How to Take Back Control of Your Life

What if the only thing separating your potential from your reality is what you choose to believe about the future? We dig into the sharp edge between faith and fear and lay out how your brain’s ancient wiring can either protect you from danger or quietly keep you small. From the amygdala’s alarm bells to the Reticular Activating System’s filtering of your attention, we break down how thoughts become habits and how habits become a life.

I share the hard-earned lessons from years of letting fear drive, followed by the shift to faith-built action. You’ll hear how tiny, daily decisions train your identity, why imagined judgment isn’t a valid compass, and how to use goal writing, visualization, and uncomfortable reps to reprogram your focus. We talk practical mindset training: catching avoidance in real time, labeling fear as a feeling rather than a fact, and taking the next step even when the outcome is uncertain. Along the way, we explore how your environment and self-talk shape your perception, and why changing either one begins to change what you notice, who you meet, and which doors you try.

There’s also a sober reminder that time is finite. Everyone you’re scared to disappoint will be gone within a century, and so will you. That truth isn’t morbid; it’s clarifying. If valuable things require effort, then effort is how you earn both results and self-respect. By the hundredth attempt, you won’t just be better—you’ll be someone who trusts yourself. If you’re ready to replace avoidance with action and let faith lead your focus, press play, take notes, and choose one courageous step today.

If this conversation sparked something, follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a quick review to help others find it. Your next brave rep starts now.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Faith and fear both require you to believe in
something that hasn't happened.
Both paths are requiring you tobelieve in something that hasn't
yet existed, that you can't see,that hasn't come into fruition.
You are going to die one day.
Don't be the person on yourdeathbed begging God for a
second chance.

(00:24):
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, Sean Crane.
Check this out.
I want to share somethingprofound with you, and I want
you to really think about thisfor a second.
Faith and fear both require youto believe in something that
hasn't happened yet.
Think about that.
Having faith that things aregoing to be okay, having faith

(00:45):
that you're going to besuccessful, having faith that
you're going to find the rightpartner in life, whatever it is,
that requires you to believe insomething that has not happened
yet.
It's what we pray for, it's whatwe work hard towards, but it
hasn't happened yet.
Now, fear, which most peopleallow to dictate the way they
live their lives, fear of theunknown, fear of failure, fear
of not being good enough, fearof judgment, those fears are

(01:08):
also things that you fabricatedin your thinking, in your brain,
that have not yet happened yet.
And what if I told you that thesuccess or lack of in your life
largely can be traced back towhat you're believing in or
focusing on?
Are you the type of person thatleans into faith in hard times?
Are you the type of person thatbelieves in the outcomes you

(01:30):
want and has faith that if youwork hard, make the change, make
the commitment, make thesacrifice, that it's gonna work
out in your favor?
Or are you the type of personthat has a meaningful goal or a
change you want to make, but youallow fear to stop you from ever
taking action?
You see, that's most people inlife.
Most people never go after whatthey really want because of

(01:51):
fear.
And the fear is not even real.
It's not something you couldtouch or see.
It's a feeling inside of you.
It's a figment of yourimagination.
It's a way of thinking thattriggers an emotion that then
leads to a lack of action.
Now I've lived in in both ways,meaning I was the person that
operated from fear for years,and then I became a man of

(02:12):
faith.

I'll tell you this (02:13):
the man of faith, that's the path that has
allowed me to achieve at a highlevel.
That's the path that has allowedme to bring my visions to
reality.
The guy that listened to fearwasted his potential, wasted
opportunities, and let his lifepass him by.
I remember as a young kid, Iwanted to be a professional
athlete, and I had all the faithin the world that I could do it.

(02:33):
And then I was met withadversity, and life
circumstances really changed myattitude, my mindset, and I
started operating from fear.
And I started worrying about notbeing good enough, not being as
big as the other kids.
What if I really tried and Ifailed?
Right?
All these hidden fears startedreally holding me back in life
and keeping me stuck.
And in high school, I never evenplayed sports.

(02:53):
I'm an athlete, man.
I love sports.
I'm gifted, I'm talented.
And I didn't play baseball, Ididn't play basketball, I didn't
play football.
And it was one of my greatestregrets to date.

