Creating Margin Amid Travel Challenges

Justin 0:00

The mental mapping our mindsets . They capture us .

Rhett 0:03

And I've been so used to walking that path . You've got to break that cycle because it's just a habit .

Justin 0:08

You might be on a negative path . Put yourself on a positive one .

Rhett 0:11

So when I'm triggered to walk that path , in my mind I'm like nope , I got to shake it up . All of a sudden . Now it becomes less of a draw because those neural pathways begin to grow back to where you're not making that connection .

Justin 0:25

Starve these desires . His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life .

Rhett 0:42

What is going on . Armchair Authentic Podcast family , it is great to have you back for another episode . We're trying to help you fulfill your God assignment by having real conversations about real life with real people . Justin and I really enjoyed our time on today's content and , before we get to it , I simply want to say thank you to every single one of you who have taken the time to rate and review the podcast on all your favorite podcast platforms . Man , it really does help us get the word out to help people along this journey . Now for those who are new to the podcast , welcome , welcome home . Actually , we're glad that you're with us . In fact , if you haven't already followed us on social media , we sure would love for you to join us there . You can follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Armchair Authentic , or on X at Armchair Off Pod . That's Armchair Off Pod . We love getting your comments . We , in fact , love getting your emails . Thank you to every single one of you who have sent emails to us at info at armchairauthenticcom , because Justin and I are really excited to begin to create content around some of the ideas , the thoughts , the suggestions , the things that you're thinking about in life right now , because we are here as your friends to help , from our story to help your story . We're looking forward to jumping into today's content . You guys ready , let's go .

Rhett 2:07

So , justin , I had something , you know , going back to an episode where we were talking about making the most out of every moment . I was flying to Twin Falls a couple of weeks ago and I'm on a flight Now . If you're flying from Birmingham to anywhere in the Northwest , you know typically , especially a smaller town , you're going to have two or three stops or two or three legs of flight . So I fly from Birmingham to Atlanta , atlanta to Salt Lake and then Salt Lake to Twin . That's just the typical flight pattern , and so I always build a day of margin into flying , and I've learned this especially when you're going across the country , because you never know what's going to happen .

Rhett 2:44

So there's a life lesson to be learned within creating margin in our finances and flying , especially when you're speaking or communicating on a Sunday . So , instead of flying , some people are like , well , just fly it on a Saturday , and I'm like , hey , I could do that . But there's a lot of stress and anxiety that comes along because even if you're flying to the Northwest in the spring or the summer or even early fall , there might not be snow , but when you're dealing with three flights , three airplanes , and it doesn't matter if you're flying the best airline on the planet , which I love to fly Delta and they're the only ones that fly into Twin Falls , so God bless America , I'm grateful that I get that airline , but anyways , things happen and so and they happened , and so on .

Rhett 3:27

Friday so I leave out in the afternoon and typically it's about a 12 hour day of travel , and that doesn't include flying . That's just like the layovers . So Birmingham to Atlanta was great , atlanta to Salt Lake was great , and , um , my flight at Salt Lake to twin falls , everything seemed like it was great . I'm there and I all of a sudden noticed that on my thing it says , hey , your flight's delayed . And I'm like , okay , no , no big deal , normal . But then all of a sudden now it's like no , your flight has been canceled . And I'm like , okay , hey , look , you know what ? I could be frustrated , or I could make the most of this opportunity and begin to apply the things that you and I have been talking about as slowing down , not seeing black and white and seeing the color , and so I was like no big deal .

Rhett 4:10

So Delta is really good at if it's their fault , in other words , if there's mechanical problems on the plane , they will do everything that they can to put you in a hotel and take care of that . And so they did . So I spend the night in Salt Lake City , get to a hotel . Now , this is crazy , I wasn't even thinking about telling this part , but I go to the hotel . I get there , they give you the key , I walk in , they give me the room , the doors opens up and there is luggage sitting there in the door that I go into .

Justin 4:39

And I hear a shower running .

