Life is Unpredictable: How to Control Your Response When Everything Goes Wrong

Happenings happen, but they don't have to break you. In this week's episode, Dr. JC dives deep into the psychology of adversity and why most people unknowingly sabotage their own peace by "participating" in their stress. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by criticism, conflict, or unexpected life changes, this conversation is your roadmap to emotional resilience.

Inside this episode, you’ll discover:
-The Participation Trap: Why reacting is actually a choice you’re making.
-The Sky & Clouds Metaphor: How to observe your emotions without becoming them.
-The "Sorting Filter": An exclusive first look at a core concept from the upcoming book, Makes Sense, to help you protect your energy.

Stop letting life dictate your mood. Learn how to detach from outcomes and master the only thing you truly own: your response.

#Mindset #Resilience #EmotionalIntelligence #PersonalDevelopment #MakesSense #MentalToughness #HighPerformance

Follow Dr. JC Doornick and the Makes Sense Academy:► Makes Sense Substack - https://drjcdoornick.substack.com

► Instagram: / drjcdoornick

►Facebook: / makessensepodcast

►YouTube: / drjcdoornick

MAKES SENSE PODCAST

Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast. This podcast explores topics that expand human consciousness and enhance performance. On the Makes Sense Podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is subjective and an acquired taste. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast.

SUBSCRIBE/RATE/REVIEW & SHARE our new podcast.

FOLLOW Podcast: You will find a "Follow" button in the top right. This will enable the podcast software to alert you when a new episode launches each week.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/makes-sense-with-dr-jc-doornick/id1730954168

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WHfKWDDReMtrGFz4kkZs9?si=003780ca147c4aec

Podcast Affiliates:

Kwik Learning: Many people ask me where I get all these topics, which I've been covering for almost 15 years. I have learned to read nearly four times faster and retain information 10 times better with Kwik Learning. Learn how to learn and earn with Jim Kwik. Get his program at a special discount here: https://jimkwik.com/dragon

OUR SPONSORS:

• Makes Sense Academy: A private mastermind and psychologically safe environment full of the Mindset and Action steps that will help you begin to thrive. The Makes Sense Academy. https://www.skool.com/makes-sense-academy/about
• The Sati Experience: A retreat designed for the married couple that truly loves one another, yet wants to take their love to that higher magical level. Relax, reestablish, and renew your love at the Sati Experience. https://www.satiexperience.com

0:00 - Intro

1:30 - Life is Unpredictable - What to do when everything goes wrong?

5:34 - Life Sucks, and then you die? Toxic Productivity

7:11 - House Of Flow Comment on Toxic Productivity

8:25 - The Issue is not that things happen, Its what we do after they happen.

12:13 - What’s A Happening?

15:36 - Happenings Are Neutral

17:08 - Participation doesn’t always need to look dramatic

26:00 - Sorting Filter

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this One From the Vault episode of Rise Up with Dragon, Dragon revisits a timeless reflection on naked awareness, gratitude, and the paradox of focus. Through simple metaphors and grounded wisdom, this classic reminds us that while focus can drive success, the most meaningful breakthroughs often arrive from what we’re not looking directly at, if we’re quiet enough to notice.

Follow Dr. JC Doornick and the Makes Sense Academy:

► Makes Sense Substack - https://drjcdoornick.substack.com

► Instagram: / drjcdoornick

►Facebook: / makessensepodcast

►YouTube: / drjcdoornick

MAKES SENSE PODCAST

Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast. This podcast explores topics that expand human consciousness and enhance performance. On the Makes Sense Podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is subjective and an acquired taste. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast.

SUBSCRIBE/RATE/REVIEW & SHARE our new podcast.

FOLLOW Podcast: You will find a "Follow" button in the top right. This will enable the podcast software to alert you when a new episode launches each week.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/makes-sense-with-dr-jc-doornick/id1730954168

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WHfKWDDReMtrGFz4kkZs9?si=003780ca147c4aec

Podcast Affiliates:

Kwik Learning: Many people ask me where I get all these topics, which I've been covering for almost 15 years. I have learned to read nearly four times faster and retain information 10 times better with Kwik Learning. Learn how to learn and earn with Jim Kwik. Get his program at a special discount here: https://jimkwik.com/dragon

OUR SPONSORS:

• Makes Sense Academy: A private mastermind and psychologically safe environment full of the Mindset and Action steps that will help you begin to thrive. The Makes Sense Academy. https://www.skool.com/makes-sense-academy/about
• The Sati Experience: A retreat designed for the married couple that truly loves one another, yet wants to take their love to that higher magical level. Relax, reestablish, and renew your love at the Sati Experience. https://www.satiexperience.com

0:00 - Intro

2:07 - Naked Awareness

3:06 - Facinated with Focus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why do so many people feel unhappy even while doing everything “right”—setting goals, visualizing the future, and chasing improvement? In this episode of Makes Sense with Dr. JC, Dr. JC explores the overlooked downside of personal growth culture: living for a better future while unconsciously rejecting the present moment.

Through philosophical reflection, lived experience, and insights inspired by thinkers like Alan Watts, this episode reframes happiness, mindfulness, and presence. Rather than something you practice, control, or discipline yourself into, presence emerges naturally through awareness, wonder, and awe at the simple fact that you exist at all.

This conversation dives into themes of mindfulness, awareness, consciousness, overthinking, fear, urgency, nature, and the illusion of separation—revealing why happiness is never found “later,” but only noticed now. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why am I still not happy yet?” this episode offers a perspective that may quietly change how you experience your life.

► Makes Sense Substack - https://drjcdoornick.substack.com

► Instagram: / drjcdoornick

►Facebook: / makessensepodcast

►YouTube: / drjcdoornick

MAKES SENSE PODCAST

Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast. This podcast explores topics that expand human consciousness and enhance performance. On the Makes Sense Podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is subjective and an acquired taste. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast.

SUBSCRIBE/RATE/REVIEW & SHARE our new podcast.

FOLLOW Podcast: You will find a "Follow" button in the top right. This will enable the podcast software to alert you when a new episode launches each week.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/makes-sense-with-dr-jc-doornick/id1730954168

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WHfKWDDReMtrGFz4kkZs9?si=003780ca147c4aec

Podcast Affiliates:

Kwik Learning: Many people ask me where I get all these topics, which I've been covering for almost 15 years. I have learned to read nearly four times faster and retain information 10 times better with Kwik Learning. Learn how to learn and earn with Jim Kwik. Get his program at a special discount here: https://jimkwik.com/dragon

OUR SPONSORS:

• Makes Sense Academy: A private mastermind and psychologically safe environment full of the Mindset and Action steps that will help you begin to thrive. The Makes Sense Academy. https://www.skool.com/makes-sense-academy/about
• The Sati Experience: A retreat designed for the married couple that truly loves one another, yet wants to take their love to that higher magical level. Relax, reestablish, and renew your love at the Sati Experience. https://www.satiexperience.com

0:00 - Intro

3:49 - Why am I not happy yet?

8:30 - Existence itself is a strange situation.

12:49 - Alan Watts Perception of the world “Germs on a spinning rock.

17:46 - We are trained to always search for meaning.

18:17 - What if the intelligence behind everything was not up above but from below?

21:41 - The Awakening to Nature - Its more than a place we inhabit

24:20 - The Joy of Not Knowing

29:50 - Connecting all the dots

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.