Do What Is Hard and Your Life Will Be Easy: Newton’s Third Law, the Butterfly Effect, and Who Holds You Accountable

Ha ha ha ha! This is Mornings with Matt, the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Alright everybody, welcome to Mornings with Matt, the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Excited to be here this morning. I am Matthew Dearing, here with Brian Sweeney and Joey Sweeney. What up, what up? Yo! So today's episode, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. We're going to be talking about Newton's Law here in a minute.

So let's jump in with our daily Bible here, Brian. Daily Bible. Absolutely. A little daily devotional. Daily. Daily delo-tional. Delo-tional. Yeah. Alright. Today's verse is going to be Galatians 6, 7-9. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. I cannot wait to watch that bag. He was so focused. He was so focused. So I was on this the whole time. Alright, so reap what you sow, is the idea here. And, I mean, this concept has been, you know, played and played, and talked about.

The idea, you know, you work to put it in the ground, you're going to get the harvest, you know, per how much work you put it in, I guess. It's sort of the idea there. Yeah. But there was something in there that kind of, kind of got to me, Bri, toward the end. Okay. Can we, can we, can we dive in? I'm going to dissect this a little bit.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's go, let's just read the whole thing again, and I'll stop you where I want to talk about it. Absolutely. So it starts off with, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Okay, that's a good stopping point. Yeah. What does that mean? I took it as, like, basically that you can't trick God, essentially. Like, that he sees everything, and he knows the path that he wants for you.

You kind of know, honestly, if you're being truthful. And I took it as, like, don't be deceived, like, by yourself, and remember that God's always there and present in what you're doing. Okay. And then how about into the world? How do you take that? Like, what do you mean by that? Well, I don't know. So, so this says, God shall not be mocked, right? Do not be deceived.

So, so maybe going, I guess, more inward towards the inside of you could be a way to take it. Like, understanding that, so, like, basically, like, even though that stuff might be happening, it's about how you are connected to God. And it deals here with, I mean, what you're producing and how you're handling stuff. And so, in, in this world, I mean, there's, there's going to be constant persecution.

Yeah. But at the end days, which is, I mean, it's really dealing with what we get in eternal reward and being with him. At that point, like, nothing matters. The little things that we thought mattered maybe don't. Sure. Okay. At the, at the end of the day today, I'm going to take all the blue out of your closet. Is there blue in it? Yeah. Your undershirt is blue.

I mean, it's not like, it's not like bright blue, but it's still blue in front of a blue screen. We just need to hang, we got to hang out. That's a cool sweatshirt. Yeah. Thanks. You've only got it for us. I looked down. It's tight. Yeah. And I was like, why is Brian's chest gone? There's just like a V that's just like transparent. Like he shaved his chest.

And I was like, ah, let me try to fix that. All right, let's keep going here. Cool. Verse eight. Whoever sows to please their flesh. Oh, wait, a little back. Still seven. A man reaps what he sows. Okay. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Okay. So, so, and this goes back to reaping what you sow, you know, you put, you put the, you know, the work in, you know, what you're going to get out, but it's more like whichever plants, well, I mean, whichever seeds you plant, that's what's going to grow.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Let's get, let's, let's move forward. And so, so then there's the fleshly, in other words, like the worldly desires and things. And then there's more of like a godly planting. Yes. So to speak. Okay. Keep going. And that, the next one is whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Got it. Okay. Keep going. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

That's the part I wanted to, to, to break down a little bit. Say that again. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Okay. So, so let us not be weary in doing good. So don't get, don't get tired of doing good. Don't, don't, don't get tired feeling like you're the only one doing good.

Yeah. Which kind of goes into what you were saying about the world right now being such a struggle. Right. Um, so it's saying just don't give up. Like it may seem that things are not good, but, but I'm still very present and your reward is much greater. That's so hard. Yeah, dude. That is so hard. You know, there, there's so many things in the Bible that challenge you.

And it's like, this, this is one of those ones where it's like, you know, this, this faith, the faith of a mustard seed type deal. Like, like you just got to have just faith because at the end of the day, it's like, Hey, I understand you're doing good and you doesn't feel like you're getting any kind of reward. Sorry. Keep doing good. Yeah. Right. Keep it up.

