Episode 156: Looking Unto Christ in Every Thought with Dennis Deaton

Episode Summary

Every human being struggles with thoughts and feelings of doubt and fear and discouragement and if you have listened to my podcast for any length of time you have heard me explain that this is because of the way our brains are biologically programmed. Noticing what’s wrong with us is our brain’s way of ensuring our survival.

However, this is just one way of looking at our experience with negative thoughts. On today’s podcast, I interview my dad, Dennis Deaton, about his new book in which he offers the idea that our thoughts are actually coming from two opposing sources: from God and from the adversary.

In our discussion, we talk about our different perspectives on the origin of our thoughts, the power in recognizing that we are not our thoughts, and the importance of overcoming our negative thoughts and choosing on purpose what we want to think so we can move forward in the face of fear, doubt and discouragement.

Episode Transcript 

Welcome to the 100% Awesome Podcast with April Price. You might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thought you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome.

Hello Podcast Universe! Welcome to Episode 156 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price and this podcast is officially three-years old. It has been three years, I am so I don't know, I'm just so grateful that I decided to be brave and push record. This podcast has been such a huge blessing in my life and I'm so grateful for it. I have a special treat for you today on the podcast, I am interviewing my dad. Who you're going to find out is actually one of the OGs of thought work, and a long overdue guest for being on the podcast because really he discovered these principles early in his life. And you know, it took me a while to to understand that he had some wisdom to impart to me, but I got it eventually anyway.

He has a brand new book out, "It's called Looking Unto Christ in Every Thought, Defeating Fear, Doubt and Discouragement." And if you want a faith based book, a faith based perspective on choosing your thoughts and the role of the spirit and the role of adversary, I really I can't recommend it enough. And in this interview, he will talk about all of those things, how we choose and how we're influenced by the spirit, how are influenced by the adversary and the way that he likes to think about the voice in our head that is creating fear and doubt and discouragement for us.

But I also want to emphasize that this isn't like the correct model, and neither is mine. Neither is the one that I talk about all the time, that our brain is creating our fear, and doubt, and discouragement. And these are just ideas, and thoughts, and ways of describing the human experience, and neither one of them is correct. Or maybe it would be better to say that they are both correct, right? I use a slightly different model to think about my thoughts as you know, from listening to this podcast. Like it was so helpful for me to understand my thoughts as coming from my brain. This organ that was designed to think and process the world and protect me and keep me safe and thinking about it in that way, it really allowed me to overcome my shame for all my negative thoughts, my shame for my negative feelings. And removing that shame was essential to me being able to change my life by changing my thoughts.

And for some of you that struggle like I did with thoughts of shame, right? That like I was bad because I felt bad. I was bad because I thought all these negative things about myself in my life. Like thinking that those thoughts came from the adversary wasn't helpful to me at the time because, like, I felt bad for listening to that is very right. And it made me associate feeling negatively with wickedness, and that only made things worse for me. That's how the way that my brain interpreted that model. And so for me, it was much more helpful to help me neutralize my experience, not condemn myself by understanding that these thoughts were never coming from me, they were the result of me making a mistake. They were just a part of my mortal experience because I had a brain. And as I have talked and read this book and talked more to my dad, I find that, of course, the same. Like it is actually no different for my dad. He uses a model that that talks about the adversary's role in offering him thoughts, but he's using it in the same way for himself, right. To eliminate his shame, to stop making himself wrong, and to be able to then change his thoughts.

And so, they are both ways of describing the same experience. And I want you to know that that these are not the only ways either, right? There are hundreds of other ways that have been useful to people in being able to, like, overcome their brain and create the life they want. And what is most important is deciding what is useful for me, what is useful, what is a useful way. I want to think about the thoughts I have that are creating fear and doubt and discouragement. And I hope you will see from this interview that that is what matters, like the fundamental premise that is the same between both of our models here, both the way I think about it and the way my dad thinks about it is that you are not your thoughts, you have thoughts, you are offered thoughts, and then you get to choose. There is a moment of decision where you get to choose what you will believe, what you will focus on, and what you want to think on purpose. Whatever choice you make, whatever thoughts you choose will then create your life.

