Win Today

#191 | Beyond Words: How To Purify The Environment With Your Mind

• Season 5

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Our minds & actions serve as vessels to the world. We possess the power to purify OR pollute the environment.

Let this serve as a call to action to 'purify' the world with positivity & gratitude, and you can learn how to do it here!

Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Wednesday podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully crafted to help people build and refine discipline, accomplish their goals, fortify their mindsets and be of service to somebody in this world. My name is Ryan Cass and I am your host, and it is my mission and commitment to deliver amazing episodes to you every week where you'll learn from myself or renowned expert in their field. We love helping people win in every aspect of their lives, and you can help us win by sharing the show with somebody that you believe will benefit from it, subscribing and leaving a rating and review. We believe that everybody in this world is meant to do something great with their lives and we're here to help play a role in that. Thank you for tuning in and let's win today.

Speaker 1:

Do you ever think that we have the power to purify and pollute the world? And I'm not talking from an environmental perspective, because we absolutely do have the ability to purify and pollute the world environment that we live in and walk in and spend time in every day? It's a powerful thought that I've been ruminating on lately after a conversation with Chris Doris and his podcast just released last week. He is phenomenal. One thing that really stood out to me in the conversation is this concept that he dropped about purifying and polluting the world simply based off of our thoughts and actions, and it's something that I've been spending time with myself on and even shared with my teams last week my leadership team that everything that we do can either purify the environment for our team and make us better and keep us moving forward, or we can unconsciously pollute the environment for our team and make it negative or make them act in manners that don't align with the very principles that we preach and expect day in and day out. You see, it's interesting that when we think about polluting the world, people would probably first say no, I don't pollute the world. I throw my stuff away and I'm a good person, I look after my things, I don't leave trash on the roadside after my things, I don't leave trash on the roadside. But a lot of people would probably not think that they're unconsciously polluting the world and their mind just based off of how they show up and how they act. This complements something that I heard from Ed Milet in one of his speeches that feelings and behaviors are caught, not taught, meaning that the very things that we do, many of the things that we say, are often influenced by people in our environment, so how we show up or how we behave in a certain situation is likely symbolic of something or someone that you saw in that same environment.

Speaker 1:

I think about that at times, with behaviors are caught, not taught, and, reflecting back on a recent conversation with Matt O'Neill on his podcast Good Mood Revolution, he and I both believed that we were wired to be destructive and angry when we were growing up. Both of our fathers in that my dad, didn't teach me to go and break things, meaning all right, ryan, if you're upset, you just punch through this wall and then you won't be upset anymore, and that's how you cure your anger. But seeing that type of behavior, time in and time out, allowed me to catch that same thing for myself and same thing for Matt. And then we went through life into our teenage years believing oh, we must have the angry gene. It must have just been part of, must just be part of who we are, because that's what we saw and it's probably existed for generations before that. So think about that for a minute. Existed for generations before that. So think about that for a minute.

Speaker 1:

The things that we do can often be the justification for the things that other people do and say. So what we're going to talk about is how you can purify your environment for the people that you serve and the people that you spend time with, and also how you can purify your mind. I don't believe that pollution will have to go into too much explanation, because you can take the opposite of the purification method and that is your pollution method, but we may dig into it just a bit. So, when we think about purifying the environment and I'm going to first focus on being around others and why it's so important this concept so here are a few things you can do.

Speaker 1:

One thing that I adopted early on in my business career and this also exists for personal relationships as well is you know what a normal conversation looks like. Typically, in the morning you say hey to somebody and then you ask them how they're doing, and 95% of the time they say good, and you feel good about yourself because you were courteous enough to say hi and ask someone how they're doing, and you've now mentally checked off that box that all right, susie said she's good, so I did my part. Susie, meanwhile, may be feeling absolutely broken, or maybe she just she also had something really cool going on, but we're typically not invited to go any deeper than all. Right, yep, I'm good, check the box. Yep, I'm good, check the box.