Like that's, that's tough. That's, that's interesting. Okay. So, um, so connecting this, this Bible verse here to, um, to Newton's law. So let's talk about Newton's third law really quick. We'll do a little, little opening here. The, the idea of every action has an equal reaction, right? And, and, and equal and opposite reaction, uh, which is interesting. So it's like, it was like we were talking about, you, you put the plant down in the ground or the seed in the ground, the opposite reaction is going to grow up.

Right. That's kind of, kind of an idea. Um, so, so, so if we take this concept, the, the, the interesting thing about Newton's law though, is it, it, it involves movement. I mean, it's a very physical law. It's like, if I, um, like the amount of force I push, let's say you and I weighed the exact amount, the amount of, the amount of force I push you with is, is exact amount of force you're going to fall back with.

You know, like it takes this opposite reaction. Um, if I'm, if I'm trying to run, it takes a certain amount of force to push myself against the ground in order to propel forward. It's this opposite boom reaction of, of force. Right. And, um, and I was, I was sort of dissecting this and trying to put this idea, this idea of motion into our show today and thinking, you know, we've talked a lot about this.

Like you gotta, you gotta take action, you know, and it, it, it requires like life requires you to go, to do, or you're not going to get anywhere. So I kind of broke down the show today into our three different topics here. And so I'm going to lay this out here before we go to our first break. Um, the first segment is going to be about the butterfly effect, about the little things that we do.

So we're going to talk a little bit about that. We're also going to dive into it in our second topic today. We're going to talk about, um, the idea of, um, of doing the hard thing and how that pays off over time. They do the, do the hard thing and things are, are easier. And then in our third segment, our, our takeaway for today, um, we're going to talk about accountability.

And we're going to talk about the, the idea of like, um, who's holding you accountable and are you holding you accountable? And, and at the end of the day, are you taking responsibility for you or are you trying to blame other things? You know, because where, where you are right now is a culmination of all the things that you're doing. I mean, that is just, uh, that is just fact.

So, um, we're going to ask some hard questions. Like, what are you doing every day? What is it that you're doing? What did you do yesterday that set you up for today? How do you feel today? What, what feeling is going on inside of you? And that probably came from some place, from something, from someone. And so by looking in the mirror and holding ourselves accountable, looking at this, like whatever action I'm taking, there is this opposite reaction.

Um, that's something that we all got to, we all got to look in the mirror and we got to say, okay, where I am is a culmination of me. It's a culmination of what I'm putting in the ground is what I was, what's coming back up. We're going to talk about that right after this commercial break. All right. Welcome back, everybody. We are talking about, uh, Newton's third law with every, every action there, there comes in an equal and opposite reaction.

So, um, we want to apply this sort of idea of motion to our lives, to acting that we want to connect this into what we're doing. Right. And, um, I studied this, this other law that called the butterfly effect. You guys heard about this. I studied this a bit when I was, um, in the middle of writing one of the, one of the chapters in the best listener in the room.

And, and it's pretty fascinating. This idea of like, if, if a butterfly just like moves its wing that the entire world changes. Yeah. And it, and it's so true, right? If you think about like the different decisions we make, thoughts we make, like how, how much it affects or doesn't affect people. So let's just say, um, let's just say you, you pick up the phone and you either, you either decide to make a phone call or not make a phone call.

Say you're going to call your mom, just tell her I love you or not, you know, the effect that that might have on your mom that day. So interesting. And then her attitude and how she feels when she goes to work that day might be altered. Yeah. And every person she talks to that day would then be affected by her change in attitude. And then they would then affect other people.

And this is this idea of like, we matter and it's, we, we sometimes feel like we don't, like we're, we're so small and we are. And in some, in some way we're like these little ants. Right. And then in other ways it really matters what you do, what you say. Right. Yeah. It goes back to what we do even here. You know, it's compound interest is that, is what it goes down to like the, the basicality of it.

And it's, it's exactly what you said. I say this, which affects this person. And then they affect how many other people. And then it just keeps going down the line. And there's no, there's not really an ending point. Yeah. You know, it doesn't stop on somebody. As long as you keep putting that positivity into the world, then everybody's reaping it and passing it along. And it, there, there's no ending point.

It just builds on itself. Right. Yeah. And then, and I'm sorry. And then, and then negativity, same thing though. Right. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And so that's what I was going to say with like our teachings here. That's why a lot of students have been here for years because they come in and they're getting this acting knowledge. They're getting this help to go towards their dream.

Right. But at the same time, they're in a community that's super loving and, and they're a part of something very special that you can't identify with like weight. You know, you walk in the building and, and students say it all the time. It's just different. It's a highlight of their week. It's a, it's a, you feel like you walk in and you get arms wrapped around you.