And so, I think this will be a really helpful discussion for all of you to consider. How do I want to think about the thoughts in my head, and am I in any way making myself wrong for the thoughts that I have? Because that is the first step to changing your thoughts and letting go of them. We have to let go of the shame we have for having them in the first place. Okay so, without further ado, here is me and my dad. Oh, I should have introduced him. His name is Dennis Deaton, welcome to the podcast, The 100% Awesome Podcast.

I am thrilled to be here.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm glad to have you.

Well, better late than never.

Yes, yes. For those of you in my audience that don't know my dad, Dennis Deaton, has had a 30 year career in human development, and corporate education and mind management thought, work, all of the things. He is an award winning author. He's written the book on my management and the ownership spirit, the one grand key that changes everything else. And they have been very well received. He's received numerous awards on those and he has a new book that is a faith based book called Looking Unto Christ. Defeating fear, doubt and discouragement. Did we get that right, Dad? What was the subtitle again?

Well, the full title at the beginning is looking into Christ in Every Thought

Perfect.

And then defeating fear, doubt, discouragement.

I love it.

Subline, okay?

And I thought it would be really useful to have you come on and talk about your perspective in that book and kind of compare our two models the way that we think about our Earth life experience. And so I just want to start off at first, see if there's anything you want to add to that introduction.

Well, I guess I'd just simply like to say that I've had a great experience over the last 30 years. Focused on teaching one single concept. That is the consummate truth of life is that we alter our destiny by altering our thoughts. The mind is our most crucial determinant. Our crowning asset, our ultimate arena of battle. But if we will master the power of our minds, we may do. Or be whatsoever we will. And I felt when I wrote that at the very beginning of starting a company and making a transition from my original profession as a general dentist to becoming a corporate trainer. And that kind of came as a flow of inspiration. But I really love your opening summary of what you're about, April. You might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thought to think, And that, my friends, is 100% awesome. I love that. And it's so personal. It's real. It's actionable. Mine is this big, lofty, flowery.

But we all need it in different ways, right?

Right. And I feel, whether you know it or not, that you were very much inspired when you came up with that. I don't want that headline. I'm going to call it things. And with that, I'd like to share an experience that I had that maybe will set the stage for some discussion. So, about 15 years ago, I have that your youngest brother, the youngest of our nine, still at home. He's in his mid-teens. And, you know, I.

Just want to emphasize. Sorry, I'm going to interrupt you. I want everyone to know that I'm the oldest of nine children. Like this is a serious accomplishment, people.

Oh, it is.

Mostly made by my mother. But it's also, I think, none of my audience. I don't think I've ever shared that, actually, that I'm the oldest of nine, but.

For all of you.

And the fact that most of them have turned out pretty well, a lot of that goes to you because you were a part time mom and our main babysitter for.

Oh, gosh.

All right. So anyway, we've got David is about the last one at home. Maybe Emily was still there, but I was feeling a little bit disconnected from David. I'd been on the road a lot, and I had received an invitation to speak at an Eagle Scout recognition banquet out of state. I was an avid skater as a youth and scout leader at one time. Yeah, and somehow somebody knew I was a public speaker and they wanted a guest speaker at a banquet. Honor boys that had reached their eagle rank during the year. That was going to be actually in the hometown of my mother in law, April and David's grandmother. And I thought, oh, this would be a great thing, I'll go there and get there in time to get changed, and David can come with me and spend a little time with Grandma the next day, and then we'll drive back home. So, that was the plan. And also as typical as probably a lot of our lives with that Eagle banquet speech on my radar, I kept telling myself, I'm going to really sit down at a certain point and I'm really going to do some justice and do some good research and think it out and really put my heart into that.

Story of my life.

Okay. But the live set in, as I say, I was on the road a lot and basically I had done much more, given it much thought. And I was in kind of a panic about that. But as being a public speaker, I have a file where I keep files of different subject matter. And so, at the last minute, I grabbed two files that I think have material that would be appropriate to speak to some 12 to 14 year old boys. And David said, Good. Kenny comes along with me and we're driving up the seven hour drive to my mother in law's home after we've had a chance to get caught up on a lot of things and so forth. I'm thinking now I got to do something about this talk. And so I said, David, grab those two files in the backseat. And all I want you to do is I want you to open them up, I want you to read the title on it, or maybe I'll have you read a little bit of it just to give me a reminder of what it is. And we're going to make two piles, all the others a yes or a no, and they we'll just go through those two files. And so that's exactly what David does. And it turns out that in the final analysis between those two files, there were 54 different pieces of paper.

