April 29, 2025 • 40 mins
What's truly holding you back from achieving your dreams? In this powerful exploration of personal constraints, Dr. Chieftess Sunflower reveals the uncomfortable truth that 80% of our limiting factors come from within, not from external circumstances.
Drawing from Brian Tracy's "Eat That Frog," we dive deep into identifying the specific constraints that slow our progress and how developing accountability transforms our ability to overcome them. Rather than using trauma, poverty, or circumstance as excuses, successful people turn inward to find both the cause and cure for what's holding them back.
The path from "Hood to Hooded" requires putting significant pressure on yourself. As we discover, only 2% of people can work effectively without supervision—meaning self-motivation becomes your superpower. Through practical techniques for boosting self-esteem, creating personal deadlines, and pushing beyond the point where most people quit, you'll learn how to become your own most effective cheerleader.
Most revealing are the four specific behaviors that optimistic people consistently demonstrate: finding good in every situation, extracting valuable lessons from setbacks, focusing on solutions rather than problems, and continually talking about their goals. These habits create momentum that propels you forward even when facing significant challenges.
The journey concludes with a profound exploration of identity and how discovering your heritage can provide the foundation needed to break generational curses and create a new legacy. By combining self-knowledge with optimism and accountability, you develop the mindset needed to transform not just yourself, but potentially your entire family line.
Ready to identify and eliminate what's truly holding you back? This episode provides the roadmap and mindset shifts needed to break through your constraints and reach new heights of personal achievement.
Thanks for listening and growing with me on this journey towards the ultimate level of success. #Hood2hooded #drshon #drshonconsistencyproject #consistencyproject
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Shon (00:00):
Today is day 12 of the Consistency Project and we are
in the building.
This is Dr Chieftess Sunflowerand the Hood to Hooded podcast
live.
Tonight we are going to bediscussing constraints and other
things that can inhibit ourprogress and our growth.
(00:21):
From hood to hooded.
What's all about escapingpoverty and being better than we
were yesterday and also justmaking our ancestors super,
super proud.
We've been going through thisbook eat that frog, which I
believe will help us with ourconsistency 21 great ways to
stop procrastinating and getmore done in less time by Brian
(00:45):
Tracy.
Chapters 12, 13, and 14,.
They're all about the innerwork it takes to level up your
life.
We're going to start withchapter 12, which is identify
your constraints.
Success isn't about hustle alone.
It's about your strategy thatyou use for the hustle.
One of the most importantstrategies is to find your
(01:06):
limiting factor, the one thingthat slows everyone down.
We all have a limiting factor.
It can be for your.
If you have a business, thelimiting factor could be your
sales.
It could be your marketingcashflow, your operations, you
name it, but 80% of the timeit's not what's outside, it's
(01:27):
internal.
So ask yourself what is holdingyou back?
What is your limiting factor inlife.
It could be a relationship, itcould be just the lack of
self-control.
It could be so many things.
For instance, in a dentalpractice, the cash flow could be
the limiting factor from growth.
(01:48):
It could be so much that isstopping you from living your
best life and accomplishing yourgoals.
And it says 20% of the limitingfactors are external.
So a lot of people like to blameother people for why they can't
progress, why they aren'tsuccessful.
But 80% of the time it's allabout us.
(02:09):
You want to look into yourselfand see what is holding me back,
and not only that.
Accountability has a lot to dowith it.
When you want to go from hoodto hood, you want to accept
responsibility and look intoyourself for the cause and the
cure for what is holding youback in your life when you come
from the hood poverty beingunderserved, the trauma, can
(02:33):
serve as such an excuse forholding you back.
But successful people andpeople who go from hood to
hooded, they're all about tryingto figure out how can I
overcome this trauma, how can Iescape this and what is the cure
for it.
They don't sit around justblaming other people or just
ignoring the internal thingsthat are causing them from
(02:57):
progressing.
Strive for accuracy and identifyyour internal constraints and
then find a strategy to solvethem.
It all starts with identifyingyour most limiting, your most
intimidating thing that isholding you back, because if you
fail to identify the mainlimiting factor, it can lead you
(03:19):
in the wrong direction and youend up solving the wrong problem
.
What we want to do is alleviatethat problem and limiting
factor as soon as possible toincrease our energy and our
personal power, and I'm allabout anything that is going to
help me increase my personalpower and give me more
self-esteem and energy.
Start your day off by sayingwhat is holding me back the most
(03:42):
today and try to get rid of it.
Even in business, likemarketing, it's important with a
dental practice, if I know,that's one thing that is holding
the dental practice back everyday.
I need to wake up with amindset to market, to put my
business in front of people, sothat we can attract more people
into the practice.
Whatever your limiting factoris, focus on it and resolve it,
(04:06):
and know that 80 of the time isfrom inside of your company,
it's from inside of your home,or it's like your own qualities,
your own habits, your owncompetencies, how disciplined
you are.
We're gonna move on to chapter13, but that chapter is so
important for going from hood tohooded.
(04:28):
It's identifying the thingsthat are holding you back.
Me, coming from poverty, I knewthat being in my environment was
going to hold me back.
That's why I made a decision togo to college to try to
continue to escape poverty, totry to continue to escape all of
the stereotypes and thenarratives that were placed on
(04:48):
my life.
I was predicted.
They manifested that I would bea teenage mother.
They manifested that I would besomewhere, not accomplishing my
goals, but my mindset.
As a young adult, I was sofocused on eliminating the
things that were holding me back, even if it was a relationship,
even if it was a family ship, afriendship.
(05:09):
If you're holding me back, wecannot be on the same ship, like
we can't be on the same ship ifyou are limiting factor in my
life.
We got to eliminate thesethings so that we can grow, and
nine times out of ten is comingfrom inside of us.
It's your mindset, how you thinkabout things.
What do you do with your timewhen you wake up?
(05:31):
Are you waking up with positiveenergy?
Are you waking up withnegativity.
Are you waking up with apassion to follow your dreams
and live your best life?
How are you getting up in themorning?
Are you waking up in themorning saying, okay, I have
this problem, but instead ofsitting here blaming the world
and mad and angry and in agrudge, why don't I try to solve
(05:55):
it and find a cure for it sothat I can live my best life?
Being dr cheat, this statusbaby?
Chapter 12 says put pressure onyourself.
Now, I particularly likechapter 12 because I'm all about
applying pressure.
Put your foot on the gas whenit comes to you, when it comes
to who you are, your mindset,overcoming poverty, going from
(06:19):
hood to hood.
You gotta put pressure onyourself.
You can't wait for other peopleto hype you up.
There's a song I like by flip.
I think it's flip a t, flip a p.
I got her name wrong, but it'sa hype me up.
Hype me up.
If you ain't gonna hype me up,guess what?
I hype me up.
The world is full of peoplewaiting for somebody to rescue
(06:42):
them.
They just waiting for somebodyto come and save the
motherfucking day, and ain'tnobody coming.
No one is coming to save us.
Nobody is coming to save us, myneedy.
We got to save ourselves.
Believe in ourselves, upliftourselves.
Okay, and it gives this example,and I really particularly love
(07:04):
this example that it gives.
It says it's like waiting onthe street for a bus when there
is not even a bus route on thestreet.
You just sit and waiting at theon the seat, waiting for a bus
that ain't even coming.
That's gonna keep you from thein the hood, not hood it.
We gotta put pressure onourselves and take charge of our
(07:25):
life or you will be waitingforever.
And most people guess what theydo.
They are waiting forever,forever, ever.
And it says only two percent ofpeople can work entirely
without super supervisions.
Only two percent of people.
Which one are you?
(07:46):
Are you the type that's waitingon forever, blaming other
people, waiting on a bus that'snot coming, or are you that
person who is a leader, that'sreading, that's growing and not
just succumbing to all theexcuses that you could and you
might have?
You might have some valid shit.
You might have some validthings in your life that could
(08:09):
have held you back.
I got some valid reasons why Icould have not made it from hood
to hooded.
I got a lot of valid reasons,but those reasons do not control
my mindset.
They just don't control mymindset.
They just don't.
It's impossible for them tocontrol my mindset.
