Ep. 147 | You Live in Three Time Zones. Which One Has You Trapped?

Oct 13

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Which time zone do you live in: the past, the present, or the future?

Most of us never notice that our thinking lives in three time zones. Most people get trapped in the past (regret, replaying, beating yourself up) or the future (fear, uncertainty, what-ifs). In this coaching session, Rob walks through how to delight in all three, using the same notice, evaluate, replace, repeat practice from the last few coaching sessions.

You’ll Hear

Why the kingdom is an inside job
The three time zones: past, present, future
How to know which one you’re trapped in
Past: focus on the good memories
Past: find the purpose in the hard things
Future: love the gap between where you are and where you’re going
Future: love the future you God designed
Present: practice love with image bearers
Present: redeem the time
Thankfulness as the doorway to love

Scriptures: Philippians 3:13-14, Psalm 77:11, James 1:2-4, Proverbs 16:9, Ephesians 5:15-16, Psalm 90:12

Journal Prompts

Ask the Holy Spirit: Which time zone do I dominate in? Which one am I a slave to? Journal His answer in first person.
Ask the Father: How do I redeem the time? How do I delight in my past, my future, and my present? Journal His answer in first person.

Links

📘 100xLife Book → https://www.100xlife.com/book
🔥 Become a 100xLife Coach → https://www.100xlife.com/coaching
🚀 Take the 62 Day Challenge → https://www.100xlife.com/challenge

