Deep Dive with Dr D
Discussions on life and living with Dr D. A man who has risen from the lowest depths of life to the amazing life he has now.
Deep Dive with Dr D
What if your dreams aren't too big, but your habits haven't caught up?
What if your dreams aren't too big, but your habits just need to catch up? Dr. David Douglas challenges the false choice between having ambitious dreams and being realistic. Drawing from his remarkable journey from high school dropout and addiction to earning his doctorate and building a life of recovery, he shares a powerful framework for turning visions into reality.
Dreams serve as fuel, but without structure, they inevitably stall. The bridge between fantasy and reality isn't built through wishful thinking or luck—it's constructed through consistent daily actions, strategic planning, and unwavering patience. Dr. Douglas reveals how living in "24-hour pockets of time" allows us to make meaningful progress toward our goals while maintaining present-moment awareness.
The mechanics matter as much as the mindset. By breaking down overwhelming goals into manageable chunks, creating systems of healthy habits, embracing delayed gratification, and carefully cultivating your circle of influence, you create the foundation for extraordinary achievements. As Dr. Douglas puts it: "Big dreams require small, boring actions, repeated daily."
For those in recovery or facing significant life challenges, this message offers particular resonance. Rather than being defined by your past, learn what you need from it, then "close the door" and focus on building forward momentum. Every day represents an opportunity to take another step toward your vision, no matter how small.
This episode delivers practical wisdom for anyone who's ever dismissed a dream as "unrealistic." The invitation is clear: don't shrink your dream—expand your skill set. Identify the first three realistic steps you could take toward your boldest ambition, and start building the bridge between fantasy and reality one skill, one decision, one day at a time.
Have you dismissed an important dream as unrealistic? What if you flipped that perspective and started building toward it today? The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single, often boring, step.
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the show. So I always like to do a quick little plug for my book that I just released, like just less than 90 days ago Grit Over Shame by yours truly From addiction and incarceration to recovery and redemption, available everywhere. You buy books Locally in Ellensburg, you can get it at Geraldensburg, you can get it at gerald's, you can get it at pearl street books, you can get it online at gerald'scom, amazoncom, ebook in kindle and apple books format and yours truly narrating it on audible. So my book is available and sometimes I go live on our tiktok channel when I record these. So I'm going to do that real quick click live here. And oh yeah, this may be the part I do as the the little snippet when I promote this one, which will go out today, is I want to start having guests. I'm ready. I just did a little test setup right here in my office. So if you live locally in Ellensburg or if you're willing to travel to Ellensburg and record a show with me, I would love that. I want to hear other people's life views, their views on overcoming setbacks, their views on recovery, their views on my topic today dream big, build real, right.
Speaker 1:I'm a realist. I say I'm a pretty open-minded guy. I try to be, so I want to have guests on. If you want to be a guest on Deep Dive with Dr D, shoot me a message. You can do that in a variety of ways on any of my social media channels or you can email me at drdavidadouglas at gmailcom. Drdavidadouglas at gmailcom. If you want to be a guest, you live in Ellensburg, because I want to do these right here in my office. It'll be you and me face-to-face, with this mic in the middle and this camera pointing at us. I want to have guests. So, all right. What are we going to talk about today? We're going to talk about Dream Big, build Real.
Speaker 1:I say I'm a realist, right. I'm not necessarily a God guy. I'm not religious by any means. You know, is there something out there in the universe? I'm not sure I'm a realist in that. I believe 100% that we were given this big fat brain to do things with it, right. If I quote anything out of the Bible, it's we were given free will for a reason to use it wisely, right? We have it within us to learn skills, to create habits, to get to where we want to go by doing things. I say get busy right. When I give lectures in treatment centers, I say get busy living right, get busy creating healthy, positive habits to get yourself to where you want to go. So the core message in this one I'm reading from my little sheet that keeps me on track here. Here we go. You can hear it if you're just listening to this.