We must eat those frogs that areholding us back, those limiting
(08:31):
factors in our life.
You must get rid of them,delete them, or, if it's a task
or something that you must do,you need to knock it off of the
checklist.
It says.
In order to lead in your field,you must see yourself as a role
model.
Raise the bar on yourself.
Set the standards for your ownwork and your own behavior.
(08:52):
You should be.
You should set the standardsfor yourself higher than anybody
else can.
Start a little earlier, stay alittle late, go the extra mile
for yourself on whatever youwant to do.
Set the standards for yourself.
So if somebody else put thestandards on you for right here
(09:13):
and say your standards too lowfor me, my standards for myself
is up here.
When I think about myself and myself-esteem, you want to think
about the type of reputation youwant to have for yourself, how
you want to think about your ownself.
You can either build yourselfup or tear yourself down with
everything you do or everythingyou fail at.
(09:34):
Don't take those failures asfailures.
Take those failures as lessons.
That's how you build yourselfup and increase your self-esteem
.
Increase your self-esteemwherever you go beyond the point
where the average person wouldnormally quit.
Oh, this same for everybody.
This same for everybody.
Did you hear what I said?
(09:56):
It said you want to increaseyour self-esteem wherever you go
to the point beyond where theaverage person would normally
quit.
This reminds me of dentalschool.
Everybody ain't gonna make itin because most people would
normally quit, most people wouldnormally not try.
Most people would normallyallow their excuses, their past,
(10:18):
the trauma, every excuse thatyou could think of, to hold them
back.
Going from hood to hooded, goingto an elevated state of mind,
ain't easy.
It requires a lot ofself-esteem, a lot of believing
in yourself, a lot of settingthe standards for yourself.
Here is I don't play about me.
(10:39):
You cannot play about yourself.
It says create imaginarydeadlines, work as if one day
you have one day to getimportant jobs done.
Now in this chapter, I kind ofagree with that.
Like you, do want to setdeadlines, but I'm in my needy
phase where I am really tryingto stay in a balance.
Not work too hard, but workhard.
(11:00):
You get what I'm saying.
But it says imagine if youreceived an all expense paid
vacation at a beautiful resortand as a prize as a prize, but
you have to leave tomorrow.
What would be that one thingthat you would have to do to
keep your dreams alive if youhad to just do it today?
You want to do that.
Knock that out.
It says successful people putpressure on themselves to
(11:24):
perform at high levels, and thisis definitely required.
Going from hood to hooded.
If you want to breakgenerational curses, you are
going to have to put somepressure on yourself to perform
at a high level.
It's unavoidable, regardless ofwhat route you take, whether
this is the school route, youwant to go and be a doctor, an
engineer, a lawyer, a dentistroute.
You want to go and be a doctor,an engineer, a lawyer, a
(11:46):
dentist, or you want to be anentrepreneur.
If you want to be a businessowner, if you want to go and do
anything in life a leader, aphilanthropist, anything that
you want to do in life you gotto put that pressure on yourself
.
You can't wait for nobody elseto apply pressure.
You don't need to wait fornobody else to try to force you
to do it.
You gotta want to do ityourself, and at a high level.
(12:09):
Unsuccessful people wait.
They must be instructed andpressured by other people to do
it.
So that's how I know thedreamers, the gold diggers, the
g-o-a-l diggers, those type ofpeople.
They're not waiting forinstructions and being pressured
.
They don't wait for peerpressure to try to tell them to
live their best life or tofollow their dreams, or to be a
(12:32):
leader or to have self-esteem.
They seek these things everysingle day.
Take the lead like remember,self-esteem is the reputation
you have with yourself.
Moving on to chapter 14.
Chapter 14, it's one of myfavorite chapters in this book.
(12:52):
It says motivate yourself intoaction.
To perform best, you mustbecome your own personal
cheerleader.
You got to coach yourself,encourage yourself.
These, these are type of words.
This is the type of vibe thatI'm feeling about myself.
Coach yourself, encourageyourself.
When you come from hood to hood, it and all the stereotypes
(13:13):
against you and you have thiscolonized educational system
against you and they don't teachyou financial literacy and
there's no roadmap to get whatyou want to try to be.
If I'm in the hood and I'm adoctor, but I'm a badass little
teenage girl, let me just behonest.
I'm a hood little teenage girl.
My daddy is out of the house,my mama is six feet in the grave
(13:35):
, my grandparents arguing aboutus.
I'm going through custodybattles.
I'm moving from school toschool.
Technically I had no chance.
Technically I was supposed tostay in the hood.
But my mindset my mom y'allcan't see my mom on that wall.
I was five, six years old.
(13:58):
You're gonna be a doctor, andjust that one little seed stayed
with me forever.
So every time I was met withthose stereotypes, my mindset
was watch me, prove you wrong.
You think I'm gonna watch me,prove you wrong.
My mindset the whole time wasyou know what?
Watch me, prove you wrong.
I gotta prove my mama right.
She see something in me.
(14:18):
I know I'm smart enough to doit.
Even though I got all theseroadblocks, all these
stereotypes, all of theseobstacles, I know that I can be
something great.
This chapter 14 motivateyourself into action.
Being your own cheerleader,encouraging yourself, is so
required.
It's such a requirement whenyou go from hood to hood, when
(14:38):
you want to break generationalcurses.
It says most of your emotions,whether they are positive or
negative, determine how you talk, are determined by how you talk
to yourself from minute tominute.
If you are always feeling sadand down and thinking about the
past and thinking about thethings that you lack on your
(14:59):
journey from hood to hood it,then it's going to impact how
you feel.
I felt like I'm unstoppable.
I felt unapologetic about mydreams.
Even if I didn't, even if Ididn't pass some classes, I
still say I got to try again.
And you got to have thatmindset to say I will try again.
I must try again.
(15:21):
I got to try again.
What's up, classy cat?
What's up?
It's not what happens to you,but the way you interpret the
things that happen to you thatdetermine how you feel, the way
I interpreted all the traumathat was happening to me and I
just use myself as an example,but we all go through trauma in
(15:44):
life.
We all face difficult things inlife that determine how we feel
and determine if we're going tomove forward in a positive light
or are we going to staystagnant?
Are we going to blame ourselves?
Are we going to move?
Are we going to find thoselimiting factors that are
holding us back?
Are you going to stay therelike a tree that can't move?
Your version of events.
(16:07):
Determine if you are motivatedor demotivated.
Your version of eventsdetermines if you are energized
or de-energized.
Are you going to hype yourselfup today?
Are you going to hype yourselfup?
Let me know.
I'm going to hype myself up,yes or no?
I'm going to encourage myself.
Be my own coach, be my owncheerleader, because that's the
(16:29):
vibes it's giving and that'swhat you need to go from hooded.
To keep yourself motivated, youmust resolve to become a
complete optimist.
Do we know how powerfuloptimism is?
Optimism is like a having avision for positivity to be in
your life right now and in thefuture.
(16:49):
It's just like thinkingpositivity, thinking positively,
positively, no matter what itsays.
You must decide to respondpositive to words, actions,
reactions of situations and thepeople around you.
The people around you have alot to do with the way you
respond to things.
But guess what?
You must make that decision onhow you respond to things and if
(17:13):
people are causing you to reactthat way, you don't really have
total control.
It says we must refuse to letunavoidable difficulties,
setbacks, daily life affect ourmood and emotions.
Life right now, with all thenews going on, the tariffs going
on, elon musk out of control,maga out of control, trump out
of control, everything out ofcontrol, the grocery prices too,
(17:36):
how you gotta find some type ofcool calm.
It's like I'm not beingbothered, my spirit ain't out of
control.
I refuse to let all thesesetbacks, all this propaganda,
trick me out my spot.
Control your inner dialogue,the conversations you having
with yourself internally.
That's why most people havemental health problems
(17:58):
depression, anxiety, ptsd,bipolar because they have lost
control of their mental health.
They lost control of theirinner dialogue with their self,
and some of this is unavoidable,based on the trauma they faced
in the past.
And if you continue to trainyourself to think about it
(18:19):
pessimistically versus being anoptimist, then every day is
going to be a negative day.