Partner with 100xLife

Rob Dayton (00:07)
Welcome to the 100X Life Podcast, where we activate people who desire to live the words of Jesus and experience the abundant life He promises. I'm your host, Rob Dayton, and I hope this podcast inspires you to put in the work of following Jesus.
Rob Dayton (00:36)
Hey 100x lifers, welcome back to the podcast. I hope you've had a great week. Nancy and I are down in Laguna Beach, right on the water, actually, right outside. really special thing. My parents had a timeshare down here back in the 80s, which we took over, and so we spent a week down here just relaxing and listening to the ocean. Falling asleep to the ocean is pretty amazing. I was actually thinking about
the ocean and and the waves and how that communicates God's love. It's just majestic and I'm in awe over it. Well, hey, I hope you've enjoyed these past couple of coaching sessions. I want to continue coaching sessions and I specifically want to talk to you. Did you know that you live in three time zones? Yeah. You live in three time zones. So I want to tell you about that. But first I want to just do a little bit of review.
of when we were talking about the process of changing the way you think. And if you didn't go if you didn't listen to that podcast, it was about three ago, go back and check it out because this is the process of 100x life. What we're trying to do in 100x life is we're trying to not just be in love with Jesus but follow him. And as you know by now the practice of following Jesus is a very difficult thing. It's not easy. It takes effort. And so
Changing the way you think, repentance is what we are talking about. Repentance is such a powerful thing to do. Jesus says repent and believe. And if you can't change the way you think, which is what repentance means, then it's gonna be very difficult for you to follow Jesus. We have to acquire the skill. So I'm really want you to focus on that. I want you to pursue that. I know it's hard. When we talked about repentance, we talked about the the three thought.
positions the the predator the victim and the director and we want to be a thought director so we want to notice our thoughts even if you just notice your thoughts what are you thinking even as you're listening to me on this podcast what thoughts are arising your brain which is your flesh is gonna bring thoughts up all the time while you're talking while you're driving while you're listening the thoughts are arising so to notice those is a
Powerful tool and resource for you if you're gonna change the way you think. The second one, we're just gonna evaluate those thoughts. So we're gonna notice, then we're gonna evaluate: is that a good thought? Is that a Jesus thought? Is that thought serving me? Is that thought bringing me down? Is it holding me back? I was on a run this morning and I was going up a hill and I saw the scenery, and it was very difficult to go up this hill at a higher pace. I was trying to attack the hills this morning.
And I saw this beautiful view of the ocean. I thought maybe I should take a picture. And as soon as I had that thought, my legs just stopped. It's just remarkable. I was noticing it. I like, man, that thought just made me stop completely. And so I just kept going. plenty of time to take pictures and other times, just focus on the run. or maybe a thought where, man, I don't know if I can do this will stop your body. Your body'll just respond and take over.
And so we want to control our bodies. So we want to notice, we want to evaluate that thought. Is it good for us? And then we want to replace the thought with something that is the love of Jesus, that is his behaviors of love, imaginations about other people. It's so rich to treat other people. we're gonna talk about this a little bit today. To treat people as image bearers really is a huge way of changing the way you think. So we're gonna notice.
We're gonna evaluate our thoughts, we're gonna replace our thoughts, and then we're just going to repeat. Last time we were together, we talked about the triune being, and I'm gonna get more in detail on that in the new book, but body, soul, spirit, the soul being the mind, will, and emotions, and your body is your flesh, and then your body it contains your brain.
Talked about how the brain can die and you still have thoughts, so the mind is taking control and authority over the brain and reprogramming it. Go back and look at that. Great way to be coached and to actually do the exercises. It doesn't matter if you have a coach, just doesn't matter if you don't do the work. It's just like Jesus says you know, I can tell you all this stuff, I can give you all these amazing words, but if you
Don't put them into practice. They do not benefit you. So I don't want that to be you. Grab a journal, take some notes, listen to the prompts, follow the prompts, do the work, listen hear from the Trinity at the end and transform the way you think. That's what we want to do. Okay, well let's get into this did you know you lived in three time zones?
I think I'm thinking of my business is that expanded to other cities and the master's program is definitely in three time zones in the United States and how difficult it is to manage a calendar when you're in a different time zone. Everything's showing up. I keep my my computer on California time and then the time zones adjust. That's how I do it. But it's it gets confusing. It's hard to manage. And if you are operating in three time zones, you're
brain, the way you think is operating in three time zones, that is really important to understand because it will be difficult to maneuver. So most of the things that I'm bringing to you are just awakening what's really going on within you. It's interesting, I was just reading this morning how Jesus says he's talking to the Pharisees and talking about them how they searched the scriptures for the kingdom, but the kingdom of heaven is within you is what he says.
And really the kingdom is an inside job. This 100x life process of following Jesus is completely an inside job. So bringing more awareness to how you think, what are the thoughts you're having, and the three time zone is gonna do exactly that. So here's your three time zones that you live in. you're living in the past, you're living in the present, and you're living in the future. Those are the three time zones you're living to.
