Your Anxiety Is Your Superpower

Your anxiety may feel like a curse. It can also be your gift. Too many times we let it hold us back and are prisoner to it. We opportunities for change for the better pass us by and settle for mediocrity simply because it is familiar. Our anxiety can be used to steer us towards action. Action that will ultimately protect us from a future of "what if's". I also share some big news with you! Let's dive in!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

What's up everybody and thank you for listening to Mastering the Mindset. My name is Darius Dodge and I'm an actor, hip-hop artist and fitness and life coach. I'm here to personally help you train and improve your mindset so that you can, one, become the best version of yourself mentally and, two, gain focus and motivation to be able to take action and achieve the success in life that you want and deserve. Before we get started, please like and subscribe to my channel. And at the success in life that you want and deserve. Before we get started, please like and subscribe to my channel. And at the end of this episode, if you liked it, please share it with a friend or a loved one or someone who would benefit from hearing this message. I'm so glad you're here and I'm ready to go on this journey with you, and that journey begins now. All right and welcome back to another episode. I'm so glad y'all are here. Go ahead and like and subscribe on YouTube and leave me a review on your podcast platform, please, and thank you. So today we're going to be talking about a very important topic. We're going to be talking about anxiety and how you can use it to achieve greatness. That's right how you can use your anxiety for good. But before we get into it, let me just say thank y'all for being here. I truly appreciate each and every one of y'all and I love knowing that I'm making a positive impact on the world and, at the same time, I'm growing myself because, like I always say, I'm on this journey with y'all, I'm doing the things and taking the actions, I'm having the setbacks, I'm experiencing the growth, all of that. But who, man? When I tell you I needed a week away from this podcast, I'm sure you notice I didn't do one last week. I needed that mental time, I needed to take a few things off my plate. I'm in rehearsals right now at the Guthrie and again, for those of you that might not know, it's a big deal to be at this theater, one of the most well-known theaters in the country. It's 100% the peak of my career so far and I have a dream role, a dream role. So, knowing all that, I couldn't risk burnout. I needed to be focused and mentally at full capacity or close as close to it as I possibly can. Burnout right now will be bad. I cannot afford that. But I'm back now and I'm back with some more amazing news and I'll tell you at the end of the episode. I'm also going to be dropping some more or sharing with y'all some more new music, which I'll get to that too. But OK, here we go.

Speaker 1: 2:22

So anxiety most of the time, a lot of the time, anxiety is an emotional response to a perceived threat of some kind. Being anxious is having a feeling about an imagined future, or the possibility of this future, or, at the very least, a future that isn't in the present, right now, something that can or might happen, that hasn't happened yet. It's a threat that is imagined and it doesn't actually exist. And if we look at life, life is unknown. We can plan, we can hope, we can pray, we can wish, but life is unknown. So many uncertainties, so many things that can happen. We don't know what life is going to do and unfortunately we as humans, we don't like. This Uncertainty to the brain, to the human brain, is seen as a threat. We want to plan, we want to figure out everything right, especially how to avoid and navigate around threats. We want stability, we want that security, we want to know that the future we don't want is not going to be our reality.

Speaker 1: 3:27

For example, we can get stressed and have anxiety over our future being exactly like our present. We can look at our circumstances the negative ones. Let's say you hate your job. Let's say you don't like where your finances are right now. Let's say you're in a career that you don't really love, or you're single and you wish you found your person. We can get anxious and think about the fact that we don't want this present to be our future, and yet we don't know what to do about it. And this is where we can use this anxiety for good. We can transform our lives because that anxiousness that we can feel from not wanting our lives to be the same that it is right now, down the road where that is, it's us resisting a life where we settle right, where we give in and just let it happen, where we don't really find that passion, the things that bring passion in our lives. Your body is telling you that this ain't it, this is not the path for you. We should be doing something else.

Speaker 1: 4:25

So many times, so many people end up trying to live somebody else's life because that's how it's quote unquote supposed to be. My parents did it this way. Society says I should be doing it this way at this age. We try and fit a mold that's not even ours. So what do we do? Well, we need to find that fulfilling life, that life that has us full, one that we love, because the alternative an empty and regretful life.