Speaker 1:

So one thing that I've done in the business world and personal life is my number one rule is people first, business second. So how we can purify the world is first lead with a positive. I always will ask someone on my team just hey, what's something cool in your normal life outside of here, behind the badge because we all wear badges at work what's something cool or something interesting in your normal life right now? And it invites them to share what they've got going on. And people love that. People love to talk about themselves, but people also love to feel safe and open to share things. And by creating that invitation, you're purifying the environment that, hey, it's a good thing to talk about our lives and some of the cool things that we've got going on. And by extending that invitation and leading with a positive, finding something cool, then what is that likely going to do? At the very least, it's going to make that person feel good about being in this environment and maybe they go off and ask someone else that same thing.

Speaker 1:

When people ask me or when I get the typical good response and I've shared this on other podcasts. When I get the typical hey, how's it going? People say good, I ask what makes good, tell me, I want to know, and sometimes they'll share what makes good and other times they'll share they're not so good, and it turns into a little one-on-one session or, at the very least, allowing them to clear some weight off their shoulders and I'm there and aware of what's going on and I can follow up, I can say a prayer for them, I can offer them a resource and again, but we're purifying the environment. We're taking it one step further with the people that we interact with. So lead with a positive. What's something cool going on in your life? What's a highlight, what's a recent win? That's how we can purify our environment with the people that we serve every day.

Speaker 1:

The next one and this seems simple, by the way, nothing here, just about the same thing with any podcast that I share. There's no rocket science, man. A lot of this stuff is simple, down to the core, very easy, and a lot of the research that we read about how to live a great life. There's nothing super complicated in theory. It could be complicated in execution. So the next one is to smile and express gratitude. So think about this. So remember, pollution is opposite of purification. So if I walk into your place of work or your house and I'm smiling hey, man, how's it going? What's up? It's going to contribute to a more positive environment. And well, if I walk in, man, what's up, how's it going? Yeah, it's Monday. Feelings and behaviors are caught, not taught. Now I could potentially become the catalyst for now that person to oh yeah, well, ryan's down, so I'm going to be down too. Don't misconstrue what I'm saying, for it's never okay to be sad or down, because that's not what I'm suggesting here. But generally speaking, it's pretty easy to find things to be happy about and smile about If you're listening to this podcast.

Speaker 1:

It means that you have access to technology. It means that you're alive and awake another day, that you're likely living in a free world. That allows you to choose this podcast. There's so many things. I can give you three. Right there. You're probably up and moving listening to this, or you're driving somewhere. You've got a car, awesome.

Speaker 1:

Discipline is a key component of this podcast and a key thing that we preach. We view discipline as the fuel to help you create the life that you ultimately desire, and discipline being the fuel that gets your habits and systems in check so that you can actually accomplish your goals. If you're looking to level up in 2025, I am happy to be a part of that and encourage you to join the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind Group. This has been my baby for a couple years and we're finally launching it here in 2025. The group consists of a self-paced course that teaches you how to form core habits and mindset that will allow you to accomplish your goals. A daily accountability channel to keep you on track, motivated and in alignment with our members. And weekly mastermind sessions where you're going to learn from either myself or a suite of renowned guests many who have been on the podcast that are going to share pieces of their winning playbooks directly with you. I've learned that being a part of groups over the years has helped propel me to so many new levels in life.

Speaker 1:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, then go together, and it's my wish that the Unshakable Crew is a choice that makes sense for you in 2025. Choice that makes sense for you in 2025. We are growing up to 100 members this year and have limited time founding member pricing for 12 more folks before we permanently increase pricing to $97 a month. You can get in now for $67 a month, locked in for life, and be a part of the adventure that we're creating with our members. If you're somebody that craves discipline, seeks it or wants it this year, and you're really committed to making lasting changes in your life and being around others that are committed to winning and serving the world and sharing what they learn with others so that we make this world a better place, then join the Unshakeable crew. Go to unshakabledisciplinecom and you can sign up. It is also in the show notes Unshakeable shake, as in milkshake, unshakabledisciplinecom, and we're excited to have you in 2025.