And it's really interesting. Most people tend to be trapped in either the past or the future. And that's what I really want you to notice. Are you trapped in the past or the future? And you know you're trapped in one of the time zones, the past or the future, because you you can constantly are drawn. It's like you're almost, your thinking is almost a slave to the past.
Typically, when you're a slave to the past, you're just thinking about all the things that happened. You're usually beating yourself up, like why did I do that? Or you're, if you got that victim mindset, you're thinking, my gosh, I totally got ripped off. Woe was me, it's not gonna work out for me. And you're constantly ruminating. Your mind is catastrophizing about the past. or your future.
The future is you're just completely stuck in the future. You cannot get off it. You're constantly thinking about tomorrow, about next year, will I be here? Will I get that? who will I be? What job will I have? and and it's almost like the fear fear permeates both. Fear permeates the past because you you're trapped in it and you you're sucked in by it you're with remorse and regret,
And you think that fear is impacting your life or the future where you're you have fear about what hasn't happened yet, that uncertainty is trapping you, and both states are going to be really bad. We do not want to be slaves to either the past time zone or the future time zone. We want to live in the present. So here's where we want to go. We want to be present, we want to live in the present.
And then we want to be delighted with all three time zones. We're just gonna rejoice and be glad. We're gonna be delighted with all three time zones. Doesn't that sound appealing and freeing? we're gonna be delighted with our future. We're gonna be delighted with the present. Remember, you have the Trinity dwelling inside you. That means you have love dwelling inside you.
peace dwelling inside you. Joy abundant faith patience. You have kindness dwelling in you. You have understanding. Everything that you need is dwelling in you right now. That is the Trinity. And so be present right now. Just focus. Maybe close your eyes right now and just focus on that reality. The goodness of God dwelling in you. Man, that is such a good
Present thought that can evaporate the fear of the past and the fear of the future. So let's talk about how we delight in every one of these time zones. How are we gonna delight in them? Well, if we're looking at the past, we're gonna focus on the good memories. That's the first step. We're gonna focus on the goodness of the past. Now, this is really hard because most people, when they reflect on the past,
The milestones of badness and failure are accentuated. That's just reality for most people. But that is not gonna serve you. if you're going to repent and change the way you think.
And actually follow Jesus, you need to look back and see goodness because he's working all things together for your good, which means if we look in the rearview mirror of where he's actually done that, he's actually worked all things together for good, and we marinate on that goodness, that is gonna serve us, that is gonna keep our attitude positive, it's gonna keep our joy alive versus focusing on the negative, focusing on the bad things that happen.
And we're gonna address the bad things that happen. You don't just ignore the bad things that happen, but we're gonna accentuate the good things that have happened.
And Paul says in Philippians 3:13 and 14, he speaks of forgetting those things which are behind and pressing forward to the goal. So we want to forget those things that are behind, press forward to the goal. Doesn't mean we we ignore the past or try to blot it out. It's just we're moving forward. This is the 100xLife practice of life is a gym. The cross, the death of Jesus and resurrection, has provided.
This life, this life of growing your ability to love, it's a gym. So if you don't do well and you fail, it's just a gym. You experience the pain and you move forward and you get a little better progressively and you celebrate the small win. So thinking about the good memories, the places you won, getting in a journal and practicing the gratitude for the past. You know, in the 100xLife Challenge, we have the gratitude exercise.
That meditation at the end of the day, when you put your head on the pillow, man, if you've lost that, if you've forgotten about that, that is such a great opportunity to reflect on the day, looking at all the things that God brought, all the people, all the conversations, all the beauty, every single thing that happened. And you can do that with the rest of your life as well. Just look back. What has been so amazing about your life? What are the good things have happened?
Where has God worked all things together for good? And then the second thing with the past is we're gonna find the purpose in the past.
Finding the purpose in the past, and you know, you've heard me say it before, favorite quote from Tony Robbins it's never too late to have an amazing childhood. Man, I love that quote. Because that is so true, and that's such a god thing. he is working all things together for a good. So that really bad circumstance, that bad parent that mistreated you, abused you, that bad situation that you had is always gonna be a place where
God works in your life to overcome and shape who you're becoming, who you are and who you're becoming through your past. So look back and find the purpose.
We were looking at through Arthur Brooks and when you have a bad thing that happens to you, you write it down on one line in your journal, come back to it within three weeks, and you ask the question, what is one thing you learned?
From that bad thing that happened. And then you come back to it in a month, and then you you answer the question, How did this bad thing benefit me? That's what we want to do when we say we're gonna find purpose in the past, is we're gonna get good at looking at the past, specifically the negative things that happened to us, and we're going to find how was that thing used to grow me? How is that negative circumstance benefiting me?
Man, so many situations in my life I can look back, some of the most difficult persecutions, diseases that I've encountered, setbacks, injuries, getting fired, or not getting a job, or not not winning something I wanted to win, or having an investment go south, all these things.