Which fact will become important in just a minute. So, when we get to and by the time we get done, then I have selected 11 yeses, which means that there are possible contributions for that for that talk, and the rest are not. So, when we finally get to grandma's house, we have barely time to get changed. And I have about 5 minutes to just kind of think it through. And so, I take those 11 pieces of paper and I'm a faith, faith based individual. I said a little prayer and I went through them and I discarded another five. And I could see that these six could going to be put in a certain order and they kind of connected in a certain way and that that would be a pretty good talk. So, I just took the six and put them in the folder and we went to the banquet. They fed the the scouts a nice meal, and then after I'm the speaker and I'm introduced and I stand up and I have my six pieces of paper and I begin to speak them and talk to the scouts. And I talked about my own experience a little bit as a scout and how much I loved the principles of scouting.

And then I proceeded to continue my talk and I concluded it and I sat down and I felt pretty good about the topic. But as I sat there and looked down at my folder, I realized that of the six pieces of paper I had only used one, and it was a poem called The Man in the Mirror. And it basically says, if you can let the man in the mirror in the eye and feel good about yourself, then you're on the right track. And I had heard that when I was a boy, I'd come across it again. I'd kept it, and I thought it was fine, but it wasn't really, you know, the most monumental thought I'd ever come across. So, I'm sitting there now just kind of interested that, wow, is that one. And then the master of ceremonies, he gets up there and he's about to present a gift, kind of a parting gift to these scouts. And he's emotionally moved.

Kind of choking back, you know, a lump in his throat. And I thought that was strange. And he said, you know, ladies and gentlemen, you know, I think something remarkable has happened here. We asked Mother Dayton to come here and give a talk, but we did not give him any guidance about a title or what he should talk about. But I'm about to present to you a parting gift. And congratulations, Geoffrey, reading your eagle. And he pulls out a shoe box. And in it is a bunch of these, that's a cloth envelope. About four by four in khaki green like scout. And inside it is a signaling mirror that you use in varsity scouts to communicate your messages. Bright light, reflection. And on the back, they had engraved the power of the man in the mirror.

Wow.

And I just was shocked.

Yeah.

And I was feeling very humble and grateful and felt like I had been guided in my thoughts and had. The significant point is there was no really tremendous there weren't any clouds coming down on Sinai or bolts of lightning here, everything like that that I realized that I had been guided in my thoughts without necessarily being something you knew. And I thought, I need to notice that a little bit more, maybe I need to pay attention to that a little more. Mm hmm. And so, with that background, maybe we can talk a little bit now about the slight difference in our models.

Yeah. So, our basic model is the same that we are creating our lives by the thoughts we choose, right?

That yes, exactly.

That we have agency that we've each been given the ability to choose. And and one area that we don't always recognize where choices are even happening is in our mind. And you go on in the book to talk about that as we're making that choice, we're receiving influence and input from two sources. So, do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Yes. First of all, just to make sure that everybody is on the same page in the discussion. The model we're talking about is essentially this one, that life is happening and that's circumstances, other people's actions, they're all existing. So, you got advance out here. But then in our minds there is our thoughts taking place. And in those thoughts, we make interpretations. We give meaning to the events. And those interpretations have then an impact. And in driving our feelings and our emotions, you say it very well and in your teachings that every emotion, every feeling is preceded by a thought. And I totally agree with that. And then that drives our actions and our behaviors. And then the end result. At the end is we get results and outcomes. So, the main place where I think we differ a bit is on the thoughts and interpretations.

Yeah, in my model, I come to have this sense that as events and circumstances are happening and they are flowing into my through my senses, to my mind, I'm now at the point of making a decision, and often it's a value judgment which is not necessary, but we make it. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, or it's positive or it's negative. And really, the biggest point that I think we need to stress in the first place, events themselves are neutral. There has no connotation, there is no meaning, there's not describe, and we can actually just observe them, but we tend to put some kind of a label on them. And in my view that we receive in that interpretation stage input from two outside sources, one is, I'm going to say a divine source. If you believe in Christian scripture, the still small voice of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of our Heavenly Father. And then there's a counter voice to that, an adversary which also the Scriptures speak of who is interested in thwarting our progress, who wants to make us miserable, and is trying to counter all the good that we do. And then we still are in the position of choice. As you have stressed, it's all about agency. We can listen to either or both of those voices and then we ultimately make a decision.

