire. The customer, if we've got a product or service to move and sell. We're always selling something. And where I'm going with this is the challenging day yesterday led me to grab this book this morning so that I could simply read something from it, share it with you, but also utilize it as a way in which to leverage the resources that I have available to me in order to get my day started off on the right, the right start, the way that I want to start off a day. I don't want to start off a day thinking about something that was not or suboptimal. I want to start my day thinking about something fresh, new, motivational, inspirational, positive. Tie that into something that occurred in my life, share it with you in an effort that it is of benefit to you because this being on the receiving end of this uh a podcast, not this podcast, is something that's helped me get to where I am, and that is something that I am proud of, and I want to hopefully give back what was so freely given to me, and that is the whole point of this show. And again, the whole sales pitch, if it sounds salesy, so be it. Because the links in the show notes, quite frankly, are affiliate links, and that is precisely what I'm trying to do because I benefit from it, I sincerely believe in it, and I take pride in selling it, and I would encourage you to check it out and uh find out for yourselves. So, guys, with that I'm going to begin wrapping up. There is going to be some other links in the show notes on how to provide a review and a rating in Apple Podcasts, because at this point in time, the majority of the listens to the show still come through that platform. And whether or not you use the native Apple apps, but use Apple devices, you are still listening through that platform. So please check out the show notes, give it a rating, give it a review. It really helps the algorithm at this time, and the algorithm helps expose people who haven't heard the show otherwise to perhaps give it a listen. So thank you in advance for doing that, and uh I'm going to cut this off early today, guys, so I can wave hi and say hello to some other people. Have a great day. Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to catching you on the next podcast. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.