Speaker 1:

Let's go Smile and express gratitude. I've become quite fascinated with the science behind gratitude. There's so much science that supports the positive benefits of gratitude to include. I've been digging through a lot of information at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA and it says that gratitude can change neural structures in your brain. So basically what that means is our brains are extremely malleable, which basically means that it's like a computer we have upstairs that we can write programs that automatically trigger a certain response. We can remove programs that have been triggering responses that we don't like. We can work on programs and make them better, make them create our intended or ideal responses faster. There's so many things, but when we go to expressing gratitude, we can literally alter our minds to where we reduce our stress levels, we improve the environment around us.

Speaker 1:

Gratitude journal. In one study of, I believe, 100, maybe even less than that folks that maintain a gratitude journal 16% improvement in happiness. It's amazing, one of the most simple things. So another thing that I do when maybe I'm walking by people, people hey, how's it going? I'm grateful, man. I'm grateful for a new day. I'm so grateful, grateful, to be here and truly mean it, not just say it. I'm truly grateful to be recording this podcast right now. I'm truly grateful to know that at least one person will listen to this and benefit from it.

Speaker 1:

I've been spending a lot more time in gratitude and really looking for the smallest things, like not just hey, I'm grateful for you know to be staring right into this Sony camera, but when I go outside, I'm grateful that I get to hear the birds chirping in the mornings now. I'm grateful that I get to hear the birds chirping in the mornings now. I'm grateful for the wind that touches my skin, cools me down. I'm grateful for the tree branches that are swaying. I'm grateful for all of the great times. I'm grateful for the not-so-great times because they deliver growth. Therefore, I don't really believe there are bad times, because with bad comes good. I'm truly, truly grateful for these things, and these are things that I tell people often and things that I'm telling myself. So I'm purifying the environment, but also purifying my own mind. The environment, but also purifying my own mind and I will say I've been going through a couple mental struggles lately and this is exactly what I'm using to get out of. That is gratitude and purifying my mind with it and really doubling down on it so we can purify an environment by expressing gratitude.

Speaker 1:

The next thing is reframe others' thoughts. So today is Monday. This episode releases every Monday. This podcast releases every Monday. What's something you typically hear from people on Monday? Hey, how's it going? Oh, it's Monday. Ready for Friday? Okay, what's a reframe? Hey, yeah, you're damn right, it's Monday, it's a new day, it's a new week, it's a new opportunity. I'm so glad I get to see you and some people when I do that, you know they'll. They'll roll their eyes, but I, I trust and believe in the back of their mind they're probably thinking you know what? It is a new day and I'm here and I get an opportunity to move forward.

Speaker 1:

Another thing, another reframe that I like to offer to people I got to wake up early tomorrow. It's typically what you hear at the end of the day from somebody hey, what an opportunity you have. You get to wake up early tomorrow. How cool is that? You get to wake up on your own terms. No one's chasing you with a knife to come in here, but you still find your way in here, to this office or to this workplace, to this gym, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1:

So when we think about how we can purify our environment, I like to lead with a positive our environment. I like to lead with a positive, invite people to share what they've got going on, smile, express gratitude and reframe, help reframe people's thinking, because I do find it's too common now in our world and our society to. It's almost like people bond over this shit, like, oh, it's Monday, yeahay, yeah. Like I don't want to be anywhere near the group of people where that's the norm. I want to influence them and shift that. But people that live with that mindset day in, day out oh it's monday, I gotta wake up early. This that man. Golly, guys, there's so much better. There's so much great things going on and so many great things we can find in our life. Man, that's how we can purify our world. Lead with positive, be positive. Lead with positive, be positive, smile gratitude.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you take everything I said and flip it completely, then you understand what polluting the world means and you don't want to do that. And it's easy to be unconscious of that again, because it's normal to say, oh, it's Monday. It's normal quote, normal for some populations of people to say, oh, I have to do this, have to do that. This sucks, that sucks. Let's flip that on its freaking face, man. And it starts with you, it starts with me, it starts with everybody listening.

