It’s All-In August! Today’s only the 4th, so if you haven’t gotten started or haven’t heard about it, please check these three posts out to catch up. This is a game changer for your life, and we’d love for you to come along with us!
One of the tenets of Self-Brain surgery is a recognition that what got me here won’t get me there. So what keeps us stuck here, in this place where we’re sad, sick, stressed, stuck, or just wondering why life feels like we’re made for more but we can’t quite get there?
What keeps us stuck is that we don’t believe we can really change.
Maybe we think that change is possible for others, but we’ve given up. Christians believe, at least conceptually, that God can help us do all things (Philippians 4:13), but some of us have tried everything and we keep finding ourselves back in the same place with the same pains and habits. We see the people on Instagram who seem to have it all together, but we can’t seem to crack the code.
I’m here to tell you that there is a way forward, a way to finally make it happen. But it requires us to go all in. We can’t go all the way to where we need to be if we only commit halfway.
So how do we do it?
We have to take it from the planning stage to the action phase. It’s time to stop contemplating and start operating. It’s time to live out a life where we actually get it done.
Friend, you deserve to be all in on your own life.
Too often, we find ourselves at the end of a long road of dissatisfaction, habits we can’t break, or as the victims of some sort of trauma, drama, tragedy, or other massive thing that keeps us stuck or in a loop of repeating the same old things over and over instead of making progress in our lives.
What are some areas you’ve been circling around, unable to break through, recover from, or held back by in your life?
One reason we get stuck is that we fail to go all-in with a belief that we are not just our brains. You may never have actually articulated this thought, but the belief is very pervasive in our educational systems and culture. The result is that all of us have, on some level, been taught that our genetics, heritage, family, circumstances, and brain function determines what will become of our life.
And I’m here holding up the sign that says, “You are not just your brain. Your mind can change your brain.”
This month, I’m going to go all in on teaching you the truth, and I want you to commit (reply to this post and say, “I’m all in,” or leave a voicemail and tell us).
Start with these three facts, and spend a little time today reminding yourself:
Neuroscience and scripture both say that how you think changes how your life plays out (see my book Hope Is the First Dose or read Philippians 4:6-8 for more).
Modern brain imaging studies have proven conclusively that spending a few minutes a day in meditation and prayer enlarges the parts of your brain that make you more emotionally resilient by over 20%. This proves that you can perform surgery to enhance your brain function simply by thinking differently.
The science of epigenetics has taught us that many of your genes can be switched on or off, and that these switches can be passed on to your offspring, and that the most powerful control element in making those changes is your thinking.
The bottom line is that you’re not stuck with the brain you have, because you can change it. You don’t have to be a slave to your emotions, because you can train your brain to be more emotionally stable, and it rebuilds itself to do so. You’re not fated to live, think, or be a certain way, because your DNA responds to your thinking by changing which genes are activated or not.
This means, my friend, that if you will trust me that you can use your mind to control your brain, and really go all-in with this thinking, you can change your life in the next month.
What would that look like for you?
Are you ready to go all-in on self-brain surgery?
Last week, we learned an operation you can perform that will reliably help with anxiety (see last week’s lesson if you missed it). And last week’s Mind Change Monday kicked off All-In August with New York Times bestselling author, Mark Batterson! Click the button below to hear it. You don’t want to miss this one.
Here’s my favorite clip from my talk with Mark, and it’s all about the idea that we have to stop contemplating and start operating our lives. It’s time to go all-in!
If you found this letter helpful, share it with a friend and encourage them to go all-in with us!
Here at the School of Self-Brain Surgery, we’re all about the good news that you’re not stuck with the brain you have, and you are not JUST your brain. You can change your brain, but you have to change your mind first.
And the good news is, you can start today.
I’d love to hear from you if you’re finding this series helpful; drop a voicemail or reply to this email and let me know!
By the way, if you think these lessons are valuable, please consider sharing this with friends. If you share with three or more people and they sign up, you can get free access to my paid subscriber content!
Lisa and I are praying for you.
Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope),
Lee
Psalm 71:14 ("As for me, I will always have hope.")
From the banks of the North Platte river on Moon River Ranch in Nebraska, USA
Don’t forget that you can get the recent podcast archive with transcripts of all recent episodes by clicking the button below.
I’m all in Dr. Warren! 🙌🏻
I am ALL IN AUGUST.
I am all in to take notes everyday. And picked up the scapel