Rhett 4:39

I'm like oh my God . And so I slammed the door . So I'm like I'm so sorry . And then I'm like I didn't see anything . But I was like they gave me a key to somebody's room . This is insane . So I'm like , oh my God . So I'll go down back to the front desk and I'm like , hey , you gave me a key to somebody's room . I opened the door their luggage is there and I can hear shower going on . And they were like , oh my God . I was like , yeah , can you help a brother out ? Oh my Lord . And so he's like gave me a new key . And so at this point it's 11 o'clock at night , I get into the room , the room smells like smoke and I'm like I am so tired that I'm just like no-transcript .

Rhett 5:34

Morning the flight takes off . I got a board at seven 30 . Well , it's seven , 15 . And all of a sudden I'm looking down and on my flight it says your flight has been canceled . I'm like , oh , you've got to be kidding me . And so I'm like okay , either I , okay , I still got margin . But there's only two flights that go into Twin Falls the morning flight and the evening flight . And so I'm thinking well , I'm not waiting around all day in Salt Lake City to hopefully get on a plane that's going to land at midnight and then speak on Sunday . So I was like , okay , look , no big deal .

Rhett 6:04

So I went ahead and went to the rental car , got me a rental car , get in the rental car . I'm pulling out of , literally pulling out . A little guard shack person checks my ID , like okay , you're good to go , I'll pull out . And then my , my app says your plane is now boarding . I'm like you've got , why are you kidding me ? Like it was canceled . And now it's boarding . And so I'm like dude , I'm already in the rental car . So I'm driving through Salt Lake City now trying to get Delta on the phone . I get them on the phone and they're so cool and they're like , hey , you know , we're sorry for all the inconvenience , sorry for the miscommunication . It's a good thing you did rent the car , because that flight is indeed canceled . In fact , even the flight tonight is canceled as well . Fact , even the flight tonight is canceled as well .

Rhett 6:47

And so all of that , to say the margin that I built in created me a moment to be able to go . You know what ? I'm going to slow down because here I am in Salt Lake City , which is beautiful , by the way , and I'm driving through with snow still on the mountains , beautiful , and it's a four hour drive . And so you know what ? It was a moment that I could again , I could have chosen to be frustrated , but I had margin built in which , you know , the anxiety level was down . I knew I had four hours to drive and here I am getting to just put on some worship music and see some of the most beautiful side of the Rocky mountains as I drive from Salt Lake city to twin falls .

Rhett 7:22

And so I guess the reason I say that is because you know life happens and it's beautiful that when life happens to have margin and that margin allows you to create moments to where you could just go , you know it didn't work out the way I wanted it to . My old self would have been really , really frustrated . But here I am going . Okay , you know what , why not make the most ? Why not drive slow , enjoy it , have some prayer time , have the worship , enjoy the mountains , drive through the mountains , out into the desert and get out to Twin Falls . And it turned out . It was just beautiful . And now I guess all that to say a crazy adventure , but it also turned into a great memory , not because of the delay , but the fact that I got to make the most of the next day and really enjoy the beauty of God's country . Rather than flying over it , I was just getting to drive through it .

Justin 8:08

Yeah , you didn't let the stress hit you , and margin affects mindset . It does Like if you didn't have that margin cooked in . You're in trouble because now you're panicking and you might get there just in time to speak and now the message is not going to be as good as it could be . So the whole experience and I love it to be able to create moments and there's something about the airports too . I remember back a couple of months ago I was in Austin doing a workshop at a church and I do the same thing I don't even have to tell it because it sounds like your story where I come in and it says delayed , this is actually coming back from the trip , and when I'm out , if I can get home ASAP , I want to be with my wife and my boys , of course , and so I'm trying to . I have margin to get home that day .

Justin 8:59

I actually book a flight it's sad to say this , I'm sure you do this too . Is anybody out there listening ? And you actually book a flight , planning that if it cancels , you've got another one that's going to catch you . I do all the time , and so on this one I did that , and so , as I saw that this flight was canceled , I knew that I had enough time . If I could just get to that next city , there's still two flights that will get me home and it kept saying delayed , delayed just reading between the line , I've flown enough . I left and I went and grabbed the rental car before everybody else did , when they really canceled it . Then you got to look and I grabbed that car and finally , what said delayed , delayed , it finally said canceled . But I think there's something in the system that at one point I did the same thing . It said boarding .