Speaker 1:

Think about how you're going to purify your environment this week, make it better, and then it's going to help others purify the environment. And then, next thing, you know some people, at the very least some people will know when they speak to you that they're not gonna get away with just saying, oh, it's good. They're gonna have to share a little bit more or be open or know that negativity won't be tolerated here, not today, not today, satan, when we think about purifying our mind, a lot of what I shared there applies to yourself as well. So when we look at leading with positive we have, we can have conversations with ourselves, and some of the most important conversations that we will have in this life are the conversations that we have with ourself. So when we look at leading with positive, even if there's no one around and it's just, it's just you, you know what's something we can do to impact lives today. What's one thing we can do to rack up a win or a point on the scoreboard. How can we manufacture progress into our day? Maybe it's making the bed, maybe it's working out, maybe it's tidying some things.

Speaker 1:

I often bring reference to a Harvard Business Review study about progress being the number one motivator in the world. What motivates people? What keeps people moving forward, making progress? How can you make progress? Write down something that you want to do tomorrow and go and do that thing. Write something down that aligns to your goals and go and do that thing, even if it's the smallest freaking thing, even if it's just a little quick win like literally making the bed. That's how you can build this progress making the bed. That's how you can build this progress. That's how you can create progress, which is then going to grow your confidence. Because you took action, confidence follows action. And because you took action, motivation also follows action, which means that then you're going to be more prompted to then go dig into the things that you really want to do. It's this whole chain reaction that comes back to action.

Speaker 1:

Action when we think about purifying our thoughts, though, I often remind people and reminding myself to look at the evidence. It's easy. Our minds are always going to throw some sort of thought in our system, some sort of bad program that we're not capable or we're not worthy, or we're not good at X, y, z, we're not doing well in the relationship anything. At XYZ, we're not doing well in the relationship anything. We often can hold those thoughts true and completely disregard all of the evidence and progress that we've made. So here's a reminder and a call to action. When you're conflicted with a thought that you're not good at something, or maybe this isn't for you or you're not doing well, what evidence do you have that counters that? What journey have you been on recently? What journey are you on right now? Are you on right now?

Speaker 1:

Last week I ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon and fortunately qualified for Boston 2026. Not after didn't come without its fair share of struggles, including puking at mile three, which is a first in the marathon for me, hopefully the last, but who knows? I've puked after but not during, so that was a fun one. But anyway had a really great training block for the most part leading up into this and per normal yeah, per normal having thoughts in my mind that maybe you're not going to be able to do it, maybe you didn't train hard enough, maybe this just isn't going to be your day. And at mile three I was certainly battling with those demons very early on and I went and looked back at the evidence Like no, you have plenty of evidence in this training block alone that you've gone the distance, you've hit your paces, you've been out in the tough stuff, you've been out here when you don't want to, so just keep going, keep going, you know, because the thought that you have in your mind right now that you can't do this or that maybe this isn't the day, there's no evidence that supports that being true, but there's a whole lot of evidence that supports that you can make it and push through, because here's all the work you've done that nobody can take away from you. So look back at the evidence that you have, because that's what you can use to purify your mind. The next thing and it goes along, back to the marathon, but get active. Get active.

Speaker 1:

One of the easiest ways to purify a polluted mind is go and move your body. Do something for 20, 30 minutes. I got out the house a little late the past couple days to go and run and right afterwards I was kind of kicking myself for a minute like dude, why the hell were you sitting around sulking in your thoughts? One reason why I love doing this podcast episode, these podcast episodes, especially these sol, is because this is just as much live practice for you as it is for me, and live coaching and therapy, as it may be for you as it is for me. I love that we can be our own science experiments, and this is something that I'm going to continue focusing on is this purifying versus polluting, and it's my wish that you're very cognizant this week and moving forward about how you're either purifying or polluting your environment and your mind and be brutally honest with yourself and seek out and identify where you have opportunities to improve. Let's purify this week, this month, this year, and let's win today. Thank you so much. Outro Music.

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