Right. Yeah, for sure. So I think this also goes into, um, kind of what you talk about in, in the divine roots, this idea of like awareness. If you realize that, then you kind of start holding yourself accountable and kind of realizing that like every little thing does have a reaction down to the smallest thing. So you have to be aware, have to be aware of how you're talking to people, the things that you're doing yourself to, to strengthen yourself.

Like we talked a little bit about the smallest, like even just what you're having for lunch, you know, those little choices will affect your body and affect you. Um, and so you should be aware of them, um, and the power they can have. Yeah. Speaking of divine roots, it feels like, uh, it's time for a plug. Don't you feel like that? Yeah. Yeah. It's time for Paul's spiritual plug.

Very, very centered. All right. I'll do it. It's time now for Brian Sweeney's shameless plugs. Shameless plug. All right. So, so yes, talk about the book real quick, Brian, but, but let's segue right away to divine roots. I want you to give a plug for that. Absolutely. So, uh, divine roots is the podcast that we do here at the studio that just is all about, um, spiritual awakening and growth.

It's, you can go right to our website under the podcast page and check it out. Uh, we have this amazing, amazing spiritual guy. His name is Paul and, uh, he'll put you right to sleep. Uh, and, or just enlighten you and raise your vibrations a bit. Uh, so really so peaceful. It's so peaceful. Yeah. Like there's, I was listening yesterday to Joey having set it up in the car and I was just up from like a nap and I just slowly was like, uh, like wanted to relax, but it's some really powerful, really enlightening stuff.

Matt asked some really good questions of Paul along with Joey. And so you get to hear some really cool, just spiritual. And I gotta say my voice totally changes when I'm hanging out with Paul because I'm a bit of a chameleon. So you, you feel me this morning in the morning and I'm like, yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's the morning time. And then with Paul, I'm like, Hey, Paul, what else do you feel?

No, let's talk about divine. That does sound like about where you're at. It's very close. Yeah. Because, because I'm, I'm sort of absorbing his energy a little bit, you know, and he does, he kind of puts me at like ease immediately. As soon as he's in the room, I'm like, okay, just chill. Just relax. We're cool. So check out the divine roots podcast. It's super important. You can get it where Joe, Spotify, Spotify, Apple podcasts, your favorite podcasting platforms, like you said, our website.

And then we also post highlights. Like we have a meditation we just put up yesterday on YouTube and that's gotten crazy engagement. 52 views and two comments in 24 hours. That's great. Yeah. Really cool stuff. Yeah. All right. Good. So, um, so go, so going back and I just, I wanted to do that since you mentioned divine noise, I thought it was important. Yeah. I swung and I missed on that.

That's okay. I thought, I know you were like, yeah, I understand. I'm like, no, I don't think he does. Yeah. So, so before we end this segment, we're going to, we're going to just, just, we, we talked about butterfly effect, which is like the move of a, of a butterfly's wing can affect the other side of the earth. Right. So, so let's just, let's just think to ourselves.

The littlest things that we do add up over time. You can't build a wall without putting one brick on at a time and anything. If you look at it, if you look at the mountain, you stare at the mountain, it's intimidating. But if you just look at the, at the, at the next step in front of you, usually you can take that step. Mm-hmm. And the hard part is when, and I know we've experienced this, you know, and I keep being honest with you guys, I'm experiencing it over and over and over again.

And it's, it's very frustrating when you're not living up to your potential, you know, and it's like, and, and, and you just stop taking a step forward for a day and then it adds up to two days and three days and a week and then a month. And then you're like, where did the last six months of my life go? Why wasn't I taking one step forward?

Cause I know from experience what that does. Mm-hmm. Yeah. A hundred percent. Brian had a, I just hit the mic. Sorry, guys. Brian had an experience of this yesterday when we were at the cabin, you know, there's this rock steps up to, up to a, a mountaintop sort of deal and, and you see over the pines. Right. And he was looking at it and he was like, I don't know if I can do it.

Like, right. Like that's, that's, that's pretty high. Sure. The rocks are uneven and he chose to do it. And I would love for you to talk about what that was like for you to just overcome that So that's a pretty big feat. Uh, it felt amazing. And it was kind of cool because I had you guys, I had you pushing me a little bit into like, but also open to like, Hey, if you need to not go, let's not, you know, go, but left it to me.