We agree with one and go with it or with another and go with that, or we go with something of our own. But at that point, then the rest of the model fight follows identically, really? Then the feelings and emotions drive actions and behaviors and results and outcomes. And one of my favorite poems to put across this point about our agency is a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This has been around for years, I'm not even sure she was alive when I was born. But anyway, her her poem says one ship drives east and the other west with the selfsame winds that blow. Kiss the set of the sails and not the gales that determine the way they go. And again, that setting in the sails is a metaphor for our decisions in our interpretative stage of the model.

Yeah. And I think that this is like a familiar model to people who come from a religious tradition that they believe that they're being, like, enticed or we might use the word tempted, even though I think that's a very loaded word. But enticed or tempted in in the way that we think. And I think for some people, that can be a very useful model and to be able to see themselves in that moment of choice, this struggle for me, for most of my adult life, was I sort of conflated or associated these, especially the negative boys with me doing something wrong. Like, if, if I'm hearing this negative boys and I'm feeling thinking negative thoughts about myself, I'm feeling badly about myself, then I'm also it's also indicative that I'm making a wicked choice and listening to this negative voice. And that was so, like, hard for me to overcome because I felt bad about feeling bad. I felt bad about thinking negatively about myself. And it only seemed to make it worse. And so, for me, it was so useful to think about. My thoughts being neutral in that it was a neutral offering from my brain that it didn't mean anything negatively or or anything bad about me. So, how do you reconcile that as you think about that? How do you not make yourself wrong for like heeding the voice of what you have it labeled as? You know, the adversary there?

Yeah, first of all, I totally support your point. And I think everybody the value of this discussion is everybody needs to see something in this that will help them realize that those thoughts that tear themselves down, that berate themselves. Yeah. Whether they come from a protection mechanism installed by nature and evolution in our bodies or they come from an outside source, that they're not us, that we're not the generator of that thought, you are the one making yourself miserable.

So, let me just say it this way, they use the word temptation, and I realize it's a loaded version, but I still believe that people are tempted to break commandments, to do immoral and unjust and mean things. And I used to have the very same feeling when I was told that I needed to keep my thoughts clean. I would have a thought come into my mind. And suddenly I didn't even think that, I wasn't even thinking on that subject at the time. And I thought, Oh, now I'm not impure on my thoughts. So what I've come to understand is that receiving a temptation is just that it's a temptation, but it's not your thought. And it doesn't become a sin or a problem unless you choose to agree with it and go along with it and elaborate on it. I feel that because I have a tempting thought, I have a negative or impure thought come into my mind, doesn't make me the chooser of how I'm going to proceed with that impure. In fact, if I will work against that, resist it. I feel that I have gained spiritual power. I have gained a victory over the body and the adversary or the appetites of the body, which, you know, I'm not saying that they're an all around property. They just need to be kept within certain bounds that that God is that.

Yeah.

And then let me say something about this idea that when you start feeling bad about beating yourself up, this is what my opinion is. Satan's most diabolical and devious trick is that he implants the thought then berates you for having that thought. And that sort of compounding his intervention, and it reveals how really nefarious and evil he really is.

And I think what I want to emphasize to the listener is that you're presenting one model. I'm presenting a different model. And these aren't the only ones, right? There are so many ways that people have tried to explain, like the universal question of like, why do I feel so badly about myself? Why do I always go to the negative? Why do I? Why do I. You know, notice what's wrong with me. I was just the other day, I was watching an interview between Howard Stern and Chris Rock, and they were talking about how, you know, even they were like, why do I still suffer from, like, these, like, so much insecurity and and imposter syndrome, you know, was it being bullied? Was it was the way I was raised. And, you know, like even just like if you go back to, like discussions in psychology about the ego and like we've just we've we struggle as humans to explain this phenomenon. And I just want to like, I guess, offer to the listeners that there is not a right or wrong way to think about this. There is just only a useful way. Like, I like to really decide how do I need to think about this negative input in my life that gets me the best results.