Rhett 9:44

Yeah and I'm like well , what the heck it's like their app , is it ? Just ? Somehow there's like a glitch in their app that , even though it's canceled and it still shows that boarding time yeah , and then once it hits that , it automatically says now boarding and all that . And you're like no , it's not . It throws you off , it freaks you out .

Justin 10:00

I was feeling it to the people , because I'm thinking there's a lot of people there excited now and they're about to be disappointed and they're going to be sleeping in the airport or a hotel . Long story for me it was driving from Austin to Dallas . I've never taken that drive and obviously it's so flat , but it was just so pleasant because I got to . Actually , I had a phone call with you , I got to talk with you , I got to catch up with my wife and and I'm seeing beautiful land around me , gotcha and it was like making the most of every opportunity because I knew I'm not in a hurry to get to that airport , I'll be there and still have an hour to grab me a coffee , a meal , and I'm going to be on the plane and I'm going to be at home and still have a couple of hours to spare with the family that night .

Rhett 10:45

Yeah , cause you were going to Austin to Dallas , dallas to Birmingham , that's right . And so you , you , your Austin to Dallas part got disconnected . Yeah , and it's amazing . Yeah , you could choose to be frustrated , and a lot of people do , and I understand that . You know , if you don't have margin built in , you know I would be right there with you . Yeah , and so I always , I always try to plan my life and I think that's the beauty of you know what Dave Ramsey and any financial planner will try to tell you .

Rhett 11:10

With finances , it's like , hey , things are going to happen and it's good to have that thousand dollars in your savings account and do whatever you got to do to get to that point , because you know an AC is going to go out , your tire is going to blow in a car or whatever , and it's good to have that , and so you're not stressing out when you're in those moments , and so doing that with your time as well really helps in life .

Rhett 11:30

And so I thought that was really interesting and speaking of margin , a couple of weeks ago when we did a little bonus content and I'm just keeping everybody up because I feel accountable to my friends and family and people who are out there . So on a bonus episode a couple of weeks ago , I'd mentioned that I'm trying to lose 25 pounds by 25 . Yeah Right , and so I began to shift to some of my self-talk that I've had all my life , especially once you hit your 40s , the self-talk is well , my metabolism slowing down and I'm getting older , so I'm just going to gain weight , and that's just a part of it .

Rhett 12:00

You know , and speaking of our last episode about self-talk , I really began to apply some self-talk in my life , and so it started with me taking the step of telling everybody on this podcast and those who would listen to go hey , hold me accountable , I'm trying to do something . I'm trying to lose 25 pounds by the year 2025 . And so all I've started to do is to just mentally change my mindset when it comes to eating .

Mindset and Mental Mapping Transformation

Rhett 12:27

And as of today , which is , you know , the episode , release of episode 17 , I'm down 10 pounds , baby . Let's go . Come on , I'm so excited . Way to go . Yeah , man , and it's only been .

Rhett 12:39

It's been a couple of months , and I want you to know some people like what are you doing ? Are you running ? Are you walking ? Are you running ? Are you walking ? Are you exercising ? Yes , I'm walking , but I'm not walking a ton , but I'm walking . I'm just trying to walk a little bit , but I've cut out soda and I'm drinking nothing but water and I love it , and I'm at the place now that I never thought I would be to go . You know , I really , even if I were to taste a sip of uh , of soda or Coke or whatever , like it doesn't draw me like it did .

Rhett 13:06

Because now I'm like I would rather have water , because I've changed my mindset on it . I was like I can do this and I need to do this and I'm not going to be slave in my mind , to feeling like I've got to have soda , and so I'm taking those thoughts captive and there is no scripture verse in God's word that says you shall drink water the rest of your life . But I'm like , but I am trying to steward my body . I mean , I'm 46 and I'm going . Okay , I'm a little overweight and I've got to get this under control , and the only way it's going to happen is if I can control what's in between this year and this year . Yeah , the mind and the mind .