Have benefited me if I just look and ask the question. So that's the question we're gonna ask. you have this if you're a slave to the past and you're in that time zone all the time with a regret. Start looking at the things that are negative and ask yourself, how did I grow and how has that negative thing benefited me? That's what repentance would look like in changing the way you think so that you can see what God is doing and has done in your life and then.
Celebrate with him, celebrate that he's got you on the course. Remember, this entire the entire purpose of life is to grow your ability to love, to love God, and to love others. That is the summation, those two commandments, the summation of the law is why you're here on planet Earth. So if you look back and you look at the circumstances, another question you might ask is: how did that negative circumstance teach me to grow? Remember, I was I was asking my brother-in-law JD, who got
his leg amputated and all this just suffering that he's gone through over the past three years. And the question was, how did this teach you how to love? And I I can tell you from witnessing him and the way he prays for people and the way he is with people, he's a significantly upped his ability to love others. That's amazing and that is something we're celebrating. That's what we want to focus on. Okay so that is the past
We're gonna do two things. We're gonna focus on the good memories in the past, and then we're gonna find the purpose in the past. If it's negative, that's what we're looking for. you you can think about in Psalm 77:11 Remembering what God has done is the antidote to present despair. So looking back.
Finding what God's done is gonna really up your game as you delight in the past time zone. That's our goal, to delight in all three. Okay.
so let's talk about the future and how do we navigate in the future? So the first thing is we're going to avoid fear by loving the gap between now and your future. We're gonna love the gap. So one way of looking at this is we're gonna look back and celebrate the gain in the past. What happened? What did God do? And then we're gonna look in the future.
We're gonna delight in the future because we're gonna learn to love the gap of where we want to be and where we are now. There's a gap.
Some call that chasing the sunset. You know, the word of Jesus, one of the last ones, be perfect as as your father is perfect. Perfection is something we will never achieve, but it is the goal. And we do have we have been given the capacity to grow in the direction of perfection and loving the gap between where you are now and perfection in the area of the words of Jesus and putting them into practice or your
growing your ability to love and just being completely a master at that there is a gap there is a gap there's you want to be better everybody seems to be at a place where in fact if you're content where you are and you're not growing that's another problem we want to love that gap and you want to have a thought process in your head when your brain gets discouraged that you're not at that place where you automatically start thinking no do
Love this place because this is this is the place, this hard place I'm in where I haven't achieved my goal yet is where I grow. This is when I grow my ability to love. This is when I trust in God for outcomes. This is when I get more healthy. You know, it just reminds me about when I'm doing laps on the track and I'm doing a 400 for time, and you know, I'm celebrating the past when I'm at about that.
Halfway mark, I'm like halfway there. And then when I get to the final part, three quarters to finish, that's where the pain and the body starts complaining the most. And then I say, Wow, I love this place because this pain is what is actually gonna grow me more. And it's true. The last one quarter of a 400 for time is the one that's gonna benefit you the most. That's the one you want to be successful. It's true for the last sets, the last reps in a strength.
workout
Enduring till the end. It's the endurance of the challenging part that James says in James 1:2. It's the endurance that builds the fruit. So we're gonna love that gap because that endurance is so good for us. But you see how we're flipping the script? Instead of getting discouraged with those things, we're actually gonna enjoy them. We're gonna delight in the fact that we haven't gotten there yet, but we are striving, we're working out, and we're getting
Better. So that's the first thing about the future. And then the second thing is you want to love the future you in your imagination. You know, some people, when they're slaves to the future and they're stuck and they're stuck in a negative fear loop, they're afraid of who they're becoming. And just like
we've said in 100x Life you can't love others unless you love yourself. Because Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself. So if you don't love yourself, how's your neighbor gonna be loved? So you need to love yourself and looking into the future and loving that person and celebrating that person. Not in comparison to others, and this is key. We're not asking you to be the best other person. That's what we tend to do.
Our brains, our thinking is well, if I'm as good as this person, then I'm okay. No, we want you to become the best version of you, the best version of you, the one that God created, the the design that He's placed in you for the work that He's prepared in advance for you to complete. We want you to love that person. So when you're in the mirror, looking in the mirror, which is every morning, my vision for you is that you'd be able to stop and smile at that person, not just the person standing before you.
You,
that image bearer, come into full agreement to what the father's saying about who loves you so much, but also that person in the future because he has created a masterpiece, and that masterpiece is you, and no one else on planet Earth can be a better master of you. You are the best you that you can be, and that's the competition: is just being the best you you can be. So love that person in.