And I just kind of sat on it for a second. And then Joey had my back and that he was like, had me on his shoulders. So like, literally I, I couldn't fall. It wasn't possible for me to fall without Joey eating it. Yeah. I was going to fall before you fell. That's for sure. So it just felt really, honestly, really cool. And I actually think the last time I had been over at that rock wall area, I was actually healthy and tired at that point and turned around with the kids.

And so like to do it like this, and then we sat up at the rock at the top and it just, it just felt so accomplished. felt like we did it, you know? Um, and then it was just cool, just a cool experience. And, and you know, it's interesting. I was just on the last commercial break, I was sort of ripping on me a little bit, as you guys know, and I was kind of dealing with my own stuff, but, but as Joey likes to point out, he's like, you know, you, you do more than you think.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was, and I was reflecting just the second on, on that walk and the walk we had before that, before you guys got up there. And I remembered just how nice it was and how proud I was of our family that we've built. Cause we, we went on this little walk and my, my kids are just, they're loving each other like crazy. You know, they really, they really care about each other and they're, they're taking care of one another.

And my, my daughter's running around and she's literally screaming, I love nature. And it was like the cutest thing in the world. And then we'd be walking and we'd, and she'd go, stop. And we're like, what? And she'd walk over to something tiny, like a rock or a leaf. And she'd go, look at how beautiful this is. And she literally made us stop and look at the tiniest little like imperfections of things.

And, and she's like, I'm an artist. I could draw this, you know, like her, her, her imagination was going wild. And so, so thinking about, again, going back to the little things, the small things that are so important that add up over time. And, and I think it all comes back to our thought life. And what are we thinking about us and what, what, what is going on up here?

Because what we think we feel and when we feel we move, right? So we're going back to this law of motion. You're not going to move without some kind of feeling, right? And so, so it's, it's just so important that we protect our thoughts, the thoughts and thinking that like, it might be a small thing. It's a big thing. It's a big thing. What you think and, and the thoughts that you put into others, whether that be kids or students or friends or family or whatever it is, those thoughts that you're implanting into yourself and into others, they will make a huge long-term difference in your life.

Boom. That's a butterfly effect. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to go to commercial break here. When we come back, we're going to talk about doing the hard thing. All right. So we talked about the, the little things. You do the little things in life and they add up over time. Now in this next segment, we're going to, we're going to dive into one of our favorite quotes, which is, uh, do what is hard and your life will be easy.

You do what is easy and your life will be hard. Facts, yo. Facts. So this really goes into this, this Newton's law. I mean, this is probably the best way to apply this to life. You do what's hard. Life will be easy. Do what's easy. Life will be hard. That's an opposite reaction. Okay. So what does this mean? You, you study really hard and the test taking will be easy.

Yeah. You don't study. You do what's easy. The test taking is going to be hard. Facts. It's going to be painful. Right. Um, and so, so we want to, we want to think to ourselves, like, are we, are we doing the hard thing? And if we're not, if we're, if we're taking the easy road, are we, are we right now just shocked that our life is hard?

If you're doing what's easy, your, your life is going to be hard. Yeah. I'm going to throw some encouragement here. So speaking to school specifically, right? Yeah. Especially if it's a subject that you struggle with, right? You're really bad at it. You just like the concepts don't come to you. Right. Same thing still applies. Right. You study hard. You still might get like a C or a B, like 70 to 80%, somewhere in that range.

Right. Not quite an A because you don't fully understand, like it doesn't click for you in your brain. Some people's brains work differently. But if you work really hard and you get that C or a B, that's, that's good for you. Like your grade goes up, you know, you're not going to be perfect at everything across the board, but if you put in the work, you will get a good grade that will allow you to pass.

Right. Yeah. Versus the other way, you know, if you go, oh, this is a subject I don't get, like, I'm not going to get it. You're going to fail the test unless you study your butt off to not fail the test. And even if you get that C or B, if you freaking studies as hard as you could, that's a win. That's a win every time. Right.

Yeah. Well, earlier you said to Matt that sometimes he forgets that all the stuff that he has done, right? It's easy to forget that. And I think some of that comes from some of the work that you do is really building something that's going to be sustainable and something that's going to be long-term growth, like a template. Yeah. So let's take like this show, for example, the idea of this thing that you've made and the way that it's laid out with the colors and all that.