Rhett 13:40

And so I started drinking and I've just stopped eating , for the most part , fast food I really have , and so I'm eating real food , meaning chicken , that's been cooked in my kitchen , that's been grilled , or even at a restaurant , something that's like a real type food , not processed food , and eating a little bit less . And so I'm munching on more food , like bananas and fruit bars and things that are a little bit more healthy snacks , peanuts and different things like that , and fruit and man , I'll tell you what all of a sudden . It's taken some time , but it's interesting how my body is beginning to line up to the thoughts of that , changing my mindset . And also can I be real , the stress levels on my life have come down tremendously than they were a year and a half , two years ago , and so I'm at a place to where I'm feeling , I mean , there's still stresses , don't get me wrong , but they're not at the weight of the level that I had , and so that plays into a factor .

Rhett 14:41

But I'm just so like I felt trapped . I'm going to be honest . Some of you may feel trapped . It might not be weight , it could be something else , but I really felt like trapped , like I . I didn't feel like I could could break free from this and all of a sudden , now I'm starting to see no way . It takes some time , but if you'll , if you'll change your mindset and just begin to take a step and apply some things . Man , like there is fruit to be had . And now I'm seeing my body , despite my age , despite my metabolism , begin to respond and you know , if I only lose 10 pounds in this year , well , praise God , what a win . And if I don't lose the 25 , no big deal . So I'm taking a small win and I'm rejoicing and I just want to be accountable to my friends and family out there , but also hopefully maybe inspire you and encourage you along the way to understand that you can do this too .

Justin 15:28

Yeah , and it hits every area . You know , as you're talking , what I go back and think is our , our , the mental mapping , our mindsets . They capture us . Yeah , you know there's a book by Carol Dweck . It's called mindset and it's talking about either having the growth mindset or the fixed mindset and those who have fixed mindsets it's like that's what you're going to get . This is just how I am . If you have the growth mindset , it's like our episode last week just do it like staying curious . And it takes me back to .

Justin 16:00

There are mental traps that I've had to break through over the years and they get established all across your life . But they also get established early on . That you got to sometimes jump back . We talked about two episodes ago in mixed tape episode . Everyone makes mixed tapes and that really is true . We all have these soundtracks we've created in our life and one of mine is I can still picture as a little boy I'm sitting around the table and my mom and my stepdad at the time kind of had the country scene lots of horses , lots of cattle , and I don't know what his upbringing was . But when we would get our meal they would say if you put it on your plate , you eat it .

Rhett 16:44

I remember those moments because I had the opportunity to be there as a kid .

Justin 16:48

We would literally , eyes are bigger than your stomach . Right , you're kids , we're filling up our plate and about halfway through it's like I can't eat this . But we would have to sit there for hours until we finished the last piece off of that plate . That just became normal to me . But what happened inside is I had this new wiring that was set in that moment because all my life if I have something put before me , I have to do all I can to step away from the table if there's anything on that plate .

Justin 17:23

So if you think about , like it's kind of the joke , you know I try to take care of myself , so you know I'm able to still run . I do all this stuff . So you wouldn't know looking at me . But the inner person , I mean he's got some pounds to lose because I love candy . I love and I will finish every bit of a dessert , any kind of meal I'm eating , and I can't just eat like you're saying . You can eat some of this food here and there and enjoy it . My struggle is because that mental mindset , that wiring , was there . If I eat a candy bar , that thing's going to have to be finished . If I get the giant one that you're supposed to eat or share that share size . No one's going to get a piece of my candy bar .

Rhett 18:07

So like , if I have a king size Reese's that has four , you're going to eat all four . I'm eating all four , no , no .

Justin 18:14

And maybe I'll share it but the point is that package better be emptied out .