the future. Imagine that person in the future. You know, an eternal mindset would be imagining that that when you cross over into heaven and the celebration and the the well done my good and faithful servant the getting to that place and and really striving. We're in this race. I don't know if I've said this on the podcast but one of the things that the Lord was talking to me about specifically at the beginning of the year is that we're in a race and he was
Drawing my attention to the three mile race when I was in cross country and one thing that I noted about that three mile race is that the whole entire time you're constantly speeding up. There's no time if a race is done well, there's no time when you're slowing down. You're actually keeping pace and then mile two is faster than mile one and then mile three is gonna be really fast. You are actually building into a sprint when you cross the finish line.
And the Lord was showing me this is your life. This is your life. The finish line is when you're meeting Jesus face to face in heavenly places and being welcomed into eternity. And so we want to cross that finish line, not coasting, not golfing our way into eternity, but full speed. And the way I think of that is continuing to grow to be the best me that God has designed, making sure that the talents, the power,
Passion,
the purpose that He's placed in me gets on the table. That's how I can celebrate future me. And if you you think about Proverbs 16:9, a person plans his ways, but the Lord directs their steps. So you can be happy about that first person in the future because the Lord is directing your steps. May not turn out exactly the way you would imagine, but it'll be perfect because the Lord is determining your steps.
Okay, so that was the past. That's how we delight in the future. Let's talk about what we do with the present. So the first thing in being present is to practice love with image bearers. This is the best way to delight and stay present.
And this is something I'm working on. I would love to be better at this. I feel like it's growing my ability to love. So I'm in the gym with you on this, is just being present in front of image bearers. And they're everywhere. They're in the grocery store, they're in the restaurant, they're here at the timeshare, in the hall, they're at front desks, they're people who are serving you. It's the Uber driver, it's the stewardess on the plane, it's people in your workplace. They are all created
the image of God. So when you look at them...
Be distracted. Notice that this is partially what God looks like. This is someone who's created in his image. This is a son, this is a daughter of the living king, and you have the privilege of being in their presence and bringing all the joy and love that's in you to the conversation. This is practicing presence. If you focus on these people and focus on them in front of you, you will be.
present in those moments. And that's what we do. And and I gotta tell you, with our loved ones, it can be the hardest.
Just walking from the store this morning with Nancy and I was on my phone and she was like, Wow, you're on your phone again. That's not being present with an image bearer. So how to do that, how to actually say, you know, okay, I'm gonna be on my phone for this time and get them a heads up, get permission to actually check out for a little bit and not be present or be present with someone on your device. So that's the first thing is to be present, practicing love of image bearers, and then the second thing is we want
to redeem the time. We want to redeem the time. the time is taken away.
the last 15 minutes that you've been listening to this, you're not getting that back. It's the only non-renewable resource on planet Earth. And we don't know. We don't know how much time we have. I could be hit by a car tomorrow, and that would be it. You have a limited amount of time, and then you have millions of years with Jesus, and in this time we want to redeem it. We want to make sure we're growing our capacity to love. This is the 100x life process, growing our capacity to love, learning to obey and transform our the way we think.
To obey the words of Jesus and to actually live breathlessly every single moment we have. There's there's no such thing as killing time. We don't kill time. We don't. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna play this game to waste time. No, we play games maybe to build your brain if that's what you do. but we live on purpose and we redeem the time. Ephesians 5:15 and 16. Walk wisely, redeeming the time. We want to do that.
How you walk wisely. And then in Psalm 90:12, This is a psalm from Moses, and Moses says, Teach us to number our days to gain wisdom. So having that awareness of each day and the fruit and the ability and the investment potential.
We want to redeem the time. That's how we delight in the time. And then lastly, we want to celebrate in the present and practice thankfulness. The best thing you can do for all three time zones is this last one. We're going to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. We're going to celebrate everything that's happening. We're going to practice thankfulness. We're going to notice every good thing. The better you get at being grateful, the better you get at thanking others.
and being thankful that you're in their presence, to be thankful that they're serving you, the more you're going to love. This is the doorway to love. Thankfulness and awe, changing the way you think and moving into love and the behaviors of love that Jesus is inviting you into, that is going be amazing.
So I hope that's a resource. Here's your general prompts. Holy Spirit, which time zone do I dominate in? which one of the time zones, Holy Spirit, am I a slave to? Is it the is it the past or the present?
Or is it, or am I doing great? Just ask Holy Spirit, journal from Holy Spirit directly to you in your journaling, and then ask the Father, teach me Father, how do I redeem the time and delight in each of these time zones?
How do I be a delight when I'm thinking about the past? How do I delight in that and be excited about that past? How do I delight in that future that hasn't happened yet? And how do I delight in the presence and living congruently, always thinking about the presence of God, the presence of image bearers, who you're gonna meet all day long? Guys, do the questions, do the work, review it a couple times. This is how we change the way we think and have a
great week.