It's going to be a negative assday.
Talk positive to yourself toboost your self-esteem.
Say I like myself over and overagain until you believe it.
Look in the mirror and say Ilike myself, I like myself, baby
.
Say I like myself over and overagain until you believe it.
Look in the mirror and say Ilike myself, I like myself, baby
(18:40):
, I like myself.
And I will go a step furtherand say I love myself, because
y'all know what kind of love isthe best love.
Is that self-love, that goodold self-love is the best love.
Don't play with it.
Don't even play with yourself.
Don't wait for other people tolove you properly.
You gotta love yourself beforeanybody can love you.
Love yourself, it says.
(19:01):
To overcome doubt, fear, tellyourself I can do it.
That's a simple phrase, itseems, but how many parents tell
their children, hey, alwaysknow that you can do it, I can
do it.
You got to tell yourself thisevery day.
I can do it, even when you havethat fear that says you can't,
(19:23):
I can do it.
No brain, I can do it, evenwhen you have that fear that
says it's going to be too hard.
Guess what You're going to sayI can do it.
I can do it.
Hey, I can do it.
Guess, can do it.
I can do it.
Hey, hey, I can do it.
Guess what, when I wanted to bea doctor and I knew that it was
a one percent chance or less ofgetting in and I had to do all
the requirements, guess what Iwas telling myself?
(19:44):
Through the failures, throughthe setbacks, through the being
underserved, through not havingthe type of village that it
takes to make it this far,normally, guess what I told
myself I can do it.
I can do it.
When people ask you how you feelat the moment, always tell them
I feel terrific.
This is being an optimist.
(20:04):
It's just always speakingpositive, thinking about
yourself positive, always givingyourself a natural boost of
self-esteem, saying things likeI can do it, I love myself, I
like myself, I feel terrific.
Something wonderful is gonnahappen to me.
Today.
You're doing nothing butmanifesting greatness over your
life.
(20:24):
Think about how great you feelif you wake up every day and
hype yourself up, no matter howyou feel, remain cheerful and
upbeat.
This is why I like this podcastand the growth we have it on
day 12, and that we are likecruising through this book,
because it's teaching us so manyand reminding us about how to
(20:46):
treat ourselves when it comes toadvancing towards our goals.
It helps us combat depressionand anxiety and all those fears
that we may have from the lackof knowledge and being our
weakest link during this processof being a dental practice
owner.
Those feelings of depression,feeling like a failure, just
(21:09):
feeling like it's gonna at anymoment I'm gonna fail, like at
one point last year before Irealized who I was and I
realized I was a Niiji.
I see, you're my niji, believeit or not.
I was depressed.
I felt so down and out all thetime.
I just felt dang.
I had made it to a spot.
I'm a doctor.
Now I got this practice that Ipleaded and waited for and I'm
(21:31):
just so anxious to have.
And now I got it and I justfelt depressed.
I just felt dang, everythingnot working how I thought it was
gonna work, like what's goingon.
I had been got out of my spirit, my niji.
I stopped hyping myself up.
I just started to feel like, ifit's gonna feel like, I tried my
(21:52):
best but I had to turn aroundand say you know what?
Let me control how I thinkabout myself.
Let me learn who I am.
Let me learn about my ancestors.
Let me go back and do a littleresearch.
Let me learn who I am and neverforget that.
Let me learn how positive andhow amazing I am.
I told y'all we got diamonds inour body.
We got diamonds in our minds.
(22:13):
Don't let nothing hold you back.
Nothing, baby.
I like myself, I love myself, Ican do it and I feel terrific.
Remember those easy things youcan say to yourself to make
yourself glow.
Refuse to complain about yourproblems, keep it to yourself.
And a lot of times we alwayscan go and complain about how
(22:35):
things are going or feel sad.
But what happens when you dothe other side of things Not
holding in because nobody shouldhold in like severe depression
and anxiety?
You definitely want to get thatout.
But you want to also get it out.
You don't want to just sit andharbor on it and ruminate on it
all the time, because this iswhat causes the mental health
issues you got to.
(22:56):
We must learn how to healourselves and control the inner
thoughts, because 80 of theproblems remember, 80 of those
limiting factors, 80 of thoseconstraints are internal versus
external.
And, like I said, don't waitfor nobody else to hype you up.
Hype yourself up because guesswhat, when you complain, guess
(23:17):
what a hundred percent happens.
80% of the people don't care.
Yeah, 80% of the people don'tcare that you're about to fail
and that you struggling and thatyou might be home.
They don't even give up.
They don't care.
And the other 20% of the people, the other 20% of the people
are glad that you're goingthrough the problems in the
(23:37):
first place.
That only leaves 0% of thepeople who truly are going to
make a difference in your mind,and that's you Develop a
positive mental attitude.
Optimism is the most importantquality we can develop for
personal, professional successand happiness.
(23:58):
Optimism, being optimistic,optimistic people are more
effective in every area of life.
Tonight, then you're gonnaachieve a lot more than someone
who is always complaining,always doubting, always just
(24:19):
speaking negative to themselves,always speaking negative to
other people, just have thatevil mindset like I try to stay
away from them type of folksbecause I ain't got nothing to
do with the negativity, becauseI know my spirit is very tender,
my spirit is very soft andgentle and I don't need to
absorb no negativity.
(24:40):
That's why if someone isnegative nine times out of ten,
I'm gonna be dismissing myselffrom your ass, because I need to
stay around people who areoptimistic, people who are
trying to go somewhere, peoplewho are going to bring sunlight
to my life.
Help the sunflower grow.
Dr Cheetah's sunflower needs togrow, not die.
(25:00):
Negative energy can cause that.
You want to watch what you hear, see, speak, think and who
around you.
Optimistic people have fourspecial behaviors.
Can y'all guess what those fourspecial behaviors are?
Optimistic people display fourspecial behaviors.
Can y'all guess what those fourspecial behaviors are?
Optimistic people display fourspecial behaviors they practice
(25:21):
and they do repetition.
It's like dentistry.
I'm always telling y'all it'slike the practice of dentistry.
That's why it's a dentalpractice, because we never going
to know 100% everything.
It's always learning andgrowing every day.
It's continuous, continuouslifelong learning.
It's required in my profession,but I feel like in your
everyday life that should justbe a requirement of your life to
(25:44):
be an everyday learner, to be acontinuous lifelong learner
about something I don't feellike.
There's no age where you shouldjust sit down and just be a
stump, be a tree, just give upor do one thing for the rest of
your life and just fold over.
Number one they look for thegood in every situation.
No matter what goes wrong, theyseem to find the good and the
(26:07):
benefit.
Number two they seek valuablelessons in every setback or
difficulty.
They seek valuable lessons inevery setback or difficulty.
They believe difficulty comesnot to obstruct them but to
instruct them.
This is how I saw my past, fromhood to hood.
I saw every obstacle, everysetback as an opportunity to
(26:28):
instruct me on how not to makethe same damn mistakes over and
over again, if you feel me.
Number three they look forsolutions to every problem
Instead of blaming orcomplaining when things go wrong
, they become action orientedand especially as a business
person or entrepreneur, or evenjust in your everyday life, an
(26:50):
optimistic person is going tofind action.
How can I solve this problem?
Let's not focus on the problem,let's focus on the solution.
What can we do to prevent thisfrom happening the next time?
What is the next step in this?
These are the questions they'reasking themselves, like how can
we solve this?
If you optimistic person, you'realways going to be thinking of
(27:13):
ways to solve the problem versusblaming other people.
If you into blaming people, itwas your fault and you did it
and that's why it's messed upthen you are a pessimistic ass
person.
Let's just be honest withyourself.
If you want to be moreoptimistic, go from hood to hood
.
Don't blame other people.
Number four think and talkcontinually about their goals.
(27:35):
Think about it, talk about it.
They think about their futureversus their past.
They're always looking forwardto make progress versus excuses.
To break generational curses.
You need to be optimistic,identify the things that are
constraining you and thinkpositive versus making excuses.
(28:00):
The thing about coming from hoodto hooded guys is I know that
it's, I know it's a struggle.
