In this short motivational monologue, the speaker frames a daily practice called a “moment of yes.” He observes that most people’s first reaction to a situation is emotional, judgmental, or critical. Rather than expecting to instantly emulate the calm of figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Eckhart Tolle, or Byron Katie, he encourages listeners to acknowledge that initial reactions will often be flawed and then deliberately cultivate better, more compassionate responses in subsequent thoughts—second, third, fourth, or even later. These later responses—patience, empathy, forgiveness, meekness—are presented not as signs of weakness but as sources of inner strength that lead to personal peace, freedom, health, and happiness. The speaker ends with a practical prompt: notice when your first reaction is unhelpful, and as quickly as possible shift to a healthier, kinder perspective, choosing love as today’s “yes.”
Chapters
Good morning everyone, here is your moment of yes for the— boom, 30th. Wow. All right, June 30th, up north in northern Michigan for a few more days. And so your moment of yes for today is all about the second response or the third response or the fourth response. Now, if you're like me, you wish you could walk through life with the patience and the resilience of like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jr., or even not even, you know, like a monk or someone who just doesn't seem to be impacted by negativity around them, like an Eckhart Tolle or a Byron Katie. But the reality is, is that that's not me. My first reaction to things is still Reactionary, you know, it's emotional. And even if that's not externally, sometimes it is, most times it's internally, it's a judgment, it's a criticism. That still is a very normal first reaction for me, which if you're like me, again, you're like, yeah, I wish I were better on that front. And so yes, we're all working to make sure that our first reaction continues to improve and hopefully age, maturity, and perspective allows us to do that. But what about the second reaction, or the third reaction, or the fourth reaction. Or I would say the second thought, the third thought, the fourth thought. And so that's kind of where the improvement is, because we're going to get our first reactions wrong an awful lot. But can our second thought or reaction catch us and bring us to a different perspective? And if not the second, the third. If not the third, the fourth. If not the 15th, the 100th. How quickly can we catch ourselves and have that next thought or have that next reaction be one of compassion, be one of patience, be one of empathy, be one of forgiveness, be one of meekness? And I don't mean these from a weakness standpoint. I mean them from a strength standpoint. Because again, at the end of the day, the peace and the freedom that we're talking about is our own. It's not about The offender or the thing that is making us upset. It's about us. It's about us. We live with ourselves and no one else. And so the quicker that we can make our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 20th thought a better thought is the quicker that we get to health, freedom, happiness, and peace. So your moment of yes for today is as you go through your day and you notice your first reaction not being great, or even your first 20 reactions not being great, How quickly can you shift your perspective back to a healthier, holier, happier perspective? That's a big yes and right there. Yes and I'm going to choose to love. That's your moment of yes for today, everybody. Have an awesome day.