Justin 18:18

I have to finish , and it's interesting because that goes back to my childhood and I never knew why I did that . So mental stress , if you're ever in that kind of you're feeling that anxiety , that's what can lead to eating , and that same mindset can get into other areas of your life and , as I'm talking about , food is just an example of something that I can actually spell out for you or draw a picture for you right now . There's so many areas of our life that are our wiring . Our mental wiring gets set and it affects everything that we're doing and you've taken through we talked , uh , last week the automatic thoughts that you have . What you've been able to do is you've , there has been this , um , you've paved this new path in your wiring where your automatic thought towards sweets is yeah , that's good you don't have to have it .

Justin 19:14

Yeah , fried chicken it's good , but you don't the craving that . You've given yourself time to let the craving go away , or that habit , and now it's gone through your body and now you're able to react . It's no different than the disciplines in our life , because it might be food for you , but it might be some other addictions for somebody else . They've have a mental mapping where it's like , if I desire this , I better complete the process

Creating New Neural Pathways for Habits

Justin 19:43

of bringing complete satisfaction . But it's just a mental mapping that has to be corrected and rewired .

Rhett 19:50

So there's an incredible book called Atomic Habits and I believe the author's name is Dr James Clear . I have not read it in a couple of years , but we did a whole series around this book that inspired me . I actually saw Craig Rochelle do a teaching on it and it inspired me and I taught this series to our church . Now it's been a while . I wasn't planning on going here today with this content . This is how our conversations go , but if I remember correctly and please , I'm not a neuroscience at all but you mentioned something about these neural pathways .

Rhett 20:20

The study shows that habits create neural pathways in our brain . If I remember correctly , that's kind of like if you take a backyard , like if you have a dog in a backyard , you'll understand this picture . But my dog I have a golden doodle , by the way . She's amazing . Her name's Molly . She loves the backyard , but what's interesting about the backyard is that she walks a path every day around the edge of the house and around the entire edge of the fence . So if you're going into my backyard now , because of how many times she is , out of a habit , walked around the edge of the house , around the outlying area of the fence , she's made a pathway . And the pathway is that the grass has been pushed down so much because she's walked that so many times , that when my grass grows , like the grass around , it grows higher , but that path grows really small because she's walking on it constantly . So the same thing can happen in our minds , according to Dr James Clear and neuroscientists .

Rhett 21:14

Is that these habits you know , for me it might be food Is that all of a sudden , like if I see fried chicken , that habit is , oh , I got to have that and I've been so used to walking that path , it was so easy for me to go to KFC or whatever your favorite chicken place and grab that . But in order to break that cycle , you've got to change like . You're triggered like , oh , I'm hungry , I want that chicken , but all of a sudden it's easy to go buy that . But you've got to break that cycle because it's just a habit and so I remember you just got to interrupt it . And so for me it's being aware of the self-talk and having a vision to go hey , I'm trying to lose this weight , I'm creating accountability , right . But I'm also trying to be aware from that accountability that I've got to make some choices . So when I'm triggered to walk that path around the yard . In my mind I'm like nope , I got to shake it up . You know what ? Instead of that , I'm going to grab a banana . I'm going to do something different . And so , the more that you break that habit of walking that path in the backyard , in your mind , if you will , all of a sudden what will happen is those neural pathways will begin to grow in that path and that connection to I got to go buy the chicken , I got to go get the chicken . All of a sudden now it becomes less of a draw because those neural pathways begin to grow back to where you're not making that connection . Now you're creating a new neural pathway to go you know what ?

Rhett 22:30

Soda or water , water , because I love it . And the more that I drink it , the more that neural pathway is created in my mind which goes back to God's word . That says God's word teaches us how do we renew our minds ? You mentioned that verse last week about renewing our mind , right , being transformed by the renewing of our mind . How are we transformed by the renewing of our mind ? Well , god's Word teaches us that you take captive every thought and you make it obedient to God's Word . In other words , we have to learn how to take our thoughts captive , interrupt those bad habit cycles in a way , to create new neural pathways toward life and toward the vision that God is calling us towards . And that's what I'm doing . That's what I'm trying to do , and not just in this area of my life , but other areas as well .