I know that the money be aproblem.
I know that the family be aproblem, the support that you
have because you may be thefirst generational college
student, so people don'tunderstand the whole college
thing.
It's a lot of.
(28:20):
A bad relationship could be theproblem, like if you.
Your health could be a problem.
It's just so many things.
Your mindset could be a problem.
A lot of things can cause youto get into a pessimistic
mindset, get up on your dreams,get up on your goals and just
settle and live a background anda life of just settling
(28:44):
settling for people, settlingfor everything that have nothing
to do with your spirit and theyjust bother your spirit.
Something just bother yourspirit.
You just accept it.
Hey, this really, this isreally not aligning with me.
You got to stop it.
It's preventing you from beingyour best self.
It's preventing you from livingyour best self.
It's preventing you from livingyour best life.
Optimism is a skill and we wantto learn that today.
(29:06):
This next segment, my Niiji, isabout the power of knowing who
you are.
Talk about identity and why Inow go by Dr Chieftess Sunflower
and I am a proud Niiiji.
I don't identify with theholidays.
I'm more spiritual thanreligious and it's not because
(29:27):
I'm bitter, it's because I knowthe truth about who I am really.
I've been doing a lot ofresearch on American history and
I discovered, through genealogyand doing my ancestry, that my
ancestors were not slaves.
They were indigenous to TurtleIsland and I found my tree, my
family tree, and my roots aredeep in this land before it was
(29:48):
colonized.
I'm not a statistic and I'm nota product of that.
I carry my ancestors wisdom andmy mind and my bones and it's
just so hard to be one of thefirst people in your bloodline
to realize who you are,especially when people are still
stuck with colonized educationand propaganda, and just to know
(30:10):
facts about being Niiji andindigenous.
That's why I'm here to sparkthe fire, because when one
awakens the whole village canrise my Niiji, the whole village
.
Last year, like I said, I wasbattling a lot of mental health,
like feeling sad and kind ofnot in my ultimate spirit, and
(30:33):
it wasn't until I startedreading and digging and just
getting awoke about being anAmerican Indian and first it was
unbelievable, because I'm areader and if somebody's telling
me something nine times out often, I'm not really going to
believe it until I go and readfor myself.
So it first started with meresearching Thanksgiving, and
(30:55):
then I started researchingChristmas and the things that I
found were so mind-boggling.
But what set the tone was whenI read Christopher Columbus's
journal.
Now that really threw me for aloop and I realized, wow, the
colonizers were pretty evil, ifI must say so myself.
This sparked me to go and dosome digging to see if in fact
(31:18):
my ancestors were from TurtleIsland, aka Tamerika, aka the
west indies okay, because it'sbeen so many name changes or if
they were part of this pseudohistory thing where we came on
some boats that they can't find.
I discovered that my ancestorsfrom my father's lineage and my
mother's lineage are in factindigenous indian Turtle Island.
(31:41):
This was just so shocking.
I've just been on this journeyof awakening and being this
Niiji doctor, chieftesssunflower, and I know this is
shocking, but I'm, like I said,hood to hoodie, I'm always going
and exploring and reading and Iwould never settle for the
things that somebody teaches meor has told me.
(32:02):
I'm always going to go find itfor myself.
I was shocked, after beingbullied for being melanated and
all of this, that this coppertone skin is connected to this
land and it's connected to thesun baby and I was so shocked to
find out that my ancestors werehere.
I didn't realize any of myancestors names until I
(32:24):
discovered who I really am.
I'm proud to say that now,through my family tree, I know
my great, great, great greatgrandparents, some of my great,
great great aunts and uncles,and it's amazing what happens
when you come out of the matrixand you realize who you truly
are being the first one or thesecond one, or just in that
first couple of Niiji indigenousAmerican Indian to wake up.
(32:49):
I am just proud of that thepower of knowing who you truly
are and I encourage everyone togo and do your genealogy because
it can be life-changing.
Just like me, I wasChristopher Columbus reading
journal.
I was shocked reading about howthe colonizers came and they
(33:10):
did so many of those massunalivings across the country
and just reading these thingsthat I'm finding is truly
shocking because I was a youngchild just being bullied and
thinking that I had this pseudohistory and that wasn't even
true.
I was taught to hate my melaninas a child, not by my mother,
(33:33):
but by the colonized education,because they taught that we
weren't worth anything upondiscovering that that I'm Niiji
baby.
I hold my head up high crown onfeathers up baby.
I say yo, my Niiji.
That's why I'm Dr Cheetah'ssunflower now, because I know
who I am and I want to make thatclear on this podcast.
I want to make that ultimatelyclear, very clear.
(33:57):
This segment is called OralHygiene Moment Easter.
A lot of people are celebratingthat holiday tomorrow and I
just want to just remind youguys that you know you don't
want to let your kids go tosleep with candy in their mouth,
because that sugar sitting intheir mouth all night turns into
acid, which means cavity andpain.
(34:18):
This weekend, and especially onweekends where you are more
prone to eating a lot of candy,even adults, a lot of sweets are
in the market.
You want to cut back on thecandy and increase the brushing.
Teach your babies how to flossearlier.
Um, and it's generationalwealth for their smiles.
Brushing, flossing tonight,guys, tomorrow and pretty much
(34:40):
every day is going to beimportant Generational wealth
for the smile.
Brushing and flossing savesyour children bills down the
road because they learn thesehabits early.
Let's go to a little financialliteracy gym.
Speaking of wealth, studies showthat taking just one personal
finance class, just one in highschool can be worth $100,000
(35:06):
over your lifetime.
Let that sink in.
That's why this podcast, Hoodto Hooded, is important.
We touch on topics that peopleare a little too scared to touch
on.
We talk about financialliteracy.
We talk about financialliteracy.
We discuss just leveling upyour mindset to go from Hood to
(35:29):
Hooded or to go from the sunkenplace to an elevated place.
We'll say and taking personalfinance, whether you do it
through YouTube, university, inhigh school, in college, I took
a personal finance class incollege.
That wasn't an option in highschool.
If it was, I'm sure I wouldhave taken it, but they just
don't teach that because theywant people to go into the
workforce and be workers andthey don't really want you to
(35:49):
know how to manage money thegovernment, at least.
But if you could learn thisskill and commit to it and just
get some information to help youmanage money because money is a
tool, it's not even like real.
It's not even worth much how itused to be, because of
inflation and a lot of differentthings the interest rates and
all these different things thatpeople really don't understand
(36:11):
taking a personal finance classcan be worth a hundred thousand
dollars added to your bankaccount over the lifetime of you
know, your bank account.
Let that sink in.
27 states now require personalfinance in high school because,
guess what?
Knowledge is power.
(36:32):
Knowledge is power, my Niji,and if you grew up without it,
it's important to learn it now.
Build it while you are growingin every aspect of life.
Teach your kids what you neverlearned, teach yourself what you
thought you couldn't learn, andjust stay in on business when
it comes to you, financially,mentally, physically and
(36:56):
spiritually.
With the hood to the podcast, Iwant to build a community of
colleagues, contacts, friendsand mentors from different areas
of life.
We can grow in reality.
We can talk about business, wecan talk about all aspects of
going from hood to hood.
I came from poverty to being adoctor to now a dental practice
(37:17):
owner and just growing every day.
When we grow in every aspect ofour mindsets, when we stay
motivated, we challenge ideas,we form knowledge, we debate
pseudo history.
We don't just go for what is acolonized education.
I go for what I think is trueand I go and read journals,
(37:42):
history books and I and a lot oftimes guys, I'm just I'm like
shocked as hell.
I can't believe that.
It's like fighting tears whenyou are reading this stuff.
It's like fighting tears.
My only rule with theconsistency project is that I
have to show up every single day.
It it might be delusional tosome people, but to me you see
(38:04):
what it says about successfulpeople.
We're going to be the hardeston ourselves.
We're going to raise the bar onourselves.
We're going to try to go hardon ourselves.
I'm all about going hard onmyself and being hard on myself,
being my own cheerleader andshowing up for myself.
This is day 12.