For me, that has been to really recognize that my brain is just working for my survival. It's trying to protect me. It's the natural man inside of me that that notice is what's going wrong. This notice is what's wrong with me. That that is judgmental, that is fearful. And it's just useful for me to see that as like a normal biologic function of my brain so that I can extract myself from that equation and not shame myself.

Yes, it's and it's a great model. And you really get it it's what's useful. And what results do you get from.

Yes, 100%.

Because, you know, one of the things I also love about the model of events, thoughts, interpretations leading to feelings and emotions and then to actions and behavior that produce results in behavior, is that even anywhere along that line, that stages if we divorce the idea that advance or neutral they're neither good or bad, then it all depends on our interpretation or our choices in the model that we're using that anywhere on the line, we have the ability to intervene in that model. In other words, I might have a thought to go with it from whatever source, and I get all upset about something bubbling inside of me and I'm just about ready to act out on it. Say something or do something. If I. Even if I catch it right there, I still won the battle because the results turn out that I remained calm. I didn't do something that I'd have to apologize or regret for. And I think, again, whatever helps us to behave better, to treat each other with more respect, kindness, including our selves.

Yeah. Is a powerful, 100% useful model.

Yeah, and for me, even just to take what you just said a step further, even for me, I had to get to the point where, like, I didn't even have to make my actions wrong. Like, they're just a natural result of what happens when I choose this thought, and then I feel this feeling. And of course, then I act in this way. That's not a problem. I can back that up and retry it or, you know, to use a spiritual word, to repent, to change my mind about it and even my actions, I don't have to like think I lost a battle, like, okay, I made a choice that I don't love and I'm going to try that again. And just to release myself from even the shame of my actions so helpful in changing my life.

I love that. I love that. And that allows us to then change faster. And if we spend all this time ruing and regretting our sales up, like you said, it delays the change of our actions. The change of the. The way we.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't meet the world.

Yeah. I've shared the story in the podcast before, but, um. Last fall. Was it last fall? I'd have been a year and a half ago. I can't remember. But David and I went on this vacation and I, you know, was really irritated by the time we landed. By the time we arrived, I was so irritated and irritated at him. And he was like wanting to unpack the suitcase. And I was like super irritated that we were unpacking suitcase. I was just like, so mad about it and so irritated about it. Right. Like, at dinner, I was just like, here we are in this beautiful tropical location.

We're at dinner. I'm giving him, like, one word answers totally is like ice cream. And looking at the other way, like. Just like I'm just so mad, right? But what happened then is that I was starting to get mad at myself for being mad at him, and I just started spiralling like, April, you are ruining this vacation, which only made me more irritable. Only made it worse. Right? And I was just like, what is wrong with you that, like, we are in this beautiful place that he arranged? He wants to unpack your suitcases for you and your they throw a fit about this, you know. And so then I was just like mad at that. And I got to the point where I had to walk down the beach. I mean, I was, like, distraught. I was bawling by then, like, what is wrong with me? And what I had to do was tell myself. Of course, of course. You got irritated, you picked thoughts that created irritation, and then you iced him out. And it's not a problem. It's okay. I had to make all of that behavior okay in order to, like, change my mind and get to the place I wanted to be.

And so, I think so many of us I can't remember why I started telling this story, but I think so many of us, like we get down that road where we like, you know, whether we've listen to our brain, as I say, or we listen to the adversary, as you say, and we get down that road and and and make mistakes. And then when we continue to make ourselves wrong down there, we can't get back. And the faster we can say, hey, it's not a problem, we've just made a choice here. And at any moment I get to choose something else, then we can get to freedom, then we can get to peace.

Absolutely. And you said it well in your podcast many times. That is a different outcome. A different feeling is just one thought away.

Yes. Yes.

So, and the fact that you can be okay with the fact we can all be okay with the fact that we're all imperfect.

Yeah.