Justin 23:16

Because it's all spiritual .

Justin 23:18

It is a spiritual habit , even though it's physical and it's food . You're taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit . That is what God calls our bodies , and so this is a real spiritual discipline for you , and so that means that there is a routine of prayer , worship word . But there's a fourth one too , that those of us who are on this journey of being believers and followers of Christ , there's one called fasting too , and so I remember one of my great friends . He's a pastor on the staff that I'm also a pastor on . His name is Lane , and he's actually been brought up in some of our podcasts . He was the race car driver that Doug talked about . He was actually , too , the guy who came to the concert in the early days of the church when we were just a couple of months old , and he came and supported me , and that relationship is so solid today .

Justin 24:12

I remember he was mentoring some of these guys who had sexual addiction , and when he talked about this , he was talking about some results where some of them had this same neural pathway that you're talking about , rhett , a visual . It was this stimuli , and they would have to carry out the desire and whatever that meant . It was different . Some could be infidelity , some could just be lust . It could be some action of carrying out . It's the neural pathway it is . It was you see it and you respond . He was talking about them because they're still in their journey in Christ . They love the Lord . They make mistakes , we make mistakes . I eat the candy bars just as much as someone stares overlooking at somebody . We all have the part of our journey we're trying to grow in , and so one of the things Lane said , he encouraged this person have you ever fasted Spiritually ? Have you ever fasted for the Lord ? They were like no , I never tried that . Well , they did .

Justin 25:09

I can't remember the exact regimen . It was not to be legalistic , so let's keep the numbers out of it , but they started that process . Enough to let habit , let new , as you say . I love that , by the way , james , clear that you brought that up the neural pathways . They began to create new pathways .

Justin 25:25

The neural pathways . They began to create new pathways and they realized my gosh , all I'm thinking about is food right now and the Lord , but they also . They want to feed their flesh what used to be a sexual feeding . They just need some food right now . And they helped create a new pathway of desiring what was normally meant for our body , which was food , and that helped them overcome a sexual addiction , and it got them at least to the point that they now had some of this willpower to say no to that . And so , with proper mentoring and new habits in their life , they were able to break free from these sexual addictions , and so that was such an interesting story that he shared with me , and I've used that over the years too , where I've put people on that same regimen , talking about you have to starve these desires . I've met with many men and , whatever the subject is , you have to find a way to starve those neural pathways and forge new pathways along the way .

Break Bad Habits, Create New Ones

Rhett 26:28

I think this is a great conversation because it really comes to the point of trying to find freedom in our minds . Because when we can find freedom in our mind to break these bad habits because we're not bad people , we've just got bad habits . And so you know , there's a myth out there . Now I'm going to say it's a myth , but there's a thought out there that when you come into a relationship with God , all of a sudden , of course your spirit , man , is saved , but there's this thought process that your body and your soul just line up immediately and you're completely just restored and you're never going to have another bad thought . All your bad habits are broken immediately . Now there are some miracle cases where some of that does happen for some people .

Rhett 27:11

I've heard those stories . They're hard for me to relate to , because that's not been my journey or that's not necessarily been the majority of every person's life in their story . Because here's the truth God is triune . There's God the Father , god the Son and God the Holy Spirit . We are created in God's image . We are triune , in a sense that we have a soul or we have a spirit . The spirit is the part that we can't put our finger on , but that's the part that when we give our heart to Jesus , our spirit man or woman is saved , it's redeemed . Our name is written in the Lamb's book of life . We are experiencing the miracle of salvation at the deepest part of who we are . That's our spirit . Now our spirit lives in a body , right , that's our flesh , that's our feelings . Then in our body we have a soul . That's our mind , our will , our emotions , right . And so when we give our heart to Christ , our spirit man is saved . But because we've lived 30 , 40 , however many years of life that you're in our body has experienced so many bad habits , so many neural pathways that have been created to where you have a trigger , and then you respond to that trigger and there's a reward to that trigger that you have trained your body and your emotions to align to Well . Now that your spirit man is saved , the spirit of the Lord comes and lives inside of you . You begin to read his word , you begin to see a mirror . God speaks to you and begins to show you who you are now in his eyes and who he's called you to be . And so , in other words , your spirit man all of a sudden is growing and your body fights that , your soul fights that because it doesn't come into alignment . So one of them is going to win out your spirit man's going to win out , your body's going to win out , or your emotions are going to win out . So which one are you feeding the most of ?