You still gotta show up in thebeginning, going from Hood to
(38:26):
Hooded.
You might start with zero, youmight start with nothing.
That's what they say.
They started from the bottom.
You gotta take the stairssometimes.
Sometimes there's no elevator.
It's okay if you gotta take thestairs.
It's okay, guys.
It is okay.
It is okay to stand on businessabout yourself.
It is okay to rewire yourthoughts so that you can think
(38:50):
positive and be more optimisticand eliminate the things that
are holding you back.
It is okay, guys.
All right, make sure y'allstream my new single STFU.
It's my birthday.
Shout out to you if it's yourbirthday and I will see you guys
tomorrow for day 12.
Peace and power.
(39:12):
My Niiji, this is Dr Shon, akaDr Chieftess Sunflower, and we
are logging off.
Make sure you follow.
Bye, guys.
Today is day 12 of the Consistency Project and we are
in the building.
This is Dr Chieftess Sunflowerand the Hood to Hooded podcast
live.
Tonight we are going to bediscussing constraints and other
things that can inhibit ourprogress and our growth.
(00:21):
From hood to hooded.
What's all about escapingpoverty and being better than we
were yesterday and also justmaking our ancestors super,
super proud.
We've been going through thisbook eat that frog, which I
believe will help us with ourconsistency 21 great ways to
stop procrastinating and getmore done in less time by Brian
(00:45):
Tracy.
Chapters 12, 13, and 14,.
They're all about the innerwork it takes to level up your
life.
We're going to start withchapter 12, which is identify
your constraints.
Success isn't about hustle alone.
It's about your strategy thatyou use for the hustle.
One of the most importantstrategies is to find your
(01:06):
limiting factor, the one thingthat slows everyone down.
We all have a limiting factor.
It can be for your.
If you have a business, thelimiting factor could be your
sales.
It could be your marketingcashflow, your operations, you
name it, but 80% of the timeit's not what's outside, it's
(01:27):
internal.
So ask yourself what is holdingyou back?
What is your limiting factor inlife.
It could be a relationship, itcould be just the lack of
self-control.
It could be so many things.
For instance, in a dentalpractice, the cash flow could be
the limiting factor from growth.
(01:48):
It could be so much that isstopping you from living your
best life and accomplishing yourgoals.
And it says 20% of the limitingfactors are external.
So a lot of people like to blameother people for why they can't
progress, why they aren'tsuccessful.
But 80% of the time it's allabout us.
(02:09):
You want to look into yourselfand see what is holding me back,
and not only that.
Accountability has a lot to dowith it.
When you want to go from hoodto hood, you want to accept
responsibility and look intoyourself for the cause and the
cure for what is holding youback in your life when you come
from the hood poverty beingunderserved, the trauma, can
(02:33):
serve as such an excuse forholding you back.
But successful people andpeople who go from hood to
hooded, they're all about tryingto figure out how can I
overcome this trauma, how can Iescape this and what is the cure
for it.
They don't sit around justblaming other people or just
ignoring the internal thingsthat are causing them from
(02:57):
progressing.
Strive for accuracy and identifyyour internal constraints and
then find a strategy to solvethem.
It all starts with identifyingyour most limiting, your most
intimidating thing that isholding you back, because if you
fail to identify the mainlimiting factor, it can lead you
(03:19):
in the wrong direction and youend up solving the wrong problem
.
What we want to do is alleviatethat problem and limiting
factor as soon as possible toincrease our energy and our
personal power, and I'm allabout anything that is going to
help me increase my personalpower and give me more
self-esteem and energy.
Start your day off by sayingwhat is holding me back the most
(03:42):
today and try to get rid of it.
Even in business, likemarketing, it's important with a
dental practice, if I know,that's one thing that is holding
the dental practice back everyday.
I need to wake up with amindset to market, to put my
business in front of people, sothat we can attract more people
into the practice.
Whatever your limiting factoris, focus on it and resolve it,
(04:06):
and know that 80 of the time isfrom inside of your company,
it's from inside of your home,or it's like your own qualities,
your own habits, your owncompetencies, how disciplined
you are.
We're gonna move on to chapter13, but that chapter is so
important for going from hood tohooded.
(04:28):
It's identifying the thingsthat are holding you back.
Me, coming from poverty, I knewthat being in my environment was
going to hold me back.
That's why I made a decision togo to college to try to
continue to escape poverty, totry to continue to escape all of
the stereotypes and thenarratives that were placed on
(04:48):
my life.
I was predicted.
They manifested that I would bea teenage mother.
They manifested that I would besomewhere, not accomplishing my
goals, but my mindset.
As a young adult, I was sofocused on eliminating the
things that were holding me back, even if it was a relationship,
even if it was a family ship, afriendship.
(05:09):
If you're holding me back, wecannot be on the same ship, like
we can't be on the same ship ifyou are limiting factor in my
life.
We got to eliminate thesethings so that we can grow, and
nine times out of ten is comingfrom inside of us.
It's your mindset, how you thinkabout things.
What do you do with your timewhen you wake up?
(05:31):
Are you waking up with positiveenergy?
Are you waking up withnegativity.
Are you waking up with apassion to follow your dreams
and live your best life?
How are you getting up in themorning?
Are you waking up in themorning saying, okay, I have
this problem, but instead ofsitting here blaming the world
and mad and angry and in agrudge, why don't I try to solve
(05:55):
it and find a cure for it sothat I can live my best life?
Being dr cheat, this statusbaby?
Chapter 12 says put pressure onyourself.
Now, I particularly likechapter 12 because I'm all about
applying pressure.
Put your foot on the gas whenit comes to you, when it comes
to who you are, your mindset,overcoming poverty, going from
(06:19):
hood to hood.
You gotta put pressure onyourself.
You can't wait for other peopleto hype you up.
There's a song I like by flip.
I think it's flip a t, flip a p.
I got her name wrong, but it'sa hype me up.
Hype me up.
If you ain't gonna hype me up,guess what?
I hype me up.
The world is full of peoplewaiting for somebody to rescue
(06:42):
them.
They just waiting for somebodyto come and save the
motherfucking day, and ain'tnobody coming.
No one is coming to save us.
Nobody is coming to save us, myneedy.
We got to save ourselves.
Believe in ourselves, upliftourselves.
Okay, and it gives this example,and I really particularly love
(07:04):
this example that it gives.
It says it's like waiting onthe street for a bus when there
is not even a bus route on thestreet.
You just sit and waiting at theon the seat, waiting for a bus
that ain't even coming.
That's gonna keep you from thein the hood, not hood it.
We gotta put pressure onourselves and take charge of our
(07:25):
life or you will be waitingforever.
And most people guess what theydo.
They are waiting forever,forever, ever.
And it says only two percent ofpeople can work entirely
without super supervisions.
Only two percent of people.
Which one are you?
(07:46):
Are you the type that's waitingon forever, blaming other
people, waiting on a bus that'snot coming, or are you that
person who is a leader, that'sreading, that's growing and not
just succumbing to all theexcuses that you could and you
might have?
You might have some valid shit.
You might have some validthings in your life that could
(08:09):
have held you back.
I got some valid reasons why Icould have not made it from hood
to hooded.
I got a lot of valid reasons,but those reasons do not control
my mindset.
They just don't control mymindset.
They just don't.
It's impossible for them tocontrol my mindset.
We must eat those frogs that areholding us back, those limiting
(08:31):
factors in our life.
You must get rid of them,delete them, or, if it's a task
or something that you must do,you need to knock it off of the
checklist.
It says.
In order to lead in your field,you must see yourself as a role
model.
Raise the bar on yourself.
Set the standards for your ownwork and your own behavior.
(08:52):
You should be.
You should set the standardsfor yourself higher than anybody
else can.
Start a little earlier, stay alittle late, go the extra mile
for yourself on whatever youwant to do.
Set the standards for yourself.
So if somebody else put thestandards on you for right here
(09:13):
and say your standards too lowfor me, my standards for myself
is up here.
When I think about myself and myself-esteem, you want to think
about the type of reputation youwant to have for yourself, how
you want to think about your ownself.