And that the road is the very next thought to choose something that will produce a better outcome. Relieve the tension, relieve this and, you know, shaming. And I think those, again, in my book are indicators that this is a nefarious outside source throwing that at us.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, okay? So, I wanted to talk about one other thing before we before we sign off, and that is you spend a good portion of the book talking about how we can overcome fear, doubt, discouragement. You have some amazing tools. I recommend everybody read the book and learn how to detect it and what to do to defeat it. I think all of that is so useful. But I also wanted to to just speak to the experience of having fear and doubt and discouragement, because I think so many of us look at the opposite end of that coin, right? The opposite end of the coin of doubt is faith. And so then we kind of make it mean that if I have doubt, if I have fear, if I have discouragement, then I must not have faith. And I don't think it is that black and white cut and dried.

Yeah, like, of course, we want to solve fear and doubt and discouragement, right? Like, we don't have to live a life that's, like, consumed by that. But also, I think it's important to say that, like, there is value in feeling bad and moving forward anyway. Like I don't think that Christ like I think the scriptures say he was very heavy and so we're amazed and he moved forward anyway, right?

Like he experienced the fear the doubt, because he has a human brain. He has all his Mary, his his mother. He has a human brain. He's having a human experience. So, he's subject to all of those things that we are. And yet he moved forward anyway but not he didn't first like solve for that and like make that go away. But in fact that was an essential part of the experience. I think so many times we are trying to spiritually bypass our negative emotion, like through thought work or through spirituality, and we're like, okay, I shouldn't feel any fear if I'm in faith, but I think that's missing the point.

I think we came to learn to feel bad and still move forward in faith. And I think while we can all use less fear and doubt and discouragement in our lives so that we can move forward, we aren't in a place where we're going to like completely eliminate that. And that, I don't think needs to be the goal because I think what we came to do was get good at feeling that and stand still in it. I just wonder what you think about the idea that that that's an essential part of our Earth life experience as well.

I couldn't agree with you more. I, I really am glad we've gone on onto this topic. Fear that discouragement are a part of everybody's life. Hmm. I don't care how accomplished you are, how proficient, how world renowned you are in your field. You will have those I believe I got from ya. You may have used it in your podcast, The Story of Fred Rogers, who had just an incredible script writing, as we all know, possessing to be straight. You take a hiatus away.

And when he came back because he had an idea that he wanted to pursue and write another short or series of something, he was just wracked with these self-doubts.

Yeah.

It is to me a principle that even shows up on our body. You cannot build muscle unless you overcome resistance. Mm hmm. If you just. And if you just exercise, if you're doing curls and years away, your body can easily handle. You can tone your muscles. But in order for you to grow, you've got to be working against resistance. And at a certain point that you can overcome. That's when you really trigger the metabolic miracle within fibers of the muscles and so forth. Innovation to expand circulation and increase in muscle, fiber to increase so that you have more strength. And so I in my in my estimation, that fear, worry and doubt are there to make us help us to grow, that we learn to live with them to a certain degree, but also be able to not let them stop us.

And yeah, I love that.

And I don't know if this if this little tidbit will help anybody. But it almost seems to me, if you're talking about this outside voice trying to thwart your progress and development, that in the progress of undertaking, say, a great change in life, like when I went from dentistry to corporate training or anything else you undertake, you will have a lot of fear. And I look at fear as being the preventer is the way that outside negative antagonistic voice and I give it an acronym, I call it the skeptic against me or a scam.

Well, it's a scam. It's a strategy to rob you of your wealth. That scam, it doesn't want me to go into corporate training. He does. He can see maybe or have a sense that if I really got into this and I have to share my principles of my management, I can help a lot of people. So what's to prevent me from doing that? Filling me with all kinds of fear. We all fall on your face. You're going to put your family in jeopardy. You're going to give up your dental practice. It takes years to build it up when you get the income, you're not.

Okay.

So, then I embark. I embark on that road and I start to get some feedback that, hey, this is probably going to work, but it's still touch and go for a long time. Yeah, well, that's when doubt will come back in. Maybe I didn't make the right decision. Maybe this is still not going to work out. And then the other end is if I do have a setback or, you know, I look at my speaking agenda and there's not one thing on the calendar, then discouragement is kind of like the thing to make me quit. Yeah. So that seems like there's something trying to stop us from starting. There's nothing to slow us down when we're in the midst of it. And then, discouragement is to get us to quit. And it is only by resisting those kind of thoughts and overtures in our heads that we gain strength that we grow. Yeah. April's younger brother and April, by the way, is going to be taking on one of these Everest challenges later this summer, and we're going to be there to cheer her on. He agreed to go on a hike that essentially is the equivalent of hiking Mount Everest.