Now I want to tell you this (03:04):
if you listen to fear, if you can
get hyper-focused on the way youthink and the way you make
decisions, and you recognizethat you're letting fear hold
you back, you will never getwhat you want in life.
If you listen to fear and letthat dictate the way you live
your life, you will never getwhat you want.
And you have to just get in thehabit of recognizing that and
telling that to yourself.

(03:24):
Making change is scary.
Going after your dreams isscary, it's hard.
There's a lot of pressure.
It's the unknown.
There's no guarantees.
But guess what?
Would you rather go for it andfind out what you're capable of
and at least go for somethingthat's meaningful in your life,
or let fear hold you backforever and never do anything
and then die?
Like, how crazy is that?
You know?
And what you have to recognizethe way the brain operates,

(03:46):
right?
Like neuroscience is reallyinteresting.
When you can study the brain andunderstand what all these
different features in the braindo and all these functions are
made for over time, it kind ofhelps to start makes of things.
You know, so I want to talk toyou about fear because at one
point, fear was actually areally good thing for human
beings.
Like, fear is what prevented youfrom going out in the jungle and

(04:06):
wandering too far away from yourtribe and getting eaten by a
tiger.
Fear is what prevented you fromgoing up and wrestling a bear
for that honey that it waseaten, right?
Of that fish.
Like fear is what prevented youfrom looking too far over a
cliff and falling over the cliffand dying, or climbing into a
fire and getting burned alive.
You know, fear is an ancientsurvival mechanism developed in

(04:27):
the brain to preserve you.
There's an area in the braincalled the amygdala.
You can look it up and study it,and that's where your fear is
processed, and the emotion thatyou experience is then created.
And so, what you have torecognize is the fear that we
all have, it's probably the mostuh prevalent human emotion and
like thinking pattern that wehave in the world.

(04:48):
Because at one time it servedus, and it's what allowed humans
to survive and get to this pointover thousands and thousands of
years.
But nowadays, in 2025, in aworld of abundance where
resources aren't scarce, whereopportunities are everywhere,
fear is what's holding you back.
Because if you can trainyourself to have faith and be an

(05:08):
open-minded free thinker andbelieve in yourself, you can do
anything you set your mind to.
Okay.
But if you're letting feardictate the way you make
decisions, you're gonnacontinuously do that because
we're creatures of habit.
So if you find yourself going upthroughout the day and you're
like putting things off andyou're letting fear or doubt or
these inner insecurities thatyou possess stop you from doing
what you want to do, you'retraining yourself to be a

(05:30):
fear-based thinker.
You're training yourself to be alesser version of who you want
to be.
Just recognize that.
So you gotta start goingthroughout your day and you
gotta have hyper awareness andfocus around how you make
decisions.
Even the smallest, most minutedecisions are gonna shape and
mold who you become and how youcontinue to make decisions in
the future.
Listening to fear and operatingfrom a place of fear will never

(05:53):
get you what you want in life.
That's a fact.
Now, if you find yourselflistening to fear and giving in,
you just got to tell yourselfthis course of action is gonna
lead to regret.
This course of action is gonnalead to me being a lesser
version of myself.
This course of action is gonnalead to me being a poor example
for my children or the people Icare about.

(06:14):
You have to train yourself torecognize the importance of
every decision so you can do itdifferent and you can find a new
path in life.
You know, and and so the nextthing I want to share with you
that coincides with that thoughtis programming.
You're programming yourselfconstantly based on the way you
make decisions.
Your self-talk is constantlycreating a program that is gonna
dictate the way you live yourlife.

(06:35):
Now, there's another part of thebrain called the RAS.
Look this up, write it down.
Reticulator activating system.
I share this all the timebecause that's the filter and
lens in which you see the world.
So if you're constantly thinkingabout why you can't do stuff,
why you're not good enough, orthat you're gonna be judged, or
that you might fail, or da da dada da, all this negativity,
you're going to see thatreflected in the world around

(06:56):
you.
You're gonna constantly seesigns and hear things that
people say or notice acommercial or a TV show or a
movie that you're watching wheresomeone tried and they failed.
It's crazy how this programmingworks.
And you'll really understandwhat I'm talking about when you
change your programming.
If you can start to believe inyourself and operate from faith,
and you get up every day and youwrite down your goals and you
envision what you want, and youstart to change those inner

(07:19):
beliefs and you're takingaction, you're facing fears, and
you're doing things that makeyou uncomfortable, but you're
going after it anyways becauseyou know you only got one life
and this life is short and youwant more for yourself, and you
start actively changing, youwill start to see the world
around you differently.
That programming, that filterknown as the RAS, right?
A bundle of neurons in thebrainstem that really dictates