You can either build yourselfup or tear yourself down with
everything you do or everythingyou fail at.
(09:34):
Don't take those failures asfailures.
Take those failures as lessons.
That's how you build yourselfup and increase your self-esteem
.
Increase your self-esteemwherever you go beyond the point
where the average person wouldnormally quit.
Oh, this same for everybody.
This same for everybody.
Did you hear what I said?
(09:56):
It said you want to increaseyour self-esteem wherever you go
to the point beyond where theaverage person would normally
quit.
This reminds me of dentalschool.
Everybody ain't gonna make itin because most people would
normally quit, most people wouldnormally not try.
Most people would normallyallow their excuses, their past,
(10:18):
the trauma, every excuse thatyou could think of, to hold them
back.
Going from hood to hooded, goingto an elevated state of mind,
ain't easy.
It requires a lot ofself-esteem, a lot of believing
in yourself, a lot of settingthe standards for yourself.
Here is I don't play about me.
(10:39):
You cannot play about yourself.
It says create imaginarydeadlines, work as if one day
you have one day to getimportant jobs done.
Now in this chapter, I kind ofagree with that.
Like you, do want to setdeadlines, but I'm in my needy
phase where I am really tryingto stay in a balance.
Not work too hard, but workhard.
(11:00):
You get what I'm saying.
But it says imagine if youreceived an all expense paid
vacation at a beautiful resortand as a prize as a prize, but
you have to leave tomorrow.
What would be that one thingthat you would have to do to
keep your dreams alive if youhad to just do it today?
You want to do that.
Knock that out.
It says successful people putpressure on themselves to
(11:24):
perform at high levels, and thisis definitely required.
Going from hood to hooded.
If you want to breakgenerational curses, you are
going to have to put somepressure on yourself to perform
at a high level.
It's unavoidable, regardless ofwhat route you take, whether
this is the school route, youwant to go and be a doctor, an
engineer, a lawyer, a dentistroute.
You want to go and be a doctor,an engineer, a lawyer, a
(11:46):
dentist, or you want to be anentrepreneur.
If you want to be a businessowner, if you want to go and do
anything in life a leader, aphilanthropist, anything that
you want to do in life you gotto put that pressure on yourself
.
You can't wait for nobody elseto apply pressure.
You don't need to wait fornobody else to try to force you
to do it.
You gotta want to do ityourself, and at a high level.
(12:09):
Unsuccessful people wait.
They must be instructed andpressured by other people to do
it.
So that's how I know thedreamers, the gold diggers, the
g-o-a-l diggers, those type ofpeople.
They're not waiting forinstructions and being pressured
.
They don't wait for peerpressure to try to tell them to
live their best life or tofollow their dreams, or to be a
(12:32):
leader or to have self-esteem.
They seek these things everysingle day.
Take the lead like remember,self-esteem is the reputation
you have with yourself.
Moving on to chapter 14.
Chapter 14, it's one of myfavorite chapters in this book.
(12:52):
It says motivate yourself intoaction.
To perform best, you mustbecome your own personal
cheerleader.
You got to coach yourself,encourage yourself.
These, these are type of words.
This is the type of vibe thatI'm feeling about myself.
Coach yourself, encourageyourself.
When you come from hood to hood, it and all the stereotypes
(13:13):
against you and you have thiscolonized educational system
against you and they don't teachyou financial literacy and
there's no roadmap to get whatyou want to try to be.
If I'm in the hood and I'm adoctor, but I'm a badass little
teenage girl, let me just behonest.
I'm a hood little teenage girl.
My daddy is out of the house,my mama is six feet in the grave
(13:35):
, my grandparents arguing aboutus.
I'm going through custodybattles.
I'm moving from school toschool.
Technically I had no chance.
Technically I was supposed tostay in the hood.
But my mindset my mom y'allcan't see my mom on that wall.
I was five, six years old.
(13:58):
You're gonna be a doctor, andjust that one little seed stayed
with me forever.
So every time I was met withthose stereotypes, my mindset
was watch me, prove you wrong.
You think I'm gonna watch me,prove you wrong.
My mindset the whole time wasyou know what?
Watch me, prove you wrong.
I gotta prove my mama right.
She see something in me.
(14:18):
I know I'm smart enough to doit.
Even though I got all theseroadblocks, all these
stereotypes, all of theseobstacles, I know that I can be
something great.
This chapter 14 motivateyourself into action.
Being your own cheerleader,encouraging yourself, is so
required.
It's such a requirement whenyou go from hood to hood, when
(14:38):
you want to break generationalcurses.
It says most of your emotions,whether they are positive or
negative, determine how you talk, are determined by how you talk
to yourself from minute tominute.
If you are always feeling sadand down and thinking about the
past and thinking about thethings that you lack on your
(14:59):
journey from hood to hood it,then it's going to impact how
you feel.
I felt like I'm unstoppable.
I felt unapologetic about mydreams.
Even if I didn't, even if Ididn't pass some classes, I
still say I got to try again.
And you got to have thatmindset to say I will try again.
I must try again.
(15:21):
I got to try again.
What's up, classy cat?
What's up?
It's not what happens to you,but the way you interpret the
things that happen to you thatdetermine how you feel, the way
I interpreted all the traumathat was happening to me and I
just use myself as an example,but we all go through trauma in
(15:44):
life.
We all face difficult things inlife that determine how we feel
and determine if we're going tomove forward in a positive light
or are we going to staystagnant?
Are we going to blame ourselves?
Are we going to move?
Are we going to find thoselimiting factors that are
holding us back?
Are you going to stay therelike a tree that can't move?
Your version of events.
(16:07):
Determine if you are motivatedor demotivated.
Your version of eventsdetermines if you are energized
or de-energized.
Are you going to hype yourselfup today?
Are you going to hype yourselfup?
Let me know.
I'm going to hype myself up,yes or no?
I'm going to encourage myself.
Be my own coach, be my owncheerleader, because that's the
(16:29):
vibes it's giving and that'swhat you need to go from hooded.
To keep yourself motivated, youmust resolve to become a
complete optimist.
Do we know how powerfuloptimism is?
Optimism is like a having avision for positivity to be in
your life right now and in thefuture.
(16:49):
It's just like thinkingpositivity, thinking positively,
positively, no matter what itsays.
You must decide to respondpositive to words, actions,
reactions of situations and thepeople around you.
The people around you have alot to do with the way you
respond to things.
But guess what?
You must make that decision onhow you respond to things and if
(17:13):
people are causing you to reactthat way, you don't really have
total control.
It says we must refuse to letunavoidable difficulties,
setbacks, daily life affect ourmood and emotions.
Life right now, with all thenews going on, the tariffs going
on, elon musk out of control,maga out of control, trump out
of control, everything out ofcontrol, the grocery prices too,
(17:36):
how you gotta find some type ofcool calm.
It's like I'm not beingbothered, my spirit ain't out of
control.
I refuse to let all thesesetbacks, all this propaganda,
trick me out my spot.
Control your inner dialogue,the conversations you having
with yourself internally.
That's why most people havemental health problems
(17:58):
depression, anxiety, ptsd,bipolar because they have lost
control of their mental health.
They lost control of theirinner dialogue with their self,
and some of this is unavoidable,based on the trauma they faced
in the past.
And if you continue to trainyourself to think about it
(18:19):
pessimistically versus being anoptimist, then every day is
going to be a negative day.
It's going to be a negative assday.
Talk positive to yourself toboost your self-esteem.
Say I like myself over and overagain until you believe it.
Look in the mirror and say Ilike myself, I like myself, baby
.
Say I like myself over and overagain until you believe it.
Look in the mirror and say Ilike myself, I like myself, baby
(18:40):
, I like myself.
And I will go a step furtherand say I love myself, because
y'all know what kind of love isthe best love.
Is that self-love, that goodold self-love is the best love.
Don't play with it.
Don't even play with yourself.
Don't wait for other people tolove you properly.
You gotta love yourself beforeanybody can love you.
Love yourself, it says.
(19:01):
To overcome doubt, fear, tellyourself I can do it.
That's a simple phrase, itseems, but how many parents tell
their children, hey, alwaysknow that you can do it, I can
do it.