I mean, I imagine it took you a long time to kind of like lay out how it was going to look, right? Yeah. But now every morning that we have this, it changes the energy and it makes things just easier. But that was a hard thing to sit down and do and go, let me, I'm going to make this template to the best of its ability right now so that we have an outcome.

I would argue even that not even some of it, but a lot of what Matt does is that way as the CEO, as the owner. Because, you know, the only way to delegate is for you to do it first and then go, okay, here's how you do it. He did that with me for the CRM. He did it with me for the videos. He did it with me to set things up for the podcast.

Like everything I've learned, most of it has been from a template from Matt. Like this is how we want it done. Now use your expertise, see if you can find a better way to do this thing. But that doesn't change the amount of time it took him to figure out, okay, this is what we want as a business to push this forward, right? No, that makes a lot of sense.

And I can tell you guys too, this is a really good thing for us to remember as parents, if any of you are parents out there. And for all of us, having been a kid who has parents or had parents or have ever been parented by a guardian or a teacher or a parent, to think about the perspective of those who really care about you. I know you guys, you guys saw this demonstrated when we were up at the cabin this, this last weekend, there was a moment when my one and a half year old, he's, he had already been told not to do something.

And it was like, it was like these DVDs and he tore into them and he threw them all over the place. Right. And I think you guys remember this. Yeah. I looked at him and I said, pick them up. It was easier. Honestly, it was easier for me. It would have been easier for me to just pick them up myself. It would have taken me 30 seconds for him.

It was going to take about three minutes and he, he just sat there and defied me. You guys saw it happen. Yeah. He just looked me in the eyes and I'm like, okay, we're about to go down here. I was fascinated by this. Like just sitting on the couch watching you do this, by the way, it was like, was we talked about movies was the greatest movie.

And I was like, you pick it up. And he just, he looked at me and I was like, now you pick it up. And he just looked at me and I was like, and I, and I, you know what's funny is I, I filtered because I wanted to say, you don't pick this up. I'm going to spank your bottom. I wanted to say that. But the truth was I wasn't going to do that.

And I didn't want to deliver an empty promise. Number one, I thought he could see right through me. And number two, I'm like, I don't want to spank him over some DVDs. He's a year and a half. Like, I don't want to do that. I don't feel like it's fair. So I actually filtered that thought because it almost came out of my mouth. And instead I look him right in the eyes and I go, do you want to go to bed now or pick up these DVDs?

And he looked at me and I'm like, you're going to go to bed. You don't pick up the DVDs. And then he goes, pick up DVDs. And next thing you know, he's picking them up. And then what's the craziest thing is he then starts enjoying it. It becomes a game. And he starts showing off. I'm picking up the DVD. I like it. He's like, I'm doing the thing that's right.

It feels good. I want to sell it. And he wanted to celebrate that. It's crazy. It goes back to, we just jumped to point three on this topic, but discipline is the key. Right? And when you're disciplined, when you have the right people around you who will hold you to that higher level, like you said, you get to celebrate. Doing what is hard in the moment. Absolutely.

And it feels really good. It feels really good when you make that choice to go the extra mile, to wake up and do the extra thing to prepare you for what you have going on. You know, it seems like a hassle when you look at it ahead of time, but then when you do it, you feel this sense of relief and it gives you this burst of energy for your day, for what you're going into, because you feel prepared and there's nothing better than feeling prepared.

Whether it's acting, whether it's business, whether it's life, it applies to everything. If you're prepared for the thing, which is why we harp on memorization so hard, then you get to release. Because memorization is the hardest thing. It's the most time consuming. It's the most boring, probably. You know, of all the acting stuff, like I would much rather do character work. I would much rather, you know, there's a million things I'd rather do than memorize.

Mm-hmm. Right? I'd rather do this show than prepare for this show. Yeah. Absolutely. You know what I mean? But if you don't prepare, then the show sucks. Exactly. And we've been there. And the truth is, I woke up this morning at 3.30 because we hadn't prepared for the show, so I thought. And I get up, and my wife woke up to me getting up, and she's like, what are you doing?

I'm like, I'm getting up. She's like, what time is it? I'm like, it's 3.30. She's like, why are you getting up? And I was like, go back to bed, baby. I love you. And I get up, and then I found your text message, Joey. Because, you know, we were gone this weekend, and so I didn't know what I'd prepared. You had already prepared the topic. Great. Then I needed to come in and fill this out.