Speaker 1:Big dreams aren't fantasy. Oh, I love that. They're fuel, but without structure they stall. You don't need to shrink your vision. You need to build it brick by brick, using I love this real skills, discipline and strategy. I say this I'm a kid from the streets of Tacoma, you know.
Speaker 1:High school dropout. I went from GED to Dr D. I went from the streets to having a great home I live in. I have an amazing life. None of it by happenstance, none of it was handed to me, none of it was like a magic wand, was wave and boom. No, it was by using real skills, discipline and strategy.
Speaker 1:So here's a quote for you. I love my quotes. Your dreams aren't too big, your habits just need to catch up. I'm going to say that again your dreams aren't too big, your habits just need to catch up. I'm going to say that, again, your dreams aren't too big, your habits just need to catch up.
Speaker 1:See, it's a myth that dreaming is naive or unrealistic. What happens, though what I see happen is people have big dreams, but they don't put into action the things they need to do to get to where they want to go. They just stay dreams. Fear holds us back, self-esteem issues hold us back. Not believing in ourselves is part of self-esteem, right, it holds us back, but it is a myth. I tell young people dream big. Young people dream big. I I don't want, don't dream small, dream big and then get into action making that big dream come true. I can tell you for myself.
Speaker 1:Uh, if you've read my book grit over shame, you know I lived a crazy life and I there are two chapters dedicated to my dark years like really dark years heavy drug use, just chaos, oh my gosh and you hear this with people in recovery. I didn't believe I could wrap 30 days together, let alone 60 days or 90 days or six months or a year. I had gotten into heavy drug use and really just thought I was done. Every year past 29 years old has been a bonus, because I was like I'm done, but yet here I am. I felt long-term recovery was just out of reach for me. I used to think I just said this. I spoke at a treatment center last week and I said I get it. You guys, here's this guy standing here in front of you with you know, saying I got all these years of recovery. I have over 18 years now and I have this amazing life and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:I remember being in treatment and early recovery even, and hearing people talk and say all this nonsense. I thought they were lying. I was like there's no way, right, but that was my stuff. But I did. There was part of me with that that. The beauty of early recovery is you get 30 days and then you get 60 days, oh, and then you get 90. You're like you start feeling better, your psyche starts kind of coming to in good ways mostly, but then you start needing to address, start needing to address the mental health stuff. I had to do that. But physically you feel better, you stop going to jail and you're like, well, maybe you start looking down the road a little bit. But I can tell you I remember that felt really out of reach to me, right.
Speaker 1:I had someone say to me and I say it to people now I don't remember who it was I'm especially about, uh, reaching for a life and recovery and this is what really helped me. Um, and think about this for yourself. If you're wanting to find a life and recovery and really dream big and build real, like, I believe in you 100%, if you're listening to this, you have it within you to do amazing things. You do, I know it and I want you to believe it and I want you to just grab on and run. But so someone said to me you know, hey, did you give your all to those years of, you know, drinking and drug use and all the behavior? Did you give your all to it? I was like, yeah, I gave my all, like I, I felt it, I was all up in it and always like, just the crazy of all of it, the physiological, the psychological I gave my all. And this person said you know what? Why don't you do this? Why don't you give your all to yourself in a healthy way? Why don't you say to all of that you know what? I've given my all to you, all the chaos. Now I'm going to give my all to self-care. Now I'm going to give my all to that potential that is in me to do amazing things. And that was just kind of an eye-opener for me and I've been doing that and it's amazing. So think about that for yourself. So vision it pulls, pulls us forward, right.
Speaker 1:So I say set goals, I work with, I did, and I consider this affirmation thing. It's a really small way of doing it. You have a phone, you have that device, set a reminder in that device, write that goal that you want to achieve and have it pop up every day, every day, at 8 am or 9 am or 7 am, whatever time, just pop up. And what I did for the last four years three years solid, of my doctoral process is all it said was Dr David, a Douglas, and it would pop up at 8 am, just boom right in my face. And there were some mornings that I was like, yeah, I'm going to do this. And there were other mornings that I'm like this sucks. So just start thinking about those little things, those little brain hacks. That's a brain hack that you can do to keep you moving forward.