You got to tell yourself thisevery day.
I can do it, even when you havethat fear that says you can't,
(19:23):
I can do it.
No brain, I can do it, evenwhen you have that fear that
says it's going to be too hard.
Guess what You're going to sayI can do it.
I can do it.
Hey, I can do it.
Guess, can do it.
I can do it.
Hey, hey, I can do it.
Guess what, when I wanted to bea doctor and I knew that it was
a one percent chance or less ofgetting in and I had to do all
the requirements, guess what Iwas telling myself?
(19:44):
Through the failures, throughthe setbacks, through the being
underserved, through not havingthe type of village that it
takes to make it this far,normally, guess what I told
myself I can do it.
I can do it.
When people ask you how you feelat the moment, always tell them
I feel terrific.
This is being an optimist.
(20:04):
It's just always speakingpositive, thinking about
yourself positive, always givingyourself a natural boost of
self-esteem, saying things likeI can do it, I love myself, I
like myself, I feel terrific.
Something wonderful is gonnahappen to me.
Today.
You're doing nothing butmanifesting greatness over your
life.
(20:24):
Think about how great you feelif you wake up every day and
hype yourself up, no matter howyou feel, remain cheerful and
upbeat.
This is why I like this podcastand the growth we have it on
day 12, and that we are likecruising through this book,
because it's teaching us so manyand reminding us about how to
(20:46):
treat ourselves when it comes toadvancing towards our goals.
It helps us combat depressionand anxiety and all those fears
that we may have from the lackof knowledge and being our
weakest link during this processof being a dental practice
owner.
Those feelings of depression,feeling like a failure, just
(21:09):
feeling like it's gonna at anymoment I'm gonna fail, like at
one point last year before Irealized who I was and I
realized I was a Niiji.
I see, you're my niji, believeit or not.
I was depressed.
I felt so down and out all thetime.
I just felt dang.
I had made it to a spot.
I'm a doctor.
Now I got this practice that Ipleaded and waited for and I'm
(21:31):
just so anxious to have.
And now I got it and I justfelt depressed.
I just felt dang, everythingnot working how I thought it was
gonna work, like what's goingon.
I had been got out of my spirit, my niji.
I stopped hyping myself up.
I just started to feel like, ifit's gonna feel like, I tried my
(21:52):
best but I had to turn aroundand say you know what?
Let me control how I thinkabout myself.
Let me learn who I am.
Let me learn about my ancestors.
Let me go back and do a littleresearch.
Let me learn who I am and neverforget that.
Let me learn how positive andhow amazing I am.
I told y'all we got diamonds inour body.
We got diamonds in our minds.
(22:13):
Don't let nothing hold you back.
Nothing, baby.
I like myself, I love myself, Ican do it and I feel terrific.
Remember those easy things youcan say to yourself to make
yourself glow.
Refuse to complain about yourproblems, keep it to yourself.
And a lot of times we alwayscan go and complain about how
(22:35):
things are going or feel sad.
But what happens when you dothe other side of things Not
holding in because nobody shouldhold in like severe depression
and anxiety?
You definitely want to get thatout.
But you want to also get it out.
You don't want to just sit andharbor on it and ruminate on it
all the time, because this iswhat causes the mental health
issues you got to.
(22:56):
We must learn how to healourselves and control the inner
thoughts, because 80 of theproblems remember, 80 of those
limiting factors, 80 of thoseconstraints are internal versus
external.
And, like I said, don't waitfor nobody else to hype you up.
Hype yourself up because guesswhat, when you complain, guess
(23:17):
what a hundred percent happens.
80% of the people don't care.
Yeah, 80% of the people don'tcare that you're about to fail
and that you struggling and thatyou might be home.
They don't even give up.
They don't care.
And the other 20% of the people, the other 20% of the people
are glad that you're goingthrough the problems in the
(23:37):
first place.
That only leaves 0% of thepeople who truly are going to
make a difference in your mind,and that's you Develop a
positive mental attitude.
Optimism is the most importantquality we can develop for
personal, professional successand happiness.
(23:58):
Optimism, being optimistic,optimistic people are more
effective in every area of life.
Tonight, then you're gonnaachieve a lot more than someone
who is always complaining,always doubting, always just
(24:19):
speaking negative to themselves,always speaking negative to
other people, just have thatevil mindset like I try to stay
away from them type of folksbecause I ain't got nothing to
do with the negativity, becauseI know my spirit is very tender,
my spirit is very soft andgentle and I don't need to
absorb no negativity.
(24:40):
That's why if someone isnegative nine times out of ten,
I'm gonna be dismissing myselffrom your ass, because I need to
stay around people who areoptimistic, people who are
trying to go somewhere, peoplewho are going to bring sunlight
to my life.
Help the sunflower grow.
Dr Cheetah's sunflower needs togrow, not die.
(25:00):
Negative energy can cause that.
You want to watch what you hear, see, speak, think and who
around you.
Optimistic people have fourspecial behaviors.
Can y'all guess what those fourspecial behaviors are?
Optimistic people display fourspecial behaviors.
Can y'all guess what those fourspecial behaviors are?
Optimistic people display fourspecial behaviors they practice
(25:21):
and they do repetition.
It's like dentistry.
I'm always telling y'all it'slike the practice of dentistry.
That's why it's a dentalpractice, because we never going
to know 100% everything.
It's always learning andgrowing every day.
It's continuous, continuouslifelong learning.
It's required in my profession,but I feel like in your
everyday life that should justbe a requirement of your life to
(25:44):
be an everyday learner, to be acontinuous lifelong learner
about something I don't feellike.
There's no age where you shouldjust sit down and just be a
stump, be a tree, just give upor do one thing for the rest of
your life and just fold over.
Number one they look for thegood in every situation.
No matter what goes wrong, theyseem to find the good and the
(26:07):
benefit.
Number two they seek valuablelessons in every setback or
difficulty.
They seek valuable lessons inevery setback or difficulty.
They believe difficulty comesnot to obstruct them but to
instruct them.
This is how I saw my past, fromhood to hood.
I saw every obstacle, everysetback as an opportunity to
(26:28):
instruct me on how not to makethe same damn mistakes over and
over again, if you feel me.
Number three they look forsolutions to every problem
Instead of blaming orcomplaining when things go wrong
, they become action orientedand especially as a business
person or entrepreneur, or evenjust in your everyday life, an
(26:50):
optimistic person is going tofind action.
How can I solve this problem?
Let's not focus on the problem,let's focus on the solution.
What can we do to prevent thisfrom happening the next time?
What is the next step in this?
These are the questions they'reasking themselves, like how can
we solve this?
If you optimistic person, you'realways going to be thinking of
(27:13):
ways to solve the problem versusblaming other people.
If you into blaming people, itwas your fault and you did it
and that's why it's messed upthen you are a pessimistic ass
person.
Let's just be honest withyourself.
If you want to be moreoptimistic, go from hood to hood
.
Don't blame other people.
Number four think and talkcontinually about their goals.
(27:35):
Think about it, talk about it.
They think about their futureversus their past.
They're always looking forwardto make progress versus excuses.
To break generational curses.
You need to be optimistic,identify the things that are
constraining you and thinkpositive versus making excuses.
(28:00):
The thing about coming from hoodto hooded guys is I know that
it's, I know it's a struggle.
I know that the money be aproblem.
I know that the family be aproblem, the support that you
have because you may be thefirst generational college
student, so people don'tunderstand the whole college
thing.
It's a lot of.
(28:20):
A bad relationship could be theproblem, like if you.
Your health could be a problem.
It's just so many things.
Your mindset could be a problem.
A lot of things can cause youto get into a pessimistic
mindset, get up on your dreams,get up on your goals and just
settle and live a background anda life of just settling
(28:44):
settling for people, settlingfor everything that have nothing
to do with your spirit and theyjust bother your spirit.
Something just bother yourspirit.
You just accept it.
Hey, this really, this isreally not aligning with me.
You got to stop it.
It's preventing you from beingyour best self.
It's preventing you from livingyour best self.
It's preventing you from livingyour best life.