Like you said, I had done this work previously, so to fill out the template was much easier than starting from scratch. Yeah. It was great. But so why did I get up at 3.30? Well, one of the reasons is because I didn't prepare over the weekend. I could have. I had plenty of time. Yeah. There were moments I could have done that. Joey was working. He did some work, some different things.

I did some work, not a ton of work. I easily could have prepared the show. Yeah. I didn't. Therefore, what'd I do? Well, my day was harder. I got up an extra hour, two hours before I would have had to if this show was already prepared. So you do what is hard, and your life will be easy. You do what is easy, your life will be hard.

It's just that easy. Yeah. So then I'm curious, just asking, because I'm assuming the best in you, you didn't just come in and go, oh, we have a topic. Cool. I'm going to lay back down. Like, so what did you end up spending your time on after the template was done? Because you had this extra time. What were you pushing forward? What did you, you know? I was questioning the topic because I, at first I'm like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And then I started, I started speaking it out in my mind and going, ah, I'm running into these roadblocks, these things that I don't know how this connects. And I even asked you where it came from and why and what that was all about so that I could really try to wrap my mind around, okay, how is this going to fuel like our mission and what we're trying to do?

And then what's interesting is then I asked Brian, what's the Bible verse? And he read it to me. And, and of course, if you let the spirit lead you, it's going to be good. And I was like, oh yeah, yeah. Reap what you sow. That makes sense. You put the, you put the seed in, it's going to grow. Okay. Okay. And my mind just started going on and then you were like, we could even change the topic.

And I'm like, no, we don't need to change the topic. We just got to make sure that we understand Newton's law and we're not, we're not spitting things out there that we don't really get. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. No. And that's cool because if, if you had come in and you had to come up with the topic, like it's not going to be that far developed.

So you got to do this intense research like you would if you were writing your book. Right. For today's show. And that's the thing is like, I feel like the difference between this season and last season is you've been doing that. We've been doing that. We, we, we have it ready the night before and then we go, okay, you go to the paper and you go, okay, let me look at this like I'm writing a book on it.

And that's why these things are so well listed out. Yeah. Well, and, and, and this goes into our next segment, which we're about to get to in a minute after this next commercial break will be our last commercial break. And, and that is accountability. So talking about this idea, Joey, we need to be held accountable for what we say on this show. So therefore we better have done the research.

And if, and if, if we ever say something that's not right, we better be ready to say, sorry, we messed up on this thing. Let me correct what I just said. And, uh, and that's okay too. We're going to come back and talk about accountability here. All right. Welcome back everybody. Today we're talking about actions and the reactions to our actions and the reactions to those reactions and the actions, actions because of the reactions.

So here we're going to jump into our final segment of the day, which is your takeaway and what you can, and, uh, and so I, I think it all really boils down to accountability at the end of the day. And, and, and we, we briefed on this and Joe, you kind of brought it up. This idea of who's holding you accountable and are you holding you accountable?

What you are right now is a culmination of you. You got to understand that. So stuff you've done or not done has led to where you are right now. And once you admit that, once you understand that that is true, it gives you this freedom to understand that, that life is going to be what you make of it, period. And, and, and there's this, this, um, there's this concept for us to understand, which is, um, why don't we become now the person that we think we want to be?

There was this funny thing. My wife said, it was like a, somebody was talking about their, um, you know, their new year's resolution goals. And like, it's, it's so funny because how many of us have been like, you know, one year plan, question mark, two year plan, question mark, three year plan, question mark, four year plan, question mark, five year plan yachts. And I'm just rocking on a boat with my brand new yacht and my mansion and my car and all, but no one, no one thinks about how does it, what does it take to get there?

Yeah. You know, the culmination of the little tiny things that it would take to honestly get there. Mm hmm. Right. Yeah. I think a great example for you probably would be the book. I mean, the sitting down and like, and, and you even said in the beginning, I'm not writing a book to write a book. Like you actually did it for the discipline and, and sitting down and getting those ideas that you felt needed to be out there, out there.

But it's like, I mean, technically you could have already gotten it out. I mean, technically the book that you had ready. I was ready. Matter of fact, somebody even told me to put it out, put it out as it was. And I, and I read it. I'm like, it's not right where it is. I don't, I don't, I'm not doing it. Cause he was like, just get it out there because then at least it's out there, you know?

And I'm like, I'm not writing it just to get it out there. I'm not writing it for the prestige of being an author. I don't, I don't need that. It's not about that. I'm trying to, I'm really trying to help people. Yeah. Yeah. And what's interesting is I've been recently, I'm, I, I'm always like fighting this, like beat yourself up thing that that's probably my biggest battle is, is beating me up.