Speaker 1:Okay, now reality check. That's what it says here Skills over hype. Okay, I, I'm a dreamer, but I'm also a realist and I say this you can have the best goals in the world, you can have the best dreams in the world, but if you're not doing what you need to do to get there, they're not going to, it's not going to happen, right? I used to sit in and on this porch in in Tacoma, washington office six and spray in the morning times and I had in my head like, yeah, I want to do that, I want to do this, but I wasn't doing anything to get there and then I was envious and jealous of others who were doing it. I don't want you to have that. I want you to do the work you need to do, right? Here's what dreaming alone can't do no plan, no work, no growth. Okay, I say do the work be consistent, expect great things. Ah, there you go. Do the work Right. Sit down and write out all the steps you need to do to get to where you want to go. Whatever life change or goal you want to do, strategize, come up with a plan. You have to do that, right.
Speaker 1:I'm all about habits, daily habits that keep me moving forward. Okay, keep me reaching forward to new things, to great things, to keep my healthy habits. So start enlisting in your life, healthy habits that can keep you moving toward that goal. I have my morning routine. I do it every day. It's how I start every one of my days. Part of that routine is getting up at the same time. Every day I go to bed and I get up at the same time Darn near every day. Actually, last night was a late night because I enjoyed a great evening riding my motorcycle down to it's called Cruise the Ave in Yakima. I went with friends and we had a great time, right. So that was an outlier, but what a great excuse to stay up a little later. But I get up at the same time. I open all the blinds and the curtains, I make my bed. I go for a morning walk every day, right, that's a healthy habit.
Speaker 1:That's going to get you moving, get your brain moving and get your feet moving. Whatever it is for you, start creating those healthy habits to get you moving forward. It's really, really important. If you're setting a big goal, it's likely you're going to have to take in new information. You're going to have to learn new things. Whether it's a path to recovery from addiction, whether it's opening a business, whether it's earning a degree, whether it's learning a trade. You're going to have to open your mind to receiving information. You're going to have to ask for help. Ha, that can be a really tough one.
Speaker 1:We think in a lot of cases I'm just going to do this all on my own and in some ways that is actually good. But in all the great things that I've done uh, starting the nonprofit, that is like just doing really well. Now I've, I've launched it, let it go, and I I love just watching it prosper in the community and do all the great things it's done. Being a college professor, being a small business owner, being a person in long-term recovery right, I've gotten those things by creating healthy habits, by creating momentum forward. Right, and here's what I'll say. I want to say this right now, I live my life in 24 hour pockets of time. Okay, I live my life, and all we have is now. If you're watching the video of this, I'm showing you my tattoo. Live now. Right, I do things in each of my days to keep that positive forward. Momentum, so I will have better tomorrows. Momentum, so I will have better tomorrows, and so I will have moved toward my goals.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm going to tell you about your past. For my friends who have struggled with mental health issues, for my friends who have been victims of chaos in your past, for my friends who are navigating a life to recovery and have done a lot of stuff back there. Here's what I'm going to say to you about your there. Here's what I'm going to say to you about your past. Here's what I want you to do with your past. I want you to dip into your past as needed to heal, to learn from your mistakes, right, and you do that through counseling, you do that through journaling, you do that through your circle of influence, the people you talk to. Right, do what you need to do and then guess what you ready. Close the fucking door. Hmm, close the door. Leave your past in the past.