Speaker 1: 4:52

If we keep down the path of trying to fit into something that ain't for us, that's not right for us, and we stay on the same path that we truly don't want for ourselves in the future, all it's going to do is lead to more anxiousness. But if we decided to use this anxiousness and let it lead us to make a change, to lead us to taking actions yes, action. I hope you didn't think that you was going to have to not do work, but if we do this, it'll lead us to making a change and find a more fulfilling life and to find the things that we're actually passionate about. Doing nothing will only lead to more anxiety. So, back to life. Back to life, back to reality. But back to life. The good news and bad news about life is there is so much you can do, so many different things you can do with your life, so many different paths you can go down, which is good and bad, because what can happen is you can get paralysis by analysis and end up doing nothing. And we have to at least get that ball rolling. And you know what I'm about to say is right when we make progress, it makes us happy we when we move the needle towards the end goal, it feels good, it makes us want to keep going and taking that step forward will help quiet that anxiety. And of course, I'll give you a personal example because, again, I'm on this journey with you.

Speaker 1: 6:17

So I made this announcement on here a few, a few weeks ago, and I've talked about Juneteenth on here a lot, so I will try to give you the truncated version. So for the past three years now, I've been invited to come and perform my music as part of the City of St Cloud's Juneteenth Celebration, and this year they asked me to be the headliner, which is terrifying, but there was no way I was going to turn that down. So I said yes, and now I have a much longer set on stage, much more time. But the thing is I don't want to go out there and perform the same music and do the exact same thing I did last year. So I wanted to get some more music recorded and if you've been listening to the last few podcasts I've been letting all of y'all hear my new music and this is why I'm getting it done.

Speaker 1: 7:02

My plan is to release an EP and I know I talked about it potentially being like seven songs. I think I'm only going to do four. The reason for that is I have more music to be able to drop more consistently if I release it as just singles or like this EP, so I can make it stretch over time. But, like I said, I've been in rehearsals. I'm in rehearsals now and we started April 2nd, and before that I was in a show at another theater and that show ended just two days before we started rehearsal at the Guthrie, which is truly a blessing to be booked and blessed. That is amazing. But that means I don't really have time to work on music and do all the other things I got going on now without risking another burnout, like I said earlier. So I've been recording at home and sending my music off to producers so they can do the hard part, which is mixing and mastering.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So now I have the songs and I'm still waiting on one more, and I had a plan on which one I wanted to drop first and to drop it and promote it with the EP coming up next. Well, that couldn't happen because the guy that I got to do the music video, well, he had to push the date back by three weeks and I had an idea to do it myself. But well, that didn't work either because for vain reasons. For vain reasons, I will admit, but because our schedule is right in the middle of the day, from the time my barbershop opens to the time he closes, my head is looking crazy, right, vain, I know. And then there's a producer that has a song I want to release right now and he is dragging his feet like I could not get him to reply back to me for over two weeks. But here I am, still getting music recorded. I'm not panicking, I'm going with the flow, still making progress. Next thing, I knew I looked up and now I have seven songs to choose from to release. I'm in the planning stages of executing two music videos, one of which is going to feature my cast from the Guthrie. And here's the big announcement I told you about Because my music came up in rehearsal.

Speaker 1: 9:11

My director asked me to play some and I did, and, when I tell you, the whole room was jamming. Man, she loved my music, every song I played, so much so that she's going to put my music in the show. My music is going to be in the play at the effing Guthrie. My music is going to be featured in this play. My acting career peak at a theater that's known all around the country. My music, three songs, three songs. My music is in this play. Can you tell I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Now imagine if I let my anxiety of not knowing what music to record, or having anxiety over time deadlines that I wanted to meet, or not knowing what song I was going to release next, letting that producer, who took over two weeks to get back to me, if I let that anxiety make me just sit still, or, better yet, allow it to make me not keep moving, to just make some progress, there's a good chance I will not be in this place right here, right now. So don't let society or outside circumstances make you go down a path that you know ain't right for you. Find your own truth and make sure that you follow through for yourself, for yourself and without needing anyone's outside approval. You know what feels right. Just like I knew I couldn't let this moment in my career pass me by and sit and do nothing, even though I didn't have all the answers. I'm just taking steps and I'm doing it scared. I'm doing it not really knowing what the outcome is going to be. But, like I said, we know that we don't want our present to be our future. I didn't want to sit and have the same music. I didn't want to sit and not make more music. You know what feels right and you know what doesn't feel right.

Speaker 1: 11:04

Nobody can tell you what's right for your life. When is the last time you truly checked in with yourself about your life and the things you got going on and how they may or may not be what's truly good for you, or how you know you got things you have to do that you need to do how you know you don't want your present to be your future, even if you don't really know how to keep that from becoming a reality. But you know you need to do something. Use that anxiety to drive you to do something and if you do it long enough, if you take those actions while using that anxiety, you will see progress. You just will. And no, it ain't going to be done right now. And again, don't try and fit into somebody else's box. That's an anxiety that we have to try and avoid altogether. Easier said than done, yes, I know, but you know, you know yourself better than anybody else.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Your body is telling you this that this is not right for you. Do something else. And at some point, that little voice inside you that's nudging you to change it, it can turn into a scream like for the love of God, change something, make a change. We can't do this, no more. But what holds us back is the anxiety around the unknown, and then we start to focus on the negatives in life.