(07:40):
what you see and how yourecognize the world around you,
it'll start to alter and changeover time.
And now you'll start to seequite the opposite.
You'll watch movies and you'llsee that that individual was
going through adversity and theyfaced tests, but they kept going
and they kept trying.
Like, damn, like that personbelieved in themselves.
They're operating from faith,right?
You'll start to notice likepeople, like you'll be walking

(08:02):
by a bar on the street andyou'll notice a playoff football
game, and you'll see, you know,the underdog winning the
national championship orsomething.
You'll you'll start to see allthese signs and all these things
in your environment thatcoincide with that new belief
that you can do it, that you arecapable, that despite being
scared or not sure of yourself,you're going after it anyways.
Like it's crazy how thatprogramming works.
You'll start to pick updifferent books, you'll start to

(08:24):
get around and acquaint with newpeople and different types of
social settings, your wholeworld will change because now
your programming has changed.
Okay.
You the way you see the world iseverything.
Now, what affects the way yousee the world?
It's your beliefs, the way youwere brought up, and your
self-talk.
Now, if you're brought up in anenvironment with poor people or
hardships or violence or drugsand addiction, things that I

(08:46):
went through, guess what youhave to do?
You have to reprogram yourselfbecause you're a byproduct of
your environment.
So if you don't want to be poor,if you don't want to be broke,
if you don't want to be a drugaddict, if you don't want to go
to prison like your familymembers, you have to change.
How do you change?
You have to have faith that youcan change.
You have to have faith that itis possible.
Okay?
Then you have to do the work toprove that sentiment, those

(09:08):
inner beliefs, that desire.
You have to prove it truethrough action.
That's how you reprogramyourself.
That's what I did in prison.
How many books did I read?
How many words did I look up inthe dictionary?
How many freaking push-ups did Ido?
How many early mornings in thedark doing the work on myself
when no one was around?
No one cared what I was doing,no life coaches.
Like nobody saying, Sean, keepgoing.
I had to have faith.

(09:29):
If I operated from fear, I wouldhave been doing drugs, I would
have been with the knuckleheads,I would have become another
loser, another statistic.
I didn't want to be that man.
So I had a choice, right?

There's two paths in life (09:38):
fear or faith.
You both are both paths arerequiring you to believe in
something that hasn't yetexisted, that you can't see,
that hasn't come into fruition.
And wherever your focus goes,energy flows.
So if you're believing that youcan't, if you're scared to take
chances, if you don't go afterwhat you want in life, you're
gonna hyper focus on thenegatives and the reasons why

(10:00):
you can't.
And that's gonna become thedefault program that you live
your life.
But if you train yourself tobelieve in the limitless
possibilities that God hasbestowed upon us and the
infinite potential that youpossess, and the fact that you
have a purpose or a vision orideas or goals or these things
that you want to change and do,and recognize that God put those
things on your heart for areason.
Have faith that if you do thework, you take action, you face

(10:22):
your fears, you take the risks,you go for what you want in this
life, it's all gonna work outthe way it's supposed to.
And check this out.
This is something I want toshare with you that I always
share on stage.
And I hope this hits home foryou the way it really is hit
home for me when I think aboutit.
You're going to die one day.
And everyone around you rightnow that you're worried about

(10:43):
disappointing or being judged byor not fitting in with, they're
all gonna be dead in a hundredyears.
We're all gonna be dead.
And you're worried about whatpeople are thinking or what
they're saying, or that youmight fail and you might not be
good the first time you try.
Guess what?
You probably won't.
But by the hundredth time ofbeing relentless and getting
better and showing up every day,you'll start to improve.

(11:06):
You will build that innerstrength, you will develop
confidence, and you will proveto yourself that you are
capable.
But it's not gonna come easybecause guess what?
Anything valuable in life, yougotta work hard for it.
And that's the way it should bebecause when you get that
result, when you become thatperson, when you create that
life, you will appreciate it somuch more.
You are going to die one day.

(11:27):
Don't be the person on yourdeathbed begging God for a
second chance.
Be the person with tears ofgratitude streaming down your
face because you finally madethe decision to go all in and
you proved yourself how capableyou were, and you created a life
that you absolutely love andcherish.