Rhett 28:57

And the beauty of fasting to me breaks the cycle of the habit and puts you in a place to where your spirit man gets fed , in a way , to where your body you're saying no body , shut up . You're going to lie to who God says I am and I'm going to deny food . I'm going to deny these things . What are you doing ? You're basically breaking the triggers that lead to responses that led to a reward .

Rhett 29:18

Now , that could be food , that could be sexual addiction , that could be prescription drugs , like whatever it might be . You fill in the blank . And so the beauty of fasting is like throwing a bottle of dynamite or just a box of dynamite into it to disrupt the whole thing . And so what I would say is , as life is a process with relationships , so is spiritual freedom . It is a process . You put yourself in alignment with God's word , you put yourself in a local church , you find life giving relationships . Those are the ingredients right , but then you have to learn how to break those habits , because that's what they are . You know , when I'm working with people , you know sexual addiction , that's a huge one . I'm saying guys , listen , you're not a bad person , you just got a bad habit .

Justin 29:58

Yeah .

Rhett 29:59

And we've got to break that habit . And so it's the neural pathway talk to go . You've just got this bent toward this because it's been where you've gone to all your life . You love God , you love your family . Right , you know it's not , but you're being bent toward it because you've allowed yourself this habit or this cycle . When you're triggered , you just automatically respond without thinking . And you've got to transform that thinking and you've got to come in and shake it up . And I think that's the beauty and the power of God's Word in fasting right , that it really just breaks that habit and allows you to create some new habits and disrupt you , if you will , the ease of being having a response to the trigger that you had , as we talked last week , your mindset .

Justin 30:40

It begins with your mindset and you , just you might automatically have that negative bent of I've gone so far , I can't do it , I'm hopeless , I can't , I can't , I can't . And you know , dr Henry Cloud actually calls that confirmation bias , where it's like , when he's like it's not going to work and somebody does something that doesn't work , and what do they say ? I told you , yeah .

Justin 31:02

I told you it wasn't going to work . But when you can kind of reframe that mental mapping to go into that positive side of I can do this . That's where it starts and then you're able to form these habits , the self-talk , all these things that we've talked about . It's like you know I'll get up sometimes and randomly when you're talking about how Molly , your dog , will go walk this path . That's a path that it's like you might be on a negative path . Put yourself on a positive one , like for me , even in real life .

Justin 31:34

I'll be working in my office and I will just stand up , I'll go to my car and I drive to the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham , alabama . I have got a path that I walk . I mean literally a real path . But what happens ? It refreshes me and it rejuvenates my thoughts just by going on this walk , because there's so many positive memories that I've had with the Lord . I proposed to my wife out there a long time ago and it's just , it's this place , it's my getaway spot . You have Jesus , he has a spot city getaway to talk to the father . There's so many ways that if we create these true paths , they can be good paths too , and that's the habit that you're talking about , that Dr James Clear talks about . You're creating new neural pathways , because here's what we can know , no matter where you're at , if it feels hopeless . You've been given the power to do this . As Rhett had just summed it up , when you begin this walk , the spirit of God is living inside of all of us .

Rhett 32:35

So you know , Justin , it's interesting . As we're talking about this , I'm reminded of a couple of things . Number one how do you break a bad habit ? Right , you got to make it hard for you , you got to . You have to , like , you know , if you're having problems with the internet , you got to create accountability there . You've got to put software on it . You've got to put passcodes that only your wife or your spouse or a loved one or a friend knows . So you've got to make that bad habit really hard to do . So you've got to create accountability around it . But you have to create new habits . It's important to create new habits . So how do you create a new habit ? Well , you've got to make it as easy as possible . One of the best . This is the most practical sense of creating a new habit . Every time I would go to the dentist , the dentist would always be like hey , have you ?