Speaker 1: 12:22

No matter how much you work on things, there will always be challenges and things you need to overcome, things that are going to be flat out scary. Scary because you've never done it and you feel like you don't know what the hell you're doing. And I'm sorry to tell you, but that's never going to go away. That ain't ever going away. Will you conquer whatever? That fear is that you work at and you experience the growth from taking that action? Yep, but there is always going to be that next thing, and then you'll be right back there again.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Understand that your anxiety is trying to keep you safe and to keep you safe, it wants you to stay still and it wants you to stay stagnant, always want you to make a change and you feel it, but you just don't know what to do next and your anxiety ultimately keeps you from taking action. Use it. Use it, know it's going to be there. Challenge yourself and say OK, you know what. I know what this is. I know what this is what I'm feeling right now. I know why it's here. What happens if I just do it, scared, if I just take a step, then another step, and you feel that anxiety and you take another step and you keep on stepping. The anxiety is going to be there. Use it. Easier said than done, I know, but imagine how it feels to be on the other side of that thing you have anxiety about. It's going to feel amazing. It's going to feel amazing. So that's what I got for you today.

Speaker 1: 13:46

I do have some new music for y'all, and I really like this one too. But before we get to what I want to say, thank you again. If you are listening on YouTube, please like and subscribe. If you are on a podcast platform, please leave me a review. Also, please make a donation. Donations are greatly appreciated and it helps me keep this thing going. So, without further ado, here is some new music for y'all. Like I said, you will always get it first. Whatever announcement, whatever new music, anything I got going on, because you are a part of my community and I appreciate y'all so much, you will be the first to get it and hear about it first. So here it is, let's ride out.

Speaker 1: 14:26

I am from. I am from looking in the mirror and wanting to see more and talking to myself sometimes. I am from waiting on me to be great and step up to the plate like an umpire. I am from working on patience and practicing my frustrations. I know I ain't perfect. I am from progress. I am from Louisiana, 70812, baton Rouge. I am from polishing my shoes from the summer to get ready for the first day of school. I am from jumping like catfish collard, greens, fried chicken, shrimp, etouffee, crawfish and gumbo. Don't act like you don't know. Yeah, I am from wearing my heart on my sleeve like a loco. I am from yo. I am from getting it jumping like Popo. Yeah, I can't be moving in slow-mo. I promise I'm through with the Popo. Yeah, I let that better me Public defender was trash. Convince me to. I was too scared of a felony. I am from doing it just like I better be. I am from knowing that this is my season. Everything happens for a reason.

Speaker 1: 15:14

I am from keeping keeping a hundred and never pretend to be something I couldn't believe in. I am from yeah, I am from. I am from thinking. I am from thinking too much. I am from drinking too much. I am from knowing that I am not sleeping enough. Got me wondering how am I keeping this up lately? I ain't from reaching all the way down to the pit of my spirit that when you hear it you know that it's real.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Ain't no disguise. I'm stripping off my sheep's clothing like I ain't from straight game. I ain't from grinding like my father. I ain't from grieving over my mother. Want to be just like my big brothers, because family matters to a fresh prince and the good times make a different world.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I am from black culture. I am from living in color. I am from hip-hop and R&B, football and baseball and Sega, nintendo and Bus Bunny, scooby-doo, freeze, tag, hide and go, seek, seeking my goals and reaching my peaks. He's seeking missile on anybody Instrumental if they really bringing the heat Fats on my feet. I am from running from that big ass dog that lived down the street when I was 13,. Sheesh, sheesh, uh. But now I'm from running this shit with my dogs and we off the chain and we off the beach.

Speaker 1: 16:12

I am from waking up early on Sundays I had no choice in church every week, kinda ironic, cause I am from making them praise dance when I preach on reason, preach, preach, yeah. I am from knowing they follow me up in the grocery store, liquor store, home improvement store, the mall and Dollar Tree. Yeah, they probably think I'm a thief. Yeah, it's obvious they don't know me. Only thing I'm taking is three. Take three. I am from dreams. I roll up my sleeves and I did not think that I am a king. I am from me, that's all I can be. I am from, yeah, I am from dreams. I roll up my sleeves and I did my thing. Now I am a king. I am for me, that's all I can be. I hear from dreams. I roll up my sleeves and I did my thing. Now I am a king. I am for me, that's all I can be. No-transcript.