And he's in pretty good shape, he's worked out. He thinks he's ready, but if he gets into it, the first part of it goes pretty well. And his confidence is still strong. He's got to make 13 climbs, the sum total of eight goals at the same distance to climb the Mount Everest right by the end of of height. Number four, he's starting to feel the fatigue and he's starting to say when he comes back down at the end of each one of those hikes, yeah, this thing is starting to kick my butt, Dad. I don't know if I've got what it's going to take, but he perseveres and he hangs in there and he ends up accomplishing it all. Well, the joy he felt at the victory and this is a song that doesn't show much emotion when he got to the top of his 13th climb. He kind of knelt down on his haunches, put his walking stick in front of him and leaned on it, and he just bowed his head. And then we lifted his head. Tears were rolling down his eyes and there was just this great soul, satisfying feeling that he had done something remarkable, something beyond what he thought maybe he was capable of doing at some point.

And in fact, he said there on claims 11, 12 and part of 13, it was all I could do is just tell him, take one more step. Take one more step. Well, see, it's the heart that makes the victory sweet and glorious. It wouldn't had that great feeling on climb number 13 if it weren't for the pain of six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Yeah.

And that same thing we need way to look at when we're dealing with fear. Yeah. Discouragement. They are there so that when we achieve what we want to do, become what we want to become. The victory means something and it is the means by our growth. We have to overcome that resistance.

Yeah, I love to think about like it doesn't make you wrong, it makes you strong. And that.

Well, I love that.

Yeah. And just that in the exercise of overcoming, that's where we're gaining or gaining strength. And, and so it's not like bypassing the fear in the doubt and the discouragement, but. But choosing in the face of it and like standing. Standing still and staying in it when it's when it's there and that what's, what is what makes us stronger makes us better great at choosing, right?

So yeah.

Yeah it reminds me of.

Ending in on really.

Yeah. It just, it reminds me of that quote that you shared in the book. I've been thinking about it so much since I read it that that Joseph Smith said that all the minds and spirits that God ever sent him to the world are susceptible of enlargement, and that as we choose to overcome fear, doubt and discouragement that we are enlarging, we're enlarging our capacity to choose and becoming more like our father.

So yeah, as you choose the light, you become a greater receptacle of light. And that light grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

I love it.

It's been a joy. April Thanks and love the fact that we named you April Joy

Here's a fact I want to share that for you and as you got this out, if you want to. But when April's mother and I wanted to start our family, we thought we knew the technique I'd seen and, you know, professional training and dental school and I think gross anatomy and so forth. But for four years of our life, we were not able to have children or weren't having children. We even went to some specialists and they said, You've got a very low likelihood that that'll happen. But we said our prayers and exercised our faith and we had a beautiful, cutest baby that was ever born dark eyed, thick, black hair born to us in the month of April. And we named her April Joy. And you have brought us nothing but joy and righteous, parental pride, everything. And I hope you'll just keep up the good work, April. Thank you. And keep everybody aware that they may not know it, but every result in their life is a result of the thoughts they think. And that is 100% awesome.

Thanks, Dad. You are awesome. I love you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for everything you've taught me. It's been such a privilege to be your daughter.

Isn't he awesome? I have learned so much from my dad about how to overcome fear and self-doubt by watching him and the courage through which he lives his life. And if you would like to read his new book, I will put the link to that in the show notes and I will also put a link to his other books. He has the book on mine management and a book on ownership, spirit and being the owner of your life. And both of those books are not faith based and might be useful to you as well.

So, I'm going to put links to all of that in the show notes so that you can experience more of his awesomeness. I just want you to know that you are not your thoughts. And the more you can make the distinction between you and your thoughts, the more power you have to become the person you want to be and create the life you want to live. And wherever you are in that process is 100% awesome. I love you for listening and I'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. If you want to take the things I've talked about and apply them in your life so that you can love your Earth-life experience. Sign up for a free coaching session at Aprilpricecoaching.com. This is where the real magic happens and your life starts to change forever. As your coach, I'll show you that believing your life is 100% awesome is totally available to every one of us. The way things are is not the way things have to stay. And that, my friends is 100% awesome.