Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Naked Awareness - One from the Vault - Episode 135

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

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.

Hey guys, this is one from the vault where we pull some of the classic episodes from the past on The Rise Up with Dragon show. Enjoy. Great morning world. Welcome to the Rise Up with Dragon podcast with your host, Dragon! Great Morning World. All right, folks. Ready, set, grow. This is Naked Awareness. Here's a few Dragon thoughts. to get things warmed up. Let's practice some present time consciousness today and recognize the massively groundbreaking potential that you and I have in this very moment. We do this how? Through practicing gratitude, which I consider the super highway to present moment thinking. Recognize that we have things rather than recognizing the things that we don't have. What are you grateful for? I am grateful for the basics.

breath, my heartbeat, my family and the 24 hours that appear to have been granted to me again, as if I was in a video game and my power had been depleted, yet I picked up some sort of green emerald and had my life restored. That's what I'm grateful for this morning. Today, I'm grateful also for my eyes that can see, my ears that can hear, my nose that can smell, my skin and heart that have the ability to feel and choose to see that there must be more to life to you and I than we've been taught. I'm grateful for my ability to recognize that my thoughts, feelings, and emotions are not strong indicators of my reality. I recognize the important things yesterday that I may have overlooked that very well may be the reason that I found myself

overbooked. These are the things that I'm grateful for now. This is naked awareness. There were two young fish swimming, and an older, wiser fish swam up and approached them and said this, Hey, you two, how's the water? I didn't really understand the question, so they swam off, and minutes later, they looked at each other and said, what is water? When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett, their host, Gates' mother, asked everyone around the table. to share the single most important factor to their success. Now, imagine being at that table, whether you like these folks or not, imagine having the opportunity to hear Bill Gates and Warren Buffett,

these two iconic giants, share what their most important factors of success were. Gates and Buffett, ironically, both gave the same one-word answer. What was that answer? Focus. Buffett, as a matter of fact, went further and said, really successful people say no to almost everything. Fascinated with focus this morning. What's interesting about people that are highly focused, something that we've been kind of programmed to think is important to be highly focused. But people that are highly focused have a great degree of success in completing tasks and achieving goals. That makes sense. In fact, I work very hard to be

focused. But what's interesting to observe about this, though, is if I can ask you to take your focus off of what I just said for a second, here's what's interesting about it. It's that they also, these highly focused people, have a high propensity to miss the little things that are happening outside their laser focus, like the two fish that were completely unaware that they live in water. It would be like me asking you, how's the air? And that only in that moment, you'd realize, I'm so focused on something, I forgot that I live on a planet that's moving at 60,000 miles per hour through some sort of space. And we're just a freckle in that expanded universe and there's air. In my experience, the most magical things that have ever come into my life

have come from outside my focal point. Isn't that interesting how I could be completely laser focused on something, task-oriented, supportive of my dreams, everything, leveraging and accelerating everything that I want and the most magical things come from outside. It also makes me think in this moment about how the most amazing things that I've ever learned in life are not proven by science and mathematics. This is a great TED talk, by the way, by a man that I had the opportunity of being mentored by Mr. Marshall Thurber that talks about this. In case you don't know who Marshall Thurber is, you could always look him up, T-H-U-R-B-E-R, and just look up his TED talk. But He is the rich dad in the story that Kiyosaki wrote,

Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So the skill set here is recognizing that many signs and insights that we see in life are very, very subtle and easily missed. Only a subtle mind can see a subtle sign. And that sign can change your narrative and your game forever and help you break through. Isn't that interesting? That the thing that can help you break through is not the thing that you're focused on. So are you open to the things that are at 90 degree angles, or are you so focused on what's ahead of you that you will miss those things?

It's interesting to consider the value of a silent or limited mind having the ability to pick up subtle blessings. The busy mind misses them. Now, for those of you that are struggling to focus, I just want you to know that you don't struggle with focusing on things. If you are distracted all the time, you're focused on distractions. You just need to learn how to focus on something else. Don't let your busy mind get involved today. It's going to do what it does, but don't let it be part of the shot calling today. Silence is the best teacher and receiver.

In fact, I encourage you all to refrain from listening to this message with your limited mind. Rather, listen to this message simply with your ears. That's what ears are for listening. But let go of the thoughts, the labels and the concepts that are associated with what you're hearing. Just hear them and take what it is that you think you needed to hear. I call this resting in a naked awareness of reality. Make sense? Thanks.