Speaker 1:I see a lot of people, a lot of my friends, in recovery. A lot of people just stay, keep reaching back in their past. To to do what? To just keep themselves down, to keep being mad at something that happened five years ago, to keep being mad at an individual that, rightly so, hurts you, right, but they're living their life and you're the one still pissed off, you're the one still upset. So, do what you need to do to heal from your past and then leave it there. What you need to do to heal from your past and then leave it there. I'm going to tell you the work that I've done to heal my past has helped me so much, and that mindset of living in now is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Now about the future, because you might be saying, well, what should I worry about my future if you're telling me just to live in the now? Ah, I'm going to tell you, if you're telling me just to live in the now, I'm going to tell you, statistically speaking, I'm going to wake up tomorrow, probably next week, a month from now. Right, so I plan for my future. Absolutely, I could show you my calendar. I actually looked at it this week. I have a light week. It's going to be good. You plan for your future, you strategize for your future, you set goals, you set goals, you set markers, but you know when you do that work. Here you go in each 24-hour period. So here's what I'm going to tell you about the future.
Speaker 1:If you have a big goal, if you're a person in early recovery and you're thinking, oh my God, all of the things I have to do to turn my life around, if you're wanting to earn a degree or change your career or whatever it is. If you think about the totality of all you have to do to get to that goal, you won't do it right. It can be really overwhelming. That actually kept me stuck in my doctoral process, because I would look at my dissertation and my project and all the things I had to do and it was just I was stuck right. Think about it, break it down. That's where the strategy comes in, that's where the planning comes in. You do it in chunks, right. You break it down and you do the work in each 24-hour period Mindset and mechanics, resilience, consistency, patience.
Speaker 1:I slowed down on purpose. Resilience, consistency, patience. Do the work be consistent? Expect great things. So look up, look up. If you're listening to this and you can look up, look up the term delayed gratification. You're going to need to understand the value of delayed gratification. Right, it is the reality of the situation. If you have a financial goal, right, you want to pay down debt or you want to buy something cool, right, whatever it is. My wife and I did this. We've done this along the way getting my amazing motorcycle right Delayed gratification. I set that goal, and so what did it mean? On the way to that goal, I needed to put off getting other small things so I could get that big thing down the road Delayed gratification. It's a beautiful thing, that consistency.
Speaker 1:When I mentor people, when I talk to people, I say what do you do in each day 24 hour period? Right, what do you do in each 24 hour period? That is a healthy habit. Who do you talk to? What are those things you do to take care of your physical and mental health? Right? You're not going to get to where you want to go If you're not doing self-care. I'm working with someone. Go If you're not doing self-care. I'm working with someone right now and we're talking about self-care.
Speaker 1:She has a big goal. She's going to achieve it, I have no doubt. But she's going to be able to achieve it in a greater way If she really is mindful of self-care. It's so critically important. So, mindset, resilience. So mindset, resilience, consistency, patience. You have it within you to do amazing things. The mechanics, goal setting, time management, learning new tools right?
Speaker 1:I want you to write down that big goal and I want you to put it where you're going to see it every day. Again, I want you to write down that big goal and I want you to put it where you're going to see it every day. And then I want you to sit down. I'm sitting in my office at home and I want you to sit down with a piece of paper with that big goal in front of you and I want you to write down you know you start globally, how you know what are all the pieces I need to do, how long will it take, and then just break it down step by step on the things that you need to do to get there and then just start checking them off. I just thought of, you know, my journey to becoming Dr D. There was coursework and then there were phases I think they were called phases of my dissertation phase. I still have the piece of paper, oh man, that at each step I would check it off and I would go look at it. Right, you're going.
Speaker 1:Time management is critically important. Right. Time management is something as simple as getting the proper amount of rest each day. Right Blocking out time to get exercise, blocking out time to study, blocking out time to have support for your recovery program. Whatever it is, right, time management is going to be critical for you Learning new tools, being open, let me give my plug for your circle of influence right now. Okay, here it is. This is something that I love sharing with people, because it's going to be critically important for you to get to where you want to go.