Justin 33:20

been flossing and I'm like , yeah , no , have you met ?

Rhett 33:21

me . Well , there's a reason that you were having to fill your cavities . And if you were to look in my mouth I'm 46 , you know back in the day they'd put their silver fillings in your mouth .

Rhett 33:30

Now they're like tooth color , right . So if I were to open my mouth , you would look deep within . You would see a lot of silver . And that's because never in my life did I floss , because I mean , that's the last thing I'm thinking about in the morning , right . But all of a sudden , two years ago literally , I read this book , atomic Habits , and I , you know , early in the year I think it was January and they're like hey , have you been flossing ? I'm like no , but I'm reading this book on habits .

Rhett 33:55

I probably should , and I ought to apply this in the part of the habit of creating . You got to make it easy , right . And so for me , I never had floss sitting out by my toothbrush ever . It was always like in a hard to reach place . I couldn't see it or whatever . So I come home and I'm like okay , if I'm preaching this , I ought to be applying it to my life as well . So it was like , okay , I'm sick of going to the dentist and having cavities or on the verge of having a cavity and a filling . So I'm going to do something I've never done before . I'm going to break a habit or I'm going to create a new habit .

Rhett 34:25

So I took the floss and I set it right by my toothbrush . I was like it's right there every morning , I don't put it away , it's just right there in the morning , right there by my toothbrush , and so I see it . So it's easy . And so two years ago I started . I was like did it maybe once in the morning or whatever , and then wouldn't do it for a couple of days . I would do it again . But now can I tell you , I do it every day , sometimes twice a day . And now when I go to the dentist , my cleanings are like man , you're doing really good , like your cleanings are great , they don't take as long , they don't hurt as bad , they're like you're doing really well with your flossing .

Rhett 34:57

And I'm like yeah , yeah , yeah , but it was a process , but I had to make it easy . So whenever you're thinking about doing something new's , you want to read God's word . Well , instead of having it tucked in a bookcase somewhere that you can't easily get to it , set it by your nightstand , set it by your chair . Have it open already to a verse . That way , when you get into bed at night , it's right there and you can read it . Whatever that habit that you want to create , you need to make it easy . You need to make it accessible , and you just need to make it , because that's going to put you in a position of success a lot more than cause . You're not going to go out of your way for it . It's got to be right there in front of you .

Justin 35:36

Yeah , and these are such great truths because what you're doing is , what knowledge are you allowing to be planted within your mind ? Cause that's what you're going to think . I remember , by the way , the , the flossing deal . I think I told you I was going to go down this journey . I'm going to do this . No , I remember you successfully doing it .

Justin 35:57

I was at the dentist this week and I was telling her about you and she's like , well , are you doing it too ? I was like , uh , I'm like a once a week or I'm trying to get better . It inspires me to get better with my flossing . But seriously , it is the the knowledge there's . You're gonna have kind of knowledge . That's a basic principle that you're giving . But that's knowledge . If you can plant that inside , that becomes a habit . There's knowledge that we've been given and we will roll with the narrative that the knowledge we have put in our mind . And God made sure that we had His knowledge . We have access to His godly knowledge and we leave you with this verse from 2 Peter , 1 ,

Armchair Authentic's Meaningful Conversations

Justin 36:32

verse 3 . His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him , who called us by his own glory and goodness .

Justin 36:46

Thank you for listening to Armchair Authentic with Rhett and Justin . We had such a great time having some meaningful conversation with you . Hey , we're here to serve you on your journey , and the way that we can best do that is by putting together episodes that help you with your next step . So reach out to us . Let us know what's going on in your life , some thoughts , anything you want to share . Reach out at info at armchairauthenticcom . Well , we look forward to our upcoming episodes , but until then , we hope you have the best week . See you next time .