And maybe a lot of people are that way. Which is funny because that's like your biggest pet peeve is when somebody beats himself up. That's right. That's the worst. And that's one way you can help yourself is be like, all right, I hate it when other people do this. Why do I let myself do this to myself? 100%. You're right. And, and, and that's why I talk about it too.

Cause when I bring it up, it's healing. When I, when I admit what's going on, it's healing. And so anyway, so, so beat myself up. But then I have to remember that I am choosing to listen to God actually. And there's something that's gotten me curious about certain things. And I keep diving down this thing that's causing me curiosity in the short term. And I don't know why.

And I, and I'm curious as to if there are certain things that I need to experience. And, and if the book that I'm writing, because I believe, you know, I was really moved to write about this, that there's certain things that, that, that may occur in my life or in the world that need to take place to go into this idea of listening. Cause I'm writing the book about listening and listening at this like deeper spiritual level and the worldly level.

I'm, I'm, I'm writing about both and it's all kind of coming together in this way of like helping us and helping people get closer to God or raise their vibration. As Paul might say, like we're getting closer to God through listening. And so right now I'm trying to listen. I'm trying to be very present and figure out what that thing is. And in the, in the short term, it feels like it's creating chaos.

But I, but I wonder like if I keep just having faith and trusting that there's something, there's something there that is, that's going to be like this big eyeopening thing that would change my perspective on it. You know? Yeah. And it's one of those things, like you said, you don't rush it. Right. Why would you, why would you rush it? The only reason you would rush it is like you said to publish and be a published author twice.

Right. That's, that's personal gratification. That's against everything we talk about on the show. Totally. It's, it's like you said, it's about helping people. And one of the things going into this topic that I love that we've repeated ad nauseum is you are an average of the five people you hang around. So you look at this and you go, okay, where am I going to be in five years?

Well, look at the five people you hang around. Are they below you? Are you above, are they above you? Hopefully there's a mix. And, and are you, um, and are you holding the five people around you accountable? Because if you don't, they're not going to grow. And if they don't grow, you're not going to grow. Yeah. And then beyond that, let's take the five out of it and go straight to you.

Are you holding you accountable? I think that's one of the, the hardest, at least for me is when you're doing it together, there's this like power in it. And it's like, kind of like you're checking on each other, but when it's just you checking on you, that's when it can become really challenging to, to hold yourself to whatever standards you've created for you. Yeah. The things that you are acting out based on whatever goals you have.

And that was a recent thing, uh, for me, discovery wise was realizing like, got to have a better vision of even what that looks like. Yeah. So that I can act that out and hold myself accountable to whether or not I did it or didn't do it. And be a contributor to the people that are in your sphere. Yeah. Which is, which is different than being a taker from the people that are in your sphere, but being somebody who's contributing because the deal is like Joey just said, are they above you?

They below you. Right. Okay. The, the, the issue I think with this mentality of the five people, cause, cause in a lot of ways it, it, it's very true. Um, but having said that we also don't, I don't think you just want to lose everybody and just go striving over like, Oh, I want to just hang out with like rich people or famous people or, you know, like successful people, but instead be searching for what is it inside the five people that I'm surrounding myself with that draws me to them and what are their strengths?

What are the things that I can really learn from them and what things can I teach them back? Yeah. And that's how your own little circle of influence can continue to increase. And hopefully there's a balance between your strengths are one of their weaknesses and their strengths are one of your weaknesses. So there's that, there's ideal partnership there. And, and if it's not there, then yeah, you got to be willing to let go, but it's this synergy thing where you just decide, Hey, like, here's, here's where I'm going.

I've got a path. What, where are you going? What's your path? And are we synergistic with each other? And if that's the case, then you've got the right circle. Even for now, you've got the right circle. It might change. Oftentimes it does. But for now, like, this is the circle. The people around you change or the people around you change. And that'll happen your whole life. Right.

I've seen it happen. You've been preaching this since day one. Like it just, it just, it's weird how it works. It just works. Yeah. And I think a great way to end this show today and, and great takeaway for everybody is going back to this idea, become what you want to be instead of wishing you were that thing. Yeah. And you wrote that down, but it's so powerful.

And I was like, we can't forget that. That's such a good note. That's something we all do. We all catch ourself doing that. Ah, I wish I was here. Ah, what, what I wouldn't give to be Steven Spielberg. Right. And get to ride a dolly and make a movie and, and be in the credits. Like, no, you look at what you can do today to become that in the future.