Speaker 1:I want you to think about the four or five people you communicate with on a regular basis. Think about them for a second. The four or five people you communicate with on a regular basis right now. Just think about it. I'm thinking about mine, corey, my wife, my son, jay. Right, there's four for you right there that I communicate with on a regular basis. You give them information, they give you information. It's a two-way street, right? They influence you, you influence them, you. Ready, here we go. Some of you have heard me say this before. You are the sum of the four or five people you communicate with on a regular basis. That's your circle of influence with on a regular basis. That's your circle of influence. That's your circle of influence. They are either helping you get toward or away from the things you want to achieve in life. That's part of mindset and mechanics. In my view. Big dreams require small. Here we go boring actions, repeated daily. Yeah, that's why I think a lot of people don't achieve cool things because they're not willing to stay for the duration. Oh, I'm glad they're not willing to do the work.
Speaker 1:My good friend, my best friend, sarah, she just ran you guys ready for this a 50 mile run yesterday. Yeah, yeah, and my prediction was so close. I said she was going to finish in nine and a half hours. She finished in nine hours and 39 minutes. Could you imagine running 50 miles all at once? She finished eighth overall, second or third in her age group, I think. Second. She's going to be mad if she hears this. That I don't remember Now I can tell you this. You know how she did that. It is. It's right here.
Speaker 1:Big dreams require small, boring actions, repeated daily. She was dedicated to the daily work needed months prior to that run. She just completed yesterday. Months, boring, small actions, repeated daily. Delayed gratification comes to mind, consistency comes to mind, dedication comes to mind and here's how you do it. And it sounds like oh man, that's a lot. It's just habits. My friends Create habits and then it's almost natural. If you create good, healthy habits, it's almost natural. But it does take work and it takes time and effort. All right, we're almost done.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to pump you up, I'm going to encourage you and then I'm going to wrap this up because I'm going to go down and cook dinner for my wife. She loves burgers. I'm going to go down and cook dinner for my wife she loves burgers. I'm not turning the oven on in the house because it's stupid hot, so it's going on the barbecue, which is best anyway. Right, don't shrink your dream. Expand your skill set. I'm going to say that again Don't shrink your dream, expand your skill set. It's not magic, friends.
Speaker 1:You see people that do these crazy, amazing things. Most of them will say to you hey, you know what? I was in the right place at the right time, or I just put in the work right. I have my views on luck. Right place, right time. It's one of my favorite quotes by an athlete If you want to get in the game, go to where the game is being played. What Right? Don't shrink your dream. Expand your skill set. Do the things I just talked about with mindset and mechanics Right Goal setting, time management, learning, new tools, healthy habits, circle of influence All of those things.
Speaker 1:Put in the work, that boring daily work, and you will realize that dream, just posing a question, rhetorical, because you can't really answer back. What's one dream you've dismissed as unrealistic? What's one dream you've dismissed as unrealistic? And here's what I want you to do. I want you to flip it on its head and say I can do this. See how we talk to ourselves is really important. Oh, I can't do that. Well, you can. You just don't know how yet. Oh, I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not capable. No, you are smart enough, you are capable of. You just don't know how yet. Oh, I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not capable. No, you are smart enough, you are capable of, you are good enough.
Speaker 1:I just want you to put in the work, I want you to be open-minded, to learn, to take in new information so you can expand your brain, your mind, you can achieve your dream Different way of thinking, different way of looking at the world, different way of looking at your goals. My challenge to you is to identify really sit down that big, lofty dream. I want you to have that big, lofty dream. Sit down and identify the first three realistic steps you could take and then start moving toward it. If you follow me at all, if you've listened to any of my nonsense along the way, if you've read my book, if you've listened to my podcast, if you know my story, you know I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I'm not. I'm just not.
Speaker 1:I work with young people who are like, man, wow, wicked smart, right, I'm not the smartest guy in the room. One thing that I have, that any one of us can have, is I just don't give up. I just don't quit, I just keep striving, I just keep moving forward. We all can do that. You can do that, we can learn. You can learn new skills, you can learn healthy habits. In closing, I give you this you don't have to trade your dream for realism. This is beautiful. And then I'm going to share this quote that's in my office, that I've had with me for a long time you just have to build a bridge between them. One skill, one decision, one day at a time, and here it is Passion. There are some people who live in a dream world and there are some who face reality, and then there are those who turn one into the other. Thanks for listening.