In this brief motivational talk for the "Moment of Yes" series, the speaker greets the audience, notes personal health recovery, and acknowledges community members and an upcoming CrimProv event in Flint. The core message centers on the psychological "spotlight effect," the tendency to overestimate how much others notice our mistakes or flaws. The speaker explains that because everyone assumes they are being watched, people actually pay little attention to each other, leading to mutual self‑consciousness. Two actionable takeaways are offered: (A) relax and stop worrying that everyone is scrutinizing you, and (B) shift focus outward by actively noticing and complimenting others—turning the metaphorical spotlight into a floodlight that brightens others' days. The talk ends with an upbeat encouragement for the week.
Chapters
Good morning, afternoon, everyone. Here is your Moment of Yes for Tuesday, April 7th. Sorry I didn't get to it yesterday. Um, I just got back home, uh, on the weekend, uh, on Easter. Still recovering. Been under the weather a little bit for the last, uh, just about 2 weeks. Um, but, uh, feeling good, 90%-ish again. Um, Uh, and so yeah, uh, here we are. Uh, so yes, since the last time we saw each other, it's now April, which means we have completed 3 full months into 2026 already. Crazy. Uh, we're already into April. Um, time be a-flying. Uh, shout out to Frank and Jesse and Tiger. We'll see all you guys this weekend in Flint for the CrimProv event, which should be a lot of fun. Um, and so your moment of yes for today is the spotlight effect. Now, many of you may have of the spotlight effect before. It's the idea that as we go through our day, as we go through our life, but especially just kind of going, you know, through our day, think back to being in school, think back to, um, as an adult even just having to give a presentation or walking into a room with strangers. There's this idea, this fear that we all feel that everyone is looking at us, everyone is noticing us, everyone is judging us. And when they've done great research on this over, over the years, what they've discovered is that each of us goes through the day thinking that people are noticing every, every time we trip or we've got a stain on this or we've got— and the reality is, is no one is really seeing that stuff because everyone is thinking that everyone's watching them. And if we believe that everyone is watching us and everyone is doing the same thing, well, no one is paying attention to the people around them. They're all kind of stuck. In their own navel-gazing. And the reality is, well, okay, everyone is kind of walking around with a certain amount of, uh, you know, I call it insecurity or self-consciousness, if you will. And so, 2 things. A, we can not be so concerned about, uh, that we think that everyone's watching us and watching, uh, every little, every little trip we make. That's A, so we can relax a little bit. B, the second opportunity is what if, if we are more aware, not so much stuck in our head, but we're more aware of what's going on around us? Now we have the ability to actually, um, acknowledge someone, recognize someone, compliment someone. And when we do do that, we, you know, instead of people worrying about that they've got something wrong, now someone is noticing them, they're seeing them, they're They're appreciating their existence. And so it's kind of twofold. So we can relax, spotlight effect, everyone's in their own head worrying about themselves. B, get out of your own head and look at your fellow neighbor, stranger, and say, hey, nice shirt. Hey, nice shoes. Hey, whatever, which will completely transform their day as well. Let's go from spotlight to floodlight. I don't know. That's the best I got. That's your moment of yes for today. Have an awesome week, everyone.