Optimism is a skill and we wantto learn that today.
(29:06):
This next segment, my Niiji, isabout the power of knowing who
you are.
Talk about identity and why Inow go by Dr Chieftess Sunflower
and I am a proud Niiiji.
I don't identify with theholidays.
I'm more spiritual thanreligious and it's not because
(29:27):
I'm bitter, it's because I knowthe truth about who I am really.
I've been doing a lot ofresearch on American history and
I discovered, through genealogyand doing my ancestry, that my
ancestors were not slaves.
They were indigenous to TurtleIsland and I found my tree, my
family tree, and my roots aredeep in this land before it was
(29:48):
colonized.
I'm not a statistic and I'm nota product of that.
I carry my ancestors wisdom andmy mind and my bones and it's
just so hard to be one of thefirst people in your bloodline
to realize who you are,especially when people are still
stuck with colonized educationand propaganda, and just to know
(30:10):
facts about being Niiji andindigenous.
That's why I'm here to sparkthe fire, because when one
awakens the whole village canrise my Niiji, the whole village
.
Last year, like I said, I wasbattling a lot of mental health,
like feeling sad and kind ofnot in my ultimate spirit, and
(30:33):
it wasn't until I startedreading and digging and just
getting awoke about being anAmerican Indian and first it was
unbelievable, because I'm areader and if somebody's telling
me something nine times out often, I'm not really going to
believe it until I go and readfor myself.
So it first started with meresearching Thanksgiving, and
(30:55):
then I started researchingChristmas and the things that I
found were so mind-boggling.
But what set the tone was whenI read Christopher Columbus's
journal.
Now that really threw me for aloop and I realized, wow, the
colonizers were pretty evil, ifI must say so myself.
This sparked me to go and dosome digging to see if in fact
(31:18):
my ancestors were from TurtleIsland, aka Tamerika, aka the
west indies okay, because it'sbeen so many name changes or if
they were part of this pseudohistory thing where we came on
some boats that they can't find.
I discovered that my ancestorsfrom my father's lineage and my
mother's lineage are in factindigenous indian Turtle Island.
(31:41):
This was just so shocking.
I've just been on this journeyof awakening and being this
Niiji doctor, chieftesssunflower, and I know this is
shocking, but I'm, like I said,hood to hoodie, I'm always going
and exploring and reading and Iwould never settle for the
things that somebody teaches meor has told me.
(32:02):
I'm always going to go find itfor myself.
I was shocked, after beingbullied for being melanated and
all of this, that this coppertone skin is connected to this
land and it's connected to thesun baby and I was so shocked to
find out that my ancestors werehere.
I didn't realize any of myancestors names until I
(32:24):
discovered who I really am.
I'm proud to say that now,through my family tree, I know
my great, great, great greatgrandparents, some of my great,
great great aunts and uncles,and it's amazing what happens
when you come out of the matrixand you realize who you truly
are being the first one or thesecond one, or just in that
first couple of Niiji indigenousAmerican Indian to wake up.
(32:49):
I am just proud of that thepower of knowing who you truly
are and I encourage everyone togo and do your genealogy because
it can be life-changing.
Just like me, I wasChristopher Columbus reading
journal.
I was shocked reading about howthe colonizers came and they
(33:10):
did so many of those massunalivings across the country
and just reading these thingsthat I'm finding is truly
shocking because I was a youngchild just being bullied and
thinking that I had this pseudohistory and that wasn't even
true.
I was taught to hate my melaninas a child, not by my mother,
(33:33):
but by the colonized education,because they taught that we
weren't worth anything upondiscovering that that I'm Niiji
baby.
I hold my head up high crown onfeathers up baby.
I say yo, my Niiji.
That's why I'm Dr Cheetah'ssunflower now, because I know
who I am and I want to make thatclear on this podcast.
I want to make that ultimatelyclear, very clear.
(33:57):
This segment is called OralHygiene Moment Easter.
A lot of people are celebratingthat holiday tomorrow and I
just want to just remind youguys that you know you don't
want to let your kids go tosleep with candy in their mouth,
because that sugar sitting intheir mouth all night turns into
acid, which means cavity andpain.
(34:18):
This weekend, and especially onweekends where you are more
prone to eating a lot of candy,even adults, a lot of sweets are
in the market.
You want to cut back on thecandy and increase the brushing.
Teach your babies how to flossearlier.
Um, and it's generationalwealth for their smiles.
Brushing, flossing tonight,guys, tomorrow and pretty much
(34:40):
every day is going to beimportant Generational wealth
for the smile.
Brushing and flossing savesyour children bills down the
road because they learn thesehabits early.
Let's go to a little financialliteracy gym.
Speaking of wealth, studies showthat taking just one personal
finance class, just one in highschool can be worth $100,000
(35:06):
over your lifetime.
Let that sink in.
That's why this podcast, Hoodto Hooded, is important.
We touch on topics that peopleare a little too scared to touch
on.
We talk about financialliteracy.
We talk about financialliteracy.
We discuss just leveling upyour mindset to go from Hood to
(35:29):
Hooded or to go from the sunkenplace to an elevated place.
We'll say and taking personalfinance, whether you do it
through YouTube, university, inhigh school, in college, I took
a personal finance class incollege.
That wasn't an option in highschool.
If it was, I'm sure I wouldhave taken it, but they just
don't teach that because theywant people to go into the
workforce and be workers andthey don't really want you to
(35:49):
know how to manage money thegovernment, at least.
But if you could learn thisskill and commit to it and just
get some information to help youmanage money because money is a
tool, it's not even like real.
It's not even worth much how itused to be, because of
inflation and a lot of differentthings the interest rates and
all these different things thatpeople really don't understand
(36:11):
taking a personal finance classcan be worth a hundred thousand
dollars added to your bankaccount over the lifetime of you
know, your bank account.
Let that sink in.
27 states now require personalfinance in high school because,
guess what?
Knowledge is power.
(36:32):
Knowledge is power, my Niji,and if you grew up without it,
it's important to learn it now.
Build it while you are growingin every aspect of life.
Teach your kids what you neverlearned, teach yourself what you
thought you couldn't learn, andjust stay in on business when
it comes to you, financially,mentally, physically and
(36:56):
spiritually.
With the hood to the podcast, Iwant to build a community of
colleagues, contacts, friendsand mentors from different areas
of life.
We can grow in reality.
We can talk about business, wecan talk about all aspects of
going from hood to hood.
I came from poverty to being adoctor to now a dental practice
(37:17):
owner and just growing every day.
When we grow in every aspect ofour mindsets, when we stay
motivated, we challenge ideas,we form knowledge, we debate
pseudo history.
We don't just go for what is acolonized education.
I go for what I think is trueand I go and read journals,
(37:42):
history books and I and a lot oftimes guys, I'm just I'm like
shocked as hell.
I can't believe that.
It's like fighting tears whenyou are reading this stuff.
It's like fighting tears.
My only rule with theconsistency project is that I
have to show up every single day.
It it might be delusional tosome people, but to me you see
(38:04):
what it says about successfulpeople.
We're going to be the hardeston ourselves.
We're going to raise the bar onourselves.
We're going to try to go hardon ourselves.
I'm all about going hard onmyself and being hard on myself,
being my own cheerleader andshowing up for myself.
This is day 12.
You still gotta show up in thebeginning, going from Hood to
(38:26):
Hooded.
You might start with zero, youmight start with nothing.
That's what they say.
They started from the bottom.
You gotta take the stairssometimes.
Sometimes there's no elevator.
It's okay if you gotta take thestairs.
It's okay, guys.
It is okay.
It is okay to stand on businessabout yourself.
It is okay to rewire yourthoughts so that you can think
(38:50):
positive and be more optimisticand eliminate the things that
are holding you back.
It is okay, guys.
All right, make sure y'allstream my new single STFU.
It's my birthday.
Shout out to you if it's yourbirthday and I will see you guys
tomorrow for day 12.
Peace and power.
(39:12):
My Niiji, this is Dr Shon, akaDr Chieftess Sunflower, and we
are logging off.
Make sure you follow.
Bye, guys.
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