That's right. You know, you grab a skateboard and a string and you pull yourself on the skateboard. Yeah. And, and, and you've got a dolly. Now, guess what? You're still not Spielberg. Yeah. So it wasn't the dolly. It wasn't the dolly. You take apart your old longboards and you build a dolly and it's a movie for kids. That's right. And you're still not Spielberg. And then you're like, okay, then take a camera and then realize the most basic Best Buy camera, you don't understand all the features.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So you're not Spielberg and you shouldn't have the best of the best of the best of cameras. Yeah. That's one of my favorite things about your mentality specifically is, you know, Matt's never one to not want an upgrade. He's always down for an upgrade. I love missing technology. Yeah. But one of the things he says every time is, do we, have we used this to its full extent?

And if not, we ain't getting an upgrade, guys. Right. Like, you better make sure that whatever feature we want to get on this new thing is not available on what we already have because of laziness. Because you didn't go through every step to learn and read the instructions and figure out, oh, maybe this cable will make it so that we can do that with the equipment we already have.

Yeah. I mean, there was a story of this in the very beginning where we got gifted just a spectacular camera and in the beginning of sort of the digital start, right? Mm-hmm. And it had the capability to do digital stuff, but we didn't really know that and didn't research it or look into it. So we had this amazing camera and we were putting tapes in it. Straight up.

Oh, my gosh. And capturing the tapes to the computer, like, just did, and I take huge responsibility for that because I was doing the editing and all that, like, but you had this amazing, amazing thing and we weren't really using it to its potential. And once again, I knew at the time, I said it at the time, but just didn't have the fortitude to follow through at the time.

I knew it. I was like, we got to pour into this. And I'd be like, Brian, pour into that. And then you wouldn't do it. But I wouldn't do it first. And I needed to do it first to prove that, hey, like, this is what it is. So, yeah, it's very interesting. Until you gain the trust there, right? So maybe back then you didn't have the trust you have now where we both know, hey, Matt's going to create a template.

He's going to go into whatever we want to do and be hand in hand with us and then let us do what we're good at. Yeah. Like, he's going to do what he's good at first and then hand it off to us and be like, all right, go make magic. That's what's cool. But maybe you didn't have that trust back then like you have with us now, with me specifically.

If you put something in my hands and you're like, hey, I spent time on this. I'm not sure how this connects. Like, will you take a look at it every time? I'm like, yes. Because I know, like, even if I can't figure it out, you wouldn't be doing that for no reason. You know, it's all back to the common, we have this triangle right now where we are, I truly believe, bought into one another and we fought hard for it.

But I'm so grateful for it because that's what's propelling us forward in these hard times. And yet, we have a lot of weaknesses that have reared up, especially recently, and we're going to deal with them. And so, this is your takeaway, okay? So, all the things that Joey said are true and what I just said is true. So, here's number one, be honest. What's good, what's bad?

What are you doing that's good, what are you doing that's bad? What are you doing that's causing positivity, what are you doing that's causing negativity? Then, get to the root of it and try to create one of these templates that's going to help you to stay on track, okay? So, if we've communicated to somebody that we're going to do something and then we don't do it, we're off.

Like, there's something going on that's wrong with our system. We've got to fix that system, right? So, be honest. That's going to be step number one. Step number two is going to be make adjustments, just like I said. So, number one is make a list, what's good, what's not, and be very honest, what's not good. Number two, make the adjustments. Figure out, what adjustments can I make?

And it doesn't need to be like crazy, just like the little things. What little thing can I do that's going to add up to be big results in the future? So, you make those adjustments. And then, number three is you just continue to track. You track these things continuously so that you know, so hopefully they don't pile up to where you feel so overwhelmed that you get depressed, that you're starting to feel tired.

But you want to be just giving yourself the little wins and knowing that as long as I'm kind of turning the curve this way, as long as I'm taking that one step, at least I'm getting closer to the top of the mountain. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is our show here. Thank you so much for tuning in. We sure appreciate it. We will see you tomorrow morning.

God bless. Thanks for listening to Mornings with Matt. Please like, subscribe, and follow us at Dearing Acting Studio to keep up with the latest content. For more information on classes, private lessons, or professional development coaching, visit www.dearingstudio.com. Have a Dearing day, everyone. Have a chippy day, everyone. Rough.